By Raymond Nava
The new Omicron variant of COVID-19 is a serious cause for concern.
This could negatively affect vaccination efforts and the vaccines themselves. vaccination efforts and the vaccines themselves. This new strain should be taken very seriously by everyone.
The new Omicron variant was first reported out of South Africa. This new variant has been shown to spread faster than the Delta variant and has also been reported to have the ability to infect fully vaccinated individuals. This is deeply concerning as this could reset the progress made when developing the vaccine.
The Omicron variant is evidence that if people refuse to get vaccinated, it can lead to disastrous results.
The longer we have large numbers of people unvaccinated, the longer the virus can spread, which could lead to more mutations in the virus. The Omicron is proof of this.
This is very concerning as the more a variant can infect people vaccinated against the original strain, the more elusive an effective vaccination becomes. The variant is already able to break through fully vaccinated people. This has led to the vaccine manufacturers announcing that they will retool their vaccines to withstand the new variant, though it will take time.
Thankfully, as of now, fully vaccinated people who contracted the Omicron variant are only suffering mild symptoms, some similar to the common cold.
However, this doesn’t mean people can let their guard down.
When COVID-19 started popping up in 2019, it wasn’t viewed as severe. The world failed to take precautions that could have reduced the spread of the virus. People should not react the same to Omicron or future variants.
If need be, people should be prepared to enforce drastic measures to ensure that the variant doesn’t spread further and mutate into more devastating variants.
I worry about the lasting impact this new variant brings. So much progress has already been made, not to mention the societal progress of adjusting back to some sort of normalcy.
This variant could set us back to a point where we would be cautious of going back outside, even when we are fully vaccinated. This is even worse for people who live with someone who refuses to get vaccinated. I live with my mother and brother. My mom and I are fully vaccinated, but my brother refuses to get vaccinated. With the variant able to break through vaccinated individuals, I may just be riddled with mild symptoms if I were to get infected, but it still puts my brother at risk whenever I go out.
We should be very concerned with the Omicron variant, even if it hasn’t produced many negative results so far.
People could end up back where we were when COVID-19 first arrived. People should be cautious and continue to push others to get vaccinated.