Quote of the Day

As disheartening as it is to hear about a new coronavirus variant, we should not be surprised. New variants continue until infection levels are driven into the ground. Each variant represents a number of random errors in the reproduction of the RNA of the virus – a small “misspelling” in its genetic code. The more times it reproduces, the more chances there are for the next misspelling. Worried about Omicron? I’m worried about Rho, Sigma, Tau – and so forth. It doesn’t end here unless we change the odds in our favor. If 30% of the population continues to refuse to help do that, we will run out of Greek letters. What alphabet shall we all learn next?

To not vaccinate is to refuse to fight in the battle of our times. Three times more Americans die of COVID-19 every week than died on 9/11. Hospitals are full of people who thought that they woulndn’t get sick or it wouldn’t be a big deal. Each of them likely infected someone else along the way before the first symptom.

It is a big deal. Our species is under attack. We don't know who or how many will survive. Fight back. Vaccinate.

– Renae Gage
via Facebook
November 28, 2021

Related Off-site Links:
Everything to Know About the Latest Coronavirus Strain – Adrianna Rodriguez (USA Today, November 29, 2021).
How Worried Should We Be About Omicron, the New Coronavirus Variant? – Katia Hetter (CNN News, November 30, 2021).
Omicron Variant Was Detected in the Netherlands Before South Africa Flights – Reuters (November 30, 2021).
Could the Omicron Variant Have Been Avoided? It Could Set Back Vaccine Successes Around the World – Meru Sheel (The Guardian, November 28, 2021).

UPDATES: First U.S. Omicron Case Confirmed as WHO Chief Decries Failure to Share Vaccines Globally – Andrea Germanos (Common Dreams, December 1, 2021).
Omicron Variant Surfaces in Minnesota – Brian Bakst (MPR News, December 2, 2021).
From AIDS to Omicron, Pharmaceutical Apartheid Hurts Us All – Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan (Democracy Now! via Common Dreams, December 2, 2021).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• COVID Observations From a General Surgeon
• Richard LaFortune: Quote of the Day – August 20, 2021
• Something to Lament
• A Pandemic Year
• Out and About – Spring 2020
• A Prayer in Times of a Pandemic
• The Calm Before the Storm
• Hope and Beauty in the Midst of the Global Coronavirus Pandemic
• Marianne Williamson: In the Midst of This “Heartbreaking” Pandemic, It’s Okay to Be Heartbroken
• Sonya Renee Taylor: Quote of the Day – April 18, 2020
• Examining the Link Between Destruction of Biodiversity and Emerging Infectious Diseases
• The Lancet Weighs-in on the Trump Administration's “Incoherent” Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic
• Memes of the Times

Image: A newspaper poster in Pretoria, South Africa, with the news of the Omicron coronavirus variant. (Photograph: Denis Farrell/AP)