Pandemic Update – January 12, 2022

What’s after Omicron?

The Omicron variant continues to shatter records in the U.S. Yesterday, the country recorded a staggering 885,000 cases, and experts say the peak is still weeks away.

We’re learning more about the new variant, and, so far, it seems to spread faster but cause less severe illness than previous variants; it also leads to fewer hospitalizations and deaths. Last week, Carl Zimmer reported that an Omicron infection may protect against later infections with the Delta variant.

Those qualities have led to a lot of speculation about the Omicron surge and its aftermath. To help us answer these questions, and for a look at how 2022 might unfold.

Omicron is so infectious it has led to some speculation that it may help us reach herd immunity. Could it?

Nobody should think that Omicron is going to make Covid magically disappear. Herd immunity is the idea of a virus just disappearing on its own because it can’t find enough hosts to keep itself going. And that is not going to happen. It’s too widespread. It’s too well adapted to us. SARS-CoV-2 is in animals. I mean, it’s just not going away.

But we could be in a situation by…