Omicron is everywhere. Here’s what to do.
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 December 2021
⏱️ ? minutes
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Summary
Seemingly overnight, the pandemic has changed — again. On today’s Post Reports, everything you need to know about the omicron variant — and whether you should still plan to travel for the holidays.
Read more:
Over the weekend, health reporter Dan Diamond wrote a Facebook post that changed the way we’re thinking about the omicron variant.
“Every expert I’ve interviewed, including some of the nation’s top health officials, has adjusted his or her mindset and now is mentally bracing to test positive after spending two years dodging this virus,” Dan wrote.
Today on Post Reports, we tell you everything we can about the omicron surge – and we talk to health reporter Fenit Nirappil about whether and how to travel and gather safely for the holidays.
Transcript
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| 0:52.0 | And thank you. |
| 0:57.0 | Like so many of us, Health Reporter Dan Diamond spent this past weekend talking about Omicron. |
| 1:03.0 | Also known as Omicron, he was talking to friends and family who were asking him for advice about all these new cases popping up. |
| 1:11.0 | And he was talking to public health officials, asking them how we're supposed to think about this latest stage of the pandemic. |
| 1:18.0 | Experts who have spent two years taking every step they could to avoid COVID. |
| 1:25.0 | When I have been on the phone with them the past couple days, I have asked almost all of them, do you think you're going to get Omicron? |
| 1:33.0 | And everyone I have talked to has said, I have shifted my mindset, I am bracing, if not expecting to get infected because this is so transmissible and it evades the vaccine protection. |
| 1:46.0 | Oh my gosh. |
| 1:47.0 | What was your reaction to hearing that? Hearing all these public health officials say, you know, I'm, I think that's very likely that I will personally be getting Omicron at some point soon. |
| 1:58.0 | Well, it's a bummer. |
| 1:59.0 | I had a source who's worked in the government on these issues you texted me on Friday as things were shutting down and said, this is the most depressing day of the pandemic. |
| 2:10.0 | Just because so much hope had been tied to vaccines and boosters will let things go back to normal. |
| 2:18.0 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. I'm routine powers. It's Monday, December 20th. |
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