The Omicron Variant

The new variant called Omicron has spread rapidly around the world. The cases are as bad as May 2021, and classes are being shut down left and right. The average cases per day as of January 3, 2022 are up to 30,000 new cases. It’s getting crazy! People who just got the vaccine are getting COVID and can't have life like normal. The Pfizer vaccine is 70 percent effective against Omicron for people over 18. Even though the effects of Omicron are not as bad as Delta, it spreads much faster than any form or variant. There have been many cases at MS447.  The hope is that the COVID cases will reach a peak and drop as quickly as they came and rose, like in South Africa. 

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are now 30-40 percent effective against infection and 70 percent effective against severe disease. This is a significant change compared to the Delta variant due its many mutations. The germ theory suggests that the purpose of a virus is to spread from one host to the other, but if the virus is deadly and kills its host it dies too, and can’t spread anymore; so the virus mutates so it can spread fast but is not deadly, just like Omicron. This could show that if we let the virus just spread, everyone will get herd immunity and CCOVID will become an epidemic. 

 Omicron's symptoms are very similar to the variants before. Ms. Russo, the 8th grade Spanish teacher said, “At first it just started out as a runny nose. Then I had a sore throat. And then out of nowhere I felt like I got hit by a truck. I was super tired and my body hurt.” 

If you have COVID, you can have severe symptoms like Ms. Russo, or you can have no symptoms at all. Having no symptoms is one of the most dangerous because you can get people sick without even knowing it! Being vaccinated or not also affects your symptoms. 

For example, one student in 603 said, “I really just was coughing a lot, blood was bleeding up in my through a lot.” 

This shows that Omicron symptoms vary from pain and hurting to just a cough.  All in all, the new variant Omicron, does spread rapidly but also may have some positive effects for the future.