The variant is called EG.5 and is a descendant of Omicron.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that EG.5 accounted for roughly 17.3 per cent — or one in six — of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. in the past two weeks.
Idk what people are so worried about, I’ve been assured that the pandemic is over and we beat covid in
2020202120222023COVID-19 is now endemic, like influenza. However, we do have vaccines so every 6-12 months when we get a booster shot we can get a bivalent vaccine that contains some of the latest variant to help prevent serious illness. This allows us to recover much more easily, reduce transmission, and ultimately eliminate the clogging of hospitals.
The real danger is from people who refuse to vaccinate because they’re going to be more susceptible to the endemic virus and its subvariants.
Nah, the real danger is the result of repeated cumulative reinfection damage from a still-poorly-understood virus that causes more and more damage to the vascular system and every organ connected to it. Long Covid is only beginning to be recognized for the mass disabling event it is, and the response of governments from the municpal all the way to the federal levels have been to let it rip, stop testing, shut down tracking sites, repeal mask mandates, and declare victory. Literally doing the thing they rightly mocked Trump for suggesting.
Now over a million people have died in the US alone, and our government has decided to force everyone back to work to sustain commercial real estate profits, and in the process condemned us all to a lifetime of body-destroying reinfections by a virus who’s key traits are infectiousness and rapid evolution.
None of this had to happen. We could have had a real quarantine, just a month or two back in 2019, but that would require making slightly less money for a brief period of time, so instead we get to live in eternal plague world. The hobbling of any effective covid response by our ruling class in favor of more lucrative half-measures and non-measures is beyond a humanitarian disaster, it’s a crime of unprecedented scale.
The number of people ignoring this is terrifying. Study after study keeps showing its a problem.
There’s going to be a massive accumulated health crisis in 10-20 years where a quarter of the population has a wrecked vascular system. On par with diabetes, but in this case untreatable which is going to kill millions far earlier than they should.
At the beginning of the pandemic someone very correctly predicted that America was going to do the plague the same way we did Vietnam: enthusiastically for a little bit, then once we realize how expensive it is we were gonna give up, run away and loudly declare victory.
Funny, I was just going to mention Vietnam; they did the lockdown as it should have been. Closed borders, no gatherings, the whole shebang. And wouldn’t you know it; economic damage from the pandemic was extremely minimal because of all the people (read: workers, read: customers) that didn’t needlessly die or were permanently disabled.
This was the case with Cuba as well. They did the damn thing right and ended up in a position where they were exporting doctors and techniques to the rest of the world.
Yup. Cuba even sent personal to Canada to help us out, all because we’ve imported and adopted the American denier mindset. :(
None of this had to happen. We could have had a real quarantine, just a month or two back in 2019, but that would require making slightly less money for a brief period of time, so instead we get to live in eternal plague world. The hobbling of any effective covid response by our ruling class in favor of more lucrative half-measures and non-measures is beyond a humanitarian disaster, it’s a crime of unprecedented scale.
Yes it did. If all countries did this around the world many people would have starved to death. It’s simply not ethical. Without eliminating it everywhere it would spread eventually - just look at Australia.
You can’t even enforce a total lockdown in western countries without excluding “key workers” that would allow the virus to spread anyway.
Nothing you have suggested would work in the real world. The only solution to prevent this is new medicines and prophylactics. We have developed some of these in the form of antivirals but they are not used enough to stop the spread.
We already enjoy a level of health unknown to people 100 years ago even with COVID-19. There will always be new diseases and this is the nature of evolution unfortunately. Previous generations had to accept this, now we have to as well. I hate to say it but probably our current level of health and healthcare isn’t sustainable without further advances thanks to antibiotic and antiviral resistance. We will need to change our approach going forward using things like bacteriophages, increased sanitation, healthier life styles, less cattle antibiotics, and new treatments to keep up.
Everything is beyond fucked man, I know, you’re probably preaching to the choir. Theres no reload, no save, no do over. Find happiness the best you can and pray you die before we turn from sideways to upside down.
