What Will Omicron Bring Us for Christmas?

The truth is, it is too early to tell. Everyone’s senses are heightened and on alert for what the next phase of the pandemic will bring. It is not a given that every new variant is worse than the last — i.e., delta.

Here’s a summary that comes at the end of a long Washington Post article on the mutation:

Will omicron upend plans to return to ‘normal’?

After nearly two years of a pandemic, many are nervous about what challenges the new variant might bring and whether hard-fought gains will be lost.

Public health experts are urging people not to jump to conclusions. “I have never before experienced such an absolutely anguished outpouring as I have around this,” said Bill Hanage, an associate professor of
epidemiology at T.H. Chan. The response, he said, has “as much to do with humans as it does with the virus.”

Hanage said he is in a state of “weary alertness” waiting for more information. He suspects omicron’s consequences will be more serious in some places than others, particularly those with low vaccination rates. “This is certainly a curveball,” he said. “But exactly how serious it is emains to be seen.”

Stuart Ray, an infectious-disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University, said people should follow the “new wisdom” on the virus: keeping track of local infection rates to determine how vulnerable they are while using common-sense protection including vaccination, boosters and high-quality masks such as KN95 and N95s.

“It’s still early days,” he said. “But this is probably not the last variant that we’ll see, so I think we should see this as part of the learning about this virus.”