Alphabet Soup?

A number of UK virologists have asked for details of the scientific basis for England's early abandoning of all Covid19 restrictions. They have pointed out that there is no basis for assuming that variants of Sars-CoV-2 will get progressively milder (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/12/scientists-plead-caution-covid-restrictions-lifted-england). Highly infectious Omicron turned out to be milder than feared. Covid19 variants are, however, simply labelled by the WHO, using the letters of the Greek alphabet. This was to assuage concerns of countries, who objected to being labelled as the origin of a particular variant, by being first to describe it. Many lay people (and politicians- a notably unscientific lot?) have assumed, however, that the alpha variant gave rise to the beta variant etc. This is certainly not the case. Omicron came from a completely different part of the virus 'family tree' than Delta. A new variant of the virus could arise in any part of the world with infections. This is one reason why it is so important to vaccinate as many people as possible in all parts of the globe. Omicron's 'mildness' could be pure serendipitty! The virus, having lots of potential human hosts, does not have to conserve them to survive. Such a phenomenon only seen in some worm infections, where host and parasite co-adapt. As the virologists point out, the next Covid19 variant could be completely different. Perhaps lifting all the restrictions is yet another premature roll of the dice?