Add onto the fact that at this point, everyone has already been infected with (a much weaker version of) COVID and consequently the natural immunity drops the already near-zero IFR even lower.
Omicron's illness severity is much lower than Alpha and Delta. Omicron is also more transmissible than both of those variants. It's actually the same mutation that causes both of these effects. The mutation that created Omicron made it better able to infect tissue in the upper respiratory system, like the nose and throat. As it became more attuned to those tissues, it became less able to infect lung tissue.
So, because it mainly stayed in the upper respiratory tract, it spread very easily, but it didn't kill as often, because upper respiratory infections only really become fatal if they spread to the lungs and do serious damage there.
That's what I thought. But since no one has cared for Covid for about a year, I've never bothered to look into the matter. When last I checked, which was a year ago, there was still doubt about whether Omicron was more, equally or less deadly than the Alpha variant.
It is convergent evolution towards the common cold.
The cold is also a corona virus, and it has a strategy of being highly transmissible and mutating quickly, so as to be able to dodge the immune response and re-infect individuals.
The common cold also stimulates mucus production and sneezing, so as to further spread itself. The patients sneeze infected mucus everywhere for a day or a week, then they are fine.
Add onto the fact that at this point, everyone has already been infected with (a much weaker version of) COVID and consequently the natural immunity drops the already near-zero IFR even lower.
Is Omicron weaker than the Alpha variant, or just weaker than Delta?
Weaker than both and Omicron was since the beginning of last year, so we're 2-3 variants removed from it by now.
Omicron's illness severity is much lower than Alpha and Delta. Omicron is also more transmissible than both of those variants. It's actually the same mutation that causes both of these effects. The mutation that created Omicron made it better able to infect tissue in the upper respiratory system, like the nose and throat. As it became more attuned to those tissues, it became less able to infect lung tissue.
So, because it mainly stayed in the upper respiratory tract, it spread very easily, but it didn't kill as often, because upper respiratory infections only really become fatal if they spread to the lungs and do serious damage there.
That's what I thought. But since no one has cared for Covid for about a year, I've never bothered to look into the matter. When last I checked, which was a year ago, there was still doubt about whether Omicron was more, equally or less deadly than the Alpha variant.
It is convergent evolution towards the common cold.
The cold is also a corona virus, and it has a strategy of being highly transmissible and mutating quickly, so as to be able to dodge the immune response and re-infect individuals.
The common cold also stimulates mucus production and sneezing, so as to further spread itself. The patients sneeze infected mucus everywhere for a day or a week, then they are fine.
It is a highly successful strategy.