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! ?