COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Hammy]

There's a large segment of the population in this country that remains unvaccinated, not to mention those that are under 12 and cannot get the vaccine. This is only allowing for new mutations and variants to develop as the virus gets an exponential chance to keep replicating. It's apparently not common sense that stopping transmission stops replication. Every day and every chance this virus gets to mutate is one that could render our vaccines useless or even just far less effective.

Why don't you have this concern for the flu? Every person it infects is a chance for it to mutate into something deadlier that evades all our vaccines. Right?

I have some understanding of virology. Coronaviruses and influenza viruses are very different. These vaccines we currently have are the first vaccines to ever be used against a human coronavirus. We should all be lucky they are as effective as they currently are. Influenza vaccines are generally made in advance of the upcoming season and often have a fairly low efficacy rate. (So far, we're lucky that the highly lethal avian strains haven't passed from human to human. They appear to be harder to vaccinate against. From what I recall, something in either human respiratory physiology or the shape of the virus makes it currently virtually impossible to pass from person-to-person. That prospect does scare me.) In recent years, influenza vaccine efficacy rates have varied from 10-60%. However, the flu is of highest concern among the elderly, the very young, and the immunocompromised. Vaccines in general may either be problematic or not even work for those that are immunocompromised. As for coronaviruses in general, this virus (SARS-CoV-2) is the third known fatal coronavirus in humans. Its predecessors were SARS (SARS-CoV-1) with a fatality rate of about 10% and MERS (MERS-CoV) with a fatality rate of about 35%. Generally, viruses trade off virulence for transmissibility. However, that are many instances of viruses becoming more virulent with time (examples include Ebola, West Nile, and the Spanish flu).

Right now, we have a virus running rampant across the world and replicating exponentially in every new host. So far, the vaccines are holding up, although not as much as when they were first released to the general public. But we're always one mutation away from something that will render our vaccines either useless or far less effective. I believe in erring on the side of caution. Wear masks in most indoor places when you're with strangers and maintain a certain distance from those you don't know. In restaurants, go ahead and eat normally if you're vaccinated. I plan on going to the movies soon and I'm not going to wear a mask watching the movie (but I'll still wear it other indoor public places). I want businesses to be open, but considerations need to be made, particularly in restaurants (such as reduced capacity or working to space people apart more effectively or asking for vaccine status). I think this is all a matter of risk mitigation and balancing.

Since you seem more knowledgeable than others on the issue, I have to actually ask a question. Given the extremely high risk of a mutation rendering the vaccines useless, I've long asked myself the question of: Would humanity actually be better off if a vaccine had not been developed?

My reasoning here is quite similar as to why the excessive use of anti-biotics is allowing the creation of anti-biotic resistent bacteria. People taking needless antibiotics means the bacteria can somehow "learn" how to defeat the antibiotics and create a mutation that makes it anti-biotic resistance.

So similarly, is the fact that covid is spreading to vaccinated people, and in some cases being able to infect them and what not creating a vaccine-resistant strain of covid?

Meanwhile with no vaccine, humanity would be worse off in the short term, but covid would be unable to "learn" how to become vaccine resistant (since there would be no vaccine) and eventually it would be gone in 3 years or so (much like every other epidemic in human history).

Basically my fear is that partial vaccination might somehow drag on the pandemic (meaning instead of lasting for 3-4 years it lasts a whole decade) as well as giving the virus more chances to mutate and create a worse version of itself.

Note I am borderline biology-illiterate given I dropped that class in year 7 or so so perhaps I am just saying stupid things.

Absolutely not. The vaccine antibodies attack the spike protein. The virus is not adapting, but (as the many articles I've written have put it) it's making copies of itself, and sometimes it creates a defect in those copies--some of which can weaken the virus, some of which can give it an advantage as the defect alters the makeup of the spike protein.

It is not, in any way, adapting due to the vaccine, as there is literally no part of the virus itself in the vaccine. Bacteria on the other hand is directly impacted by antibacterials. Some bacteria always survive--those that do spread and evolve to become somewhat immune.  The covid virus is not coming into direct contact with the vaccine antibodies in a way that it can adapt the same way bacteria does.

[7,052,770]

Brilliant. Now you can't expect them to show up at the Capitol in Austin no matter what.

[DrScholl]

So you first found people having Covid as funny, with your title stating "LMAO."
What made you change your mind, to alter it to "Yikes"?

Because it is funny, sorry. They are all fully vaccinated. They’ll be fine

It’s just this whole stunt has blown up in their faces

Numerous Twitter personalities are laughing about it.

That's not funny. And I'm sure the Twitter personalities are all conservatives.

Other people have laughed about this virus have ended up dying from it, so I wouldn't play around like this. What you put out in the universe can come back on you.

[Bismarck]

I mean you guys sure loved it when Republican congressman tested positive last year. Both this and that are distasteful.

[UncleSam]

So you first found people having Covid as funny, with your title stating "LMAO."
What made you change your mind, to alter it to "Yikes"?

Because it is funny, sorry. They are all fully vaccinated. They’ll be fine
...

Well there you have it folks.
People catching deadly viruses is apparently "funny" to some _______.

It literally isn’t deadly if you’re vaccinated. Stop being a childish snowflake.

[Joe Republic]

When bad things happen to bad people, it’s justified, karma, schadenfreude, etc.

When bad things happen to good people, it’s tragic, sad, and certainly unfunny.

This isn’t all that complicated.

