COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Inmate Trump]

As discussed earlier, Cherokee County in suburban Atlanta started school yesterday.  And today:

Cherokee quarantines second-grade class after student tests positive for COVID-19

Ridiculous.  Blame any spread from schools reopening on Trump and (in GA) Kemp.

[Inmate Trump]

Theresa Lyons, who sits on the Paulding County BOE, suggested students change seats every 14 mins to get around this.

Brilliant! Just brilliant! Absolutely amazing work. 

It's a perfect example of creative idiocy.

Oh, she's a Republican.

[Inmate Trump]

The extent to which this country has collectively just completely given up on actually suppressing the virus is infuriating. Plateauing at 40-45K new cases per day most days is disastrous and inexcusable.

Trump wants to go with a herd immunity approach.

Which is extremely dangerous and extremely deadly (assuming the current rate of infection, that would mean close to 7 million Americans dead before we reach immunity).

[Inmate Trump]

Despite the recent horrific trends, it appears that the end is in sight: https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/09/health/pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-effective/index.html

Good news.  When a vaccine is available, the trick will be trying to convince the population to get it.  So many right wingers are weird.

[Inmate Trump]

Meanwhile.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1327840088731029504

omg he is sickening.

These people are delusional, and their delusion is dangerous.  How could anyone have ever voted for this clown?

[Inmate Trump]

https://twitter.com/cnnbrk/status/1330193020109647872

Worst president ever.

[Inmate Trump]

I get my first dose Wednesday morning.

[Inmate Trump]

Does anyone know if the vaccine is supposed to give lasting immunity, or if we’ll have to get a vaccine every year like the flu?

[Inmate Trump]

I just got the first dose of the Moderna vaccine.

[Inmate Trump]

How are people getting vaccines now?
Are you guys like 70 or something?

My occupation allows me to get it right now.  I’m considered public safety.  I also believe it’s up to each state.  I read in GA people aged 65+ will start being allowed to get it soon too.  I truly hope so, because I’m very concerned about my grandmother.

[Inmate Trump]

Biden will release all available vaccine doses in break from Trump administration policy of holding back stock for second dose

Two doses are absolutely needed for there to be any real effectiveness. Hopefully somebody who actually knows what they're doing will convince Biden to backtrack on this.

I'm not sure that's 100% true is it?  I've read that with, say, the Moderna vaccine...the first dose is about 80% effective, and the second dose gets you up to about 95%.

[Inmate Trump]

Cuomo's status as the Good COVID Governor last spring looks quainter and quainter the more time passes. What a feckless monster.

Cuomo's response was just as bad then as it is now.  He allowed COVID+ patients into NY's state-run nursing homes (leading to some of the highest death rates in the world, much less the USA.)  That the mainstream networks and cable news channels uncritically covered his daily press conferences for several weeks-on-end shows how decrepit they are.

But hey, at least he won an Emmy!     

I can't believe I actually agree with you on something.

Cuomo's actions re: nursing homes are horrible and earn him a spot alongside Trump as a terrible leader.

[Inmate Trump]

Obviously take this with a grain of salt, given that it is a single paper, rather than a review.
But I've been doing some work on my Masters thesis over the past few days, and have had to trawl through the SARS-CoV-2 literature to search for longitudinal studies on organ damage.

And I came across this "gem" from Selvaraj et al, (2021), which indicates that the virus may, similar to measles and mumps, be a source of male infertility:

Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which resulted from the pandemic outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), causes a massive inflammatory cytokine storm leading to multi-organ damage including that of the brain and testes. While the lungs, heart, and brain are identified as the main targets of SARS-CoV-2-mediated pathogenesis, reports on its testicular infections have been a subject of debate. The brain and testes are physiologically synchronized by the action of gonadotropins and sex steroid hormones. Though the evidence for the presence of the viral particles in the testicular biopsies and semen samples from COVID-19 patients are highly limited, the occurrence of testicular pathology due to abrupt inflammatory responses and hyperthermia has incresingly been evident. The reduced level of testosterone production in COVID-19 is associated with altered secretion of gonadotropins. Moreover, hypothalamic pathology which results from SARS-CoV-2 infection of the brain is also evident in COVID-19 cases. This article revisits and supports the key reports on testicular abnormalities and pathological signatures in the hypothalamus of COVID-19 patients and emphasizes that testicular pathology resulting from inflammation and oxidative stress might lead to infertility in a significant portion of COVID-19 survivors. Further investigations are required to monitor the reproductive health parameters and HPG axis abnormalities related to secondary pathological complications in COVID-19 patients and survivors.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43032-020-00441-x

Obviously we are not headed for a "Children of Men" style fertility crisis, but if this is borne out by further reproductive studies, we could face a whole different set of problems in the coming years.

If male reproductive issues are affected, expect Republican lawmakers to start encouraging masks and distancing at a rate you would’ve thought impossible.

[Inmate Trump]

There's not going to be another peak as bad as the past couple months. Guaranteed.

Don't see how you can possibly know that. The experts are saying it's possible.

But they haven't explained how.

The combination of the winter months and the double-hit of holiday spread make this period seem like it'll be hard to top. The only way I can see it happening is if reinfections massively ramp up, and the data right now indicates that reinfections are an extremely rare event that has yet to be fully explained.

Couldn't the variants cause a worse spread going forward?

(I have no medical background, and don't exactly know what I'm talking about.)

[Inmate Trump]

There's not going to be another peak as bad as the past couple months. Guaranteed.

Don't see how you can possibly know that. The experts are saying it's possible.

But they haven't explained how.

The combination of the winter months and the double-hit of holiday spread make this period seem like it'll be hard to top. The only way I can see it happening is if reinfections massively ramp up, and the data right now indicates that reinfections are an extremely rare event that has yet to be fully explained.

Couldn't the variants cause a worse spread going forward?

(I have no medical background, and don't exactly know what I'm talking about.)

Maybe, and it’s probable, but at least we have an end in sight.

What's the end?  I can't see it lol.

For real though, it does seem like every time we get a little bit ahead, something comes to drag us back down.

[Inmate Trump]

Just got stage two of vaccination (yes, I already had COVID, but I was still required to get the vaccine anyway in case of a carrier situation; nevertheless, I was very low on the priority list for healthcare workers.)

Yay!! My second shot is next Thursday.

[Inmate Trump]

Has it been discussed why this virus is mutating to become worse than it was before, when most viruses generally mutate to be less severe?

[Inmate Trump]

I don't think masks are going away anytime this year. And if SARS-CoV-2 becomes endemic (as is expected now) like the cold and flu, it's quite likely mask-wearing will become the cultural norm, especially and particularly during flare-ups. That doesn't mean shutdowns. It just means wear your mask, wash your hands, and use common sense. The rest of the world is going to have to take a page from Asian countries on that one. That's not a bad thing though.

Maybe they'll still be required in places like airports, congregate care facilities, doctor's offices, & the like, but even though mask-wearing would obviously still be beneficial in such a circumstance from a public health perspective, it's naive to believe that peer pressure & ridicule won't kill masks - at least here in the U.S. - as soon as the general public has gotten their vaccine & they feel safe once again. Remember: if the irresponsible didn't care about it during the pandemic, then they sure as hell won't be caring about it after either.

I would hope you're wrong about that. Maybe I am naïve, but I can't remember the last time I've seen someone in public without a mask. These mandates have been in place for a long time now in most places. It's really one of the easiest parts of dealing with this too. Vaccines aren't going to return us to where we were before the pandemic. As I said, if it becomes endemic as many believe, maybe mask-wearing in public will have to return during certain flare-ups like during winter. It also has the added bonus of generally protecting people from the cold and flu as well.

Try living in a (non-Atlas) red state.

