HERE IS SOME VERY VERY GOOD NEWS FOR THE ELDERLY.  From the  New York Times  this morning: Before Omicron, a typical vaccinated 75-year-old who contracted  Covid had a roughly similar risk of death — around 1 in 200  — as a typical 75-year-old who contracted the flu. ( Here  are the details   behind that calculation, which is based on  an academic study.) Omicron has changed the calculation. Because it is milder  than earlier versions of the virus,  Covid now appears to  present less threat to most vaccinated elderly people than the  annual flu does . Let me repeat:  SENIORS WHO ARE FULLY VACCINATED AND BOOSTED, IF YOU GET INFECTED WITH THE CURRENT COVID-19 DISEASE, YOUR MORTALITY RATE WILL BE  LESS  THAN THE ANNUAL FLU.  I'm exaggerating here, but perhaps if you get all the necessary shots, and are so unlucky as to get infected by the Omicron variant ( which is now by far the dominant strain around the world ), this will be like just catching the common cold!!!  An important facto

W hile it is foolish to prematurely be overly optimistic, early signs show that  Omicron might be more infectious than Delta, but not as deadly .  However, while vaccines still work, they seem not to be as effective.  Yet, they clearly reduce the  incidence of hospitalization and death.  For one, those who are infected with Omicron apparently experience a lower incidence of taste/smell loss.  What seems possible then is that Omicron will shortly replace Delta as the prominent variant, and cases might still continue to increase.  However the mortality rate should drop. Delta was 64% more deadly than the original and earlier variants, and caused  double the risk of hospitalization compared to Alpha .  In general: The COVID-19 mortality rate for the World is 2%. U.S.  1.78% India  1.3% Russia  2.86% South Africa  2.96% Japan  1.06% China  4.7% Further: There is no consensus on the asymptomatic rate, or what percentage of those counted as cases were asymptomatic.  Thus, if there were 50% m