Omicron Variant

Post Reply New Topic

That's pretty easy to verify, each speaker has an short introduction regarding their career and experience. If any of them have done that, we will hear about it very shortly in the media. Headlines like "Fake doctor embarrasses anti-vaxx senator etc".

That seems unlikely, I have a low opinion of journalism at the moment, but this is an official senate hearing from what I can gather and on a very contentious topic. Some journo somewhere is paying attention. Not to mention the senator himself gives the introductions, I suspect his own people will have done some background checking on these speakers.

. . . The hysteria needs to end regarding Covid.  Maybe then it can be addressed more effectively.

Good faith debate really is dead in the U.S. isn't it?

That just proves what I've said a couple of times. There is no middle ground for conversation on this issue. Either you're all in for the official narrative, or you're anti-vaxx.

You're a living example of what I'm talking about. Thank you!

The World Health Organization expects a more transmissible version of omicron to increase in circulation around the world, though it’s not yet clear if the Covid subvariant can reinfect people who caught an earlier version of the omicron strain.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, said Tuesday the global health agency is tracking four different versions of omicron. Van Kerkhove said the BA.2 subvariant, which is more contagious than the currently dominant BA.1 version, will likely become more common.

“BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1 so we expect to see BA.2 increasing in detection around the world,” Van Kerkhove said during a question-and-answer session livestreamed on the WHO’s social media platforms Tuesday.

The WHO is monitoring BA.2 to see if the subvariant causes an increase of new infections in countries that saw a rapid rise and then a sharp decline in omicron cases, she said.

Van Kerkhove emphasized that there’s no indication of a difference in the severity of infections caused by either subvariant, though she noted that research is ongoing.

Researchers in Denmark have found found that BA.2 is about 1.5 times more transmissible than BA.1 and it is more adept at infecting people who are vaccinated and even boosted. However, people who are fully vaccinated are less likely to spread it than the unvaccinated.

Van Kerkhove said the shots remain highly effective at preventing severe disease and death, though they don’t prevent all infections.

Most states in the U.S. have confirmed the presence of BA.2, though it’s circulating at a low level with 460 total cases confirmed so far, according to an international data base that tracks Covid variants.