Regarding Omicron from Harvard: (easy read)
This is a PSA directed to those who are eligible for a booster but have delayed getting their 3rd jab.
DO NOT DELAY! GET THAT JAB!
There are a number of people in my "circles" who are double vaxxed, beyond that 6 month window and are currently getting Covid. Fortunately as of now, none have needed to go to the hospital. But they are sick, and isolating from family. Some missed out on Thanksgiving gatherings, others got it during Thanksgiving gatherings.
They waited.
Covid doesn't wait.
Please make it a top priority in your life. It is winter, people are indoors more (except in my state where we had the warmest November on record), many will be gathering for holidays and celebrations, even small ones. It would be really lousy to catch Covid now. Well, it would be lousy to catch it at all especially if it was because of a delayed shot.
If you are 3rd dose hesitant or just feel you will get it when it is more convenient...think about this... How convenient will it be to need to quarantine on December 25th or January 1st or worse?
Wishing everyone a happy and healthy end of the year. May you and those you love stay safe and feel blessed this winter season.
Seconding Lovendures’ PSA. I had the booster a few weeks ago (Moderna) and unlike the second shot had very mild side effects - sore arm for a day or two.
@lovendures thank you for your urging. It’s true. Don’t wait. Even though they are saying the effects of omnicron are not severe we are learning as we go.
Today I read that they found that the Omicron variant could be much more infectious than Delta because it shares genetic coding with the common cold. My hope is that if this is true, that it is less virulent than delta and that the vaccine we've all had will be effective. If not, I'm already in line for the Omicron vaccine.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/12/04/omicron-coronavirus-transmissible-cold-variant/?
I don't know if anyone else has noticed this but it is kinda funny to hear people try and pronounce Omicron. My husband is of Great decent and I asked him how people should be saying it because I am hearing newscasters say all different sort of ways. He thought I was nuts, that it should be simple.
It may be for him but even Websters and Oxford dictionaries say it different ways. He was surprised at all the different variation out there.
For what it is worth, according to him it should be pronounced: Om (rhymes with home) ee kron, with an accent on the first syllable.
For some reason I keep wanting to make it OMNIKron. And yes, omicron does sound very space or transformer like doesn't it?
The next time we hear "they" are going to use the Greek Alphabet to start naming "something" we better prepare.
@jeanne-mayell I read that as well and have been wondering if the J & J vaccine is more efficacious on the Omicron variant as it is based on an adenovirus viral vector.
"Adenoviruses are common viruses that cause a range of illness. They can cause cold-like symptoms, fever, sore throat, bronchitis, pneumonia, diarrhea, and pink eye (conjunctivitis). You can get an adenovirus infection at any age.") one of the causes of the common cold. Common human coronaviruses, including types 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1, usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses, like the common cold. Most people get infected with one or more of these viruses at some point in their lives. This information applies to common human coronaviruses and should not be confused with Covid Novel Corona virus.
There is currently a lot of speculation out there about it. It does seem to be causing milder forms of the virus thus far. I suspect the mutations may be much like the mutations of the HINI flu virus - becoming milder in most cases but still virulent enough to kill those with comorbidities and aged and weakened immune systems. Still capable of causing severe illness and death in some..but not the entire population as first occurred.
We used to vaccinate dogs for Canine Coronavirus .. "a canine coronavirus infection (CCV) is a highly contagious intestinal disease that can be found in dogs all around the world. This particular virus is specific to dogs, both wild and domestic. The coronavirus replicates itself inside the small intestine and is limited to the upper two-thirds of the small intestine and local lymph nodes."
That being said? There were cases of pets catching covid from their owners who were ill with it. https://www.livescience.com/pet-cats-dogs-catch-covid-19-from-owners.html
So, that tells me that this virus has the ability to cross species and use many vectors to replicate and spread.This doesn't surprise me at all that corona viruses developed the ability to cross species. The flu did it. (Think avian influenza aka bird flu) https://www.cdc.gov/flu/spotlights/2021-2022/H5N6.htm
A milder infection would better fit the virus' need ...can't survive if you kill off all of your hosts now can you.
I often think about .. how long we have had wars, and famines, and pestilence - decimating the numbers of our species overloading the Earth and not caring for her... poor stewards we have been.
