Striking Antibody Evasion Manifested by the Omicron Variant of SARS-CoV-2 | bioRxiv is the referenced paper. They did look at sera from those with previous infection and those with Px2, Mx2, Jx1, Ax2 vaccines, as well as boosted Px3 and Mx3 vaccines. All had large drops in antibody neutralization for Omicron versus B.1 (with just the D614G mutation). Moderna held up the least worst, probably due to its large dose of mRNA which stimulated the highest number of antibodies to begin with.
Note that this is only an antibody study. Remember that antibodies are not the full picture of immune response, so those previously vaccinated or infected may have some protection (e.g. from CD4+ helper and CD8+ killer T-cells that recognize parts of the spike protein) despite lack of antibody protection, which could be the reason for reports of relatively mild infections in vaccinated people or populations with high rates of previous infection.
Unfortunately, Omicron is not mild enough to be like a common cold, since it is still putting some people in the hospital. And, even with a lower percentage of those infected having to go to the hospital, rapid spread could still overwhelm hospital capacity.
When my sisterâs husband was in the hospital with covid and her friends were pushing her to get ivermectin I asked about this. I asked why Merck wouldnât be doing everything possible to get it into as many hands as possible if they felt it would be an effective treatment. She said Merck doesnât make much money off ivermectin so they arenât motivated to market it. So that was her rationaleâŠ
Exactly. The ones incapable of doing so are the ones who wonât âlive in fear.â So they go about their selfish ways, and the rest of us are the ones who are affected.
To be fair, I doubt there are 70 more million people in the US that have backyards for vegetable gardens and can telecommute for work. Especially when you factor in k-12 students for whom no amount of yard work will offset the hit on their mental health and social development.
Personally, I can isolate just fine, but I have a decent-sized house with a yard and a home office in a safe neighborhood, can order in groceries to be delivered, no young children (though I do have elderly parents who need my attention), and have a job that allows me to work from home. Yes, there are deniers and selfish folks, but I wouldnât lump in with them the majority of typical folks whose lives arenât so compatible with quarantine life. Two years in, the struggle continues to be real for most people.
What about the people who insist on going out to eat? To shop in person? To not cut down on their gift-buying one little bit? To travel for the holidays no matter what? No one has to do these things. The majority of typical folks, to use your phrase, are not interested in changing their habits at all, and they could. Or thatâs what it looks like to me in my area.
thanks for posting this â I had heard about this, but couldnât find it. we have family with suppressed T cells (transplant meds) so this is of interest.
We are already seeing this winterâs wave overtake our area, fueled by the large number of unvaxxâd and the unboosted. Hospital is overwhelmed but the antivax crew is convinced that is poor management, not sick people. Otoh, a social service agency sponsored a huge vax clinic this week and all the appointments were taken in hours, so thereâs hope. Still some honestly hesistant people to be convinced.
My particular household is taking as many safety precautions as possible, including masking and social distancing, but we continue to live and work (Including my wife who has taught in person since before a vaccine was ever available). We have all gotten our vaccines and booster shots. My soon to be college graduate is currently on vacation in the Caribbean having the time of her life with the same group of friends that were a part of her âbubbleâ at school. Please feel free to protect yourself how you see fit, but asking the entire country to live in near-lockdown conditions will not change the prognosis of most scientists that Covid and its variants are here to stay. I feel sorry for young people in this country who are struggling with depression or worse due to the isolation, and who have been asked to sacrifice despite having almost double the number of children ages 0-17 die of pneumonia since the pandemic began, despite being the last to get vaccinated. Since I do âbelieve in the scienceâ, we will continue to take precautions while continuing to live our lives and will count on the vaccine/booster to do its job and protect us from serious symptoms and hospitalization if catching Covid is in our future (I believe catching Covid may be in everyoneâs future at this point).
In my opinion, the idea that everyone who isnât content to live their lives is isolation for multiple years is selfish is way off base. If you are content to do so, then you can do so. Most people have figured out how to live their lives without such restrictions.
I agree that it seems inevitable that we will all get covid eventually. In my household, we are all vaxed and in the process of getting boosters which hopefully will make any case less severe but Iâm starting to think that trying to avoid it forever is impossible.
Weâre in this group now, but to be fair, we donât buy much at all in Christmas gifts unless candy and airplane tickets count (with a check for the one lad who canât join us in USVI this Feb).
Covid isnât going away. People arenât getting any younger. People are still dying from other causes (went to a funeral for Hâs aunt a little over a week ago - no Covid involved).
Seize the day - while being as careful as is reasonable. We have boosters. We wear masks if others are doing so or if a business wants us to (no requirement needed). And we live life.
This is the exact same for medical lad and his co-workers who are working with Covid BTW. Theyâre vaccinated with boosters. They wear masks (far more than many around us TBH). But they also do things. They arenât sitting at home.
No regrets here. Bars and parties never were our thing and still arenât. But seeing the world and enjoying family is. Weâll modify some for Covid, but weâre not planning on staying in our cave until we die.
The failure is not the scienceâŠit is the people. Specifically those that wonât follow it. Those that only care about themselves. Those that donât give a crap about the greater good
At this point, I donât think we can convince the unvaccinated to get the vaccines (unless theyâre forced to by their employers). IMO, we should focus on requiring masking and better masks. If you compare London with Tokyo, or Sydney with Hong Kong, the dramatic differences in transmission and infections are almost certainly due to masking (and better quality masks). We made a huge mistake at the beginning of the pandemic and we havenât learned the full lesson.
I knowâŠthe logic is flawed. He later ended up dying and I heard her friends talking to her about ivermectin at the funeral. I honestly just avoid most talks about covid with her and her friends.
That was definitely the claimed intent. And perhaps if delta hadnât come along and displaced the original strain used to produce the vaccines that would have remained mostly the overall effect (not to mention the whole world would have needed to be vaxxed in relatively short orderâŠ.not sure that was even logistically possible). But now that weâve arrived at Omicron the vaccines are more akin to flu shots. (Look at whatâs going on in places like Denmark, South Korea and Australia) However, even though vaccines are more personal than societal protection at this point, they do reduce severe illness and that helps society by reducing the load on hospitals so people should be getting vaccinated.