The Omicran variant may be a double edge sword, and other concerns

Will this COVID-19 wave lead to herd immunity? Are you less likely to get sick again if you had omicron? Why this 'milder' variant is a double-edged sword Epidemiologists are weighing the significance of the latest omicron wave, and wondering how — if at all — it could change the course of the pandemic. Quentin Fottrell MarketWatch

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The next COVID-19 variant could be worse

Public-health advisers obviously advise against throwing caution to the wind, and going out and mixing socially with other people indoors with no masks and little social distancing — and not only because of the impact people taking time off work would have on the economy. “Ideally, the less potential for omicron to spread, the less likely there will be for new strains to pop up,” Glatt told MarketWatch.

Among the latest variants discovered was IHU in France, which is thought to have come from Cameroon. It has not been marked as a variant of interest, variant of concern or variant of consequence by the World Health Organization. But it is a portentous sign that the world is a far from the end of the pandemic. “We long ago gave up the opportunity to eradicate this,” Poland told MarketWatch. ...