Thread by @phylogenomics

I am dismayed by the people, including leaders, who are treating #Omicron as "mild" & therefore not a big deal ignoring the unvaccinated & unboosted, long covid, at risk groups and that it is not "mild" for everyone, just on average has less severe effects to the vaccinated

See for example this thread from @IanRicksecker for some more details

https://twitter.com/IanRicksecker/status/1478611650760437765?s=20

And also this thread

https://twitter.com/DrZoeHyde/status/1476528454258466816?s=20

And also this

https://twitter.com/DataDrivenMD/status/1476705754862161922?s=20

And another one from @DataDrivenMD

https://twitter.com/DataDrivenMD/status/1478086649271578626?s=20

And also this and many other posts from @KrutikaKuppalli

https://twitter.com/KrutikaKuppalli/status/1478573719798702083?s=20

And don't forget about the impact on health care systems -eg

https://twitter.com/ETSshow/status/1424908353151537161?s=20

And also It is incredibly important to realize that there are massive inequities in how Omicron is impacting people directly and indirectly - eg. see

https://twitter.com/luckytran/status/1478206700301828106?s=20

And another perspective on the "mild" story from @Craig_A_Spencer

https://twitter.com/Craig_A_Spencer/status/1478217081959108614?s=20

And a very useful thread from @jburnmurdoch on some of the complexities with Omicron and predicting its impact, which is summarized here (and linked to) by @firefoxx66

https://twitter.com/firefoxx66/status/1478359159229796403?s=20

And these are but examples. Omicron should not be allowed to just rip through populations under some hopeful notion that it is oh so mild and or that it is OK because "a lot of our people are vaccinated".

So - what can we do? We need to work hard to reduce the spread where possible. I discussed some of the ways to do this in this interview sactownmag.com/uc-davis-micro…

And remember, reducing the spread is not just about not getting infected yourself. It is about protecting others from getting infected too.

And no. It is not time to consider that #SarsCOV2 should be treated like colds or the flu. We are simply not at that point yet.

And no COVID is not endemic right now and should not be treated as such, especially if that is being used to say "it is all ok". e.g. see

https://twitter.com/celinegounder/status/1467907314120286215?s=20

And for some (subtle? dark?) humor about this topic see this post and the linked one too

https://twitter.com/BillHanage/status/1478223180561014784?s=20

And a really important point I forgot and people should not forget. We need to keep working working on vaccine equity -eg see

https://twitter.com/mvankerkhove/status/1478278554324512768?s=20

This is why efforts such as #Corbevax are very important

https://twitter.com/PeterHotez/status/1478816521057193989?s=20

Another key point - the “mildness” in terms of % of cases for vaccinated people could be in part a reflection of the age of those being infected and if older people start making up higher % of cases this could change - see

https://twitter.com/nataliexdean/status/1478751412892880896

And this sums up one of the issues — too many have focused on effects on individuals and not in populations

See this regarding my last comment

https://twitter.com/alexandraphelan/status/1478896181921124357