When the latest COVID wave arrives, do nothing

The Week

You have heard about a new wave. The Omicron subvariant known as BA.2 has already led China to shut down whole cities to stop the spread while also raising alarms in South Korea and across Europe and the United Kingdom, where case numbers are spiking once again.

It will probably start spreading more widely in the United States very soon. When it does, what should we do?

Nothing is the answer.

Maybe that is going too far. It would be great if we had enough tests to help us protect our family members and neighbors. We have been trying to get this goal for a long time. If the government gets its act together, that's great.

There is some uncertainty around the subvariant. It seems to spread a bit faster than the original Omicron strain. Will it lead to more deaths and hospitalizations? We probably won't be sure for a few more weeks because of the lag time between positive test results and the worst consequences of infection.

If BA.2 proves to be no more deadly than BA.1, our path forward is clear: We should go right on living without having to endure restrictions on behavior.

People who have received a booster shot are very well protected, as we learned from the original Omicron wave. A mild case that resembled a cold or mild flu was usually caught by some. Symptoms were gone within a week. That is more of a nuisance than a life-threatening event.

But what about the number of deaths? More than a thousand Americans are still dying every day of the Omicron variant despite a drastic drop in new cases over the past two months. How can we not do anything when the numbers rise again?

In the vast majority of cases, those deaths are preventable. Several highly effective vaccines are readily available. Americans need to take advantage of this amazing achievement of medical science to avoid serious illness and death. They have to live with the consequences if they don't do it.

The rest of us do not.

Get a vaccine. Get increased. Get on with your life. The recipe for living with Covid is if the shots continue to work. The wave is not likely to change that.

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