COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Green Line]

Since many on here, for whatever reason, refuse to take information from South Africa at face value, here's a source from the UK.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/23/hospital-admission-risk-up-to-70-less-with-omicron-than-delta-ukhsa-finds

"The risk of being admitted to hospital is up to 70% less for people with Omicron compared to those infected with Delta, according to the first UK government study of its kind."

I know this is very sad news for our media and public health bureaucrats, so please keep them in your thoughts and prayers this Christmas season.

However, thats not to say its all bad news!  From the same article:

"At the same time, the preliminary UKHSA data suggests that protection against Covid starts to wane 10 weeks after a booster jab, raising the prospect that a fourth dose of vaccine may be required for some in 2022."

See? We can keep doing this forever and ever and ever.  There truly doesn't have to be an end!  This time next year, you won't be able to enter a restaurant unless you've had your seventh booster.

Once hospitalization risk goes down as a whole, vaccine passports won't be necessary. But it's intellectually dishonest that having future booster shots is some horrible thing that "keeps it going" when we have vaccines for the flu and other viral illnesses literally ever year.

Its intellectually dishonest to compare 4 shots per year, in perpetuity, to the annual flu shot (which has much milder side effects).  And if you seriously believe that this news will lead to the end of vaccine passports, I have a bridge in Alaska to sell you.  Their implementation has no correlation with their necessity.

Now you're inventing your own imaginary scenario to get upset over.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-offer-fourth-dose-covid-19-vaccine-people-over-60-2021-12-21/

You might not like Israel, but its not imaginary AFAIK.

Context matters, but of course you ignore it when you're trying to shove a narrative down people's throats.

people older than 60 or with compromised immune systems, and to health workers

Lol, you realize thats how the original boosters rolled out too?  Are you being dense or you seriously believe they’re going to give it to 60+, wash their hands, and call it there?

I notice you're moving away from your fantasy claim of four per year being required, because you have literally nothing to back it up other than a maybe of a fourth dose at an unspecified point next year.

Where in the hell did I move away from that claim?  That is absolutely where its heading, as I just evidenced with Israel already rolling out a 4th shot IN LESS THAN A YEAR.  You’re in total denial (but you’ll still have your four shots anyway).

Vaccinations started in January. Booster doses started rolling out in May. Second boosters (in literally one country) are rolling out in December. You're casually ignoring the fact that the span of time is expanding (two weeks, then three months, then seven months), and thus your invented narrative of four a year doesn't hold water.

But by all means, continue upsetting yourself over figments of your own imagination (your original claim being that you'd need 7 soon) because it's providing quite a bit of entertainment on my end.

“The panel further recommended that the time between the second and third shots be reduced to three months from five.”

Everything you say is wrong.  The time between the boosters is getting closer, not further.  You are seriously naive if you believe what you write.  Everything, literally everything, in this pandemic starts off as an innocent “recommendation” until people start getting mad they they got a shot and others didn’t.  Then it becomes mandatory, and you are part of the problem.

It's also funny how your claims are changing, from "This time next year, you won't be able to enter a restaurant unless you've had your seventh booster." to "four per year in perpetuity" to "four over a year' (which won't even be the case for most people.) Pretty sure by year's end you'll be foaming over vaccines being needed at all at the rate you're going.

Are you bad at math?  If they’re talking about a 4th shot already, they’ll undoubtedly be on 7 by the end of 2022.  I was actually being conservative.  And its amazing you are that bad at understanding hyperbole, as if it would be okay if it were ONLY 6.  Lol.

[Hammy]

Since many on here, for whatever reason, refuse to take information from South Africa at face value, here's a source from the UK.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/23/hospital-admission-risk-up-to-70-less-with-omicron-than-delta-ukhsa-finds

"The risk of being admitted to hospital is up to 70% less for people with Omicron compared to those infected with Delta, according to the first UK government study of its kind."

I know this is very sad news for our media and public health bureaucrats, so please keep them in your thoughts and prayers this Christmas season.

However, thats not to say its all bad news!  From the same article:

"At the same time, the preliminary UKHSA data suggests that protection against Covid starts to wane 10 weeks after a booster jab, raising the prospect that a fourth dose of vaccine may be required for some in 2022."

See? We can keep doing this forever and ever and ever.  There truly doesn't have to be an end!  This time next year, you won't be able to enter a restaurant unless you've had your seventh booster.

Once hospitalization risk goes down as a whole, vaccine passports won't be necessary. But it's intellectually dishonest that having future booster shots is some horrible thing that "keeps it going" when we have vaccines for the flu and other viral illnesses literally ever year.

