Well…do you remember when delta hit and every health care system in the country was overwhelmed? Omicron is worse with warnings going out from almost every system in the country that they are on the verge of collapse with how contagious omicron is…I saw a graphic the other day that even with an N95 mask within 15 minutes in an enclosed space with omicron infected people, you will become infected…and throw in all of the unvaccinated assholes out there that won’t wear masks, and it is even worse…I read just today that every damn unvaccinated person in the country is going to catch omicron by the end of the month and spread it to we who have done the right thing and got vaccinated and boosted…and all of the blather that omicron is less severe than delta doesn’t matter…with how many people who will be infected…many, many more than with delta, hospitals are overwhelmed and people who have symptoms will be turned away to die at home….this is pretty damn dire and we need to do our part…wear a mask, only go out if you have to, stay away from people for the next few weeks…I will go out for groceries once and get enough for me to not go out again until the end of the month…and I will double mask and stay away from people in the store…and hunker down here and not go anywhere for a while….damn, I feel like the walking dead is happening right now….and I want to avoid the zombies….geez…

Well…couldn’t find a political topic for today so I thought I’d talk about the latest covid variant, Omicron, and what is known about it now…the latest testing shows that 70-90% of new cases are no longer delta but omicron and shows how fast this new one spreads and that is a little scary….but, it appears that it multiplies in the airways of the nose and doesn’t shred the lungs like delta does…at least that’s what it looks like so far…but, there are almost 140 million cases predicted in the US between Jan 1 and March 1 2022….and that means that 60% of the US will have been infected with some form of covid…and the scary part is that 90% of those with omicron may not even know it and will spread it even farther and faster….one tiny little ray of light is that it appears that the hospitalization rate from omicron is 90 to 96% less than delta and the fatality rate is 97 to 99% lower…but the sheer volume of infections will still overwhelm most hospital systems in the first three months of next year….those of us that have gotten our booster shots have a really good chance of staying out of the hospital and then not having the long covid that is ravaging many in this country…it looks like my choice to stay away from my grandchildren was the right one…even though my kids are still pissed at me and aren’t talking to me anymore because I haven’t visited…oh, well….