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Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

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Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#191

Post by naasking »

f38zf5vdt wrote: post #167
koheripbal wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His argument is fallacious. He's saying that since there all other variants we're susceptible to the vaccine, it's unlikely that this one is. ...and goes on to list the high number of different markers the vaccines target. Unfortunately, vaccines largely target the spike proteins, and sequencing of omicron is demonstrating that every single protein marker on the spike is changed. Vaccines will likely have a very smal…

A study in Nature had previously shown that >= 20 amino acid mutations on the spike protein was sufficient to cause immune escape from the vaccine or previous infection, but that individuals who were both previously infected and vaccinated were still able to neutralize the mutant virus. [1] The omicron variant has >30 AA mutations on the spike protein, so it remains to be seen how effective vaccines are in response t…

> individuals who were both previously infected and vaccinated were still able to neutralize the mutant virus.

Mainly because of the infection, not the vaccination. Infection trains your immune response to detect multiple factors of the virus, the mRNA vaccines are only for the spike protein which has considerable mutations in later variants like this one.

Arguably, traditional dead-virus vaccines might provide better long-term protection for this reason, but we went all-in on the new tech.

Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#192

Post by spookthesunset »

bonzini wrote: post #174
spookthesunset wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine being given almost 2 years to build capacity to put that fire out so the community could go back to normal life but instead zero additional capacity was built? Hospitals had almost 2 years to build capacity. Where is it? Why is society being asked to continue bailing out institutions that have had an enormous amount of time to prepare?

You just don't build capacity against something that grows exponentially until it hits a substantial part of the overall population. Say a country like the UK, at the peak of the curve, would have 1% of their population getting sick everyday for a week or two, and 1% of that getting in a hospital (very conservative since 1% is the IFR and lots of people get out of the hospital on their legs) You might have built the…

Such an excuse. You find the doctors or find a way to get people to help. It’s an emergency. Figure it out.

Forcing society to grind to an halt because some “experts” just waive their hand and give up is absurd.

Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#193

Post by throwawayboise »

somewhereoutth wrote: post #153
spookthesunset wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A heck of a lot of people really don't want to move on from all this. Life is way too short to be wasted living the way some of society seems to think is necessary "in order to take this serious". Disease and death have been a part of humanity since time began. All we can do is try to make the most out of the short time we have here on this earth. Playing this covid theater game for 2+ years is, in my opinion, an ins…

"some of you may have to die, but that is a sacrifice I'm willing to make"

We choose to die for/in defense of a lifestyle all the time. We call it war.

Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#194

Post by vinay427 »

kranke155 wrote: post #45
anonymouse008 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mainstream vaccine narrative has needed additional supporting evidence to state with confidence that vaccinations after previous infection should be a requirement… it’s only natural a new variant should occur with the exact fit needed.

You realise this is mostly the case in the US? In the EU - previous infection and recovery gives you a COVID Pass - some countries are doing a single shot after infection at most to count you as vaccinated (Spain I believe does this) which is consistent with the data we have It’s mostly the US that has an insane vacine policy.

> It’s mostly the US that has an insane vacine policy.

Source? There are plenty of other countries that require vaccinations and/or tests. I was recently checking Singapore, for instance, which still seems to require one dose of a vaccine after recovery.

Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#195

Post by ashildr »

It is called variant of *concern* not variant of *panic*. So while it may be wise to stop travelling (European here) it is absolutely useless to speculate about the doom it brings. Doom is what we already do with ineffective measures to fight Delta (German here).

Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#196

Post by School-Cotton »

TechBro8615 wrote: post #177
School-Cotton wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming you're going to live for 50 more years from today, wasting a year of your life is only worth it if it prevents a 2% chance of death.

This assumes every year of life has equal worth.

Indeed. If you assume that earlier years are worth more, the point is even stronger.

Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#197

Post by vinay427 »

TechBro8615 wrote: post #176
ethbr0 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a multinational organization, funded by member states, built around consensus that we're talking about here. It seems unreasonable to expect international organizations to be simultaneously accepted by multiple parties with divergent and conflicting interests... and somehow not be subject to politics.

And yet, their representatives do things like disconnect from Skype when asked about Taiwan, and they skipped naming a mutation the Xi variant. So how much can you trust them? Probably about as much as you can trust who they’re loyal to.

Those actions are precisely what one might expect of a multinational organization aiming to build consensus. It sounds like you’re implying some sort of behind-the-scenes loyalties, whereas I would suggest they’re more of a necessary feature given this mission.

Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#198

Post by ryankupyn »

vletal wrote: post #112

Omicron? Was not it Nu like few hours ago? I like the longer name better. Our ministry of finance has already made a typo in a Facebook post calling it Mu (like the sound cows make).

"Omicron" also has the advantage of being easier to hear and understand in english - "Nu" can cause confusion because it sounds so much like "New".

Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#199

Post by hh3k0 »

WJW wrote: post #137
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This literally reads like post apocalyptic fan fiction. I find it incredibly fascinating how fast this virus can mutate in order to throw curveballs around our natural and engineered defenses and become more efficient at killing us. How is this even possible in such a short amount of time? I thought evolution takes tens of thousands of years. It's not like viruses have giant brains with massive IQs to come up with a…

> and become more efficient at killing us. This is not actually a "goal" of the virus, since dead people cannot move and therefore spread much less of the virus. They seek to become more infectious so they can spread more, and in this process sometimes they also accidentally kill the host.

> Viruses don’t always become attenuated (less virulent). When they do, it’s because there is an evolutionary selection pressure driving it. No such pressure exists for SARS-CoV-2. An example of this type of selection pressure would be a virus that is so virulent, it kills its host before it can be transmitted to another one. A virus is essentially a machine programmed to make more viruses. To do that, it needs to be spread to new hosts. So variants that are so virulent they kill a host before that host can pass it along, that is under negative selection pressure. The more virulent viruses won’t be passed on. But attenuated variants will. They are under positive selection. For SARS-CoV-2, this has never been an issue. This virus can be transmitted to a new host before an infected person develops symptoms. Even those who die from COVID are most contagious before they become severely ill.

https://mobile.twitter.com/angie_rasmussen/status/1441416013...

Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#200

Post by bedhead »

brazzy wrote: post #119
bedhead wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you point to a single policy that has demonstrated (in an intellectually honest way) ANY efficacy in slowing covid? One?? Vax passports, cloth masks, N95 masks, face shields, closing schools, cohorts, WFH, clean/dirty pen jars (my fave), plexiglass, 6 feet, travel bans... The grim reality is that there hasn't been a single policy that's been shown to have made any difference at all. NONE. There's literally nothin…

>The grim reality is that there hasn't been a single policy that's been shown to have made any difference at all. NONE. BULLSHIT. How delusional can you be? There is plenty of evidence that masks and contact reduction in various forms have a massive effect on how quickly the virus spreads. Infection numbers and their development over time varied wildly between countries, clearly correlated with such measures, long be…

Show me. Let’s go. Show me. Skip the tough guy talk and connect the dots. Go.

See, if it was so blindingly obvious people like you wouldn’t scream indiscriminately, you’d just give us your mathematical proof and we’d all agree because it wouldn’t be disputable. But that data doesn’t exist, there isn’t even faint circumstantial evidence, so we get yelling and swearing instead.

Look, if I claimed the sun rises in the west this would be easy to settle. You speak with that amount of confidence, so let’s see it. Enlighten us all. I’ve been waiting for 19 months…

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