COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Tekken_Guy]

DePaul has a vaccine mandate.

https://twitter.com/CollegeFix/status/1470377971940691970

I’d prefer they didn’t do this at all, but thankfully it’s just for two weeks.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

It's all about CYA at this point, not the science.

[Green Line]

DePaul has a vaccine mandate.

https://twitter.com/CollegeFix/status/1470377971940691970

I’d prefer they didn’t do this at all, but thankfully it’s just for two weeks.

Where have I heard this before.

[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

[Hammy]

Brace yourselves... Omicron is coming. And so are lockdowns.

Posts like this are bordering on disinformation and propaganda.

[Tekken_Guy]

DePaul has a vaccine mandate.

https://twitter.com/CollegeFix/status/1470377971940691970

I’d prefer they didn’t do this at all, but thankfully it’s just for two weeks.

Where have I heard this before.

Let’s just hope they’re able to keep their word here on no extended lockdowns.

[Pericles]

It's looking good that Omicron will be mild, but it's too early to know for sure, so caution is appropriate right now. NZ is lucky that our border reopening wasn't going to begin until mid January so we don't have to change anything yet and can use this month to see Omicron's real world effects.

[Hammy]

Hospitalization rate dramatically lower than previous waves:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2021-12-17/s-africa-hospitalization-rate-falls-91-in-omicron-wave-video

The South African Health Minister says the country’s hospital admission rate as a percentage of new Covid-19 cases identified fell 91% in the second week of the current infection wave driven by the omicron variant. That was compared with the same week of the third wave.

[JGibson]

Come on people, get a grip here. I am likely to be the biggest supporter of NPI's on this forum and I'm telling you it will be a cold day in hell before any state governor imposes another shelter-in-place or shuts down all nonessential businesses. The most we will get is some mask mandates, which falls far, far short of a "lockdown". If Twitter and Facebook become flooded with people begging for oxygen containers and people are falling over dead in the street, then maybe we will get some social distancing restrictions on businesses. Maybe.

By the way, if private businesses and institutions decide to restrict themselves, that is not a "lockdown". That is not the fault of any government, nor of Democrats or Joe Biden.

100% spot on. There is ZERO political will to do even the early 2021-era strategies of combatting COVID, such as capacity restrictions.

[ElectionsGuy]

Even Saagar Enjeti, who was frustratingly pro-lockdown last year (way to be a "populist", lol), is relenting at how ridiculous big corporations and universities with young, healthy, and vaccinated people are being subjected to restrictive covid measures because their leadership panics at any rise in cases.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7g8tbK6eeQ

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

https://twitter.com/business/status/1471843921651249152

Bloomberg: U.K. Study Finds No Evidence Omicron Cases Are Less Severe Than Delta

A previous Covid-19 recovery provides little shield against infection with the omicron variant, a research team from Imperial College London showed in a large study that underlines the importance of booster shots.

Having had Covid probably only offers 19% protection against omicron, the study showed on Friday. That was roughly in line with two doses of vaccine, which the team estimated were as much as 20% effective against omicron. Adding a booster dose helped dramatically, blocking an estimated 55% to 80% of symptomatic cases.

The Imperial College London team analyzed all the PCR test-confirmed Covid cases in England between Nov. 29 and Dec. 11, making it one of the most expansive examinations yet at omicron’s potential to evade the body’s defenses. The results were in line with the picture emerging of the variant’s capacity to elude protection from previous infection or inoculation and spread faster than previous iterations of the virus.

There was no evidence of omicron cases being less severe than delta, based on the proportion of people testing positive who had symptoms or went to the hospital, the team said.

Just how severe omicron cases will be remains unclear. It’s too soon to say how hospitalizations will play out in the U.K. In South Africa, which announced the discovery of the variant on Nov. 25, authorities said on Friday the rate of hospitalizations seems to be lower than during the country’s earlier wave of delta infections.