Its intellectually dishonest to compare 4 shots per year, in perpetuity, to the annual flu shot (which has much milder side effects).  And if you seriously believe that this news will lead to the end of vaccine passports, I have a bridge in Alaska to sell you.  Their implementation has no correlation with their necessity.

Now you're inventing your own imaginary scenario to get upset over.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-offer-fourth-dose-covid-19-vaccine-people-over-60-2021-12-21/

You might not like Israel, but its not imaginary AFAIK.

Context matters, but of course you ignore it when you're trying to shove a narrative down people's throats.

people older than 60 or with compromised immune systems, and to health workers

Lol, you realize thats how the original boosters rolled out too?  Are you being dense or you seriously believe they’re going to give it to 60+, wash their hands, and call it there?

I notice you're moving away from your fantasy claim of four per year being required, because you have literally nothing to back it up other than a maybe of a fourth dose at an unspecified point next year.

Where in the hell did I move away from that claim?  That is absolutely where its heading, as I just evidenced with Israel already rolling out a 4th shot IN LESS THAN A YEAR.  You’re in total denial (but you’ll still have your four shots anyway).

Vaccinations started in January. Booster doses started rolling out in May. Second boosters (in literally one country) are rolling out in December. You're casually ignoring the fact that the span of time is expanding (two weeks, then three months, then seven months), and thus your invented narrative of four a year doesn't hold water.

But by all means, continue upsetting yourself over figments of your own imagination (your original claim being that you'd need 7 soon) because it's providing quite a bit of entertainment on my end.

“The panel further recommended that the time between the second and third shots be reduced to three months from five.”

Everything you say is wrong.  The time between the boosters is getting closer, not further.  You are seriously naive if you believe what you write.  Everything, literally everything, in this pandemic starts off as an innocent “recommendation” until people start getting mad they they got a shot and others didn’t.  Then it becomes mandatory, and you are part of the problem.

It's also funny how your claims are changing, from "This time next year, you won't be able to enter a restaurant unless you've had your seventh booster." to "four per year in perpetuity" to "four over a year' (which won't even be the case for most people.) Pretty sure by year's end you'll be foaming over vaccines being needed at all at the rate you're going.

Are you bad at math?  If they’re talking about a 4th shot already, they’ll undoubtedly be on 7 by the end of 2022.  I was actually being conservative.  And its amazing you are that bad at understanding hyperbole, as if it would be okay if it were ONLY 6.  Lol.

In all realistic likelihood, once enough people have built up enough immunity from a combination of vaccines and infections (we're all going to be infected sooner or later, there's no denying that) I don't imagine more than 1-2 annually being necessary, and eventually will mostly be utilized by people who are higher risk--again, same as the flu shots are today, and that would be in the most immediate future.

Your incoherent rage is ignoring the fact we're only a year into having vaccines at all and they will be tweaked over time both to account for future variants, and to increase potency.

If you genuinely think we're going to have 4-5 PER YEAR, forever then I suggest you take some history lessons on how pandemics and vaccine development work.

[ProudModerate2]

Just because the scientific community gives advise (aka, doing their jobs) doesn't mean you have to follow it.  So calm the f down.

The "scientific community" isn't a monolith, and they surely wouldn't elect Fauxi as their spokesperson.

No one is saying they are a "monolith."
The previous admin and the current one, have placed Fauci to act as a spokesperson regarding Covid.

[CEO Mindset]

These mandates show that the more hardcore ACAB types were correct.

Defund and disarm the police without replacing them with anything.

[Horus]

With all these holiday cancellations maybe the Dems will finally get Jehovah's Witnesses to vote.

[Hammy]

Who really has a Christmas party with 100 people anyway?

The overwhelming majority would've been school or office parties.

[Green Line]

These mandates show that the more hardcore ACAB types were correct.

Defund and disarm the police without replacing them with anything.

The police are the least of the problem.  An angry blue haired liberal roaming the halls of a store is all the enforcement most Americans need to fall in line.  Its terrifying.

[emailking]

Deaths have begun increasing in South Africa. We did anticipate a rise eventually, the question is to what degree.

Fortunately, the increase so far is much less than you would expect based on past waves. Hopefully that keeps holding.

[CEO Mindset]

These mandates show that the more hardcore ACAB types were correct.

Defund and disarm the police without replacing them with anything.

The police are the least of the problem.  An angry blue haired liberal roaming the halls of a store is all the enforcement most Americans need to fall in line.  Its terrifying.

The angry dyedhair liberal enforcement works because of the implied threat of the popo. The police enforcing evictions or enforcing covid shutdowns are the last line of defense for lbieralism...

