Just in case you needed a couple of graphs of South Africa to show you OMICRON, here I plotted (our world in data) as of Dec 28th, the cases and deaths...to show you they are DECOUPLED
As you can see, infections/cases went up, peaked, and then plunged down, while deaths stayed basically flat with no one to two week death curve lag we would expect as per prior more lethal variants.
The massive rise in Omicron infections has yet to translate to a rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations and serious cases, or deaths. This means that we can even move toward a posture of allowing the virus to harmlessly and naturally spread. We must not lockdown or go backwards, for all of those policies failed. We must recognize that COVID is over! Omicron shows this. We must not suffer our populations.
Before the graphs, let me remind you what the predominant research shows and what we have been saying all along to explain why children do not readily get infected or get severely ill from COVID. It is their innate immunity (first line of defense that is likely the key player), combined with the reduced ACE 2 receptors (molecular basis) in the nasopharynx in children relative to older persons (an age stratified expression), existence of immune molecules like interleukin-17A and interferon lamda in higher numbers in children that are key to viral replication and immune response, and the excellent enhanced immune responses in children, relative to adults, “with pre-existing immunity cross-reactive with pre-pandemic ‘common cold’ human coronaviruses (HCoVs) as well as SARS-CoV-2.” This pre-existing common cold coronavirus immunity cross-protects against COVID virus. (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-021-01094-x.pdf).
Here is the real question: what did our governments do with the billions of PPE money $ they took from tax payers? They asked for 2 weeks and we gave 22 months and billions/trillions? Who stole the money? Who embezzled the money? Did hospitals steal the money? Who? No one should ask us for time to ‘prepare the hospitals’, no one should ask us for money for any PPE…all of this is illogical and absurd and to me borders on illegal actions. We need to find out what happened to the PPE money and why 22 months has not been enough time for hospitals to be prepared.
Graphs of South Africa infections and deaths: