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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

#661

Post by oneoff786 »

stnmtn wrote: post #535
bagacrap wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there really can't be an "exponential" increase in the number of cases, whatever that means, given that there's a hard upper bound which is the number of hosts.

While technically correct, you and I both know what they meant by exponential. Sure, there's a limit, but if we're looking at function that is exponential until it reaches an inflection point where there's simply less hosts to infect than possible...

By exponential, you mean there’s a steep part but you don’t really know the difference between exponential and logarithmic.

The rapid slowdown of infections is FAR below 100% of people.

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

#662

Post by [deleted] »

AustinDev wrote: post #653
JudasGoat wrote: post #636

I am going to go against the grain here and ask someone more knowledgeable than myself if the large number of changes in this variant is typical in virus evolution? Because as an outsider, it appears to me that studying the history of past pandemics would present a road map as to what must be modified to attenuate the damage potential in a virus. I suppose my question really is, why are we chancing GOF research, if n…

What I'm curious about is if the "leaky" vaccines are actually the cause for the amount of mutation we've seen in Covid in 2 years. Variants seemed to accelerate after vaccine rollout began but, I'm not remotely qualified to say they're related.

[deleted]

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

#664

Post by adolph »

ceejayoz wrote: post #332
adolph wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a pity you and your fellow travelers are destroying the world with your carbon emissions. Good thing you wear a mask tho.

Good news: you can address that, if you're so inclined. https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/company/global-citizens...

With our Eco-Skies® CarbonChoice carbon offset sponsorship program, we’ll purchase carbon offsets on behalf of our customers so all their corporate air travel with us is 100% carbon neutral.

So they will buy carbon indulgences for your corporate trip to Bora Bora but not regular travelers?

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

#665

Post by cknoxrun »

JudasGoat wrote: post #636

I am going to go against the grain here and ask someone more knowledgeable than myself if the large number of changes in this variant is typical in virus evolution? Because as an outsider, it appears to me that studying the history of past pandemics would present a road map as to what must be modified to attenuate the damage potential in a virus. I suppose my question really is, why are we chancing GOF research, if n…

Your question caused a likely ludicrous and unoriginal idea to pop into my head - I wonder if it would be possible to purposefully engineer and release a mutated form of a virus like SARS-CoV-2 that demonstrates the ability to replace more dangerous strains, but causes only mild symptoms? Essentially to accelerate a process that we hope to see happen naturally.

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

#666

Post by stnmtn »

oneoff786 wrote: post #661
stnmtn wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While technically correct, you and I both know what they meant by exponential. Sure, there's a limit, but if we're looking at function that is exponential until it reaches an inflection point where there's simply less hosts to infect than possible...

By exponential, you mean there’s a steep part but you don’t really know the difference between exponential and logarithmic. The rapid slowdown of infections is FAR below 100% of people.

> Sure, there's a limit, but if we're looking at function that is exponential until it reaches an inflection point where there's simply less hosts to infect than possible...

What do you think I meant by this? Do you think I believe that the rate of infection will keep going up literally exponentially until it hits 7 billion then turn flat, or do you think that by my usage of 'inflection point' maybe I had more nuance than that?

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

#667

Post by TAKEMYMONEY »

NoblePublius wrote: post #366
TAKEMYMONEY wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> deputizing waitresses to be vaccination police Oh god, I fled post-the_donald reddit to avoid trite drivel like this. Please don't.

You've obviously never worked a service job.

I tip generously, shout "behind" walking behind people and occasionally ask for "two tops" in restaurants on accident. Wrong again.

That's partly why I support laws that keep service workers safe, instead of regurgitating clichés like "vaccination police."

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

#668

Post by the_why_of_y »

ShrigmaMale wrote: post #525
johnchristopher wrote: post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your second paragraph assumes our governments have the means to do that. They don't. Which breaks the logic of your conclusion. And masks do add protection. Their political leverage is null. What is gained by authorities ? There's no advantages. > if we were worried about public health, vaccination status wouldn’t be considered at all, only infection status. Ww are worried. Infection status is considered. Vaccination…

Of course there's a political advantage. It's something that forces everybody to visibly declare an affiliation with a side at all times in public. That will always be used for political advantage.

If I put on a seat belt while driving in a car, what political affiliation does that signal?

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

#669

Post by rich_sasha »

makomk wrote: post #218
rich_sasha wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sort of. Sometimes. Viruses evolve according to evolutionary pressures. I'm surprised we don't see Covid mutations that invalidate PCR tests - perhaps it's too soon, or even, who knows, maybe they are there and we don't know? The common trope is that if the virus is too deadly, then it doesn't have a chance to find new hosts. This is kind-of what happened to "SARS-1" - it tended to kill its hosts before they could pa…

The current PCR tests detect three different regions of RNA that are expected to be relatively well conserved, so there's no single mutation that can cause PCR tests to not detect them and we'll hopefully get a substantial early warning that allows the tests to be adapted if they ever head in that direction. One of the three markers detected by some of the PCR tests is actually invalidated by Omicron and some other v…

Yeah, Alpha had the same mutation as Omicron too.

I'm not a virologist by any stretch of imagination. Mutations seem to come in bundles; I'm just surprised that, given typical PCR tests only test for three RNA fragments, that we don't see mutations that evade it.

The main evolutionary pressure on Covid in developed countries is Public Health clamping down on it like a ton of bricks. A variant that quietly evades PCR tests, self-isolation etc. is set up for life.

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

#670

Post by joebob42 »

gilbetron wrote: post #497
boringg wrote: post #21

I have a question for anyone who has a serious level of knowledge on virus evolution: As viruses evolve over time is there any correlation to severity - do they have trade offs as they evolve? I am hoping that it would be some kind of trade off that the virus makes in that it can spread more easily but not be as severe (I understand that it is unlikely nature requires a trade-off). I ask as my concern is that while t…

No one replying has a "serious level of knowledge", so instead, turn to sources that do (or report serious sources!) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-viruses-ev... https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30734920/ (really good one) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7255208/ In short, we don't know and won't know until this is all "over" a few years in the future, at least.

Imo part of the joy of hn is that this isn't actually true. Obviously not everyone knows what they are talking about, but some of the people who really do have serious knowledge on any given topic are on hn, and the average person here is at least slightly less likely to think they have knowledge when in fact they don't.
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