Philosopher Gregory Pence, a leading bioethicist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, gave permission to share these concerns:
The fact that cases of the Omicron variant are doubling every 2.5 days in England and Europe worries me, and the cases seem to be doubling despite 89% of the English having one “jab” and many others having natural immunity.
Yes, Omicron is less likely to hospitalize or kill you, but Pfizer-vaccinated people like me are 70% of the break-through infections, and who wants such an infection (and possible Long Covid)?
With 50+ million unvaccinated Americans, and break-through infections, 1000 cases in 25 days could create a million cases in America, and in another month, that’s potentially … well, you do the math.
What worries me is that folks like me who get infected will want anti-viral drugs or monoclonal antibodies all at the same time as millions get infected in January/February and as burned-out staff at hospitals face a tsunami of hospitalized cases.
And what about all the people with “normal” problems like attacks of stroke, heart disease, cancer, and injuries?
I fear that we are going to need a triage system in place.
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Am I missing something here? Being too alarmist? I hope so.
British government data showed that two shots of Astra Zeneca, the primary vaccine in the UK, provides zero protection against infection by Omicron; two shots of Pfizer provides 35% protection. However, Pfizer booster shots raise that to 75% (compared to 95% for Delta), at least for some period of time (we don't yet know how long the raised antibody levels last). Of course, booster levels are low in the U.S.
I'm opening this for comments/links from readers about the issues raised by Professor Pence.
