Bruce Arthur: The siren song of ‘mild’ Omicron has seduced us. But the reality is brutal

Mild. That was the watchword, the seduction, the lie wrapped in a truth. Omicron was generally milder than Delta in South Africa, average age 27 and protected by the ravages of past waves, so some decided this was the flu, a cold, the beginning of the end of the pandemic. That last part, if we are almost unbelievably lucky and almost universally vaccinated, might yet come true.