COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Pollster]

I am a fully vaccinated (including booster) individual who lives in a liberal city, voted for Joe Biden, works in Democratic politics, and holds left-of-center views on virtually every issue of substance. And I am beginning to notice a pattern.

The size and scope of the pandemic starts dying down and things look good. The news cycle is dominated by issues of divisive passion like the latest trial of a racist police officer, the most recent act of mass violence, drama on Capitol Hill, and new developments in the gaggle of investigations into Donald Trump (I've lost count). Then, news of a new variant emerges.

This new variant is bigger/badder/stronger/more infectious/more transmissible/more of a threat than the last one. Concern grows as the latest letter of the Greek alphabet to enter circulation becomes the #1 topic of discussion. Some days later, reports pop up that all of the available vaccines work on this new variant, but not as well as they worked on the last one. The CEO of Pfizer appears on television to announce that his company's vaccine offers robust protection against the new variant.....BUUUUUTTTTTT you'll be safer if you get one more shot. The heads of the other vaccine makers quickly release similar findings. The US government and many governments around the globe quickly place orders for additional shots at whatever price point and profit margin the pharmaceutical companies name, not even flinching at the cost due to the high demand for vaccines in the midst of the public health crisis we are all facing. Countries that can't afford and/or don't have the infrastructure to distribute the shots are not as lucky. And don't even get me started on the companies that make the tests.

Then, the conversation shifts. Politicians with a (D) next to their name fiercely encourage vaccination and the taking of measures to end the pandemic and return to their abstract perception of normal. Politicians with an (R) next to their name challenge the science, dismiss the vaccine, and decry measures to end the pandemic as an attack on their abstract perception of freedom. They flock to the media outlets that share their political positions to spout their talking points, and the American people do the same to receive them.

Wide majorities of the country get vaccinated, but the efforts of the politicians and media attempting to dissuade from vaccination are effective at keeping just enough people unvaccinated that the virus is able to persist, much to the chagrin of the vaccinated. This persistence requires measures like mandates and closures that are unpopular among both the vaccinated (who blame the unvaccinated) and the unvaccinated (who blame the politicians the vaccinated support). Underneath the psychological surface, liberals get to continue to wear masks and talk about getting/tell people on social media to get the vaccine solely to virtue signal and express perceived moral/intellectual superiority, and conservatives explicitly defy these same things solely to virtue signal and express perceived moral/intellectual superiority. This keeps both groups angry at each other, and more importantly, keeps them willing to vote for the politicians/patronize the media outlets of their chosen party. And the unvaccinated population (as well as the countries that can't afford/distribute the vaccines) lie in wait to churn out the next variant that will restart the cycle.

All the while, the pharmaceutical companies continue to rake in record breaking profits, a portion of which go to the campaign accounts of the politicians who do the handiwork: those with a (D) next to their name who maintain high demand for vaccines so more profits can be made, and those with an (R) next to their name who ensure the pandemic will continue so more profits can be made. Another portion goes to advertising their other drugs and medications on the same media outlets that give the politicians microphones.

And of course, as those with wealth and power play this psychopathic game (a condition increasingly prevalent among those who seek and serve in positions of power, especially elected ones), the bulk of the world suffers from a pandemic that has caused unknowable amounts of death/suffering and subsequent mourning, and has brought potentially permanent trauma upon a global working and middle class (especially those in positions that lack the potential for the virtue of working from home like healthcare workers, teachers, food service workers, and mail/package carriers, among others).

Perhaps the saddest part is that these working and middle class people all across the world - lacking the ability to miss work to stay home and stop the spread, lacking the platform and reach with which to persuade large numbers of unvaccinated people to get a shot, and lacking the money and capacity needed to produce and distribute vaccines in poor nations - are the most at risk in the pandemic and simultaneously the least empowered to end it.

[Aurelius]

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.

That is your choice. Never leave your house for the rest of your life if you want. I am taking reasonable risks and living normally.

[jamestroll]

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.

lmao.. lmao..

[Hammy]

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.

Those are all complications that result from severe illness due to oxygen deprivation, same thing with the clotting that occurs (and is the case in any sort of severe pneumonia.)

Mild cases don't often have much complications, but this constant barrage of of alarmist, sensationalist doomsday stuff from the media is taking a toll on everybody's mental health.

[emailking]

Appeals court lets Biden administration enforce vaccine rules for large employers

The Biden administration scored a significant victory Friday in its court battles to enforce various federal vaccine mandates, with an appeals court ruling that the government can enforce a vaccine-or-testing rule for companies with more than 100 employees.

The decision, from the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals, came after a separate appeals court on Friday declined a Justice Department request that it reinstate the administration's federal contractor mandate, which had been blocked nationwide by a federal judge earlier this month.

A third Biden mandate -- requiring vaccines for certain heath care workers -- is being reviewed by the Supreme Court, after lower courts froze it in half the states in the country.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/17/politics/appeals-court-vaccine-mandate-osha-large-employers-federal-contractors/index.html

[Inmate Trump]

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.

Those are all complications that result from severe illness due to oxygen deprivation, same thing with the clotting that occurs (and is the case in any sort of severe pneumonia.)

