COVID Covid Variant Omicron (B.1.1.529)

[Astronuc]

Officially, the U.S. will almost certainly reach an awful milestone in the next two weeks: its one millionth recorded Covid-19 death.In reality, this milestone was likely unofficially crossed days or weeks ago, and we’ll never know the exact toll or the identity of the pandemic’s actual millionth victim. Nor are humans well-equipped to fully grasp loss on this scale, let alone the magnitude of a global toll estimated to be as high as 14.9 million.

https://www.statnews.com/2022/05/10/the-five-pandemics-driving-1-million-u-s-covid-deaths/

I don't know what institution is the arbiter on the official death toll due to COVID-19, probably the CDC or HHS, but we are probably already over 1 million fatalities due to or with Covid.

NY Times reports as of last night 996,916 deaths due to Covid, with 67,865 in NY State (including 40,248 in New York City, or 0.593 of the state total). However, NY State, as of last night, reports 71,004 deaths to the CDC of which 55,647 are considered 'confirmed', since they occurred in a hospital or other care facility (medical setting). I expect other states are similarly undercounted, so the US should be over 1 million deaths due to SARS-Cov-2, since March 2020, and the estimate for the world, 14.9 million, or 15 million, is probably reasonable.

Many more excess deaths may have occurred because emergency services in many cities have not been able to respond to usual events such as heart attacks or strokes, because EMS systems and ERs have been overwhelmed, according to a family member who is a doctor. The same family member had a person collapse in the parking lot of their facility. The person had a severe case of Covid-19, and as I recalled, died shortly thereafter.

 

[bhobba]

probably already over 1 million fatalities due to or with Covid.

I think you are likely correct.

The omicron one pandemic is coming to an end. As far as deaths go, it was like a bad flu season:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)00100-3/fulltext

What worries me is we seem to have even more contagious varients constantly appearing. The continually rising case numbers seem due to ever more contagious varients BA2, BA3, BA4 etc. It does not fill me with glee:
https://covidlive.com.au/

We are making a slow transition from pandemic to endemic because of these new variants:
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/11/who...ts-have-spread-to-over-a-dozen-countries.html

We all must guard against Fluorina - that is bad. I only hope the scientific effort to find even better vaccines and antivirals continue. Not at 'warp speed' pace where I heard ophthalmologists, for example, were called away from surgery to do laboratory work. We can't sustain that - but we must keep moving forward.

From today's local paper. About 92% of people in Queensland are fully vaccinated. Despite that:

'Covid has claimed the lives of more Queenslanders in five months than the entire Spanish flu pandemic as new data reveals unvaccinated patients are 10 times more likely to die from the virus. Seven deaths were recorded in the first two years of the pandemic, but as of Thursday, 918 Queenslanders have died since January 1 – half of which were aged care residents. By comparison, just 264 people died in one of Queensland’s worst flu seasons in 2017 and just over 800 Queenslanders died in the entire outbreak of the 1919 Spanish flu. Unvaccinated Queenslanders remain the most at-risk, with data revealing that due to the large population differences, they are 10 times more likely to die from Covid. It comes as 223 of the 4.8 million vaccinated Queenslanders have died from Covid-19 compared to 235 of the unvaccinated cohort of 410,000.'

We can't let our guard down. Everyone needs a third shot and while I don't think the data is fully in yet expand the 4th shot from over 65's and the immunocompromised (I am both) to everyone. Evidently, Australia is awash with vaccines so no supply problems. It is our choice - is Covid going to be like a bad flu season or a lot worse. It is probably of no value repeating it on this forum where people are rational, but please, please GET VACCINATED.

I know it is a worldwide issue, but why oh why are we not protecting aged care residents better. As a society, we can do so much better for those in their golden years. We all will eventually be in that group.

Thanks
Bill

 

[pinball1970]

I think you are likely correct.

