My question is simply this. If you get Omnicron, since it is a variant of COVID, would that then provide you with natural immunity to other strains of COVID? I have heard of very few (1) cases where someone died from Omnicron, and yes, it sounds more like a bad cold. Maybe Omnicron is the herd immunity builder that we have been waiting for.
“If you get Omnicron, since it is a variant of COVID, would that then provide you with natural immunity to other strains of COVID?”
The previous strains of COVID all conferred very strong immunity to re-infection by the other strains.
Omicron is so different (over 50 mutations) that the cross immunity with other strains is weaker - but it still seems pretty strong.
Out of the first 43 American cases identified and tracked, 6 had previously had COVID (14%). But that sample was tiny, and likely not random or really representative. In London, with wider spread/much higher numbers, it is running about 5% of the Omicron cases had previously had COVID.
It seems that Omicron will likely confer strong, but not perfect protection against re-infection by other strains of COVID - likely stronger than vaccination.