ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - As President Joe Biden is set to announce his plan in the next few days on how the country will tackle the new omicron variant of COVID-19, a new social media poll shows there's little to no worry among local citizens.
Biden said Monday that he will lay out the strategy on Thursday and it won't include lockdowns. He says it will be more focused on vaccinations. The World Health Organization said 56 countries were will implement travel measures aimed at curbing the spread of omicron, which originated in South Africa.
After a Thanksgiving weekend where many St. Louis-area families gathered for possibly the first time since 2019 for the holiday, KMOX posed a question for its followers on Twitter and Facebook: Does what you know today about the Omicron variant change any of your current behaviors?
A poll on Twitter found 94.1% of respondents saying "No." It had a total of 119 votes.
The same question on Facebook was followed by a similar percentage of commenters saying, "No."
"We really don't know anything other than it's a new variant . Take a breadth people let's see how this variant works," wrote one Facebook user.
"No and it's not going to either!! My life and my Business," wrote another Facebook user.
Recently, the Wall Street Journal posted an editorial criticizing the WHO for it's reaction to the new variant:
"The World Health Organization escalated its rhetoric, warning Monday that the new variant poses "a very high risk." But there's little we know about the variant beyond that it has a large number of mutations in its spike protein, some of which have been linked to increased transmissibility and could make vaccine antibodies less effective. But mutations may also be making the variant less virulent."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said it is "inevitable" that omicron will make its way into the United States. Many experts said it's probably already here.
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