Coronavirus 666: The Number of the Delta Variant (but in an entirely scientific context)

[Bartimaeus]

23 minutes ago, majestic said:

Found a nice day to get my third shot. Public holiday on Wednesday, have some time off on Thursday and Friday, so I got my shot today. If it whacks me down I won't miss much, and I should be good until the holiday comes up.

It was basically the same experience as the second shot for me, which was like having the flu for one day, and the next day pretty much all better. And @Hurlshot was right about my nieces - no reaction at all to the second shot, they were perfectly fine.

[majestic]

Well, so far nothing much happened, but it's only been four hours. Last time though, at four hours in, my arm felt like it would come off while it doesn't right now, so maybe that's a good sign.

edit: Five minutes after posting I tried to pick up my bottle of sugar free lemonade. Tried, being the operative word here. Jinxed it.  

Edited December 6, 2021 by majestic

[bugarup]

23 minutes ago, majestic said:

Well, so far nothing much happened, but it's only been four hours. Last time though, at four hours in, my arm felt like it would come off while it doesn't right now, so maybe that's a good sign.

My booster shot was the worst of all three, like a day and a night of seriously unpleasant flu, and it only started something like 14 hours after, so everything is not lost yet for you. 

....er...heh. Heh heh. Oh,  have a video! 

 

 

 

[majestic]

Some preliminary data concering Omicron.

Vaccination efficacy drops to 25% after three months with a booster shot and is a nice flat 0% after six without booster. Existing monoclonal antibodies are completely ineffective. Time to note that this doesn't say anything about severity, but it all but rules out stopping infections with the existing vaccines. Testing was done in vitro with live omicron strain viruses.

In other words, Omicron necessitates an adapted vaccine. Sucks for the people who have been waiting for a spike protein or inactivated virus vaccine because they don't want no new-fangled gene therapy nonsense, because by the time Novavax et al are ready and available, Omicron might just emerge as the dominant variant.

Edited December 8, 2021 by majestic

[BruceVC]

10 hours ago, majestic said:

Some preliminary data concering Omicron.

Vaccination efficacy drops to 25% after three months with a booster shot and is a nice flat 0% after six without booster. Existing monoclonal antibodies are completely ineffective. Time to note that this doesn't say anything about severity, but it all but rules out stopping infections with the existing vaccines. Testing was done in vitro with live omicron strain viruses.

In other words, Omicron necessitates an adapted vaccine. Sucks for the people who have been waiting for a spike protein or inactivated virus vaccine because they don't want no new-fangled gene therapy nonsense, because by the time Novavax et al are ready and available, Omicron might just emerge as the dominant variant.

Why you using such big words, speak normal English 

Im glad you said preliminary data because its far to early to make statements of fact about the new variant, for example how can anyone say things like " drops to 25 % after 3 months "  when Omicron hasnt been tested for 3 months because it hasnt been around that long?

But what we seeing in SA at the moment and its based on the constant sick people who have Omicron so its as accurate as it can be based on that metric is

1. A booster is recommended for much better protection. But 2 shots still offers protection
2. The majority of people, 75 %, hospitalized are still the unvaccinated
3. The symptoms even for the unvaccinated are less severe
4. The virus is more transmissible 

But I am remiss to make any real statements until we see more data and actual evidence 

[majestic]

3 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Im glad you said preliminary data because its far to early to make statements of fact about the new variant, for example how can anyone say things like " drops to 25 % after 3 months "  when Omicron hasnt been tested for 3 months because it hasnt been around that long?

I think you got the wrong idea here. The study was done to see how well antibodies in the blood of people whose vaccination was three and six months ago are able to neutralize Omicron under laboratory conditions. Omicron doesn't need to be around for three months to check that, you need people with vaccinations three and six months back, and there are plenty of those around. That doesn't say anything about the severity of infections, or how people really react when exposed to Omicron, but it does show that current vaccines are not expected to be very effective in preventing infection after a month or so.

Which isn't entirely surprising. Still needs to be reviewed and all, but nothing unexpected at least, given Omicron's spike protein changes.

