COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[pbrower2a]

For sure it's concerning, though not the time for panic. WHO held an emergency meeting today to assess the situation.

I know the CDC's response is just going to be "more masks", because that's their response to everything.

Masks, masks, masks. That's their only answer.

That is the answer. Well, so is getting out those cleaning wipes. So is social distancing. People who acted recklessly and lucked out the first couple times are the ones who will die.

We have learned something since the first outbreak of COVID-19. Trust science more than politics. 

Who still does this lmao

Nothing says that we will not have to do this again should there be a variant that can get around existing vaccinations. May we not need to do so again. Anyone resisting inoculation is a collaborator with the murderous occupier that is COVID-19. 

[pbrower2a]

If the Omicron variant is truly much less lethal than other variant, we should be encouraging it’s spread, not discouraging it. 

Ultimately, everyone is going to be infected with some form of covid, so the best case scenario is to be vaccinated, have effective treatments available, and be infected with a mild strain.   

Now that we have the Pfizer pill and potentially a relatively harmless strain, it seems like we are approaching that best case.

It could be that the previous variants have already picked off the most vulnerable people. To be sure, people will develop congestive heart failure and late-stage cancers. People with compromised immune systems or who have acted irresponsibly may have died due to earlier variants.

The tendency for almost all viral infections is to evolve into more communicable strains that are less likely to kill. Cadavers, if sealed away in caskets or especially if cremated, cannot spread a viral infection so easily as can the clueless people who are the "Typhoid Marys" of the time.

Some of us remember when HIV/AIDS was a death sentence. It is still to be avoided.   

[pbrower2a]

NO MORE LOCKDOWNS!

NO MORE TRAVEL BANS!

STOP TRYING THINGS THAT DID NOT WORK IN THE PAST!

GET POKE WITH  A VACCINE NOW!

There is no logical reason, except for duress, for any person to not be inoculated. The vaccine is easy to get and the price is right. Not only that, the consequences for refusing the inoculation are simply too severe. It is not a matter of conscience. Little could be more immoral than to expose others to a serious risk of either death or bodily harm.

[pbrower2a]

If the reports are true that Omicron is considerably milder than past strains, isn't this a good thing?  Don't we want it yo become the dominant strain?  Zero covid is never going to happen, but it will eventually likely be pretty harmless.

Though, unless it significantly evades natural immunity, I think much of the South will have a hard time spiking again, at least not to the extent of previous waves.

Yes. IF it is considerably milder.
Emphasis on IF, because that is not known.

Isn’t there usually a trade off between virulence and transmissibility? If a virus kills its host it dies off with it.

If the virus is less prone to kill a victim, yes, it will have a evolutionary plus. But death rate and hospitalization rate doesn't necessarily correlate well, and the latter one is the most important one for the society (pressure on the health system).

Yes, but the virus of today that put you in a hospital would've likely killed you 200 years ago due to lack of good medical care. So viruses due to improvement in modern medical care can be more virulent AND don't die off in the host. It's the embodiment of Red Queen Theory.

The advances of medicine are well known to most of us. We have inoculations to prevent or mitigate dangerous diseases, anesthetics to save us from excruciating pain that could make us goners, and antibiotics. We have medicines to counteract high blood pressure and kidney disease, and we are making clear progress against cancer -- even lung cancer, long one of the most damning of cancers.

I once got a very nasty infection from the scratch of a pet dog. A hundred years ago the infection might have killed me. I learned something from that incident: I am as careful about the fangs in a dog's paws as I am of the fangs between a dog's jaws. The infection hurt!

[pbrower2a]

Doesn't it seem strange that these new variants always seem to come just when we are managing the one before it? They don't come all at once, and why is that? Are these things being engineered? And now we are being told by pharmaceutical companies to get boosters. What? We are allowing pharmaceutical companies to run the dialogue?

I believe there is something fishy going on. I'm tired of being a human pin cushion. I think we are being hoodwinked.

We're not being hoodwinked. It's omicron because we're on O.

Well they skipped nu and xi. Nu because it sounds like new, and xi because that's the name of the leader of China.

So this is totally tangential...but can anyone explain why the Chinese President's name is transliterated as "Xi" and not "Shi"?  I.e. why is an "sh" sound in Chinese written as "x" in English, when "x" is almost never pronounced as "sh" in English words?

The Latin alphabet used officially in China (at least for Mandarin) is Pinyin. It does not have anything like a one-to-one correspondence with English sounds of consonants.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin

[pbrower2a]

The endgame of covid-19 is it becomes another cold virus. The only question is how much damage attempting to reduce it's spread governments and corps do to society.

COVID-19 is just not to much of a killer.

