Mixed Messaging

Despite increasing evidence that the omicron variant is hopefully less severe than previous ones (also due to more people either vaccinated or having been previously infected) and South Africa's wave receding already (they're saying the US is a couple weeks behind them), the messaging this week is so mixed.

On one hand: this is still a severe and deadly disease, and we also shouldn't overlook the effects of "long COVID."

On the other hand: we're not telling you not to see your families over the holidays, or reimposing any of the other measures we took last year, in fact more places are going ahead with reopening plans or reducing the amount of quarantine time they're requiring; everyone is probably going to catch this one, even the most careful people, don't beat yourself up over it. 

🤷🏼‍♀️

A week ago they were saying only 3% of new cases were omicron and delta was still the dominant strain in the US. Now this week I heard 73% of new cases here are omicron 😕