This new variant has been called "mild." I hope this proves to be true, and is not used as an excuse for another lockdown. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-diseas...
Why do you say "excuse for another lockdown"? Are you implying that someone in government has alterior motives to desire a lockdown?
Update on Omicron
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Re: Update on Omicron
#22Re: Update on Omicron
#23Re: Update on Omicron
#24In general, respiratory viruses tend to get less severe over time. With this mass vaccination approach it may not turn out that way by some accounts I've read.
Citations? I think I've heard that too, but if you've read something recently that would help me separate a study from a rumor.
A respiratory virus may have an evolutionary advantage if it doesn't hit the organism so hard that the host stays home and isolates. Mild symptoms may increase the likelihood for socialising for example, thus there could be evolutionary pressure for a milder form to develop.
I would assume that these are just general observations and it won't allow a clear prediction where COVID19 variants are headed. But there are theories that other coronaviruses have been more aggressive initially until they became the milder forms that are nowadays endemic.
Of course we know plenty viruses that have evolved and are still deadly, so this isn't something I would bet on.
Re: Update on Omicron
#25In general, respiratory viruses tend to get less severe over time. With this mass vaccination approach it may not turn out that way by some accounts I've read.
Re: Update on Omicron
#26In general, respiratory viruses tend to get less severe over time. With this mass vaccination approach it may not turn out that way by some accounts I've read.
Re: Update on Omicron
#27Re: Update on Omicron
#28I think this might be the most level headed information I’ve seen so far: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/go-get-your-v...
Re: Update on Omicron
#29In general, respiratory viruses tend to get less severe over time. With this mass vaccination approach it may not turn out that way by some accounts I've read.
One is the evolution of myxomatosis in Australia, it is a disease affecting rabbits. The disease split into 4 strains. Eventually the dominant one become, IIRC, one that had the slowest progression, but also was the deadliest overall.
Buns infected with that strain had larger chances of passing it on (since they were alive longer), and yet they would be more likely to die.
I guess evolution doesn’t care, and if a strain is more deadly, yet more persistent, it will win.
Re: Update on Omicron
#30This new variant has been called "mild." I hope this proves to be true, and is not used as an excuse for another lockdown. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-diseas...
Why do you say "excuse for another lockdown"? Are you implying that someone in government has alterior motives to desire a lockdown?
It could be a group of people acting strategically towards a particular goal, in a series of steps. Those steps would include paying funds for the following: Lobbying governmental officials across all three branches, Strategically networking & "giving gifts" (quid pro quo), Sponsoring scientific studies, Paying journalists to report certain things.
For example, Amazon Executives have a financial interests in reducing competition from independent retailers ("Mom & Pop shops"). A lockdown would certainly boost Amazon's position in that case. And Bezos does own the Washington Post.
By the way, have you heard of Operation Mockingbird [1]?
"Operation Mockingbird is an alleged large-scale program of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that began in the early years of the Cold War and attempted to manipulate news media for propaganda purposes."
"According to author Deborah Davis, Operation Mockingbird recruited leading American journalists into a propaganda network and influenced the operations of front groups. CIA support of front groups was exposed when a 1967 Ramparts magazine article reported that the National Student Association received funding from the CIA. In 1975, Church Committee Congressional investigations revealed Agency connections with journalists and civic groups."