Thread: Covid Mk ll

this was interesting as it seem very unlikley the new version is going to be stopped


"The heavily mutated new coronavirus variant was in Europe several days earlier than previously known, health officials said Tuesday, and the number of countries where it has been found increased to at least 20, raising questions about whether the pandemic is about to surge once again.

The Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment said that samples taken on Nov. 19 and Nov. 23 — before the Nov. 24 announcement of Omicron’s existence — tested positive for the variant. Health officials have notified the two infected people and are doing contact tracing to try to limit the spread."

the travel shut down to Southern Africa are possibly slowing it a bit yet the cases are spreading. One nice yet unproven item is if it is the evolution to replace delta it just might be not going to kill every one

No proof on any of those thoughts. I wonder what the NSW wild cases will be in the morning? 11 days until Melbourne Marathon. Hope its both a Delta replacement and a bit of a fizzer

Sadly it may go either way of course

"link

Covid-19 hospitalizations are rising rapidly in a populous South African province where the new omicron variant of the coronavirus has been detected.
Hospitalizations across the country have increased by 63 percent since the beginning of the month, according to data from the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases. In Gauteng, a province that includes the country’s largest city, Johannesburg, hospitalizations are up by nearly 400 percent since the beginning of the month, from 120 for the week ending Nov. 6 to 580 for the week ending Saturday.
The South Africa diseases institute, part of the group of researchers and government institutions that first reported the variant to the World Health Organization, said in a statement that omicron cases were found in Gauteng at “a relatively high frequency.”
In a statement Sunday, the WHO cautioned against drawing conclusions about a link between the omicron variant and the increase in hospitalizations.

"

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

"The heavily mutated new coronavirus variant was in Europe several days earlier than previously known, health officials said Tuesday, and the number of countries where it has been found increased to at least 20, raising questions about whether the pandemic is about to surge once again.
"

...Omi.jpg

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

this was interesting as it seem very unlikley the new version is going to be stopped


"The heavily mutated new coronavirus variant was in Europe several days earlier than previously known, health officials said Tuesday, and the number of countries where it has been found increased to at least 20, raising questions about whether the pandemic is about to surge once again.

The Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment said that samples taken on Nov. 19 and Nov. 23 — before the Nov. 24 announcement of Omicron’s existence — tested positive for the variant. Health officials have notified the two infected people and are doing contact tracing to try to limit the spread."

the travel shut down to Southern Africa are possibly slowing it a bit yet the cases are spreading. One nice yet unproven item is if it is the evolution to replace delta it just might be not going to kill every one

No proof on any of those thoughts. I wonder what the NSW wild cases will be in the morning? 11 days until Melbourne Marathon. Hope its both a Delta replacement and a bit of a fizzer

Sadly it may go either way of course

"link

Covid-19 hospitalizations are rising rapidly in a populous South African province where the new omicron variant of the coronavirus has been detected.
Hospitalizations across the country have increased by 63 percent since the beginning of the month, according to data from the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases. In Gauteng, a province that includes the country’s largest city, Johannesburg, hospitalizations are up by nearly 400 percent since the beginning of the month, from 120 for the week ending Nov. 6 to 580 for the week ending Saturday.
The South Africa diseases institute, part of the group of researchers and government institutions that first reported the variant to the World Health Organization, said in a statement that omicron cases were found in Gauteng at “a relatively high frequency.”
In a statement Sunday, the WHO cautioned against drawing conclusions about a link between the omicron variant and the increase in hospitalizations.

"

This is the German news outlet DW's article on " how dangerous is the Omicron variant". I find DW to be to the point and not prone to sensationalism , unlike some other news outlets.

COVID: How dangerous is the omicron variant? | Science | In-depth reporting on science and technology | DW | 01.12.2021

The first Omicron case has been found in the US, in California. Despite the US imposed travel ban on African countries. The case has mild symptoms, the person was double vaccinated. From the NYT;

The First Omicron Case Has Been Detected in California - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Originally Posted by Saitch

...Omi.jpg

I believe the saying is " It will come back to bite you on the arse, not bite you on the nads."

Maybe Sash knows the dog, Surname is "BityerKockoff"

3-4 weeks! OMG I hate waiting

"Those who have already had other variants of coronavirus do not appear to be protected against Omicron but vaccines are still believed to protect against severe disease, according to top scientists from the global health body and South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).


"Previous infection used to protect against Delta but now with Omicron that doesn't seem to be the case," said Anne von Gottberg, microbiologist at NICD.


The full picture in South Africa will not become clear until "people get so sick that they need to go to hospital" which is generally "three, four weeks later," says Prof Salim Abdool Karim of the Africa Task Force for Coronavirus.




The WHO has categorised it as a "variant of concern", and says early evidence suggests it has a higher re-infection risk.
"

The re-infections is for the UNVAXED usually 9 days to Melb Marathon seem safe

The main problem with assessing this variant is that so far most of the data comes from southern Africa - which has a very different distribution of ages, proportion vaccinated, and proportion immunocompromised (HIV epidemic), which casts a lot of doubt on whether the data from there is applicable here.

Vaccine coverage in Australia is nearly 74% (total population), in Africa as a whole, it is under 10%, probably not into double digits in southern Africa, and the median age is probably between one and two decades younger there than here.

In a few weeks we should have some figures from European countries that are more comparable to here.

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

3-4 weeks! OMG I hate waiting

"Those who have already had other variants of coronavirus do not appear to be protected against Omicron but vaccines are still believed to protect against severe disease, according to top scientists from the global health body and South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).


"Previous infection used to protect against Delta but now with Omicron that doesn't seem to be the case," said Anne von Gottberg, microbiologist at NICD.


The full picture in South Africa will not become clear until "people get so sick that they need to go to hospital" which is generally "three, four weeks later," says Prof Salim Abdool Karim of the Africa Task Force for Coronavirus.




The WHO has categorised it as a "variant of concern", and says early evidence suggests it has a higher re-infection risk.
"

The re-infections is for the UNVAXED usually 9 days to Melb Marathon seem safe

If you do pull up poorly, you could finish it in a Wheelbarrow. But you'll be jake, James I know about these things.


BTW, I just got a date for my booster, last day of 2021. 10:15am I wonder whether I will last the distance?