Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Update on Omicron

who.int

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

631–640 of 794 posts

Re: Update on Omicron

#631

Post by kingkawn »

noarchy wrote: post #574

This variant is already being found on nearly every continent as I type this. We still don’t seem to know if this variant is more or less contagious or more or less deadly. It’s too late to stop it’s spread. So then what? Just keep pushing the worldwide vaccination campaign? I don’t see what else can be done that wouldn’t simply be kicking the can down the road more.

More contagious means more deaths because more people get it. More deadly means more people who get it die. In both cases more people die.

Re: Update on Omicron

#632

Post by ceejayoz »

mathverse wrote: post #623
timmf wrote: post #617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do agree with all your points, except: > Masks have a very modest impact on transmission They are an effective measure which has lead to significant decrease in infection rates. There are of course parameters like the type of mask.

How many people are even using those masks correctly? There's a lot of people going around with old and contaminated masks or wearing them improperly.

"People aren't using them properly" is an argument for better education, not ditching the things.

Re: Update on Omicron

#633

Post by uniqueuid »

choeger wrote: post #591

There's little that can be done, sadly. We had so many shutdowns/lockdowns that did not really help (here in Germany, lockdowns were usually announced when the growth rate had already leveled off). Closing schools and kindergarten hurts kids. Home office might be an idea, where it is not already standard. What I wonder is: Instead of only restricting movement in the general population, why are there not many more tes…

Regarding tests: It's still problematic that self-administered antigene tests have weak sensitivity (so even if you test every day the tests will miss many cases).

PCR tests cost something around 100€ a piece, so assuming Germany has ~90 million population, that's 9 billion Euros for a single cross-sectional population test.

Now let's add some speculative factors: Some 10 million (+/- 10 million) are strongly opposed to state-mandated measures. Some will evade the tests, some will fake them, some may become violent. These people are also among those who are most likely to be Cov-positive.

Also, testing the entire population would only help if you simultaneously lock down the borders to prevent re-import.

So while broad testing has its merits, I feel like the gains here would be mostly modest.

Re: Update on Omicron

#634

Post by RobertoG »

mathverse wrote: post #605
namanaggarwal wrote: post #578

For those commenting that it's just common cold and about herd immunity, I think we should not miss out on overload on our medical system. This is what happened in India, due to high number of cases (even if mild) the medical infrastructure completely crashed under the load and lead to far more deaths than just a flu could have caused. Wear mask and stay indoors if possible

I am sorry but no. I have already lost 2 years of my life just following and obeying the orders. Enough is enough. This is not on me to solve. The government had enough time to convince everyone to vaccinate or prepare the healthcare sector for influx of cases of unvaccinated.

There is not realistic healthcare infrastructure that could compensate for exponential grow of patients.

Re: Update on Omicron

#635

Post by incrudible »

vaylian wrote: post #603
incrudible wrote: post #586

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wear mask and stay indoors if possible For all we know about transmission, you should stay outdoors, if possible. If this isn't possible, maximize ventilation. Limit contacts in general. Masks have a very modest impact on transmission.

> Masks have a very modest impact on transmission Do you have a source for that?

The (to my knowledge) largest study on community transmission finds ~10% reduction:

https://www.poverty-action.org/sites/default/files/publicati...

There are many other studies that find no or modest reduction. We need to accept lower results as an upper bound to effectiveness, especially when it comes to how the average person uses masks, versus how a health care professional.

Re: Update on Omicron

#636

Post by impendingchange »

kwertyoowiyop wrote: post #585
impendingchange wrote: post #571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coronavirus in the '80s was defined as the common cold. Edit: Prove me wrong.

We don’t have to prove you wrong. You’re the one making the statement, so you have to prove you’re right.

The definition of the Coronavirus in the AMA medical Encyclopedia textbook.

https://www.bitchute.com/video/UvuXzdVwj3ed/

Proved right again.

