‘COVID increasingly resembles the kind of health risk that people accept every day’
(Pixabay image)
A New York Times columnist who has been closely following the COVID-19 pandemic observes that the data indicate the new omicron variant is roughly at the same risk level as the seasonal flu.
David Leonhardt writes that the “latest evidence about Covid is largely positive.”
“A few weeks ago, many experts and journalists were warning that the initial evidence from South Africa — suggesting that Omicron was milder than other variants — might turn out to be a mirage. It has turned out to be real,” he said.
Because omicron is “milder than earlier versions of the virus, Covid now appears to present less threat to most vaccinated elderly people than the annual flu does,” he wrote.
“The flu, of course, does present risk for the elderly. And the sheer size of the Omicron surge may argue for caution over the next few weeks,” he said. “But the combination of vaccines and Omicron’s apparent mildness means that, for an individual, Covid increasingly resembles the kind of health risk that people accept every day.”
In November, Leonhardt pointed out on Twitter, when the delta variant was dominant, that for young children, COVID-19 “looks like a normal flu, if not a mild one,” citing Centers for Disease Control statistics.
Ed Morrissey spotlighted Leonhardt’s remarks on the Hot Air blog, noting as a caveat that delta is “still around,” comprising 4% of the daily cases, about 18,000, which “can still create a lot of havoc, including excess hospitalizations and deaths.”
But Morrissey said Leonhardt’s “assessment is not just accurate, it’s overdue from a public policy standpoint as well.”
“We need to soberly assess the risks as they currently stand, both publicly and personally, and calculate our policies in the knowledge that COVID-19 is an endemic virus with which we will have to live for the long run,” he said.
“If Omicron crowds out more virulent strains and spreads across the entire population now,” Morrissey wrote, “we will likely come out the other end in a few weeks with effective herd immunity and the tools to manage normal life again.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Last year, America’s doctors, nurses and paramedics were celebrated as frontline heroes battling a fearsome new pandemic. Today, under Joe Biden, tens of thousands of these same heroes are denounced as rebels, conspiracy theorists, extremists and potential terrorists. Along with massive numbers of police, firemen, Border Patrol agents, Navy SEALs, pilots, air-traffic controllers, and countless other truly essential Americans, they’re all considered so dangerous as to merit termination, their professional and personal lives turned upside down due to their decision not to be injected with the experimental COVID vaccines. Biden’s tyrannical mandate threatens to cripple American society – from law enforcement to airlines to commercial supply chains to hospitals. It’s already happening. But the good news is that huge numbers of “yesterday’s heroes” are now fighting back – bravely and boldly. The whole epic showdown is laid out as never before in the sensational October issue of WND’s monthly Whistleblower magazine, titled “THE GREAT AMERICAN REBELLION: ‘We will not comply!’ COVID-19 power grab ignites bold new era of national defiance.”
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Source: www.wnd.com/2022/01/new-york-times-omicron-risk-similar-flu/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=wnd-breaking&utm_campaign=breaking&utm_content=breaking&ats_es=5bdbe7016203d76da678cbe799470fb3