The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 124 (624)

Omicron again rules the news, though much of it is repetition. It will be two to three weeks before we know anything "real" about its ability to get past the immune system or how severe cases might be in both unvaccinated and vaccinated people. The list of countries in which Omicron has been found grows steadily. The last I saw, there were 16 on the list (there are more, believe you me, that have not yet been identified): Britain, Germany, France, Denmark, Israel, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa, Portugal, Italy, Botswana, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Sweden. I expect that any day or perhaps any hour the US will find itself on that list. 

One troubling thing about that list is that in two places, Germany and Scotland, Omicron cases have been identified that have no connection to travel internationally or even nationally. Community transmission means anyone could be exposed at any time. Indeed, scientists in the UK are said to be expecting to find hundreds of Omicron cases in the UK, some from before Omicron's official announcement. 

The G7 health ministers held an emergency meeting today to discuss Omicron. The European Commission chief says that it will take two to three weeks "to get a full picture of the quality of the mutations" and "we know we are now in a race against time." Dr. Fauci would agree with both those statements. WHO regards Omicron as posing a very high global risk: "Omicron has an unprecedented number of spike mutations, some of which are concerning for their potential impact on the trajectory of the pandemic. The overall global risk related to the new variant ... is assessed as very high." WHO also spoke of the "severe consequences" possible due to Omicron. 

Meanwhile, POTUS says that Omicron is "a cause for concern, not a cause for panic." Indeed, panic would cause more problems than we already have. Still, even if Omicron is a "variant of concern," I'm not sure concern alone will get people motivated to put masks back on or seek out a vaccination or booster. I'm not sure what a better word might be. A cause for worry? A cause with consequences? A cause just because? 

Merriam-Webster has announced its word of the year. That word would be "vaccine." Vaccines do seem to be at the root of how people react to the pandemic. But will "vaccine" end up so tied to the coronavirus that it leaves measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, chicken pox, whooping cough, and polio in the dust? When someone asks if a person is "vaccinated," they are not talking about any of the vaccines in that list; they are talking about one of the coronavirus vaccines. 

I saw two phrases today that have me thinking philosophically: " As we prepare to enter the third year of the pandemic ..." and "... in the years since the virus first emerged ..." I know I'm not the only person to have trouble remembering what day of the week it is, but is anyone else having trouble remembering what season it is? The time between late spring 2020 and late summer 2021 is blurred. I have to brush the dust off my glasses or the frost off my windshield to identify anything specific from that period. Even after I started to venture out for essentials after hitting (the first) full vaccination mark, the time seems fuzzy. Is this how people with amnesia feel? I'm not saying that this bothers me, but it does intrigue me. Or maybe it's just all the psychology classes I took in what seems like a past life.