Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Go discuss your health and healthcare choices and realities with your own set of healthcare professionals for information about infectious diseases, and avoid regurgitated internet chatter, no matter alleged well-intended.
It's not wise to get your own, very personal healthcare directives, guidance or "facts" from any
lay person or group on the internet.
Think! don't be a meshuggeneh.
Merry Christmas
Seems like you have a similar agenda to a famous person in Florida - squash information, hide the truth, and sweep all under the carpet.
University of Florida researchers pressured to destroy COVID-19 data, told not to criticize DeSantis: report
It's been proven in studies that patients who do their own research and are feisty with their doctors get better outcomes. Especially in Florida I would never trust my doctor's advice to be the holy grail without doing my own research. For example just look at the chief doctor in Florida - (the kooky semi-quack surgeon general Joseph Lapado).
In His New PSA, Florida Surgeon Touts Treatment With Little Track Record For Covid
This is a good example of why I don't like to rush to conclusions about Omicron too soon (see tweets below). Yesterday many experts on Twitter were claiming that Omicron had already peaked in South Africa. Turns out there was a data glitch.
As of now I'm thinking that previous infection (and or vaccines) will offer some protection against severe disease - but not much in the way of protection against transmission. That be being said I feel the UK chart of Omicron will turn out to be a better leading indicator (vs. the South African chart). South Africa has a younger population and a smaller % of people vaccinated for covid. The UK has turned out to be a pretty decent leading indicator for delta in the USA.
"This is a partial explanation for why South Africa had seeming reduced cases and positive rate in last few days and why today is a return to a more concerning trend."
"The NICD was informed in the previous week that information technology (IT) challenges had been experienced by public sector laboratories, which have resulted in reporting delays. "
The UK's coronavirus alert level has been raised from three to four due to the spread of Omicron, the UK's chief medical officers have said.
The last time the UK was at level four was in May.
On Sunday evening, the chief medical officers for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said they were recommending the alert level is raised from three to four - signifying that Covid is spreading fast.
Risks are measured by a five-level, colour-coded system - level four means a high or rising level of transmission.
In their statement, the chief medical officers said early evidence shows the Omicron variant is spreading much faster than Delta - and that vaccine protection against symptomatic disease from Omicron is reduced.
Data on severity will become clearer over the coming weeks but hospitalisations from Omicron are already occurring and these are likely to increase rapidly.
"The NHS is currently under pressure mainly driven by non-Covid pressures. With a variant spreading with increased transmissibility and reduced vaccine effectiveness, we are likely to see this pressure rise soon."
[quote=wondermint2;62489959]Seems like you have a similar agenda to a famous person in Florida - squash information, hide the truth, and sweep all under the carpet.
University of Florida researchers pressured to destroy COVID-19 data, told not to criticize DeSantis: report
Partygoers should take a rapid test to check for COVID-19 closer to the start of an event, experts have said in response to the spread of the Omicron variant.
People who catch the new Omicron variant become infectious much quicker than those with Delta, early data from the UK indicates.
Michael Mina, former assistant professor in immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard School of Public Health, said on Twitter Sunday that testing one or two days before an event "doesn't work".
"It doesn't matter the type of test, the most important thing is to test just before the event of participation," he said. You can go from "undetectable" to a "very high" number of virus particles, called a viral load, in 24 hours, he said.
Tim Spector, professor in genetic epidemiology at King's College London, said that the "transmission time" for Omicron was very short. People should take a rapid test "a few hours before leaving the house," he told the Guardian Sunday, adding that people should wear a "high quality mask" if using crowded public transport to travel to an event.
Spector, who runs the Zoe COVID-19 symptom tracker app with 4.5 million users worldwide, said on Twitter Thursday that self-reported data from the app suggested the infection time was around 48 hours. Ideally rapid tests should be taken less than 12 hours before an event, he said.
well we have one person posting scientific data and a bunch of people shouting, that's all I see. If you do not agree maybe you should start another thread and keep this one readable for those who care?
In the interest of posting scientific data, here is a just released study from the University of Oxford. It is not yet peer reviewed.
The study suggests that a lower level of antibodies against the Omicron virus variant is triggered by COVID-19 vaccines.
Using blood samples from people who received two doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine or the Pfizer-BioNTech, researchers with the University of Oxford found “a substantial fall” in neutralizing antibodies, with evidence of some people failing to have any.
“This will likely lead to increased breakthrough infections in previously infected or double vaccinated individuals, which could drive a further wave of infection,” the authors wrote.
What I have not read, but is logically "interesting," is the possibility that a third shot is necessary for those who have had only two shots because just two is more harmful than having no shots. The study itself notes the possibility that the third shot can remedy the problem caused by the first two. They state they are actually testing this in studies now. How perverse would it be if those who did not get vaccinated are actually safer than those that did two shots.
Last edited by Trying941; 12-13-2021 at 06:24 PM..
Pfizer's updated results for its experimental treatment for Covid-19 showed it cut the risk of hospitalization or death by 89% if given to high-risk adults within a few days of their first symptoms, the company announced in a news release Tuesday.
Pfizer hopes it can eventually offer the pills, under the name Paxlovid, for people to take at home before they get sick enough to go to the hospital. Paxlovid combines a new antiviral drug named nirmatrelvir and an older one called ritonavir.
After a month of follow-up, the study found five hospitalizations and no deaths among 697 people who received the drug within the first three days of symptoms. Among 682 who received placebo, 44 were hospitalized, including 9 who died. All of the adults in this study were unvaccinated.
If given within the first five days of symptoms, the efficacy was similar: 88%. These results hold up against a similar announcement from the company last month, when not all the data had come in yet.
