Will Omicron Turn Pandemic Into Endemic?

Since the new variant causes milder symptoms, experts believe that this could be a sign that the virus will become less severe and would dominate particular locations, probably where the vaccination rates are low

These are very early days in terms of our understanding of the Omicron variant. What is known is that it has a large number of mutations, particularly in the spike protein and it appears to be rapidly spreading in specific parts of the world.

Very early indications from Africa suggest that it does not cause particularly severe disease (though the World Health Organization has urged caution given the limited data available).

At this point, it isn't clear whether it has any greater capacity to evade vaccines than other SARS-CoV-2 strains such as Delta. It is very common for viruses to become less virulent (that is, cause less severe disease) once they become established in a population. The classic example is myxomatosis, which killed 99% of rabbits when first introduced into Australia, but which now causes much lower mortality.