What do you make of "Omicron" (COVID Variant B.1.1.529)? Big deal? No big deal?

Discussion in 'Opinion POLLS' started by Pollycy, Nov 28, 2021.

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Based on what we've been told so far, what do you make of the "Omicron" variant?

Poll closed Dec 12, 2021.
  1. Omicron is a significant new threat because it can be spread much more easily.

    12.1%
  2. Omicron is just another variant that the world will 'get used to'. A new jab is already underway.

    21.2%
  3. Omicron is actually less lethal than Delta and other COVID variants...?!

    27.3%
  4. Omicron actually inflicts milder symptoms on the infected.

    45.5%
  5. Omicron could 'join' with Ebola, or a 'flesh-eating' virus and make a devastating new hybrid.

    3.0%
  6. Omicron is mainly a new scare tactic 'insiders' are using to control public behavior and spending.

    42.4%
  7. Omicron will be used to enact new rounds of welfare, central bank "easing" & other manipulation.

    27.3%
  8. Omicron will cause me to go back into near-total isolation.

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  9. Omicron will not affect me at all, unless the gov't. forces "measures" on the population.

    48.5%
Multiple votes are allowed.
  1. Pollycy

    Pollycy Well-Known Member

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    What do you make of "Omicron" (COVID Variant B.1.1.529)? Big deal? No big deal?

    Admittedly, almost none of us even heard of this variant until last Friday, and now news of it has 'gripped-the-planet'. :cynic:. :eyepopping: .

    What's your first impression of this, based on what we're being told...?

    You may vote for as many options as you wish, but you may not change your votes. Votes will displayed publicly, but you must vote in order to see results. Poll will close in 14 days, because by then the whole information landscape will probably have changed significantly.

    Have fun!
     
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  2. Pollycy

    Pollycy Well-Known Member

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    Me? I'm not (NOT) an "anti-vaxxer"... I've had both Pfizer shots and the 'booster', on the day I became eligible for it.

    Still, I'm not ready to go to 'battle-stations' over Omicron just yet, and, so far, the indication is that it doesn't seem to be worse on your body than a bad cold, or a fairly normal bout of the 'flu' (remember it?).

    What's always concerned me is that a hybrid COVID variant would emerge from some third-world shithole that would be a 'marble-cake' mixture of a highly-transmissible virus with a really horrible virus like Ebola or a "flesh-eater". Note: currently, it is thought that "flesh-eaters" are actually bacterial infections -- not viruses, per se.

    But, if, as many believe, the original COVID was cooked up in the Wuhan laboratory, who knows what it could do, or, turn into?

    [​IMG]. "Think you know me...? SURPRISE!" 8)
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2021
  3. Big Richard

    Big Richard Banned

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    Yawnnnnn! Just the latest in the soon to be long line of covid crisis that will hit the world. Each one will be “far worse” than the previous.
    Get used to it folks, like the flue shot, I suspect a yearly shot will be recommended for the next _____ years.

    PS: three shots of the Moderna juice in my arm.
     
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  4. Chrizton

    Chrizton Well-Known Member

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    I don't know yet. Not sure we have a lot of data on it. I know my stocks didn't react well at all to the news LOL.
     
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  5. dairyair

    dairyair Well-Known Member

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    too early to tell
    But if like other bad variants so far, more spreadable and less deadly?
     
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  6. Pollycy

    Pollycy Well-Known Member

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    [​IMG]. "WHAT?! I gotta take yet ANOTHER fugging shot...?!" 8) -- "We have ways...."
     
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  7. Pollycy

    Pollycy Well-Known Member

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    Hey... the 'smart' money says 'BUY THE DIP'! :banana:

    Consider: Ever since August 2007, the Federal Reserve central bank always moves heaven, earth, and everything in-between to make very damned sure that the precious, almighty-god STOCK MARKET will be well taken care of! You got nothin' to worry about! :woot:

    Disclaimer: I did pretty well in the stock market -- mostly by playing stock options, and otherwise staying the hell away from it.... But by doing that, I missed out on all the money to be made while the Fed inflated its gigantic 'fraud-balloon'!
     
  8. Chrizton

    Chrizton Well-Known Member

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    I would buy more but I am skint until pay day without dipping into my savings which I am trying real hard not to do. I am changing my strategy some from the past. Instead of in and outs as quickly as possible, I am buying more long haul dividend stocks. I certainly still wish I had all those in and outs I bought early in 2020 today. Some of them have gone through the roof.

    I haven't even looked at my 401K. It is mostly in global funds so it doesn't necessarily rise and fall in synch with the US indices.
     
