Omicron has been particularly lethal to people over 75, the unvaccinated and the medically vulnerable, according to doctors and public health officials. “Omicron may be less severe for younger people, but it will still find vulnerable seniors in our community,” Salemi said. Public health officials have also stressed death rates barely budged among the vaccinated and boosted while surging for older unvaccinated adults. “It’s been challenging because it goes up against the national narrative that omicron is nothing dangerous,” said Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health. Deaths are still rising in the South, which started experiencing omicron surges later than the Northeast, although they tend to be lower than during the delta surge when unvaccinated people were at high risk.
