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cyberdad
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27 Nov 2021, 4:02 pm

Pepe wrote:
I heard it mentioned on the news just now, that the Omicron variant is much more infection but less deadly.
This seems to be the usual way some viruses mutate.
It is in "their" interest not to kill the host.
Let us hope this is correct. 8)


Two people in Sydney just reported to have tested +ve from South Africa. Nervous wait to hear whether it's delta or Omichron,

Only a matter of time,



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27 Nov 2021, 4:05 pm

Nades wrote:
Pepe wrote:
Nades wrote:
Sweetleaf wrote:
f**k another one...?


Yip. We'll be going round in circles until we spew. It's making me question whether I should get a booster when my time comes and I'm asked.

When the pandemic first started we were all told that the vaccines will get us out of the woods (in the UK at least). Fast forward two years and even fully vaccinated people here can be treated like utter s**t by their communities for daring to step out of line.

Granted this new strain seems to have come about from a lack of vaccination in South Africa.....but my confidence in the vaccine is starting to rapidly plummet.


They found a vaccine for the original virus.
I don't see why they can't for the new one, if it is needed.
They have head start in developing one, now.

Look on the bright side.
Pharmaceutical companies will make even *bigger* profits! :thumright:
Psst! Buy their shares. ;)


They can but it's always going to be an endless game of catch-up for decades. I'm still baffled as to why people honestly think they can kick this virus to the curb. It never will be kicked to the curb and everyone needs to learn to live with and most importantly, expect it to claim family members and friends eventually.


As the normal flu virus does.
I tend to agree but hope it will self destruct.
I won't hold my breath. :silent:



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27 Nov 2021, 4:09 pm

Tim_Tex wrote:
Could we destroy the virus with radiation like we do with cancer?

Austria and Germany have made vaccines mandatory for all citizens. I recommend all other countries do the same.


You are asking the wrong people.
Talk to Trump. :mrgreen:



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27 Nov 2021, 4:14 pm

magz wrote:
Tim_Tex wrote:
Could we destroy the virus with radiation like we do with cancer?
Not without killing the patient in the process. The viruses are usually well spread in the body.
The point of curing diseases is not just to kill the pathogens but to do it without harming the ill person more than the pathogens do.


The operation was a success :!:
Unfortunately, the patient died. 8O :mrgreen:



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27 Nov 2021, 4:17 pm

magz wrote:
Nades wrote:
Simply. If getting vaccinated is a thankless task then why bother.

Mostly to prevent collapse of NHS.
That's what's happening here, with a lot of vax resistance and largely ignored safety measures, including among older people. People don't get treated for other illnesses because resources are pumped to covid patients.

Singapore chose another strategy - people who chose not to take the jab pay for covid treatment out of their pocket. I find this kind of fair.


Sounds like a plan. :thumright:



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27 Nov 2021, 4:29 pm

cyberdad wrote:
Pepe wrote:
I heard it mentioned on the news just now, that the Omicron variant is much more infection but less deadly.
This seems to be the usual way some viruses mutate.
It is in "their" interest not to kill the host.
Let us hope this is correct. 8)


Two people in Sydney just reported to have tested +ve from South Africa. Nervous wait to hear whether it's delta or Omichron,

Only a matter of time,


I went out for my schnitzel in the centre the delta virus was first discovered.
The same day it was first reported.
Talk about "lucky", huh? 8O
I didn't get it.
When the new virus has been established, *that* is the dangerous time.

The chances I would have gotten delta, even in that centre, were very small, mathematically speaking.
Keep things in perspective, people. 8)

Remember people, Covid doesn't kill you unless it does. :mrgreen:



cyberdad
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27 Nov 2021, 4:45 pm

cyberdad
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27 Nov 2021, 4:47 pm

Pepe wrote:
I went out for my schnitzel in the centre the delta virus was first discovered.
The same day it was first reported.
Talk about "lucky", huh? 8O


We have barely had time to enjoy the freedoms. Have a birthday party today and a trip to the Yarra Valley winery tomorrow, The last time we went to a winery delta outbreak happened and Dan locked us down the same night.

I imagine he's on the ready to close borders with NSW in 5, 4, 3 ,2 ,1.....



