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Pfizer and Biontech provide update on Omicron variant

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Re: Pfizer and Biontech provide update on Omicron variant

#431

Post by arisAlexis »

hcurtiss wrote: post #395
ohyes wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You had the vaccine so you recovered quickly, if you didn’t have the vaccine you might not have recovered and needed hospitalization. I mean, the alternative where you don’t get the vaccine includes much higher risk of lung damage, nervous system damage and total organ failure. I think even if there was data to back this up (that somehow vaccine gives less protection than a real infection…), getting a booster every y…

Except for many cohorts, the overwhelming — near certain — odds are that they’d be fine after contracting COVID.

Why draw a deadly roulette ticket?

Re: Pfizer and Biontech provide update on Omicron variant

#432

Post by dougmwne »

My main concern is that the tests were done several weeks after the dose at the moment of peak immunity. No evidence I’m aware of of how long the neutralizing antibodies last for Omicron after a booster, though it would not have been particularly difficult to test samples at 2 week intervals to get a trend line. Ideally the higher protection would last at least a few month since that’s how long a infection wave usually lasts in the population.

Re: Pfizer and Biontech provide update on Omicron variant

#433

Post by bluGill »

hdjjhhvvhga wrote: post #249
mentat wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Remain obsessed" with transmission of a highly contagious virus that has shown significant ability to mutate at scale? That sure seems worth being obsessed about. When it mutates to spread past all current defenses then consistently kill because we failed to stop current spread it will indeed be "depressing".

If you ignore the context and the multifaceted consequences of lockdowns etc., then yes, you are correct and we should be obsessed with the transmission rates. However, we don't have the same level of obsessions about other viruses present in humans (say, HSV-1 which unlike SARS-CoV-2 will live inside you until you die), and even other coronaviruses. Why? Because what matters most is how dangerous the virus is. Fortu…

> Omicron deaths are still at zero

Omicron hasn't been around long enough to expect many deaths yet. Even the optimists need to wait a few more weeks.

Re: Pfizer and Biontech provide update on Omicron variant

#434

Post by hamburglar1 »

mafuy wrote: post #300
hamburglar1 wrote: post #239

Is there a comprehensive white-paper anywhere with sample sizes and error bars? Otherwise this seems like an anecdote. "The sera were collected from subjects 3 weeks after receiving the second dose or one month after receiving the third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine" How do we know this study isn't just measuring the effect of that additional week? Also how many subjects was this sera pulled from? Are…

I have no idea why you believe a third dose is just marketing. It is plainly obvious that immunity decreases over time, as is the case for all vaccines against flus and similar. A booster is the normal way to handle it. If there were a way to avoid it, at least one of the many companies working on this would have created it. And one for the regular flu, too, while they are at it, which has not happened in decades.

I didn't say it was just marketing - I was asking for additional data to shed light on how robust (or frail) this result is. I don't think there is enough in this press release.

edit: (maybe you meant to comment on that other comment on this...)

Re: Pfizer and Biontech provide update on Omicron variant

#435

Post by djrogers »

Very curious as to how this was determined:

"Although two doses of the vaccine may still offer protection against severe disease caused by the Omicron strain, it’s clear from these preliminary data that protection is improved with a third dose of our vaccine"

Based on the latest data, not a single person has died from Omicron, so what are they using to back this up? It's possible that Omicron is less deadly than previous strains, so what they're claiming may be kinda like saying "our water is wetter"...

Re: Pfizer and Biontech provide update on Omicron variant

#436

Post by swader999 »

eloff wrote: post #348
stolenmerch wrote: post #146

If I'm reading this correctly, this is "protection against severe disease" and has little to do with transmission. The National Airport Data from Israel seems to suggest "the absolute number of infected individuals in the Vaccinated (boosted) group is likely to be at least as high as in the Unvaccinated" [0] So it seems to me that as long as we all remain obsessed with case numbers and not actual hospitalizations and…

I agree with you about the focus on cases instead of hospitalizations. However, even in places with high levels of vaccination, so far cases does translate into stressing hospitals to the edge, followed by lockdown and other restrictions. See Alberta, Canada in September, or Austria two weeks ago and Germany now. This doesn't end until nearly everyone is vaccinated, recovered, or dead. To paraphrase the German health…

Alberta delayed a few surgeries, nobody was triaged out of ICU care. Bringing on enough staff to up ICU by 50 more beds is the right goal for them.

Re: Pfizer and Biontech provide update on Omicron variant

#437

Post by the_doctah »

anoonmoose wrote: post #425
the_doctah wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point is that this glowing report is from the same company trying to collude with governments to force the vaccines. It may be "optional" for some people (not at my company if I want to keep my office job!), but they sure are trying hard to change that. And you know that, which makes your statement disingenuous.

there's no need for the scare quotes around "optional", its still optional regardless of how much fearmongering and conspiracy stuff you spew

Fearmongering? I was literally forced to take it, with my company directly referencing Biden's order for companies > 100 to require it. I'm not sure where you get off calling it a conspiracy.

Re: Pfizer and Biontech provide update on Omicron variant

#438

Post by robotmay »

jmnicolas wrote: post #364
swayvil wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Checking out your replies that got flagged and killed. Mob style censorship is alive and well here.

It's a lost battle, the majority on HN decided to suspend doubt about the vaccines and the crooks at Pfizer (look at their judiciary past, the name crook is warranted). It's funny how smart people can read regularly articles that show that 90% of scientific papers aren't reproducible (so it's actually not science) then will proceed to trust blindly the next scientific paper they read.

It's not censorship if people just think you're fucking idiots.

Re: Pfizer and Biontech provide update on Omicron variant

#439

Post by ptaipale »

TechBro8615 wrote: post #320
invalidusernam3 wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but I'm willing to bet most of the hospitalised are not vaccinated, or at least a disproportionate amount of them aren't vaccinated

How much are you willing to bet? Keep in mind that if the population is 90% vaccinated, you expect something approaching 90% of ICU beds to be vaccinated (well, with an effective and sterilizing vaccine you wouldn’t expect this, but that’s not where we are). In England last month, 79% of Covid deaths were vaccinated. Currently about 36% of hospitalizations are unvaccinated. The raw data is here, good luck parsing any…

Not really. With population vaccination rate nearly 90 % we have something approaching 30-40 % of hospital and ICU bed users vaccinated.

The risk of ending up on ICU is about 30 x higher here, when comparing similar demographics. Risk of needing to go to hospital is 19 x higher currently.

Re: Pfizer and Biontech provide update on Omicron variant

#440

Post by jaspax »

jaywalk wrote: post #405
tallanvor wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"We" are people intelligent to recognize that vaccination against diseases like the flu is a good idea even if we're healthy and unlikely to have significant complications. "We" know that the shot will make it less likely for us to get sick, and that we're more likely to have a mild case if we do get it after being vaccinated. "We" also recognize that getting vaccinated helps reduce the number of people who spread a…

"You are not intelligent because you make different personal medical decisions than I do."

Indeed. Every time I read a post like the grandparent I move closer to full-blown antivaxx.
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