[KaiserDave]

Note that one can still test positive for COVID while vaccinated. Their lives or health are not in any serious risk.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I mean you guys sure loved it when Republican congressman tested positive last year. Both this and that are distasteful.

Please cite

[DrScholl]

I mean you guys sure loved it when Republican congressman tested positive last year. Both this and that are distasteful.

It was more so that people called out how idiotic Republicans were for calling the virus a hoax or not taking it seriously and then ended up getting it.

[ProudModerate2]

So you first found people having Covid as funny, with your title stating "LMAO."
What made you change your mind, to alter it to "Yikes"?

Because it is funny, sorry. They are all fully vaccinated. They’ll be fine
...

Well there you have it folks.
People catching deadly viruses is apparently "funny" to some _______.

It literally isn’t deadly if you’re vaccinated. Stop being a childish snowflake.

For the vast, vast majority of people this is true. But vaccinated people could potentially still become infected and spread the virus to others. "Stop being an" ignorant _________.

[THG]

1). Wearing Masks After Getting Vaccinated

Some of the early messaging on the vaccine was that getting it would help reopen the economy, however, Biden and others who received the vaccine continued to act publicly as they did throughout the lockdowns. One of the most infamous examples occurred during the G7 summit, when Biden and other world leaders – all of whom had been fully vaccinated – wore masks and stood several feet apart, refusing to shake hands, even though they were outside. The disconnect between the science and the messaging was palpable. People had to wonder: What was the point of getting the vaccine if they still had to live under restrictive lockdown measures?

[THG]

2. Media Insistence That Only Certain Protests Would Spread COVID


When people protested the restrictive lockdown measures that cost jobs and destroyed livelihoods, the media insisted the protests were “super spreader” events that would increase COVID-19 cases. Just weeks later, when massive protests and riots broke out across the U.S. over the police-involved death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd, the media bent over backwards to claim those protests wouldn’t spread the virus. Now that people in Cuba are protesting the country’s dictatorship, the media has gone back to claiming protests spread the virus.

[THG]

3. Kamala Harris’s Idiotic Pre-Election Statement

During the 2020 campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris said she would not trust the vaccine developed under the Trump administration.

“Well, I think that’s going to be an issue for all of us,” Harris told CNN’s Dana Bash in September. “I will say that I would not trust Donald Trump and it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he’s talking about. I will not take his word for it.”

[THG]

4. Allowing Unvaccinated Illegal Immigrants Into The Country

While the Biden administration has spent much time deriding Americans who haven’t gotten the COVID-19 vaccine, its own Department of Homeland Security said it would not enforce vaccination requirements on those entering the country illegally.

“Consistent with ICE’s long-standing sensitive locations policy, ICE does not and will not carry out enforcement operations at or near health care facilities, such as hospitals, doctors’ offices, accredited health clinics, and emergent or urgent care facilities, except in the most extraordinary of circumstances,” DHS said, even though it strongly encouraged vaccination.

[THG]

5. California Requiring Fully Vaccinated Individuals To Wear Masks Again

California is experiencing a rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, so Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) administration is instituting more lockdown restrictions, even for those who are fully vaccinated. It’s yet another example of making the vaccine appear irrelevant.

[THG]

6. Inconsistent Requirements

Throughout the pandemic, caveats and exemptions were made by the same people continuing to tell us we need to wear masks. We had to wear a mask when walking around a restaurant, but it was okay to take it off while we were seated and eating. Politicians could lower their masks to speak to the press, but had to wear it while walking around. The virus didn’t take breaks during these moments, yet we were expected to follow the contradictory guidance.

[THG]

7. Just Who Isn’t Getting The Vaccine?

While Democrats want to appear morally superior by claiming it’s Trump supporters who are refusing to get the vaccine, the evidence doesn’t support the claim. In May, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that the Americans who are vaccine hesitant are not even Republicans, CNN reported at the time.

“A look at the data reveals that the vaccine hesitant group, however, are not big Trump lovers. They’re actually likely not to be Republican. Instead, many of them are people who are detached from the political process and didn’t vote for either major candidate in 2020,” CNN reported. “The most recent Kaiser poll helps illustrate that the vaccine hesitant group doesn’t really lean Republican. Just 20% of the group called themselves Republican with an additional 19% being independents who leaned Republican. The clear majority (61%) were not Republicans (41% said they were Democrats or Democratic leaning independents and 20% were either pure independents or undesignated).”

Those that have said they won’t get the vaccine, however, are 55% Republican or right-leaning independents. Further, a large percentage of African Americans have also said they are hesitant to get the vaccine, another group that is not known for being Republican.

[afleitch]

The Democwats made me scawed to get the scawy vaccine.

[THG]

I just wanted to refute the misconceptions and misinformation spewed by the USGD mafia on here.

Of course, I expect less than nothing from them, but it would be so stupendous to see them break my insanely low levels of conjecture.

[GALeftist]

lmfao come on now, you cannot be serious with this list right?

[emailking]

It's not adapting to anything that's shot into your arm but it's adapting to the antibodies you develop as a result of that. Semantics.

[Edu]

Finally an Atlas republican that makes SirWoodbury look smart

[Ferguson97]

Sir this is a Wendy's

[Progressive Pessimist]

I expected this to be a thread filled with Carolyn Maloney quotes and it ended up being even dumber and worse than that. Bravo!

[Ferguson97]

When bad things happen to bad people, it’s justified, karma, schadenfreude, etc.

When bad things happen to good people, it’s tragic, sad, and certainly unfunny.

This isn’t all that complicated.