Often I speculate it is the inevitable way of easing some of the burden we have placed on Earth...a sentient planet shaking off parasites. *sigh*
At any rate... I had covid, I got fully vaccinated and boostered and will get boostered again if it is recommended.
@lovendures Yeah... I have been saying it as "OM- ick - Ron" As a Bitter Southerner subscriber and native Georgian... Southerners love words...nouns,adjectives,adverbs....using extra vowels ? The more the better , it seems sometimes. I am also a closet grammar police, a natural mimic with absolute pitch ...some things to me are like fingernails dragged across a blackboard. "I seen it". *sigh* These are things I have learned to overlook or ignore in favor of listening what people have to say as there are definitely things I have trouble saying as well.. some on purpose, some by default.
Suffice it to say.... the naming of things.. .is.. a serious business it seems https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-HSE-FOS-15.1
Forgive me for the rambling, I have had no coffee this am...awoke to one cat hocking up a hairball on my pillow by my face..another walking up and down my body after being up at 3:47 with the 16.5 year old dog having a dementia episode and having her days and nights mixed up..not to mention completely missing the pee pad and leaving a lake in the floor..... a whole unfettered stream of consciousness flow of words here that I am trying to gather in to coherency between the musings and the meanings.
Now with everyone fed and all accidents cleaned up I am waiting for the nectar of the gods to finish brewing and bring me back to Sanity ?
@lovendures I believe I butchered the spelling and I’m sure I messed up the pronunciation. Sounds Star Wars like to me ?
The next time we hear "they" are going to use the Greek Alphabet to start naming "something" we better prepare.
Oh my goodness I spit my coffee out on my keyboard reading this! ?
What we know about Omicron, the new variant: (From a NYTimes morning email update by David Leonhardt). We have a rule not to pass along whole articles but it is important that people get this and I could not find it on line.
1. Contagiousness |
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Does Omicron spread faster than earlier variants? Yes, in all likelihood. |
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The number of Covid cases is soaring in South Africa, for example. It’s still possible that this will be a mirage — and that the world is confusing a more normal surge in cases with the effects of a new variant. (Surges do often happen for mysterious reasons.) But the evidence for faster spread of Omicron seems strong. |
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“The data out of South Africa suggest that the Omicron variant is spreading more quickly than Delta,” Janet Baseman, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington, told me. Dr. Rebecca Wurtz of the University of Minnesota said, “Omicron is more contagious.” |
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A bigger unknown is why it’s spreading rapidly, and there are two plausible answers. The first is that Omicron is more contagious in a technical sense — that it spreads more rapidly among people with no immunity than earlier variants did. The second is known as immune evasion; it describes the notion that vaccinated people and those who were previously infected contract Omicron more often than they contracted earlier versions of the virus. |
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Both explanations could be true, and many scientists think they probably both are. But the facts are not clear, and one of the two explanations may turn out to be much more significant than the other. “Bottom line: Not much doubt that Omicron spreads faster than Delta; we’re still not 100 percent sure why,” Dr. Robert Wachter of the University of California, San Francisco, told me. |
2. Severity |
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Is Omicron more severe than earlier variants? Probably not. But there is less consensus on this than the first question. |
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Some scientists think it’s simply too early to know whether the average person who contracts Omicron becomes sicker than the average person who contracted earlier versions of the Covid virus. “It’s all speculation at this point,” Dr. Paul Sax of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston told me. |
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Severe Covid illness often takes a week or more to develop, and the world has been aware of Omicron for less than two weeks. “We may just not have had enough time to see severe disease develop,” Dr. Aaron Richterman of the University of Pennsylvania said. The initial studies of Omicron patients have also come disproportionately from South Africa, where the population skews young and many people were previously infected with Delta. Both groups are unlikely to get very sick. |
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“What is hard to assess right now,” Jennifer Nuzzo of Johns Hopkins University said, “is how this will play out if or when older and more vulnerable people become infected.” |
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But other scientists believe that the early signs are clearer and more positive. If anything, they say, Omicron may be milder than previous variants. Hospitalization and death rates in South Africa have not soared even as cases have. Intriguingly, patients are reporting less loss of taste and smell. |
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Dr. David Dowdy, another Johns Hopkins epidemiologist, told me that he happened to have a close research collaboration with scientists in Tshwane, a South African city at the epicenter of the outbreak. His colleagues there have told him that hospitalizations and oxygen demand are lower than during previous waves. “I think the signs are actually extremely optimistic,” he said. |
