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OK, so I am vaxxed and boosted. And I am a healthy 72 year old female. I wear a KN95 mask in public places but, in general, life resumes and — other than no longer working out at the fitness center (requires masks) — life is pretty much back to my 2019 normal.
Now comes the Omicron with dangers I simply don’t understand as being different from the common cold or the flu.
I just read a Newsweek article stating the symptoms are similar and its important to get tested so you know to be quarantined to protect others. Wait…. Isn’t the common cold ALSO contagious? And the flu? Why is every new coronavirus strain treated as if its CV-19.
My understanding is that it spreads much faster than previous variants and because it's relatively early days, we just don't know yet the severity - and many haven't yet been boosted.
Merry Christmas and to answer your question, there is a difference between viruses. People don't normally die of the common cold although cold symptoms like a runny nose can be caused by many viruses some of which can be killers. With the flu the symptoms can be more severe and they can cause deaths in a small percentage of cases over all. The percentages of complications varies within the age groups. Obviously the young adults most of the time will have mild symptoms while they very young and old can have more problems in dealing with the flu because of altered immune status. One reason why older people get more cancers is because of our decreased immunity.
The common cold is contagious as is the flu. The problem here is that omicron, which is a variant of COVID-19, is much more contagious. It is one of most highly contagious bugs out there and much more so than previous strains of COVID and much more contagious than the flu. When we are talking about new coronavirus strains we are talking about strains of COVID-19. They are variations of COVID which means they have the propensity to kill. The obvious connection between transmissibility or how contagious a virus is has an impact on how many people it can kill. If the virus is not very contagious then that means only a few people will catch it and will limit the deaths because very few people will get the virus. As the virus becomes more contagious then that means more people will get infected and if more people get infected then the number of deaths will increase. The new variant of COVID-9, that we call omicron, is very highly contagious more so than the flu or common cold or even previous COVID-19 variants.
When people say that the omicron variant is equal to the common cold or the flu one needs to understand that it is being evaluated within a context of somebody who is vaccinated and boosted in order to protect against COVID. It is still a deadly virus in the unvaccinated and in the immune suppressed and in people in where the vaccine did not take. Because of its highly infectious nature the overall deaths are increased in terms of raw numbers even though the percentage of deaths might be lower or the same as previous variants. So 3% of one hundred people is 3 people while 2% of 1000 is 20 people. In one case you have a lower percentage but more people while in the other a higher percentage but lower over all number.
A more infectious agent can kill more people and because of that fact then mitigation efforts should still be maintained even though within any given individual the risk can vary. We need to look after those who are at high risk and not intentionally spread the virus to others.
Once the testing and treatment strategies are in place then we can carry on as we normally would.
OK, so I am vaxxed and boosted. And I am a healthy 72 year old female. I wear a KN95 mask in public places but, in general, life resumes and — other than no longer working out at the fitness center (requires masks) — life is pretty much back to my 2019 normal.
Now comes the Omicron with dangers I simply don’t understand as being different from the common cold or the flu.
I just read a Newsweek article stating the symptoms are similar and its important to get tested so you know to be quarantined to protect others. Wait…. Isn’t the common cold ALSO contagious? And the flu? Why is every new coronavirus strain treated as if its CV-19.
OK, so I am vaxxed and boosted. And I am a healthy 72 year old female. I wear a KN95 mask in public places but, in general, life resumes and — other than no longer working out at the fitness center (requires masks) — life is pretty much back to my 2019 normal.
Now comes the Omicron with dangers I simply don’t understand as being different from the common cold or the flu.
I just read a Newsweek article stating the symptoms are similar and its important to get tested so you know to be quarantined to protect others. Wait…. Isn’t the common cold ALSO contagious? And the flu? Why is every new coronavirus strain treated as if its CV-19.
What am I missing???
What's missing is that your "common cold" Covid, if transmitted to a person who has underlying conditions, can kill.
I see Medical Lab Guy got to it before I did and doubtless did a better job of 'splaining.
People don't die of the common cold, and there's the difference.