[DINGO Joe]

The death count just isn't keeping up with the case count though.

Well, of course, deaths lag case counts for obvious reasons, but the vax levels for much of the US should keep deaths well below last Dec/Jan but still far too many dead people even if they are mainly rural white people.

Stone cold fact that the pandemic deaths have gotten whiter, more rural and even younger as the pandemic has gone on.  They don't want to vax or mask or do anything to take pressure of of rural hospitals.  It's who they are.

Casual racism, nice

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

According to the Washington Post tracker, Washington DC current has both the highest average case rate and the lowest average death rate in the country.

[Green Line]

The death count just isn't keeping up with the case count though.

Well, of course, deaths lag case counts for obvious reasons, but the vax levels for much of the US should keep deaths well below last Dec/Jan but still far too many dead people even if they are mainly rural white people.

Stone cold fact that the pandemic deaths have gotten whiter, more rural and even younger as the pandemic has gone on.  They don't want to vax or mask or do anything to take pressure of of rural hospitals.  It's who they are.

Casual racism, nice

Lol.  You explaining why you’re racist doesn’t make it any less so.  Go off!

[Crumpets]

https://twitter.com/councilofdc/status/1474379402616127533

[emailking]

Biden to lift travel restrictions on southern African countries that were put in place due to Omicron

The Biden administration is lifting restrictions on eight southern African countries that were put in place last month after the Omicron variant was first identified in South Africa, two administration officials told CNN.

The restrictions will lift on December 31 at 12:01 a.m. ET, the officials said. News of the lifted restrictions was first reported by Reuters.

President Joe Biden ordered the restrictions in late November on the advice of his public health officials, cutting off most travel from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi. The measures barred nearly all foreign nationals who had been "physically present" in the countries during the "14-day period preceding their entry, or attempted entry into the United States." US citizens, lawful permanent residents and noncitizens who are the spouses of citizens or permanent residents were exempt.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/24/politics/travel-restrictions-african-countries-omicron/index.html

[GregTheGreat657]

We should be looking at deaths rather than cases to determine how bad things are

[Hammy]

We should be looking at deaths rather than cases to determine how bad things are

Not a bad point, but the case numbers compared to deaths can give a good idea of the severity.

[Roll Roons]

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/coronavirus/queens-er-doctor-compares-what-hospitals-look-like-during-covid-surge-vs-early-2020/3466703/

There are currently 54 COVID ICU patients across all of NYC's public hospitals. At the peak in March/April 2020, there were nearly a thousand. This is in spite of record case numbers that exceed even last spring. It's almost like vaccines really do work and this variant is far less severe?

[DaleCooper]

Looks like the airlines are using Omicron as an excuse to cancel a lot of flights and strand people at airports. I've got some family traveling so I'm hoping they don't get stuck.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

We should be looking at deaths rather than cases to determine how bad things are

I am fine, I had the flu already and it's called medications and it was milder than last yr and I have been vaccinated.

Why do people not realize if we get sick under our current vaccines, we can always get a booster shot and the flu shot

It's also called medications both over the counter and antibiotics

Also you can get your pnemonia shot and you only get that once until 65 and I have had it already

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Every yr we're gonna have these constant surges in Corona every year and Corona is gonna hit hard again during next four season during the Election

But, it's much milder that it was, the actual sickness and shorter among the Vaccinated

[Matty]

If Omicron was what the virus had started as in 2019, I wonder how world would have reacted

[GeorgiaModerate]

If Omicron was what the virus had started as in 2019, I wonder how world would have reacted

I've had the same thought.  Flip side: what if it had been Delta instead?

[CEO Mindset]

We should be looking at deaths rather than cases to determine how bad things are

if we looked at deaths or hospitalizations instead of case numbers no reason for hysteria

If Omicron was what the virus had started as in 2019, I wonder how world would have reacted

exactly the same. the goal was to get trump out of office somehow by triggering a recession, with it being kept up because enriching billionaires with lockdowns/new restrictions/mandates is something popular among politicians of both parties

[It’s so Joever]

If Omicron was what the virus had started as in 2019, I wonder how world would have reacted

Hard to say.
If the current trends hold, probably the same way we treated swine flu although with more death (it still is worse than swine flu was)
If omicron’s reduced severity is not as pronounced as it appears given how early it is, it probably more similar to what we had in real life.
No matter what, the Chinabad cult would definitely use it as an excuse to push their narratives, as would minority parties anywhere in the World (see Ebola and Republicans. Any tragedy is something for the minority party to exploit)

[TheReckoning]

What was the question for the poll in this thread?