COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Just wondering, what happened to Mu?

[politicallefty]

Its time to do what we should have done in March 2020.. let the virus run its course!

Our healthcare system would've collapsed many times over with millions dead. Would that have made you happier? A good portion of the country would've been scared sh-tless to go out. Do you really think that would've been an improvement?

We have measures that work right now. We have vaccines and we have masks. We will need both to get through this winter as a society. We don't need to do lockdowns again. Even social distancing isn't really necessary with the other measures in place. If everyone got vaccinated and wore their masks right now, we'd massively accelerate out way out of the pandemic once and for all.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1466776769369976839
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/03/world/omicron-norway-christmas-party.html
A Christmas party in Norway becomes a possible Omicron-spreading event.

Around half of the people who attended an office Christmas party in Oslo, where only vaccinated employees were admitted, have tested positive for the coronavirus after one guest recently returned from South Africa was found to carry the new Omicron variant, local health authorities said on Friday.

More than 120 people attended the event, held a week ago by a solar power company. Of the positive tests sequenced so far, between 15 and 20 were likely to be the Omicron variant, according to Dr. Tine Ravlo, a local chief physician involved in tracking the outbreak, who added that not all of the 60 coronavirus cases found so far had yet been fully checked for the variant.

“We are expecting more of them to likely be Omicron infections,” she said.

A spokesman for the company, Scatec, said that only vaccinated staff had been admitted to the party, and everyone had tested negative for the coronavirus before the event.

Wow! Everyone's vaccinated. Everyone's tested negative prior to the party. Most for on the "younger" side. 60 of 120 got the virus. At least 15-20 Omicron (the rest of the tests hasn't been sequenced yet?).

A lot still unclear - how old they were, were they boosted, when they got vaccinated, does the rest got Delta etc - but wow, Omicron seems to be a game-changer.

[Person Man]

Just wondering, what happened to Mu?

I thought it went Alpha, Beta, Gamma,  Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Theta, Eta, Iota, Lambda, Mu, Nu, and then Omicron with Pi, Phi,  Rho, Sigma, Theta, Upsilon, Paraupsilon, Chi, Psy, and then Omega. 

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

We knew it was gonna be bad this Winter, but it's not nearly as bad last Winter, me and my sister and Dad caught it last yr.

[2016]

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/584166-manchin-to-vote-to-nix-bidens-vaccine-mandate-for-larger-businesses

[Matty]

This is fantastic news out of Suid Afrika

https://mobile.twitter.com/Alicia_Smith19/status/1466820411287552016


Also, I read somewhere that the hospitalization increase is an artifact of the fact that South Africa is finally allowing Afrikaners to get hospital treatment for covid.

[roxas11]

This is fantastic news out of Suid Afrika

https://mobile.twitter.com/Alicia_Smith19/status/1466820411287552016


Also, I read somewhere that the hospitalization increase is an artifact of the fact that South Africa is finally allowing Afrikaners to get hospital treatment for covid.

If true this is a great news and if Omicron does turn out be milder than I think it's safe to say that the world just dogged a giant bullet

Hopefully this Omicron scare has shown everyone just how important it is to get as many people around the world as possible vaccinated otherwise we may not be so lucky if another more dangerous covid variant shows up....

[Indy Texas]

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1466776769369976839
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/03/world/omicron-norway-christmas-party.html
A Christmas party in Norway becomes a possible Omicron-spreading event.

Around half of the people who attended an office Christmas party in Oslo, where only vaccinated employees were admitted, have tested positive for the coronavirus after one guest recently returned from South Africa was found to carry the new Omicron variant, local health authorities said on Friday.

More than 120 people attended the event, held a week ago by a solar power company. Of the positive tests sequenced so far, between 15 and 20 were likely to be the Omicron variant, according to Dr. Tine Ravlo, a local chief physician involved in tracking the outbreak, who added that not all of the 60 coronavirus cases found so far had yet been fully checked for the variant.

“We are expecting more of them to likely be Omicron infections,” she said.

A spokesman for the company, Scatec, said that only vaccinated staff had been admitted to the party, and everyone had tested negative for the coronavirus before the event.

Wow! Everyone's vaccinated. Everyone's tested negative prior to the party. Most for on the "younger" side. 60 of 120 got the virus. At least 15-20 Omicron (the rest of the tests hasn't been sequenced yet?).

A lot still unclear - how old they were, were they boosted, when they got vaccinated, does the rest got Delta etc - but wow, Omicron seems to be a game-changer.

The relevant question is: were they hospitalized and how sick did they get?

[Roll Roons]

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1466776769369976839
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/03/world/omicron-norway-christmas-party.html
A Christmas party in Norway becomes a possible Omicron-spreading event.