  9. Pants

    Pants Well-Known Member

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    We don't know enough yet, so no panic on my part. But I do know we didn't take covid seriously in the beginning either, and we're still dealing with it. I have travel planned for Dec/Jan and I'm already preparing myself for the possibility of it being cancelled.
     
  10. joesnagg

    joesnagg Banned

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    On another thread I jokingly said Biden would confiscate insulin pumps and turn them into vaccine pumps to give a daily dose, NOW I believe it was prophetic, invest in companies that produce them (you KNOW it's coming). ;)
     
  11. Canell

    Canell Well-Known Member

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    Omicron is serious. Unlike all previous Covids. Get prepared.
     
  12. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I voted

    "Omicron is just another variant that the world will 'get used to'. A new jab is already underway."

    but I do not know if the current vaccine still works against this variant, if it's more contagious or deadly or anything about it really

    just could not view the votes without voting
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2021
  13. Pollycy

    Pollycy Well-Known Member

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    My view is that this Omicron variation may have a far larger impact on the stock market for a couple of weeks because of the way it is likely to impact an already troubled "Holiday" shopping season, which a lot of businesses still anticipate will be a large part of their annual net profits.

    But, riding to the rescue at its December meeting, will be the Federal Reserve central bank, which will probably decide to blow off for even longer the much-delayed "taper". For years now, the Fed has pumped trillions of imaginary, new dollars all over the world at zero-percent interest, and bought "bonds". The result is a balance sheet that is swollen like a diseased patient with ELEPHANTIASIS. But don't worry -- like I said, since 2007 the Fed has 'rescued' the stock market even though that has meant breaking all the fundamental laws of a free-market economy. Suggestion -- "BUY THE DIP"... because the Fed will save stock market gamblers no matter what!

    Also, riding to the rescue will be the Democrat majority in Congress, with their upcoming mammoth $1,750,000,000,000 welfare bill, which will be passed using the "reconciliation" tool that McConnell handed them on a silver platter last month! And, because 2022 is an election year, the 'talk' is already in the air that in January, Democrats will whine that the Omicron variant is just so HORRIBLE that the government needs to send out even more checks to everybody for a FOURTH round of free money. Link: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fourth-stimulus-check-update-2021-11-26/ After all, nothing is more popular with Americans today than unlimited amounts of 'free stuff'!

    Speculation is that it would be for another $1400 per person, probably with more 'slosh' added on a per-child basis. Makes you start to think that if there had been no "Omicron variant", the Democrats would have been smart to have INVENTED one.... :bounce:
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2021
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  14. edna kawabata

    edna kawabata Well-Known Member

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    Have they called it the "African Variant" on Fox yet?
     
  15. Zorro

    Zorro Well-Known Member

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    White Smoke Emanates From Wuhan Lab Chimney Signaling A New Variant Has Been Named.

    [​IMG]
    That will get you disappeared.
    Done! Until the next one!
     
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  16. Pro_Line_FL

    Pro_Line_FL Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Looks like it turned out to be more contagious, but milder form. That being the case it might help people acquire natural immunity without getting sick. In the other hand the reports of "mild" come from Africa where there are far less old people who are typically more vulnerable to it. The travel ban from Sothern African countries is probably a reasonable precaution.

    Good. People can be concerned, but no need to panic and go over board (be the concern about the virus, or conspiracy theories). There is no need to stock up on canned food, guns and ammo. On the contrary, it might present opportunities in the stock market, especially of the new variants turns out to be as mild as many doctors suggest.
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2021
  17. HonestJoe

    HonestJoe Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Unfortunately none of your options really apply to me. It's a legitimate variant of concern but we don't know everything that needs to be know about it so it makes sense to take measured protective steps until the work to understand the details has been done and a longer-term approach to it can be worked out. So basically, pretty much what seems to be actually happening.

    That's only based on a few early anecdotal impressions. It's certainly a positive sign but needs more formal study to be entirely confident.

    Hopefully you'll be glad to hear that B-movie style fantasy isn't going to happen. That isn't how viruses work.
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2021
  18. Pollycy

    Pollycy Well-Known Member

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    Right now, of course, there's a lot of FROTH in the discussion, but when the 'air bubbles' start to disappear and facts emerge, we will probably acknowledge that, yes, here's another virus that can will make you sick, and it is quite contagious. "Nothing to see here, move along... move along"...? :confusion:

    BUT -- what we really need to know is how bad is it?! Is it going to continue to put more people in the hospitals? What additional impact will that have on many hospital systems that are already "sagging at the seams", with little or no room left for anything but COVID-related illness? Will Omicron infect people who have already been vaxxed and 'boostered'...? Is a person more susceptible to getting Omicron (specifically) if he has had no COVID vaccination at all?

