Covid 19 #43: Oh Omicron, oh Omicron, how numerous are thy spike proteins.

[Zorral]

The story's from November 29th which is a eon in These Times of super transmissible variants.  Notice he says it's not the USA.  Which we know certainly is NOT TRUE.

[VigoTheCarpathian]

Been feeling under the weather (sore throat and nasal issues), got a test this morning - hoping it’s just a seasonal cold, else I’m on the threshold of ruining my wife’s birthday this weekend, and Christmas.

Nephew just tested positive for COVID, and the whole family is unvaccinated and vocal the whole pandemic (wife’s sister and BiL).  When asked if they were worried, sister-in-law said “we’re fat enough to qualify for monoclonal antibodies, we’re not worried.”  Enough to make me sort of wish harm on them just to not reinforce their shit opinions and actions.

[Clueless Northman]

1 hour ago, Week said:

Uhhh ... Ruhlly?

https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/583339-doctor-who-discovered-omicron-explains-the

Uhh this sounds like the disease I call "last week".

Eta-- may be old news -- apologies if so. Haven't seen any update or different symptoms suggested at all.

I see this:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/lower-back-pain-scratchy-throat-emerge-symptoms-omicron/

And seriously they should at least explain why people still end up in hospitals, and which symptoms they'll face, symptoms actually being way worse than what most people experience a least once every bloody winter. They should also definitely explain if worse symptoms and hospital stays actually occur to vaccinated people more than once in a million, otherwise, they're obviously not going to go far in stopping the spread of Omicron. Reality check: after all this time and considering for how long we've been screwed by the anti-mask anti-vaxx plague cult, there's no fucking way vaccinated people will worry and bother for long if something as ridiculously common as a scratchy throat is all they'll face, and if the genuine risk of death, lasting brain fog, loss of smell and taste or major breathing issue is gone for real. If governments and health authorities want vaccinated people to actually be careful, spreading news about benign harmless covid symptoms is not the way to go; they'll soon have to bring genuinely worrying symptoms and outcomes for vaccinated people. Otherwise, the bulk of vaxxed ones will just stop caring if the only people they put at real risk are unvaccinated people.

[The Anti-Targ]

12 hours ago, Frey family reunion said:

It just seems like a bad narrative to me.  That we can't take South Africa's low hospilization rate for granted because they have that "immunity from natural infection" which implies that it's is so much better than our paltry vaccination immunity.  It's almost fear mongering simply for the sake of fear mongering, and I think it hurts the message to get vaccinated.

The narrative is, if you have an immune response from a previous infection or vaccination it looks like Omicron is more likely to breaktrough and cause infection than Delta, but you are not more likely to get severely ill and die. If you don't have immunity from previous exposure or vaccination, you may be just as likely to get severely ill and die as delta, but you are way way more likely to be exposed and infected because the virus is so damned infectious. So your risk if your immune system is still naive to the virus is significantly elevated.

If anti-vaxxers want to try to spin that into a don't get vaccinated message then good luck to them. It's no less mis-informed than the anti-vax messaging from a year ago.

[Iskaral Pust]

My part of Connecticut has been pretty quiet for COVID since June 2020, after suffering some of NYC’s early outbreak.  Vaccinations and boosters are very common here, and masks were still worn by most until this summer.

But these past two weeks have seen a rapid surge in breakthrough infections.  I don’t know if it’s just our turn for a wave after people got more complacent about restaurants and returning to offices, or if this is going to be a very broad wave around the country.  The pace has been shocking.

My employer has returned to remote work only for the next four weeks to act as a circuit break.  We’ve had several colleagues and their entire families get sick over the past week, and it’s most often the kids getting sick before the parents.  Holiday travel could make the spread a lot worse.  The severity of infection doesn’t seem too bad, but scary nonetheless.

My family still does not eat indoors at restaurants, and we still wear masks at any indoor location outside our home.  I wasn’t wearing a mask while in my office, but only because everyone has to test each day before coming in.