The research also showed "an approximate 10-fold decrease in viral load at Day 5, relative to placebo," the statement said.
The company says it expects the drug to retain activity against variants like Omicron -- and it appears to do so in lab tests -- because the drug blocks an enzyme involved in viral replication. This is different from the spike protein on the virus' surface, whose numerous mutations have escalated the global concern around the variant.
The bottom line is that thus far Omicron outcomes appear to be less severe than delta - likely due to some prior immunity (from either covid infection or vaccination). However there is no definitive evidence that Omicron is inherently milder than delta. The reduction in severe cases is likely do to some form of prior immunity.
However it's also very apparent that Omicron is going to be a much bigger problem overall than a common cold. The transmission is so much faster than delta - that even when a smaller % of cases cause severe disease (compared to delta) - there will be a large increase in overall cases - resulting in a troublesome amount of hospitalizations. A smaller piece of pie taken from a very large pie still equals a lot of pie.
The study mentioned in the Washington Post article that I linked to below contained the first estimate that I've seen for vaccine protection against hospitalization with Omicron. Which they think is around 70%. I believe this is with 2 doses of Pfizer. For comparison 2 doses of Pfizer offer more than 90% protection against severe disease with delta.
82% increase in cases, week over week.
34.9% positive rate.
Record 7-day average.
Not near plateau.
Even with milder disease (irrespective of cause), this will lead to more hospitalizations and deaths."
"BREAKING: Hospitalizations South Africa
Hospitalizations up 82% week over week
Gauteng Province Up 65%
GP up 11% from yesterday
ICU up 14 from yesterday.
"this suggests that Omicron is a great concern, but also not as bad as prior waves (likely MOSTLY due to acquired immunity)."
Omicron appears to cause less severe illness than earlier variants of the coronavirus but is more resistant to the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine widely used in South Africa, according to the first major private study since omicron was first detected last month.
The study by Discovery Health, South Africa’s largest health insurer, of 211,000 positive coronavirus cases, of which 78,000 were attributed to omicron, showed that risk of hospital admissions among adults who contracted covid-19 was 29 percent lower than in the initial pandemic wave that emerged in March 2020.
However, the study, released Tuesday, found that the vaccine from U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German partner BioNTech provided just 33 percent protection against infection (2 doses), much less than the level for other variants detected in the country.
At the same time, the vaccine may offer 70 percent protection against being hospitalized with omicron, the study found, describing that level of protection as “very good.”
The protection was maintained across all age groups, Ryan Noach, Discovery Health’s chief executive, told a news briefing. He said the disease may be less severe in South Africa because more than 70 percent of the population had already been exposed to the coronavirus.
He cautioned, however, that it was still in the early days and hospital admissions could rise sharply as the variant evolves.
Last edited by wondermint2; 12-14-2021 at 11:33 AM..
Pfizer has admitted that it takes three doses of their vaccine to neutralize the Omicron variant. "Sera obtained from vaccinees one month after receiving the booster vaccination (third dose of BNT162b2 vaccine) neutralized the Omicron variant to levels that are comparable to those observed for the wild-type SARS-CoV-2 spike protein after two doses."
Two shots are only 1/25 as effective against Omicron as it was against Delta. But, the good news is that two shots may prevent serious disease. "Sera from individuals who received two doses of the current COVID-19 vaccine did exhibit, on average, more than a 25-fold reduction in neutralization titers against the Omicron variant compared to wild-type, indicating that two doses of BNT162b2 may not be sufficient to protect against infection with the Omicron variant. However, as the vast majority of epitopes targeted by vaccine-induced T cells are not affected by the mutations in Omicron, the companies believe that vaccinated individuals may still be protected against severe forms of the disease and are closely monitoring real world effectiveness against Omicron, globally."
What was not disclosed is testing that was done, if any, by a control group what received either no doses or one dose of the vaccine. It would be interesting to see if that data confirms a non-peer reviewed study that suggested two doses may actually be worse against Omicron than no doses. Of course, if Omicron proves to be nothing worse than a bad flu, none of this matters.
I took a look at what is currently going on in Florida. Cases are rising but not exponentially (yet). Hospitalizations are also rising but at a slower rate. Hospitalizations lag cases by about 2 weeks so its still too soon to get a firm handle on how all this will ultimately play out.
Also according to CDC data the current FL covid hospitalizations are all delta. Although it's hard to be certain because Florida only sequences about 1% of cases. And already Omicron is detected in Orange County and Altamonte Springs wastewater.
"CDC reporting 3,067 new cases today, highest since early October. 30% week over week growth in 7-day rate. "
(For perspective at the peak of the delta wave FL was seeing a bit over 21,000 cases per day. But no indications that this new wave up is anywhere near a peak yet).
Florida hospital admissions today at 1411 (about 10% off of the low for the big wave down). But way below the peak of the delta wave which was around 17,000.
COVID-19 Patient Update :
Includes hospitalized patients who are positive for COVID-19 and those cleared of infection but still hospitalized at SMH facilities.
Total COVID inpatients today: 25 (22 yesterday) (19 on Friday)
COVID patients in ICU: 3 (2 yesterday)
% Unvaccinated Inpatients: 76% (updated weekly on Wednesdays)
COVID-19 Test Results
SMH positivity rate: 1.9% (2% for week ending Dec. 10, 2021)
Cumulative COVID-19 Cases
Total number of patients treated since outbreak began.
Patient admissions: 4,764 (4,760 yesterday)
Patient deaths: 529 (no change from yesterday)
Last edited by wondermint2; 12-14-2021 at 01:59 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
