The omicron variant is here in Maine, and the record of what it’s done elsewhere should give everyone pause.
It appears that the new strain is much more contagious than previous versions of the virus, even more contagious than the highly transmissible delta variant that swept through the state this fall.
Dr. James Gallea, director of the Emergency Department at Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway, speaks with a patient on Dec. 9. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer
It’s encouraging to hear from other parts of the world that omicron may cause fewer cases of serious illness, but that is nothing to celebrate if it infects many more people.
Almost two years into a pandemic, we should know how the numbers work. More cases lead to more hospitalizations and, eventually, more deaths. The only way to prevent the most serious outcomes is to keep the number of cases as low as possible with vaccines, facial coverings and good public health hygiene.
Even before omicron’s arrival, Maine and its neighboring states had become a national COVID hotspot. We are still averaging about 1,000 new cases a day, which is probably an undercount since testing is hard to come by.
History tells us that about 2 percent of the people who catch COVID are sick enough to be hospitalized, and about 1 percent of them will die. So, just one week of 1,000 new cases a day adds up to 140 Mainers fighting for their lives and 70 more deaths. How many more weeks like that can we stand?
The chilling connection among cases, hospitalizations and deaths should be on everyone’s mind as we head into what for many will be an extended holiday weekend.
As Dr. Nirav Shah, director of Maine’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday, people who are fully vaccinated, who make up 75 percent of the state’s population, can gather with each other relatively safely.
But people who are unvaccinated, including children under the age of 5, are at a high risk of catching the virus and spreading it to others. As Shah pointed out on Wednesday, you may be willing to take the risk, but what about your coworkers? What about your grandmother?
“This is where the concept of ‘community’ matters,” he said.
It’s important to remember that most of this illness can be prevented with free vaccines that provide significant protection against omicron. According to the U.S. CDC, you are five times less likely to be infected if you are fully vaccinated and 11 times less likely to die. In a column in The Washington Post, Leana S. Wen, a professor of health policy at George Washington University, writes that the greatest risk for the fully vaccinated is passing the virus on to others who are at higher risk – and that can be managed with regular use of rapid tests that are going to be made available through the federal government.
We may be sick of COVID, but it is not sick of us yet, and we are going to have to keep taking it seriously if we are going to avoid more deaths.
We can celebrate the holidays this year, as long as we don’t prematurely celebrate the pandemic’s end.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
