Some rather alarming headlines recently circulated about the newest members of the omicron family. “Nightmare COVID variant,” read one. “The most immune-evasive COVID variants yet.” Or, as one would-be pandemic influencer said in a tweet shared thousands of times: “MOTHER OF GOD… #COVID variants worse than CDC has been admitting.”
Apparently, it’s spooky season for COVID variants.
Or not. These fear-mongering headlines and viral all-caps tweets are counterproductive. They confuse and mislead the public about the dangers of the new omicron descendants. Worse, they potentially undermine a critical message: COVID vaccines still provide good protection against all of these variants.