[BruceVC]

44 minutes ago, majestic said:

I think you got the wrong idea here. The study was done to see how well antibodies in the blood of people whose vaccination was three and six months ago are able to neutralize Omicron under laboratory conditions. Omicron doesn't need to be around for three months to check that, you need people with vaccinations three and six months back, and there are plenty of those around. That doesn't say anything about the severity of infections, or how people really react when exposed to Omicron, but it does show that current vaccines are not expected to be very effective in preventing infection after a month or so.

Which isn't entirely surprising. Still needs to be reviewed and all, but nothing unexpected at least, given Omicron's spike protein changes.

Okay, thanks for clarifying 

But there is one difference between the latest main variants. With Delta the majority of hospitalizations globally  were unvaccinated up to 90-95 %. We are seeing 25%, more or less, of vaccinated people in hospital but its not for severe conditions requiring a ventilator but rather just oxygen which is not as serious 

So I would say that is unexpected. But as usual its early days and data may be updated and change 

[Gorth]

On 12/7/2021 at 12:15 AM, bugarup said:

My booster shot was the worst of all three, like a day and a night of seriously unpleasant flu, and it only started something like 14 hours after, so everything is not lost yet for you. 

....er...heh. Heh heh. Oh,  have a video! 

 

 

 

Janssen: (about Sputnik) "How did HE get here so quickly???"

Pfizer: "He took a shortcut"

 

The casting is great too, with the different types representing the vaccines

[Bartimaeus]

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

This didn't miss...

[majestic]

Being an anti-vaxxer is the only thing that makes Nazis, Johova's Witnesses and left-leaning esoteric progressives find common ground. These times make for strange bedfellows, huh?

Spoiler

Could also argue that feeding your children only vegan food is potentially more dangerous than not vaccinating them. It's not impossible, but it could easily go sideways. Has, already, actually, with deaths in Italy and Belgium that I know of.

For someone claiming to be so in tune with nature it's pretty weird to deny that humans are not naturally herbivorous. Vitamin B12 is a thing, even for mostly herbivorous species like sunbirds. Fun fact, they do eat the insects that drop into the nectar they consume. Guess for what? Yeah. B12 supply. 's... a thing. Deny it all your want, just don't kill your kids or your cats.

There's vegans who give their cats vegan food. I don't even...

 

[Elerond]

13 hours ago, majestic said:

Being an anti-vaxxer is the only thing that makes Nazis, Johova's Witnesses and left-leaning esoteric progressives find common ground. These times make for strange bedfellows, huh?

  Hide contents

Could also argue that feeding your children only vegan food is potentially more dangerous than not vaccinating them. It's not impossible, but it could easily go sideways. Has, already, actually, with deaths in Italy and Belgium that I know of.

For someone claiming to be so in tune with nature it's pretty weird to deny that humans are not naturally herbivorous. Vitamin B12 is a thing, even for mostly herbivorous species like sunbirds. Fun fact, they do eat the insects that drop into the nectar they consume. Guess for what? Yeah. B12 supply. 's... a thing. Deny it all your want, just don't kill your kids or your cats.

There's vegans who give their cats vegan food. I don't even...

 

In vegan diet problem is often that people that go full vegan also go full organic, which means that they need to have good knowledge of sources of different vitamins and dietary minerals and make their meals versatile in order not have any deficiencies. In organic mixed/meat diets there is often same problems that you are missing some vitamins (like A, C and  D vitamins especially during winter in areas where sun only is up couple hours) and dietary minerals like iodine and  calcium.

As people have accustomed that they don't need make their meals very versatile because of all added vitamins and minerals in typical products that you can by from store, which is people have more often problem with excess of things than deficiencies in their diets.

[BruceVC]

@Gorth

I was reading a good news link that highlighted how Oz has reached 70-80 % vaccination. This is real progress and is this success a result of state governments or federal work and how do you citizens feel about this because of poor rollouts of vaccines in previous months ?

I do assume first world countries to achieve high levels of vaccination but its still good news 

[Gorth]

2 hours ago, BruceVC said:

@Gorth

I was reading a good news link that highlighted how Oz has reached 70-80 % vaccination. This is real progress and is this success a result of state governments or federal work and how do you citizens feel about this because of poor rollouts of vaccines in previous months ?

