Fingers and toes crossed this holds up, because omicron is going to be everywhere. Lockdown, no lockdown, masks, no masks, high vax rates, low vax rates. None of that is likely to matter very much for most of the world

— Mason ‍♂️✂️ (@webdevMason) December 13, 2021

I agree with Mason. I disagree here with Zeynep. So far it doesn’t look like Omicron is milder just due to prior exposure; it seems to be less virulent apart from that. But we’ll know for sure soon enough.

Zeynep is someone I can disagree with without feeling like she’s an idiot, though. The difference is that even when I disagree with her great and amazing brain, I trust that she’s considered all of the evidence and weighed it well but has merely come to a different yet still-justified conclusion. Most people do not do that so I have no respect for their pretend ratiocination. Zeynep Tufekci and Brit Marling are two among a very few people whom I will always respect greatly even when I disagree because they’ve done the fucking work.