Dreaming of a COVID Christmas: Lockdowns & Restrictions as Omicron Spreads

Concern over omicron has led to new lockdowns and travel restrictions. The NHL suspended their season through Sunday.

Summary

“Amid the rapid, global spread” of the (far less deadly) omicron variant, nations are implementing new travel restrictions, including Israel which is not allowing citizens to travel to the United States, Canada, and eight other countries.

• New Zealand is delaying reopening the country to foreigners, citing omicron. 
• Thailand is reimposing a mandatory quarantine for foreigners visiting the country. 
• South Korea, the Netherlands, Germany, and Ireland will be reimplementing some form of lockdowns or mandatory mitigation measures in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus’ omicron variant. 
• In the United States, the National Hockey League suspended the season through at least Sunday, citing rising number of positive tests among players, with a reported 15% of the NHL’s players “in virus protocol.” 
• President Biden is set to address the nation today, and will announce the availability of at-home testing kits.
• The CDC announced omicron comprises nearly 75% of new COVID-19 cases.

• Vox interviewed a half dozen epidemiologists to get their take on how to handle the holidays given omicron’s spread. Hidden inside parentheses is the admission that “different levels of risk tolerance and susceptibility”, such as a young healthy person compared to an older immunocompromised individual, factors in to how to approach the situation.* 
• The Atlantic published an essay from Brown University’s Dr. Ashish Jha who cautioned against both panic and indifference, saying the maximalist lockdown measures are as unhelpful as those who pretend there isn’t still risks. 
• The New York Times highlighted the different strategies in combatting COVID-19 among European nations, focusing on France’s decision to eschew any social restrictions and emphasize vaccinations.

• OAN reported on Biden’s Tuesday address, calling it “an attack on the unvaccinated” and quoting Sarah Isgur of The Dispatch saying Biden’s vaccine mandates are “starting to hurt him politically.” 
• The Daily Caller focused on an interview the Chair of the South African Medical Association gave CNN in which she said they are “over the curve” and omicron is already receding in the country it was first detected. 
• Breitbart highlighted a coronavirus outbreak on a cruise ship in Miami, reporting the ship’s vaccination rate was 95% upon sailing and 98% of those who have tested positive were vaccinated and “were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms”.

Author’s Take

*The fact that the “common sense” approach to keeping oneself safe is couched in a single sentence as a throwaway line indicates the bubble in which those writing the piece reside. Even with the alarmist threats over omicron’s spread, the country has largely moved on, with some admissions that a large swath of America never bothered with the maximalist lockdown measures in the first place.

It’s not that no one should take COVID-19 seriously. It’s that the public health industrial complex and their collaborators in the mainstream media continue to move the goal posts, shriek at the top of their lungs, and say the sky is falling at the faintest evidence of a new variant or waning vaccination efficacy. The media does it for ratings while the public health industrial complex is trying to hold on to the last vestiges of power they were given (for the first time in their existence) at the beginning of the pandemic.

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© Dallas Gerber, 2021