Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #102

[pocketaccent]

It's different enough to evade immunity very well. Either from vaccines or previous infections. Looks like we are right back where we started.

Horrible, isn't it? It evades prior infections and vaccines. Masks are our best friend just like they were when the pandemic started. At least we have plenty of those now.

 

[jjenny]

Horrible, isn't it? It evades prior infections and vaccines. Masks are our best friend just like they were when the pandemic started. At least we have plenty of those now.

Yep. Covid keeps outsmarting us.

 

[jjenny]

And yet many schools are choosing now to remove mask requirements. It’s frustrating and hard to grasp the logic.

Omicron will infect everyone in those schools soon enough.

 

[ilovewings]

Finley: Vaccines aren't beating COVID. What will?

Ask yourself this honest question after reading this article (it is behind a paywall): have the vaccines been disappointing- efficacy wanes sometimes said to be in 120 days---why is the virus surging with at least 1/2 the population of this country vaccinated?

 

[CharlestonGal]

Omicron will infect everyone in those schools soon enough.

The doubling time is really, really disturbing at 2.6 days. Doing the math (I rounded up to 3 days to make the numbers round) this is how fast it will take over:

Dec 16 - 6%
Dec 19 - 12%
Dec 22 - 24%
Dec 25 - 48%
Dec 28 - 96%

And with a stupid high Rt of 4.0 the number of cases by New Year's Eve is going to be incredible. And will positively explode the first and second weeks of January, two weeks after the Christmas and New Year's parties. ugh

IMO

 

[CharlestonGal]

Finley: Vaccines aren't beating COVID. What will?

Ask yourself this honest question after reading this article (it is behind a paywall): have the vaccines been disappointing- efficacy wanes sometimes said to be in 120 days---why is the virus surging with at least 1/2 the population of this country vaccinated?

It just makes me wonder what this situation would look like if half the population WASN'T vaccinated.

 

[musicaljoke]

I really don't get what is happening here in my little suburb of Va Beach- but the town's school board has just voted to make masks, tesing and vaccines optional for all students. This is unreal.


"After winter break, students in Chesapeake Public Schools only have to wear a mask in class, if they want to.

The school board voted to make masking optional at its Monday meeting. This only applies to students, not employees. They are required under a separate state rule to wear masks.

“We are not going to take away the masking, the testing, it’s going to be optional,” said board member Christie New Craig."
Cheapeake School Board votes to make masks optional after winter break | 13newsnow.com

Oh my! And our kids have been told to take home all their things, clean out their lockers and desks because they might not be back to in person school after the holidays. (Northern Ontario)

 

[ilovewings]

It just makes me wonder what this situation would look like if half the population WASN'T vaccinated.

Now that is a very good question-- believe me I am glad to be vaccinated
but I am disappointed for example that effectiveness of the vaccine wanes
so quickly

 

[jjenny]

Looks like Regeneron monoclonals won't work well against omicron.

"Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and AstraZeneca, makers of monoclonal antibody cocktails used as treatment for many coronavirus patients who have not been vaccinated, announced contrasting data Thursday about the potency of their covid-19 therapies against the omicron variant."

Regeneron, AstraZeneca give mixed results on their covid antibody cocktails against omicron - The Washington Post

 

[ilovewings]

Looks like Regeneron monoclonals won't work well against omicron.

"Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and AstraZeneca, makers of monoclonal antibody cocktails used as treatment for many coronavirus patients who have not been vaccinated, announced contrasting data Thursday about the potency of their covid-19 therapies against the omicron variant."

Regeneron, AstraZeneca give mixed results on their covid antibody cocktails against omicron - The Washington Post

Is this turning into a horror story?

 

[WichitaFalls]

DOJ asks Supreme Court to reinstate federal vaccine mandate for certain health care workers nationwide - CNNPolitics
The Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow a vaccine mandate aimed at certain extra health care workers to go into effect nationwide, marking the first time the justices have been asked to weigh in on a federal mandate the Biden administration put in place in order to get more Americans vaccinated in the midst of a surge of the Delta and Omicron coronavirus variants.

So far, lower courts have blocked the health care worker mandate from being enforced in about half the country.

More at link above.

 

[CharlestonGal]

Now that is a very good question-- believe me I am glad to be vaccinated
but I am disappointed for example that effectiveness of the vaccine wanes
so quickly

I think many of us are disappointed that both natural and vaccine immunity wane so quickly. It certainly adds another layer to the problem and is really, really unfortunate. Nature is cruel at times.

 

[jjenny]

I think many of us are disappointed that both natural and vaccine immunity wane so quickly. It certainly adds another layer to the problem and is really, really unfortunate. Nature is cruel at times.

It's not just waning. Covid mutates very quickly. Omicron is so mutated that antibodies against other variants don't recognize it very well. We would be in a much better shape, with vaccines, if covid didn't mutate so rapidly.

