Omicron is receding in the Houston area, new data show, even as hospitals continue to feel the strain of January’s post-holiday bump in COVID-19 cases.
The region’s rate of transmission — a key metric used to gauge how likely an infected person is to spread the virus to others — fell for the third week in a row, health officials reported Monday, fueling hopes that omicron may be on its way out.
The COVID transmission rate across the Houston area was 0.74 last week, meaning the average person who had the virus gave it to one person or less, according to the Texas Medical Center. Spread has remained below 1.0 for two weeks, reflecting omicron’s loosening grip.
New hospital admissions also fell, an encouraging sign after an explosive surge that pushed Texas emergency rooms and intensive care units closer to capacity than at any time during the pandemic. About 2,300 people were hospitalized for COVID in the nine-county region around Houston on Sunday, down 20 percent from two weeks ago.
Houston averaged fewer positive COVID tests last week relative to the mid-January peak. Around 5,400 people tested positive for the virus each day in the greater Houston area, 60 percent as many as the previous week, when the region averaged 9,000 new cases daily, according to TMC data.
That’s good, and it’s consistent with other reporting. We could sure use a bit of a breather. That said, and as the story notes, hospital ICUs are near capacity, and there’s no reason to believe this wave will be the last wave. We still need to get a lot more people vaccinated and boosted. At least on that note, there’s a little more good news.
Earlier this month, Ipsos conducted surveys in Italy and France to gauge the support levels among the populations there for the tough new vaccination mandates that were just introduced. The polling firm shared the data exclusively with Fortune, and the findings surprised not only the pollsters, but also Fortune readers.
As a result, Fortune asked Ipsos to expand the survey to include four new countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia.
The findings were remarkably similar across all six countries. Among the general population, there’s wide support for compulsory vaccination rules. And even more startling, the ranks of unvaccinated see some merit in selective vaccination mandates. For example, there is overwhelming support for requiring teachers and health care workers to get vaccinated across all those polled. Requiring that private sector workers be vaccinated draws less support, but there’s still a majority in all but the U.K.
Even in the United States, where mandate battles have raged from state to state since the early days of the vaccination campaign, a majority of poll respondents are seemingly okay with rules requiring vaccination to enter workplaces, shops, and attend public events. This finding comes as courts across the country, and even the U.S. Supreme Court, strike down a variety of enforcement orders that would have required employees at large businesses get vaccinated, undergo weekly testing, or simply wear a mask.
But what continues to surprise pollsters the most is that the most strident blocs in each country—the unvaccinated—are showing signs that they, too, will go along with tougher measures in certain circumstances.
Call it a case of Omicron fatigue: This highly infectious variant is testing the resolve of even the most dogged anti-vaxxers, the pollsters find.
“They are definitely not a group of people that are hard-core sure they are right,” says Andrei Postoaca, CEO of Ipsos Digital. The data from these surveys tell him that there is probably one-quarter of the remaining unvaccinated who don’t fall into the strident “true believer” category. “More and more are willing to take a jab, are willing to accept a mandatory vaccination. So the question is: Step by step, will you get people to cross the line” and drop their opposition to vaccines and vaccine mandates?
“What I would say is clearly the vaccinated support a decision of mandatory vaccination. And a decent chunk of the unvaccinated in most countries also support it,” Postoaca adds.
The poll suggests that about 13% of unvaccinated Americans are planning to get their first COVID shot. That’s not a lot, but if it’s accurate it would raise the overall vaccination rate in the US by about four points, and that’s not nothing. Here’s hoping.
There are still a lot of new “cases” even though the R number is lower. Because when you have a lot of cases, even if they aren’t spreading exponentially, they will still spawn a lot more cases.
Gotta wonder about the validity of the Ipsos poll. Ipsos is a giant corporate greed based company, likely in cahoots with Big Pharma. Setting aside the fact that the pandemic has been the greatest wealth transfer in the history of humanity, and that Big Pharma has excremented right onto the COVID Rally Cry and Banner of “We’re all in this togedder” the mass media seems to ignore the convoy in Canada, and the large protests in European cities that have to be actioned away by military power.
Meanwhile, the UK has ended all of the restrictions and any mandates. Denmark ended the pandemic on Tuesday, the first. It’s over. The narrative is crumbling and the corporate elite in the US see it coming.