They may die of the flu, but at 1/10th or less the covid death numbers. They may die of the common cold if it morphs into something like pneumonia. Then they are dying of pneumonia, not the common cold.
Let's look at numbers of children hospitalized in NY where the numbers are the highest in the nation right now. Children haven't had time to get fully vaccinated with a booster, few have been vaccinated at all in the 5-11 group.
"Pediatric hospitalizations are up 395% in New York City since the week ending Dec. 11, jumping from 22 to 109 the week ending Dec. 23.
The state's trend is having a particularly disturbing impact on unvaccinated children -- even as the state touts a high vaccination rate among adults. Of the 5- to 11-year-old children admitted to New York City hospitals with COVID from the week of Dec. 5 until the current week, none were fully vaccinated."
Or...there's this guy, example of an adult who refused to be vaccinated, but while in hospital before his death stated that he would be getting the vaccination. Problem for him was that he never got that chance, and died instead. https://nypost.com/2021/12/23/unvacc...dies-of-covid/
“However, during his battle, when he was able to talk, John shared with his family that he will be getting vaccinated because the battle, at that point, was worse than any training he endured in the military,”
He was an ex marine, had a wife with 4th stage colon cancer. He refused to shut down his restaurant when ordered last year by the state. Lot of good all that stubborn refusal to get vaccinated did him, he's dead now.
Misinformation upon misinformation is posted above. You are disingenuously comparing the alleged mortality of the original Covid-19 with that of the common cold. What we SHOULD be comparing is the mortality of the Omicron variant, the one the OP is asking about, to that of the FLU.
I'd venture to say that flu causes many more fatalities than Omicron. Whether people were vaccinated or not, there simply has not been a deadly list of Omicron deaths. Why the panic then? The elites keep clinging to their newfound power over people's lives, plain and simple.
More information and facts you are not going to like, Strannik.
Coronavirus vs. Flu Deaths*
COVID-19: Current COVID-19 deaths*
Flu: The World Health Organization estimates that 290,000 to 650,000 people die of flu-related causes every year worldwide.
The COVID-19 situation continues to change, sometimes rapidly. Doctors and scientists are working to estimate the mortality rate of COVID-19. At present, it is thought to be substantially higher (possibly 10 times or more) than that of most strains of the flu.
NoMans Land’s post is a general response on all Covid; I am not asking about Covid-19. I understand the dangers. I am asking about the Omicron and how it is more a danger than the flu or the cold to all folks.
I get that getting sick for people whose health is fragile is life threatening. But is the Omicron strain any more dangerous for the medically fragile than the common cold or the flu?? Medical Lab Guy’s post indicates the Omicron is more contagious…. Something to research a bit more on my part.
OK, so I am vaxxed and boosted. And I am a healthy 72 year old female. I wear a KN95 mask in public places but, in general, life resumes and — other than no longer working out at the fitness center (requires masks) — life is pretty much back to my 2019 normal.
Now comes the Omicron with dangers I simply don’t understand as being different from the common cold or the flu.
I just read a Newsweek article stating the symptoms are similar and its important to get tested so you know to be quarantined to protect others. Wait…. Isn’t the common cold ALSO contagious? And the flu? Why is every new coronavirus strain treated as if its CV-19.
What am I missing???
Quote:
Originally Posted by Medical Lab Guy
When people say that the omicron variant is equal to the common cold or the flu one needs to understand that it is being evaluated within a context of somebody who is vaccinated and boosted in order to protect against COVID. It is still a deadly virus in the unvaccinated and in the immune suppressed and in people in where the vaccine did not take. Because of its highly infectious nature the overall deaths are increased in terms of raw numbers even though the percentage of deaths might be lower or the same as previous variants. So 3% of one hundred people is 3 people while 2% of 1000 is 20 people. In one case you have a lower percentage but more people while in the other a higher percentage but lower over all number.
What the people favoring lockdowns are missing is the impact on lives and society that the lockdowns have. I appreciate Medical Lab Guy's fulsome explanation. The obvious problem is that there is no effort to balance or evaluate risk.
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