The new variant continues to gain ground fast, but still hasn’t produced the trail of tragedy Delta continues to blaze.

(Originally published Dec. 10 in “What in the World“) No news really is good news and today’s is that there’s still no bad news about Omicron from its apparent birthplace, South Africa. Doctors there still report seeing no noticeable uptick in Covid-related deaths even as Omicron cases skyrocket.

So maybe Omicron really is the ague we’ve been waiting for to end the pandemic and render Covid just another seasonal malady. Unfortunately, Delta cases continue to rise, and its death toll is fairly steady.

We need to hope Omicron is replacing Delta with a kinder, gentler Covid, because Omicron is fast displacing Delta where it’s landed. Omicron now accounts for more than 80% of all new reported cases in South Africa and more than 10% in Spain, which reported its first community transmission last week.

U.S. health authorities have meanwhile approved booster shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for 16- and 17-year olds, expanding the population of people now eligible to rejoin the ranks of the vaccinated in America. Perhaps the biggest advocate for more vaccinations is the U.S. insurance industry, which is reportedly paying out life insurance benefits at the highest rate since the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918. According to the Wall Street Journal, Covid drove death benefit payments up more than 15% in 2020, to more than $90 billion.