Coronavirus

[John Parks]

Is there something in particular that McCullough said during the interview that is, in your view, very informative?

The emphasis on the importance of early treatment and the successful protocols he (and others) have developed.

 

[ski2xblack]

If you don't mind my asking, what do you do at the hospital? (I'm not in any way trying to discredit what you're saying, I'm just curious)

All the numbers I've seen from hospitals right now show that the vast majority of the COVID patients are unvaccinated. The numbers don't lie.

RN

 

[John Parks]

I don't think he'll take the bait, at least he did not take mine but just deflected as usual. So while the "subjectivists" in audio can be a great source of entertainment and consternation it's usually a quite harmless delusion, the above gets deadly rather quickly.

Deflection? No. As usual, I have absolutely no interest in answering your questions regarding what someone else has posted and, as you have made your stances repeatedly and even painfully clear, so there really is no point.

 

[Trell]

Deflection? No. As usual, I have absolutely no interest in answering your questions regarding what someone else has posted and, as you have made your stances repeatedly and even painfully clear, so there really is no point.

You continue to deflect instead of answering a simple question, but then you are an anti-vaxxer paying little heed to the real damage you do.

You’ve been here long enough with many posts to know that several of the members that have responded to you over time on this know what they are writing, yet you still persists in posting falsehood. You’re not the first to manure down this thread with disinformation and lies, nor the last.

 

[Mikado463]

it is still Trumps fault.

what is, Omicron or all of COVID ?

 

[Trell]

what is, Omicron or all of COVID ?

You are unable to understand what he meant.

 

[GO-NAD!]

what is, Omicron or all of COVID ?

Yes.

 

[Mr._Clark]

This is obviously not good news. The only possible (somewhat) good news I can see is that boosters do seem to help quite a bit.

I suspect we are all in for a very rough ride. I hope to h*ll I'm wrong.

>>>Omicron largely evades immunity from past infection or two vaccine doses

The new report (Report 49) from the Imperial College London COVID-19 response team estimates that the risk of reinfection with the Omicron variant is 5.4 times greater than that of the Delta variant. This implies that the protection against reinfection by Omicron afforded by past infection may be as low as 19%. . . .

The study finds no evidence of Omicron having lower severity than Delta, judged by either the proportion of people testing positive who report symptoms, or by the proportion of cases seeking hospital care after infection. However, hospitalisation data remains very limited at this time. . . .

Controlling for vaccine status, age, sex, ethnicity, asymptomatic status, region and specimen date, Omicron was associated with a 5.40 (95% CI: 4.38-6.63) fold higher risk of reinfection compared with Delta. To put this into context, in the pre-Omicron era, the UK “SIREN” study of COVID infection in healthcare workers estimated that prior infection afforded 85% protection against a second COVID infection over 6 months. The reinfection risk estimated in the current study suggests this protection has fallen to 19% (95%CI: 0-27%) against an Omicron infection.

The researchers found a significantly increased risk of developing a symptomatic Omicron case compared to Delta for those who were two or more weeks past their second vaccine dose, and two or more weeks past their booster dose (for AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines).

Depending on the estimates used for vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection from the Delta variant, this translates into vaccine effectiveness estimates against symptomatic Omicron infection of between 0% and 20% after two doses, and between 55% and 80% after a booster dose. Similar estimates were obtained using genotype data, albeit with greater uncertainty.

Prof Neil Ferguson from Imperial College London said: “This study provides further evidence of the very substantial extent to which Omicron can evade prior immunity given by both infection or vaccination. This level of immune evasion means that Omicron poses a major, imminent threat to public health.”<<<

Omicron largely evades immunity from past infection or two vaccine doses | Imperial News | Imperial College London

The Omicron variant largely evades immunity from past infection or two vaccine doses according to the latest Imperial modelling.

www.imperial.ac.uk

 

[Mr._Clark]

The early news out of South Africa concerning lower hospitalization rates is potentially good (relatively speaking) news. But, as the minister of health in South Africa said, it may be due to vaccine coverage.

About the only thing I know for sure right now is that I don't know for sure how the omicron variant is going to play out.

>>>In the second week of the Omicron wave, between Dec. 9 and Dec. 15, the national data show that the average number of new infections in South Africa was nearly five times greater, at 20,207. Yet, less than 2 percent of these cases have resulted in hospital admissions. Not every case is sequenced, but Omicron is dominant now in the country.

Officials urged caution in interpreting that data. “The mildness of the disease may not necessarily mean that the virus itself is less virulent, but it’s probably also due to significant vaccine coverage,” Dr. Joe Phaahla, the minister of health, said during a televised briefing on Friday. . . .

