Slouching Into Christmas

As we go into Christmas, the Omicron variant now accounts for nearly three out of every four COVID cases in the United States.

Cases are rising rapidly, and based on the latest numbers but of South Africa, they could fall just as rapidly.  But the doomsayers - you know they're out there - dismiss this development, insisting that South Africa has a younger population than North America or Europe (where COVID is also skyrocketing), and in South Africa, it's summer.  And meanwhile, regarding monocleomal antibody treatments, or monoclamiral antibody treatments or mononuclear antibody treatments or whatever the hell it's called . . . yeah, well, it doesn't matter what they're called, as they don't work against Omicron.  Well, except for one of them.  And while Moderna insists that two vaccinations and a booster are effective against Omicron, a doomsayer - not Michael Osterholm - say the two vaccinations and a booster of Pfizer are worthless against Omicron after three months.  And what does Michael Osterholm think?  He's one of the people offering hope - hope - that Omicron rates in the U.S. could fall as quickly as the rise.

Ugh.

As today is Festivus, I'm going to try to perform the superhuman strength of just staying out of bed - I haven't been feeling well lately, though I don't think it's COVID because I can still smell things - and I am very disappointed in what's going on.  But I'll still try to have a good Christmas, once I put my cardboard pole away.   

Yes, a cardboard pole, taken from a just-finished roll of Christmas wrapping paper.  I can't afford an aluminum one. 

Eight Hundred Thousand . . .

The United States is approaching 800,000 deaths since the COVID pandemic began.  We will likely reach a million deaths - still half of the toll from the 1918 pandemic when adjusted for population differences, but still too many - before it's over.

As to when it's over . . . well, there doesn't seem to be much consensus on that.  Most people do seem to agree that it will be over sometime in the New Year, but that could be as early as spring or as early as this time next year.

Some people are counting on Omicron to be the final major variant, as it spreads more rapidly than Delta but has far milder symptoms.  Forgotten in this theory is the fact that the virus that causes COVID - SARS CoV-2 is called a severe acute respiratory syndrome - that's what the SARS acronym stands for!  Omicron  may be mild, but no one's calling it BARS (benign acute respiratory syndrome) or a MARS (mild acute respiratory syndrome), and there are many reasons for that.

One is that an Omicron-infected patient in Britain just died. 

The lesson is that the distinction between a severe COVID variant and a mild COVID variant is the difference between getting nuked and firebombed.

Not very cheery today . . . sorry. 

"Gimme That Vaccine, Maxine!"

I'm a poet, and I know it.

Here's something else to wax poetic about: While President Biden fights COVID, the Republican Party is fighting his fight against it by opposing vaccine mandates, testing and PPE requirements, yet they keep blaming him for the rise in COVID cases. 

Why do the Republicans fight policies designed to alleviate and solve problems and then deflect the blame to the Democrats?  Mainly because it works.  Ronald Reagan blamed unemployment and failed foreign-policy initiatives on his watch on Jimmy Carter, Newt Gingrich blamed runaway spending on Bill Clinton despite being a strong proponent of increased military spending, right-wing talk radio hosts blamed 9/11 on Bill Clinton despite George W. Bush's lack of engagement with efforts to stop bin Laden, and John Boehner blamed a sluggish economy on Obama after blocking his efforts to improve it.  And look what happened: Reagan and Bush the Younger were both elected to second terms as President and Gingrich and Boehner became Speaker Of the House.

By blocking Biden from fighting the pandemic and dodging the blame for blocking him and thus not paying a price politically, Republicans think they can win back Congress in the 2022 midterms - especially if they can also keep concentrating on immigration (except that Biden went ahead and kept a Trump policy in place to have Mexico keep migrants bound for America for processing) and inflation (though the economy is still strong and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will likely raise interest rates gradually to reverse it).  If inflation does ease and immigration becomes less of an issue by November 2022, well, a perpetual pandemic is the GOP's magic bullet.

But get this: Thanks to the omicron variant - the omicorona, I call it - vaccination rates in America are spiking now.  More people are taking this seriously.  And Biden has wisely decided not to offer any happy talk about the future like he did when Delta first appeared here.  More and more people on the same page, and it's not one in the GOP's playbook.  Although the Republicans are pandering to their base, the fact is that over 71 percent of Americans 18 and over - that is, Americans of voting age - are fully vaccinated.  Not all vaccinated adults are Democrats, of course, but most unvaccinated adults are Republicans.  If Republicans think they can rely on the unvaccinated to people them to victory in the 2022 midterms while President Biden and the Democrats continue to work diligently at trying to get things done for the American people - with plenty of time for their efforts to bear meaningful fruit before November 2022 - they're going to have to play a better hand than that.

Although, voter suppression remains an ace up their sleeves.          

Try to hang on, Maxine. 

Omicron?

Oh, swell, another COVID variant.

The World Health Organization declared the new variant discovered over the weekend in South Africa as a variant of concern, and in this pandemic, concern is usually a prelude to disaster.  This variant could be more contagious than Delta and may even evade vaccines, suggesting a real-life Andromeda strain that is incurable and could wipe out humanity completely,

But it probably isn't.  What little data there is suggests that the symptoms from what I am tempted to call the "omicorona" are milder than previous strains (I still hate the use of the word "variant," it sounds like they're taking about a German station wagon), and vaccines are likely to either be effective or adaptable to the new strain.  The question is, it they have to be adapted, whether people already vaccinated and boosted should get a fourth shot.

While we wait a few days for the verdict (swell, another word beginning with the letter "v" associated with this pandemic) on this strain, I ought to explain why the Greek letter omicron was used to name this COVID strain.  Because the next two available letters had problems.  The next available one was "nu," and calling it the "nu" variant could easily be taken to mean it's the "new variant," suggesting a possible riff in the tradition of Abbott and Costello.  ("I heard of a new COVID variant.  What is it called?" "The nu variant."  "I know it's new, but what is the name of the variant?" "No, nu, not what!" "What?" "No, nu."  "Look, I'm trying to find out that name of the variant." "Which one?" "The new variant."  "That's the name of the variant!" "What?" "What the name of the variant is." "That's what I'm trying to find out!") 

Gallows humor there.

The next letter after "nu" in the Greek alphabet is "xi," pronounced "she," just like the surname of a certain world leader from a country where last names come first spells and pronounces his surname.

And we want to make sure that he doesn't take offense, right?  Especially when he made omicron, or nu, or xi happen?  Or did he?

For he may be Xi, but what I'm told is never, never for certain.

And I'm told, and I'm told he's a virgin.  

More gallows humor . . . 

But I'm not kidding around when I say this: Any new COVID "variant of concern" is serious.  Get vaccinated if you haven't and get boosted if you have.