Or even a purple one.  I went to the grocery store this morning and there were three people shopping without masks, despite the big MASKS REQUIRED sign at the entrance.

In north GA...I personally know more than one person who flat out refuses to wear masks, even if stores require them.

Most of the stores that "require" them won't enforce their own rules, so the idiots get away with it.  From my understanding, Publix, Kroger, and Walmart (three of the largest grocery and superstores in the area) won't ask maskless customers to leave.

[Inmate Trump]

We are infinitely better off than at the start of the pandemic, and these vaccines still are somewhat effective. Let’s focus on injecting as many people as possible while encouraging responsible choices (and preferably keeping certain scum quiet)

The second doses of Moderna and Pfizer are 95% effective...but I wonder what percentage effective they are against the new strains. All I keep hearing is simply that they aren’t as effective.  I’ve even read that the new strains may not be bothered by antibodies at all, so the vaccines may be pointless if that’s the case.

(I’m very pro-vaccine...I get my second shot tomorrow...but I’m very concerned about the mutations and also concerned that the vaccines may not do any good against them.)

[Inmate Trump]

We are infinitely better off than at the start of the pandemic, and these vaccines still are somewhat effective. Let’s focus on injecting as many people as possible while encouraging responsible choices (and preferably keeping certain scum quiet)

The second doses of Moderna and Pfizer are 95% effective...but I wonder what percentage effective they are against the new strains. All I keep hearing is simply that they aren’t as effective.  I’ve even read that the new strains may not be bothered by antibodies at all, so the vaccines may be pointless if that’s the case.

(I’m very pro-vaccine...I get my second shot tomorrow...but I’m very concerned about the mutations and also concerned that the vaccines may not do any good against them.)

First of all, lucky you, I want a vaccine badly .
Secondly, I will explain tonight what I have read/heard and why these mutations are bad but don’t mean vaccines are useless. (After school lmao)
I understand your concerns about the virus, but the things I have read (I’m a non-expert obviously) suggest that it isn’t so black and white.

I look forward to your response

And I feel incredibly guilty that I'm getting the vaccine before everyone else.  I'm not in an at risk group (however I do work in a fairly closed-in space with about 10 other people every day) but my job puts me in the first phase in my state, and I felt I had to jump at the chance when they took sign-ups for it at my work.

I just hope and pray everyday that more people can be vaccinated soon.  The entire vaccine rollout has been a mess, thanks in large part (or completely?) to the lack of leadership of the Trump administration.  Things seem to be going better in that regard lately, but only time (and vaccinations) will tell.  Hopefully you can get yours soon!

[Inmate Trump]

Just got home from getting my second shot of the Moderna vaccine.  No issues yet.

[Inmate Trump]

According to data in Israel, the Pfizer vaccine is just as effective against the UK strain as the original strain.

https://twitter.com/Coronavirusgoo1/status/1357053962504052742

Great news! Hope it holds true, and hope the other vaccines are the same.

[Inmate Trump]

Got my second shot of Moderna yesterday morning.

No issues until last night, about 10 hours after the shot.  Body aches, chills, fever.  I couldn’t sleep because of it.

Finally, around 2am I caved and took a tylenol.  I’d read you’re not supposed to take that before the vaccine but that it’s probably safe to take after.

So hopefully I didn’t totally screw up the strong immune response I was getting.


(I still feel achy and warm today but much less so than overnight.)

[Inmate Trump]

I think schools should have reopened long ago. 

But I don't understand why all teachers and school staff wouldn't have already had the opportunity to be vaccinated, and thus there should really be no issue whatsoever.

Are they really states where they haven't been vaccinated yet?  Shouldn't they be the frontest or frontline essential workers?

I think schools should reopen only when educators are vaccinated.

[Inmate Trump]

I know nobody really knows, but are we likely coming down from the worst of the pandemic?

Or do we expect to see cases skyrocket again to November-December-January levels or worse at some point in the future?