Omicron Rising Everywhere Including Florida
The Omicron variant of SARS-Cov-2 is highly transmissible with a doubling time of near 2 days. It has now spread into over 100 countries globally and is spreading rapidly throughout all 50 states in the US. 1M Floridians and 10M Americans could be infected before the end of January. Luckily Omicron appears to be less virulent than the Delta variant, but more importantly, it is arriving at a time when the developed world is well vaccinated. This means that the majority of cases will affect 3 different groups: 1. unvaccinated who are mostly young and who are less susceptible to hospitalizations and deaths (as in South Africa) 2. vaccinated folks who while susceptible to infections are still well protected against serious illness by 2 doses and sometimes 3 doses (as in Denmark). Breakthrough probability is much higher with the Omicron than the Delta 3. reinfections of middle-aged adults who have survived