• FluTrackers.com Inc. does not provide medical advice. Information on this web site is collected from various internet resources, and the FluTrackers board of directors makes no warranty to the safety, efficacy, correctness or completeness of the information posted on this site by any author or poster. The information collated here is for instructional and/or discussion purposes only and is NOT intended to diagnose or treat any disease, illness, or other medical condition. Every individual reader or poster should seek advice from their personal physician/healthcare practitioner before considering or using any interventions that are discussed on this website. By continuing to access this website you agree to consult your personal physican before using any interventions posted on this website, and you agree to hold harmless FluTrackers.com Inc., the board of directors, the members, and all authors and posters for any effects from use of any medication, supplement, vitamin or other substance, device, intervention, etc. mentioned in posts on this website, or other internet venues referenced in posts on this website.
  • We are not asking for any donations. Do not donate to any entity who says they are raising funds for us.

Omicron - COVID-19 Variant (B.1.1529) a "Variant of Concern" & BA.2 sub-variant, XE

sounds unscientific. E.g. C-T is common in other strains as well, they should have mentioned that.
 
His tweet is gone, but his account is still active. Wonder where he came up with that? Mauritias appears to have a NHP chop shop set up there so researchers can escape welfare regs in their home countries. No surprise there are lots of viruses there. They are courting clinical trials, too, but I haven't found one for the Merck drug there.

https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.356.6337.472
 
http://magictour.free.fr/mauri1.png

2011-11-23 , 56,male,Victoria Hospital, Mauritius, Manraj SS. et. al. ,
EPI_ISL_7860055

ORF1a:P2046L,P2287S,V2930L,T3255I,L3606F,T3646A
ORF1b:P314L,I1566V,A1918V
S:T19R,T95I,G142D,E156-,F157-,R158G,G339D,S371L,S373P,S375F,K417N,N440K,G446S,S477N,
T478K,E484A,Q493R,G496S,Q498R,N501Y,Y505H,T547K,D614G,H655Y,P681R,D950N
 
Hat tip Sharon Sanders

https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/...nt-fourth-wave


The Lancet
Clinical severity of COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals in Gauteng, South Africa
during the Omicron-dominant fourth wave
--Manuscript Draft--

...
The reasons for the lower admission rates and less severe infections in admitted patients during the
Omicron-dominated fourth wave are not known but are likely to be due to a less virulent virus, and high
immunity from prior infection(s) or vaccination, especially the large numbers of vaccinated individuals
who had prior infection and so have “hybrid immunity” (14). A tissue-based study showed that Omicron
infects the cells of the bronchus faster but cells of the lung slower than Delta (15); which may at least
partially account for the less severe infections observed in the Omicron-dominated wave.

Immunity stemming from prior infection has provided protection against symptomatic infection with
previous variants (16) however preliminary data from South Africa (17) suggest that reinfections with
Omicron are high. While prior infection may not prevent symptomatic breakthrough infection, it may
generate T-cell responses that provide protection from severe disease (18), thereby contributing, at
least partially to the observed high infection rate but low severity due to Omicron. The province of
Gauteng experienced a particularly severe wave of Delta infection leading to a large increase in
seroprevalence following the Delta-driven third wave. If prior infection with the Delta variant specifically
provides some T-cell immunity that protects against severe disease from Omicron infection, this could
be a contributor to the less severe Omicron infections observed in the Omicron-driven fourth wave.

While SARS-CoV-2 vaccine effectiveness in preventing symptomatic infection has been impacted by
the emergence of variants (19), vaccination has reduced the risk of severe disease from past variants
(20). Since vaccination coverage in Gauteng is higher in individuals aged above 60 years, it may have
made an important contribution to the lower severity of Omicron infections, especially in the elderly. But
vaccination cannot fully account for the markedly lower numbers of severe infections in 20-39 year-old
individuals, as less than a third of this age group was vaccinated. One of the two vaccines being rolled
out in South Africa is the Ad26.CoV2.S vaccine which generates lower antibody but better T-cell
responses (21). The role of this specific vaccine in reducing disease severity but not clinical infections
needs to be assessed.
...
 
Experts believe Omicron will soon displace Delta as the dominant global strain

Shabana Begum
UPDATED DEC 30, 2021, 7:30 PM SGT

SINGAPORE -
...
Prof Fisher noted: “We are seeing a global transition from Delta to Omicron because with a greater transmissibility, the virus is fitter and has a reproductive advantage.”

The rise and fall of new variants over time follows the laws of nature and the survival of the fittest, he said.

All living things, including viruses, evolve and those changes that improve a species’ survival or its ability to reproduce will see it grow stronger over generations.

The Sars-CoV-2 virus needs to enter human cells to reproduce, Prof Fisher explained.

“The variant that is best at entering the cell will be better at reproducing, and then spreading to other people,” he said.

