You know a Variant is worth tracking when it's given a name. The Delta Variant has been pushing most of the new infections and deaths since late Spring but it looks like its sucessor may have emerged in South Africa. It has already spread to Botswana and that's why it now has a codename.
This is what happens when vaccination rates in a country are allowed to be low long enough. South Africa's vaccination efforts were stalled earlier this year due to a combination of political unrest and misinformation. As of today, only 23.8% of South Africa--about 14 million people--have been fully vaccinated.
Most of the world responded to the new variant by immediately restricting travel to and from South Africa, Botswana and surrounding countries on the Horn of Africa between Wednesday and today. Stock markets across the world have also taken a hit in reaction to the news and what it could mean for the economies.
Vaccine makers around the world are getting samples of the new strain and are now testing it against their vaccines amid early reports the new Omicron Variant can escape the protection of currently available vaccines. A spokesperson from Pfizer said they can rework their vaccine to deal with the Omicron Variant within 100 days. A spokesperson from Moderna said they will know within a few days how effective their vaccine is against the Omicron Variant.
The whole world is collectively waiting to find out the news and it is very reassuring to know neither Pfizer or Moderna are too concerned. That tells me they were anticipating the emergence of new variants and likely also monitoring the Mu and Lambda Variants.
We are now 15 letters into the Greek Alphabet. Nine more remain.
I stand by what I've said about the Pandemic Phase of COVID-19 ending by next June though. When the Pandemic Phase ends, the Endemic Phase will begin. If Omicron is any indication, the threat of new variants will persist as long as large chunks of the population continue to choose to remain unvaccinated.
It's funny how the unvaccinated like to focus on case numbers involving those who died from the Corona Virus after being fully vaccinated despite the fact the overwhelming majority of those who died are and continue to die in large numbers are the unvaccinated.
To use another example. Two people people die in a car accident. One was wearing a seatbelt but the other wasn't. The statistics prove seatbelts save lives more often than not. Just because people wearing seatbelts die in car accidents doesn't mean seatbelts don't work. It just meant the death happened despite the extra precaution which is law in most of the world.
The reason Colin Powell died to COVID-19 is because although he was fully vaccinated, he was immunocompromised. Some of the people around him didn't want to be careful and when he became infected, his body was not able to fight it off despite being vaccinated.
I am waiting for a major Variant to emerge in the U.S. and honestly I'm surprised it hasn't happened by now. I'm sure the CDC is expecting it to happen as well. It's just a matter of when and where.
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