If omicron ends the pandemic, what lessons should we learn from this?

Omicron will not end the pandemic. All the previous variants are still in circulation and evolving. It's only going to get worse because the more variants are in circulation the more chances the virus has of evolving. Eventually there will be several overlapping waves of infections each with a different variant so that people might even get sick from a combination of different variants at once.

The only way out of this was all the way in the beginning when we had a chance of stopping it through lockdowns and vaccination but that's no longer an option. The virus is spreading faster than our vaccine manufacturing and uptake capabilities. This virus is here to stay, it has become endemic.

It's also not surprising. This is exactly what ecological theory would predict for a monoculture. See what's happening to bananas with tropical race 4 infections.

That we trust institutions and fame too much, over individual choice.