The Omicron variant

09-01-2022 1:26am

I’ve held quite conservative attitudes through the pandemic, but I believe we are now m dealing with an endemic virus and should honestly forget about tracking, tracing etc except for routine sentineL tracing in broad society to determine incidence.

Let’s just get on with it at this stage, is where my mind is at.

amandstu · 09-01-2022 3:10am

Obvious question.

Are there any very lowly vaccinated counties that have entered the Omicron wave yet ?(ie so that Omicron is their dominant variant)

If so ,what does their hospitalization rate look like?

is_that_so · 09-01-2022 9:31am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442423#Comment_118442423

South Africa is low enough at 27% of the population fully vaccinated and their hospitals got through it.

Lumen · 09-01-2022 9:43am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442633#Comment_118442633

SA is a sweet spot of decent levels of testing (therefore useful data) and low vaccination rates.

Nigeria, by comparison, is hardly doing any testing at all despite having a better healthcare system than most African countries.

Most countries with very low vax rates are banjaxed, healthcare wise.

discostu1 · 09-01-2022 10:37am

This is one of the main stories across the water this morning, and it hints at a strategy going forward.Mary Favier of Nphet said yesterday re deconstruction of restrictions etc " its easier to drive in than reverse out" so this is an appropriate time to discuss the next step as Omicron is everywhere and largely seen as much milder End mass jabs and live with Covid, says ex-head of vaccine taskforce | Coronavirus | The Guardian

Zebra3 · 09-01-2022 11:17am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442160#Comment_118442160

What is?

El_Duderino 09 · 09-01-2022 11:27am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442021#Comment_118442021

If Omicron is the only variant around at the time. then I'd say very low. If there's a new variant of concern by then, who knows?

El_Duderino 09 · 09-01-2022 11:31am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442001#Comment_118442001

Assuming the next variant is as mild or milder. But that's a pretty big assumption.

The people who have declared it over (repeatedly) have tended to take the strange step of blaming the government when a new variant pops up. It seems much easier than ever admitting they were wrong about it being over.

Wouldn't it be better to be thankful for the mildness of Omicron and wait to see what happens next rather than pretending to known what the next variants will bring and then getting cross if there are more restrictions down the line?

McGiver · 09-01-2022 11:40am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442633#Comment_118442633

Yes but you forgot to add:

SA was infested massively with Wuhan, Beta and Delta > immunity approaching vaccination

Millions of infections and 100k deaths

This was the price for "getting on with it".

McGiver · 09-01-2022 11:49am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442805#Comment_118442805

This notion of "milder" and "mild"...

We have to say what's the baseline... what we compare against.

The Baseline is Covid Delta which killed estimated millions of people in India (official numbers are off by factor of 3-4 minimum).

So yeah Omicron is "mild" compared to that. Still not a cold like HCov. It's a super spreadable flu with a huge range of severity from headache to pneumonia. The range of severity is the main issue which distinguishes it from the flu.

discostu1 · 09-01-2022 1:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118443053#Comment_118443053

I was more interested in the strategy for moving on the mood music here and the U.K. is we have a mountain to climb in the next few weeks but the sunny uplands await…it’s now about how to get safely there and also per Mary Favier how do we bring the worried well out of their fear

Bit cynical · 09-01-2022 1:17pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118441815#Comment_118441815

"It is not a cold - a cold for me only affects my sinuses and nasal passages and gives me a lot of mucous and nasal drip."

"Omicron has given me a sore/tight throat which is quite uncomfortable and stronger headaches. I also feel tired but I am not in bed. No other symptoms and I am fully operational and eating loads."

Sore throats though are not uncommon in a cold for most people.

nocoverart · 09-01-2022 1:40pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118443370#Comment_118443370

My household all have a full blown cold at the minute, can definitely confirm a horrible sore throat with it. All PCR came back negative and I think we’d be better off if it was Omicron because we’ll get that eventually anyways.

amandstu · 09-01-2022 2:16pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118443455#Comment_118443455

I think I heard that just having had the common cold in the past year can also be beneficial

That might be fairly academic at this stage though.

deholleboom · 09-01-2022 4:32pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118443370#Comment_118443370

A really heavy cold can feel a lot like influenza but without the fever. Omicron symptoms can vary between those two. I had a really bad cold some years ago which lasted for 3 weeks. I usually prefer proper influenza to that, 3 to 4 days then gone though some suffer for longer.

Can i just state that people w Omikron infections DO have mostly cold like symptoms, that some have influenza like symptoms, that most symptoms last under 5 days. So, it is not 'just a cold' but neither affects a great many severely or for long or kills a lot of people. And end that ridiculous spat between the ignorant and arrogant? And the definition of 'lockdown'?

