A very smart friend shared a Facebook post from a friend of hers, a healthcare journalist she trusts, on what he told his own friends and family after reporting on Omicron all month. His post included a link to this Washington Post article. Here's some choice selections from what he wrote:
First: Omicron is real, and the reports of it being “milder” appear mostly based on the generally mild breakthrough cases in vaccinated and previously infected people.
If you've been vaccinated and boosted, there's reason to expect your omicron infection will lead to minimal symptoms.
If you haven't previously been infected, and you haven't been vaccinated, there's no reason to expect a "mild" case.
Second: Many, many people who are vaccinated or previously infected are going to test positive in the next few weeks, given omicron’s sheer transmissibility and ability to evade antibodies.
Every expert I've interviewed, including some of the nation's top health officials, has adjusted his or her mindset and now is mentally bracing to test positive after spending two years dodging the virus. "Breakthrough" cases are going to be normalized in a hurry, if they aren't already.
...
Federal officials are bracing for U.S. infections to skyrocket into January 2022, with numbers that could top 500,000 new cases per day. (The previous peak was 250,000 cases per day in January 2021.) Some experts predict daily case rates that could be much higher, because so many vaccinated Americans are going to test positive, although we may not capture all the data from people taking at-home tests.
Even if only a small percentage of those people need hospital care, it will tax a health system that is already straining under pandemic fatigue and treating cases linked to the older delta variant. It's also going to be a psychological blow after the past two years of fighting the pandemic, and businesses, families and others will surely be racing to adjust plans.
Officials hope that the peak of the omicron wave will be over by early February.
...
If you are passing through an airport or train station, you are undoubtedly being exposed to someone with omicron at this point.
As someone who's been boosted and wears an N95 mask in public, I feel like I'm taking the best precautions I can. I'm also exhausted with the pandemic and had started to get back to hobbies like swimming, going to movies, having dinner with friends.
But for me, omicron means I'm going to pause some of those activities, and I'm going to resume double-masking when I'm in public. Even if infections are inevitable, I don't want to help omicron along, especially until we get more data in the coming weeks. And I don't want to unwittingly get sick and carry an infection to family members this holiday season.
Relatives of ours had invited us to a Christmas Eve open house (we declined), but today they announced the event was cancelled because 3 attendees had already let them know they'd tested positive for COVID, and the way things are going they wanted to be cautious. Other family members of ours who'd been planning to get together on Christmas now won't be. We currently have 4 different Christmas gift exchanges planned on 12/23, 24, 25, and TBD, with different small groups of family members (each masked and/or outdoors), plus another outdoor activity and gift exchange next week with friends. Considering the small groups and precautions planned, I am still feeling OK about all this.
ETA: that Facebook post is now itself a Washington Post article!
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