Here's a good NYT Omicron article but probably paywalled

[Tomconroy]

New Virus Variant Stokes Concern but Vaccines Still Likely to Work https://nyti.ms/3reNkK4

[RandySF]

1. I predict an annual COVID vaccine like we have for the flu.

[Tomconroy]

2. Very likely. Covid mutates like the flu. It's not like measles or

small pox.

[greenjar_01]

3. If we monitored flu like we monitor COVID we'd never get anything done

Imagine if you knew every flu variant since you were a kid - that they were front page news that tanked the markets, and you'll get a sense of how ridiculous the current discourse is on COVID.

[Tomconroy]

4. Yes. There were people on a thread yesterday that were comparing Covid to small pox and measles.

They really knew very little about the subject after all this time.

[greenjar_01]

5. Your unwavering COVID optimism

Is almost as tiresome as their unwavering COVID pessimism. You've all gone full Lysenko, just from different political positions.

[Tomconroy]

7. I am an optimist by nature. Try it. You'll find it's a far better

way to go through life!
And the Covid fear porn will give you a chuckle. Been to a football game this fall?

[greenjar_01]

9. I'm not really inclined to interact with you

to be honest.

[Tomconroy]

11. Odd that you keep doing it. But we're good. Ha!

[Demsrule86]

6. I posted as much as is allowed and tried to post what I consider the most important information.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/26/health/omicron-variant-vaccines.html

"...That overlap has Dr. Hatziioannou concerned that Omicron will be able to evade some of the antibodies that people have acquired either from vaccines or from Covid-19 infections. Some monoclonal antibody treatments won’t work against Omicron either, she predicted, because the variant’s spike protein is protected from them.

Still, vaccines are expected to provide some protection against Omicron because they stimulate not only antibodies but immune cells that can attack infected cells, Dr. Hatziioannou said. Mutations to the spike protein do not blunt that immune-cell response.

And booster shots could potentially broaden the range of antibodies people make, enabling them to fight against new variants like Omicron. “We will see, because these studies are only now ongoing,” she said.

For now, there’s no evidence that Omicron causes more severe disease than previous variants. And it’s also not clear yet how quickly Omicron can spread from person to person..."

[Tomconroy]

8. I don't know anything but I think that bit about immune cells

Is kind of important.

[Cicada]

10. I subscribe to nyt but clear history beats paywall

I decided the bother of clearing history wasn’t worth saving the subscription fee for Wash Post and NYT. I go to both at least daily.