Originally Posted by
broncofan
The current variant is very different than the virus that emerged in Wuhan. That's not an excuse. Delta provided problems that the original virus did not. Had delta been in circulation in 2020 we'd have been much worse off as it was much more transmissible and also more deadly. In contrast, had delta not emerged when it did, even our meager vaccination program here was quashing cases very quickly, breakthroughs were pretty rare, and people would not have gotten boosted as early as they did.
Omicron has an intrinsic virulence that makes it still deadlier than the flu but less deadly than any other sars2 descended variant. We do go about our business during flu season and even I (a lunger who has been put in the hospital every decade of his life by the flu) do not change my behavior during flu season, except to get a flu shot most years. What to do with some protection against omicron? I'm less worried, but I still don't see the difficulty in wearing a mask. I just worry less.
Pfizer is coming out with an omicron specific vaccine. It's not clear who will get it, though people over 65 should, and I think people generally should because you protect yourself against omicron and anything descended from it. The fact is that when scientists did assays the antibodies our bodies produce in response to the original spike protein were not very good at recognizing the altered spike of omicron. So only really high titers of antibodies made any difference in preventing infection and if we see viruses derived from omicron it would be better to have a broadening of antibody response.
Finally, with deaths what matters is the marginal impact of our choices. Everyone who dies has people who love them and probably enjoys their life, so it seems callous not to take very minor steps to protect other people. It's easy to trivialize death on a mass scale because so many people die every year and the fact is that everybody dies. But nobody wants to die 5 years early or 10 years early or 30 years early. The way people die from covid is especially painful in many cases. This is what er doctors and nurses who are by the bedside of the convalescent have said. The point isn't that we can prevent all pain and suffering in the world, but some of us wonder why we don't prevent what we can when it comes at a very minor cost, like wearing a mask or getting a shot that can help.