> Is Omicron equally as deadly as Delta? No.

It depends how you look at it. Omicron had a lower CFR, but higher transmissibility, so arguably worse.

There is no inherent selection pressure on viruses to mutate towards being less aggressive. Omicron had a transmission advantage that coincided with being a bit less lethal, but often being more transmissible correlates with being more lethal (e.g. delta variant).

We could have easily had a more lethal omicron variant emerge if it wasn't for vaccination effectively halting the pandemic.

Far more people were saved by vaccination than any luck on random mutation in the virus.

> With time, treatments improved

They did. Like the use of dextramethasone. Still a small improvement compared to the dramatic success of the vaccines.

> and so did the outcomes, regardless of vaccination status.

No. Vaccinated individuals were better off in pretty much every measurable statistic. By any reasonable measurement vaccination saved millions of lives.

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OCASMv2 3 days ago | parent [-]

> We could have easily had a more lethal omicron variant emerge if it wasn't for vaccination effectively halting the pandemic.

Vaccination didn't even prevent transmission.

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chimprich 3 days ago | parent [-]

What do you mean "prevent"? If you mean vaccines didn't completely prevent transmission, then yes. If you mean vaccines didn't prevent a proportion of transmission, then no. The vaccines did significantly reduce transmission in general.

Of course the main benefit of the vaccines was a dramatic reduction in severe disease, hospital admissions and deaths.

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OCASMv2 3 days ago | parent [-]

They didn't affect transmission at all. Symptom reduction is also debatable since it can also be explained by immunity from previous exposure, less damaging variants and better treatments as time went on.

	▲	chimprich 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		There's plenty of evidence that vaccines reduced transmission, especially in the earlier variants. The idea that vaccines didn't reduce severe illness is laughable. Multiple robust tudies across many nations and institutions have been carried out, showing that several different vaccines were highly effective.