Hospitals that were inundated in the fall with the large surge of Delta infections are once again canceling elective surgeries because of an influx of Omicron cases or an anticipation of the same. In Britain, health authorities are considering turning car parks into field hospitals. This is last-resort level care.

We’ve also seen the impact of Omicron in the disruption in air travel in recent days; airlines simply did not have enough healthy crew members to staff all their flights, resulting in thousands of cancellations. New York City has seen cutbacks in subway service, and first responders ranks have been so thinned by illness that the city has canceled days off for healthy police officers.

These are still early days in the age of Omicron; this kind of disruption will get worse before it gets better. It could have broad implications — on food distribution, on the ability to keep schools and universities open and functioning, on snow removal after storms, on utility system repairs, on public transit.

Paradoxically, the mildest wave of the pandemic to date may be the most taxing to navigate.