Studies Suggest Why Omicron Is Less Severe: It Spares the Lungs (nytimes.com) 70
A spate of new studies on lab animals and human tissues are providing the first indication of why the Omicron variant causes milder disease than previous versions of the coronavirus. From a report: In studies on mice and hamsters, Omicron produced less damaging infections, often limited largely to the upper airway: the nose, throat and windpipe. The variant did much less harm to the lungs, where previous variants would often cause scarring and serious breathing difficulty. "It's fair to say that the idea of a disease that manifests itself primarily in the upper respiratory system is emerging," said Roland Eils, a computational biologist at the Berlin Institute of Health, who has studied how coronaviruses infect the airway. In November, when the first report on the Omicron variant came out of South Africa, scientists could only guess at how it might behave differently from earlier forms of the virus. All they knew was that it had a distinctive and alarming combination of more than 50 genetic mutations.
Previous research had shown that some of these mutations enabled coronaviruses to grab onto cells more tightly. Others allowed the virus to evade antibodies, which serve as an early line of defense against infection. But how the new variant might behave inside of the body was a mystery. "You can't predict the behavior of virus from just the mutations," said Ravindra Gupta, a virologist at the University of Cambridge. Over the past month, more than a dozen research groups, including Dr. Gupta's, have been observing the new pathogen in the lab, infecting cells in Petri dishes with Omicron and spraying the virus into the noses of animals. As they worked, Omicron surged across the planet, readily infecting even people who were vaccinated or had recovered from infections. But as cases skyrocketed, hospitalizations increased only modestly. Early studies of patients suggested that Omicron was less likely to cause severe illness than other variants, especially in vaccinated people. Still, those findings came with a lot of caveats.
Previous research had shown that some of these mutations enabled coronaviruses to grab onto cells more tightly. Others allowed the virus to evade antibodies, which serve as an early line of defense against infection. But how the new variant might behave inside of the body was a mystery. "You can't predict the behavior of virus from just the mutations," said Ravindra Gupta, a virologist at the University of Cambridge. Over the past month, more than a dozen research groups, including Dr. Gupta's, have been observing the new pathogen in the lab, infecting cells in Petri dishes with Omicron and spraying the virus into the noses of animals. As they worked, Omicron surged across the planet, readily infecting even people who were vaccinated or had recovered from infections. But as cases skyrocketed, hospitalizations increased only modestly. Early studies of patients suggested that Omicron was less likely to cause severe illness than other variants, especially in vaccinated people. Still, those findings came with a lot of caveats.
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More anti vaxx cunt propaganda.
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The WorldTribune is a darling of Fox Spews, the now much dead Rush Limbaugh, and other fellow travelers. I wouldn't trust them further than I can spit a two-headed rat. It is also run as hobby by a Moonie.
White Hat Vaccination virus (Score:5, Insightful)
Eventually it may become the preferred way to vaccinate the public, since a large segment of the population stubbornly refuses to vaccinate. Using a contrived excuse such as a sort of self defense, if a large percent of the population refuses to vaccinate against some future virus, say airborne Ebola, they could modify a fast spreading virus such as omicron to carry some harmless Ebola genes (similar to the Spike protein gene mRNA) such that the population could be immunized to Ebola. What could go wrong?
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What possibly could wrong?
Vaccines pretty much guarantee no serious symptoms (Score:5, Informative)
Relevant thread [twitter.com] from a New York ER doctor on the subject.
Get your shots, if you haven't, and you're in the clear.
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Antivaxxers downvoting in 3... 2... 1...
Man, i don't even care anymore. I just hope to maybe reach one.
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Re:This risky vaxx guarantees serious problems (Score:5, Insightful)
This POS jab is causing people to have serious heart problems, blood clots, strokes, even death
So you trade a lower chance to get serious heart problems, blood clots, strokes, even death...for a higher chance of getting serious heart problems, blood clots, strokes, even death? Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.