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27 Nov 2021, 4:52 pm

cyberdad wrote:
Pepe wrote:
I went out for my schnitzel in the centre the delta virus was first discovered.
The same day it was first reported.
Talk about "lucky", huh? 8O


We have barely had time to enjoy the freedoms. Have a birthday party today and a trip to the Yarra Valley winery tomorrow, The last time we went to a winery delta outbreak happened and Dan locked us down the same night.

I imagine he's on the ready to close borders with NSW in 5, 4, 3 ,2 ,1.....


Anyone ever thought to lock *Andrews* up down? :scratch: :mrgreen:



Panuru
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27 Nov 2021, 9:59 pm

Jakki wrote:
the covid vaccine appears to me to be a big money grab

Drug companies and the medical establishment in general make more money off you if you're hospitalized. Granted that only a certain percentage of people infected end up in the hospital, but it's $1.18 for a vaccine and tens of thousands for a hospital stay.



DW_a_mom
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27 Nov 2021, 11:15 pm

Pepe wrote:
DW_a_mom wrote:
Pepe wrote:

They found a vaccine for the original virus.
I don't see why they can't for the new one, if it is needed.
They have head start in developing one, now.

Look on the bright side.
Pharmaceutical companies will make even *bigger* profits! :thumright:
Psst! Buy their shares. ;)


The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines can be relatively quickly reprogrammed to recognize the new variation, I believe. That’s the beauty to the technology.

But once ready there is still a time lag to getting the update to a wide enough population. A lot can happen in the minimum of 6 months it takes to reach everyone who wants it.


You messed up the quoting system.
I fixed it for you. ;)

BTW, Do you agree with fauci's assessment that the possible consequences of fiddling with the corona virus, through GoF, was acceptable? :scratch:


Now that I am clear on what you mean, I have another question. Are you asking as a side topic or do you somehow see reprogramming the mRNH vaccines as a form of Gain of Function?


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Pepe
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27 Nov 2021, 11:42 pm

DW_a_mom wrote:
Pepe wrote:
DW_a_mom wrote:
Pepe wrote:

They found a vaccine for the original virus.
I don't see why they can't for the new one, if it is needed.
They have head start in developing one, now.

Look on the bright side.
Pharmaceutical companies will make even *bigger* profits! :thumright:
Psst! Buy their shares. ;)


The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines can be relatively quickly reprogrammed to recognize the new variation, I believe. That’s the beauty to the technology.

But once ready there is still a time lag to getting the update to a wide enough population. A lot can happen in the minimum of 6 months it takes to reach everyone who wants it.


You messed up the quoting system.
I fixed it for you. ;)

BTW, Do you agree with fauci's assessment that the possible consequences of fiddling with the corona virus, through GoF, was acceptable? :scratch:


Now that I am clear on what you mean, I have another question. Are you asking as a side topic or do you somehow see reprogramming the mRNH vaccines as a form of Gain of Function?


I was piddling in fauci's face.
I think the guy is a scumbag.
I think we are now on the same page. 8)



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28 Nov 2021, 3:25 am

Australia Detects Two Cases Of New Covid Variant 'Omicron'

Quote:
Health officials in Australia said Sunday they had detected the Covid Omicron strain for the first time after testing two passengers from southern Africa who flew into Sydney.

The eastern state of New South Wales' health authority said it had conducted urgent genomic testing and confirmed the new strain was present in two passengers who landed in Sydney on Saturday.

Both passengers came from southern Africa and arrived in Australia on a Qatar Airways flight via Doha, NSW Health said in a statement.

They tested positive for Covid shortly after arriving, leading to an urgent analysis for possible infection by the heavily mutated Omicron strain.

"The two positive cases, who were asymptomatic, are in isolation in the special health accommodation. Both people are fully vaccinated," NSW Health said.

Another 12 passengers from southern Africa in the same flight did not test positive for Covid but have been placed in quarantine, it said.


Israel to impose travel ban for foreigners over new variant
Quote:
srael is to ban foreigners from entering the country for 14 days and use surveillance to halt the spread of the new Covid strain, local media report.

The ban is expected to come into effect at midnight on Sunday, following full cabinet approval.