    The economic angle is 'joined-at-the-hip'! If there's a large increase in hospitalizations (not necessarily culminating in fatalities), will there be more total lockdowns? Partial lockdowns? How bad would it have to be before those would be enacted? Full-to-overflowing morgues like we had when COVID got started in 2020? What effect would any of this have on the almighty-god STOCK MARKET, and what would its 'guardian angel', the Federal Reserve central bank, do about it saving it yet again...?

    The Fed's been a "one-trick pony", which simply prints imaginary money, floods the planet with it at zero-percent interest, and buys "bonds". If we go into 2022 with big Omicron-related 'baggage', will this 'pony's' one-trick be enough to forestall another big recession? But wouldn't that 'one-trick' simply extend a period of even worse inflation?! And wouldn't all that create a 'perfect storm' in an election year making it inevitable that this Democrat-dominated government's knee-jerk reaction would be to send out another round (or two) of "rescue" (welfare) checks? Those of you old enough to remember the 1970's -- imagine 'STAGFLATION' ON A SHOVELFUL OF STEROIDS! :icon_jawdrop:
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2021
  19. Pro_Line_FL

    Pro_Line_FL Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Stock futures are up quite a bit, so maybe people are relieved to hear the new variant is not that serious.

    Poll options 3 and 4 are pretty much the same, but putting them together it seems people know it is not that bad.
     
  20. Pollycy

    Pollycy Well-Known Member

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    This whole damned COVID saga has been very much like a series of B-movies, Joe! And while I'm not a virologist, like many people, I've gained at least a 'pedestrian' acquaintance with "how viruses work". There are thousands of variants of the original COVID-19 virus today, and as we have seen just since last Friday, new ones can simply jump up out of nowhere at any moment!

    Still, even discounting the 'elephant-in-the-room' likelihood that COVID was originally 'cooked-up' in that laboratory in Wuhan, China, how do you account for the development and dissemination of this virus and its mutations, given that you seem to know "how viruses work"...?

    And, armed with your knowledge, can you state conclusively that an eventual creation and release of a new, SUPER-variant is unlikely?

    You may be right! But before I'd put my own unimportant, unprofessional "nilhil obstat" on it, I'd like to hear what @CenterField thinks about whether a SUPER-variant of this virus is possible, or it's all just a "B-movie" fantasy....
     
  21. HonestJoe

    HonestJoe Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Only if you filmed the spin and rhetoric. The reality for most people, even those directly effected, has been fairly boring.

    The don't "jump of of nowhere", there is just inevitably going to be a fixed point in time where a particular variant is first definitively identified and reported. Mutations and variations in viruses occur pretty much constantly, especially with viruses that are passing between lots of surviving hosts. There have been several identified variants, many not widely reported because they weren't significant and there will likely have been loads of other variants that haven't been identified because they're not significantly different or died out as quickly as they developed. It's essentially evolution, just with much quicker life-cycles than most animal species.

    I don't think we can let that go. If you're discounting it, just don't mention it. Sneaking in a backhanded accusation like that isn't very helpful or constructive.

    "Creation and release", yes, I find that highly unlikely for all sorts of practical reasons. As far as natural evolution of the virus, it rather depends on what you mean by super. Viruses tend to develop to be more infectious or more virulent so while it is perfectly possible that a generally more dangerous variant of COVID could develop (which is why we have variants of concern which are quickly and carefully looked in to), it isn't currently the most likely direction it will go in.

    The B-movie quip was mainly related to your idea about COVID somehow combining with Ebola or something "flesh-eating" (on the basis of nothing other than those being the scariest sounding things you thought of at the time). As I said, a more serious variant of COIVD is possible, but the grossly-exaggerated rhetoric isn't either necessary nor helpful.
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2021
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  22. rkhames

    rkhames Well-Known Member

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    According to the doctor that first noticed this variant, many of those diagnosed with it are being treated at home. I have yet to see any report that shows anyone infected with it as being in ICU or on a respirator. If that is not the case, then we do not need to worry about overwhelming the hospitals. In one case that Dr Angelique Coetzee identified was of a six-year-old was running a fever and had a high pulse rate. She was thinking about hospitalizing the child, but two days later, she was better.

    I do not think this is any real threat to humans. But I expect the WHO, NIH and CDC to use the existence of the Omicron variant to stay relevant, and the Biden Administration to push for greater control of the US population.
     
