UK's Omicron "tidal wave" - one person in UK dead from Omicron.
This is ominous news for the US. Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
The UK is facing an unprecedented “tidal wave” of COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant.
There are over 5,300 cases diagnosed of Omicron so far in the UK (5,000 of them in England), and cases are doubling every 2-3 days. The total number of infections in the UK are estimated to be 200,000 a day (it’s unclear how much of that is Omicron). Yes, two hundred thousand. More than the US. That’s insane. They also just reported that the first person in the UK has died from Omicron infection.
According to the UK’s health agency, Omicron is expected to become the dominant variant in England within the next few days. Unfortunately, Boris Johnson wants to institute new restrictions, but his own government is up in arms about it.
High transmissibility? Milder illness? What does this mean?
It’s certainly appearing to look like Omicron has the ability to spread like wildfire. We also know this from initial reports from South Africa, where Omicron spread rapidly throughout the Gauteng region. Denmark has also record a massive spike in Omicron cases.
Now you may have heard that Omicron causes “mild” illness. At this time it is still too early to say that with any certainty, but what is clear is that the vaccines do protect against severe illness, and those that are vaccinated + boosted may possibly only have a mild illness from this variant.
However, don’t be fooled. A highly transmissible variant can be “mild” AND STILL KILL A LOT OF PEOPLE. Because it can infect a lot more people. And those that are susceptible to it may be hospitalized or die from it. A virus does not have to be deadly to kill a lot of people. Our hospitals are already overwhelmed - a surge of cases due to Omicron can easily cause the whole system to fail.
What does this mean for the US?
Historically, with COVID, what’s happened in the UK/Europe has followed in the US. We saw this most recently with Delta. We had an opportunity to be proactive and institute measures to counteract Delta in the US, but we did not, and before we knew it Delta was the dominant variant and our hospitals were full of patients with COVID-19 from the Delta variant (summer/fall surge). Delta continues to be the dominant variant in the US for now, and the winter surge from it is well underway in the US.
The US needs to learn from what’s happening in the UK. We are essentially watching the future unfold before our eyes. My prediction is that it is only a matter of time before Omicron causes the kind of havoc that it has in the UK. Many places in the US are already seeing massive spikes in COVID cases - those may well be due to Omicron (we just haven’t sequenced enough cases yet).
What do we need to do?
What we need to do is clear:
Every eligible person needs to get vaccinated AND boosted.
Social distancing + masking is a must.
Free tests - the US has been abysmal at getting people free tests so they can test themselves and isolate. Every household needs a free test.
Holiday travel - please be careful when traveling, and mask up and socially distance.
If we don’t learn from the UK’s experience with Omicron, it’s only a matter of time before we will be in the same position.
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