“No, we mean it, this one is the most highly transmissible of all the variants. But don’t worry—you’re probably not going to die of it immediately! Just wash your hands and get vaccinated and that will surely be enough”
Cut to four months later:
“Whoa—there’s a *new* variant and it is way deffo highly transmissible, more than the other variants. Keep washing your hands tho and it’ll be fiiiiiiiiiiine”
…
“Hey…are you guys even trying to wash your hands because you’ll never guess what…”