Bruce Arthur: ‘This is real.’ The Omicron variant will arrive. So what will we do about it?

In the end, it's about us. Yes, there is a new variant, and alarm bells are ringing. Countries are cutting off flights again, Canada among them, playing whack-a-virus in the hope of gaining some time, a few more days, a week, something. Experts are frantically trying to discern just what the variant will do. It's dispiriting, and a reminder of the hectic early days of this epochal pandemic. And it's a reminder that the virus doesn't get tired, even if we do.