Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado • Hacker News Board

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#191

Post by causality0 » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 5:08 PM UTC

ricardobayes wrote: post #153

causality0 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing the fact you can catch it over and over. My wife is currently battling Omicron after we both had covid at the start of last year. Fully vaccinated and boosted three weeks ago, caught it anyway. With an infected population this massive mutations happen fast enough to cause a new wave before the old one burns out.

I will say beforehand that I'm heavily pro-vaccination and reducing risks regarding covid. Do we know at this point what are the hospitalization rates of omicron compared to the flu? p.s. I hope your wife gets better soon.

Numbers are still changing but the current stat is one percent hospitalization rate for Omicron. This year's flu has a hospitalization rate almost twice as high as last year's, at 1.4 in 100,000 or 0.0014%.

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#192

Post by jaywalk » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 5:08 PM UTC

causality0 wrote: post #118

benjaminwootton wrote: post #103

Surely this is the end of the pandemic? With an estimated 300k+ cases per day here in the UK, that is 10 million this month on top of everyone who has already had it. It’s as though nobody is ready to acknowledge the elephant in the room that Covid is nearly finished. Or am I missing something?

You're missing the fact you can catch it over and over. My wife is currently battling Omicron after we both had covid at the start of last year. Fully vaccinated and boosted three weeks ago, caught it anyway. With an infected population this massive mutations happen fast enough to cause a new wave before the old one burns out.

You say "over and over" but Omicron is the first variant that actually evades immunity (both natural and vaccine-induced) in a meaningful way. What we don't know is the level of immunity that an Omicron infection will provide. It could actually confer immunity to both itself and previous variants, which would effectively end the pandemic.

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#193

Post by smt88 » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 5:08 PM UTC

pikma wrote: post #155

causality0 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Covid has a death rate hundreds of times higher than a cold. Colds don't make healthy women in their twenties stay up all night coughing so hard their oxygen dips into the 80s. Colds don't cause lung, heart, and cognitive damage that is potentially cumulative. If covid brain fog compounds over time there will be some serious damn consequences.

Actually my wife had a bad cold this summer and she coughed so hard during the night that we had to take her to the ER and she was lacking oxygen (not sure by how much). She is otherwise healthy in her early 30s, though she was pregnant, which might have made it worse. It surprised me, I always thought that colds were harmless.

Colds kill thousands of people every year and some may have lifelong effects, such as neurological impairment or heart damage.

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#194

Post by jaywalk » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 5:09 PM UTC

phonypc wrote: post #180

spurgu wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have omicron right now (4-5 months after 2nd jab, so pretty much no effect from that) and it's just like a common cold (certainly wouldn't call it "battling omicron"). I have zero problems with getting this each year.

Hmmm... mild symptoms after being vaccinated. It's almost like the vaccine worked or something. How weird.

Plenty of unvaccinated (the vast majority, in fact) also experience mild symptoms. It's almost like you've got an unfalsifiable way to always say "it worked!"

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#195

Post by systemvoltage » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 5:09 PM UTC

time_to_smile wrote: post #186

systemvoltage wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a feeling we are gonna want more things to worry about. Done with the pandemic? Let’s latch on to something to make sure 1) You have no kids 2) We keep increasing the power of the government measures 3) Equality meaning we stoop to the lowest level, not bring up the baseline 4) Keep eroding the standard of living. Even if we are a space faring civilization, these people will make it uncool to “pollute” space o…

> No optimism for you! This is a weird observation to make. Optimism is by far the dominant ideology in our society and has been for well over 300 or so years. Even currently when you browse mainstream media news postings the vast majority of the articles focus on how mild omicron is and how people should get to back to work. I'll agree that the media makes plenty of money pedaling anxiety but real pessimism is nearl…

I live in Berkeley and this is basically 90% of the people I meet, see and interact with. Btw they’re also almost all vegetarian and Soylent drinkers. I felt awkward having a sausage pizza yesterday with a friend. So my observations are at the very lease factual in my area, pretty sure factual across the Democratic Party. Progressivism isn’t what it used to be (Obama era).

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#196

Post by UncleOxidant » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 5:10 PM UTC

causality0 wrote: post #118

benjaminwootton wrote: post #103

Surely this is the end of the pandemic? With an estimated 300k+ cases per day here in the UK, that is 10 million this month on top of everyone who has already had it. It’s as though nobody is ready to acknowledge the elephant in the room that Covid is nearly finished. Or am I missing something?

You're missing the fact you can catch it over and over. My wife is currently battling Omicron after we both had covid at the start of last year. Fully vaccinated and boosted three weeks ago, caught it anyway. With an infected population this massive mutations happen fast enough to cause a new wave before the old one burns out.

"battling Omicron"

Can you give us some indication of how severe your symptoms are? Mostly we're hearing that if you've been vaccinated and/or you've had covid in the past that omicron is relatively mild.

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#197

Post by potatoman22 » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 5:10 PM UTC

phonypc wrote: post #180

spurgu wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have omicron right now (4-5 months after 2nd jab, so pretty much no effect from that) and it's just like a common cold (certainly wouldn't call it "battling omicron"). I have zero problems with getting this each year.

Hmmm... mild symptoms after being vaccinated. It's almost like the vaccine worked or something. How weird.

That's the point. It's often a mild cold for the vaccinated

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#198

Post by zucked » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 5:10 PM UTC

hitpointdrew wrote: post #142

benjaminwootton wrote: post #103

Surely this is the end of the pandemic? With an estimated 300k+ cases per day here in the UK, that is 10 million this month on top of everyone who has already had it. It’s as though nobody is ready to acknowledge the elephant in the room that Covid is nearly finished. Or am I missing something?

>Surely this is the end of the pandemic? Yes, welcome to the endemic. Covid is here to stay, it doesn't matter if 100% of the world were vaccinated tommrow, covid would not go away. It doesn't matter if you get the vaccination or not, in your life time you WILL get covid (just like the flu, no one escapes it, you typically get the flu about every decade or so regardless of shots). We need to just accept this and move…

I, too, think that Omicron is the beginning of the transition back to "normal" with Covid becoming endemic. Everyone is going to be exposed to Omicron if they haven't already.

I expect that for the next year or two, boosters will be recommended as a yearly "flu shot" to give you a decent chance of being minimally affected if exposed. Omicron will continue to be the dominate strain, finding hosts in both the vaccinated and unvaccinated. The difference will be that we will have a myriad tools at our disposal to prevent serious illness and treat it when it does happen.

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#199

Post by causality0 » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 5:10 PM UTC

spurgu wrote: post #166

causality0 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing the fact you can catch it over and over. My wife is currently battling Omicron after we both had covid at the start of last year. Fully vaccinated and boosted three weeks ago, caught it anyway. With an infected population this massive mutations happen fast enough to cause a new wave before the old one burns out.

I have omicron right now (4-5 months after 2nd jab, so pretty much no effect from that) and it's just like a common cold (certainly wouldn't call it "battling omicron"). I have zero problems with getting this each year.

I'm happy it's not a battle for you, but it is for my wife.

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#200

Post by kansface » Thu, Jan 06, 2022, 5:11 PM UTC

ror_shubham wrote: post #16

akmarinov wrote: post #6

If it’s milder than Delta - then that’s good right? Or do the increased cases lead to more hospitalizations than Delta?

Its milder than Delta but way more transmissible. The more people get this, more will be the chances of a new variant which can be more deadly/transmissible.

I don't think this logic is correct. Viruses can not become infinitely transmissible/deadly; clearly there is an upper ceiling. Second, people gain immunity after infection. We'd expect the first variant that infects most people to win, effectively closing the door behind it.