Around half of the people who attended an office Christmas party in Oslo, where only vaccinated employees were admitted, have tested positive for the coronavirus after one guest recently returned from South Africa was found to carry the new Omicron variant, local health authorities said on Friday.

More than 120 people attended the event, held a week ago by a solar power company. Of the positive tests sequenced so far, between 15 and 20 were likely to be the Omicron variant, according to Dr. Tine Ravlo, a local chief physician involved in tracking the outbreak, who added that not all of the 60 coronavirus cases found so far had yet been fully checked for the variant.

“We are expecting more of them to likely be Omicron infections,” she said.

A spokesman for the company, Scatec, said that only vaccinated staff had been admitted to the party, and everyone had tested negative for the coronavirus before the event.

Wow! Everyone's vaccinated. Everyone's tested negative prior to the party. Most for on the "younger" side. 60 of 120 got the virus. At least 15-20 Omicron (the rest of the tests hasn't been sequenced yet?).

A lot still unclear - how old they were, were they boosted, when they got vaccinated, does the rest got Delta etc - but wow, Omicron seems to be a game-changer.

The relevant question is: were they hospitalized and how sick did they get?

This times a thousand. I remember the doomers were fearmongering about vaccines supposedly being ineffective after a bunch of people got infected at Provincetown over Fourth of July weekend, but it turned out that very few of them got seriously ill and none died.

[Indy Texas]

https://twitter.com/dilanpcook/status/1466568569559212034?s=20

I can't stand this kind of kludginess.

Just do what Europe does and keep the prices low by subsidizing the cost of the tests so they only cost a few dollars when you go buy them at the store.

Instead, apparently I'm supposed to pay $25 for a two-pack of Abbott tests and then fill out a bunch of paperwork so my insurance company can reimburse me and it's not even clear if the government is in turn reimbursing them or not.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

This is fantastic news out of Suid Afrika

https://mobile.twitter.com/Alicia_Smith19/status/1466820411287552016


Also, I read somewhere that the hospitalization increase is an artifact of the fact that South Africa is finally allowing Afrikaners to get hospital treatment for covid.

How is this not the top story on every new network across the world right now?

If this is holds up, it is the end of the pandemic full stop.

[emailking]

How is this not the top story on every new network across the world right now?

If this is holds up, it is the end of the pandemic full stop.

Because that's a big if, the tweet says it's too early to tell if it's a milder variant, and even if it is true, no that doesn't mean the end of serious variants. That's a possibility, but not assured at all.

[Horus]

This is fantastic news out of Suid Afrika

https://mobile.twitter.com/Alicia_Smith19/status/1466820411287552016


Also, I read somewhere that the hospitalization increase is an artifact of the fact that South Africa is finally allowing Afrikaners to get hospital treatment for covid.

How is this not the top story on every new network across the world right now?

If this is holds up, it is the end of the pandemic full stop.

Because many at the top do not ever want to get out of pandemic living. I expect to still be hearing about variants five, even ten years from now.  And at least a quarter of the country will continue to remain perpetually terrified and masked.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

How is this not the top story on every new network across the world right now?

If this is holds up, it is the end of the pandemic full stop.

Because that's a big if, the tweet says it's too early to tell if it's a milder variant, and even if it is true, no that doesn't mean the end of serious variants. That's a possibility, but not assured at all.

I realize it's too earlier to know for sure.  But there have been headlines about how Omicron -might- be more infections, and -might- evade the vaccines for the entire past week, and we have no more certainty about these than we do about the variant's severity.

[emailking]

Yeah. There's not a lot of certainty about it. Might be a nothing variant. Might be a mild cold and extinguish the other variants. Might be worse than delta. We don't know.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

We're back to normalcy, we wear masks but except for Cruises, Americans are back at bars, sports std, college dorms, and hair salons

That's why FL has the lowest number of deaths, no more Cruises, people are gambling in person instead on Cruise ships, motion sickness causes COVID, OBVIOUSLY

[emailking]

Motion sickness does not cause COVID.

[It’s so Joever]

Motion sickness does not cause COVID.

Speak for yourself. Everytime my father got motion sick on our road trip, a new wave began.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

This is fantastic news out of Suid Afrika

https://mobile.twitter.com/Alicia_Smith19/status/1466820411287552016

We don't know, how mild it is. Even if it's relatively mild, it might be so transmittable that it will wreak havoc on poor countries's healthcare system.

FT:

[GP270watch]

https://twitter.com/CourtneyFingar/status/1428042896524124164

[BigSerg]

https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1466947246281445380?s=20

[BigSerg]

https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1466949910171983872?s=20

[Bandit3 the Worker]

https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1466947246281445380?s=20

We're still dealing with the Thanksgiving backlog.

[jamestroll]

I dont understand why yall think I am an out of control crazy psycho