KINSELLA: There are reasons for optimism — really
— People are getting sick. But not as sick. As predicted in this paper weeks ago, the Omicron variant — while highly contagious — is simply not as serious as its COVID-19 predecessors. It is not as lethal. As the dedicated Ontario physician Dr. David Jacobs posted in a Twitter thread, after working a long shift at Humber River Hospital: “The vast majority of the chest X-rays coming through on these patients are normal. A small number show very mild (cases of) pneumonia, which are less severe than in previous waves.” Added Jacobs: “The number of patients coming through ER remains ridiculous, but … fewer need admission.” That’s good news. — Many experts believe the pandemic will end in 2022. New treatments, new vaccines are on the horizon. Hospitalization and death rates are dropping around the globe, mainly thanks to vaccines and smart public health measures. Staff shortages are a huge problem in hospitals and schools and essential services, to be sure. But the ones in the know believe the end is finally drawing near. Wrote epidemiologist and COVID expert Raghib Ali last week in the Guardian: “We can be optimistic that 2022 will be the year the pandemic ends and it becomes an endemic disease here and in most countries thanks to the very high levels of population immunity we now have…the huge loss of life and pain should soon be a thing of the past.”