That’s my plan at least.
the result of repeated cumulative reinfection damage from a still-poorly-understood virus that causes more and more damage to the vascular system and every organ connected to it
When I ask actual doctors, they disagree. Then we laugh about how anti-vax karen-convoy it sounds.
anyone with significant experience (even just as a patient) in the medical system can tell you doctors are not infallible. most medical professionals i’ve encountered in my area don’t even mask anymore and haven’t for about a year and some change now. of the ones that do, most are still just wearing surgical masks (useless)
surgical masks (useless)
This isn’t entirely true though. Yes they are far from perfect and yes they are worse than better masks, but they are still better than nothing and do actually reduce transmission.
you’re correct, i was being a touch hyperbolic. iirc it’s like 23-27% effective or some shit, maybe in the 30s (it’s been a while)
that said, a solid 70% of the doctors i see masking have it either under their nose or on their chin so
Are these the same doctors who insist on taking a wait and see approach to Paxlovid? If so, I’m not sure they should even be allowed to call themselves doctors.
The idea that reinfections would be benign was inspired by politics and vibes. There’s plenty of evidence that reinfections are bad. It’s a virus that can damage all our organs, brain included, cause micro clots, vascular damage, and harm the immune system itself by trashing our t-cells, and it’s a virus we can catch multiple times a year and is mutating so rapidly we are having trouble knowing what to target when we develop yearly vaccines.
It’s kind of a problem if reinfections are bad for us when we are counting on perpetual infections to “build our immunity”.
US dept. of Health and Human Services https://twitter.com/HHSGov/status/1659589815887712256
New Zealand government covid updates https://nitter.kavin.rocks/covid19nz/status/1670943608428539905#m
Another study showing cumulative risk upon reinfection https://nitter.kavin.rocks/i/status/1688769749868490752
None of this had to happen. We could have had a real quarantine, just a month or two back in 2019, but that would require making slightly less money for a brief period of time, so instead we get to live in eternal plague world.
Even if you could have gotten an entire country to agree that this was a good idea and pull it off, you still have other countries to worry about. Stopping it in one country wouldn’t have stopped it anywhere else.
Now, what I do agree with is that the response could’ve been a lot better, and many lives would’ve been saved as a result. But completely defeating COVID was always a fantasy.
Yearly boosters
HA!
I should be so lucky. My last booster was over a year ago, and there are no plans to introduce them for any but the oldest and youngest people in Britain.
Oh, man, the UK was an absolute disaster for getting vaccinated. In 2021 in my area there were literally crowds of young people at “walk-in” vaccination centres getting turned away and being told to wait for another 1-2 months. Meanwhile about 3 elderly patients were getting the shot per hour and the Guildhall looked empty besides.
My friends in other countries were vaccinated months before me. Ended up getting all my boosters outside the UK because they couldn’t give a fuck about anyone under 65.
they couldn’t give a fuck about anyone under 65.
Isn’t that just UK politicians in general ?
The problem is that the latest vaccines don’t contain the latest variant - they’re always going to be behind the curve because it takes time to develop them after a new variant emerges.
For example, here in NZ, we’re still giving people the bivalent mix designed for the omicron BA.4/BA.5 variant (and the ones before it) which is now about 2 years old and hasn’t been seen here for about 9 months.
There’s a non-zero level of protection from those vaccines, but they’re not keeping up with the virus in real time.
At this point probably everyone has had omicron or one of the later less harmful variants. The trend of becoming more transmissible and less harmful is normal for corona viruses. Im with most people in being apprehensive about getting additional boosters. Why do you feel there’s a real danger?
I am one of the lucky few that has never had it.
I never had a noticeable case of it either. I think I probably had an asymptomatic case
I thought this was pretty clever and funny, nicely done:)
It’s kinda taboo to name it after places now. No more Spanish, Hong Kong, Wuhan flu.
Another few months and we’ll have beaten it for 2024 too!
“it’s only for a few weeks! Flatten the curve!”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A new COVID-19 variant has emerged, serving as a reminder that the coronavirus continues to mutate and spread around the world, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations.
The World Health Organization (WHO) added EG.5 to its list of currently circulating variants that are under monitoring on July 19.
The latest data from the UK Health Security Agency suggests that EG.5 makes up approximately 14.6 per cent — or one in seven — of all COVID-19 cases in the U.K.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that EG.5 accounted for roughly 17.3 per cent — or one in six — of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. in the past two weeks.
