COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

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MyPillow CEO-turned-scientist Mike Lindell is selling a miracle death cure:
https://twitter.com/DrGJackBrown/status/1295491801126600704?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoog...
For the best night's sleep in the whole wide world.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1337858218631065600

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https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1344816322392289281
Just what we needed to close out the year!

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

2022 is going to feel so weird, because it will be the year everything is finally returned to "normal". Although the handshake is probably dead and masks might just become a regular fashion thing.

Thank you, President Biden.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Johnson & Johnson vaccine linked to 28 cases of blood clots, CDC reports

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday it had identified a total of 28 cases of serious, potentially life-threatening blood clots among the more than 8.7 million people who had received the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccination.

This latest case count is as of May 7. Previously, as of April 25, the CDC had reported 17 cases of the clots out of nearly 8 million people given the shots.

The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration paused use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine April 13 after reports of the very rare but dangerous blood clots. The pause was lifted April 23.

In all 28 cases, the patients received the shots before the April 13 pause, Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, who leads the CDC’s Covid-19 vaccine safety monitoring work, said. He provided an update on the cases Wednesday at a meeting of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group of independent advisers.

(NBC News)

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Mississippi's hospital system could collapse within the next ten days at current infection rates

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I haven't been checking into this thread lately, so I apologize if boosters have already been discussed but:
https://twitter.com/Forbes/status/1430634206980448267
As I said in another thread, I'm just gonna spend those two or three days loaded on whiskey.

77% of vaccinated people say they intend to get boosters, and distribution could start as early as a few weeks from now.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

maybe people should try losing a bit of weight, eating better in general, getting more sun, eating garlic or other stuff to boost their immune system to try preventing getting covid instead of stuff that's iffy at best like getting the [color=#ffffff]clot shot[/color] or wearing leather dog masks(cloth masks and n95s aren't enough, guys. its the cdc who makes the recommendations not me) or standing six feet apart

What does this even mean

look into the health risks of getting the covid-19 shot, especially the j&j one

Those are rare. I recommend against the J&J vaccine because it's not nearly as effective as the other ones, but literally any shot is more effective specifically against COVID than your generic health suggestions.

But I am increasingly of the belief that you are a troll, so maybe I shouldn't bother.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Blood clot risk greater after Covid infection than after vaccination

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Look at the positive side - masks can become a fashion statement. Buy some masks that match your aesthetics. If we’re going to be stuck with them for months/years, might as well look good.

Or don't wear an actual mask, wear scarves that can double as a mask and only pull up the scarf if you don't have a choice. Otherwise, have some fun being a fashion diva.

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Uh posivity rate...

https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1466455961246306304?t=R_XZhWZO5Dr6XLlu8MKIOg&...

It definitely looks less virulent

These numbers are really not that helpful for determining how infectious or severe delta is since SA is so much less vaccinated, and I'm sure nobody has gotten a booster there. Europe's numbers over the next few weeks will really give us an idea of where this is going.

I'm keeping an eye on Israel. Only two reported cases there, it seems. Israel is about 80% fully-vaccinated and while 60% of COVID patients are as well, that demographic leans older.

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https://twitter.com/DKThomp/status/1472670895328088076
NUT if this is accurate, which I think it probably is.

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New studies reinforce belief that Omicron is less likely to damage lungs (The Guardian)

Researchers from the University of Liverpool’s Molecular Virology Research Group published a pre-print on Boxing Day that shows Omicron leading to “less severe disease” in mice, according to Prof James Stewart. The paper showed that mice infected with Omicron lose less weight, have lower viral loads and experience less- severe pneumonia.

“It’s one piece of the jigsaw,” he said. “The animal model does suggest that the disease is less severe than Delta and the original Wuhan virus. It seems to get cleared faster and the animals recovered more rapidly, and that ties in with clinical data coming through.

“The early indications are that it’s good news, but that’s not a signal to drop our guard, because if you’re clinically vulnerable, the consequences are still not great – there are deaths from Omicron. Not everyone can rip their masks off and party.”

The Neyts Lab at Leuven University in Belgium found similar results in Syrian hamsters, with a lower viral load in the lungs compared with other variants. Prof Johan Neyts said this may be because the virus was better at infecting humans than hamsters, or that it was more likely to infect the upper respiratory tract, or that it provoked less-severe disease.

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Week-old article but a new study has confirmed that vitamin D is highly effective in preventing severe COVID. The correlation of vitamin D deficiency with worse COVID has been observed consistently throughout the pandemic before Omicron, but the virus hasn't changed enough to be resistant. And the differences are huge:

In June, researchers published preliminary findings showing that 26 percent of coronavirus patients died if they were vitamin D deficient soon before hospitalization, compared to 3% who had normal levels of vitamin D.

They also determined that hospitalized patients who were vitamin D deficient were 14 times more likely, on average, to end up in severe or critical condition than others.

Eat more eggs and fish and drink milk. It's better for you than fish tank cleaner!

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Prevention.com: Study Finds Pregnant Women With COVID Are 15 Times More Likely to Need a Ventilator

The study, which was published in BMJ Global Health, analyzed data from 13,000 pregnant people across 12 studies conducted in 12 countries, including the U.S. Of those study participants, about 2,000 had a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19, and their outcomes were compared against about 11,000 pregnancies where the patient tested negative for COVID-19 when they delivered.

The findings were eye-opening: Pregnant people who contracted COVID-19 were nearly four times more likely to be admitted to the ICU compared to those who weren’t infected, and were 15 times more likely to need to be put on a ventilator. They were also seven times more likely to die.

It didn’t end there. Pregnant people also had a higher risk for serious complications like pre-eclampsia, blood clots, and high blood pressure issues, and their babies were at an increased risk of preterm birth and low birth weight.

As a whole, about 3% of women with COVID-19 needed to be admitted to the ICU and 4% required critical care—but the numbers are much greater than those who did not contract the virus.

“These findings are very, very important,” says William Schaffner, M.D., an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “This emphasizes again just how dangerous COVID can be to people who are pregnant.”

(Just passing along information and I modified the title; if this post gets replies about about "pregnant people," I'm reporting thread derailment.)