Vox Sentences - All about omicron

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Sentences will be off next week to observe the holidays.

Biden boosts testing to fight the omicron variant; the global response to omicron is divided.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

"This is a critical moment"

Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images

• President Joe Biden announced plans to combat the quick spread of the omicron variant on Tuesday: distributing 500 million free rapid tests through a federal website, opening federal testing sites, and sending government medical teams and aid to struggling hospitals. [Washington Post / Andrew Jeong]
• There are still some unknowns about the severity of omicron, but vaccines still greatly reduce the risk of hospitalization and severe illness. [CNN]
• Starting in January, the government will purchase half a billion rapid tests and ship them to Americans for free. Tests have been scarce in many areas, and at about $15 to $30 per test, have been out of financial reach for some Americans. [AP / Josh Boak and Ricardo-Alonzo]
• Early reports suggest it takes three days between exposure to omicron and the arrival of symptoms; the shorter incubation period likely means people will become contagious faster and the disease will spread more rapidly than previous variants. [Atlantic / Katharine Wu]
• Despite this “unprecedented” speed, Biden administration health official Anthony Fauci is optimistic. “It’s going to be a matter of a couple of weeks that we then start to see just as dramatic a decline,” he said. ”That’s what we’re hoping for.” [ABC / Emily Shapiro and Ivan Pereira]
• More on this story: Dylan Scott guides you through the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic in our essential, weekly newsletter. Sign up for VoxCare here.

The global response to omicron is mixed

• So far, the global response to surging omicron cases has been mixed: Germany, Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and South Korea announced new restrictions on Tuesday but Australia and the UK declined to do so. [Reuters]
• The World Health Organization is urging people to cancel or change their holiday plans, considering how much is still unknown about omicron. ”An event canceled is better than a life canceled,” WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday. [BBC]
• Australia has ruled out the possibility of further lockdowns, despite record-breaking case numbers: “We have to move from a culture of mandates to a culture of responsibility. That’s how we live with the virus into the future.” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. [CNN / Helen Regan and Hilary Whiteman]
• Some European countries appear more willing to tighten restrictions. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his country’s new rules, which include bans on crowds at events and caps on private gatherings, were needed because the pandemic “won’t be over as soon as we had hoped.” [Deutsche Welle]
• In South Africa, where scientists first detected the omicron variant, things may be looking up, as new case numbers are down. “We’re over the curb,” Dr. Angelique Coetzee, said. [CNN]

 We write for the people

The ruler of Dubai has been ordered to pay $720 million in a divorce settlement, nearly half of which will pay for security to protect his ex-wife and children from him. [AP / Jill Lawless]

• On Monday, the NHL became the first major sports league to suspend its 2022 season, with more than 15 percent of players under monitoring for exposure to Covid-19. [ESPN]
• Democrats are potentially looking at twin crises that could hurt their 2022 election prospects: lower growth forecasts and the continued fallout from omicron. [Politico / Kate Davidson]
• US population growth fell to a record low rate of 0.1 percent — the slowest in the country’s history, according to Census Bureau estimates.[Axios / Oriana Gonzalez]

“We all want this to be over. But we’re still in it. And this is a critical moment. We also have more tools than we have ever had before. We’re ready. We’ll get through this.”

Biden encourages Americans to be vigilant ahead of the holiday season in remarks from the White House

Thanks to South Africa, the world now has some data on omicron’s severity, transmissibility, and whether or not the vaccines will protect us from it. [Spotify]

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