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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

#761

Post by heavyset_go »

RandallBrown wrote: post #312
mohanmcgeek wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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..?

There's likely millions of virus variants out there already. Some will evolve to become much more contagious and most won't do much of anything. When a more severe variant starts dominating and everyone goes inside and stops spreading it that makes the more severe variant die out. As it dies out, and people go outside, variants that are milder will thrive because people won't lockdown as easily. This can repeat forev…

> When a more severe variant starts dominating and everyone goes inside and stops spreading it that makes the more severe variant die out

Except this doesn't happen, otherwise COVID would have already stopped spreading. Our social response to COVID isn't adequate enough to stop its spread. We can't get people to actually lock down or stop transmission.

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

#762

Post by dredmorbius »

Animats wrote: post #754
dredmorbius wrote: post #733

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The last war is always the one we're prepared to fight.

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

#763

Post by heavyset_go »

coldcode wrote: post #34
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…

Any genetic mutation which causes premature death of the host, or fails to be communicative will generally die off. Any mutation which keeps the host alive (or at least longer), or makes it easier to transmit the virus to another host, will keep the virus around. This type of behavior can be muted if there is an animal host that acts as a reservoir.

> Any genetic mutation which causes premature death of the host, or fails to be communicative will generally die off. Any mutation which keeps the host alive (or at least longer), or makes it easier to transmit the virus to another host, will keep the virus around.

Not necessarily[1]:

> Some viruses provoke severe symptoms in their hosts that make it easier to transmit the virus to others. But those same symptoms can wind up killing the hosts.

> Adalja said one example is Ebola, a deadly virus that spreads through the blood and body fluids of infected people. Another example is norovirus, which causes diarrhea and vomiting, and leads to hundreds of deaths each year in the U.S.

> “The virus, speaking anthropomorphically, just wants to spread and have its genes replicated,” said Adalja. “If the best way for it is to spread by causing severe symptoms it will continue to do that.”

[1] https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-011488089270

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

#764

Post by justinator »

parasense wrote: post #698

I would imagine that a virus would eventually adapt/evolve to a point to where it co-exists harmoniously with the host organism. I've heard somewhere that herpes simplex virus used to have terrible symptoms, like genital blisters, but over the years the most common variant has no symptoms, and most people have no idea they have it.... and a huge proportion of human have it. I would imagine all viral contagions would…

> I would imagine that a virus would eventually adapt/evolve to a point to where it co-exists harmoniously with the host organism.

Well, how much of our own actual DNA is nothing but virus DNA that got stuck in there for nigh eternity?

Answer: 8%.[0]

[0] https://www.cshl.edu/the-non-human-living-inside-of-you/

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

#765

Post by gpapilion »

not2b wrote: post #720
parasense wrote: post #698

I would imagine that a virus would eventually adapt/evolve to a point to where it co-exists harmoniously with the host organism. I've heard somewhere that herpes simplex virus used to have terrible symptoms, like genital blisters, but over the years the most common variant has no symptoms, and most people have no idea they have it.... and a huge proportion of human have it. I would imagine all viral contagions would…

There's no guarantee that it will work that way: smallpox didn't get less deadly. Only vaccination wiped it out. If the patient is contagious before developing symptoms, the virus can spread very effectively even if many patients die.

Arguably covid is already less deadly, the majority of deaths are concentrated in older populations. Generally the disease isn't as impactful to those under 50, meaning its not interfering with your ability to have children or raise children.

Age and Date Data: [https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#Se...]

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

#766

Post by [deleted] »

johnchristopher wrote: post #751
spookthesunset wrote: post #744

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

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

#768

Post by dfabulich »

ericb wrote: post #748
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #708

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem are the vaccine mandates. If you (soft or hard) mandate a vaccine, and you kill someone with it, that's a lot of responsibility to take, if the vaccine didn't go through a full trial. If the vaccines were as optional as eg. flu vaccines are, then a simple waiver would solve most of the issues. (a 20yo girl died in slovenia due to jannsen vaccine not that long ago, and she got vaccinated, becase she was so…

Your reply is totally off-topic for the parent you replied to.

I see why you're saying that, but I think you missed their point. Challenge trials might well allow us to make a safe vaccine available sooner to those who want it, but if we mandate a vaccine that has only undergone challenge trials and then that vaccine kills someone, it would certainly be politically disastrous for challenge trials.

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

#769

Post by spookthesunset »

johnchristopher wrote: post #751
spookthesunset wrote: post #744

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If I was in charge I’d classify tech workers as non essential and not let them work. Make them go through unemployment for a while. I bet a whole lot of these privileged people would suddenly become a lot less “scared” of Covid…

The amount of privilege that reeks from the tech sector is astronomical. I’ve never been more embarrassed working in t is industry than these days.

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

#770

Post by daveguy »

ajsnigrutin wrote: post #708
legutierr wrote: post #703

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would have been much faster if regulators and ethicists hadn’t been so squeamish about challenge trials. In order to save dozens of lives that might have been lost in challenge trials, we sacrificed hundreds of thousands of lives so that we could wait for more ethically-sound vaccine trials to complete.

The problem are the vaccine mandates. If you (soft or hard) mandate a vaccine, and you kill someone with it, that's a lot of responsibility to take, if the vaccine didn't go through a full trial. If the vaccines were as optional as eg. flu vaccines are, then a simple waiver would solve most of the issues. (a 20yo girl died in slovenia due to jannsen vaccine not that long ago, and she got vaccinated, becase she was so…

Pointing to one person's death and claiming a specific cause... I assume you have very specific autopsy evidence to prove it?
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