The new Omicron variant is making the news.
Why?
It is clearly just as lethal as the original and all its variants ... which is to say, not very lethal.
Unless you are very old ... and already sick.
A year ago, I was entering the final stages of recovery from COVID-19. Along with my wife, a dozen of my friends contracted it, dealt with it, and moved on. None of us are young: all between 50 and 70. Many of us have had some sort of serious health issue over the years (cancer seems to be unnervingly common). As a group, our symptoms ranged from pretty bad (fever of 101F and higher) to almost non-existent.
The one thing all of us had in common: 100% survival rate.
COVID-19 has followed the exact same path as every other virus:
- It spreads rapidly and the most vulnerable die in relatively large numbers
- It continues to spread but the proportion of severe illness drops dramatically, along with its lethality
- It mutates and continues to spread in its new form
- The seriousness of illness and lethality continues to drop
In other words, lots of people get infected. Some of them get sick. But a very small percentage get seriously ill, and an even smaller percentage die.
What are we hearing about now?
The Omicron variant is very contagious, but its symptoms are very mild. Entirely predictable.
It's asking too much of our 24-hour sensationalism-based news cycle. But shut up about it already.
