I'm having my booster on Thursday. Got to say I'm quite nervous about catching it whilst I'm there given how transmissible this variant is. Hopefully there'll be no queues but I kind of doubt that.
SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)
- Thread starter Don't Kill Bill
- Start date
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
Use ffp2/3
Yeah, I went today and used a new high-grade mask for the occasion. It's sensible to do it.
Is it just the UK that Omicron cases are rising rapidly and science experts are saying they are really worried or is this happening in other countries.How are things now in Austria, Germany, Poland, Holland and Slovakia , places that were struggling a couple of weeks ago, have they got a grip of it now? It feels like Omicron has arrived in the UK and just escalated really quickly.
Why is social distancing not in place?
Google have announced they will suspend all unvaccinated employees, first with pay, then without, before firing them.
As brutal as this is, we’ll arguably now see what “letting it rip” actually means. Seems like they’re unable or unwilling to commit to contain it.
Absolutely savage situation, really really hope we don’t see a huge influx in hospitals. Is it the faintest of silver linings that this wave should, in theory, be much shorter by virtue of everyone getting it at the same time? (I honestly don’t know).
Absolutely savage situation, really really hope we don’t see a huge influx in hospitals. Is it the faintest of silver linings that this wave should, in theory, be much shorter by virtue of everyone getting it at the same time? (I honestly don’t know).
Thanks, it just feels like its gone to shit very quickly .
If its as transmissible as they claim it will all be over by February with this variant anyway.
For the world or for your village?
Hahaha fair enoughUK
Actually I really hope its all over quickly for you guys, its been a shit fight so far on multiple fronts. I have a lot of relatives back in the UK so fingers crossed.UK
You won't have to worry about that we have incompetence in all aspects of our leadership and a population that a sizeable portion really don't care anymore
NZ will most likely have more of a problem with omicron than UK. Although summer and holidays might level the playing field a bit.
It will be interesting, we have a higher vaccination rate and an arguably more compliant population to health restrictions. Also apart from 3 cities a much lower population density. Truth is nobody really knows how it will play out
They have a lot more immunity thanks to prior infections. Not a certainty, but a bet I would be happy to take.
The big advantage the UK has, in theory, is a lot of prior exposure to the virus. Which fills in a lot of the gaps left by the unvaccinated. Although South Africa had even higher past exposure and it still took off like crazy. Although that was still a big factor in their (probable) shift to milder illness.
NZ (and Australia) are unusual in that their unvaccinated population is completely naive when it comes to covid exposure. Which might cause a much higher % of serious illness than you’d see elsewhere.
All ifs, buts and maybes though. Something that doesn’t get mentioned much is that it’s summer in South Africa now. And there does seem to be more and more of a seasonal element to the virus. NZ could be saved by a decent summer or in deep shit if omicron doesn’t kick off down under for another few months (highly unlikely).
It's very worrying how despite the world going through so many different strains and also many being vaccinated herd immunity doesn't seem to be a thing here. How is this ever going to naturally die out if we can't seem to become naturally immune?
Every time there's a new dominant strain people keep getting reinfected. First it was the Wuhan one, then the brittish one, then delta and now omicron. Is anyone else not concerned about this? This wave of omicron is now causing masses to get sick I am hoping this will contribute to at least some form of herd immunity.
But feels like everytime a new predominant strain is spread we are back to square one.
Every time there's a new dominant strain people keep getting reinfected. First it was the Wuhan one, then the brittish one, then delta and now omicron. Is anyone else not concerned about this? This wave of omicron is now causing masses to get sick I am hoping this will contribute to at least some form of herd immunity.
But feels like everytime a new predominant strain is spread we are back to square one.
It feels that way but we’re not. Vaccines and past exposure is giving us a lot of protection. At square one the whole world had to go into lockdown to stop healthcare services being overwhelmed. Yet we more or less got through the delta wave from start to finish leading fairly normal lives. That shows how far we’ve come.
The theory with heard immunity is your body builds up some immunity but like the flu, it changes every year, the problem right now with covid, is that there are two major variations (currently) Delta and Omicron and so the body has to fight off two mutations which in theory, can then cause more unknown issues in future as those two evolve and change again, so herd immunity isn't necessary as ideal as it was before.
The biggest worry, is what will come next or even after that in a few years time, which could be more dangerous, as some have already speculated.
Cold, Flu, Covid mutations, we may never find a total cure.
Interesting findings that may suggest why Omicron is more infectious but (hopefully) less harmful.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-times-faster-than-delta-in-bronchial-tissue?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-times-faster-than-delta-in-bronchial-tissue?
Mutating viruses can affect herd immunity but herd immunity is simply a situation where so many people in a population have immunity that every person infected infects less than one person on average (e.g. 5 infected people only infect 4 others between them) so the virus dies out.
Our real problem with getting to herd immunity is that a) we need a very high percentage of people to be immune (estimated 80-88% for Delta and feck knows for Omicron) and b) the vaccines aren't sterilising so 80-88% of people fully vaxxed (or immune from infection which only gives about 75% of people any protection we think) doesn't equal 88% actually immune. Since few countries will get 90% of adults vaccinated and fewer in younger age groups herd immunity is very unlikely and probably impossible with Omicron unless we manage to develop a sterilising vaccine and they are very rare (and in fact may not exist and just prevent almost all infections and kill all actual infections so fast or make them so mild we don't even test for infection).
