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

This is absolutely in line with the information that the scientist from S. Africa is posting literally hourly.

The R-factor is above 8, which makes it a dreadnaught in terms of transmission compared to Delta and as @CenterField stated, puts it in the same league as the transmissability of measles.

Also, a number of telltale symptoms are missing among the Omicron infected: loss of taste, loss of smell, joint pain. This leads me to believe that there is a huge amount of asymptomatic spread going on because people literally have so idea that they have been infected based on onset symptoms they were expecting to experience. I am pretty convinced that 2 months from now, people will be calling this variant something like the "trojan horse" variant.

The as of yet unverifiable silver-lining in this is that if the variant is less deadly and either Merck's or Pfizer's "the day after" pill really does ultimately lead to zero deaths in the near future, then a variant like this can get the world to herd-immunity faster, unless of course yet another dreadnaught variant follows on the heels of this one.

An R-factor of 8 means that this variant has to be about 21 times more infectious in terms of the amount of time it takes to get such a huge spread. No doubt Omicron will be in all 50 states by mid-month and will be the dominant strain by Christmas, perhaps even a tad earlier.

 

Reported

 

First, it is a variant, not a "scariant". Stop being childish. This is an adult forum, not the school lunchroom.

Second, because it is so new, there is no way to know yet, since deaths, as we all know very well, are a lagging indicator.

 

~ We will all be Boost-a-cated , marked and tracked like good little Communists happy to do as told without question.
" A virus it be that will surely segregate me "

 

~ No need for Q . All the BS and fake " Doctors" and scientists on this site is enough !
CNN could not do better ... ` '

 

No clue what you are referring to.

Arguing for the sake of arguing......

How many drinks have you had?

 

yep, country bans don't work,

 

You are indeed very observant, and I'm also encouraged to believe now that, maybe, this new variant won't actually be so very bad -- although it seems likely to spread with 'headline-grabbing' speed. Perhaps the most significant (and optimistic) thing about it, if I've understood correctly, is that for those of us who have had both Pfizer vaxxes and the subsequent Pfizer booster, even if we 'catch' Omicron, the actual effect on us (if we already enjoy generally good health to begin with) is likely to be no more than a very nasty cold. We may indeed constitute a Pfizer-vaxxed population that won't be hospitalized, won't fall over dead, won't 'have our flesh eaten off' , or any of these other horrors.

Thank you again for being willing to keep the rest of us whose familiarity with the intricacies of the medical field rarely extends further than paying monthly medical insurance premiums of one kind or another. The medical science that is so familiar to a person with your education and experience is often labyrinthine and utterly bewildering to the rest of us! You've been very candid about not knowing EVERYTHING about this virus (who does?), but my admittedly-medically-uneducated 'gut' tells me that I can trust you more than 'Tedros', Fauci, and Walensky all rolled into a ball together....

 

Thank you for your valuable information, too! I've been reading your posts with growing interest, as I do those of 'Dr. Center' ( @CenterField ).

Are you actually in Germany? My German friend I wrote about yesterday showed me the digitized "vax ID" that is used in Germany now on his smart phone, and I must say that I was very impressed. It's sad that over here in the States we're still using a paper-card vax ID that can easily be faked in half a dozen different ways... but, it's hard to get some Americans to get any kind of ID, because they claim that doing so is "racist", "discriminatory", etc., etc. Germans may have become a lot more 'squishy-liberal' -- especially during the last ten years, and in the last national election especially -- but at least they aren't THAT stoopid....

 

Thanks.

Let me put it in numbers instead of graphs and complicated concepts, how fast Omicron spreads.

On November 23 South Africa was averaging 300 new cases per day. 2% of Covid tests were coming back positive.
Ten days later with Omicron, cases jumped to 16,000 per day and Covid tests were coming back 24% positive.
Omicron went from 0.1% of cases to 74% of cases in two weeks.
Hospitalizations in a week in one of the provinces went from 100 to 900.
Now what we need to be attentive to, is if deaths (which typically lag behind new cases 3-5 weeks) will follow. The big question everybody is asking, is, will it be less lethal therefore contribute to herd immunity and be ultimately a good thing? Or will it be at least as lethal (or more) and then be a full-blown catastrophe? We don't know the answer to this most essential question, yet.

 

Adults don't follow Fauci any more. They understand how he lies and helps fund the "gain of function research " that caused the China Virus in the first place. From what Rand Paul has exposed....he still funds it! We could get a virus the next go around that could destroy 50% of the world population. That would be right on target toward reducing the world population to 500,000,000 as stated in the "Georgia Guidstones"! I'll bet Fauci also funds a research that keeps his elitist friends immune!

