I try to stay out of these threads because they are too doomsday-oriented for me. But... Please try to be cognizant that there is actually a lot of hopeful news about the virus. Omicron, according to data from South Africa, where the vaccination rate is around 30% (and lower in Gauteng), the cases are way up, but hospitalizations per known case are about 1/8th of the rate of peak delta, and, as of yesterday, deaths were 1/18th as frequent (when adjusted for infection duration). (This data is preliminary from a fairly small sample size--it is obviously observational and not blinded and controlled). It seems likely omicron is far more contagious and significantly less severe than delta--we also have far better treatments available for cases that do arrive in hospitals, and the vaccines, which are not very effective at preventing cases and transmission, still seem to be pretty amazing at preventing severe illness. In highly vaccinated and boosted western countries, it's like having a disease pre-treatment, which should further reduce severity. Omicron also appears also to be very effective at driving out other variants.
In my opinion it's pretty important to steer away from the "OMG it's another covid wave catastrophe coming" mindset, and to avoid over-reacting to an uptick in detected cases alone. We are all going to have to learn to live in the world with covid as a constant, endemic, likely low-level threat (politicians and health officials that target "zero covid" are at best ignorant and at worst ...). Everyone will eventually get covid, probably within 3-5 years, unless a prophylactic, sterilizing vaccine is imminent (and I haven't heard about one). It will always be with us since it has significant human and animal reservoirs established already. If we are lucky (and signs as of now are hopeful), omicron will be a noticeable step toward endemicity and away from the pandemic.
Of course, you could never tell that from media, political, sports league, and health official reactions today.
