Other countries struck by Omicron kept their death tolls low. The US is looking different.

• Countries where Omicron surged early have seen a relatively low burden of deaths so far.

• Lower population age or high vaccination coverage likely helped keep the death toll low.

• But early data suggests that the situation may be different in the US, experts warn.

It has been over four weeks since Omicron started hitting South Africa, Denmark, and the UK.

In spite of the number of infections breaking all prior records, deaths in these three countries have remained much lower than in previous waves.

Some experts have warned, however, that early data suggests the situation might be different in the US.

"The US Omicron wave is worse (for hospital admits, ICU) than what we've seen in UK, Denmark," said Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Institute, in a tweet Friday.

Judging from the early data, the three non-US countries with advanced Omicron waves had significant mitigating factors which the US does not share and may leave it more exposed. ...