I absolutely agree, I shouldn't have phrased it as I did. More diverse antigen exposure would be a positive considering that omicron is not a descendent of the OG strain, and any future strains sharing many of the same mutations as omicron would more likely reduce transmissibility. From the PhD epidemiologists, it makes sense.

However I question if it would be worth the price for those of us on the ground. Patients have on aggregate lost so much trust in the medical community since the pandemic began. Part of that is from rampant misinformation, part of it is from the politicized nature of the pandemic, and part of the blame lies with the CDC and WHO for perceived missteps and poor scientific communication to the public. People want this to be over. They want to stop talking about it, thinking about it, and for life to resume as normal. Obviously that can't happen if we all just conveniently ignore it. But it pains me that "trust the science," has become a mocked phrase amongst those of particular political persuasions.

It's impossible to predict what will happen, after all, both Omicron and Delta were seemingly de novo rather than variants from any previously predominant strain. This situation is dynamic, and I'm really just expressing my thoughts as they are right now. Perhaps by March I'll be beating the drum for people to line up for the Omicron shot, perhaps not. Likely it'll be somewhere in the middle (for me at least), where people with previous assumed omicron infection, and younger healthy people I wouldn't push as hard, whereas I will for the immunocompromised and the elderly.

But I'm just a garden-variety med student, who isn't pursuing ID. Like most things out of my expertise, I'll defer to the true experts when the times comes and pick their brains a bit more.