The omicron one pandemic is coming to an end. As far as deaths go, it was like a bad flu season:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)00100-3/fulltext

What worries me is we seem to have even more contagious varients constantly appearing. The continually rising case numbers seem due to ever more contagious varients BA2, BA3, BA4 etc. It does not fill me with glee:
https://covidlive.com.au/

We are making a slow transition from pandemic to endemic because of these new variants:
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/11/who...ts-have-spread-to-over-a-dozen-countries.html

We all must guard against Fluorina - that is bad. I only hope the scientific effort to find even better vaccines and antivirals continue. Not at 'warp speed' pace where I heard ophthalmologists, for example, were called away from surgery to do laboratory work. We can't sustain that - but we must keep moving forward.

From today's local paper. About 92% of people in Queensland are fully vaccinated. Despite that:

'Covid has claimed the lives of more Queenslanders in five months than the entire Spanish flu pandemic as new data reveals unvaccinated patients are 10 times more likely to die from the virus. Seven deaths were recorded in the first two years of the pandemic, but as of Thursday, 918 Queenslanders have died since January 1 – half of which were aged care residents. By comparison, just 264 people died in one of Queensland’s worst flu seasons in 2017 and just over 800 Queenslanders died in the entire outbreak of the 1919 Spanish flu. Unvaccinated Queenslanders remain the most at-risk, with data revealing that due to the large population differences, they are 10 times more likely to die from Covid. It comes as 223 of the 4.8 million vaccinated Queenslanders have died from Covid-19 compared to 235 of the unvaccinated cohort of 410,000.'

We can't let our guard down. Everyone needs a third shot and while I don't think the data is fully in yet expand the 4th shot from over 65's and the immunocompromised (I am both) to everyone. Evidently, Australia is awash with vaccines so no supply problems. It is our choice - is Covid going to be like a bad flu season or a lot worse. It is probably of no value repeating it on this forum where people are rational, but please, please GET VACCINATED.

I know it is a worldwide issue, but why oh why are we not protecting aged care residents better. As a society, we can do so much better for those in their golden years. We all will eventually be in that group.

Thanks
Bill

There was an article in the metro today (UK) about North Korea having cases.
They refused help from the west in terms of vaccines so a highly infectious variant of the types we have seen in the last 6 months would cause havoc.
The numbers in the UK are behind, now we are at 70 deaths but that on May 9th.
Numbers in hospital continue to fall so besides maintenance (boosters) and some personal choices (mask on public transport for instance) that is pretty much it.
Think twice about visiting gran if you were at the pub the night before?
Personal choices now.

 

[StevieTNZ]

Our Prime Minister has tested positive for Covid, meaning she will miss the delivery of Budget 2022/23 by our Minister of Finance, on Thursday 19 May in Parliament.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/30...he-cant-make-emissions-reduction-announcement

 

[Buzz Bloom]

For the record, I did a bit of searching and learned that Jacinda Ardern is Prime Minister of New Zealand.
I suppose it was probably not necessary with "TNZ" ending "Stevie".

 

[pinball1970]

A spike here. More testing due to holiday travel possibly but the numbers are translating to hospital admissions

 

[kyphysics]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/twin-omicron-subvariants-taken-over-151202670.html

A pair of immune-evading Omicron subvariants are now dominant in the U.S., having overtaken so-called "stealth Omicron" and close relative BA.2.12.1 in mere weeks, according to federal health data released Tuesday.

BA.4 and BA.5, which swept South Africa this spring along thanks to their ability to evade immunity, were estimated to have caused slightly more than half (52%) of COVID infections in the U.S. last week, according to new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The Omicron subvariant BA.5 is the worst version of the virus that we’ve seen,” Dr. Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research and founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, wrote Monday in anticipation of the viral coup.

"It takes immune escape, already extensive, to the next level, and, as a function of that, enhanced transmissibility," well beyond what has been seen before, he wrote. "You could say it’s not so bad because there hasn’t been a marked rise in hospitalizations and deaths as we saw with Omicron, but that’s only because we had such a striking adverse impact from Omicron, for which there is at least some cross-immunity."