The title is a bit sensationalist, because it's based on "proportion of people testing positive who had symptoms or went to the hospital", but the main take away that a lot of potential mildness depends partly on much higher rate of breakthrough infections. Immunity, regardless if it from previous infections or 2 doses, shields from deaths/severe outcomes, but it's not all as effective against re-infection.

Having had Covid probably only offers 19% protection against omicron, the study showed on Friday. That was roughly in line with two doses of vaccine, which the team estimated were as much as 20% effective against omicron. Adding a booster dose helped dramatically, blocking an estimated 55% to 80% of symptomatic cases.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

Hospitalization rate dramatically lower than previous waves:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2021-12-17/s-africa-hospitalization-rate-falls-91-in-omicron-wave-video

The South African Health Minister says the country’s hospital admission rate as a percentage of new Covid-19 cases identified fell 91% in the second week of the current infection wave driven by the omicron variant. That was compared with the same week of the third wave.

Duh. Yeah. It's how immunity works. In UK the hospitalization rate of Delta was dramatically lower than previous waves as well.

[DINGO Joe]

Well, Universities are actually more than students as anyone who has attended a university may have noticed the old people working there and the universities are and should be expected to be part of the larger community.  Now, universities are highly vaxxed so while breakthrough  cases could pose a modest risk to the older employees, it is really all about their role with the larger community they are a part of.

Also, I'm not terribly bothered by the complaints of students as the workplace was steadily becoming more remote even before Covid (and sadly, if you are salaried, more 24/7 as your never beyond the reach of technology) and once they do get in the workplace they will have to deal with greater obstacles than this.  It gives them something to talk about in the interview when they are asked how they adapted to change.


Of course, with Covid presenting the largest threat to the unvaxxed and the unvaxxed being dominated by Trumpers as the data shows the pandemic becoming much whiter and more rural (also much younger whether that's because Delta is more deadly or rural America is much less healthy, I haven't seen any research),  the best mitigation strategy would be a "BRTD" strategy where you look up the percentage Trump vote and add mitigation efforts/number of masks accordingly.  Of course, they are the least likely to follow them hence the deaths and overburdened hospitals that start transferring patients to other hospitals and thus overburden everybody.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Imperial College is the same bunch of clowns that helped get us into this mess.

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/saletan/status/1471837130553012228

[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.

[It’s so Joever]

Friendly reminder that “no sufficient evidence” does not mean “not”. I had this argument with Covid skeptics before, don’t play games with me.

[jamestroll]

Vaccines do work.

Yesterday night for a few hours I had an extremely high temperature and very red eyes and was coughing non stop.

Over the night all that disappeared against the cough.  I double masked on my way back home.. but yes this morning I tested positive.

But I feel completely fine and energetic except this cough .. which admittedly did catch some people's attention.

But vaccines do work.

[jamestroll]

And I hiked 10 miles and biked 5 yesterday.  If I wasn't vaccinated that would have been impossible

[Tekken_Guy]

I've been exposed to Covid three times at my college in the past few weeks. Two times we had to move class online. And just yesterday in one of my classes a lot of students said they were uncomfortable with taking their finals in person. I expressed that because we were all vaccinated, we had nothing to worry about regarding catching COVID and felt my class was overreacting to the news.

I fear we're going to focus too much at stopping chains of transmission rather than reducing severe outcomes.

[Lief 🗽]

Perfect message from the administration; predictably deranged responses from effectively anti vax libs in the replies.
https://twitter.com/benwakana46/status/1471878504551702529?s=21

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1471932631113768962

[Roll Roons]

Well, Trump is apparently a huge germaphobe. But it's not clear if these rules were set by Trump Org or by the state/city.

[jamestroll]

Perfect message from the administration; predictably deranged responses from effectively anti vax libs in the replies.
https://twitter.com/benwakana46/status/1471878504551702529?s=21

I'm reading those comments and they make no sense to me and almost insulting

[Matty]

It begins

Maryland (PGC) going virtual

https://wtop.com/prince-georges-county/2021/12/prince-georges-county-public-schools-shifts-to-virtual-learning-due-to-uptick-in-covid-cases/