Probably not 🙂

Bit cynical · 09-01-2022 6:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118444305#Comment_118444305

Though you can still get a high temperature with a cold. According to the HSE:

"Cold symptoms can include:

blocked or runny nose

sore throat

headaches

muscle aches

coughs

sneezing

a raised temperature

pressure in your ears and face

loss of taste and smell"

https://www2.hse.ie/conditions/common-cold/

Interesting also that the loss of taste and smell is not unique to Covid.

deholleboom · 09-01-2022 7:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118445013#Comment_118445013

I DID have a raised temperature which usually comes with inflammation. Technically that is a fever. But anyone who has ever had influenza will know the difference. Bedridden fever..

The DayDream · 09-01-2022 8:13pm

I have it currently, 2 jabs no booster.

It is nothing like any cold or flu I've ever had. Symptoms much more severe and long lasting. 1sr 24 hrs every muscle in my back hurt and I was so fatigued I could barely muster the strength to get out of bed to go to the bathroom.

Lungs feel awful in a way i never had with a cold or flu.

My colleague who also has it is asymptomatic. It affects everyone differently. Interestingly when we got jabbed I got really sick from that he got no side effects.

But downplaying it like it's just a cold is wrong. If I was older or had underlying health issues I'd be very worried about this still. As is I'm worried about long lasting effects on my lungs.

corkie · 09-01-2022 11:19pm

Symptoms and Sequelae

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P17_Op2kOk4

Disclaimer: - Not an MD, PhD achieved doctorate.

Ozvaldo · 09-01-2022 11:34pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118445467#Comment_118445467

THe opposite of nearly everyone in Ireland who got it who have said its like a mild cold

daydorunrun · 10-01-2022 12:03am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442659#Comment_118442659

Mad how the conversation to help poorer countries with vaccines for their most vulnerable has stopped. Wealthy countries will be heading for dose no4 soon while health systems struggle elsewhere. We’re vaccinating kids and giving boosters to beat the band against WHO advice? Doesn’t make sense.

Danzy · 10-01-2022 12:16am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118446892#Comment_118446892

The experience on the ground has been a near complete disinterest in taking the vaccine in many poorer countries, even when provided for free to medical workers it has seen a near zero uptake in Africa.

Interestingly enough 2 of the highest vaccination rates are in 2 of Africa's poorest countries, Zimbabwe and Burundi, will not money or supply is the challenge.

The conversation was largely ego driven.

Strazdas · 10-01-2022 12:39am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118445467#Comment_118445467

I've seen several doctors say in the last day or so that it is in and around the same level of severity as the original Wuhan variant in early 2020. The big difference of course is that nobody was vaccinated back then, meaning it was potentially deadly for very elderly people or those with underlying conditions.

Zebra3 · 10-01-2022 12:52am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118446892#Comment_118446892

It makes sense politically.

FFFG/Greens can claim they saved your granny while the general public and the media will ignore that better use could be put to those vaccines in poorer countries.

The DayDream · 10-01-2022 2:46am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118446783#Comment_118446783

I guess I'm just making it up for the craic.

Have you had it? How many of the 20k+ people per day getting it have you talked to to be able to say 'everybody'.

I have talked to some people who have said it's not bad, but that's not how it's been for me.

It's the people who have problems with masks, vaccines and lockdowns, conservative tory types and people who have money in the stock market who are pushing this 'mild cold' narrative IMO.

A mild cold doesn't take this long to get over and I've never had a constant 24 hr headache with a cold.

Like I said the bad side effects from the jab if you had them it wasn't anything like a cold and that is what actually having covid felt like the 1st 24 hrs plus a sore throat and headache.

10-01-2022 3:08am

Cyprus is apparently now reporting a variant that has elements of both Omicron and Delta. Hopefully, also a lot weaker, but very little data.

As much as I would love to say this is over, we’d still want to at least keep monitoring the situation very carefully.

Hopefully omicron might be adding to the layers of immunity in a broad way, but I still wouldn’t call this just yet.

The ICU figures seem to be very stable and manageable though - looks optimistic🤞

amandstu · 10-01-2022 3:09am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118447293#Comment_118447293

Do you know it is Omicron and not Delta ?

amandstu · 10-01-2022 3:12am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118447310#Comment_118447310

What grounds for hope that it may be less virulent?

10-01-2022 3:17am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118447315#Comment_118447315

Just hope - it doesn’t need grounds. So far, as I said, data is very limited. If it’s combined the transmissibility and the virulence, that obviously isn’t good, but it may not have.

These are random mutations and combinations. If it works for the virus, or could be anything.

There’s some hope that the general trajectory might be towards less virulent strains, but there’s very little to support that as being the only path it might take. That’s why I think making premature pronouncements that it’s over is just a recipe for disappointment.

The DayDream · 10-01-2022 3:24am

The WHO has said we should stop calling Omicron mild as well

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-59901547

The Omicron variant

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Symptoms and Sequelae