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at University Health Network in Toronto, said he expects cases of EG.5 to pop up in Canada soon, if they aren’t already.
Some of the best defences against COVID-19 have been and continue to be masks, vaccination and good ventilation or air quality in indoor spaces, Bogoch stressed.
I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I am the only person, literally the ONLY person who wears a mask anymore. No one in the city, no one during grocery shopping or in schools and no one public transportation. I get looks but I already got covid once, due to my „skeptical“ parents and I don’t intend to get it again.
It warms my heart when I see someone still has the heart and the guts to wear a mask.
I had to visit the ER a few weeks ago. Aside from me, there were two or three other people in masks, and they were patients.
I just don’t understand it. Medical professionals should know better, but somehow don’t??
Similar story. I was in the ER today and most staff weren’t wearing masks, despite another patient just a few curtains down testing positive for Covid!
That’s the reason I don’t enter a hospital without my fit-tested N99.
There are so many vectors for infection that it is kinda silly to try. That being said I still wear mine as a matter of professional ethics.
There are so many vectors for infection that it is kinda silly to try.
This statement, in and of itself, is silly. That’s like giving up on washing your hands and sterilizing equipment because it’s just too much effort.
Unless you’re frequently digging for gold with unwashed hands, SARS-COV-2 transmission enormously favours the airborne vector.
Yes, and everyone around you all the time is going unmasked and raw dogging the world. Including members of your family. So you either have to give up all social contact, since even if you are good about masking your friends will want to go out and eat and drink in public. So you skip that or take an exposure. Even stuff like wearing s mask to the grocery store which, would be a good precaution, has a nonzero chance of leading to some altercation. It really is wild how hostile society is to what would be simple precautions. Ahh, I got caught by federation. I didn’t realize this was a Canada thread. Maybe you have it easier up there. Down here in America things are… stressful
I’m aware of the limitations I’m subjecting myself to, but I’d far rather live with them than live without smell, taste, clear lungs, or clear cognition.
In Canada, mask behaviours depend on the area. I think the larger cities are generally better in terms of people wearing masks and people leaving you alone for it.
I haven’t gotten any comments my small prairie town, but it’s an everyone-knows-someone-who-knows-you type of place. I think I’ve seen one other person wearing a mask in the past several months, but people generally know who I am, that I’m immunocompromised, and nobody says anything to me about it. That being said, I don’t really go out much and literally never go anywhere indoors without a fit tested N95 or better (with the one exception of my dentist, who still has a number of precautions in place).
But there’s a small city a half hour away where I’d legitimately fear being physically assaulted just for wearing a mask and minding my own business. It’s basically a 10 square mile slice of 'murica, rednecks and trumpsters included.
I had a security guard at a hospital give me a hard time about wearing a mask still. It’s doffrent down here
i only mask for drs offices, the dentist, and other high risk environments.
if i worked with the general public or lived/interacted with high risk individuals on the regular, i’d behave differently.
Make sure you get N95/KN95/KF94 masks, they are better than cloth or surgical masks. Personally I don’t wear a mask anymore except in doctor’s offices, although I did receive 4 doses of the vaccine and I think both myself and my family would almost definitely be okay if we did get it.
With that said, I also have a job where I work remotely 100% of the time so that probably helps too.
I feel this.
My immune system is shitty and terrible (suspected condition, but docs have no clue), so getting sick will cause a slew of awful things to happen to me. Last tiny sick bout I had a few months ago caused a chain reaction that landed me in the hospital. I was literally shitting blood due to a tiny infection! The specialist half-jokingly told me “Well, next time, just don’t get sick!” Ha. Ha ha. Ha.
I’ve only had a single person comment on me wearing a mask in 3 years, thank god. My response was “How about you mind your own fucking business?” Don’t wear a mask. Whatever. I won’t comment on it. But leave me the fuck alone if I choose the wear one. I’m not about to explain my medical history to some snide asshole. Fuck off. I like not suffering.
I personally haven’t given a shit about COVID for over a year now. I haven’t even gotten sick in that time. I’m not trying to attack your position here, but at what point is it considered paranoia? I remember seeing the death numbers fall in line with other stuff like the flu. At what point do we just return to normal?
