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

washingtonpost.com

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

#251

Post by wbsss4412 »

dham wrote: post #180
Sargos wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Spanish Flu was over a hundred years ago and hit the world the same way Covid did even though there was no McDonald's or obesity epidemic back then.

Yes but Spanish Flu was really really bad. Affected everyone. Covid is not the Spanish Flu or even the Flu. The flu kills children and is indiscriminate. 80% of hospitalizations and deaths from Covid are related to weight. We should have prioritized health and Vitamin D in April 2020. At that time it was clear it was mainly affecting overweight people. Of course even almost 2 years later people still don't think that…

80% of hospitalizations and death globally or in the US specifically?

Globally that is one thing, but if that data point is in the US, then the baseline population is something like 60-70% overweight/obese to begin with. In which case, that elevation from baseline isn’t as significant as implied.

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

#252

Post by lostlogin »

CorrectHorseBat wrote: post #184
azekai wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Probably naive to think we could totally eradicate it within a couple of years, particularly as far as vaccine fearmongering is concerned. Would be nice to see it join Smallpox and Polio though. We would have to completely redesign our current method of vaccination, then. We do not have a sterilizing vaccine for COVID (like we did for smallpox and polio). The current vaccines all use spike proteins to prepare a body…

What other target would be better for a sterilizing vaccine?

Malaria.

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

#253

Post by kenjackson »

dham wrote: post #180
Sargos wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Spanish Flu was over a hundred years ago and hit the world the same way Covid did even though there was no McDonald's or obesity epidemic back then.

Yes but Spanish Flu was really really bad. Affected everyone. Covid is not the Spanish Flu or even the Flu. The flu kills children and is indiscriminate. 80% of hospitalizations and deaths from Covid are related to weight. We should have prioritized health and Vitamin D in April 2020. At that time it was clear it was mainly affecting overweight people. Of course even almost 2 years later people still don't think that…

> 80% of hospitalizations and deaths from Covid are related to weight.

Citation for this? I've never heard this at all.

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

#254

Post by kiba »

rkk3 wrote: post #210
kiba wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That said, we've accepted an annual winter uptick in flu infections and we just tell people most vulnerable to get their yearly flu jab; less vulnerable folks can stay at home for a bit and manage the symptoms. If that's what we have to do for covid every winter then so be it. Accepted? I would call that normalizing as well. According to an estimate, about 290,000 to 650,000 globally died of the flu each year.[1] Nor…

At a certain point we accept the tradeoffs and get on with it. A few hundred thousand people die of the flu every year. So what? It's tragic, but that is life.

Normalization is not about accepting tradeoff. It's accepting defeat.

At some point, drastic measures start being worse than the disease. It doesn't mean we should ignore the few hundred thousand death.

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

#255

Post by mrtksn »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #19
ufo wrote: 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…

Just look at well vaccinated populations like UK or Spain and then look at not well vaccinated like Bulgaria to see if it holds.

Unfortunately, in Bulgaria you see that the size of the deaths wave still follows the size of the infection wave.

The “no vulnerable people to die are left” hypothesis doesn’t hold. Those who survived survived because they were lucky, careful or vaccinated. It’s not true that the virus burned through the population and the remaining are the immune or resilient survivors.

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

#256

Post by megablast »

NicoJuicy wrote: post #112
wokwokwok wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wanting something to be true does not make it true. Even if it turns up to actually be true , the fact that so many people want it to be true is an excellent reason to be cautious in how you look at things here, because that is causing a lot of people to say things that haven’t been proven to be true. The evidence so far looks like cause to be cautiously optimistic, but when the people giving out that evidence say “i…

According to what I heard through the Covid update of work. Omicron settles more in the nose and not as much in the long ( their source was a doctor). Although it's too early to be sure, it would explain both an increased transmissibility and a milder variant.

You understand that what you said is pure nonsense right?

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

#257

Post by mohanmcgeek »

JamesBarney wrote: post #250
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The doctor who found it, isn't a psychic. She doesn't have any information the rest of us don't. She's just describing her personal experience. And her experience is entirely consistent with Omicron appearing less virulent because it's infecting the previously infected and vaccinated who already have some degree of immunity.

> because it's infecting the previously infected and vaccinated who already have some degree of immunity.

The doctor isn't a psychic but how do _you_ know this

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

#258

Post by macintux »

GeekyBear wrote: post #216
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Can we never, not even once, be a little optimistic? I'm optimistic. A version of Covid that is much more contagious, but less likely to be severe is a great way to get the immune system of the vaccine avoidant trained on how to recognize and fight Covid. For those who have already been vaccinated, a mild breakthrough infection would serve the same function as a booster shot.

> For those who have already been vaccinated, a mild breakthrough infection would serve the same function as a booster shot.

Except booster shots don’t infect other people.

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

#259

Post by kenjackson »

lieut_data wrote: post #238
nicoburns wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Would you be willing to accept mask mandates in perpetuity? I think it depends on location. In key environments like public transport and supermarkets and other spaces that everyone needs to be able to access it seems reasonable to me that we might keep them for at least a 5-10 year horizon if that proves necessary. It just doesn't seem like a big deal to wear a mask, and it would cut down on the need for more rest…

> It just doesn't seem like a big deal to wear a mask, and it would cut down on the need for more restrictive measures like lockdowns. My wife has a medical exemption from wearing a mask. She cannot live a normal life when the standard response to her being out in public is disgust, constant questioning, or outright rejecting her due to "in-store policies." My father has been wearing a mask, but constantly deals with…

Actually legit medical exemptions are rare. Why can't we do mandates with exemptions (maybe an exemption card from a doctor)?

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

#260

Post by ineedasername »

wonderwonder wrote: post #98
tn890 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. You are forgetting about the most vulnerable group of all: immunosuppressed people. They cannot mount a sufficient immune response, in severe immunosuppression like after a transplant event months or years after.…

I live in a state where mask mandates are essentially gone. Very few people wear masks here and they are not required in schools so only ~5% of kids are wearing them at my children's elementary school. Everything seems pretty good so far, no marked rise in cases and almost no cases in my kids school over the last year, maybe 25 total, all mild. I am in no way saying masks don't work, in fact I think that they do. Wit…

"Everything seems pretty good so far"

There shortages of hospital beds across many states [0] If you want a full perspective on things, look further than your own state.

Unless you live in Wyoming, Colorado, Alaska, North Dakota, or Montana then everything is not going very well. Most people don't live in these states, and many of the states with loose mask mandates are not in that short list. A small are just about holding their ground, but about 40 states have seen a >= 15% increase in infections just in the last two weeks, and one of the least restrictive states for mask mandates (Texas) has increased by 80%. [1]

[0] https://protect-public.hhs.gov/pages/hospital-utilization

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html

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