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You’ll hear some similar messages in these Bloomberg interviews with South African scientists. “It’s early days, but I’m less panicked,” said Richard Friedland, the chief executive of the country’s largest network of private health care providers. “It feels different to me on the ground.” |
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Either way, I think it’s a mistake to assume that Omicron is more severe than earlier versions of the virus — as people often do when they hear about a new variant. “Thus far, the signals are a bit encouraging regarding the severity,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said this weekend on CNN. |
3. Risks to the vaccinated |
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So are vaccinated people protected or not? The answer depends on the meaning of “protected.” Is it protected from any Covid infection — or from severe illness? |
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The evidence so far suggests that Omicron may be more likely to infect vaccinated people than earlier versions of the virus, as I mentioned above. Yet there is still no sign that Omicron will cause a significant share of vaccinated people to get severe versions of Covid. |
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“I do think vaccines will hold up, not so much for getting infections but for severe illness,” Dr. Eric Topol of Scripps Research told me. Dowdy, of Johns Hopkins, put it this way: “Our immune systems are designed to protect us from getting sick, not from getting any infection whatsoever.” |
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The situation may be similar for unvaccinated people who have had a prior infection — or they may be more vulnerable than the vaccinated to serious Covid. It’s not clear. |
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One worrisome postscript is that even seemingly mild Covid infections can prove deadly for vulnerable people, like the elderly. The flu kills large numbers of elderly people for the same reason. |
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A second problem is that immunity among the vaccinated and previously infected really does seem to be waning over time. “Our effective vaccination rate is dropping” because of waning immunity, Topol noted. |
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All of this argues for getting vaccinated, even if you have been infected, and getting boosted, if you’re eligible. “People need to be told to get boosted now and not wait the three to four months for a specific Omicron vaccine,” Wachter said. |
4. Tests |
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Do Covid tests — including both PCR tests and rapid at-home tests — still work? Yes, based on the signs so far. |
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Assuming that remains true, it will be very helpful. “Omicron’s spread will put a much greater premium on rapid testing, as will the new oral drugs,” Wachter said. |
Bottom line |
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The early signs may prove misleading, and we will know more within a few weeks. |
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For now, vaccinated people can reasonably continue to behave as they were — but many should feel urgency about getting booster shots. Older people and others who are vulnerable, like people receiving cancer treatment, should continue to be careful and ask people around them to test frequently. |
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Unvaccinated people remain at substantial risk of serious illness. About 1,000 Americans have been dying each day of Covid in recent weeks, the vast majority of them unvaccinated. |
@jeanne-mayell Thank for for this!
My wife had I had initially decided to get the girls vaccinated after the musical I'm directing was over in February (if you recall, we spent the last week in october and the first week in November home with them because they contracted the virus right at the finish line of the wait for under 12 year olds), but we've decided to up that. They'll be getting their first dose on Friday and their second dose right at the start of the new year. We hope that whatever immunity they have will be bolstered by the vaccine now rather than later.
It's interesting because I had made a prediction before that made me feel like the under 12 group would be approved around Thanksgiving and I noted cranberries and my twins with bandaids on their arms so I assumed Thanksgiving. But they'll be eligible for their second shot on new Years Eve (which I don't know if the health department will be doing them that day or not) - The one thing we always have at each of the Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years holidays are cranberry jelly because it's the girls favorite thing - so this may just be a "hit" for me :-)
Here is this info on the Omicron variant from epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina's newsletter, based on information coming in yesterday from labs and other data: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/omicron-were-getting-some-answers
It is a thicket of science and statistics and graphs, please do read it as I'm neither a statistician nor an epidemiologist. But best I can tell:
- Omicron does not escape our vaccine immunity, this variant enters human cells the same way that other variants do, so our current vaccines do work for this variant
-Omicron takes out antibodies at a higher rate that other variants
-Vaccination + a booster (they used a previous infection as a surrogate measure for a booster) offers the best and apparently reduced but still decent protection. Data on Pfizer vaccine was used for this work.
-The Omicron variant is more transmissible than the other variants
-We don't quite know for sure yet about severity.
I feel bad about the prospects for people who are not vaccinated for whatever reason.
