Omicron does not grow “70 times faster” (bad math alert)
All we have so far is this press release: https://www.med.hku.hk/en/news/press/20211215-omicron-sars-cov-2-infection
If the numbers in the graph are total growth in 24 hours, then omicron=10000 & delta=~140.
Calculate log(10000)/log(10000/70) = 1.86
Ie, omicron grows 1.86 times as fast as delta, or 86% faster.
That's significant, but 1.86 is a whole lot smaller than 70.
(If the numbers in the graph are something else, then we actually can't tell what the ratio is.)
Comments
Actually, that's 1.86 orders of magnitude. So the correct answer is 10^1.86.
Which is 72.44, i.e. it's even more than 70.
As the professor from John Hopkins stated, it should be omi-cold. It is substantially milder than the other variants, less likely to lead to hospitalization or death. It’s just another political stunt.