I think a lot of it depends on your personal situation. For some immunocompromised people, the risk may be legitimately higher. And so in terms of it being “just like the flu”, I think it’s maybe more of a realization for people in those groups that it probably would have been a good idea to wear a mask in crowded public places before covid too, to protect against things like the flu. Masking has long been common in East Asia.
Not just personal, but work/community. We had a year at my work with just a handful of staff cases, then got smacked last April with about 25% of our staff all testing positive over a week or two, plus a few not-COVID sick calls. After about 5 cases in 2 days most people masked up again until the sick calls stopped.
Last I saw, Covid death rates were still almost double that of influenza. And that’s even with (generally) higher vaccination rates for covid over the flu.
I still mask up. I get “you know, you don’t have to wear that any more” concern trolling from
and 
and 
alike sometimes.I only wear masks when I’m the one who’s sick so I don’t infect everyone else. And maybe at the hospital or clinic since I’ll be in the same room as other sick people or because I’m the one who’s sick.
Otherwise, unless you’re immuno compromised, I don’t see the point and wearing a mask all the time might be too much.
Yes. I work in a hospital and people tend not to bother anymore among the staff.
You do you, and don’t let anyone get you down. There’s something to be said about masking on the subway or whatever, I wouldn’t hate on anyone for that. I personally haven’t worn a mask for awhile, but anyone who freaks out about it, is just plain stupid.
No indicator on severity of this strain in the article
This is my issue with the article.
Headline: Here’s what we know about EG.5 so far
Body: Apparently not much. We uhh, know the name of it? Severity, how contagious it may be, symptoms, breakthrough rate…like umm, anything??
sick right now in Ireland (can’t be sure but we’re exploding with this variant)
for me, fatigue, stuffed & runny nose which is making me cough. on day 1 I had a headache but only for that day. I had a fever for about 6 hours. sneezing, gastro fun.
Wife has a dry cough. she had a wicked fever with chills. also gastro fun, which is fun for me by proxy.
Sick right now in Florida, my symptoms pretty closely match yours. Killer headache, scratchy throat, congestion, and fatigue.
It started with being tired on Saturday, and the full brunt hit Monday. Feeling a bit better today. I didnt get much gastro stuff fortunately
Geez that sounds pretty rough- I hope you’re able to get out of Florida asap.Good luck w/ the covid, also. I kid, I kid.
How’s it going? I was essentially symptom free day 5, and today, day 6, if I popped into existence with no memory right now and sometone asked me if I was sick I’d say “nope”, although I’m taking it extra easy because I understand pushing yourself through the accute infection is highly correlated with long-haul symptoms (mailnly persistant fatigue)
Yeah pretty much same! Today I woke up a bit meh, but slept a few hours and woke up like it never happened. I’d say 2 days of lead up, two days of full blown illness, and then more or less fine. A bit of drainage.
I’m in a musical right now and we open tonight, so the timing couldn’t have been better. Unfortunately, I’m stuck in Florida for a bit. Trying to do my part to de-shitify it but it’s an uphill battle.
I hear you.
I know you didn’t ask, but I’m not sure it’s safe to go singing in an enclosed space. The 5 day self isolation is for economics, not health. If you knew you were getting other people sick who would get other people sick, would you still do it? No need to answer me, I was just kind of wide-eyed when you said you were going to go be in a musical 5-6 days after you first got sick.
No that’s valid and I’m with you 100%. I raised these concerns to the people actually putting up the show and they apparently aren’t in a position to be able to cancel or postpone.
I’m taking all the precautions I can to avoid spreading it. Double mask the entire time and isolating myself when not on stage. But I agree with your point. Best would be to not do it at all. But I can’t very well just refuse to do it, a lot of people worked really hard and spent money to put this up, and if they want to go ahead with it after I’ve tested and informed everyone, then so be it.
That’s because we literally don’t know much. EG.5 has only had 183 sequences submitted to GISAID, and EG.5.1 has had 3400 sequences submitted. This means we only have about 3600 cases confirmed as EG.5, but it’s growth rate since May is crazy fast. 10% of sequences submitted to GISAID by the end of July were for EG.5, compared to 0.02% in May.
Part of the problem is that people have stopped going to the doctor when they can just do a COVID test at home, so we are less able to track individual strains and calculate things like transmission rates. When’s the last time you heard the phrase “contact tracing”?