I do assume first world countries to achieve high levels of vaccination but its still good news 

The vaccination rates varies a lot from state to state. Biggest problem in Melbourne and Victoria are the neo nazi and alt right organized "anti vax" rallies, but the vast majority of people now ignore them. A few thousand might sound like a lot, but not out of a pool of 5 million people in each city, with double vaccination rates approaching 90%. It's harder in South Australia, West Australia and the Northern Territory in particular, simply because of the geographical and infrastructure challenges. Much of it desert, rain forest or otherwise sparsely populated. Queensland is to Australia what Florida is to the US. The home of the local variant of Florida man. We call them bogans. Yes, they are meme worthy too, but any vaccine that doesn't come either disguised as a six pack of beer or has the word 'BBQ' on the packaging and if it doesn't get delivered by a 1970's V12 held together by sticky tape and chewing gum is suspect and the instinctive first reaction is rejection. Need no foreign stuff polluting a gene pool carefully cultivated through generations of inbreeding!

[Gfted1]

[Gfted1]

Two-dose vaccines induce lower antibodies against Omicron, study finds. Oh noes! 

[ShadySands]

Family friend died from COVID. First person I personally knew that died from it. Not the healthiest person but he was only in his 50s.

Edited December 17, 2021 by ShadySands

[Achilles]

7 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

Family friend died from COVID. First person I personally knew that died from it. Not the healthiest person but he was only in his 50s.

My condolences. Hopefully that's the last one for you.

[BruceVC]

2 hours ago, ShadySands said:

Family friend died from COVID. First person I personally knew that died from it. Not the healthiest person but he was only in his 50s

We have had about 8 family friends die from Corona and all were 65+ years old

This insidious disease really is much more deadly with elderly people but can be fatal for anyone with underlying health problems 

[Achilles]

3 hours ago, BruceVC said:

We have had about 8 family friends die from Corona and all were 65+ years old

This insidious disease really is much more deadly with elderly people but can be fatal for anyone with underlying health problems 

Girlfriend and I have lost 3. One of them was 65+ but the other two were relatively young and healthy. Sadly, all were firmly anti-vax

My son got covid last year about this time. Luckily he recovered after about a week with no sign of "long-hauler", but he's in his early 20's

[BruceVC]

https://worldnewsera.com/news/uk/bleak-omicron-threat-data-suggests-variant-is-as-deadly-as-delta-new-study-finds/

Bad news, this new variant could be as deadly as Delta. The lower levels of mortality in SA could be for different reasons like the fact many people in SA  already had the virus from our last wave so they already had antibodies so getting Omicron would be less deadly?

[Keyrock]

What happens when we run out of Greek letters? I'm hoping for Sanskrit.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

9 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

What happens when we run out of Greek letters? I'm hoping for Sanskrit.

The way things are going we're going to need to invent some new alphabets.

[Gfted1]

Love it, working from home rocks and I hope it hangs around until I retire.

[Gromnir]

Trump to Candace Owens: “People aren’t dying when they take the vaccine”

it is 'course misleading to claim trump came up with the vaccines. the tech involved were original made possible by darpa and jasons initiatives and monies attempting to come up with a way to speed up time frames for successful vaccine creation specific as a means o' protecting US soldiers. the thing is, the tech existed pre trump and any number o' nations and private companies were moving to develop vaccines as soon as china finally released the genetic map for covid-19, which they admitted sat on longer than humane reasonable. 

that said, while the trump admin did undermine covid related social distancing and testing efforts, and were active promoting herd immunity in spite o' experts pointing out how such an approach were consigning many to unnecessary death, the admin did not impede the vaccine efforts which were already underway and the executive branch did indeed provide the funding required to realize the US vaccine development efforts. 

nevertheless, while am disappointed it has taken so long, we need applaud trump for correcting a frequent repeated bit o' nonsense uttered all too frequent by his base. good on trump for stating w/o equivocation that the vaccines work and save lives.  whole lotta qualifiers in our grudging compliment o' trump? yeah. woulda' been better to make the admission in january and february o' 2021 as 'posed to december, but am nevertheless genuine grateful for an early christmas gift from 45.

HA! Good Fun!

Edited December 23, 2021 by Gromnir