 

[CharlestonGal]

Striking Antibody Evasion Manifested by the Omicron Variant of SARS-CoV-2

We found B.1.1.529 [Omicron] to be markedly resistant to neutralization by serum not only from convalescent patients, but also from individuals vaccinated with one of the four widely used COVID-19 vaccines. Even serum from persons vaccinated and boosted with mRNA-based vaccines exhibited substantially diminished neutralizing activity against B.1.1.529. By evaluating a panel of monoclonal antibodies to all known epitope clusters on the spike protein, we noted that the activity of 18 of the 19 antibodies tested were either abolished or impaired, including ones currently authorized or approved for use in patients. In addition, we also identified four new spike mutations (S371L, N440K, G446S, and Q493R) that confer greater antibody resistance to B.1.1.529.

 

[MimosaMornings]

Striking Antibody Evasion Manifested by the Omicron Variant of SARS-CoV-2

We found B.1.1.529 [Omicron] to be markedly resistant to neutralization by serum not only from convalescent patients, but also from individuals vaccinated with one of the four widely used COVID-19 vaccines. Even serum from persons vaccinated and boosted with mRNA-based vaccines exhibited substantially diminished neutralizing activity against B.1.1.529. By evaluating a panel of monoclonal antibodies to all known epitope clusters on the spike protein, we noted that the activity of 18 of the 19 antibodies tested were either abolished or impaired, including ones currently authorized or approved for use in patients. In addition, we also identified four new spike mutations (S371L, N440K, G446S, and Q493R) that confer greater antibody resistance to B.1.1.529.

More good news....

 

[acutename]

So the vaccinated need to be extra careful....

or not disclose that they are fully vaccinated? crazy.

 

[jjenny]

or not disclose that they are fully vaccinated? crazy.

Sure is.

 

[acutename]

Nadhim Zahawi confirms there are now Omicron cases in UK hospitals | Daily Mail Online


Nadhim Zahawi today revealed there are now patients with Omicron being treated in UK hospitals as he said the new coronavirus variant represents a 'huge bump in the road' for the nation's recovery from the pandemic.

The Education Secretary painted a grim picture of the spread of the mutant strain as he said it now accounts for one third of all cases in London.

He also confirmed that cases of the variant are doubling every two to three days with more than 1,600 formally confirmed so far.

However, Mr Zahawi warned that the actual number of cases of Omicron will be 'up to 10 times that' as he said the vaccine booster programme is now in a 'race against time' against the variant.

His comments came after it emerged that Michael Gove is leading the push for tougher Plan C Covid-19 restrictions, including 'pub passports', after pandemic modelling showed the Omicron variant could cause more hospitalisations than last winter.

what I do not understand, is, if the Omicron is so mild, why are there hospitalizations and why were there people getting healthcare in South Africa? If something was really mild, would the drs even know about it? I feel confused. If I had something mild I would not be at a hospital or a surgery; I would just be home for a day or two. Are these really weak compromised people?

 

[jjenny]

what I do not understand, is, if the Omicron is so mild, why are there hospitalizations and why were there people getting healthcare in South Africa? If something was really mild, would the drs even know about it? I feel confused. If I had something mild I would not be at a hospital or a surgery; I would just be home for a day or two. Are these really weak compromised people?

It's milder (not mild) compared to delta.
But not all that much milder. Only 29% fewer hospitalizations.
Data indicate omicron is milder, better at evading vaccines | AP News

 

[CharlestonGal]

This is....disconcerting. I've read posts in the past expressing concerns about the spread of SARS-CoV 2 in wild deer, mink, elk and the possible implications of that.

Evidence for a mouse origin of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant

The rapid accumulation of mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant that enabled its outbreak raises questions as to whether its proximal origin occurred in humans or another mammalian host. Here, we identified 45 point mutations that Omicron acquired since divergence from the B.1.1 lineage. We found that the Omicron spike protein sequence was subjected to stronger positive selection than that of any reported SARS-CoV-2 variants known to evolve persistently in human hosts, suggesting the possibility of host-jumping. The molecular spectrum (i.e., the relative frequency of the twelve types of base substitutions) of mutations acquired by the progenitor of Omicron was significantly different from the spectrum for viruses that evolved in human patients, but was highly consistent with spectra associated with evolution in a mouse cellular environment. Furthermore, mutations in the Omicron spike protein significantly overlapped with SARS-CoV-2 mutations known to promote adaptation to mouse hosts, particularly through enhanced spike protein binding affinity for the mouse cell entry receptor. Collectively, our results suggest that the progenitor of Omicron jumped from humans to mice, rapidly accumulated mutations conducive to infecting that host, then jumped back into humans, indicating an inter-species evolutionary trajectory for the Omicron outbreak.