Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #102

[ilovewings]

I'm not sure how I feel about this really. All the vaccines seem to have pros and cons, and we had to risk assess what would be worse at the time. I would have it again, on balance. I had my booster today and it was Pfizer. I like that we are mixing them up, feel it may be added protection somehow,

The risk is 4 in one million people of having a blood clot, vs something like 7.8% of people with covid having them (I read that on healthline.com I think).

It is good there are a few vaccines to choose from. I really feel comfortable with the mRNA vaccines.

 

[weepingangel]

Biden to Boost Winter Pandemic Measures: Here's What We Know
More at link
The plan includes a requirement for private insurers to cover the cost of at-home COVID-19 tests and a tightening of testing requirements for people entering the U.S. regardless of their vaccination status.

 

[HongKongPhooey]

It is good there are a few vaccines to choose from. I really feel comfortable with the mRNA vaccines.

I dont think we really have a choice here, tbh. We get what we're given, as far as I know.

This week, it's over 50s having the booster. Next week, the over 40s get theirs, pretty much. From what I know of personally, anyway.

 

[Grouse]

BBM

"More optimistic assessment of #OmicronVariant from WHO briefing. Variant doesn’t seem to be more transmissible than Delta, but is causing more re-infections than expected. Disease also milder in people who have been previously infected with #COVID or had #vaccine"

--> https://twitter.com/SkyNewsThomas/status/1466361331603447810

Seems to tie in with

"Most of the people who have been hospitalised in South Africa had not been vaccinated against coronavirus, according to the NICD."

--> Covid: South Africa new cases double in 24 hours as Omicron spreads

 

[Skigh]

South Africa's Omicron Covid wave records another huge 368% week-on-week rise | Daily Mail Online


South Africa's Omicron-fuelled wave of infections has soared fivefold in a week and test positivity continues to climb, as health officials confirm the super mutant strain is dominant.
Data from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) shows 11,535 new Covid cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, a jump of 368 per cent on last Thursday when 2,465 new infections were registered.

Cases have been soaring in the country since Omicron emerged, which experts say appears to be more infectious than Delta and has mutations that may allow it to dodge vaccine protection.

Some 51,402 people in the country took a Covid test and 22.4 per cent of them tested positive for the virus. For comparison, 38,075 per cent of tests taken on the same day last week and 6.5 per cent were positive.

Meanwhile, Covid hospital admissions nearly tripled in a week, but deaths have fallen 64 per cent.

But despite fears about Omicron, South Africa is still recording far fewer overall Covid cases compared to its population size than both the UK and US.

Figures from the Oxford University research platform Our World in Data show South Africa has 63 cases per million people compared to 638 in the UK and 257 in the US. Cases are rising sharply in South Africa but are starting at a low base.

And just a quarter of South Africans have had two Covid vaccine doses, which makes interpreting the data challenging. For comparison, 70 per cent of people in the UK are double-jabbed and the figure is as high as 80 per cent in some European nations.

 

[CrimeAway]

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Niner]

I'm getting my Moderna booster on Monday!!

 

[ilovewings]

.

I'm getting my Moderna booster on Monday!!

I think it is extremely important to get that booster: I got my Moderna Booster two weeks ago. I was surprised I had muscles aches for about 5 days- it wasn't terrible or anything but since Moderna is a 1/2 dose, I was surprised. I am so glad I got that booster.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Second U.S. case of omicron variant is found in Minnesota (nbcnews.com)

The vaccinated man had traveled to New York City and started having symptoms on Nov. 22.

 

[margarita25]

Biden to Boost Winter Pandemic Measures: Here's What We Know
More at link
The plan includes a requirement for private insurers to cover the cost of at-home COVID-19 tests and a tightening of testing requirements for people entering the U.S. regardless of their vaccination status.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[angelainwi]

I got my Pfizer booster yesterday morning. Only had a slightly sore arm and a migraine last night which may not be related to the shot at all. Makes me feel much more comfortable about my chances of not ending up hospitalized if I some how catch Covid.

 

[margarita25]

BBM

"More optimistic assessment of #OmicronVariant from WHO briefing. Variant doesn’t seem to be more transmissible than Delta, but is causing more re-infections than expected. Disease also milder in people who have been previously infected with #COVID or had #vaccine"

--> https://twitter.com/SkyNewsThomas/status/1466361331603447810

Seems to tie in with

"Most of the people who have been hospitalised in South Africa had not been vaccinated against coronavirus, according to the NICD."

--> Covid: South Africa new cases double in 24 hours as Omicron spreads

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[SouthAussie]

Biden to Boost Winter Pandemic Measures: Here's What We Know
More at link
The plan includes a requirement for private insurers to cover the cost of at-home COVID-19 tests and a tightening of testing requirements for people entering the U.S. regardless of their vaccination status.

I received a Smart Traveller alert this week, about travel to the US.
Haven't received one of those in a long time, probably ever since we were first banned from travelling anywhere outside Australia - with that ban now being over.

(Smart Traveller is a govt service which provides travel alerts for countries that I have signed up for notifications about)

********************************************

The US has suspended entry and transit of certain travellers who have recently travelled to or reside in certain COVID-19 affected countries.
If you're aged 18 and over you must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and provide proof of vaccination to travel to the US by air, unless you're a US citizen, US permanent resident, or qualify for one of the exceptions to this requirement.
Before travel, all travellers aged two or over, including US citizens and permanent residents, must provide evidence of a negative COVID-19 test, or proof that you've recovered from COVID-19 within the last 90 days.

