My, what an alarming headline

Spotted in my feed:

How to tell the Omicron variant from a common cold

(Or words to that effect.)

Er.  Does it matter?

The article says the way to tell the difference is that the common cold doesn't cause loss of the sense of smell.

But... last I heard, that wasn't an Omicron symptom.  And it's not all that common with the other variants, either.

And why are we worrying about a super-scary disease whose symptoms are indistinguishable from those of the common cold?  Because the next mutation might be totally asymptomatic, and we'd never have a clue who was infected without constant testing?

Comments

[Rob]

The 'fear' is important to retain control so the common cold gets the full publicity treatment with the emphasis on "case numbers" because there is nothing else to count.
The count is important in maintaining the fear campaign.