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People who have recovered from an infection with the new omicron coronavirus variant may be able to fend off later infections from the delta variant, according to a new laboratory study carried out by South African scientists.

If further experiments confirm these findings, they could suggest a less dire future for the pandemic. In the short term, omicron is expected to create a surge of cases that will put a massive strain on economies and health care systems around the world. But in the longer term, the new research suggests that an omicron-dominated world might experience fewer hospitalizations and deaths than one in which delta continues to rage.

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Originally posted by CHAS:
My home county, Summit County, Colorado

Cases 820
Case Rate per 100k 2,644.22
% Positivity 25.23%
Deaths 0
% of population ≥ 5 years of age fully vaccinated 84.7%
New Hospital Admissions 0

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That was a really good short article. I like how the McNeill writes. Just the right level of technical detail, always augmented by a common sense intuitive explanation.

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Originally posted by Piano*Dad:

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Originally posted by CHAS:
My home county, Summit County, Colorado

Cases 820
Case Rate per 100k 2,644.22
% Positivity 25.23%
Deaths 0
% of population ≥ 5 years of age fully vaccinated 84.7%
New Hospital Admissions 0

Within a highly vaccinated community, this does sound like a fifth version of the common cold.

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The current omicron surge represents one of the greatest public health challenges not only of the pandemic but also of our lifetime. To deal with the surge over the next six to eight weeks, policymakers need to plan for the impact of what could be 1 million cases a day of new infections in the United States.

Such planning involves being realistic about the effectiveness of vaccination at this point; taking immediate steps to improve public health messaging, data collection and the availability of drug therapies; and doing whatever is possible to ameliorate the potentially devastating consequences for our health-care system.

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Another area of urgent concern is that we have too few therapies to dent the surge. The two main monoclonal antibody cocktails appear ineffective against omicron. Meanwhile, a third monoclonal that retained effectiveness against omicron is in very short supply. Ditto for the much-heralded covid-19 oral drugs. There are less than 180,000 doses of the Pfizer drug, and it takes months to manufacture. These therapies must be rationed and allocated to those most likely to suffer severe cases: the elderly, younger patients with comorbidities and the immunocompromised. Expect shortages of these therapies in the next few weeks.

Finally, and perhaps most alarmingly, we must brace for the possible catastrophic impact of the omicron surge on the U.S. health system. The weakest link is not the number of hospital beds but the availability of highly trained workers. Approximately 9.8 million doctors, nurses and high-level medical technicians are employed throughout the country. It is possible that 10 or even 20 percent of health-care workers could be infected by omicron in the next eight weeks, as has been reported in South Africa.

Losing that many health-care workers from a system already severely strained by staff shortages would be an enormous challenge. Even with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allowing shorter isolation and quarantine periods to help mitigate risk, covid-related absences won’t be addressed by providing hospitals with a thousand more Defense Department health-care workers. Omicron has already caused wide-scale disruptions across the airline industry, in sports leagues and among essential workers. State and local officials must put in place crisis-management plans to account for a 20 percent reduction in the health-care workforces.

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a negative covid test in the last 30 days

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Originally posted by Big John:
we are down to 5% ICU beds and they are really getting serious about stuff. I'm triple jabbed and still think I had it in December 2019.

I have a specialist's appointment on the 3rd and they called basically to cancel, inferring they needed a negative covid test in the last 30 days to come in and I said "I have one. I got it two weeks ago from YOUR hospital. See you on the 3rd!"

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December 30, 2021. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash said Thursday he decided to approve administering a fourth dose of the COVID vaccine to those with immunosuppression, amid the spread of the Omicron variant.

In a press conference, Ash said the decision was made “due to concerns that they are more vulnerable.”

Last week a panel of health experts approved, but Ash chose not to sign off on, the introduction of a fourth dose for Israelis over 60 and others at risk.

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Originally posted by wtg:

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Originally posted by Big John:
we are down to 5% ICU beds and they are really getting serious about stuff. I'm triple jabbed and still think I had it in December 2019.

I have a specialist's appointment on the 3rd and they called basically to cancel, inferring they needed a negative covid test in the last 30 days to come in and I said "I have one. I got it two weeks ago from YOUR hospital. See you on the 3rd!"

That's odd. How could a 30 day old (or 15 day old, or even three day old) test be of any value?

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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.

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.

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Fact check: The theory that SARS-CoV-2 is becoming milder

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While the Omicron variant continues to infect people around the world, researchers at the University of Missouri have identified the highly prevalent, specific mutations that are causing the Omicron variant’s high rate of infection.

The findings help explain how the new variant can escape pre-existing antibodies present in the human body, either from vaccination or naturally from a recent COVID-19 infection.

“We know that viruses evolve over time and acquire mutations, so when we first heard of the new Omicron variant, we wanted to identify the mutations specific to this variant,” said Kamlendra Singh, a professor in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, assistant director of the MU Molecular Interactions Core and Bond Life Sciences Center investigator.

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The team identified 46 highly prevalent mutations specific to Omicron, including several located in the region of the virus’ spike protein where antibodies bind to the virus in order to prevent infection.

“The purpose of antibodies is to recognize the virus and stop the binding, which prevents infection,” Singh said. “However, we found many of the mutations in the Omicron variant are located right where the antibodies are supposed to bind, so we are showing how the virus continues to evolve in a way that it can potentially escape or evade the existing antibodies, and therefore continue to infect so many people.”

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Singh collaborated with Saathvik Kannan, a freshman at Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri, and Austin Spratt, an undergraduate student at MU

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As antiviral treatments for individuals infected with COVID-19 continue to be developed, Singh explained that having a better understanding of how the virus is evolving will help ensure future antiviral treatments will be targeted toward the specific parts of the virus to produce the most effective outcomes.

In a recent trip to his native India, Singh met with Manish Sisodia, the deputy chief minister of Delhi, to discuss the launch of CoroQuil-Zn, a supplement that can be taken while infected with COVID-19 to help reduce one’s viral load. The supplement, which Singh helped to develop, is now being used by patients in Tamil Nadu, a state in India. The manufacturer will soon seek FDA approval for its distribution in the United States.