Mild cases don't often have much complications, but this constant barrage of of alarmist, sensationalist doomsday stuff from the media is taking a toll on everybody's mental health.

I can attest to this re:mental health.

I suffer from anxiety and it’s been one mental barrage after another since 2020. It feels like we’re never getting better, even when we are.

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1472016822639677450

Oops.

[Roll Roons]

Assuming he's vaccinated (which I would think he almost certainly is), a positive test by itself is meaningless. This is only newsworthy if he ends up in the hospital.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

https://twitter.com/adamlongoTV/status/1471950816059793422


First lockdowns. Of course, it's the [overrrepresentedly brown poor] kids that are hurt. Dems.

[jamestroll]

Assuming he's vaccinated (which I would think he almost certainly is), a positive test by itself is meaningless. This is only newsworthy if he ends up in the hospital.

oh trust me.. i dont think he has anything to worry about at all.. abliet he is older than me

[Tekken_Guy]

https://twitter.com/adamlongoTV/status/1471950816059793422


First lockdowns. Of course, it's the [overrrepresentedly brown poor] kids that are hurt. Dems.

Republicans may actually have a shot at holding the governorship if this is the direction we’re going.

[lfromnj]

https://twitter.com/adamlongoTV/status/1471950816059793422


First lockdowns. Of course, it's the [overrrepresentedly brown poor] kids that are hurt. Dems.

Prince George does have some lower middle class families that did get gentrified out of DC but it also has the richest black majority towns in the nation.

[compucomp]

After all our arguing about mandates and restrictions, here's something that should unite us all in outrage:

Supply shortage of new antiviral drug threatens fight against omicron

Pfizer says it expects to have 180,000 courses of the treatment available by the end of 2021, with 30 million available globally in the first half of 2022, rising to 80 million by the end of next year.

But with about 120,000 new COVID-19 cases every day and rising just in the United States, the demand for the antiviral product is spiking sharply.

“It's kind of a drop in the bucket in the short term,” said David Boulware, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota.

“There's definitely going to be a shortage,” he added. “People have this expectation of ‘Oh yeah, I'm just going to go get this Paxlovid.’ That's not going to happen [at least in the next few months].”

Experts said the initial authorization could be restricted to the most high-risk groups, like unvaccinated people and the immunocompromised.  

Unvaccinated people may be high risk but they are high risk by choice. They are a bunch of numbskulls who believe in bizarre conspiracy theories and Trumpists who think COVID is a Democratic hoax. It would be more fair to put them dead last on the triage priority list than to give them first priority for the Pfizer drug.

[ملكة كرينجيتوك]

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.

Those are all complications that result from severe illness due to oxygen deprivation, same thing with the clotting that occurs (and is the case in any sort of severe pneumonia.)

Mild cases don't often have much complications, but this constant barrage of of alarmist, sensationalist doomsday stuff from the media is taking a toll on everybody's mental health.

The sexual dysfunction one sounds like it could be more general

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32959752/

A Late COVID-19 Complication: Male Sexual Dysfunction

Since the beginning of the coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, an exponentially large amount of data has been published to describe the pathology, clinical presentations, and outcomes in patients infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome novel coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Although COVID-19 has been shown to cause a systemic inflammation predisposing the involvement of multiple organs, its mechanism affecting the urogenital system has not been well-documented. This case report presents the clinical course of two male patients with COVID-19 who developed sexual dysfunction, as anorgasmia, following recovery from the infection. Although no evidence of viral replication or inflammatory involvement could be identified in these cases' urogenital organs, a lack of other known risk factors for anorgasmia points to the role of COVID-19 as the contributing factor.

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20210407/erectile-dysfunction-risk-6-times-higher-in-men-with-covid

April 7, 2021 -- COVID-19 increases the risk of developing erectile dysfunction (ED) by nearly six times, according to data from the first study to investigate the association between ED and COVID-19 in young men in a real-life setting.

The preliminary numbers also indicated that having ED also increased men’s susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Men with ED are more than five times more likely to have COVID-19.

[Hammy]

April 7, 2021 -- COVID-19 increases the risk of developing erectile dysfunction (ED) by nearly six times, according to data from the first study to investigate the association between ED and COVID-19 in young men in a real-life setting.

The preliminary numbers also indicated that having ED also increased men’s susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Men with ED are more than five times more likely to have COVID-19.

That one's quite odd, but interesting.

[Aurelius]

April 7, 2021 -- COVID-19 increases the risk of developing erectile dysfunction (ED) by nearly six times, according to data from the first study to investigate the association between ED and COVID-19 in young men in a real-life setting.

The preliminary numbers also indicated that having ED also increased men’s susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Men with ED are more than five times more likely to have COVID-19.

That one's quite odd, but interesting.

EDs increase with age. Did that study control for age?

[Pericles]

After all our arguing about mandates and restrictions, here's something that should unite us all in outrage:

Supply shortage of new antiviral drug threatens fight against omicron

Pfizer says it expects to have 180,000 courses of the treatment available by the end of 2021, with 30 million available globally in the first half of 2022, rising to 80 million by the end of next year.