 

[lady narcissa]

I got my booster shot yesterday and I am now sitting here with an itchy red solid - feels like a golf ball - bump on my arm.  It's just fascinating the different reactions the human body has to these vaccines.  This reaction is similar to what I had after my first Shingles shot.  While I had lots of reactions to the first two Pfizer shots, it was all internal with my lymph nodes and nothing visible and surface like this.  Hopefully this will only last a day or two because it is very itchy!

[Spockydog]

 

 

[Luzifer's right hand]

I have seen some German language news articles now that claim that Omicron is as bad as Delta for those that are neither vaccinated nor recovered.

It also more likely to cause symptoms in people with a prepared immune system than other variants but those people face less severe symptoms.

Looks like it is a complete repeat of the "Delta is less dangerous" speculations.

Edit: Our army is now involved in infection wave response preparations. It really looks like they believe that the worst is yet to come after the holidays. Experts were already expecting that but the government seems to listen now.

[Zorral]

For some reason I find this darkly hilarious:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/17/business/omicron-return-to-office.html

Quote

 

It was three words that workers don’t hear every day from their bosses: “I was wrong.”

Morgan Stanley’s chief executive, James Gorman, asked this week about employees returning to the office, said his projection about the pandemic subsiding was off. “I thought we would have been out of it past Labor Day,” Mr. Gorman said on CNBC. “And we’re not.” ....

 

Here's yet another guy in charge of millions of lives in one way and another who seems entirely ignorant of how things work in the body.  The evidence, the proof, that mixing large numbers of people for hours at a time days at a time in the same indoors place, particularly in the fall, and during holidays, makes for spread of a contagious disease, seems to have gone right past him.  Just like all those jerkwaddies called legislators in state and federal government who don't know the first thing about women's bodies, reproduction, pregnancy and childbirth and childcare.  And I mean know nothing at all!  "Women can't get pregnant from rape.  If it's really rape a woman just shuts the whole thing down."

[ljkeane]

I had my booster jab today. The vaccination centre was creaking at the seams a little from the number of people there. I think the quick turnaround to trying to get everyone a booster has caught the local health authority out a bit.

[williamjm]

I saw today that Scotland has now given booster vaccinations to 50% of its adult population, which is impressive.

2 hours ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

I have seen some German language news articles now that claim that Omicron is as bad as Delta for those that are neither vaccinated nor recovered.

It also more likely to cause symptoms in people with a prepared immune system than other variants but those people face less severe symptoms.

Looks like it is a complete repeat of the "Delta is less dangerous" speculations.

 

It does feel there's a bit of an obsession in some quarters with the severity question rather than considering what the impact of it will be taking into account vaccinations and previous infections which seems the more pressing question. I saw a post pointing out that (at least in the UK) Delta caused fewer deaths than previous waves but nobody seriously thinks that was because Delta was intrinsically less dangerous, it was (primarily) because of the vaccination program.

[Luzifer's right hand]

2 hours ago, williamjm said:

I saw today that Scotland has now given booster vaccinations to 50% of its adult population, which is impressive.

 

It does feel there's a bit of an obsession in some quarters with the severity question rather than considering what the impact of it will be taking into account vaccinations and previous infections which seems the more pressing question. I saw a post pointing out that (at least in the UK) Delta caused fewer deaths than previous waves but nobody seriously thinks that was because Delta was intrinsically less dangerous, it was (primarily) because of the vaccination program.

That tends to get dismissed by the people that are yet unvaccinated. I mean that the vaccines seem to be less effective gets turned into "they do nothing" all the time.

Mask discipline sucked as expected when I went to cinema today but at least our government seems to except shit to hit the fan in less than a month and does no pretend that things will not get worse again like it used to do after previous lockdowns. I stayed masked obviously. There were a number of double masked people too tough. 

[Heartofice]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59696499
 

Booster jab should be at least 80% effective at protecting against severe disease. Hard to say whether that sounds good or bad.

