Thread by @gbosslet

If you are attending a large New Year celebration with strangers, please know that in many areas of the country you are contributing to the collapse of the health care system.

This applies regardless of your vaccination status.

I know this sounds dramatic- please read on.

1/

I am not chicken little when it comes to COVID

I have been a proponent of pulling back restrictions and mask requirements for the vaccinated

But the goal of public health measures is to protect hospital capacity

In Indiana, we are worse than ever.

https://twitter.com/gbosslet/status/1475456740716072966?s=20

2/

Omicron’s spread is nuts.

I’ve followed the data closely the entire time and I am floored by it.

3/

Omicron is less severe but will lead to hospitalization: in England, hospitalizations have almost doubled in the last 10 days despite an 82% vaccination rate and are going up quickly.

4/

The perfect storm of Omicron in Indiana:
1.An astoundingly fast spreading virus that will hospitalize some unvaccinated people
2.A hospital system already at the point of bursting
3.A population with a very low vaccination rate

5/

And it sucks, but vaccinated people will become infected more than with delta (but less than the unvax)

They won’t generally get very sick, but they will be more a part of the chain of transmission than before

6/

And with the amount of COVID in the community, a New Year’s Eve party at a bar or public place where you pay a certain amount and get all you can drink and kiss someone at midnight will most certainly have Omicron there

And many will be infected regardless of vaccine status.

7/

This sucks

It is not the holiday season any of us had wanted

But all the indications are that this fire will ignite fast and burn itself out quickly

And while the Omicron conflagration is burning, we have real risk of a humanitarian disaster with sickness and it scares me

8/

Because hospitals without capacity means a heart attack or stroke or car accident becomes something different than usual- because there is no place or people to help

And right now we to need to protect the helpers

9/

For those of you getting together with small groups of family, please use a home test if you can afford to immediately before the gathering and cancel if positive

Omicron strikes quick and even if you are all vaccinated, reducing the chain of transmission is important

9/

Once hospitalizations go back to something that resemble normal, I will stop the shouting

But for now to protect hospitals we need to limit interactions with other humans

Hopefully not for long, but now is more important than ever

10/