Jury is well and truly out with this new strain. Although early indications are that it,
so far, may not cause disease any more severe than Delta, the data are few, and early. It will take a couple more weeks of watching and analysing to determine what we are dealing with. My suspicions are that at minimum it is more contagious than Delta, and it may yet prove to cause serious disease as well as causing vaccines to be less effective. Even extra transmissibility alone may be a serious problem if it results in health systems being overwhelmed. Hospitals in some jurisdictions are already running on empty, and it will take little increase in hospitalizations to cause real problems for both patients (both covid and otherwise) and staff.
Please listen to your local public health experts peeps. This is not just about you and your personal risk. This is also about the cumulative effects of people's decisions on the health risks suffered by others. There are a lot of folks out there who really can't afford to catch this virus, and if everyone behaves as though the only problem was their individual chance of serious disease, the cumulative consequences for others could be grim.
Come on peeps, let's at least try to help others through this shit show.