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Re:This risky vaxx guarantees serious problems (Score:5, Insightful)
So in summary,. Because theres about a one in a half million chance of an extremely rare serious side effect we should reject the only thing known to dramatica Illy reduce the chance of getting even omicron, and for those that do get the small chance of still getting it, have an almost complete protection against fatal covid. In effect stick with a 1-2% chance of dying
and reject the alternative that only has a 0.0002% chance of dying.
And instead either use a disproven anti-parasite drug, or maybe another disproven anti-parasite drug , even though we actually know from very large trials they don't work.
Or drink, *check notes*, Green Tea and , uh, Zinc FOR SOME REASON.
Got it.
I think I might instead just stick with what the experts suggest, and what experience has shown to work. Vaccines, masks, and actually going to a doctor if things go wrong. Science!.
I'll leave the ooky magical wizard nonsense you seem to be proposing for my next D&D campaign.
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Thee is nothing wrong in drinking green tea and or taking zinc supplements.
You should be careful not to mixing up snake oil with proven medicine/precaution.
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Zinc is an important thing not to be deficient in as it is required for a strong immune system. Most people will get plenty enough Zinc from food but athletes can get deficient in it as it gets used up faster during exercise. Vitamin D is more important to take as a supplement as we don't get enough of it in winter.
Green tea IDK, it's likely an anti-oxidant and that will provide a bit of a benefit.
But of course neither green Tea or Zinc supplements will be any where near as protective as a vaccine shot.
Iver
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A vaccine shot trains your immune system for a certain attack.
Having not enough Zinc makes your immune system to weak to fight that attack.
I never claimed that Zink is a replacement for a vaccine - how the funk would that work?
The Vitamin D conspiracy got debunked the last 2 years so often, unbelievable you do not k now it.
Vitamin D is important for bone grows, and that basically is it. You could argue that many immune cells grow in bone marrow - but that is not what Vitamin D is about.
Most Teas contain Zin
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And not having enough vitamin D is far worse for the immune system, vitamin D plays a very important part in the immune system.
Abstract
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The question if vitamin D playes a role in the immune system is under debate since Covid.
And before that it was random magazine jercks.
I for my part am convinced it has no role at all. There is no study, or how you want to call it, that gives any strong evidence it does.
Vitamin D is especially effective against upper respiratory tract infections which includes colds and flu. In my opinion the whole reason flu is seasonal is because large populations have a weakened immune system every winter and seasonal fl
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Without vitamin D you wouldn't have an immune system, it is literally a part of you immune system like wheels are part of a car.
So you saying it plays no part at all sounds to me absolutely absurd. It's like saying wings play no part in a plane staying in the air.
See (peer reviewed):
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov]
Note how big a role vitamin D plays, it is a substantial constituent of your immune system.
Don't come back to me without looking at the medical article linked above.
Vitamin D deficiency is worldw
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I do not need to read your medical articles.
Vitamin D is "a big thing" since Covid.
Never was a big thing for the immune system before. So: a safe bet is, it is fraud. If you think you need vitamin D, go and get supplements.
I do not need any.
vitamin D [...], it is a substantial constituent of your immune system
No it isn't.
A lack of vitamin D is harmfully, and that is all. For many things in your body. Your immune system is doing nothing with vitamin D, you probably keep mixing it up with vitamins A, C, E ..
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Another recent /. article title, "Omicron is Spreading at Lightning Speed. Scientists Are Trying To Figure Out Why"
To which I reply, just read the above...
Viruses are stupid, but here's a smart one (Score:5, Interesting)
Viruses - all pathogens really - are generally stupid: the more they try to kill their host, the fewer hosts they have to replicate and propagate.
I'm guessing Omicron might be the brainier member of the COVID family that went "You know what? If we played just a little nicer and didn't rub them the wrong way so much, they might just buy boxes or tissues and drink lemon tea when we invade rather than scramble worldwide to create a vaccine to wipe us off the face of the planet..."
Of course the brainiest of all the viruses is the herpes virus: it's almost totally silent and almost everybody has it. Talk about a successful virus! COVID could take a lesson or two from herpes if it wanted to succeed.
Of course, it is entirely possible that I read too much into this and that viruses have neither intentions nor plans of any kind for success...