BA.2.12.1, another Omicron subvariant dominant before the advent of BA.4 and BA.5, was responsible for 42% of cases. So-called stealth Omicron, BA.2, nicknamed for its ability to evade detection on PCR tests, came in third, comprising nearly 6% of cases. It had been dominant in the U.S. until BA.2.12.1 overtook it last month.

The jury is still out on whether current vaccines hold up against BA.5. But given that vaccines experienced an approximate 15% drop in protection against severe disease from Delta to Omicron, "it would not be at all surprising to me to see further decline of protection against hospitalizations and deaths," Topol wrote.

Anyone here successfully memorize all the variants? It's honestly gotten confusing for me, having not read up on COVID news for a couple of months.

Are any variants - dominant or not - currently capable of (at a high rate):

a.) evading vaccines
b.) causing severe medical outcomes

Or, are things still holding up "okay" for those vaxxed and boosted?

*trying to catch up on the latest - would be grateful for a 1...or 2 sentence summary update for those following more closely if the quoted article is incorrect*

 

[bhobba]

Anyone here successfully memorize all the variants?

I think it has become a subspecialty in itself . Seriously here in Brisbane, it has led to a third wave and Omicron 4 and 5 are expected to be the dominant strains in 3 weeks - they already are rising fast.

It's disconcerting, but I seem to recall many immunologists predicted this would happen at the beginning of the pandemic. Really it's just evolution in action. Fortunately, the drug companies have not been resting on their laurels:
https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-r...nd-biontech-announce-omicron-adapted-covid-19

Thanks
Bill

 

[hutchphd]

I am waiting for the Omicron specific Pfizer for my second booster. Does anyone know the availability status/timetable ? (I'm in the USA)

 

[Oldman too]

Have you already tried this? not sure if it picks up on the specific strain though.
https://www.vaccines.gov/

 

[hutchphd]

Thanks. I don't see it there. Probably I'm a little too early. The numbers here in the Midwest are still pretty good. I've several friends who got a few bad days from the second booster so I think I'll make it count... will post if I find out

 

[Astronuc]

Thanks. I don't see it there. Probably I'm a little too early. The numbers here in the Midwest are still pretty good. I've several friends who got a few bad days from the second booster so I think I'll make it count... will post if I find out

From last week -

Moderna (June 22) - "Moderna released study results today showing its new Omicron-specific booster increased antibodies against the coronavirus by a factor of 5, even against some of the newer and more worrisome variants."

The company also today said it will soon ask the FDA to authorize the use of the vaccine. The company said shipments of this vaccine could begin as early as this summer.

https://www.webmd.com/vaccines/covi...a-to-authorize-variant-specific-covid-vaccine

June 25 - Pfizer says its tweaked COVID-19 shots boost protection against the omicron variant​

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/25/1107638114/covid-pfizer-omicron-vaccine
https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-r...nd-biontech-announce-omicron-adapted-covid-19

My understanding is that the new boosters (2nd booster tweaked for Omicron variants) would be available by August/September. The FDA recent approved vaccines for children under 5, and the government has been pushing out vaccines for children 5 to 11, and now for under 5 population.

In mid-June, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 6 months to 5 years, as well as to Moderna's vaccine for kids ages 6 months to 6 years.Jun 19, 2022

https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/covid-19-vaccines-kids-under-5

 

[kyphysics]

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/m/188ec269-38d0-3152-ab12-1e73087f3d9a/omicron-targeting-covid.html

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize new COVID-19 booster shots this week that target the latest versions of the omicron variant but will do so without data from a study showing the shots were safe and worked in humans.

Clearance of the doses, without data from human testing known as clinical trials, is similar to the approach the FDA takes with flu shots, which are updated annually to keep up with mutating flu viruses, as the Wall Street Journal reported.

“Real-world evidence from the current mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, which have been administered to millions of individuals, show us that the vaccines are safe,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a recent tweet.