Omicron shows the danger of treating coronavirus like an emergency

Omicron, which was first sequenced in South Africa, is believed to be extremely contagious, though not necessarily especially severe. The US banned travel from eight southern African countries, of which two, South Africa and Botswana, have reported cases. In a 2009 essay he co-authored, titled What is a Pandemic?, Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical advisor who leads the US covid-19 response, discussed the complicated matter of defining a pandemic as opposed, for instance, to endemic disease.