Covid-19 #42 Nu Tsunami Incoming

[Zorral]

Ye latest Covid-19 thread, #41, has passed 400 comments.

Let us carry on.

 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

WE are past Nu tho.

Greek Alphabet

Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Omicron.

Next up would be.

Pi, Rho, Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi and finally Omega.

Bolded Variants of concern.

Lambda and Mu are the South American strains of interest. Curious what sort of irrational strain Pi will be. 

 

Edit: Apparently the WHO apparently left out Nu and Xi on purpose. Because Nu sounds very familar to the English New. And Xi, because it's a common name and they didn't use it, because of their anti-discrimination policy.

[Zorral]

  In the previous thread (#41) today I put up a link on the way W.H.O. decided to name it Omicron.  Some interesting bits in it, so I'll put the link here too.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/27/world/africa/omicron-covid-greek-alphabet.html

But whatever it's called one must fear it's a disaster.  If not, we'll be so glad.

 

[HoodedCrow]

Pi is infinitely irrational. I amend my joke to Psi Phi…for the genre:) is it a Greek house somewhere?

[Zorral]

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/532254561386262528/gHX_F_KC_bigger.png

 

Trevor Bedford

 

@trvrb

 

Growth rate (in absolute terms and relative to Delta) will be become clearer in the following days, but at the moment, I believe we're looking at a variant that potentially has significant immune evasion and that appears to be spreading rapidly. 15/16

[williamjm]

56 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

WE are past Nu tho.

It's difficult to come up with thread title puns based on omicron.

[Zorral]

14 minutes ago, williamjm said:

It's difficult to come up with thread title puns based on omicron.

'Specially since Omicron is going to be Vought's corporate space station, from whence they can more safely continue their superhero franchise bilking the earth's citizens.

[Impmk2]

So an Italian who arrived home from Mozambique on November 11 has tested positive for Omicron along with his family. That would be Europe's earliest detected case?

It's certainly been circulating in Southern Africa for a while it seems.

[The Anti-Targ]

1 hour ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

WE are past Nu tho.

Greek Alphabet

Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Omicron.

Next up would be.

Pi, Rho, Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi and finally Omega.

Bolded Variants of concern.

Lambda and Mu are the South American strains of interest. Curious what sort of irrational strain Pi will be. 

 

Edit: Apparently the WHO apparently left out Nu and Xi on purpose. Because Nu sounds very familar to the English New. And Xi, because it's a common name and they didn't use it, because of their anti-discrimination policy.

I'm guessing the president of China would not be too thrilled.

They should probably drop kappa, for now at least, since it is currently a meme word.

42 minutes ago, Zorral said:

'Specially since Omicron is going to be Vought's corporate space station, from whence they can more safely continue their superhero franchise bilking the earth's citizens.

When writing the season they could well have guessed that the COVID-19 strains would eventually get up to omicron. Associating one of the, possibly, more dangerous strains of a deadly pandemic virus with Vought seems quite apt, if done deliberately.

[Zorral]

12 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

When writing the season they could well have guessed that the COVID-19 strains would eventually get up to omicron. Associating one of the, possibly, more dangerous strains of a deadly pandemic virus with Vought seems quite apt, if done deliberately.

As I for one, immediately saw the Vought News Network 7 On & 7 Omicron run-downs by Cameron Coleman, it was deliberate on my part.  Ha!  

[Impmk2]

2 hours ago, Zorral said:

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/532254561386262528/gHX_F_KC_bigger.png

 

Trevor Bedford

 

@trvrb

 

Growth rate (in absolute terms and relative to Delta) will be become clearer in the following days, but at the moment, I believe we're looking at a variant that potentially has significant immune evasion and that appears to be spreading rapidly. 15/16

This is an extremely interesting feed, especially the phylogenetic analysis. I was already thinking it is unlikely to have originated in the country of South Africa itself given their apparently good survillience / sequencing in the country and that this looks to have been circulating for a couple months. This gives more credence to that.

Thanks for posting it!

Edit: I should probably post what the phylogeny was showing given it's semi technical. The closest sequenced relative to Omicron according to this analysis is from mid-2020. Likely means it has originated from somewhere with extremely poor surveillence. Alternative hypothesis: Continued evolution in a chronically infected individual over a year or more.

[Luzifer's right hand]

2 hours ago, williamjm said:

It's difficult to come up with thread title puns based on omicron.

