Vivek's piece in the WSJ argues that policy makers must tolerate the spread of "milder" variants like #Omicron. @angie_rasmussen & others rightfully criticized this Very Bad Idea. There are many things wrong with Vivek's arguments. 🧵 1/n
Firstly, he is just gloriously wrong on the facts. Yes, variants can emerge in the U.S., there are immune compromised (IC) people here & #Omicron and other variants can and do find their way to replicate in IC hosts in USA. (There's also endemic SARS-CoV-2 in Deer). 2/
Vivek says U.S. "enjoys widespread vaccination" so variants won't emerge / evolve while we let Omicron "rip".. Widespread vaccination: Maybe.. But U.S. vaccine uptake is PATCHY.. Does this look like great vaccination rates? 👇usnews.com/news/best-stat… 3/
Another big big problem is his absurd idea that #Omicron is so "mild." As @stgoldst points out, we do not know how mild it is relative to the original 2019-Dec virus -- only relative to Delta, which was more virulent than the original. No.. you don't want to catch Omicron! 4/
Omicron is also better at infecting children. Do we want kids to catch Omicron? Many of them might get it anyway, despite our best efforts. But do we want this to happen all at once? Or wait til we can get more vaccines out.. & until Paxlovid is available for severe cases? 5/
There are myriad other problems with the idea of letting it rip. Omicron is not a live-attenuated virus vaccine.. it's a pandemic sarbecovirus .. as is, it will harm plenty of people.. it will kill thousands in the U.S. alone... 6/
No we can't tolerate lockdowns, and yes we need to try our best to keep schools open, learn to "live with it" while doing our best to prevent (not tolerate!) infection.. but this does not mean policy makers should see unfettered spread of Omicron infection as a "good thing" 7/
The 2009 H1N1 flu was "mild" compared to some other pandemic flu's. Not a good reason to catch it. Or to "tolerate it." There's not a good reason to catch omicron, even if catching it & recovering from it may make your immunity stronger..Thing is some won't recover fully.. 8/
Some of the sick will strain hospital systems, some kids will be home w/ fevers & w/ parents unable to work. Many #Omicron cases can be avoided if policy makers ignore WSJ OpEds and treat a pandemic coronavirus like.. well, a pandemic coronavirus. Don't tolerate its spread. 9/9
More on how “great” the U.S. isn’t doing w/ COVID-19 vaccination.
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