Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore

 Balmer Sun, Maryland reports first three cases of omicron variant, all from Baltimore area

Maryland health officials announced Friday the detection of the first three cases of the COVID-19 omicron variant, all in the Baltimore area.

Officials said two of the individuals live in the same household, and one recently traveled to South Africa, where the troubling new variant was first detected. The third individual was described as an “unrelated case” with no known recent travel history.

Two of the three people who tested positive are vaccinated against COVID-19, state health officials said: the person who traveled and the third individual. The traveler’s close contact is not vaccinated. None have required hospitalization, officials said.

It was not clear when, exactly, the three cases were detected, but the first cases of omicron in the U.S. were logged on Wednesday.

The state has been bracing for the variant’s arrival, and Gov. Larry Hogan announced Wednesday that the health department will bolster efforts to sequence samples from positive coronavirus cases to detect for omicron and other variants. The state also sent rapid coronavirus tests to the international terminal at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, which sees 7,000 international travelers each week.

It’s been labeled as a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization because it has caused a spike in cases in some areas, and researchers are now working to determine if it is more contagious and deadly than earlier strains. They are also working to learn whether the variant’s mutations affect how sick it makes people, how quickly it spreads and how well vaccines work against it.

Christopher Thompson, immunologist and associate professor in the department of biology at Loyola University Maryland, said early data shows that omicron is “significantly more” transmissible than earlier variants. But infections may not be as severe, he said.

“It’s certainly a cause for concern, but not a ‘variant of panic,’” said Thompson. “We’ve seen mostly all mild infections; but we don’t know if that’s going to be the rule or the majority. We don’t know how this will affect immunocompromised individuals, or children, or the elderly. We still need to be really careful about this.”

Public health officials and experts across Maryland also urged the public to stay vigilant against the new variant.

The good news is that the omicron variant seems on track with normal viral evolution, more transmissible, which is favored in populations partially protected by previous cases and/or vaccines, and less virulent (a lousy word for causing less serious disease), WHO has recorded Omicron in 38 nations to date with zero deaths. It's disadvantageous for a virus to disable its host. I expect that to change at some point, but it seems likely that Omicron will serve largely to bring us closer to "herd" immunity. Meanwhile AllahPundit at Haut Hair is doing his level best to continue to gin up fear, "Seriously worried": Is Omicron outcompeting Delta?