Brace yourselves: COVID-19 cases are climbing again in Southern California, nationwide

“We’re not going to be exempt from the omicron variant,” said Andrew Noymer, [associate professor of public health], epidemiologist and demographer at UC Irvine whose crystal ball on the pandemic has been unnervingly accurate. “Cases will go up eventually. Hospitalizations will go up accordingly. The crystal ball is still a little fuzzy, though: It’s not at all clear exactly when it will peak, or how bad the peak will be.”