Did anyone ever say something like "Lay off Ted Bundy because he will grow out of it?"

[pbrower2a]

https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1468064213314772995?s=20

Are these numbers for a single day? Jesus Christ.

Monday backlog. Most states don't log numbers on weekends.

Yet, a new wave is coming, and it might get even [much?] worse, when Omicron takes over. If it really as contagious as it seems to be, it might overwhelm hospitals, even if it is milder (which we still don't know). And Biden has already ruled out "lockdowns". Well, at least, Omicron made people more willing to vaccinate themselves.

You still think there should be lockdowns? They obviously don’t work.

Lockdowns were necessary when there was no vaccine. Vaccines seem to solve COVID-19 except among those fools who refuse to get inoculated. 

[pbrower2a]

You are obliged to show your driver's license when stopped by the police for a possible traffic violation even if you did nothing wrong. I have been stopped by the police for suspected DUI... once because I found a traffic sign confusing and another time because I was in no condition to be on the road (it was 8 PM, I have sleep apnea, and I was driving erratically). In both cases I should have been stopped.

A vaccine card is an indication that you have been inoculated, and its absence suggests otherwise by default. I keep mine in my wallet and consider it as important as my driver's license. I can kill someone with bad driving, and if I did get COVID-19 and spread it I could kill people.

Getting inoculated is easy and it is available at the right price -- FREE.

Most restaurants and many stores have signs that say "NO SHIRT, NO SHOES, NO SERVICE". You can be removed from a public place for disorderly conduct such as profanities or heckling.
 

[pbrower2a]

You are obliged to show your driver's license when stopped by the police for a possible traffic violation even if you did nothing wrong. I have been stopped by the police for suspected DUI... once because I found a traffic sign confusing and another time because I was in no condition to be on the road (it was 8 PM, I have sleep apnea, and I was driving erratically). In both cases I should have been stopped.

A vaccine card is an indication that you have been inoculated, and its absence suggests otherwise by default. I keep mine in my wallet and consider it as important as my driver's license. I can kill someone with bad driving, and if I did get COVID-19 and spread it I could kill people.

Getting inoculated is easy and it is available at the right price -- FREE.

Most restaurants and many stores have signs that say "NO SHIRT, NO SHOES, NO SERVICE". You can be removed from a public place for disorderly conduct such as profanities or heckling.
 

I don’t really think this is the right analogy for a vaccine mandate on restaurants.

The drivers licensing requirement is a mandate passed by the state, enforced by the state, and funded by the state.

The restaurant mandate is passed by the state, but then the state completely passes the buck and washes their hands of enforcement.  Instead, the enforcement burden is passed on to private individuals (business owners) who have done nothing wrong.  And then these businesses end up being harassed by anti-vaxxers, and some may lose business because of it.

This is really like if a state said that drivers had to have a license, but instead of police or the DMV checking licenses, they told restaurants that they had to check the licenses of all customers who wanted to use their parking lot.

If a state wanted to pass a vaccine mandate to drive, I would be all for it.

Restaurants and retailers selling alcoholic beverages and tobacco products are obliged to check ID to ensure that people of less-than-legal age aren't buying or using the stuff.

I would be willing to get an endorsement on my driver's license stating that I had been inoculated for COVID-19.

[pbrower2a]

If I need another vaccination for the Omicron variant, then I am getting it. 

[pbrower2a]

A reminder:

NEW YORK (AP) — Can your pet get COVID-19?

Yes, pets and other animals can get the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, but health officials say the risk of them spreading it to people is low.

Dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits, otters, hyenas and white-tailed deer are among the animals that have tested positive, in most cases after contracting it from infected people.

While you don’t have to worry much about getting COVID-19 from your pets, they should worry about getting it from you. People with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 should avoid contact with pets, farm animals and wildlife, as well as with other people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“If you wouldn’t go near another person because you’re sick or you might be exposed, don’t go near another animal,” says Dr. Scott Weese at Ontario Veterinary College.

Not all infected pets get sick and serious illness is extremely rare. Pets that show symptoms typically get mildly ill, the CDC says.

Some zoos in the U.S. and elsewhere have vaccinated big cats, primates and other animals that are thought to be at risk of getting the virus through contact with people.

This particular coronavirus most likely jumped from animals to humans in the first place, sparking a pandemic because the virus spreads so easily between people. But it does not easily spread from animals to people. Minks are the only known animals to have caught the virus from people and spread it back, according to Weese.

Three countries in northern Europe recorded cases of the virus spreading from people to mink on mink farms. The virus circulated among the animals before being passed back to farmworkers.

