Never mind the bodies: Vaccinated Americans are joining the “it’s just a flu” crowd, falling again for the herd immunity myth.

(Originally published Jan. 11 in “What in the World“) With Monday’s 1.38 million new Covid infections in the U.S. breaking global records and sending hospitalizations to record levels, so many Americans are ill it’s affecting manufacturing.

Omicron’s surge has turned Covid denial upside-down, with “it’s just a flu” now predominantly a Democrat narrative, according to The Atlantic. Democrats dominate the ranks of the vaccinated, for whom Omicron creates mostly mild illness. These folks have surrendered to the virus and are instead resigning themselves to a future of quarterly vaccines and starting to go back to their normal, pre-pandemic lives. The unvaccinated are primarily Republican, and they are winning the race to be wiped out by Covid. Soon, it’ll be the good ‘ol boys demanding mask mandates and calling for social distancing measures.

Progressives aren’t the only ones giving in to Covid: increasingly hospital officials are allowing infected health workers to keep working if they don’t feel sick to avoid exacerbating staff shortages caused by soaring Omicron illness. But the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, already under fire for conflicting messages over isolation and testing, has now advised Americans against travel to Canada due to soaring infections there. Canada’s infection rate is soaring, but not nearly as fast or as high as infections in the U.S. There’s also not much mystery as to where Canada caught it.

The good news is that Pfizer says it could have an Omicron-specific vaccine ready by March. Who’s developing a vaccine for the Sigma variant in June?