Big time, (at least in the UK, not so much in the US)

Cases down, but not necessarily infections

Confirmed government case data is missing thousands of LFT results, leading to massive under-reporting.

This subtle but important change in behaviour, highlights the importance of having multiple methods to track COVID in the population,

We saw a similar rebound and second peak during the Delta wave as people relaxed more and children went back to school.

https://www.icnarc.org/Our-Audit/Audits

https://www.icnarc.org/our-audit/audi...

CDC data

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/w...

Three dose protection against omicron

ED and urgent care encounters, 82% compared to unvaccinated

Covid associated hospital admission, 90%

Tim Spector

   • Omicron's second peak: how high will ...  

Reinfection

7 to 8 % of cases had delta or alpha

Association Between 3 Doses of mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine and Symptomatic Infection Caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron and Delta Variants (21 Jan 2022 JAMA)

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama...

Prior receipt of 3 mRNA vaccine doses was reported for 18.6% (n = 2441) of Omicron cases,

approaching 200,000 new cases a day,

hospitalisations, ICU cases and deaths are still coming down,

as Omicron is less severe in a vaccinated population.

It seems many are, again, preempting the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s much too early for this.

High case rates will likely be with us until late spring before the warmer weather and the summer holidays help reduce infections again.

and shows the power of the citizen scientists that log with ZOE every day.

https://covid.joinzoe.com/post/uk-bac...

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/detai...

Northern

I am a retired RN. Over the last several weeks I have had many friends and family come down with Covid, including myself.

We all weathered it fine except for one, 61 y/o female relative.

She developed pneumonia and ended up in hospital for 3 days.

Thankfully, she is home now with oxygen PRN.

But....she is the only one who is morbidly obese, type 2 diabetic with poorly controlled blood sugar.

To me, that says a lot about risk.

Pitchfork

As a kid in grade school in Boston during the 1970s and 1980s, I remember that there were always about 3 or 4 kids who had weight problems in my class.

When I was a substitute teacher from about 2000-2008, more than half of the students in any given class had weight problems.

This problem has been trending in the wrong direction for decades in the US.

Exacerbated by cheap, unhealthy fast food, and sedentary lifestyles.