We now advise:
Exercise a high degree of caution in the USA due to impacts of COVID-19.

United States of America

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Christmas party leaves 50-60 people infected with suspected Omicron Covid in Norway | Daily Mail Online

A Christmas party in Norway has left between 50 and 60 people infected with Covid-19, suspected to be the new super-mutant Omicron variant.

If confirmed, it would be the world's biggest outbreak of the new strain so far.

Medics have ruled out the possibility the infections are Delta variant cases and said there was a 'high probability' it was the new strain.

Officials confirmed 50 people tested positive for Omicron with a PCR test following the party at Louise Restaurant & Bar in Aker Brygge, Oslo, on Friday.

A further 10 people received positive results from lateral flow tests, NRK reported, bringing the total cases up to 60 - half of all 120 attendees.

At least one of the Scatec employees had recently returned from the company's South Africa in Cape Town.

The Christmas party was held in a closed room but the guests reportedly mingled with other people in the restaurant after 10:30pm, when it turned into a nightclub.

At least two restaurant guests not involved in the Christmas party also later tested positive, though it is not yet clear if they were infected at the event or from a different contact. Ten waiters who served the table were tested after the party, but none have tested positive.

Over 71 per cent of Norway's population are fully vaccinated, higher than the 69 per cent of Brits and 59 per cent of Americans who have had both jabs.

This is frightening - 60 out of 120 at the party went home with Covid. Now, it may be milder than original Covid, but is it significantly more transmissible?

 

[margarita25]

@CrimeAway , it looks like part of Biden’s new measures includes free at-home testing covered by insurance. Iirc, you may have mentioned something about the testing costs.

 

[Cool Cats]

Omicron Prompts Swift Reconsideration of Boosters Among Scientists

Booster shots clearly raise antibody levels, strengthening the body’s defenses against infection, and may help offset whatever advantages omicron has gained through evolution.

Many of the experts who were opposed to boosters now believe that the shots may offer the best defense against the new variant. The extra doses may slow the spread, at least, buying time for vaccine makers to develop an omicron-specific formulation, if needed.

“Based on what we know about the potential for immune evasion, I would err on the side of giving the booster,” said Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist at Bellevue Hospital Center who had opposed the Biden administration’s boosters-for-all push.

 

[SouthAussie]

This is frightening - 60 out of 120 at the party went home with Covid. Now, it may be milder than original Covid, but is it significantly more transmissible?

Maybe this will turn out to be an okay type of variant.
It will whip through the world populations, give us all a milder form of covid, let us (mostly) all recover from that and gain immunity, and then the pandemic will be over. And covid will become endemic instead, like the flu.

Wishful thinking on my part? Yes.

Something has to stop this pandemic. We humans appear to not be doing too good of a job of that. Maybe nature is taking over and is trying to rectify the imbalance.

Maybe something like this happened to end the 1918/1919/1920 pandemic.

imo

(Lots of maybes there. )

 

[Cool Cats]

This is frightening - 60 out of 120 at the party went home with Covid. Now, it may be milder than original Covid, but is it significantly more transmissible?

S.Africa's health body sees threefold higher risk of reinfection from Omicron

The new Omicron variant of the coronavirus poses a threefold higher risk of reinfection than the currently dominant Delta variant and the Beta strain, a group of South African health bodies said on Thursday.

The South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (SACEMA) and the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) said the latest findings "provide epidemiological evidence for Omicron's ability to evade immunity from prior infection".

Their statement was issued after a group of South African health organisations published a paper on medrxiv.org as a pre-print, meaning the work was not yet certified by peer.

Earlier in the day, microbiologist Anne von Gottberg at NICD had echoed the same views at an online news conference hosted by the World Health Organization, saying South Africa was seeing an increase in COVID-19 reinfections due to Omicron.

South Africa had been seeing a sudden spike in daily reported cases of coronavirus with the government reporting 11,535 new infections on Thursday, up from 312 ten days ago.

The NICD, which alongside a wider network of health organisations does genome sequencing on samples, said on Wednesday the Omicron variant was able to get around some immunity and was fast becoming the dominant variant in the country.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I like your theory very much @SouthAussie and you could well be right. The next couple of weeks will give us a much better idea, I guess. There has been quite a kneejerk reaction from governments around the world though, feels like something has spooked them, fingers crossed it’s “just” increased transmission rather than increased death.

 

[Turkeytrot]

Maybe this will turn out to be an okay type of variant.
It will whip through the world populations, give us all a milder form of covid, let us (mostly) all recover from that and gain immunity, and then the pandemic will be over. And covid will become endemic instead, like the flu.

Wishful thinking on my part? Yes.

Something has to stop this pandemic. We humans appear to not be doing too good of a job of that. Maybe nature is taking over and trying to rectify the imbalance.

Maybe something like this happened to end the 1918/1919/1920 pandemic.

imo

(Lots of maybes there. )

Here's hoping!

I did see an article a couple days ago pretty much saying what you've said here. Fingers crossed

Doctor explains how omicron variant could speed up end of COVID pandemic