However what I don’t really get from this article is that they haven’t factored in T Cell immunity.. which just seems like it is a pretty important component! What it suggests is that they really don’t know yet and are pulling numbers out of the air

[Impmk2]

22 hours ago, VigoTheCarpathian said:

Nephew just tested positive for COVID, and the whole family is unvaccinated and vocal the whole pandemic (wife’s sister and BiL).  When asked if they were worried, sister-in-law said “we’re fat enough to qualify for monoclonal antibodies, we’re not worried.”  Enough to make me sort of wish harm on them just to not reinforce their shit opinions and actions.

So the efficacy of most mAbs just got blown out of the water by Omicron, pretty much the only one available worth a damn is sotrovimab. There's likely to be a big run on it in the short term, so good luck to them getting supply.

[The Anti-Targ]

Our situation is not going according to how I expected. Auckland has still only been unshackled for 3 days, so it is too early for delta spread with mass travel out of Auckland to be picked up. But numbers are plummeting in Auckland itself with just 25 cases reported today, the lowest number of cases in Auckland for ages. The county as a whole is now 90% eligible/76% total fully vaccinated and 94/79 at least 1st dose. Obviously a decent vaccination rate is having an effect, but all the modelling suggested cases would be rising in December even with this vaccination rate. Aside from some idiot people protesting  and pockets of people refusing to wear masks it does seem like the vast majority of people are masking and distancing, and it's summer, and school is now finished until February.

We have found 4 cases of Omicron at the border so far, so it leaking into the country is just a matter of time. Then we'll see how our vaccination rate and high use of masks stacks up.

[Fragile Bird]

Well, Canada’s cases are up 45% week over week. I suspect we will be in record territory in a few days.

[Iskaral Pust]

The outbreak of positive cases at my office means I was a close contact of someone who tested positive.  I was in the same large conference room as them for 30 minutes on Tuesday.

I’ve stayed isolated at home and worn a KN95 mask full time.  I’ve had negative antigen tests each day since.  I think if I get another (fourth) negative test today then I’ll stop wearing the mask full time at home.  No symptoms.

There’s no availability for PCR tests near me because NYC seems to be having a huge surge that is sucking up all test capacity, and home antigen tests seem sold out.  Fortunately we bought 10 antigen tests when our son returned to school in September.

[RhaenysBee]

We are steadily on the decline but it’s only a matter of weeks before omicron spikes it up.
It’ll be interesting to see what the stats show. If omicron is indeed milder than delta, we won’t necessarily see significantly more cases, only a higher percentage of positive tests within all tests, as people still don’t get tested. Hospitalizations and deaths  might remain roughly the same. If omicron isn’t a wee bit milder than delta (and frankly, this is a fair enough possibility), we’ll probably break world record of deaths per population and see the mortality rate soar, because there’ll be more fatal cases while people still don’t get tested.
We’ll never know, but I wouldn’t be surprised if at least half of real covid cases weren’t ever detected. 

 

[Filippa Eilhart]

Cases in SA seem to be peaking now.

[Zorral]

We went for an exploratory walk last night -- it was soft, warm and no wind.  And no people either. Very quiet out there for a Friday night in our nabe at 10 PM.   NYU shutting down makes a huge difference, of course. And, well, maybe people are scared by now, since it’s a what? 5^th wave? After each wave being more transmissible and hitting younger people? Not even inside were most restaurants filled. Nobody sitting in the sheds on the streets, or parading on the sidewalks displaying how creatively they are rockin' the current mode.  And the people like us who were out, were clearly locals, walking the dogs, going for some groceries, all wearing masks.

BTW, attendees at the Disclave World Con are complaining that the hotel planned so badly they didn't hire enough people to keep the big restaurant open 24/7, and all the other smaller food courts.  I don't think it was poor planning, guys.  It's called labor shortage.  What about this can't you all get?