Be afraid. Be very afraid. The latest variant of Covid-19, Omicron, has spanned continents and laughed at the ocean moat protecting the U.S.
Omicron has arrived, and the travel industry is quaking in its boots. The U.S. has instituted new testing procedures for inbound travelers, and most travel from eight southern African companies, including South Africa, where the new variant was discovered in November, has been halted. Even the Federal Reserve apparently believes the new variant will stoke inflation by further threatening the supply chain and worsening the worker shortage.
But is it an overreaction? The same nagging question, debated by millions, remains. How bad is it? Is it bad enough to shut down countries and industries like travel? As an AP story noted, “For all the alarm, little is known about omicron, including whether it is more contagious, causes more serious illness or can evade vaccines.”
A new variant of the Covid-19 virus that has killed 5.2 million people worldwide (780,000 in the U.S.) the Omicron variant is moving at internet speed. Less than two weeks after its discovery the first US case of Omicron was detected in the United States.
The unlucky first U.S. Omicron patient, a San Francisco man, had flown back from South Africa on November 22. Interestingly, he had been fully vaccinated and was only experiencing mild symptoms.
Nonetheless, airline stocks took a dive. On December 1, five of the six top U.S. airlines, including Delta, Alaska, Southwest, United and JetBlue, hit 52-week lows. A look at the stock charts of Hilton (HLT) and Marriott (MAR) shows a similar swoon. By week’s…