Something else even milder could replace Omicron.  It better happen quickly before they run out of alphabet letters.

LOL... well, they're already saying that the flu is more dangerous than Omicron.

Do we issue face mask mandates for the flu?

Do we close down schools, churches, etc. for the flu?

Do we mandate vaccines for the flu?

FWIW

None of the above.

I agree, but then we have some left leaning states coming up with this:

Oregon Officials Float Making Indoor Mask Mandate Permanent (breitbart.com)

FWIW

Then people who can leave the state will leave.

Many have already flocked out of California & New York, some for Oregon and Washington State too. This is just going to cause even more to leave.

The sad thing is that the poor won't have the monies to move out.

FWIW

They voted for those policies, though. So they will get to remain masked forever.

Stupid is as stupid does...

You can't fix stupid. Replace them yes, but you can't fix 'em.!

FWIW

WALTER784 said:

But the spread of Omicron is so quick, that it displaces Delta quite rapidly... not requiring "a while" to reach a new equilibrium

Even Omicron is pretty bad if one isn't fully vaccinated, and breakthrough infections are nearly inevitable. The secondary deaths are going to be worse - not from Covid but from the heart attacks, strokes, traffic accidents, shootings and stabbings because someone's favorite product is out of stock and they wig out and go off the deep end to take out their rage on some unlucky bystander or poorly paid waitstaff.

And of course with hospitals filling up again, they won't be able to get timely medical interventions, so they bleed out or they go into full cardiac arrest and there's no one with the energy to try CPR, and the avalanche of other things that happen with access to health care and ongoing treatments interrupted.

There will be a lot of preventable cancer deaths from screenings missed, there will be the diabetes that due to not getting properly monitored, turns to kidney failure and / or blindness. There's the runaway triglycerides and arteriosclerosis that leads to premature heart attacks, there's the aneurysms that get missed and burst, there's the delays in all sorts of lifesaving or quality of life maintenance treatments that result in numerous irreversible medical outcomes for an awful lot of people.

There will be the special needs kids and excess stillbirths due to delayed or lack of timely prenatal, obstetrical and neonatal intervention that will cost millions and millions to the economy over their lifetimes.

And I know people who are delaying all sorts of residential and other maintenance where there is a risk of getting injured precisely because they might wait so long to be seen at the emergency room that whatever treatment could keep them out of a wheelchair for the rest of their life or keep the use of a hand, a limb, an eye, or their mobility, is delayed until the post-trauma damage becomes irreversible.

Throw in icy roads and drivers that have no clue, desperate to get to work or else, and we're going to see traffic fatalities spike as well. And in addition to the fatalities, there's the hidden number of those who will need a lifetime of support and care due to permanent life-altering injuries that they survive, but the quality of life is so bad that they might have been better off to have been killed outright at the scene rather than slowly bleed out or have permanent tissue necrosis while waiting to be seen due to all the Covid cases in front of them.

My DH was injured in March, 2021 and is still unable to get the knee surgery recommended.  He can walk, wears a brace so it's not a live or death issue, but could be a lifetime pain issue.