How easily animals can get and spread the virus might change with different variants, and the best way to prevent the virus from spreading among animals is to control it among people, Weese says.

https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-lifestyle-animals-c4cd49b1aac1e7a3aaa7ffdef9ad9be8

[pbrower2a]

Let us wait to see what long-term effects Omicron has before we deem it trivial. Previous incarnations of COVID-19 have consequences other than death. Diabetes, organ damage, cognitive loss, stillbirths, and sexual dysfunction are not to be taken lightly. 

COVID-19 is no simple disease. Prevention is usually simple. I'm taking no risk with omicron.

[pbrower2a]

Mild symptoms? Pancreatic cancer first manifests itself with mild symptoms.

[pbrower2a]

Mild symptoms? Pancreatic cancer first manifests itself with mild symptoms.

Pancreatic cancer has a 10% 5 year survival rate. Are you suggesting COVID does as well?

The point is that minor-seeming symptoms can presage something horrific.   

[pbrower2a]

Less severe? Quantitative evidence, please.

[pbrower2a]

With my first inoculation I got nasty side-effects that suggest that I would have been hit hard, if not killed. Some of those include chest pains. That was ten months ago. I have gotten the strongly-suggested two main inoculations, one booster, and one flu shot (so that I will not likely be referred to a hospital for flu-like symptoms and risk exposure to COVID-19 from fools who did not get inoculated.

If you have any trust in my integrity and have yet to be inoculated, then get your herd immunity by getting your @$$ to an inoculation site. You may save your life.

Oh, by the way -- with the Holidays coming up, especially Drunk Night... don't drink and drive.

[pbrower2a]

https://thehill.com/homenews/coronavirus-report/587061-fauci-says-large-holiday-gatherings-not-safe-even-with-booster

At this point, we just need to do what we want, and stop listening to the 'experts'. They want the pandemic and its restrictions to go on as long as possible to line their pockets

COVID-19 is stalking anyone who attends the mindless celebration of a ball falling at 12 PM on the night of December 31, 2021-January 1, 2022.

[pbrower2a]

Fauci says U.S. should consider adding a vaccine requirement for domestic flights

So the "papers please" regime is now complete.

Your pooch is obliged to get a rabies shot. Few complain.

[pbrower2a]

Lysol literally never helped us combat the virus, but ok.

At one time it was assumed that COVID-19 could be spread by surface contact with, for example, a doorknob or a dinner table. The omicron variant seems less deadly but more durable, so that might come back.  Masks were the best defense until the vaccine became available.

Because of its origin the omicron variant must remain suspect until proved otherwise. Viruses tend to evolve to be less immediately lethal but more contagious. This said, the earlier two variants have had some bad effects even without a quick demise:

diabetes
organ damage
cognitive loss
sexual dysfunction
stillbirths

Cancer and birth defects are not yet established, but I would not be surprised.

Some diseases such as chickenpox, rubella, and rheumatic fever can be comparatively slight at the onset but have a second and worse effect later. I trust any variant of SARS-2 about like I trust a dog to not grab a piece of meat within reach of its paws and snout.  

 

[pbrower2a]

How long has this thread had Star War references as it’s titles?

COVID-19 is the "Evil Empire" of respiratory diseases.

[pbrower2a]

It will never, ever cease to amaze me that with all of our modern technology, this pandemic is going to end up lasting longer than the 1918 pandemic.

Why has that happened?

A lot more international travel than in 1918--not just in volume, but general ease of travel, as well as being much quicker thanks to air travel--is a big reason for that. So in a twist of irony, that same modern travel has allowed it to ripple around the world a lot more quickly.

How long do you think the pandemic is going to last for? We're nearly two years into it now. I sure hope that we still won't be in "pandemic mode" by 2024.

For me to be satisfied that COVID-19 is no longer a threat, the Omicron variant must dwindle without becoming another threat as another variant. Because of the heritage of SARS-2, the virus behind COVID-19, we must assume the worst.

Samples of the 1918 flu virus behind the last analogous pandemic attacking the respiratory tract have been injected in mice -- who of course died of the virus. I'm ready to claim that COVID-19 is no longer threat the first time that a related virus becomes a triviality.  Even without causing death, SARS-2 can cause diabetes, organ damage, cognitive loss (in essence, stupidity), stillbirths, and sexual dysfunction. None of these is desirable, to put it tamely.

We could get a respite, but that has yet to appear. Enough people have failed to get inoculated that the horrible disease can kill and cripple.

[pbrower2a]

You do not treat a dog bite like the bite of a venomous snake.

[pbrower2a]

You would think the fact that hundreds of million of people have got various Covid-19 vaccines all around the globe and there is no trail of death would be enough for these morons.

Never underestimate the commonness, vehemence, and harm of stupidity.