XE Variant

[Magoo]

weve changed settings? is that good? what are we at?

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i dont really follow the stages
i just make sure ive got my pass, and my mask on board.

[nzoomed]

Just more fearmongering imho.
XE is just a mix of BA1 and BA2 which are both omicron subvariants. We saw the same media hype when BA2 was discovered.
If you have already had either omicron strain, its very unlikely you will even contract XE at all, as the immune response from either omicron variant has shown to protect against the other.
IIRC, BA2 quickly became the dominant strain of omicron here in NZ pretty quickly, i expect XE will overtake this soon, but since most of NZ has had the omicron wave, i expect all covid numbers will drop off significantly unless a newer totally different strain appears.

Its reality that newer strains will emerge each year, but by then we should have all had plenty of heard immunity.
We will all end up catching future strains but by then it will have just become one of many common cold viruses in circulation.

I highly doubt we are going to see any more lockdowns or red traffic light restrictions ever again.