It’s far less lethal than previous versions, and its fast spread may finally push us to herd immunity.
www.wsj.com
"The 28-day average case fatality rate in South Africa, the likely origin of the Omicron variant, tumbled in the past six weeks from 8% to 0.2%, barely higher than for the flu. Omicron will assuredly confer new, complementary antibodies on its victims, providing an additional measure of immunity to more lethal Covid variants."
"For the European Union, the U.S. and Latin America, the latest case fatality rate is 0.5%, 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively, down from a high of 4% to 7% during the Delta wave in June. If we add in the legions of asymptomatic, mild and untested cases, the true Omicron mortality is likely around 0.2%, roughly in line with seasonal flu."