I have a different set of predictions:

1) Omicron will peak in the U.S. in the next few weeks and will be largely gone by the end of February.

2) Omicron will infect half the people in the world in the next few months, and then subside, just like in America.

3) The Covid crisis will be over except in the imaginations of a few people who don't want it to end. Sane countries will return to normal in a matter of weeks, while the crazy ones like Australia will cling to the emergency for months before they finally admit it is all over.

4) Umair will keep writing about Covid in dire language until his click count drops due to the end of Covid, then switch to telling everyone about the evils of Trump, the catastrophic upcoming takeover of America by super Nazi racist-fascist republicans, and our upcoming climate doom...that never seems to come.

5) Umair will write around 52 articles predicting short and long term doom in extreme language, and continue to prosper because there's never a shortage of people who want to be told how virtuous they are and how evil their opposition is.

6) All of Umair's doom scenarios will not come to pass, except this: Dems will lose one or both chambers of congress in November on account of the covid misery and business destruction they inflicted upon the country with such righteousness and vigor. It's not so much that people will be voting for Republicans as against Democrats. At this point, your average middle of the road voter would vote for a purple-assed baboon so long as they don't have a D in front of their name.

So have a good 2022--it could hardly be worse than 2021, and remember to thank your lucky stars when we finally put Covid in the rear-view mirror in the next couple of months!