Omicron coronavirus variant puts world on edge

Omicron is the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet. It’s also now the name of a new coronavirus variant whose many mutations prompted scientists to rush to figure out its likely impact. Will it rival or exceed the Delta variant’s transmissibility? Will it evade any of the protection offered by vaccines?

“After South Africa sounded the alarm on a new COVID-19 variant, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 900 points on Black Friday, marking a dire start to what was forecast to be a record-shattering holiday spending season,” wrote Julian Zelizer. It’s too early to tell how much of a threat Omicron poses, but it clearly complicates the recovery efforts of President Joe Biden’s administration.

“Under more normal circumstances, we would expect the President to enjoy some political benefit from the economic recovery and strong legislative wins, including the passage of the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package.” But Biden’s approval ratings are much lower than they were at the start of his presidency, Zelizer wrote.

“The pandemic is far from over, and after nearly two years and more than 775,000 deaths, many Americans are traumatized and on edge.”

Writing for Bloomberg Opinion, David Fickling noted that “scarcely more than half of the world’s population has had a dose of a COVID vaccine. That means there’s still more than 3.4 billion people out there whose bodies the virus can treat as laboratories in which to develop new mutations. Until we reduce that number further, the odds aren’t as strongly in our favor as we’d like to think.”

The-CNN-Wire
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