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Re: Viruses are stupid, but here's a smart one (Score:2)
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Of course, it is entirely possible that I read too much into this and that viruses have neither intentions nor plans of any kind for success...
Of course not, they're merely executing $DEITY's will!
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The normal path of novel pathogens as they adapt to a new host species over generations is "more virulent, less lethal". Because for a pathogen, there are two failure modes. First is "did not successfully spread to a new host" and second is "killed the host". Evolution being what it is generates pressure on pathogens to go in the opposite direction of these failure modes.
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That "second failure mode" is not a failure if the virus infected at least one new host before killing, and if it does kill its' host before moving on to others, that's just one version of the first failure mode.
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This is technically incorrect in that virus doesn't care about individuals. It cares about aggregate. And on aggregate, killing the host is a failure mode because it massively decreases the chance of spreading the illness when it comes to illness spread by breathing apparatus functioning.
Because dead people don't have a functioning breathing apparatus.
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Though it's not a given that something like that will happen, which is evident by a lot of other things that haven't mutated into mostly benign pathogens.
Maybe a phenomenon that's just likely to emerge via pandemics?
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There's no thought, just random dice throws and whatever works sticks.
Often viruses, like SARS, and I think the flu, make people obviously sick before infecting others, not good for the virus as sick people stay home and others avoid the obvious sick, It is why we eliminated SARS, the infected were obvious, they were only contagious when sick, so through quarantine, we eliminated it.
Covid has a different trick, being infectious before making people sick and even not making people sick. It is also infectious
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and so the virus doesnt pick how to mutate it just does. the killing of the host is small potatoes. mythology.
wishful thinking.
the real dynamics is just randomness. when a virus is fear its because of its ability to kill. but since it will mutate it will loose that ability just from random mutations. its like answering the 500k question and then going for a million and then los
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>but since it will mutate it will loose that ability just from random mutations
But will that be a mutation that allows it to out compete the other variations? If not, it will not succeed. If a mutation that is more deadly out competes the other variations then we will end up with a more deadly strain sweeping the world. Since, as you said, mutations are random, there is really no way to know which way it will go.
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once you start moving the layers of the cube you loose the colors.
when you loose the colors people develop immunity without serious illness.
its a self fullfilling prophecy thats why we are even here to talk about it.
we live in an ecosystem that self references itself ever since the big bang. my perenials come out every year down to the day sometimes.
and they leave just as accurately.
we are not special. this sha
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Anthropomorphizing a microbe just perpetuates society's tendency to misunderstand how things work.
Microbes have no desire, intelligence, or willpower, either individually or collectively. The same is true for evolution and natural selection, which should only be used to describe why past events have likely happened the way they did, or predict the probability of future events.
Herpes is so successful because it remains dormant in hosts' bodies indefinitel
Re:asdf (Score:5, Informative)
Have you been to an ER in the last year? The flu doesn't cause people to come in in droves with respiratory problems, needing oxygen to survive.
Almost a year to the day I had to go to the ER and it wasn't a pretty sight. I had to wait for 14 hours. Because even though I was in excruciating pain, to the level that I had been awake for three days, it was not life threathening. So they bumped me up, over and over again, whenever people came rolling in on stretchers with oxygen masks attached to their faces which happened with every ambulance coming in. The nurse on call was literally crying due to over-exhaustion towards the end of her shift when I finally, at 7 in the morning got treated and was released home. I would like you to explain what "flu" season gives such a strain on our healthcare system.
For some it might manifest as no worse than the flu. If you want to be among those "some" people, get vaccinated.
But for some it is much, much worse than the regular season flu. And I am not talking about those dying from it. If it doesn't trash your respiratory system, it might do a number on your neurological system. I have a neighbor who cannot walk up the hill we live on without having to stop several times. He got Covid in the first wave, was admitted a year ago and is still struggling with the aftermath. Even on flat ground or downhill he cannot walk at the same time he is talking because he runs out of breath. And he is tired all the time. Sure, he is alive, but what do you think he thinks of his quality of life?
There are more factors to consider than how deadly or infectious a disease is. One is the long term damage, another is the resources it consumes from the healthcare systems. And on those latter two, Covid is several orders of magnitudes worse than any seasonal flu in the last few generations.