That's a good article by an expert. Like the one linked by @raincloud it balances legitimate concern with grounding and an urge not to panic. But I do have to stress something; "omicron takes out antibodies at a higher rate." What this means is that some of the antibodies being produced by the vaccine are being neutralized by omicron, which is why you should get a booster if you can. They talked about the new South African study in the New York Times as well, so this is the second time today I'm seeing these results.
Ever since word broke about the new variant, my council has been urging me not to gorge on news, since a lot of what we know about Omicron so far is little more than hearsay. So I'm limiting my information intake to print media and some of the articles being posted on this thread. This approach may be giving my immune system a relaxation boost.
Hi everyone. I have been pretty quiet about this omicron variant because I haven't had any dreams or visions about it...I sort of feel that if people are vaccinated they most likely will do ok. After two years of scary dreams and some weird visions I seem to be no longer getting info about it from my guides. This gives me hope that even if omicron spreads it will mostly increase the general population's immunity which will lead it to being more like the flu or a cold. Having said that I also believe there will be some increase in deaths and hospitalizations in the near future due to it infecting more people than the other variants. But omicron may cause delta to die out which would be a good outcome as delta possibly more dangerous to get.
Although I do still expect more variants to come after this one. Hopefully newer variants will be less pathogenic...weaker and weaker...
I had a previously felt some very dangerous variants were coming based on a dream. A vision I had around that time also suggested two more variants of concern--mu and nu. We did get mu but nu was named omicron instead. I know I was a bit fearful when I first read about omicron--but since I haven't had any more messages about it I feel generally hopeful.
The new Aquarian age forces humanity to face it's fears and acknowledge the truth that we are all one so that we will evolve to a higher consciousness.
A virus forces us to look at our ecosystem and what humans do to help disease spread. It forces us to face our fears of disease and choose what behaviors we take to keep everyone safe.
Maybe the fear of the variants was what my dream was exposing?
Keep safe and journey forward in the light...
Talk is already turning (as many of us thought it would) to additional boosters beyond the one currently recommended by the CDC. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/08/omicron-pfizer-ceo-says-we-may-need-fourth-covid-vaccine-doses-sooner-than-expected.html?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=Main&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1639057069
Our one "anti-vaxxer" in my office has already gone around shouting about how right she is since we keep needing more and more and more of it. My response to this is generally the same as my response to the last announcement that we'd need a booster:
I'll get my vaccine over here. I'll get my vaccine over there. I'll get my vaccine just about anywhere.
I will get it on a train. I will get it in the rain. I will get it on a hill. I will get it from a guy named Bill.
I will get it on my lunch. I will get it, I have that hunch. I will get it in my car. I will get it at a bar. I will get it through a spoon. I will get it on the moon.
I will get my booster shot, for protected as I am, many still are not.
(C) 2021 by DannyBoyPoems Inc.
Lately, I've been drawn to the Sigma symbol (Σ). It's attracted my eye when I'm out in all sorts of different graphics, in book titles, and finally my dreams. In my dream I was walking in downtown Boise and saw St. Lukes hospital had a giant neon Sigma symbol on it; it was also on a stop sign. It looked like mid-spring. We've developed the Omicron variant, Pi and Rho are next - followed by Sigma. Maybe Sigma will be the last of the major Covid outbreaks.
I was talking to a friend yesterday and he said that many people are turning to antidepressents and anti-anxiety drugs since this time period during the pandemic has been so difficult. He said the drugs help people so that we feel more emotionally level and not like we are on a choppy sea with big waves always hitting us. I agree with that assessment. It has helped me. He pointed out that people who are sensitive may need to be in nature and new environments more than other people to restore a sense of having energy and connectedness to God or higher power and that I shouldn't forget to seek that out to help myself deal with this time period also. He told me to go to spiritually powerful places and meditate there and just absorb all of the energy God put there to fill me up so I can take it home with me. He said the energy is different in those places, you need to seek out different energies and fill yourself up with them so you can use that new energy in your life. His biggest insight for me was that I was sort of low on energy and maybe not as connected to God at this time and that may be affecting my dreams and visions lately. I want to test it out but I have to find the time to go somewhere that has special energy. I live in Georgia and I will need to talk to people or research places near here where I can try his suggestion. I wanted to post his suggestion somewhere so it can help those of you reading this Covid-19 section who are tired and depressed like other sensitives during this time...
Were you the person who kept seeing the Delta symbol before Delta gained traction?
I sure hope Sigma will be a turning point.