[antisinguIarity]

You personally know many young people who died, gasping for breath? I'm so sorry.

However - you can't argue that "we need to lockdown to stop Covid until it mutates". In fact, until recently, the argument I was commonly presented with was "we NEED to vaccinate everyone and keep restrictions so it DOESN'T mutate into a deadlier version!"

Saying that, hard to imagine a deadlier version than the horrible monstrosity that stalked our deserted streets in early 2020.

[thawaya3113]

Omicron and Delta were both more deadly and more contagious than the early 2020 versions of COVID, so you don’t need to imagine.

It was only the prevalence of vaccinations that prevented things from getting much worse. As far as the unvaccinated were concerned, the impact was devastating.

[antisinguIarity]

>Omicron and Delta were both more deadly

Just goes to show the difference in public messaging. Where I live, all the headlines said that Omicron and Delta were less deadly (but more contagious). Then again, Delta arrived here just as the vaccination campaign was starting, so where were not many column inches left to discuss the new variant.

>so you don’t need to imagine.

I sure do. I have yet to meet anyone who's had more than flu-like symptoms with any strain of Covid, and I doubt my experience is particularly unique.

[kyriakos]

To add to this lockdowns saved a lot of vulnerable people from early exposure until vaccines became available. The fact that omicron is now considered mild is because we are facing it while vaccinated.

[antisinguIarity]

At least where I live (UK), seems to me that we all sat confined under house arrest while all of the vulnerable old people were discharged from hospitals (presumably, to make space for the tide of sick people that never happened) and gave each other Covid in retirement homes.