Too Early to Say Omicron Is ‘Mild’

William Hanage: “Time and again throughout this pandemic, TV talking heads, politicians and many others have gotten tripped up on the simple and immutable fact that hospitalizations lag infection. It can take weeks for an infection to progress to the point where the patient needs to be hospitalized. Omicron burst onto the scene only four weeks ago. Not enough time has passed for us to have a firm grip on disease severity.”

“Again that’s because of math: When a variant spreads extremely rapidly, as omicron seems to do, it can send false signals of reassurance on disease severity.”