The fact they had already detected it in Hong Kong last week told me it was probably everywhere already. Pretty pleased the Canadian government didn't drop the PCR test requirements, even though I was annoyed by it only a couple weeks ago.
obviously very limited data, so take it with a pinch of salt ... but early tests from Israel are pretty positive when it comes to the vaccines' effectivity against Omicron. This would be very good news if true, all things considered.
Quote:
Later in the evening, a report by Channel 12 said the Pfizer vaccine is just slightly less effective in preventing infection with Omicron than with Delta – 90% as opposed to 95% – while it is as effective – around 93% – in preventing serious symptoms at least for those vaccinated with a booster.
According to the report, the ability of the variant to infect is higher than Delta but not as much as feared – around 1.3 times higher. At the same time, those not inoculated have a 2.4 times greater chance of developing serious symptoms, a significant figure.
The fact they had already detected it in Hong Kong last week told me it was probably everywhere already. Pretty pleased the Canadian government didn't drop the PCR test requirements, even though I was annoyed by it only a couple weeks ago.
Omicron is detected by rapid antigen tests. As a result, I'm still annoyed.
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Those tests aren't as airtight in general, usually you're full blown symptomatic. Hope Hicks being a famous example when she infected Donnie and the gang.
Since it's been named I don't think I've seen many headlines discussing the "South African Flu", it always mentions Omicrom.
You're exaggerating this issue. Almost anyone I've seen saying one side or the other is freaking out about this seem to be the ones freaking out. When governments weren't cautious enough people were upset. Now that they are being more cautious people are upset. There's no winning here.
Quick, name 7 countries that Canada has banned in the past 4 days from travelling to Canada.
It's already being stigmatized and branded as the african variant, because it's politically convenient to do so. It's already proven to have been in the Netherlands in someone without known travel to South Africa, before it was ever identified in South Africa. South Africa is the first to identify it.
As for comparing Omicron to Delta...
India had videos of people literally being cremated on the streets as there was no place to deal with the bodies and dying with talks that things seemed very different and abnormal. That warranted some panic. And it still took weeks for countries including Canada to symbolically ban India and Pakistan travel, which was way too late to ever do anything. Selective travel bans to the UK, India, Pakistan have proven to have no effect whatsoever in stopping spread and the WHO itself had also warned against doing such, but this time's the charm I guess?
Overreaction is certainly better then underreaction, the problem is right now, this is still a half assed reaction that only pretends to do something.
Selective travel bans alone are not enough in itself to do anything while you have half assed measures and relaxed vaccination rules.
Given the fact that dozens of countries around the world have now detected at least one Omicron variant case, Moore said the current travel restrictions and testing guidance which focuses on southern Africa doesn’t make much sense.
“I think we’re learning from the epidemiology of this that this virus has been present on the globe for many, many weeks if not months,” he said.
“It may be more prudent to broaden the testing of all returning travellers.”
Before It was detected in S. Africa the Variant was already in Europe. Could be good news as it might mean that the illness is either 1) Mild or 2) can not outcompete Delta
Still too early to really draw much from that, since the oldest known sample is from only 3 weeks ago.
Still too early to really draw much from that, since the oldest known sample is from only 3 weeks ago.
Its actually kinda amusing watching all the different reactions.
Quote:
The chief executive of Moderna has predicted that existing vaccines will be much less effective at tackling Omicron than earlier strains of coronavirus and warned it would take months before pharmaceutical companies could manufacture new variant-specific jabs at scale.
The Omicron variant of the coronavirus could lead to more infections among vaccinated people, according to several scientists, but some said these people would likely remain protected from a severe course of illness.
While the new variant might evade the antibodies generated in reaction to the vaccine, the virus will likely remain vulnerable to immune cells that destroy it once it enters the body, said Ugur Sahin, co-founder of BioNTech SE, which developed the first Covid-19 vaccine authorized in the U.S.
I mean they know nothing yet, but lets go ahead and speculate the hell out of this. Not that anyone would be listening to the big wigs at the companies who make the vaccine. Jesus.
Given the similar levels of protection for Pfizer and Moderna thus far it's therefore interesting that Moderna said they're "worried" about it... so we'll see I guess.
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-no variant so far has significantly impacted vaccine efficacy
-even if this turns out to be the one that does do that and antibodies end up being rendered significantly less effective, cellular immunity should be largely unaffected so vaccinated and previously infected people should still be in pretty good shape.
But there's still a massive dearth of information and we're not going to really know much about it for a few weeks. Anything else (both positive and negative) is really just speculation based on virtually no information.
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Quick, name 7 countries that Canada has banned in the past 4 days from travelling to Canada.
It's already being stigmatized and branded as the african variant, because it's politically convenient to do so. It's already proven to have been in the Netherlands in someone without known travel to South Africa, before it was ever identified in South Africa. South Africa is the first to identify it.
As for comparing Omicron to Delta...
India had videos of people literally being cremated on the streets as there was no place to deal with the bodies and dying with talks that things seemed very different and abnormal. That warranted some panic. And it still took weeks for countries including Canada to symbolically ban India and Pakistan travel, which was way too late to ever do anything. Selective travel bans to the UK, India, Pakistan have proven to have no effect whatsoever in stopping spread and the WHO itself had also warned against doing such, but this time's the charm I guess?
Overreaction is certainly better then underreaction, the problem is right now, this is still a half assed reaction that only pretends to do something.
Selective travel bans alone are not enough in itself to do anything while you have half assed measures and relaxed vaccination rules.
My initial thought about banning flights, was because of the 61 passengers on 2 flights to the Netherlands from South Africa tested positive for Covid, 13 of those had Omicrom. This occurred about a day after news about Omicrom came out.
South Africa has top notch lab services from what I understand, but I can see why 61 people on two flights testing positive would cause some initial concern. The first thought would be that this new variant is obviously very contagious or the testing leaving South Africa is subpar. Now maybe neither ends up being true, but I can understand why that would cause concern, until we had more information.
We all know this is everywhere now and likely didn't even start in South Africa. From the beginning of this I always assume when covid or a new variant is detected that means it's already in many places.
Two doctors tested positive for the Omicron COVID-19 variant, the Sheba Medical Center announced Tuesday, doubling the number of known cases of the new virus strain in Israel.
Both of the doctors work at the hospital outside of Tel Aviv and one of them had recently returned from a conference in London. That doctor then came in close contact with their colleague, likely infecting them, Sheba said, noting that both had received three doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine and were only experiencing mild symptoms.
This comes despite Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz saying that early data indicates those who have three doses of the Pfizer COVID vaccine are well protected against the new Omicron variant.
Doubled the cases? To 4? And early data indicates what? That you looked at the 4 cases and that is the early data? I mean great news that on the 4 cases you have, the data is showing that we are protected.
Hysterical.
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Doubled the cases? To 4? And early data indicates what? That you looked at the 4 cases and that is the early data? I mean great news that on the 4 cases you have, the data is showing that we are protected.
Hysterical.
Common sense suggests the early data he's speaking of and the "precise" data he's referring to collecting over a few days is coming from more than just Israel.
They also have 34 suspected cases they are waiting on confirmation for.
