DOOM: "Omicron Covid cases ‘doubling every two to three days’ in UK"

[NigelJK]

Those cells they didn't know existed 200 years ago....

But still 'jabbed' anyway ...

[d000hg]

The question they should be answering is "How many people are getting sick from Omicron and how many of those are in hospital". So far, the answer seems to be "hardly any"...

We won't know for a while because you typically don't end up in hospital for some time. And we only have a few hundred confirmed cases (clearly wildly inaccurate) to check anyway.

And no, the questions we need answers to are:
1)How much more or less dangerous is it compared to Delta for those who get it
2)How much more or less transmissible is it
3)To what extent do vaccines prevent infection and particularly, serious illness

We're still seeing multiple hundred people die every day. We still have thousands in hospital and ~1000 admitted per day. About 2% of those with positive tests still end up in hospital... and this is all with a highly vaccinated population using very effective vaccines. As we enter the worst part of the winter, a significant drop in vaccine efficacy will directly lead to a non-trivial hike in hospitalisations and serious illness. This is basic self-evident statistics.

The UK is barely keeping a lid on things without restrictions, against Delta - it is just about managing unlike many EU neighbours but the situation is clearly precarious.

[malvolio]

Apparently (according to news this morning) the Pfizer vac does provide some limited protection against Omni.

Even so, the impact of Omni is not so bad, with people managing to get through with what feels like normal cold/flu symptoms. This is the normal evolution of a virus: as it becomes more transmissible, it often loses its potency.

That's basic Darwinism. Any parasitic organism that doesn't reach a balance between transmission and lethality will not survive.

[SueEllen]

Better hope those T cells kick in!

Those cells they didn't know existed 200 years ago....

[mattster]

"some limited protection" does not sound encouraging, does it? Especially if it relates to preventing hospitalisation and death among the vaccinated.

Stressing that she has posted only selected findings and a paper hasn’t been presented yet, she has said exposing the blood of vaccinated individuals to different virus variants, she found that the ability to mount an antibody response to Omicron in people who had three shots of BioNTech/Pfizer was up to 37 times lower than the response to Delta.

An antibody response to Omicron half a year after a two-shot regimen of Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna or a mixed course of AstraZeneca/BioNTech was not even measurable, Ciesek added.

Better hope those T cells kick in!

[mattster]

That same research also shows that when your body no longer needs the antibodies, it stops producing them until they are required again.

Yes, it's more complicated than just antibodies but the fact is that people are catching it twice, and catching it after being double jabbed - but in general doing better than they would be if they didn't have some immunity.

[NigelJK]

where we can already monitor waning vaccine immunity in a matter of months

That same research also shows that when your body no longer needs the antibodies, it stops producing them until they are required again.

[AtW]

Apparently (according to news this morning) the Pfizer vac does provide some limited protection against Omni.

"some limited protection" does not sound encouraging, does it? Especially if it relates to preventing hospitalisation and death among the vaccinated.

[AtW]

Is this the same Professor who ignores nearly 200 years of immunology research that says that if you have had Covid you are immune from catching the same strain again?

CUK COTY of the year material that is.

[mattster]

This is the normal evolution of a virus: as it becomes more transmissible, it often loses its potency.

This is total bulltulip apparently, although it doesn't stop people repeating it all over the internet. It might happen - and we might get lucky with Omicron - but it is not the "normal evolution of a virus".

Will the virus become milder?
A recurring suggestion is that pathogens evolve, over some undefined period, to be more transmissible and less virulent, bringing virus and host towards a state of benign coexistence. If Omicron is spreading so quickly, some wondered, perhaps it will at least be milder. But experts say this expectation has no scientific basis. “Put simply, this has been one of the most baffling misinformation myths peddled during the pandemic,” said Prof Alan McNally, director of the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham. “There is almost no evidence of any human pathogenic virus evolving towards reduced virulence.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...irus-explainer