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+--- Thread: Omicron - the latest Covid “variant of concern” (/thread-11339.html)
Omicron - the latest Covid “variant of concern” - Leigha - Nov 26, 2021
As an aside, there is concern that knee-jerk reactions that set us back to partial flight bans and lockdowns, will curb countries from sharing early data about variants.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/b11529-covid-strain-found-in-south-africa-botswana-hong-kong-and-scientists-raise-alarm
RE: Omicron - the latest Covid “variant of concern” - Magical Realist - Nov 26, 2021
Gawd! Is this our future in a nutshell--new Covid variants arising every year requiring more sequestering and vaccines? The world is more like a village now than a planet. What happens in one place quickly spreads over the whole. We can no long afford to ignore our neighbors.
RE: Omicron - the latest Covid “variant of concern” - Leigha - Nov 26, 2021
(Nov 26, 2021 09:01 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: Gawd! Is this our future in a nutshell--new Covid variants arising every year requiring more sequestering and vaccines? The world is more like village now than a planet. What happens in one place quickly spreads over the whole.
I know, so true. It is being discussed that this variant may have a higher chance of reinfection but I guess we’ll know more by next week.
RE: Omicron - the latest Covid “variant of concern” - Zinjanthropos - Nov 27, 2021
Smallpox, polio, measles and all those bad viruses that haven’t been eradicated still evolve and become variants. I don’t like it but I accept it, knowing it could be much worse for all of us without the vaccinations.
RE: Omicron - the latest Covid “variant of concern” - billvon - Nov 27, 2021
(Nov 26, 2021 07:49 PM)Leigha Wrote: Omicron - the latest Covid “variant of concern”
The reason they are concerned is that there are a lot of mutations in the spike protein this time around - and that's the antigen that most of the vaccines target. Thus new Omicron infections may be "invisible" to the immunity created by the vaccine.
RE: Omicron - the latest Covid “variant of concern” - Syne - Nov 27, 2021
(Nov 27, 2021 07:04 PM)billvon Wrote:(Nov 26, 2021 07:49 PM)Leigha Wrote: Omicron - the latest Covid “variant of concern”
The reason they are concerned is that there are a lot of mutations in the spike protein this time around - and that's the antigen that most of the vaccines target. Thus new Omicron infections may be "invisible" to the immunity created by the vaccine.
Which only demonstrates the hubris in thinking you can significantly eradicate a flu-like virus with vaccines. At best, vaccines are likely to only slow the spread, alleviating some pressure on the healthcare capacity, but so far, everywhere eventually gets hit just as bad, no matter the preventative measures taken.
Until we know how deadly a variant is, there's no reason to panic.
RE: Omicron - the latest Covid “variant of concern” - Yazata - Nov 28, 2021
Covid is a coronavirus closely related to the common cold coronaviruses. One reason why we don't have common cold vaccinations is that these viruses are always mutating and throwing out new variants.
It seems that our current covid vaccines stimulate production of antibodies to particular proteins on the viruses' protein shell. Which would be fine if the viruses weren't continually mutating and wrapping themselves in slightly different protein shells that a person's vaccine-hightened immune response might not recognize.
But there are other ways of attacking covid. Drugs are being developed that interfere with replication of these rna viruses inside cells. Merck's covid treatment pill is the first of these to reach market. But they aren't vaccines, they are treatments for those who contract the disease that lessen its severity. But they are hard to manufacture and difficult to scale up to hundreds of millions of doses. Seeing as how covid is typically a relatively minor disease in healthy younger people, my thought is that these new anti-covid antivirals be reserved for the elderly and for those with preexisting conditions, for whom covid can be deadlier.
The drawing below (from wikipedia commons) shows a covid virus. The blue ball is its protein shell, and the outward growths are the 'spike' proteins that trick receptors on human cell walls into engulfing the virus and admitting it into the cell. So a new mutation has to be different enough that the immune system won't recognize and attack it as the vaccine trained it to do, while remaining similar enough that the cell is still tricked and lets it in. I guess that many mutations fail to thread their way between that Scylla and Charybdis, but these mutations are happening all the time and a few manage to succeed.
![[Image: 220px-Coronavirus._SARS-CoV-2.png]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Coronavirus._SARS-CoV-2.png/220px-Coronavirus._SARS-CoV-2.png)
RE: Omicron - the latest Covid “variant of concern” - Yazata - Nov 28, 2021
Here's something interesting from the South African doctor that alerted the world that something new was appearing in that country. She is a board member of the South African Medical Association.
"It presents mild disease with symptoms being sore muscles and tiredness for a day or two not feeling well... So far, we have detected that those infected do not suffer the loss of taste or smell. They might have a slight cough. There are no prominent symptoms."
She originally noted that about two dozen of her patients displayed these mild symptoms and then tested positive for covid. About half were vaccinated and half weren't. They were a range of ages and ethnicities. So she alerted her colleagues of the new observations on november 18 and it was identified as a new covid variant that the World Health Organization has named "Omicron". They are going down the Greek alphabet, but skipped Xi for what are probably obvious reasons.
Dr. Coetzee worries that if older patients who are unvaccinated start to get this new variant, it might present as a more serious disease. But so far, South African hospitals aren't overburdened.
So all in all, it looks like a more mild version of the disease that won't be any worse in most patients than the seasonal flu. (Or the reaction that many people like me suffered after being vaccinated for that matter.) But like the flu, it might be more dangerous in elderly patients who already have pre-existing comorbidities.
https://www.foxnews.com/health/south-african-doctor-omicron-variant-symptoms-unusual-mild
If this information is accurate, I worry that over-aggressive and ham-handed government responses to the new variant might end up doing more harm than the disease itself. (Almost like an immune system overreaction.)
RE: Omicron - the latest Covid “variant of concern” - Syne - Nov 28, 2021
(Nov 28, 2021 03:19 AM)Yazata Wrote: So she alerted her colleagues of the new observations on november 18 and it was identified as a new covid variant that the World Health Organization has named "Omicron". They are going down the Greek alphabet, but skipped Xi for what are probably obvious reasons.
WHO pandering to China? Considering they've carried China's water since the beginning, why should that change now? I mean, it's not like the WHO is capable of learning from their mistakes.
RE: Omicron - the latest Covid “variant of concern” - Leigha - Nov 28, 2021
(Nov 27, 2021 07:04 PM)billvon Wrote:Yea, just sharing some of the global opinions I’ve been reading. I’m all for erring on the side of caution, but not reacting in a way that causes widespread panic and lockdowns if the vast majority of otherwise healthy people come down with mild symptoms.(Nov 26, 2021 07:49 PM)Leigha Wrote: Omicron - the latest Covid “variant of concern”
The reason they are concerned is that there are a lot of mutations in the spike protein this time around - and that's the antigen that most of the vaccines target. Thus new Omicron infections may be "invisible" to the immunity created by the vaccine.
The world is a small place indeed - a few of my coworkers are working on a project in Africa and I’m assuming with the recent flight restrictions, they won’t be able to return to the states anytime soon.
I think that Africa did the right thing by reporting the new variant cases - but they’re feeling “punished.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-59442129