In previous waves, the proportion of admissions with severe Covid has hovered at 60 percent, Dr. Jassat said, but during this wave, the proportion has dipped below 10 percent nationally. The number of patients needing oxygen is similarly lower.

Five weeks of data from the administrative capital Pretoria and the surrounding municipality show that hospitalizations are lower across all age groups. Among those aged 60 years and older, rates of severe illness appear to be 50 percent lower, compared with the Delta wave. This age group is also the most vaccinated across South Africa, in both rural and urban areas.

“For the first time, there are more nonsevere than severe patients in hospital,” said Dr. Jassat, who leads the hospital admissions surveillance at the institute.

“We have to interpret the less severity data in light of the high seroprevalence and some vaccination coverage,” Dr. Jassat said.<<<

Early data suggests South Africa’s Covid hospitalizations are lower in the Omicron wave, but caveats apply. (Published 2021)

Researchers warned that the epicenter of the country’s outbreak is more highly vaccinated than others, and that natural immunity is also high.

www.nytimes.com

 

[davidscott]

The early news out of South Africa concerning lower hospitalization rates is potentially good (relatively speaking) news. But, as the minister of health in South Africa said, it may be due to vaccine coverage.

About the only thing I know for sure right now is that I don't know for sure how the omicron variant is going to play out.

>>>In the second week of the Omicron wave, between Dec. 9 and Dec. 15, the national data show that the average number of new infections in South Africa was nearly five times greater, at 20,207. Yet, less than 2 percent of these cases have resulted in hospital admissions. Not every case is sequenced, but Omicron is dominant now in the country.

Officials urged caution in interpreting that data. “The mildness of the disease may not necessarily mean that the virus itself is less virulent, but it’s probably also due to significant vaccine coverage,” Dr. Joe Phaahla, the minister of health, said during a televised briefing on Friday. . . .

In previous waves, the proportion of admissions with severe Covid has hovered at 60 percent, Dr. Jassat said, but during this wave, the proportion has dipped below 10 percent nationally. The number of patients needing oxygen is similarly lower.

Five weeks of data from the administrative capital Pretoria and the surrounding municipality show that hospitalizations are lower across all age groups. Among those aged 60 years and older, rates of severe illness appear to be 50 percent lower, compared with the Delta wave. This age group is also the most vaccinated across South Africa, in both rural and urban areas.

“For the first time, there are more nonsevere than severe patients in hospital,” said Dr. Jassat, who leads the hospital admissions surveillance at the institute.

“We have to interpret the less severity data in light of the high seroprevalence and some vaccination coverage,” Dr. Jassat said.<<<

Early data suggests South Africa’s Covid hospitalizations are lower in the Omicron wave, but caveats apply. (Published 2021)

Researchers warned that the epicenter of the country’s outbreak is more highly vaccinated than others, and that natural immunity is also high.

www.nytimes.com

You take your small victories when you can. The anti vaxxers will take this as truth that they right all along.

 

[Mr._Clark]

Unfortunately, it looks like demand for the Pfizer pill is likely to far outstrip supply, at least in the near future. Of course, it has not even been FDA approved yet, so the supply is effectively zero at the moment.

I'd say it's time (after FDA approval) for the government to break out it's REALLY big legal stick (the Defense Production Act) and force companies to crank production into high gear. I don't want to hear about negotiations, discussions, etc., just get the flipping pills into production!

And that's my huge opinion.

>>>A new pill from Pfizer to treat COVID-19 has been hailed as a game-changer that can drastically cut down the number of hospitalizations and deaths from the disease.

But demand for the treatment, known as Paxlovid, is expected to far outrun supply, blunting its ability to help fight what medical professionals say is an oncoming wave of infections from the omicron variant. . . .

Pfizer says it expects to have 180,000 courses of the treatment available by the end of 2021, with 30 million available globally in the first half of 2022, rising to 80 million by the end of next year.

But with about 120,000 new COVID-19 cases every day and rising just in the United States, the demand for the antiviral product is spiking sharply.

“It's kind of a drop in the bucket in the short term,” said David Boulware, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota. <<<

Supply shortage of new antiviral drug threatens fight against omicron

A new pill from Pfizer to treat COVID-19 has been hailed as a game-changer that can drastically cut down the number of hospitalizations and deaths from the disease. But demand for the treatmen…

thehill.com

 

[Mr._Clark]

You take your small victories when you can. The anti vaxxers will take this as truth that they right all along.

I suppose anything is possible. In the grand scheme of things I just want people to live long and prosper.