  23. Pollycy

    Pollycy Well-Known Member

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    In general, I agree... and so, it seems, does Wall Street: https://www.financial-world.org/new...rkets-stabilizing-as-omicron-worries-subside/

    A top scientist in Russia agrees that this whole 'Omicron' thing is overblown: https://www.rt.com/russia/541649-agranovsky-omicron-danger-overreaction/

    Those who "bought-the-dip" will be celebrating this evening! :woot: . Let's just hope that it's not premature....
     
  24. CenterField

    CenterField Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    @Pollycy You don't need to fear that the SARS-CoV-2 or any other coronavirus will merge with the Ebola virus, a vastly different virus from the Filoviridae family (they are filament-shaped, thus the name). Viruses do not merge with others from vastly different families. And the flesh eating part, is generally caused by bacteria, not by viruses.

    This whole idea of the virus being generated in labs and its variants also manipulated and released, is frankly very far-fetched, and belongs in the Conspiracy Theories subforum.

    Similarly, attempts to say that Omicron is a Democratic Party plot are ridiculous. It's been found in 7 countries in Africa, plus Belgium, Italy, Australia, Czech Republic, Germany, etc., and there is no US Democratic Party there. I'm sick and tired of the over-politicizing of the SARS-CoV-2. The virus couldn't care less for American political parties, and it is a global issue, as in the prefix pan in pandemic. Let's stop this silliness, please.

    What is happening with the coronavirus is what happens to viruses: it is spontaneously developing mutations. Hundreds of thousands of mutations. Most of them fizzle as they do not confer an evolutionary advantage. The ones that do, may thrive and become a variant of concern.

    Generally viruses tend to mutate in the sense of becoming more infectious and less virulent (less prone to causing severe, lethal disease). That's because this movement makes evolutionary sense. More infectious but less lethal viruses will survive better. The very lethal ones like Ebola will be self-limited because they kill their hosts before the hosts have the opportunity to infect others.

    As of now, the variants of concern for this coronavirus had not shown a lot of lethality change. The virus did learn how to become more infectious (through the natural evolution process of survival of the fittest) but lethality had not abated.

    Well, now, there are anecdotal reports that this Omicron variant may actually be less lethal, and more infectious. If this is the case, it is not necessarily a bad thing. There were reports that Omicron wasn't even causing much of respiratory illness, not even cough, no loss of smell, but just a couple of days of body aches and fatigue, followed by full recovery. If that's the case and this variant does take over other variants, it may be a blessing in disguise.

    But, for now, the bottom line is that we don't know. Anecdotal reports are not all. We don't know if it is more infectious. We don't know if it is more or less lethal or the same. We don't know if it will spread. If it does, we don't know if the spread will be local or global. We don't know if it responds poorly to vaccines and evades immunity acquired from a previous natural infection.

    In a couple of weeks we'll know more.

    Remember, the Beta variant out of South Africa did not spread wildly. Beta generated a few thousand cases (confirmed cases, 28,380 cases worldwide, something that Delta produces in 8 hours in one country like the US. Of course there may be many more that got undiagnosed, but in any case, Beta never got to be major like Alpha and Delta. Beta wasn't able to challenge Delta for global spread. Who knows if Omicron will spread globally?

    Is there a potential for a legitimate threat from Omicron? Sure, due to the large number of mutations in the spike protein (32) and in the receptor-binding domain (10). But maybe these mutations, instead of conferring to the variant an evolutionary advantage, will rather result in a disadvantage and the variant will fizzle out. We'll see.

    At this point there is no reason for panic. There is reason for monitoring and for more research to determine this variant's infectiousness, lethality, and antigenic drift. Could it be bad? Sure. But for now we have no evidence that it is.

    I voted for the one thing that is anecdotally known - that it seems like it's less lethal. I just didn't like the word "actually" in this option because it hasn't been demonstrated yet; for now, these are anecdotes. But this option was the closest to what I can say about this variant at this point.

    Soon enough we'll have more information. For now, people need to chill and keep doing what they are doing (hopefully, getting their basic vaccination + a booster, wearing high quality masks in crowded situations, avoiding poorly ventilated and crowded indoor areas, social distancing and washing hands).

    Oh, and while what the Russian scientist said is accurate, don't trust Russia Today too much. It is owned by the Kremlin, and it is English-language for a reason: it's what the Kremlin wants to say to foreigners and people abroad (citizens of other countries) in order to advance their political agenda. This time RT didn't really distort anything... but the rule is that they do. For example, they said that the Western vaccines (Sputnik V not included) cause cancer and alter human DNA. RT is nothing other than a propaganda arm of the Kremlin.
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2021
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  25. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    in America there will be no more lockdowns, but in other countries where we buy are goods from there may be
     

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