Yes, but the fact that they’ve held up so far against all variants to date bodes well at least for the next one (or two, or three). No one knows how long T-cell protection will last, but it’s been two years and running now in terms of variant evolution.
Omicron not included. Somebody I know had a big family gathering at Christmas. Everyone had booster shots and a negative PCR test within three days. All but one of the guests got Omicron.
Similar story at several restaurants I know.
It’s a numbers game - even 10% of millions and millions of people is very large pool for complications and long covid
It’s again a numbers game - there are some studies out that up to 10-20% of people who got infected might develop long covid (in particular unvaccinated but even vaccinated people to a certain degree). I think that long covid will become a rather huge issue for many countries (health care cost, productivity loss etc) which is vastly underestimated yet.
I can’t find where I got the 90% number for omicron. Searching again today, the highest number I can find is in a JAMA study, and it’s 67% for both Moderna and Pfizer. That’s still very good protection – significantly better than the annual flu shots.
I also know several vaccinated people who’ve had covid lately. Four in the same family, two in a second family (of two). Nothing severe at all.
Fully vaccinated and boosted people are not only catching breakthrough Omicron, they’re infecting each other. So the strategy that was effective for Delta, where restaurants and bars were pretty much no-risk if they admitted only fully vaccinated customers, no longer works.
The vaccinated are on average also more prudent than the unvaccinated, I think the CDC’s claim of booster shots being 90% effective in preventing Omicron infections is due to attributing the entire difference to the vaccines.
One of the four factors researchers identified is the level of coronavirus RNA in the blood early in the infection, an indicator of viral load. Another is the presence of certain autoantibodies—antibodies that mistakenly attack tissues in the body as they do in conditions like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. A third factor is the reactivation of Epstein-Barr virus, a virus that infects most people, often when they are young, and then usually becomes dormant.
The final factor is having Type 2 diabetes, although the researchers and other experts said that in studies involving larger numbers of patients, it might turn out that diabetes is only one of several medical conditions that increase the risk of long Covid.
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I think the bigger issue isn’t the peak and crash of omicron; it’s that long-term immunity is uncertain (and, given how these things tend to work, unlikely).
The long-term immunity situation for the next variant won’t be much different than it was when Omicron showed up.
Ugh. This is exactly the opposite of what I have been reading elsewhere.
Blockquote A UCSF study published this month found that, during the omicron surge, cheek or throat swabs shouldn’t replace nasal swabs because they have “significantly reduced sensitivity” and are more than 90% less likely to identify a COVID-19 infection when compared to nasal swabs.
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Warrior: I’m curious whether you folks agree with Fauci that Covid will “find just about everybody.” Regardless, we’re approaching two years with no end in sight for the public health officials who are ordering masks and vaccine card lines and do-not-use signs on adjacent toilet stalls. It’s time to move on, in my opinion.
Did you read that article? Even though Omicron is declining, community spread is still much higher than at any point prior to last month. Hospital overload in many places is at its worst. Over 2,000 people a day are dying.
As someone with multiple underlying conditions that make Covid more dangerous, fuck you, you self-centered, ignorant ass.
You don’t really understand science and seem to be somebody who cares more about convenience in his personal life compared to many people who are dying daily. If you think we should just move on when 2000 people die daily in the US because of omicron and have health care workers who are fighting for many, many lives over the last two years and continue to do so on a continuous basis than you are indeed even more ignorant (to not use some very different words which would be much more appropriate) than I thought from your many stupid posts
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Warrior: Maybe I should rephrase my post in the form of a question. If you accept what Fauci said – that Covid will “find just about everybody” – then what is the point of trying to prevent it? One potential answer is to prevent hospital overcrowding (flatten the curve). That makes sense to me. Is that the point here? You’re talking to a pretty middle-of-the-road person here who is fully vaccinated and complies with all the laws and wears a mask in the elevator even when other “socially conscious” passengers reeking of marijuana do not. I’m asking a simple question that is on the majority of Americans’ minds, and I’d like an answer instead of being lectured about “science.”
Another potential answer is “better vaccines.” I’m not sure what good that will do given that most of the people dying from Covid won’t take vaccines, but it could be helpful for people in robert’s shoes.
I would say this is a goal that should never be abandoned, regardless of what polls say about people being “over it”.
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Warrior: is it a serious concern at this point? Hospitals being overrun?
It was with this Omicron wave and could be with a future wave. The CDC should always be monitoring whatever threats are out there and react accordingly. They still monitor other diseases like the flu and if any threaten to overwhelm the healthcare system, I would hope they would take action. It’s why they exist.
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Warrior: Alright, I’ve changed my mind. I think we should persist with simple measures like wearing masks and vaccine checks. At worst, they’re a nuisance, and at best, they could save thousands of lives. Thanks for the discussion.
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Yes. In many places worse than at any previous point in the pandemic. Read the NY Times article I linked to.