Waiting for the Omicron Science

It’s Not Looking All That Optimistic

Photo by Michael Held on Unsplash

I’m a Boston-based cancer doctor and I’ve been writing weekly fact-based-no-blame-no-rumors-all-science-all-the-time essays about Covid-19 since March 2020.

You can read my views on why to get your cold symptoms tested here — or about boosters here — or you can read about vaccines/anti-vaxxers throughout history here

While we have been proceeding with our reasonably normal lives and trying not to doomscroll, scientists around the world have been doing what scientists do: test, study, measure, gather data, think, do experiments, share and discuss what they are learning about the Omicron variant.

They are trying to figure out the three hugest questions we most need to know:

1. Is Omicron more transmissible and easier for us to catch?
2. Can it get around our vaccines or our previous infections a little or a lot?
3. Does it cause more serious illness?

Discussing geographic spread for a minute: The variant is being found many places and in many countries and it is only a matter of time before it is everywhere. In the olden days plagues followed patterns of trade routes and war troops and exploration and sometimes moved slowly. Now we are one world united by air travel and our diseases can…