Preliminary data indicate that the new omicron COVID-19 variant is apparently highly contagious, doubling infections every two days or so. In addition, early U.S. data find that the virus variant can cause breakthrough infections in people who have received two and even a third booster dose of current COVID-19 vaccines. The good news from a new South African study is that while two shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine provide 33 percent protection against infection from the omicron variant, the inoculation offers 70 percent protection against being hospitalized from it.
After all, what’s the worst that could happen?
