Live data from Hacker News

Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

washingtonpost.com

11–20 of 1001 posts

Re: Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

#12
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it is lower because it is the second infection some had.

Or they were vaccinated

For what it's worth, the vaccination rate in South Africa is low. It's only around 25% for the original course with little to no boosters done.

Re: Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

#13
The title is misleading. It is possible that Omicron is just as severe and that the effect in the study is because a large percentage of the population had some immunity from a previous infection or vaccine.

> South Africa has a quite high seroprevalence of prior infection, particularly after delta, and in some parts of South Africa up to 80 percent of people were exposed to previous infection. We don’t think it’s a question of virulence, but more a question of exposure to vaccination and prior infection, so we would be cautious to try and interpret that this is a less virulent strain. We’ll have to see what happens in other parts of the world before we make a call on this.

Re: Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

#14

Quote: The study by Discovery Health, South Africa’s largest health insurer, of 211,000 positive coronavirus cases, of which 78,000 were attributed to omicron, showed that risk of hospital admissions among adults who contracted covid-19 was 29 percent lower than in the initial pandemic wave that emerged in March 2020.

Could it be because we just got slightly better at treating Covid before hospitalization?

Re: Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

#15
post #13

The title is misleading. It is possible that Omicron is just as severe and that the effect in the study is because a large percentage of the population had some immunity from a previous infection or vaccine. > South Africa has a quite high seroprevalence of prior infection, particularly after delta, and in some parts of South Africa up to 80 percent of people were exposed to previous infection. We don’t think it’s a…

a large percentage of the planets population has some immunity from previous infection or vaccination

Re: Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

#16
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it is lower because it is the second infection some had.

Second infections, on average, have slightly worse outcomes then first infections among the unvaccinated. https://jim.bmj.com/content/69/6/1253 It's a small sample, but it was done on data available in 2020, which was before vaccines were available.

That link shows most (69%) have similar outcomes. 68.8% -- 19% had worse symptoms and 12.5% had milder symptoms.

Small sample size, but even similar result is somewhat surprising -- I would've thought the 2nd infection would be weaker.

Re: Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

#17
post #13

The title is misleading. It is possible that Omicron is just as severe and that the effect in the study is because a large percentage of the population had some immunity from a previous infection or vaccine. > South Africa has a quite high seroprevalence of prior infection, particularly after delta, and in some parts of South Africa up to 80 percent of people were exposed to previous infection. We don’t think it’s a…

It would be nice, and seemingly feasible, if they could compare to recent Delta infections (or even current one, seeing as both variants are present right now). Presumably any kind of acquired immunity is more comparable to 3 months ago vs. 21 months ago.

It could still be that among people infected with Omicron, there is a larger proportion of vaccinated people, due to vaccines being less efficient, but that's still a better yardstick.

Re: Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

#18
post #13

The title is misleading. It is possible that Omicron is just as severe and that the effect in the study is because a large percentage of the population had some immunity from a previous infection or vaccine. > South Africa has a quite high seroprevalence of prior infection, particularly after delta, and in some parts of South Africa up to 80 percent of people were exposed to previous infection. We don’t think it’s a…

Also, most people who would have died of Covid in South Africa already died during the Beta and then the Delta wave.

Re: Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

#19
post #13

The title is misleading. It is possible that Omicron is just as severe and that the effect in the study is because a large percentage of the population had some immunity from a previous infection or vaccine. > South Africa has a quite high seroprevalence of prior infection, particularly after delta, and in some parts of South Africa up to 80 percent of people were exposed to previous infection. We don’t think it’s a…

I would suspect that most people who are were already vulnerable have already passed or built immunity if the virus is equally dangerous, resulting in a lower than equal death rate despite equivalent risk.

Although... Can we never, not even once, be a little optimistic? To me, the news that we may be replacing COVID with a less severe strain is some of the best news of the year. COVID clearly isn't going away at this point, so by all means try to replace it with something weaker!

EDIT: Also, on a side note, the actual doctor who found Omicron said it was less dangerous. She even described it as "extremely mild." https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgddw4/omicron-variant-inter... Needless to say, politicians and news hosts decided to completely ignore her description about it.

Re: Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study

#20
post #13

The title is misleading. It is possible that Omicron is just as severe and that the effect in the study is because a large percentage of the population had some immunity from a previous infection or vaccine. > South Africa has a quite high seroprevalence of prior infection, particularly after delta, and in some parts of South Africa up to 80 percent of people were exposed to previous infection. We don’t think it’s a…

I would suspect that most people who are were already vulnerable have already passed or built immunity if the virus is equally dangerous, resulting in a lower than equal death rate despite equivalent risk. Although... Can we never, not even once, be a little optimistic? To me, the news that we may be replacing COVID with a less severe strain is some of the best news of the year. COVID clearly isn't going away at this…

> Although... Can we never, not even once, be a little optimistic?

No. This is a perfectly good crisis and to do so would be to let it go to waste.

Post reply on HN