There is one day left to get premium access to this newsletter at 25% off the regular price. That will unlock this paywalled post, allow access to subscriber-only content and open up the comments section for you.
Now, on with the show…
This weekend I read some news about a potentially serious new variant of COVID-19 emerging in southern Africa, and figured I’ll have to write something about it when it finally makes it to Can- [record scratch]
Well, then.
Is the new Omicron variant reason for worry, or are media outlets just scaremongering for clicks? Honestly, at this point, we don’t really know:
Symptoms linked to the omicron coronavirus variant have been mild so far, according to a Covid-19 adviser to the South Africa government and the Pretoria doctor who first sounded the alarm about the new strain.
But the World Health Organization cautioned there’s “no information” symptoms caused by omicron are different from other strains.
While South Africa, which first identified the new variant, currently has 3,220 people with the coronavirus infection overall, there’s been no real uptick in hospitalizations, Barry Schoub, chairman of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Vaccines, told Sky News on Sunday.
“The cases that have occurred so far have all been mild cases, mild-to-moderate cases, and that’s a good sign,” said Schoub, adding that it was still early days and nothing was certain yet.
The WHO, however, said there was preliminary data showing increasing hospitalizations, “but this may be due to increasing overall numbers of people becoming infected, rather than a result of specific infection with omicron.”
“Initial reported infections were among university studies — younger individuals who tend to have more mild disease — but understanding the level of severity of the omicron variant will take days to several weeks,” according to the WHO statement.
Hopefully it’s not so bad. But this news comes after several weeks of stories about COVID-19 cases surging in countries that thought the worst was over.
Recent history suggests that a COVID wave in Europe today is a COVID wave in North America tomorrow. And this is all before the Omicron variant really settles in.
And what can we do about it? Well, I’ll keep wearing a mask where required, and I’ll be first in line for my vaccine booster shot. But if we’re talking about locking down yet again, well…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Rigid Thinking to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.