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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

#751

Post by johnchristopher »

spookthesunset wrote: post #744
imbnwa wrote: post #587

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Long term damage is not getting enough attention. Too bad all those back-to-office-adamant employers completely ignore this. Like, OK, I get infected cause I had to commute to work and then you fire me/lay me off and I'm left holding the bag, financially and physically cause you really wanted to make your leasing payments "worth it".

Yet somehow each and every day grocery store workers manage to go into their office. What makes you so special?

Most likely, considering this is HN, s/he's moving bits around all day. Something that every day grocery store workers can't do remotely with the things they have to move around.

Which reminds me that in the first lockdown, in my country, grocery stores workers were considered "essential" and were allowed to go to their workplace and work there.

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

#752

Post by dragontamer »

Otek wrote: post #715
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #702

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we're only looking at deaths, only for vaccinated people - then yes. If hospitals still get overwhelmed, that seems like an issue. Unless you say hospitals shouldn't treat unvaccinated people (doubt it) - unvaccinated people are going to be causing problems on the hospital system for a while still.

To be fair, In my country hospitals were also overwhelmed pre-COVID, only by regular flu

We pushed H1N1 flu mandates back when that flu started overwhelming our hospitals back in the early 2010s.

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

#753

Post by def_true_false »

mchusma wrote: post #695

Omicron doesn't change fundamentally where we were with Delta. Its infection enough that everyone will get it. Vaccines protect you (they are banned for kids under 5). Pfizer's treatment (Paxlovid) is a very effective cure (currently banned). The death rate for vaccinated individuals is extremely low, at its current rate its about 26 per 100,000. The flu killed 24 per 100,000 in california. We are at the endgame. The…

Hospitalizations and deaths lag behind cases, mortality shoots up above some case load threshold (hence attempts to flatten the curve), etc. Feels like most people skipped their 2020 homework.

Aside from that, most countries are not even on pace to triple vax their population by end of winter, so letting it rip is a not an option. The countries currently led by populists will lock down just like the rest, only later and with more deaths.

Food for thought: Has China changed their pandemic strategy? Why not?

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

#754

Post by Animats »

dredmorbius wrote: post #733
vimy wrote: post #689

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which makes me wonder why it takes so long this time?

Drug assessment goes through three stages of human testing, after other models, to assess safety, efficacy, and finally, dosing. If possible, basic efficacy testing is done on non-human models, either in vitro or animal models. For species-specific viruses, this is difficult and may be impossible. I'm not sure what if any such testing was done with the SARS-COV-2 vaccine candidates. A basic safety test with dosages t…

Although this time we have the advantage that the high volume production and distribution process for mRNA vaccines requiring a cold chain is all set up and ready to go.

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

#755

Post by starik36 »

liber8 wrote: post #679
Animats wrote: post #676

Moderna is working on a vaccine targeting the Omicron variant for 2022.[1] The mRNA vaccine technology is "agile". There's a workflow from sequencing a virus to generating a candidate vaccine. It only took two days to generate the original COVID-19 vaccine. It's the clinical testing in small, then large groups that's the time consuming part. Also, the inhaled vaccines are entering clinical testing.[2] It's not like w…

According to reports, the original BioNTech vaccine was developed in a matter of hours: https://www.businessinsider.com/pfizer-biontech-vaccine-desi... Moderna's was done in two days.

Right, but the underlying tech was in development for a decade or more.

I can deploy an app to Azure, tell it to allocate a server farm, databases, Redis, queues, etc... in 5 minutes too. But that's only because someone took years to do all the necessary work.

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

#756

Post by dragontamer »

willcipriano wrote: post #622
jedimastert wrote: post #559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we peddle hope in the wrong way, it'll give people an excuse to not get the vaccine or the boosters.

If you lie, or omit the truth and get caught, they will never listen to anything you say ever again.

> If you lie, or omit the truth and get caught, they will never listen to anything you say ever again.

Hydroxychloroquine.

Ivermectin.

Yeah, right. Peddling the lies have cause these individuals to get more trust. People want their false hope and false cures, and snake oil.

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

#757

Post by dragontamer »

stickfigure wrote: post #515
dragontamer wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fine. UK eradicated Rabies. I'm pretty sure we all agree Rabies has substantial animal reservoirs, right?

Rabies only has animal reservoirs, it isn't spread person-to-person. And it appears that the localities that have eradicated rabies have done so by dropping animal baits with oral vaccines. So... small, mostly deforested island countries may have a good chance against animal-borne viruses that have inexpensive edible vaccines. The wealthiest country in the world hasn't managed to eradicate rabies. Covid isn't going t…

Leprosy.

There's a lot of diseases we've eradicated. Surely something will come along that you don't have an excuse for.

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

#758

Post by wombatmobile »

Animats wrote: post #676

Moderna is working on a vaccine targeting the Omicron variant for 2022.[1] The mRNA vaccine technology is "agile". There's a workflow from sequencing a virus to generating a candidate vaccine. It only took two days to generate the original COVID-19 vaccine. It's the clinical testing in small, then large groups that's the time consuming part. Also, the inhaled vaccines are entering clinical testing.[2] It's not like w…

> The mRNA vaccine technology is "agile".

Yes and this means governments can quickly adapt to new variants by reformulating the vaccine, dumping old stock by "donating" it to developing nations, or dumping it, and buying new stock from big pharma.

Since developing nations will always have far lower vaccination rates than first world countries, the virus will continue to mutate and proliferate outside of America and Europe, ensuring new opportunities for revving the vaccine.

That's a sustainable business model for the first world.

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

#759

Post by def_true_false »

rich_sasha wrote: post #37
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…

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…

> An example I used elsewhere was the introduction of Myxomatosis in Australia, to control the invasive rabbit population. Over time, the local strain evolved to be more deadly, but with a longer incubation periods. This way, bunnies had more time to pass the virus around, then once that job was done, the virus was happy to kill them off.

Do you have other examples besides Myxomatosis?

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

#760

Post by d3ad1ysp0rk »

kyleblarson wrote: post #729
Animats wrote: post #676

Moderna is working on a vaccine targeting the Omicron variant for 2022.[1] The mRNA vaccine technology is "agile". There's a workflow from sequencing a virus to generating a candidate vaccine. It only took two days to generate the original COVID-19 vaccine. It's the clinical testing in small, then large groups that's the time consuming part. Also, the inhaled vaccines are entering clinical testing.[2] It's not like w…

Moderna CEO equity sales for the last couple years. Nothing to see here, no reason to distrust them pushing endless boosters: https://finance.yahoo.com/screener/insider/BANCEL%20STEPHANE...

I scrolled thru the last 2 years, and honestly I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.

Too much profit? Sure. I don't think the boosters are going to be what solidifies that issue for corporations though..

Some timing issue with selling? I don't see it.

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