“Because of Omicron’s mutations in the spike protein, it is obviously better at entering the host because we see the numbers in many countries increasing steeply.”
...
On what will happen to the Delta variant over time, Prof Fisher said: “Time will tell whether omicron replaces all variants or there is a coexistence. Certainly in flu, different types can circulate at the same time.”
...
https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...-displace-delta-as-the-dominant-global-strain
 
vaccines do not work well in Iceland
current vaccine effectivity in Iceland
see https://www.covid.is/data
VE(2shots,case) = -88% (Jan02)
VE(3shots,case) = 38% (Jan02)
VE(2shots,hosp) = 71% (Dec28)
VE(3shots,hosp) = 84% (Dec28)
-----------------------------------------------
and it's decreasing.. And Israel gives 4th doses
no vaccine report from the UK this week (why ?)
no vaccine update from Ontario Jan01-Jan03 (why ?)

cases are increasing now in the older groups in UK
hospitalisations are still going up everywhere, AFAIK
(admissions in London down the last 2 days)
cases in London seem to be going down
 
Thread on twitter about the high levels of D-Dimer with Omicron.

https://twitter.com/catnash37311/status/1478509595274493952
Erin, from a lab perspective, our Omicron cases have had D-Dimer levels off the charts....I'm talking so high that the instrument cannot report a result. Previously, with Delta, we saw D-Dimers that required running in extended mode, but we were able to get results. Not now...
Click to expand...

Have not been able to corroborate.
 
https://twitter.com/0bj3ctivity/status/1478740393256755214

"Quote Tweet
WindUpBird
@MickieMo
· 4h
Replying to @4fucksssake @catnash37311 and @ErinSandersNP
My MIL is triple vaxxed and went to the ER for something other than covid but tested + for omicron. They gave her heparin as a precaution and her d-dimer results ended up being very high. The doc said the test is very sensitive and being in the ER probably saved her life."


Seems this might be a problem even with vaccination breakthrough cases.
 
John Burn-Murdoch
@jburnmurdoch

NEW: first thread of 2022 is an Omicron situation update, starting with a detailed look at UK hospitals, before going international.

Let’s start with severity, and the most important chart:

Despite steep rises in cases and patients, the number on ventilators has barely risen.

FINXeoeXMAYjI69

6:17 AM · Jan 4, 2022·Twitter Web App
...

John Burn-Murdoch
@jburnmurdoch
·
Jan 4

We also continue to track "excess ICU pressure" — total number of people in ICU, for any reason, Covid or otherwise, compared to past winters:

Latest data show that the number of people in London ICUs has fallen in recent weeks, and is not following the same path as last winter.

FINoFwYXwAYGwjQ
 
South Africa offers clues to life after Omicron
...

Joseph Cotterill in Johannesburg 8 HOURS AGO
...
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government has said the country’s fourth Covid-19 wave has peaked.Total excess deaths attributed to Omicron are about 10,000, compared with about 110,000 excess deaths during the previous, Delta-driven wave.
...
Excess natural deaths last year, for example, were more than 200,000, mostly ascribed to coronavirus and far beyond South Africa’s official pandemic death toll of just over 90,000 people. The country’s total population is 60m.

“That is pretty sobering,” said Tom Moultrie, professor of demography at the University of Cape Town, who tallies the excess death figures with a team of scientists. “We have possibly had a low-mortality situation in South Africa with Omicron by virtue of the burden we have suffered.”

Peak hospital admissions in South Africa’s Omicron wave were about two-thirds of the Delta peak. But this figure hides an important nuance that underlines the mild or moderate nature of many cases compared with past waves, Friedland said.

“A new category of patients emerged, which we had not seen in the past three waves — something we have classified as incidental Covid,” he said. During the Delta wave, nearly all of the positive patients in Netcare hospitals had acute respiratory problems. This time it was about a third.
...
South Africa is also showing that Omicron waves may not fade as rapidly as they emerge. The proportion of tests that come back positive is now far below peaks of 40 per cent in some areas. But in Gauteng, positive test rates have only just fallen below 20 per cent.

“I think that it is premature either to say it is the end of the world or a ‘nothingburger’,” Moultrie said. “The uncomfortable truth is somewhere between that. It is a lesson in sobriety.”

https://www.ft.com/content/b0cd9239-f2df-4afc-912f-b3f87fc676ff
 
Dr. Eric Legome runs two Mount Sinai Health System emergency sites in New York City.

https://nationalpost.com/health/we-...ir-how-omicron-is-affecting-hospital-patients

“Of all the patients we have with Omicron, the vast, vast majority are going home,” Legome said. Of those hospitalized, “It tends to be the patients who would be admitted otherwise: You’re 90 years old, you have underlying pulmonary disease, heart failure, you have a hip replacement, you don’t get along well at baseline and then you have Omicron on top of that and you just can’t get out of bed. It’s that type that we’re seeing more of,” he said.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom