The Omicron variant

onefish · 13-12-2021 1:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118314069#Comment_118314069

What growth rate figure have you seen?

TefalBrain · 13-12-2021 1:22pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118314202#Comment_118314202

Infections doubling every 2 days according to UK health secretary.

Sweet.Science · 13-12-2021 1:25pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118314225#Comment_118314225

Omicron or cases in general ?

seamus · 13-12-2021 1:33pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118314122#Comment_118314122

Well if 40% of new cases in London are Omicron according to his health secretary, then a single death is hardly a big deal.

This is all a handy smokescreen for a British government in chaos. They're trying to jump forward a couple of weeks so they can go "look over there - new variant!".

ACitizenErased · 13-12-2021 1:38pm

Boris’ death comment came on the street during a visit to a vaccine centre. Interestingly, he specifically says “with omicron”.

JimmyVik · 13-12-2021 1:44pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118314122#Comment_118314122

That sounds more like an announcement you would hear in Ireland. Absolutely no context.

Rebelbrowser · 13-12-2021 2:58pm

I keep saying it but do not base any fears about on Omicron on the UK. UK pronouncements are all about party politics. Johnson needs Omicron to he serious to change the conversation politically and for Commons vote tomorrow.

Rebelbrowser · 13-12-2021 3:00pm

Very hard to square this doubling every day in London, and idea it is now dominant there, with idea it recently arrived from SA and with SA data.

corkie · 13-12-2021 3:05pm

THREAD: We can confirm 10 people have been hospitalised with the Omicron variant in England; these individuals were diagnosed on or before admission.

https://twitter.com/UKHSA/status/1470393608654237701

brickster69 · 13-12-2021 3:31pm

75% of Danish omicron cases are fully vaxed. Nearly 10% boosted

https://twitter.com/VTuyllen/status/1470367234031820808

seamus · 13-12-2021 3:33pm

Not much of a thread; 2 tweets :D

Still, 10 confirmed hospitalisations is not a lot.

I'm aware that they're not sequencing every single case, so there's probably more than 10. But without context, it's meaningless. There have been about 12,000 people admitted to hospital in the UK since we became aware of Omicron.

Can we get a comparative? How many sequenced? How many were of each variant? How does that compare to the case numbers, etc?

Again, all conveniently "doomy" to serve as a distraction. Nobody has ever claimed that Omicron would not kill people or would not put people in hospital. So tweets about people dying or in hospital are completely meaningless.

Wolf359f · 13-12-2021 3:39pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118315225#Comment_118315225

Where does he get the 8 being hospitalised (most likely) due to omicron?

I'd have thought the 19 would be the number hospitalised (tested positive prior to admission)?

is_that_so · 13-12-2021 3:41pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118315266#Comment_118315266

It's also good cover for the Plan B approach they have opted for.

deholleboom · 13-12-2021 3:50pm

I feel we have the same type of conversations that we had in the beginning of the pandemic including unknowns, projections etc, with the usual pros and cons so i take the data and weigh it up myself to establish where i stand. It has been pretty clear we cannot take data at face value, especially if the context has been either skewed because of the agenda behind it or not given at all. I can play devil's advocate and see the opponant's views then weigh them against the other side.

My take away is that one should get as close to detailed data analysis as possible. You can do that nowadays if available. You dont even have to be an expert but instead take note of the variety of views including those who do not follow the 'party line', maybe especially those with previous high standing but decided to go against the (unscientific word here)'consensus'.

I understand both the position of people in politics and health boards and it simply hard for them to stay neutral. They have to take a position and often take them without solid data backup and try to sell the message, up and downplaying variables according to their aim.

It is what they do. But i am only buying the narrative on the strength of both arguments and the data they are using to back it up.

What is happening right now is that because of the holiday season they think we can slow this oncoming train down and they expect bodies on the track...

timmyntc · 13-12-2021 4:07pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118315311#Comment_118315311

Yes, it looks like he got it backwards. 19 admitted for/with it, 8 hospital acquired (or contracted it before and only tested positive 2+ days later).

corkie · 13-12-2021 4:12pm

https://twitter.com/UKHSA/status/1470405213739786254

UK +1576 additional confirmed cases of the #Omicron variant of COVID-19 have been reported across the UK. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 Omicron cases in the UK is 4713.

https://twitter.com/ECDC_Outbreaks/status/1470381894680424456

** Norway announced that probable cases of Omicron are now considered as confirmed cases and, therefore, the total number of Omicron detections included for Norway in this report consists of both probable and confirmed cases.

https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/news-events/epidemiological-update-omicron-data-13-december

total (worldwide) 10,389 (~77,996)

brickster69 · 13-12-2021 4:29pm

Interesting with Denmark really. Yesterday they conducted 185K PCR tests and are sequencing 25K / week

For a country with 5.5 million people it is an unreal amount of testing being done. It put's things into context how ok they are doing.

corkie · 13-12-2021 4:29pm

So tweets about people dying or in hospital are completely meaningless.