Source: https://GISAID.org/lineage-comparison and also I work in COVID monitoring.
Presumably as a descendent of omicron… It is probably easier to catch and less serious. But you’d think they’d address it…
“I don’t know that it’s time to worry about this (EG.5) just yet. We know very little about this new variant. There’s currently no evidence to suggest that it causes more severe illness. And the CDC is indicating that it does appear to be susceptible to COVID vaccines, which is good news.”
From an AMA gathering on July 26, (speaker is Andrea Garcia, JD, MPH, vice president, science, medicine & public health, American Medical Association)
Less serious than what? If my aged brain remembers correctly, Omicron severity is comparable to the original strain, only making it less serious than Delta. As I understand it, the primary factor in reduced severity was that vaccines were available and most people got the vaccine.
Other articles has said it’s nothing special. Not any deadlier.
Huh. I did notice a sudden wave of infections, including me. I wonder…
Covid cases are rising everywhere right now, stay safe out there lemmings!
Well that’s concerning
Is it though? It’s an omicron subvariant that doesn’t seem to be any worse that its predecessors and the annual booster update is likely to get authorized in a few weeks.
This is the new normal. Covid mutates like flu, and each year will have covid and flu shots in the fall.
Long covid implications are worrisome, multiple reinfections are one of the few things we know are not good
Thanks for being the only voice of reason. Everyone else is just like “ya but we don’t die so who gives a fuck” attitude.
I’m glad some people are still looking at COVID as a whole.
I mean you need only look at the people in your daily life to realize there aren’t many people who care anymore. Simple things like wearing a mask are off the table for the vast majority.
I think a lot of us are, I just feel folks who are thinking big-picture aren’t the type to make a lot of noise on the internet about it, ya know?
Agreed. I guess I’m saying is that it’s no more concerning that what is currently floating around. It’s what most epidemiologists expected to happen.
I vaguely remember reading that long COVID is really chronic fatigue syndrome or similar. Basically it can happen after any infection. Doctors haven’t been able to figure out what causes it largely because there hasn’t been enough data. It’s not until COVID came along that they’re taking it seriously.
Not sure if that’s more or less reassuring though. I guess personally I find it reassuring that it’s likely not something COVID specific.
It isn’t, really. Barely newsworthy, but it’s something.
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Canadians are, more than ever before, influenced by American media and social media and that includes the dogmatic and polarizing rightwing anti-science narratives rooted in conspiracy theories and anti-intellectualism. We’re being absorbed into the American weltanschauung since the advent of the Internet and our culture diluted. You can see it in our politics.
Is weltanschauung actually a word you Canadians use?
I want to say yes, but it’s the first time I’ve heard of it, and my vocabulary’s not bad :P. Kudos to @NathanielThomas for sharing it! I think the only German loanword I know is schadenfreude
Yeah I dunno. It’s gross. I found one at work unfortunately. He started going off on 15-minute cities and I’m just like, “Dude, you’re telling me an insane misinterpretation of the concept. I’ve heard it. I like you, but stop with this shit. I’m just trying to work.”
So this is the first time I’ve heard of the 15 minute city concept, especially as a bad thing. I live on a farm but if I wanted to move to the city… 15 minutes to everything sounds great. Isn’t that sort of convenience kind of the whole point of a city?
My ex lives in Moose Jaw and that’s a pretty good description of it, it’s 15 minutes drive from edge to edge and it’s honestly a really nice little city. No traffic jams and you can also walk or bike most places you want to go, as long as the weather permits.
The idea is that you’d be able to walk or bike to all your necessities - Doctor, Grocery Store, etc etc - within 15, reducing the need for cars.
A 15-minute city would describe a neighbourhood in a larger city, really.
They’ve somehow turned that in to “you will not be allowed to leave your 15-minute city”
The counter argument is simply “who profits from you believing that?” I got a couple people to drop it by turning the conspiracy theory around on them.
I got a couple people to drop it by turning the conspiracy theory around on them.
Generally this is the only tactic that works against brain worms
The thing is, I believe it. I have to no proof, but 15-minute cities would totally cut in to oil and car manufacturers profits and they’ve been known to do that kind of thing before. 🤷🏻♂️
That’s an intriguing point. Before the car, city living was nearly unheard of.