So stop spreading falsehoods and downplaying the dangers. You are not doing anyone a service.
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Ditto. My doctor also works in a hospital. He worked during the AIDS epidemic as well. He said the Covid cases were the worst he'd ever seen in terms of respiratory distress.
Omicron and the health services (Score:5, Informative)
Scotland has a large proportion (ca. 90%) of its adult population vaccinated and many (ca. 66%) have received mRNA booster doses over the past few months thanks to an ongoing re-vaccination program.
The Omicron variant was first detected on 20th November here at a "private event" (probably a big wedding) with a second spreader event, a pop concert in Glasgow on 22nd November. Since then the numbers of cases of COVID-19 reported in Scotland has increased by nearly 500% to date with the Omicron variant being identified as 80% of all new cases, mostly via via the "missing S-gene" fingerprint in PCR-RT tests.
The effect on healthcare in Scotland is that hospital bed occupancy of people with COVID-19 has slowly ticked up, from about 500 beds to 850 or so but ICU beds and ventilation bed usage has not risen noticeably. The number of deaths reported daily of people diagnosed with COVID-19 has remained roughly the same.
The way it's looking from my layman's perspective, this new variant spreads more easily so it's stretching the healthcare system's capacity as lots more people get sick each day. The effects on sufferers are milder with more infected people, especially those vaccinated and boosted, able to cope at home using OTC drugs and rest rather than requiring medical intervention. It is still a serious problem for people with compromised immune systems, pre-existing conditions etc. and it can still kill.
They say viruses are dumb. (Score:3)
But they are pretty good at haggling.
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To be fair, the only possible destinations from "it's too early to be sure" are "it is less severe" and "it isn't less severe". If it really was too early to be sure then there's no need for a mea culpa, whatever the final result.
Here's NPR from December 17th [npr.org]:
But while the researchers presented these promising findings to the press this week, they kept reminding the audience over and over again of an important caveat: This data doesn't take into account prior exposure to the virus.
"Therefore, we must exercise caution interpreting these severity findings," Noach said repeatedly.
So it's a bad cold, essentially (Score:2)
If it spares the lungs (Score:2)
But still causes lots of blood clots, you'll have many, many people who are alive but incapacitated due to strokes and heart attacks. That's going to result in not only a huge health burden but also a seriously impaired workforce generating the revenue to pay for that health burden. You either want massively improved treatment to reduce the damage done to people, along with a massively reduced incidence of the virus, or you want the virus to kill cleanly. A massive number of physically and mentally wrecked
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Oddly enough, those same things happen to those who survive COVID. But it happens in 10x greater numbers.
I haven't had a flu shot since grade school some 40 yrs ago either.
Re: From what I have read and researched (Score:2)
Tell the people in hospitals right now that it's no real threat, I'm sure they would love to hear more.
Don't be a covidiot.
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First, COVID-19 is part of the Coronavirus FAMILY which was discovered back in the 1960's. The Coronavirus family is the cause of most common colds.
Most "colds" are caused by Rhinoviruses. Coronaviruses are about 15% or so.
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Yea, well SARS was also a Coronavirus and much more deadly (11% mortality) and closely related to this virus. Any cold that kills 1 in 10 who get it is a serious disease. Even Omicron could change yet, though hopefully not in a bad way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Thusfar it seems Omicron has a 2.7% death rate amongst the unvaccinated and is so low to be considered statistically insignificant among the vaccinated. The flu has a mortality rate of 22% amongst the age group over 65yo, COVID Delta was 9.3% for the same age group (in the US).
At this point, people have made their choices about vaccines, both camps are dug into their position. Let those that made their choices live or die accordingly.
22%?
Citation, or STFU.
I think you need a refresher in math.
Do you fondly remember... (Score:1)
Remember the days when WHO was optimistically touting that the world could avoid a COVID pandemic, if only a small number of people took the proper precautions? Yeah, me too, LMFAO about that one. Next time, maybe the WHO should actually do something useful, like acting like the adult in the room.