Israel has so far confirmed one case of the potentially more infectious Omicron strain first detected in South Africa.


It's Coming': NY Declares State of Emergency Ahead of Potential Omicron Spike
Quote:
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has declared a state of emergency ahead of potential COVID-19 spikes this winter due to the already-circulating Delta and newly-identified Omicron variants of coronavirus.

The declaration, which goes into effect on Dec. 3, will allow the state to acquire pandemic-fighting supplies, increase hospital capacity and fight potential staffing shortages. It would also allow the state Health Department to limit non-essential and non-urgent procedures at hospitals.

"We continue to see warning signs of spikes this upcoming winter, and while the new Omicron variant has yet to be detected in New York State, it's coming," Hochul said.


Here’s why WHO skipped 2 Greek letters to name new variant ‘Omicron’
Quote:
The name of a newly identified variant of the coronavirus has had some social media users scratching their heads about the World Health Organization’s system for labeling certain versions of the virus.

The WHO chose on Friday to dub the variant, first reported to the agency by scientists in South Africa, “omicron” — continuing its use of the Greek alphabet for naming notable variants of the virus.

Social media users correctly noted, however, that the organization skipped two letters in doing so, leading to questions about the move.

The WHO has followed the Greek alphabet when labeling certain variants of the virus, SARS-CoV-2, since May. It said the system allows for variants to be referred to in a simpler way than by their scientific names, and that it helps prevent people from referring to variants by the location where they were detected and creating stigma.

Many people had expected the agency to label the latest variant nu, which comes after mu, a variant designated on Aug. 30.

Instead, the WHO skipped over nu as well as xi, the next Greek letter in line — a move that many users on social media pointed out, while some questioned whether it was to avoid offending Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

In a statement provided to the AP, the WHO said it skipped nu for clarity and xi to avoid causing offense generally.

“`Nu’ is too easily confounded with `new,’ and `Xi’ was not used because it is a common last name,” the WHO said, adding that the agency’s “best practices for naming disease suggest avoiding `causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups.”’


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cyberdad
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28 Nov 2021, 4:05 am

Because its 500 x more infective than delta which is 2 x infective than alpha once it enters a country it's impossible to prevent an outbreak.

Our only hope is its weak and doesn't cause illness



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28 Nov 2021, 10:46 am

We Know Almost Nothing About the Omicron Variant

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As fall dips into winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the coronavirus has served up the holiday gift that no one, absolutely no one, asked for: a new variant of concern, dubbed Omicron by the World Health Organization on Friday.

Omicron, also known as B.1.1.529, was first detected in Botswana and South Africa earlier this month, and very little is known about it so far. But the variant is moving fast. South Africa, the country that initially flagged Omicron to WHO this week, has experienced a surge of new cases—some reportedly in people who were previously infected or vaccinated—and the virus has already spilled across international borders into places such as Hong Kong, Belgium, Israel, and the United Kingdom. Several nations are now selectively shutting down travel to impede further spread. For instance, on Monday, the United States will start restricting travel from Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi.

It’s a lot of news to process, and it comes without a lot of baseline knowledge about the virus itself. Scientists around the world are still scrambling to gather intel on three essential metrics: how quickly the variant spreads; if it’s capable of causing more serious disease; and whether it might be able to circumvent the immune protection left behind by past SARS-CoV-2 infections or COVID-19 vaccines, or evade immune-focused treatments such as monoclonal antibodies. All are risks because of the sheer number of mutations Omicron appears to have picked up: More than 30 of them are in SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein, the multi-tool the virus uses to crack its way into human cells—and the snippet of the pathogen that’s the central focus of nearly all of the world’s COVID-19 vaccines. Alterations like these have been spotted in other troublesome variants, including Alpha and Delta, both of which used their super-speedster properties to blaze across the globe. (Omicron is only a distant cousin of both, not a direct descendant.) If—if Omicron moves even faster than its predecessors, we could be in for another serious pandemic gut punch.

But it’s way too early to know if that’ll be the case. What’s known so far absolutely warrants attention not panic. Viruses mutate; they always do. Not all variants of concern turn out to be, well, all that concerning many end up being mere blips in the pandemic timeline.

