Like you, we hear the pandemic panic talk du jour: The omicron variant will sweep across the country and overwhelm our medical system.

Airlines are canceling flights because of new infections of their workers. Some school systems and universities talk of not returning in person after the holidays in anticipation of a spike in infections.

This talk of another winter surge is certainly worrisome, but we wonder if some experts are focused on the wrong numbers. In fact, when this is all said and done, omicron might be a viral blessing in disguise.

It may cause a large number of infections, but infections alone should not raise concern. The U.S. could very well get back up to the 250,000 cases a day we saw last winter, but why are we concerned with total cases? What numbers matter beyond hospitalizations and deaths?

Early studies indicate that omicron is highly transmissible. More transmissible than the delta variant, which has caused many of the deaths in this community and the country as a whole.

But for perspective, look at South Africa’s experience with omicron, which had one of the first outbreaks. It saw a very sharp spike in mid-December but, in short order, cases began to fall precipitously. Almost dropping vertically.

Death numbers with omicron also paint a different picture from delta.

While COVID cases spiked in South Africa, deaths rose only slightly, unlike previous waves where deaths tracked the same pattern as the total cases. This has been borne out by several early studies that have shown, at least in South Africa, omicron causes less severe illness than delta.

If the South Africa experience establishes the norm – that omicron is more transmissible, but less severe, that wouldn’t be such a bad outcome. Our main concern must remain that our hospitals aren’t overrun.

We must wait to see if the South Africa model was a fluke, meaning omicron kills as ruthlessly as delta in this country. But so far things look promising.

Omicron arrives at a time when there is more natural immunity from antibodies in the population after two years of COVID and when we have a good chunk of the population vaccinated. Omicron presents the possibility of spreading yet more antibodies. At what point should we shift from viewing COVID as a public health problem to a personal health issue? At what point does government involvement – shutdowns and mask requirements – become unnecessary?

We now have highly effective vaccines and boosters that deliver a high level of protection from omicron. We also just had the first federally approved pill to treat COVID-19. It still needs production to ramp up, but would be a significant development in keeping our hospitals below capacity.

We won’t have all the information on this variant for a while, but so far we don’t see a reason to panic. We certainly don’t see a reason to be closing schools again.

So long as people have the ability to protect themselves and this variant continues not to cause as much severe illness, omicron may play a role in ending the pandemic.

Grand Junction Daily Sentinel editorial board