Since day one, COVID has been a moving target for political leaders, weighing lockdowns and closures and mask rules and vax mandates, adding or dropping restrictions. The medical consensus dribbles out at a frustratingly anemic pace, with scientists’ preternatural tendency towards equivocation and caution matched only by the overwhelming demand to take decisive and immediate action to protect both public health and welfare, which aren’t always the exact same thing.

Here we find ourselves again, with a host of both concerning and promising data around the omicron variant of the virus, which has quickly become the dominant iteration. Among the good is early signs that omicron causes less severe illness than earlier strains. Among the bad is that we know this due to the lack of a hospitalization surge after it flamed through the United Kingdom and South Africa at breakneck pace, breaching the protections offered by full vaccination or prior infection.

Good — getting a booster dose appears to effectively protect against transmission. Bad — there are numerous U.S. states where only half or even less than half the population is fully vaccinated, and while omicron has swept across this state in a New York minute, we have a more protected population. In all likelihood, under-vaxed states will get pummeled far harder, and a lower rate of hospitalization starts to cancel out with a much higher rate of transmission.

All in all, the best we can say is we’re guardedly hopeful, and we will have to, as always, follow the science. That might mean deciding to roll back unnecessary restrictions just as it might mean snapping them back into place if the numbers go south.

— Tribune News Service