WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has a message for all of us this week. You need to cancel your Christmas gatherings with your friends and family because of a surge in new Omicron variant cases. While much of America (and probably the world, for that matter) is burned out on all of these pandemic restrictions, unfortunately, the WHO will probably find a number of sympathetic, high-profile voices agreeing with them in the United States. Fauci has already been making the rounds on cable news spouting gloom and doom messages. (“It’s going to take over.”) CDC director Rochelle Walensky has issued dire warnings about how she expects Omicron to be the dominant strain in America in the coming weeks. But neither of them have yet to go so far as to say that Christmas should be canceled. The President will be giving a speech today on the subject of Omicron. Would he dare to say something that politically poisonous four days before Christmas? And more to the point, how many people would pay him any mind if he did? Meanwhile, Ghebreyesus was warning everyone about darkness and death stalking the Christmas parties. (Business Insider)

The World Health Organization’s director-general recommended on Monday that people cancel or postpone their holiday events as the new Omicron variant drives a spike in COVID-19 cases.

“An event canceled is better than a life canceled,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference.

He added: “It’s better to cancel now and celebrate later, than to celebrate now and grieve later.”

Yes, the average daily infection rate in the United States has been rising again, a fact being widely attributed to the Omicron variant. The seven-day average test positivity rate is back up to 7.2%, so it’s not as if the virus isn’t still out there making the rounds.

But this isn’t the same situation we were facing with the original version of the virus or even the Delta variant. While the daily rate of new infections is rising, neither hospitalizations nor deaths have been climbing at anywhere near the same rate. We did receive news yesterday of a man who was diagnosed with the Omicron variant dying in Texas. But he was described as being an unvaccinated man in his fifties with serious but unspecified “underlying conditions.” In other words, he was in the key demographic of people most likely to experience a severe, negative outcome if they contract any form of the virus. In the case of the person in Great Britain that we discussed here previously, the doctors were unable to determine the actual cause of death.

It’s time for Biden, Fauci, and Walensky to plant a flag in the ground and make up their minds. They’ve been beating the vaccination drum for ages now and whipping people into a stampede toward the vaccination centers. Nearly 80% of the country is now vaccinated and boosters are being given on a nearly 24/7 basis. So what’s the deal? Either these vaccines are as “safe and effective” as you’ve been saying or they aren’t, right? And given the “milder” nature of Omicron that we keep hearing about, particularly among the vaccinated, most people should be able to shake this thing off and get on with their lives, shouldn’t they?

I’ve got a message for the WHO today. How about you mind your own business until you can demonstrate that you actually have a handle on this? A lot of people canceled their Christmas plans last year before the vaccines had started to become widely available. Even my family opted not to go to the traditional festivities at my in-laws. But now we’re over it. We went to a maskless Thanksgiving celebration at their house this year and got back to normal. Nobody wound up getting sick. And we’d be doing it again this weekend if I didn’t have a family member going in for surgery on Christmas Eve.

People are fed up. And I still don’t believe that Joe Biden and his staff of experts are actually aware of just how fed up people are. If he tries to cancel Christmas or shut the country down again, he’s going to have a revolt on his hands. And he’ll deserve all the political fallout that comes his way.