Thread by @phylogenomics

Well, from what I can tell, most people, institutions & officials in the USA are in denial regarding the oncoming tidal wave of Omicron infections that are (1) already happening & (2) will soon massively increase. Come on everyone - we need to slow this down.

1. Limit indoor gatherings.
2. Especially stop maskless indoor activities. JFC people.
3. If you have to be indoors w/ people outside your household: ventilate, filter, mask.
4. Boost
5. Test early and often.
6. Quarantine w/ any hints of exposure / symptoms.

Sadly, a huge part of the problem is vaccinated folks thinking they cannot contribute to COVID spread. Well, this concept was wrong in May when the CDC pushed it.

https://twitter.com/phylogenomics/status/1393025234303741954?s=20

and it was wrong in July

https://twitter.com/phylogenomics/status/1420929511038746628

and it is really fu#(!@( wrong now.

And for those of you in my neck of the woods in #DavisCA @ucdavis @YoloCountyCA. Omicron is here. And spreading. And just as in the UK & Denmark & Norway it will double every 2 days or so. So get F#(!)(@ ready. A lot of people are already infected. And a ton more will be soon.

And if you think your town / city / area is somehow magically immune to the spread of Omicron. Sorry, but you are wrong. Everywhere in the US, Omicron is likely already there. And spreading really insanely fast. Or, it will be there and spread very soon

Yes, it is possible that per infection negative effects (eg, severe cases, hospitalization, death) could be lower for Omicron than for Delta (still unclear). But as pointed out by 1000s of others - massive #s of infections will drown out any "benefits" of such lower % of problems

And I am going to post here some news stories and threads from the last day or two that discuss how the Omicron wave is going to be rough in the US.

e.g. from @BuzzFeed buzzfeednews.com/article/danver…

And this from @npr npr.org/sections/healt…

And this from @nytimes about issues with testing capacity nytimes.com/2021/12/17/us/…

And this from the @seattletimes seattletimes.com/seattle-news/h…

And this from @reuters reuters.com/world/us/tidal…

And this about Hawaii civilbeat.org/2021/12/hawaii…

And this about New Jersey area nbcnewyork.com/news/coronavir…

And this about schools closing across the USA today.com/parents/parent… (tons more of that coming soon)

And we are just at the beginning here in the US. Look at what is happening in England, for example for a taste of what is likely coming soon cnbc.com/2021/12/16/uks…

Or look at Denmark voanews.com/a/denmark-prop…

Or Norway outbreaknewstoday.com/norway-omicron…

And Germany wionews.com/world/germany-…

And yes, still bad in South Africa reuters.com/world/africa/s… though most in the US ignore things in Africa because, well, I don't want to go there

And yes, things are looking grim in Canada too globalnews.ca/news/8458838/c… - is that close enough for people in the US to wake up?

I mean I get that people are sick of this. I am so fucking sick of the pandemic. But we need our leaders to rise up above the "I am sick of this" to actually do something. To lead. And no, I do not think we need to shut down everything. But we need to take a series of actions.

And seriously, the things our leaders need to do are not that complicated such as

Warning people this is coming and will be rough.
Encouraging (or requiring if needed) the population to do a few things that will reduce spread.
Shoring up health care systems in any way we can.

Many of these can be viewed as "short term fixes" to limit spread of Omicron. Certainly we also need to keep working on longer term fixes like vaccine equity, better ventilation / filtering, improving availability of high quality masks & rapid tests, and more

And yes, clearly and as usual, @edyong209 is right -- "America Is Not Ready for Omicron" theatlantic.com/health/archive… but there are still things we can do even in that context

So please - everyone - contribute to slowing this down. Mask up. Avoid / limit indoor gatherings (I know this sucks ..). Get tested. Get boosted. Work to improve access and equity in vaccines, testing, ventilation, filtering. Isolate/quarantine when indicated. Etc etc etc.

And though this is not fun to think about, everyone should get prepared for the possibility you will get infected with Omicron - see for example this from @yeahyeahyasmin theatlantic.com/health/archive…

I guess another two things people can do are (1) encourage your leaders to, well, get their act together and (2) encourage others (family, friends, colleagues, anyone) to do their part too

I am shocked, shocked to find that Omicron is going on in France.

https://twitter.com/sputnikvaccine/status/1472068069132582912

See this for a sobering update on Omicron in NHS hospitals

https://twitter.com/rupert_pearse/status/1472107641488957447

Attention USA

https://twitter.com/kniggem/status/1472274635341410315