In the middle of a wave like this, while researchers are figuring out how infectious and how lethal and what side effects a variant is/has, I think 'are we trying hard enough to prevent spread?' is answered in part by 'are hospitals overrun?'
I don't understand why you'd focus so heavily on the lower lethality rate when the daily deaths are still high, hospitals are swamped, and employees are sick to the point of disrupting services.
The fact is that Omicron is acting like a Natural Vaccine. We NEED it to spread as fast as possible, as wide as possible.
It has massive advantages over the artificial vaccine. It does not require money to create and is not subject to the logistical challenges. It is capable, if we do not attempt to limit its rate of spread, to infect billions within a few months. Now, that scares many people for the hospitals will be overwhelmed and it would shut down logistics...except it wouldn't.
The entire problem with Omicron has been the attempt to apply the same mask and quarantine restrictions. If we got past the quarantines, then anyone physically able to work would work. Yes, there would still be many hospitalized, but the vast majority of people would be working instead of being out sick when they have only mild symptoms, if any. Essentially, for those whose symptoms are similar to common cold, they can work.
This would keep infrastructure working, albeit at a slightly reduced capacity, my guess is 85-90%. It would be like that for about 3 months. Once Omicron has ripped through everywhere, it, and the other variants, would have few people to infect and Covid would likely disappear.
The masks and attempts to prevent spread have only served to delay the spread to the point where people get reinfected and/or the virus mutates.
None of that is to say the artificial vax is not important. It helps enough people who would potentially have severe Covid overcome Omicron that it is obviously important. The vax has been available long enough that anyone wanting it has had the opportunity.
The more mild symptoms and faster spread should have had doctors encouraging this plan as the way to eliminate it in the fastest way possible.
Now, many will rip into me for being cold-hearted and ignoring all those who will die. My response is that, in life, we sometimes face challenges without perfect solutions. Doctors at times have to amputate limbs or remove organs to save patients. Sometimes doctors have to decide between two patients, making the extremely difficult decision as to which of the 2 they will save while knowing it means death for the other.
Society in general is ill equipped to make such decisions. Doctors should be able and willing. It is equivalent to earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters that result in doctors making tough choices. The fallacy too many doctors are currently following is that t s possible to save every patient.
The doctors needed to step up and lead us through this in a manner they would have if facing other natural disasters, or even man made ones such as wars.
Let it rip, acknowledge some will die but this is the best way to save the most people. And the additional benefit is saving the economy and providing the means for infrastructure to produce at high enough capacity that we are not running out of items in warehouses.
I personally see the shelves emptying yet again. My sister recently did an epideral for wife of a large grocery chain owner in Dallas. She asked him how things look. He said they are barely hanging on, but the warehouses are so depleted that a natural disaster happening right now that the usually supplied aid cannot be sent to help, because it just does not exist.
Yes, Covid sucks. We need everyone shoring up the infrastructure though, otherwise we might very well see millions more dying from starvation or lack of medical supplies to assist people who suffer wounds big or small, and the small ones becoming infected that result in potential amputations or deaths.
But too many people only see the "me" picture. They only are concerned about themselves not getting sick. They only think about their family or closest friends. The reality is the best, most effective treatment or the whole is to sacrifice the part.
Just because some of you cannot wrap your heads around this logical thought process does not make it any less true. We cannot protect everyone, and to approach this with the idea that we can is a waste of resources and being prepared for the opportunity to pivot and embrace something the likes of Omicron, changing tactics that will actually provide better long term results despite the short term challenges.
Dragging this out like we are will result in the short term being stretched into the long term and adding even more challenges to the situation which will cause greater long term issues.
So I look at the large drop in mortality rate and increase in contagiousness and I recognize the advantageous gift the Omicron provides us from Nature.
Maybe I die from my plan, maybe my entire family dies, I still hold that this is the best option for humans to move forward.
