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Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

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Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#131

Post by somewhereoutth »

jacquesm wrote: post #100
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This literally reads like post apocalyptic fan fiction. I find it incredibly fascinating how fast this virus can mutate in order to throw curveballs around our natural and engineered defenses and become more efficient at killing us. How is this even possible in such a short amount of time? I thought evolution takes tens of thousands of years. It's not like viruses have giant brains with massive IQs to come up with a…

Given a population of almost 8 billion and a six months head start you are now looking at a reservoir of many millions of people infected at any given time. Each of these will provide 1 to 100 billion new virions, and each of those is an opportunity for the virus to undergo a mutation, which RNA viruses are particularly receptive to because they lack the same level of error correction that DNA based viruses enjoy. Ed…

Interestingly, SARS-CoV-2 does have error correction - but the essence of your comment is correct.

Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#132

Post by mdni007 »

reindeer76 wrote: post #125
malepoon wrote: post #93

Twitter thread from a vaccine developer: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1464222680731820043.html A lot of speculation still, but it's not all bad so far.

>vaccine developer >Chair of ...Maryland's Newest Anthropomorphic Convention! Not sure how I feel about this. Are many vaccine developers also furries?

And he's a scientist but believes in horoscopes. I don't think I've seen someone living a more hypocritical lifestyle

Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#133

Post by jacquesm »

somewhereoutth wrote: post #131
jacquesm wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given a population of almost 8 billion and a six months head start you are now looking at a reservoir of many millions of people infected at any given time. Each of these will provide 1 to 100 billion new virions, and each of those is an opportunity for the virus to undergo a mutation, which RNA viruses are particularly receptive to because they lack the same level of error correction that DNA based viruses enjoy. Ed…

Interestingly, SARS-CoV-2 does have error correction - but the essence of your comment is correct.

Fair enough, I should have been more precise.

Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#134

Post by CyanBird »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #92
crate_barre wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also known as B.1.1.529 Variant21K appears to have arisen in November 2021, possibly in South Africa. Early sequences are predominantly from South Africa, though also detected in Botswana and Hong Kong. 21K is primarily of concern due to the large number of mutations it has in the Spike gene. Many of these variants are in the receptor binding domain and N-terminal domain, and thus may play key roles in ACE2 binding a…

>This literally reads like post apocalyptic fan fiction. I find it incredibly fascinating how fast this virus can mutate in order to throw curveballs around our natural and engineered defenses and become more efficient at killing us. How is this even possible in such a short amount of time? I thought evolution takes tens of thousands of years. It's not like viruses have giant brains with massive IQs to come up with a…

> How is this even possible in such a short amount of time? I

Mutations on organisms such as viruses depend on the raw amount of virus duplication which happens, not per se "time", if you have a large amount of hosts, and therefore high amounts of duplication that increases the duplication rate making it more likely that mutations will occur, therefore speeding up the mutation rate, and as it happens with large countries still not taking strong measures against covid there's ample amount of hosts which can incubate new mutations....

Also, ought be noted that mutation is entirely random, this is *not* "a consequence to vaccines existing", most mutations will be neutral, others negative to the virus itself, but few might have positive effects on its vitality, or incubation period or others

Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#135

Post by leegraham »

cblconfederate wrote: post #69
nope96 wrote: post #5

How was "Omicron" chosen as the name of this variant?

I suppose Nu might be dangerously confusing with Mu , and Xi was politically untenable. The next one is going to be Pi

'Nu' also has the problem of sounding like 'new', so phrases like 'the Nu variant' are confusing if spoken aloud.

Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#137

Post by WJW »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #92
crate_barre wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also known as B.1.1.529 Variant21K appears to have arisen in November 2021, possibly in South Africa. Early sequences are predominantly from South Africa, though also detected in Botswana and Hong Kong. 21K is primarily of concern due to the large number of mutations it has in the Spike gene. Many of these variants are in the receptor binding domain and N-terminal domain, and thus may play key roles in ACE2 binding a…

>This literally reads like post apocalyptic fan fiction. I find it incredibly fascinating how fast this virus can mutate in order to throw curveballs around our natural and engineered defenses and become more efficient at killing us. How is this even possible in such a short amount of time? I thought evolution takes tens of thousands of years. It's not like viruses have giant brains with massive IQs to come up with a…

> and become more efficient at killing us.

This is not actually a "goal" of the virus, since dead people cannot move and therefore spread much less of the virus. They seek to become more infectious so they can spread more, and in this process sometimes they also accidentally kill the host.

Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#138

Post by funtimes323 »

reindeer76 wrote: post #125
malepoon wrote: post #93

Twitter thread from a vaccine developer: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1464222680731820043.html A lot of speculation still, but it's not all bad so far.

>vaccine developer >Chair of ...Maryland's Newest Anthropomorphic Convention! Not sure how I feel about this. Are many vaccine developers also furries?

The vast majority of furries are pedophiles.

Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#139

Post by jacquesm »

azeirah wrote: post #127
reindeer76 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>vaccine developer >Chair of ...Maryland's Newest Anthropomorphic Convention! Not sure how I feel about this. Are many vaccine developers also furries?

I'd imagine many people in power have various hobbies you'd consider odd if you knew about them. (nevermind fetishes, oh my god!)

Never mind religion, oh your god!

Re: Classification of Omicron (B.1.1.529): SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern

#140

Post by funtimes323 »

hh3k0 wrote: post #59
xyst wrote: post #57

My current take (not a virologist, doctor): At this point, if you are not immunocompromised and you have the first vaccination and a booster. You should be able to easily recover regardless of the mutation(s). The virus would need to completely diverge from SARS-CoV-2 in order to fully defeat the countermeasures of the current vaccinations.

Strikes me as unnecessarily early to make such a claim.

Strikes me that you need to go stroke one out on /r/horsesex.
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