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How risky is Omicron variant

Hi,
Death case of omicron is till now zero then why everyone is so tensed with this variant?
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Avatar universal
Just wondering, how do you know nobody has died of omicron variant?  It's predominantly known to be so far mainly in South Africa because they're the ones who did the sequencing to find it, but it will soon be all over the world and only then will we see the hospitals filling up again if it turns out to be as lethal as other variants.  It's just judicious caution because if it is as good as it appears it might be at contaminating people, a lot of people are going to get it and when a lot of people get any variant of this virus lots of people die.  Now, most people don't die of any of the variants, only a very small percentage do, but as mentioned above, dying isn't the only bad thing that happens to people.  We'll know when we know.  But in part, I think there's some truth in what you're really saying, which is, it doesn't really help to get overly upset about it.  That just makes us suffer twice.  So realize that part of this virus is that it has become so politicized -- if it hadn't there wouldn't be an omicron variant to worry about at all -- that the media covers scientific details in a way they don't about other diseases that are killing tons of people.  The reason they talk so much about this one is that we have tools to actually control it, mainly the vaccine, and it's contagious, unlike other huge killers such as auto accidents, pollution, and cancer which kill more people actually but aren't contagious.  Basically, everyone just wants everyone to get vaccinated and do what's necessary to get rid of this thing because we actually could have done that and didn't.  Peace.
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207091 tn?1337709493
It's very new. I don't think we know enough yet.

Remember that for high risk people - those with underlying conditions - none of the variants may be risk free. We don't know yet how much protection the current vaccines offer. It's looking like not as much as Delta.

Also remember that even if the death rate isn't higher, long covid is a a very real thing, and people will suffer.

It wasn't even identified 10 days ago. We have a lot to learn yet.
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134578 tn?1693250592
Probably people are most nervous because they hoped the world was turning the corner on Covid to some extent -- though some people won't vaccinate and some can't because of lack of availability, at least there *is* a vaccine, and also the idea of masking and social distancing is understood and practiced by many people. Plus, some therapeutic drugs are on the way that are expected to make a big difference if a person gets Covid. And THEN, just when nobody wanted to have anything get worse and were tired of all the precautions, here comes this new variant that has not just one mutation but many mutations. It made it clear that no matter how much people might hope, Covid doesn't end just because people are tired of it, and that further mutations are likely (that very well could be less benign). That's probably the biggest reason.
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