One should go back to my Red Queen post. Then read the NY Times piece:
The Biden administration is preparing for the possibility that 100 million Americans — roughly 30 percent of the population — will get infected with the coronavirus this fall and winter, according to the administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The 100 million figure is not as high as the total number of Americans known to have become infected with the highly contagious Omicron variant during the wave in December and January. It is based on a range of outside models, though the official did not specify which ones, and assumes that a rapidly evolving virus in the Omicron family — not a new variant — will spread through a population with waning immunity against infection.
We discussed the current scientific facts regarding mutations. Viruses that mutate at a great rate in humans, such as single stranded RNA viruses and in a highly immune compromised population tend to mutate to a state of continued existence. They failed to kill of the hosts but just become like the common cold.
There does not appear at this time to be any scientific basis for the assertion of 100 million. We know the virus moves back and forth even in immune individuals but in a mild to non-existent manner. Who is positing this number and why!
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