Re: Update on Omicron

#637

Post by Bud »

mathverse wrote: post #605
namanaggarwal wrote: post #578

For those commenting that it's just common cold and about herd immunity, I think we should not miss out on overload on our medical system. This is what happened in India, due to high number of cases (even if mild) the medical infrastructure completely crashed under the load and lead to far more deaths than just a flu could have caused. Wear mask and stay indoors if possible

I am sorry but no. I have already lost 2 years of my life just following and obeying the orders. Enough is enough. This is not on me to solve. The government had enough time to convince everyone to vaccinate or prepare the healthcare sector for influx of cases of unvaccinated.

"You lost"? You?

This isn't about you. And those 2 years are sunk costs for all of us.

You're engaging in magical thinking, here. We can't afford it. It's self-centered. And it does nobody any good, most especially not you. Might get you killed, though.

As an aside, no, the healthcare "sector" is not at all prepared, it has never been prepared, and it can't magically be made prepared, either. The only solution there is to avoid overloading the system. There aren't any other solutions. So rational people will continue to argue for all of the mitigation measures that we know are effective. Whether you like it or not. It's just as much "on you" to participate in that as it is "on" all of the rest of us.

Re: Update on Omicron

#638

Post by mathverse »

Dumblydorr wrote: post #625
mathverse wrote: post #605

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am sorry but no. I have already lost 2 years of my life just following and obeying the orders. Enough is enough. This is not on me to solve. The government had enough time to convince everyone to vaccinate or prepare the healthcare sector for influx of cases of unvaccinated.

How was the government supposed to convince anti-vaxxers to do what they believe contains micro chips or what they believe is worse than the virus itself? This isn't on the government, this is on anti-vaxxers for swallowing garbage information, hook line and sinker. And you didn't lose 2 years of your life. You're alive, you didn't die due to the pandemic, did you? That's much less than can be said for 5 million othe…

>How was the government supposed to convince anti-vaxxers to do what they believe contains micro chips or what they believe is worse than the virus itself? This isn't on the government, this is on anti-vaxxers for swallowing garbage information, hook line and sinker.

This is solely on the government. It's immoral to keep vaccinated people in uncertainty and include them in any sort of lockdowns.

>And you didn't lose 2 years of your life. You're alive, you didn't die due to the pandemic, did you? That's much less than can be said for 5 million others, mostly older or unhealthy to begin with. They're dead because people didn't follow the guidelines early and it kept spreading and spreading.

This is not arguing in good faith. Healthy people in their 30s are not dying. Of all the 0.5m children infected in Israel only 200 were severe cases.

>So, be grateful you're not dead, and do your part to increase collective resilience.

I already did my part. Now my part will be attending a demo with all those "antivaxx / 5G chips believing people" and I will fight for my right to live a normal life.

Re: Update on Omicron

#639

Post by VierScar »

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #593
noarchy wrote: post #574

This variant is already being found on nearly every continent as I type this. We still don’t seem to know if this variant is more or less contagious or more or less deadly. It’s too late to stop it’s spread. So then what? Just keep pushing the worldwide vaccination campaign? I don’t see what else can be done that wouldn’t simply be kicking the can down the road more.

> We still don’t seem to know if this variant is more or less contagious (R0 of 2) we already know it's far more contagious but not if it's more deadly than delta with an r0 of 2: > The estimated reproduction number, the average number of people that an individual is likely to infect, is almost 2 in Gauteng compared with nearly 1.5 nationally. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2299194-omicron-how-dan...

I think I am misunderstanding something. But wasnt the original Covid an R0 of 2.5-3? And Delta has an R0 of 7-8?

An R0 of 2 sounds like a really low infection rate in comparison, but then it's increasing rapidly and outcompeting delta? I dont get it.

Re: Update on Omicron

#640

Post by MontyCarloHall »

selfhoster11 wrote: post #595
throw8932894 wrote: post #570

Or maybe SARS‑CoV‑2 just become common flu. There will be herd immunity and risk will become low.

Common flu doesn't leave people with long-term reduction in cognitive and/or physical ability.

Severe cases of the flu can certainly cause chronic issues, as can severe cases of COVID.

I am not aware of any compelling evidence that minor cases of COVID cause severe long-term symptoms at any substantial frequency. Assuming vaccine efficacy remains at a level where severe COVID cases are extremely rare amongst vaccinated individuals, I see no reason to worry.

Post reply on HN