Omicron No-Sells the vax but it's effects are also supposedly weaker than anticipated:
https://archive.md/dmgj1
So that makes Delta, Delta + (anyone still remember that one?) and Omicron for "Covid Variants That Shrug Off Vaccination". Delta is still touted as disastrous but Omicron isn't being regarded as a plague...by certain countries, anyway. What's most noteworthy is the ever growing mentions of Pfizer's antiviral Paxlovid and it's 89% success rate against hospitalization and death, the very things which are supposedly the highest selling point of the Covid vaccines and their mad mandates.
Note: The antiviral does not prevent infection or transmission because it is an antiviral. It's meant to treat your illness and help you naturally overcome the effects of the virus. Transmission/infection prevention is not it's job. That's what vaccines work to do--other vaccines, that is. Because the Covid vaccines don't. EDIT: Not that it stops them from saying vaccination is still our one true hope:
[EDIT: If Null came back to the States he'd need to test negative the day prior to departure, according to the President]
But even here, again, we see the antiviral treatment drugs being slipped a mention. Also remember that Pfizer is willing to let other countries and companies work with their antiviral's formula to help people even in poorer nations. They've kept tight lipped about their vax, though, from what I read (See OP).
I wonder if this is a hint of things to come, perhaps even a pivot away from the madness engulfing the world for the last two years. Optimistic, I know, but anything that can veer us away from the Covid vax (and its mandates) while helping people is a positive. Slap me with rainbows but a boy can dream. How much salt would flow from the forever-Covid-vaxxer if we finally started pivoting for the antivirals and treatment options instead of the almighty
yet enfeebled Covid vaccines?
It may cost a lot but no one can take your human rights to decide what is injected into your body.
It's really good to hear about your neighbors thinking like that even in Cali. Gives me some hope. I know what you're getting at and I agree with your spirit but the painful truth is they can certainly take your human rights away. You can fight back, sure, and we should and do, but ultimately governments can always take your human rights away. Prisons exist for a reason. Waco happened. We are living in an age where everyone knows a holocaust is happening in China but few governments are actually doing/saying much about it. Both at home and abroad, no one with power will stand up for you when your government (or even a foreign government, depending on which they are) takes your rights away "for a good/reasonable cause" and obfuscates their true actions.
We do not live in a world governed by authorities who believe themselves beholden to higher ideals, and so human rights, for all the bluster about them, are in-practice little more than privileges. That said, so long as you hold yourself to a higher ideal you can be proud to endure whatever consequence comes from not capitulating to maniacal authority. Many don't have the ability to do that. I understand that. I just hope they find a way now.
EDIT:
https://archive.md/7CrZh https://finance.yahoo.com/news/issues-omicron-warning-strain-spreads-225553568.html
Yet another recent article on Omicron and a foreign issue, and yet another reference to Pfizer's antiviral slipped in. Interestingly enough this one mentions negatives of the antiviral for its first study. Might be a bad sign, but who can trust any of this anymore? Besides, as Secret Watcher mentioned and all of us know, few of these reporters really bother when it comes to details from scientific reports. Could be better, could be worse. At least it's not Covid vax. We'll see how it pans out in the coming months.
EDIT 2: Here's Winnie the Pooh's shoe shiner to tell us about the danger of Omicron:
https://archive.md/rHYNI