This is my understanding as well.
So for those who are now convinced I'm some sort of covid denier or something, please understand that this evolution is promising in that since we cannot vaccinate fast enough thanks to misinformation this is our "way out" and I am hopeful for it.
Just because I point to promising news, doesn't mean I am a maskhole or a vaxhole. I have to wear my mask in public every single place I go. I'm not running free maskless anywhere. While my keloid is hating this again (burned like crazy this morning) I still will not remove in public period.
I honestly am not sure why it is bad to be hopeful about this set of mutations. Travel hasn't changed. This variant is here and circulating whether it's been reported or not and has been likely for a month or more. There is no downside to a masking always in public person who has been triple vaxxed as a part of the trial to help save the world to be hopeful. It changes nothing about what I do in public. Just remember that before one tries to scold me or roll eyes at me. Almost 2 years later I'm taking this as serious as ever.
That is not my intent or my belief. I am however genuinely worried about your community going into this phase and therefore you. You have said you need to think a certain way to keep your anxiety in check. I do understand that. But to take that extra step to "the severity seems like it's mild" when we only know people who should have a mild case are having mild cases is how I think a lot of misinformation happens even when someone doesn't have nefarious intent. People propagating what might be a false hope out of a personal need, to the point where it reaches general acceptance that "Omicron is inherently (not just mitigated via population immunity) more mild." I will counter that until we have the final score and not the first 5 minutes, of the first quarter. IMO, it's adding fuel to an anxiety-driven fire if it's not accurate. Because that happens to me. If I didn't prep myself in advance about what bad might look like. When the bad stuff happens, it's much worse. Were we really better mentally off when everyone ripped off our masks in May and then Delta happened? When researches were saying Alpha and Delta were more severe?, people were all "Wait!" And it turned out not to be that different, just more transmissible. Now that it's flipped to maybe mild?, it's suddenly acceptable to not wait? This is what I'm pushing back against.
I don't know why it's so bad to assume that inherent severity is the same, not better or worse. Just the same. But the protection granted has helped immensely. Or recognizing that the math is problematic to keep things low enough where healthcare infrastructure is not hit with another surge. It still is hopeful for those who have taken the appropriate steps, but without the added downside of being caught off guard when it's not enough and the numbers climb. As people close to us get sick, to varying degree based on their age, health and immunity status. People who did the right thing by getting vaccinated, boosted, wore their masks, but don't get the non-Covid medical care they need because of others needing Covid care. Is this not a concern in your community? People who might need care for heart attacks, cancer, pulmonary issues, etc. who may be delayed and experience different outcomes because of an overburdened system? Does witnessing those things not have a negative impact on your anxiety? That's why I used the Genie+ analogy; there are some times people need to know when there are still storm clouds working against. If that makes me a bad person, I'm past the point of caring. I've backed off before (although I'm sure it doesn't feel like it
) figuring reality would reveal the truth soon enough. I have never seen the experts I follow on Twitter, like whose tweets I posted and who are normally very cautious about things like this, be so concerned about the raw math, even as they are less worried about severe outcomes for vaccinated people in general.
Travel hasn't changed, IMO, because no one wants to be the villain and say "No" during Christmas (although Portugal is apparently considering). No one wants to risk the civil unrest. But lack of action /= lack of consequences. They are pushing responsibility onto individuals because they are running low on options. It's not an expression of what needs to be done, it's an expression of how they chose to respond. We'd like to think if something is needed, it gets done, but we should all know better about that at this point.
