I don't necessarily mean to a small amount of cases. I'm trying to wrap my head around what the next couple months will be looking like. It's not enough, but at least in my state the mask mandate is back everywhere and we're opening more testing sites/improving numbers at current sites. Our vaccination rate is also over 80%. The vaccine is widely available and easy to walk in and get.
The problem is still no mandatory lock down, not enough proper time off, and not all jobs pay workers (outside of PTO) who take off for covid related issues. Those are pretty big road blocks to number of cases going down.
Do these numbers ever go down to noticeable degree without proper measures in place? If not, I wonder what it'll take to get a real response again
How much do variants retain from the genetic heritage of whatever variant created them? That's the big question I have with omicron. It's so infectious that it could burn itself out and only take the medical system with it, but letting it spread uncontrolled like this also means that it's going to be the variant that's mutating most frequently. If the next dominant variant retains how infectious it is but further disproves "mild COVID" social murder theory, we'll see who needs a benzo bucko.
I don't know exact science but Omicron is the furthest from any other variant so far. Thing is that how omicron came to be is up for discussion, but the most enticing theory is that it crossed from humans to rats back to humans, so if we're already getting infected from animal repositories, it seems to me like we already fucked up good, seems a bit too late to control spread to avoid new variants as it's already spreading uncontrollably in rats.
The zoonotic nature of it is super concerning, especially given how many species it now infects. According to the CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/animals.html
Companion animals, including pet cats, dogs, and ferrets.
Animals in zoos and sanctuaries, including several types of big cats, otters, non-human primates, a binturong, a coatimundi, a fishing cat, and hyenas.
Mink on mink farms.
Wild white-tailed deer in several U.S. states.
That's such a broad spectrum of species and interactions with them. Coatimundi for example are the raccoons of Central America and throw their shit at you while primates are bush meat for impoverished populations. Rats and mice coming inside for the winter and filling our grain silos, a plague in Australia right now, while the deer that aren't consumed by prion diseases are the subsistence hunting food for a good chunk of North America. If we end up getting zoonotic COVID waves in the way we get bird/swine flu, big nope.