I wish they would lead with this instead. It’s this line in the story that would help calm everyone down until all the information is in.
All of those who have tested positive have so far only had mild symptoms, such as headaches, sore throats and coughs, Ravlo said.
This is the false sense of security. By far, most folks who get covid have pretty mild symptoms. Even in the compromised and elderly, most do fine. The problem is, that small percentage of a truly huge number is still a huge number, and more than adequate to overwhelm the healthcare system.
Yep. The problem is that I may be one of those small number of people should motivate more people.
But at this point I doubt the anti vaxxers would start lining up for vaccines no matter what the scenario.
Here in MIchigan my county is over 25% positive less than 50% fully vaccinated and no one wears a damn mask.
The hospitals are at or near capacity and most people truly believe the hospitals are lying or reporting everything as covid for some unknown reason.
I hate my state and really hate my county.
I’m just not sure constant doomsday reporting on omicron is going to change anyone’s mind. Those of us that have been doing the right thing from the beginning will continue doing that, the rest of the idiots will just dig in more.
Most folks! The others died or will be hospitalized.
All of those who have tested positive have so far only had mild symptoms
Let’s not forget that “mild symptoms” might almost always include brain damage, similar to that seen in dementia patients, which mightn’t manifest right away. I was looking for an update to the “COVID-19 eats your brain” thread of research and found this article from November 24 by a U of Toronto 
professor working at CAMH, who is clearly worried. The article seems to have a decent bibliography of recent work on COVID neurological issues.
I think the conclusions by the psych prof are a little weak (I suspect an inclination to spread sunshine is a professional side-effect of working in the mental health field), but he cites another COVID and neuro-imaging article which notes:
The damage seen in this population [hospitalized with serious symptoms or dead] indicates acute and largely irreversible dysfunction to neural regions involved in major functional networks that support normal cognitive and behavioural functioning.
So, not just sick and dead because the lungs gave out, eh…
Tack this on to the “52% of survivors of severe COVID die within 12 months” info and, although WDKF still applies especially to longer outcomes, the outlook sure doesn’t appear to be all 
and 
.
I, for one, really, really don’t want to catch this disease…
At this point it’s not a scientific debate, it’s politics moving into religion. Neither is really open to factual discussion. Hence the collapse of the medical infrastructure.
Yup, but see my comment just above.
What could possibly go wrong?
My works had a party last night – outdoors – I did not attend.
Mine hasn’t even bothered suggesting it. HR sent us emails asking is there anything nice they can do for us or do we need support with something.
I’ve been talking to my team to see if we can celebrate in some way. Over half of us have had it, though nobody spread it in work. We mask, ventilate, HEPA filter, and limit time and proximity.
Here’s a pretty good review of what is currently known (and unknown) about omicron:
tl;dr: WDKS, and:
“Omicron is a spark that should not distract us from the fact that we’re already in a burning building,” Hodcroft says. People are still getting sick and dying from the old variant. There is still work to be done.
if articles lead with “a whole bunch of people got sick but it’s okay” - it would be a lie.
vaccinated people are less likely to pass the virus on, but they still can. there were only 17 people who showed symptoms, so that would mean there were likely many more who were asymptomatic. they’re all part of the engine of this pandemic now.
and for what? a party?
while the world feels far flung, the virus travelled all the way around it already. every infection is part of a global connection. every infection is a new risk. for the person infected and for other people. they’re are still plenty of people out there without access to vaccines. every new infection is a danger to them
( and as others have said, even if you yourself don’t die of it: it’s really not something you want if you can avoid it. so whether they’re vaccinated or not, people are putting you at risk by pretending life is back to normal )
Here’s a little good news. Looks like people are getting the message.
I know it’s bad to romanticize the '30s, '40s, and '50s—but the FCC used to have some teeth. This kind of bullshit would not have been allowed.
Did I miss this upthread, or hasn’t this been posted before?
https://www.pnas.org/content/118/49/e2110117118
Yay science. Yay Göttingen.