 

It is stunning to realize how much the hospitalizations went up over there! And although I'm aware that in a general sense, personal hygiene, community 'cleanliness', and many other 'social' factors and 'background' disease levels are a key part of the picture in a relatively primitive area like Sub-Saharan Africa, if the virus is 'clever' enough to adapt, then we Americans may prove to be just as vulnerable to the spread of Omicron among us as the unfortunate Sub-Saharan Africans. Then, the key will be whether we are vaxxed, boostered, and taking proper care of ourselves and our immediate environment(s)... or, at least I hope those remain pivotal, 'key' factors....

My takeaway: although I honestly have not had a bad cold in at least the past six years, I accept the fact that even though I'm vaxxed and boostered, Omicron may give me one, and soon. If it knocks me down for a few days, I'll just 'gut-up' and get through it, with ample amounts of Vitamin C, Vitamin D3, Elderberry/Sambucus concentrate, and (because I'm an old guy) -- Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup!

. Damn the sodium -- full speed ahead!

 

I had never heard of the "Georgia Guidestones" before, and I don't imagine many of the rest of us have, either. So, only to be information-sharing, here's an article I found: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones

 

We don't know yet how well monoclonal antibodies zap Omicron but at your age, if you catch it, get an infusion. They are free. All that you need is a prescription from your primary care doctor, and a search for the nearest infusion center. They take walk-ins, you get there and get your infusion. Even if it isn't great against Omicron, it should help to some degree, even if a small degree. Since it's free and safe, you have nothing to lose. If molnupiravir gets available to you, take it too. But anyway, preliminary data are showing that vaxxed and boostered people are not faring so poorly with Omicron, so, you should be safe.

 

And yet many more thanks, Dr. Center. In truth, even though I try to 'keep up', I did not know about monoclonal antibodies, their easy availability, or the fact that they are free! And, I didn't know about molnupiravir, either. You see? A person can think that he's all 'up to date' on much of this stuff, and still be an abyss of ignorance... like me.

Have you given any thought to starting an actual 'online medical practice'? We Americans need people like you!

 

unvetted Afghans? Where'd you come up with that? They were Afghans that helped out USA while at war there for 20 yrs.
And they went to some bases across the country.

 

Molnupiravir should be free for patients too. The US government has contracted with Merck to buy 10 million courses of treatment, so they should be free just like the vaccines and the monoclonal antibodies. They will initially be only available, most likely, to people older than 65 and/or with medical conditions. If you qualify your treatment should be free.

Molnupiravir is only 30% effective, but it works with any variant. Its mechanism of action, introducing errors into the virus' genetic material, will work independently of mutations. Three tablets twice a day for five days. It can cause birth defects, not a problem for males, obviously.

Haha, I already have a full time medical practice; if anything, I'm pre-retirement and planning on retiring very soon. I'm looking for less work, not more. Thinking of April 1st or May 1st as retirement date.

 

Jesus! You're dialoguing with someone I have on ignore, but what do "unvetted Afghans" have to do with Omicron???

 

I've never heard that. Where do you get your information from?
Delta was more contagious and less deadly.

 

How about those that have had covid in the past month or 2.
Do they have adequate immunity?

 

And you got upset with referencing your posts to QAnon? It doesn't get anymore conspiracy theory than the 3 or 4 fake statements in your post.

 

Nothing. The poster was whining about travel restrictions from other countries and letting untested people in at the southern border.
And then went all conspiracy theory on unvetted Afghans.

 

That is a patently and demonstrably false statement.

Yes, there are two corona virus that are responsible for roughly 20% of all common colds. The other is the rhinovirus.

There is also a corona virus that causes viral bronchitis and more often than not, gives the gift of adult bronchial asthma for the rest of one's life. There is no test. Your doctors knows only after a course of antibiotics fails to work, because bronchitis is typically caused by bacterial infections.

However, the majority of corona virus are URIs, and are in the same class as influenza, parainfluenza, adenovirus and respiratory synctical virus (RSV). Note that the corona virus that causes bronchitis is a URI.

Your conclusions are all wrong and nothing more than old wives' tales rather than science.

According to coronavirologists who are virologists who study corona virus their entire professional careers to the exclusion of all other virus and who are the only experts on the matter, corona virus frequently mutate, on average about every 2 years.

Coronavirologists were not surprised when HCOV-NL....and that stands for Human Corona Virus Netherlands variant.... quickly mutated into HCOV-NL63 and then mutated into HCOV-NH.....that stands for Human Corona Virus New Haven --- as in New Haven, Connecticut -- which caused an epidemic in Connecticut back around 2003 or so.

You would be better received if you did your duty as a citizen and researched instead of regurgitating nonsense.

 

Yeah I tried to start a thread on it but never much interest. I think if they read the ten aims inscribed there would be a lot more interest the way things are going today.

 

That's what "your' news media would have you believe. Sure, there were a lot of many Afghans that worked along side of us that were more than deserving to come here, but many are still over there. With Branden's withdrawl and the manner it was performed (pulling out the military first) it was first come, first served. They didn't know who the hell was getting on those planes!