That said these vaccines are performing incredibly well in reducing transmission and severity of disease. Far better than we had any right to expect and the mRNA ones can be quickly tweaked for new variants if we need to.
So Covid is almost certain to become endemic once the world is hugely vaccinated and that would mean variants would be far rarer. Once the virus stabilises (which may take a few years I'd guess) we won't need boosters every 6 months (which are to keep antibodies active to reduce infections and take pressure off medical facilities) but rather at longer time periods when either a) a new variant arises (usually far less often with coronaviruses than with influenza) or b) memory cells wane (often years or sometimes virtually never). The current boosters are for a different purpose than normal boosters due to us being in a pandemic.
Sorry for rambling on.
Absolutely.
Ultimately I think we might just get lucky because of timing and the isolation thing slowing stuff down here. We get to watch again and prepare, fingers crossed we get away with it again.
I know Australians like to call themselves the lucky country but with this covid thing I really think its NZ thats had all the good luck.
And just as I type the previous the first Omi case appears here in one of our border isolation hotels.
NSW will be 95% vaccinated (adults) very soon with a big push on boosters and hopefully we can replicated that in all states which will reduce the spread and severity of illness. Figures from Victoria are encouraging with 91% of ICU/ventilated admissions being unvaccinated (88% not even had 1 shot) and infections are surging in NSW with the reduction in regulations - 1800 today - but hospital numbers are stable so far. Not that I think that will remain the case with 20,000 per day forecast soon but hopefully we will cope.
Omicron is here already so no chance it won't become dominant very soon.
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According to a fascinating Nature article, the future of COVID could follow one of these four evolutionary paths:
- Infection or vaccination provides lifetime protection, and the virus circulates largely on the basis of new births (like measles)
- Most people get infected in their first two years of life, essentially becoming a virus of kids (RSV)
- Seasonal epidemic, propelled largely by spread in adults, who can still develop severe symptoms (Influenza A)
- Transmission is driven largely by infections in children, who have less immunity than adults (Influenza B)
To be honest, I’ve never heard that in any lecture either. I’ve had it myself and then I read about it in one of those “what weird body thing do you have that you don’t want to see a doctor for” threads on Reddit that pop up now and then. Since learning the name for it (I’ve always assumed that it was a pinched nerve) I’ve found several cases in the ED.
I used to get it too, apparently its not strictly a medical condition a doctor would be taught since nobody knows what it is and its virtually impossible to study as its so random and fleeting.
Apologies for my ignorance but what is the difference between pandemic and endemic?
Pandemic = global
Endemic = localized
I hate you. I spent a totally unreasonable amount of time going through this sub yesterday, and the first thing I did this morning was checking the updates
But yeah, the stories are remarkably similar with always the same memes and the same quotes of the same people. "Candeath" and her ilk are doing their best to kill of MAGAs, ironically.
Unfortunately it depends who's saying it.
Roughly though:
Epidemic - lots of cases, spreading through a country or an area or population group.
Pandemic - same thing but happening in places all over the world, if not simultaneously, then close to.
Endemic - infection rates rise and fall, but it's always around somewhere, you are "living with it," you aren't expecting it to disappear.
Endemic doesn't mean it's rare (colds are endemic) or that it's everywhere (in fact it can be very localised) or that it's mild (it can be deadly like ebola, endemic in certain areas, usually at a low level but can surge into epidemic territory). The lines are blurry and the people using them don't always mean the same thing.
Right now, if you hear people using the term endemic about the future of covid in the UK - they mean we're going to have to live with it. That doesn't mean ignore it. We can prepare the hospital system to handle it. We can develop vaccines and medicines to protect us from its worst effects. We expect our immune systems will gradually get used to fighting it, so fewer people are killed or injured by it.
We're just looking for the least worst way to get there. Omicron may have decided the next bit of the route for us.
@Shakesey
@Traub
I remember hearing a South African primary care doc talking about the clinical presentation of omicron and that loss of taste/smell wasn’t really a feature. I’m sure you know loads of people who’ve picked it up recently. Is this holding true for them?
Weirdly, losing my taste/smell is currently my biggest personal fear when it comes to covid.
@Traub
I remember hearing a South African primary care doc talking about the clinical presentation of omicron and that loss of taste/smell wasn’t really a feature. I’m sure you know loads of people who’ve picked it up recently. Is this holding true for them?
Weirdly, losing my taste/smell is currently my biggest personal fear when it comes to covid.
As we have covid and we’re planning to give people Christmas gifts, what’s the best course of action for them? Sanitise them / quarantine? Anyone with experience know how to make them as safe as possible aka how long to quarantine for etc.
I’m no expert but reckon the chances of catching covid from a xmas present are vanishingly small. Just be careful not to cough/sneeze on them, wash your hands before wrapping them up and you’ll be grand.
Don't lick the envelopes of any cards you write!