Are We All Going to Get Omicron?

[kelly_chambliss]

Recently, I've been reading and hearing from all sorts of different sources that getting Covid is now inevitable for all of us. "Not if, but when" is the phrase I've often heard. My partner's cousin (a medical doctor) used it just last week, and I know I've used it to several of you.

I've also heard that Omicron is "less severe" than previous incarnations and that when we do get it, our cases are likely to be "mild," especially if we've been vaccinated and boosted.

But is all this true? Short answer: not exactly.

Here's an interesting article from today's Guardian quoting a variety of experts. I thought that since I've been one of those spreading the "not if but when" narrative, I ought also to be one who posts a corrective!

Very Helpful Article from the Guardian

Some highlights:

On "inevitability": "While the more transmissible Omicron variant is infecting more people than ever before, taking proven precautions can still prevent it: getting vaccinated and boosted, wearing high-quality masks, improving ventilation and avoiding crowds indoors."

On severity: "the other characteristics of Omicron – its immune-evasiveness and transmissibility – more than outweigh its relatively less severe symptoms. When more people get sick, there are more chances of the illness going very wrong.

"'A small percentage of a huge number is a very large number,' said Jorge Moreno, assistant professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine.

"Jerome Adams, the former US surgeon general, laid out the math: 'If your enemy uses a weapon that’s one-third as likely to kill you, but four times as many people are shooting at you, you’re now 1.3 times as likely to die.'"

So, bottom line: Get those vaccines! Wear those masks! Keep your distance! And then maybe our slogan can be, "not when, but if."

Comments

[mothwing]

Definitely get those vaccines!

At this point with two children in my daughter's nursery class, the nursery teacher, two co-workers and six of my own students down with Covid, I definitely also sometimes fear it's only a matter of time. However, I'm not that keen on getting it and neither is anyone I know in real life, though the mums on my British parenting forum seem all in favour of "going back to normal" and keep saying that Covid's "no more than a bad cold at this stage" and "why bother with preventative measures" which goes decidedly against my probably all-too German desire to follow rules, avoid risks and seek safety.

Here's hoping for if, not when.

[kelly_chambliss]

Yes, I'd like to get back to "normal," too, and I wish people like your parenting list friends would realize that the quickest way to do that is to get vaccines and keep wearing masks and staying distant when we can. Those mums may be right that if they get Covid, it will be no worse than a bad cold. . .but they could also be wrong. It's different for everyone. If I were those mums, I wouldn't want to expose my child to the risk that they'll be one of the unlucky ones.

[mothwing]

I was really surprised at their attitudes, to be honest. These are the people who are not any drinking coffee at all right now because it might (might!) harm their unborn. But they're the same who are up in arms about mask mandates because they are inconvenient for their existing children and the "psychological side-effects" are supposedly worse than the chance of them actually catching Covid (I actually asked my students about this. The younger they are, the more normal it seems. My older students who were Very Opposed at first said it depended on what you'd eaten that day).
I also don't understand their desire to explain this illness away so badly. Everyone who's had it around me (well, there haven't been that many, to be honest. I can think of.... seven people that I personally know who've had it) was very ill indeed, and three of those people were VERY healthy before they got Covid and then took months to bounce back. The ones most opposed and eager to pretend everything is fine, actually, are very suspicious of any government decision (cannot blame them in the least) AND only had mild cases themselves (good for them) and have not lost anyone to Covid (neither have I, but I don't have to to take this seriously).

[digthewriter]

I am terrified of getting it. I hate wearing masks. I like staying at home :(
Being "forced" to go to work for a few hours next week and then who knows what'll happen after that.
It's so laaaaaaammmmmmmmmeeeeeeeee.