It is way too early to know for sure, but what if Omicron is highly transmissible but non-lethal?
Smallpox was prevented with a vaccine made from Cow Pox, which doesn’t produce serious disease in people. If Omicron doesn’t kill, spreads widely, and leaves you immune to the other variants as well, this is over.
But I’d rather the FDA gets its act together and gets Plaxovid to market immediately.
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
If that happens, it would be terrific news.
The next few months are telling. Winter weather drives us indoors, so a surge of Omicron would certainly be a lot better than another surge of Delta, which is what we are experiencing now.
What we need is cheaper and more accessible testing protocols, like Europe. For travel, we need PCR negative no more than 72 hours old. That is not easy, especially if you have a layover or two.
Even with the new pills, effectiveness wanes after 3 days of infection, so early, accurate testing is not only paramount, but often impossible. And expensive.
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Not really. If in doubt, give the Plaxovid.
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“If Omicron doesn’t kill, spreads widely, and leaves you immune to the other variants as well, this is over.”
Kind of a big IF this early on. Let’s see what the science shows instead of speculating about what may or may not be true.
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Of course it’s a big IF.
But IF it is true, there are economic and political consequences to anticipate.
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I was in agreement with you. I was just pointing out that it is way too early to tell one way or the other.
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RE: “If Omicron doesn’t kill, spreads widely, and leaves you immune to the other variants as well, this is over.”
In that case, the variant’s name will have proved poetically correct: omicron = small omega = little end.
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