@seamus

Tell that to people who where looking for them figures, when all that was reported was cases.

Micky 32 · 13-12-2021 4:33pm

https://twitter.com/tomhcalver/status/1470364449773133824?s=21

Steve012 · 13-12-2021 4:33pm

There's nothing to worry about, it's a very watered down version of c19. Boosters were designed before this variant came out. So if the original jabs a less affective with Omicron. Then what will the boosters do?

And this variant certainly wouldn't warrant a lock down and more restrictions etc..

So c19 has watered down to a common cold, the best news we have had for 2 years. Excellent!

igCorcaigh · 13-12-2021 4:34pm

That seems to fit with a doubling time of 2 to 3 days; should be impacting on overall case numbers over the course of the week.

ronanb78 · 13-12-2021 4:46pm

If you are double jabbed and have had covid since, the HSE are saying that you need to wait 6 months before you can get a booster jab. Will this now change due to omicron?

Or will you get a booster appointment by text, and just take it?

I would have thought that getting a booster, even though you had covid, will reduce the transmission rate of omicron.

Steve012 · 13-12-2021 4:49pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118315746#Comment_118315746

Boosters were designed before this variant came out. So if the original jabs a less affective with Omicron. Then what will the boosters do?

deholleboom · 13-12-2021 4:52pm

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare?areaType=overview&areaName=United%20Kingdom

it is always good to check the numbers coming into hospitals and the numbers IN hospital. If you leave the Covid element out of it you can then see what the trajectory is and compare them to previous waves including the ones before the pandemic as it is normal to see people w respiratory issues and influenza pushing up the numbers around this time of year. Any rise in hospitalisations linked to Covid have that question mark hanging above it. One should ask: anything above normal for this time of year?

I know levels are high but until the numbers of people IN hospital actually start to rise in a big way we can only speculate about the impact of especially Omicron. Right now hospital numbers are flat and only slightly rising in the last few days. Again, not abnormal this time of year..

It is too early for conclusions about ICU and death even if reports of a death of someone with Omicron will be highlighted.

astrofool · 13-12-2021 4:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118315756#Comment_118315756

The original jabs were designed pre-delta and work fine there.

Are you really asking? or telling people?

The spike protein doesn't mutate that much (omicron is the most mutated yet that's become a variant of concern) which is why the vaccines target it specifically (less chance of immune escape), even though it's different, the antibodies generated by the immune system from the vaccine still remain effective against omicron. It's thought that if there was a full vaccine escape, SARS-COV2 would also lose it's ability to bind to human cells as effectively (via the spike protein) and it would become less infectious/deadly anyway.

Apothic_Red · 13-12-2021 5:00pm

Some good news from SA

https://twitter.com/TeagueRoger/status/1469975348817403909

Look like flat 7-up will work on this Omnicron fellow

13-12-2021 5:07pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118315690#Comment_118315690

I am not doubting the mildness of the omicron variant from reports so far but comparing it to the common cold is disingenuous. Do people get hospitalised from the common cold?

TonyMaloney · 13-12-2021 5:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118315808#Comment_118315808

:)

I'd caution that Ireland recorded its first case of covid way back on the 29th of February 2020. We didn't record our first death until the 11th of March. There was only 8 deaths recorded between the 11th and the 25th. On the 26th we recorded 10, and from then on things got pretty grim for a while.

SA recorded their first case of omnicrom on the 26th of November. If the disease follows a familiar timeline then you wouldn't yet expect to see a surge in deaths. Fingers crossed it'll never materialise.

Steve012 · 13-12-2021 5:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118315803#Comment_118315803

So how is there so so many break through cases "with Delta" and Omicron?

TalleyRand83 · 13-12-2021 5:11pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118314284#Comment_118314284

Seamus, glad to agree with you on your last point, this has always been a very "political" pandemic with many courses of action...ours is the HSE long standing sh1tshow protection

Aus / NZ is "we've backed ourselves into a corner here and can't turn back"

USA - Depends on whether its a blue or red state,

etc

The Omicron variant

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