Not for geeks I hope!

[Fragile Bird]

Well, Omicron Ascending would have been good.

[Varysblackfyre321]

Omnicron sounds like a transformer.

[Zorral]

In the meantime there are these:

Quote

"South African doctor says omicron variant symptoms ‘unusual but mild’" -- "It presents mild disease with symptoms being sore muscles and tiredness for a day or two not feeling well," Coetzee explained. "So far, we have detected that those infected do not suffer the loss of taste or smell. They might have a slight cough. There are no prominent symptoms. Of those infected some are currently being treated at home."

https://news.yahoo.com/south-african-doctor-says-omicron-205354980.html

and

. . . that the omicron variant is good news!  as per the pandemic of 1918 . . .

https://www.reddit.com/user/wallstreeturchin/

>Spanish flu mutated in more transmissible version which was less dangerous. This is how pandemic ended.
>The new variant of covid is more transmissible n much milder. This is the most bullish fucking news I have heard.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/new-strain-causes-mild-disease-says-south-african-medical-body-report-2627160

https://www.timesofisrael.com/s-african-expert-downplays-threat-from-omicron-we-wont-have-a-severe-epidemic/

>This is how pandemic ends. Everyone develops antibodies.

>MOTHER NATURE at work
>We should let omicron become dominant strain of virus

And others have suggested Omicron was hyped to jigger the market -- somebody put calls in the millions on vaccine shares on Monday, and yesterday made billions.

  

 

[Luzifer's right hand]

Well I remember that people said the same about delta. 

Hopefully it is true 

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

In the meantime there are these:

https://news.yahoo.com/south-african-doctor-says-omicron-205354980.html

and

. . . that the omicron variant is good news!  as per the pandemic of 1918 . . .

https://www.reddit.com/user/wallstreeturchin/

>Spanish flu mutated in more transmissible version which was less dangerous. This is how pandemic ended.
>The new variant of covid is more transmissible n much milder. This is the most bullish fucking news I have heard.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/new-strain-causes-mild-disease-says-south-african-medical-body-report-2627160

https://www.timesofisrael.com/s-african-expert-downplays-threat-from-omicron-we-wont-have-a-severe-epidemic/

>This is how pandemic ends. Everyone develops antibodies.

>MOTHER NATURE at work
>We should let omicron become dominant strain of virus

And others have suggested Omicron was hyped to jigger the market -- somebody put calls in the millions on vaccine shares on Monday, and yesterday made billions.

  

 

People said the same about delta IIRC. Hopefully the optimists are right this time. 

[Spockydog]

6 hours ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

Well I remember that people said the same about delta. 

Isn't Delta currently mutating itself into extinction? At least, that's what I've been reading recently.

[john]

12 hours ago, williamjm said:

It's difficult to come up with thread title puns based on omicron.

Oh my Cron! Covid is running wild again!

As someone hoping to travel to South Africa in the next few months, these developments are rather disappointing.

It would be nice to think of a milder, safer but eager covid burning itself out but I don’t think we know enough about the variant or about how governments are going to react to it yet.

[Toth]

2 hours ago, Spockydog said:

Isn't Delta currently mutating itself into extinction? At least, that's what I've been reading recently.

Only in Japan, so it's a fairly isolated case so far. But as far as I have read it indeed happened that their version of a strain somehow broke its replication process in a way that Delta died out and only the original variant still sticks around, explaining a massive dip in case numbers (but not a complete disappearance of Covid).

I'd be careful to wish for Omicron to be more transmissible than Delta. So far it looks like there is a high likelihood for it to lower the effectiveness of our vaccines, so there is a risk of endangering already vaccinated people again if it's lethality doesn't decrease like with the Spanish Flu.

[Luzifer's right hand]

24 minutes ago, Toth said:

Only in Japan, so it's a fairly isolated case so far. But as far as I have read it indeed happened that their version of a strain somehow broke its replication process in a way that Delta died out and only the original variant still sticks around, explaining a massive dip in case numbers (but not a complete disappearance of Covid).

I'd be careful to wish for Omicron to be more transmissible than Delta. So far it looks like there is a high likelihood for it to lower the effectiveness of our vaccines, so there is a risk of endangering already vaccinated people again if it's lethality doesn't decrease like with the Spanish Flu.

That also suggests that Japan is pretty good at keeping delta out of the country.