I can't think of a good way to say this, but my frustration with the anti vaxxers isn't about being "right" it's about the completely needless suffering and death that comes with the anti vax belief system.

If the coronavirus were to mutate into a common cold virus, I'd be ecstatic, regardless of what people think about being right or wrong.

 

[TLS Guy]

I suppose anything is possible. In the grand scheme of things I just want people to live long and prosper.

I can't think of a good way to say this, but my frustration with the anti vaxxers isn't about being "right" it's about the completely needless suffering and death that comes with the anti vax belief system.

If the coronavirus were to mutate into a common cold virus, I'd be ecstatic, regardless of what people think about being right or wrong.

Omicron is clearly not benign. UK hospital admissions are showing an uptick earlier than expected. The R value according to UK sources is 5. That is astounding.

Delta and alpha were at times close to 2, but usually in the peaks 1.4 to 1.5. The R value is the number of individuals infected be every infected subject. If the R is over one the case numbers will rise, if below 1 they will decline. An R of 5 is an astonishingly high number. So just on transmissibility, even if the omnicron is a bit less virulent, it will make far more seriously ill and kill them.

We now know that two doses of vaccine is barely protective, and that the booster immunity declines at five months. So the UK judgement to boost at three months is correct. This is a quite appalling logistical problem. So we need better vaccines. A vaccine specific vaccine for omicron would help, however even before that is available we will likely have another variant to worry about. I agree with Professor Whitty, that we need a polyvalent Sars vaccine. I fear we will have regular crises until one is developed. This is a big hill to climb. I think the timeline will be years rather than months unfortunately.

I am really concerned about the US. We have far too low a vaccination rate. Our response to developments, is the proverbial day late and a dollar short.

We need to improve and fast.

 

[j_garcia]

What I've read recently is that Omicron is more highly contagious than even Delta. Symptoms appear to be lower, at least in those who have been vaccinated. However with the much higher transmissibility, they are still saying that death rates will climb simply because of the numbers involved. It also seems to have no problem infecting those vaccinated and those who've previously had any form of Covid, including Delta. Even more concerning detail based on that is, that since Omicron is different enough from Delta, that it will have its own surge while Delta is still out there, and it will quickly become the prevalent strain.

Pfizer in a news article seems to be saying they agree with Fauci's previous statement that Covid is the new Flu. It will become endemic within 1-2 years and will never go away. With how things are going, it sure looks that way. I think our world just changed if that is true.

 

[davidscott]

I suppose anything is possible. In the grand scheme of things I just want people to live long and prosper.

I can't think of a good way to say this, but my frustration with the anti vaxxers isn't about being "right" it's about the completely needless suffering and death that comes with the anti vax belief system.

If the coronavirus were to mutate into a common cold virus, I'd be ecstatic, regardless of what people think about being right or wrong.

I heard a funny anti vaxer line today "Die from covid own the libs"

 

[eljr]

Folks, just dropped by to wish everyone good luck.
This varrient is exploding. Exploding like nothing on earth ever seen before.

Your fate is already sealed. If you have the booster you'll make it. If not, well, you'll suffer and many will die.

This is so contagious that masks won't save you .

This is biblical stuff.

 

[davidscott]

Folks, just dropped by to wish everyone good luck.
This varrient is exploding. Exploding like nothing on earth ever seen before.

Your fate is already sealed. If you have the booster you'll make it. If not, well, you'll suffer and many will die.

This is so contagious that masks won't save you .

This is biblical stuff.

You might be a little on the fatalistic side. I don't see deaths going up much in South Africa or Europe, but the hospitalizing is going up. BTW I'm triple vaxed and still wear a mask indoors but that's just me.

 

[Out-Of-Phase]

Folks, just dropped by to wish everyone good luck.
This varrient is exploding. Exploding like nothing on earth ever seen before.

Your fate is already sealed. If you have the booster you'll make it. If not, well, you'll suffer and many will die.

This is so contagious that masks won't save you .

This is biblical stuff.

Your post sounds like an audiophile salesman just as the customer is about to leave the store without buying anything.

 

[Mikado463]

Folks, just dropped by to wish everyone good luck.
This varrient is exploding. Exploding like nothing on earth ever seen before.

Your fate is already sealed. If you have the booster you'll make it. If not, well, you'll suffer and many will die.

This is so contagious that masks won't save you .

This is biblical stuff.

So you are the 'Grinch'

 

[panteragstk]

Your post sounds like an audiophile salesman just as the customer is about to leave the store without buying anything.

Leave him and his diamond infused power cord alone. His speakers sound better than they ever have.