But with about 120,000 new COVID-19 cases every day and rising just in the United States, the demand for the antiviral product is spiking sharply.

“It's kind of a drop in the bucket in the short term,” said David Boulware, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota.

“There's definitely going to be a shortage,” he added. “People have this expectation of ‘Oh yeah, I'm just going to go get this Paxlovid.’ That's not going to happen [at least in the next few months].”

Experts said the initial authorization could be restricted to the most high-risk groups, like unvaccinated people and the immunocompromised.  

Unvaccinated people may be high risk but they are high risk by choice. They are a bunch of numbskulls who believe in bizarre conspiracy theories and Trumpists who think COVID is a Democratic hoax. It would be more fair to put them dead last on the triage priority list than to give them first priority for the Pfizer drug.

Don't be stupid. Unvaccinated people still have a right to have their health and lives protected, and  prioritising the most at-risk patients is logical to prevent the healthcare system being overwhelmed for everyone. The latter is the reason people are mad at the unvaccinated in the first place, if it just affected their personal level of protection then the vaccinated could get on with their lives. The most important point though is that people should not effectively be punished with severe illness or death for what is still a personal choice. It really is as simple as saving those who are most at risk first, no ifs or buts.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Meanwhile, the positive rate in Prince George's County is...3.7%.

[jamestroll]

STOP FEAR MONGERING OVER  OMICRON. It is not a big deal. I know first hand.

[roxas11]

STOP FEAR MONGERING OVER  OMICRON. It is not a big deal. I know first hand.

To me, the real threat is not Omicron its the fact that the hospitals could end up being overwhelmed by a lot of people rushing to the ER simply because they fear they may have the virus

even if the cases do end being mild and overwhelmed health care system will still end up getting a lot of people killed

[compucomp]

After all our arguing about mandates and restrictions, here's something that should unite us all in outrage:

Supply shortage of new antiviral drug threatens fight against omicron

Pfizer says it expects to have 180,000 courses of the treatment available by the end of 2021, with 30 million available globally in the first half of 2022, rising to 80 million by the end of next year.

But with about 120,000 new COVID-19 cases every day and rising just in the United States, the demand for the antiviral product is spiking sharply.

“It's kind of a drop in the bucket in the short term,” said David Boulware, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota.

“There's definitely going to be a shortage,” he added. “People have this expectation of ‘Oh yeah, I'm just going to go get this Paxlovid.’ That's not going to happen [at least in the next few months].”

Experts said the initial authorization could be restricted to the most high-risk groups, like unvaccinated people and the immunocompromised.  

Unvaccinated people may be high risk but they are high risk by choice. They are a bunch of numbskulls who believe in bizarre conspiracy theories and Trumpists who think COVID is a Democratic hoax. It would be more fair to put them dead last on the triage priority list than to give them first priority for the Pfizer drug.

Don't be stupid. Unvaccinated people still have a right to have their health and lives protected, and  prioritising the most at-risk patients is logical to prevent the healthcare system being overwhelmed for everyone. The latter is the reason people are mad at the unvaccinated in the first place, if it just affected their personal level of protection then the vaccinated could get on with their lives. The most important point though is that people should not effectively be punished with severe illness or death for what is still a personal choice. It really is as simple as saving those who are most at risk first, no ifs or buts.

These unvaccinated are in most cases not even just affecting themselves, they are influencers on social media to convince friends and acquaintances not to get the vaccine. If we give them priority on the Pfizer drug, they'll get off easily from catching COVID, and pull a Trump and say "See? COVID wasn't that bad, not a big deal at all" which makes their message even stronger. Also, vaccinated people are absolutely at risk from unvaccinated people, the vaccine doesn't provide anything close to sterilizing immunity especially with Omicron.

I understand from a medical perspective why unvaccinated should be high priority, but from a real-life perspective, no they should be last on the priority list and yes they should be punished with severe illness and death. Putting them last in triage priority would also solve hospital capacity issues. Rights are not absolute, particularly when it comes to consequences for conscious choices. If that weren't true we wouldn't even be able to punish criminals.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

It’s been three weeks now since cases started surging in South Africa, and there still has been no increase in covid deaths.  If omicron were anywhere near as severe as past variants, we should have started to see some sign of this my now (spikes in deaths tend to follow spikes in cases by about two weeks).

[Horus]

It’s been three weeks now since cases started surging in South Africa, and there still has been no increase in covid deaths.  If omicron were anywhere near as severe as past variants, we should have started to see some sign of this my now (spikes in deaths tend to follow spikes in cases by about two weeks).

Doesn't matter. It has a scary name so we have to shut everything down like it's March 2020. Who cares about poor kids losing a few more months of school?. We have to be safe.

[emailking]

STOP FEAR MONGERING OVER  OMICRON. It is not a big deal. I know first hand.

You had Omicron and it was confirmed?

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

Just based on chats I've had with folks at UPENN's resident center for COVID research (and other infectious diseases, blah blah), the response to Omicron should lie somewhere in the middle -- there's no need to hit the panic button, but it should still serve as a reminder that COVID isn't "over".  Don't fear-monger, but be responsible.