It’s because the immune responses are higher,' Barouch said.

That’s not because the variants are less robust. 'Overall, the severity of Covid is much lower than it was a year ago and two years ago. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, attributed the mild symptoms that doctors are seeing to immunity from vaccines and previous infections.

Michael Daignault, an emergency physician at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California. 'Especially since July, when this recent mini-surge started, younger people that have upper respiratory symptoms - cough, runny nose, sore throat, fever and chills - 99% of the time they go home with supportive care,' said Dr. Eiting said he's not seeing a lot of diarrhea lately, either - a more common symptom in the past.įor the most part, the doctors said, few patients require hospitalization - even those who show up at emergency rooms - and many recover without needing the antiviral pill Paxlovid or other treatment.