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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

#271

Post by ineedasername »

JamesBarney wrote: post #261
ineedasername wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The study adjusted for vaccine status [0] but was still comparing things to the initial wave in 2020, which is strange and I would like to know their justification for that. For a bit more of an apples-to-apples comparison they should be comparing omicron hospitalization & fatality rates to those of non-omicron variants over the same period of time. It doesn't look like they've done that, and I'm not aware of a study…

Did they also adjust for previous infection?

Not that I can tell (EDIT: They did, see comment further down) This seems to be research release by PR, not a published study. Although even if they adjusted for prior infections they should still be comparing comparable time periods. It is really odd if they didn't, and odd if they did do it but the results weren't included in the release. The initial 2020 wave is a reasonable baseline, but not a good measure of relative risk factors between variants right now especially because 2020 didn't include Delta.

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

#272

Post by ___q »

JamesBarney wrote: post #261
ineedasername wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The study adjusted for vaccine status [0] but was still comparing things to the initial wave in 2020, which is strange and I would like to know their justification for that. For a bit more of an apples-to-apples comparison they should be comparing omicron hospitalization & fatality rates to those of non-omicron variants over the same period of time. It doesn't look like they've done that, and I'm not aware of a study…

Did they also adjust for previous infection?

Yes

> For individuals who have had COVID-19 previously, the risk of reinfection with Omicron is significantly higher, relative to prior variants.

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

#273

Post by adolph »

sjg007 wrote: post #202
iso1631 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting how Scotland, which kept a mask mandate, and England, which dropped it, affected cases. From start to end of October, cases per 100k, 7 day average Glasgow -- 300->220 Edinburgh -- 210->250 Manchester -- 290->220 Birmingham -- 250->280 4 similar cities, two with mask mandates, two without. And smaller ones Aberdeen -- 267->330 Southampton -- 300->410 Perth -- 320->260 Hereford -- 290->580 So there ma…

There are plenty of scientific studies showing that masks work.

I think the number analyzing actual mask usage is fewer than you’d think.

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

#274

Post by cipheredStones »

CountDrewku wrote: post #209
zzzeek wrote: post #27

cue the "it's just the flu!" army. on this end, I do not want covid at all, straight up. I will keep wearing my N95 to all the dirty looks I keep getting and boost as much as the boosts are there.

> I will keep wearing my N95 to all the dirty looks I keep getting and boost as much as the boosts are there. The masks have never been about protecting yourself but have at it. I don't care what you do just stop forcing your attitude on everyone else. At this point you're just trying to make a statement, not protect anyone.

Cloth masks are somewhat effective at protecting those around you, but only slightly effective at protecting you; masks like the N95 do both quite effectively, if you wear them properly.

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

#275

Post by jjgreen »

roywiggins wrote: post #139
sjwalter wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am in no way saying masks don't work, in fact I think that they do. This is still so hilarious to me. It's pretty obvious that some masks work, that is, n95 or whatever actual respirator masks. It's pretty obvious that other masks don't work at all, that is, 99.99% of masks worn by the public at large.

Surgical masks probably help on a population level. https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2021/09/surgical-mask...

This is still in peer-review

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

#276

Post by kevinpet »

simonh wrote: post #25
raphaelj wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

How do we treat Covid before hospitalisation? I just caught it at the weekend and feeling pretty crappy. I'm not aware of any particular treatment I should be taking.

There's one approved drug that is probably effective against covid, Fluvoxamine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8633915/

Everyone knows Paxlovid is safe and effective too, but you aren't allowed to take it yet.

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

#277

Post by rednerrus »

andrewflnr wrote: post #249
roody15 wrote: post #175

This is honesty good news. The best case scenario is a new less deadly highly contagious strain that become the most dominant and spreads worldwide. Way too many comments and articles that try and keep the fear train running full steam. A mild strain of covid that is contagious, leads to natural immunity and doesn’t require a vaccine is an absolute win win for the world.

If I evades vaccines for more dangerous variants, I'm not convinced catching it will make me immune to those variants either. It might actually be different enough to be independent.

Have you seen any evidence that this may be likely?

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

#278

Post by fuzzybassoon »

NoblePublius wrote: post #232

Who cares? If you die with Omicron, you are very old and dying above the average life expectancy, or already sick with chronic preventable illnesses caused by poor lifestyle choices. We should be banning McDonalds advertising, not deputizing waitresses to be vaccination police. If you are not very old or already sick and get omicron, whether you have antibodies or not, you’re going to experience mild symptoms, if any…

This comment adds nothing to the discussion and of course ignores important factors like:

* people with cancer or autoimmune diseases * concerning early signals like drastically increased hospitalizations in the under-2 population * unchecked spread allowing further mutations that could be worse

It also lacks human decency.

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

#279

Post by croes »

algo646464 wrote: post #265
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 don't think that it is misleading. The severity of a disease is relative to the current situation. For example, it could be the case that Omicron is actually less infectious than the original variant, when compared in the setting of 2020. It spreads faster today because, (i) because of preexisting immunity most cases are very mild, and so lots of people become unwitting carriers, (ii) people have gone back to norma…

It is misleading if you compare a country with 80% infection rate with countries with much fewer infections. If the milder cases are because of previous infections it could be a hard hit for unvaccinated first timers.

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

#280

Post by mohanmcgeek »

zamfi wrote: post #67
cableshaft wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that makes Covid-19 a bit different from other viruses that have trended towards milder infections is its long incubation time (while still being infectious). So it can already spread pretty easily even if it's killing those people, and thus there's not a lot of darwinian pressure to become milder. It might still trend towards that over time, but it will probably be slower at it than other viruses, and thus…

That’s only one pressure driving viral evolution. Another pressure is social response to infection: so far, the predominant response to a more-virulent or more-lethal strain has been lockdown and/or other behavioral change, see: delta in India. On the flip side, a variant that causes milder symptoms is less likely to cause the same social response, which allows the virus to spread more widely. This may (may!) be what…

Do you realise that mutation is not something the species can consciously control?

How could the virus have mutated to become milder to suit the social response if the society, as it stands today, is continuing to do what they previously did..?

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