The Omicron variant

Except that omicrons projected dominant status is largely due to its ability to evade current vaccines - the reason the S1 protein was chosen was not because of any notions of stability, but because the S1 protein is used to bind to and enter cells, so immunity to that was thought to be enough to create an effective and sterilising vaccine.

People with underlying health issues have in the past being admitted to hospital with the common cold, look it's a much weakened variant so it's great news IMO just before xmas

SA has high numbers of unvaccinated, so not really an issue there, the S1 protein was used because it would be an effective vaccine, the sterilising effect was unknown (and it's not really sterilising when in the blood vs. the respiratory system given where SARS-COV2 tends to multiply). Those with high levels of antibodies thus far have shown effective protection against Omicron, it will likely be less effective than Delta but better than no vaccine and probably on par with previous delta infection, I'd be surprised if protection against severe disease wasn't still highly effective.

Nothing has been explained, I'm on boards nearly 10 years, I know how it operates thanks. And no one can claim to "know" either, you haven't been working in a lab with variants have you? So any info posted is just off the net.

My point was... The original virologists in SA, said Omicron was very mild, and people "got over " it at home.

Which IMO is great news. That was my point, no stirring, not trying to wind anyone up, not being rude or arrogant, just simply making a point that IMO Omicron seems nothing to worry about.

You asked why there was so many break through cases, that was explained (and can be easily looked up via various papers that have been published, pre-printed and cited here). Hopefully that is the case with Omicron but we'll need to see how it effects those with underlying conditions before it can be proclaimed as milder (and luckily vaccines seem to remain effective against it).

The numbers certainly drop but not to the level that seems to happen with coronavirus (measles can be tested for antibodies many years later and still have a decent count, as an example), I'd speculate that given their common and non-severe nature, our immune system doesn't much care for holding onto them the same way as it would other virus. We've never seen the graph go out beyond 9-12 months but it does look like antibodies bottom out at some stage (certainly below the low latency neutralising needed to contain transmission), B/T-Cell response doesn't seem to be much effected (hence why protection against severe disease is still high for the majority many months later, this undoubtedly helps with transmission as well but to a much lower level).

I'd say there have been 100 Ryanair flights from England since they've had Omicron..

Will there be refreshments? 😁🤣🤣👍🏽 had to giggle at that!

Enjoy, it was a real pleasure to be in London in September, very 2019. People forget things have been that way in UK for quite a while.

Denmark expecting it to be the dominant strain inside a week. Boosters now for over 40s.

Christ that's getting around quicker than 10 thousand rats with their tails on fire, hard to believe tbh

It was also the UK consensus not too long ago that Delta would push up cases between 100.000 and 150.000 per day at the end of the year. Projections, modelling, the works. Almost ALL in agreement about that. Very few extra restrictions put in at the time. It needed Omicron to (likely) get there.

And our own Tony H came out with his no doubt very solid scientifically backed up projections of...well, we dont have to go there now, do we?

So, it is all about boosters now. Forget about whether Omicron is mild or not. That is the clear message. Be very afraid, keep your distance etc.

Somebody said: 'rinse and repeat'.