We’re all gonna die – again!

With public anxiety over ‘the Delta variant’ seriously on the wane, the Church of Covid has been in need of some fresh brimstone with which to terrify its adherents for some time, and waddya know, here it is – Omicron.

We’ve been living, year in, year out, with new variants of the common cold, and influenza. And it’s not as though we’re unaware of the flu ones – anyone who’s been vaccinated against flu knows you have to get a fresh one every year, cos o’ they danged variants. And most people, even the most devout worshippers of Covid, are dimly aware that the reason we keep getting what feels like a very similar cold is because the virus that causes it is constantly varying.

Cold viruses don’t have names. Flu viruses don’t have names. Well, not catchy, scary ones like Omicron, and they’re known only unto the infectious disease geeks who study them. But Covid viruses, you see, are different – they’ve got names. That’s what makes them so dangerous. If you doubt me, consider this – barely had the news broken that a new variant called Omicron had leapt the Sahara and showed up, in all its mildly pathological pomp, in Amsterdam, than shares in the world’s airline industry tanked.

That’s brand power for you.

Tom Forrester-Paton