To help put Omicron in perspective, I caught up with Boghuma Kabisen Titanji, an infectious-disease physician, virologist, and global-health expert at Emory University.

Kathrine J. Wu: Why don’t we yet know for sure how worried we need to be about Omicron?

Boghuma Kabisen Titanji: What we do know about the variant is this: Some of its spike-protein mutations have been seen in other variants and other lineages described earlier on in the pandemic, and have been associated with increased transmissibility and the ability of the virus to evade the immune response. What we don’t know, and what is really hard to predict, is what the combination of mutations will do together. This particular variant now appears to be outcompeting other circulating variants in South Africa—there have been these clusters of cases.

Wu: Could we have seen the arrival of Omicron coming?

Titangi Viruses are going to evolve regardless of what we do. There are things we can do to slow that down: barrier measures [such as masking], vaccinating. And there are things that we can do that can maybe speed up or aid the evolution of the virus. One is if we’re not doing what we need to do to prevent spread of the virus within the population. Every time a virus spreads, it gets another opportunity to infect a new host, and it gets another opportunity to evolve and change and adapt.

All of this means that it is worth having a conversation about whether the slow rollout of vaccines globally has had an impact. So this was predictable.

If we had ensured that everyone had equal access to vaccination and really pushed the agenda on getting global vaccination to a high level, then maybe we could have possibly delayed the emergence of new variants, such as the ones that we’re witnessing.

Wu: We’re still dealing with Delta, a previous variant of concern. Where do we go from here?

Titanji: A good place to start is reminding people that we are definitely not where we were two years ago, when SARS-CoV-2 emerged. We now have a better understanding of how the virus is transmitted from person to person. We have antivirals that are coming down the pike. We have a better understanding of how to manage and treat cases of people who do get infected. We have vaccines and incredible mRNA technology that allows us to adapt quickly to a changing virus, and we will have second-generation vaccines. It’s definitely not back to square one.

Secondly, this does not mean that the vaccines that people have are now completely useless—the doses they have received are not null and void. We have not yet seen a variant of concern emerge that has been able to completely escape the effect of vaccines. The immunity from the vaccines may be less protective, which may translate into more post-vaccine infections from a new variant, if it takes off. But that is yet to be determined.

We also know that a booster dose really does boost the antibody response. A new variant could dent the [protection offered by the immune system], but that usually happens in degrees. There is still going to be immune responsiveness from previous immunizations, and infections from ancestral versions of the virus. It may simply mean that you need more of those antibodies to be able to neutralize that new variant of concern. We also have T cells, which play a role and may not be as impacted by the variant.

This variant could not have chosen a worse time to emerge. We’re in flu season. This is a time when respiratory viruses tend to spread quite efficiently. And we are in the holiday season, and there’s a lot of traveling, and a lot of people getting together with family. But it’s certainly not the time for people to let their guard down, or relax on nonpharmaceutical interventions. People have to be mindful of wearing their mask when they’re out in public, or in crowded areas with people whose vaccination status they may not know. People have to be mindful of getting tested when they feel unwell, and isolating appropriately and doing all of those things that we have learned how to do over the course of the past two years, and that we know are effective in mitigating the spread of virus. The same measures will still work while we figure out just what this new variant means for us. Get your boosters. We’ll figure it out.

Wu: Several countries instituted travel bans this week, many of them primarily focused on African countries, where surveillance systems detected Omicron not long ago. How big of an impact might that make?

Titanji:Historically, there is a lot of evidence that by the time a travel ban is instituted, the virus has already gone … and potentially well beyond the borders of the countries that [the ban is] restricting travel from. We could end up disincentivizing countries from reporting because they fear retaliation.

Wu: Some countries are already deep into their rollout of booster shots, and have, in recent months, lifted many restrictions; others are still barely making a dent in administering first doses. Regardless of where we go with Omicron, what does this say about our approach to COVID-19 as a global society?

Titanji: What this reiterates is that the world is so interconnected. We are in a global pandemic, and we cannot address this fully if we only have regional solutions.


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28 Nov 2021, 12:50 pm

Everything/k is political.
Even the naming of viruses. 8)