Isn’t that sort of convenience kind of the whole point of a city?
That’s the point of a small town.
The point of big cities is to concentrate capital so that a few people can become exceedingly wealthy.
“We don’t have the funding that the US government does… How exactly do you propose Canada will fund the creation of 15 minute cities?”
Are you quoting someone else or asking me?
Canadian cities only have to zone stuff appropriately and provide infrastructure. It’s not that wild of a concept.
Lead poisoning with the boomers and christofacists funding the Conservatives up here. Keep them dumb so they can further attack healthcare and other Canadian values so they can turn us into Americans.
I dunno if we need to worry in Canada. There’s been almost no deaths al associated with COVID in a while now. Worst case, people get hospitalised but that’s it. We’ve built a pretty good social immunity thanks to vaccination.
It’s the other countries who don’t have our resources that are more at risk. We need to send them vaccines so the can immunize themselves properly.
I mean there’s plenty to worry about besides death. I don’t understand why people discount all the other potentially life altering effects of COVID.
Ah yes, you’re right. There are potential lifetime effects to COVID. I forgot about those. A couple of friends of mine have been permanently affected with various problems like asthma since catching it.
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You know I really wish I hadn’t caught COVID at some point and lost the ability to sleep properly at some point.
That sucks :( What happened?
Welcome to long covid, where your body has adrenaline attacks at random points in the middle of the night.
Not downplaying what you’re going through but that sounds like anxiety attacks. But I’m no doctor so what do I know.
That’s so weird though. Did you get any kind of diagnosis from a doctor? Have you tried any medication?
Long COVID. It’s one of the neurological problems left over.
Long term symptoms aren’t rare. It’s at least on in ten people.
1.4 of 38-odd million is absolutely not rare, it’s nearly 1 in 50. The US figures are even worse. For something to be considered medically rare, it needs to be at most 1 in 10,000.
EG.5 -> G.5 -> 5G
YOU KNOW WHAT CAUSED THIS!!!Primes
1,2,3,5
E + 3 = H
G+ 5 = L
5 -2 = 3
Half Life 3 confirmed.
Hahaha!
Good one!
Who the fuck is in charge of naming these?
This last one was named after a famous battle Droid
(But really the new strains seen are given greco alpha numeric names. There are a bunch of strains that get named that we don’t hear about because they Peter out.)
It takes more than fast servomotors and bad programming to kill a Jedi.
Look up pangolin COVID naming.
Pandemics over, actually
LoL
That’s true, it is, but you need to check your definitions. A pandemic is an emergency when something dangerous and new spreads rapidly, threatening to overwhelm health care systems. Now that we have vaccines, treatments, and are working on health care capacity, the emergency is over.
That doesn’t mean the danger has passed or that our “death from disease” rate has fallen to pre-COVID levels. In fact, it looks like the new normal will be to have about twice as many COVID deaths each year as flu deaths. All of those COVID deaths are new deaths that would not have occurred in the absence of COVID.
That death rate will continue until the vulnerable populations have been nearly wiped out, forever changing our demographics and life expectancy. By that time, we’ll start seeing whether long COVID is as disastrous as it looks like it might be. If it goes the way many reasonable people think, we’ll still need all the long term care programs that aren’t being used by the elderly and infirm who got wiped out by the immediate effects of COVID infection, because we’ll have a new class of infirmity requiring care.
On the plus side, all those 50- and 60-year old people forced out of the workforce will open up a lot of good jobs and promotions for the youth. On the downside, it’ll still be demographically difficult, with too many in care, not enough working.
So, yeah, pandemic is over, but the endemic isn’t going to be all that much fun for millions of people.
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It’s 2023 I stopped caring after a year of BS
Don’t worry. CoViD still cares about. And if you don’t care about yourself, CoViD will use you to go meet your friends.
Sorry you’re bored of responsibility.
How does following every protocol and mandate make me not responsible?
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Okay when are we gonna be done with omicron? We got alpha, delta, then we hit omicron and just stopped, now we just get omicron v2 and omicron v3. We need some new ideas, when are we gonna get the xi variant?
Someone get the marketing team on this. We need fresh new ideas!
Can we go back to naming them after countries? I was looking forward to the Micronesia variant
