works on the omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus Wednesday Dec. 15, 2021.
“There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything
or doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking.”. Alfred Korzybski
Coronavirus worldometer – Bing
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The omicron variant that’s taking the world by storm is not “the same disease we were seeing a year ago,” a University of Oxford immunologist said, reinforcing reports about
the strain’s milder nature. Healthy, boosted people unlikely to develop severe omicron infections, but jury’s out on older, at-risk populations
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The strain first discovered at the end of November appears to be less severe and even patients who do end up in the hospital spend less time there, John Bell, professor of medicine at Oxford, said on BBC Radio 4’s Today program.
“The horrific scenes that we saw a year ago — intensive care units being full, lots of
people dying prematurely — that is now history in my view, and I think we should be reassured that that’s likely to continue,” Bell said.
Bell’s comments came after the U.K. government said it wouldn’t
introduce stricter Covid-19 restrictions in England before the end of the year.
Infections have jumped by more than a quarter of a million in the past week, heaping pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to respond. Health Secretary Sajid Javid late Monday said he’s monitoring the latest data and urged people to be careful, particularly
at New Year celebrations.
What We Know About Omicron, the New Virus Variant: QuickTake
Breakthrough cases aren’t limited to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Influenza vaccines reduce risk of illness by between only 40% and 60%. Turn on the TV and you’re likely to hear about breakthrough cases when people are discussing the COVID-19 virus, vaccines, and their doubts about both. Simply: you have a “breakthrough case” if you test positive for COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated against the virus.
While breakthrough cases may sound concerning, health leaders from around the world aren’t surprised to see them happening. Similar to other preventive health practices
(Think seat belts, handwashing, or prophylactics for STI prevention).
Vaccines are not a magic bullet that eliminates all risk of injury or disease,
but they can reduce those risks to an acceptable level.
So, while medical experts still expect to see a small percentage of fully vaccinated people contract COVID-19, the data on these cases shows the vaccines significantly reduced the risk of those people becoming hospitalized or dying from the virus.
CDC data released on Sept. 10 counted an average of 10 breakthrough cases for every 100,000 fully vaccinated people, meaning that at that time, just 0.01 percent of vaccinated individuals had a breakthrough case. This data was collected between April 4 and July 19.
Many vaccine skeptics look at that 0.01% and stop listening, but it isn’t all or nothing. Instead of looking at vaccinations against the virus as a failure, health leaders are asking us to view them as an umbrella. If you’re in a little bit of rain and you have an umbrella, you stay mostly dry. But if you’re in a hurricane—umbrella or not—you’re going to get wet. That doesn’t mean your umbrella was faulty or that umbrellas in general don’t work very well. It worked until the hurricane overpowered it.
Here’s what else we know:
Breakthrough cases aren’t limited to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Influenza vaccines reduce risk of illness by between only 40% and 60%. We see similar effects with
COVID-19 vaccines, except the reduction in risk is better (due to slightly better efficacy).
In a recent study, complete vaccination with the Pfizer (now Comirnaty) or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines were more 85% effective in health care personnel frequently exposed to the virus (including those considered ‘high-risk’).
Because health professionals expect breakthrough infections, both mRNA
COVID-19 vaccines are considered “highly effective” at preventing most infections
Fully vaccinated people with a vaccine breakthrough infection are less likely to develop serious illness than those who are unvaccinated and get COVID-19.
Less severe symptoms translate into a lower likelihood of being hospitalized or dying
(Then people not vaccinated).
Vaccination against COVID-19 slows down the disease’s ability to create new variants.
COVID-19 vaccines slow the presently dominant Delta variant.
When fully vaccinated persons contract the Delta variant, they spread virus for a shorter time than unvaccinated persons.
While breakthrough cases do exist, misinterpretation of what they are, or what they mean can play a role in vaccine hesitancy. The fact of the matter is that vaccinating against SARS-CoV-2 does not mean you’re 100% immune, but it is highly effective in preventing risky complications and remains the best way to protect yourself and those you love from the virus that causes COVID-19. 2022 predictions from the woman who foresaw 9/11.
Virus Cases Surpass Last Winter’s Peaks in Some U.S. States
By Benjamin Mueller, Isabella Grullón Paz and Andrew Jacobs – Yesterday 5:12 PM
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday shortened by half the isolation period for people who contract the coronavirus, saying that those without symptoms could safely resume mixing with others just five days after their positive test results.
That replaced previous guidance from the agency that infected patients isolate for 10 days.
The new guidance was announced as the highly transmissible Omicron variant is sending daily caseloads soaring, worsening a labor shortage and forcing airlines to cancel thousands of flights.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Conflict of Interest.
“The Omicron variant is spreading quickly and has the potential to impact
all facets of our society,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the C.D.C., said.
The new recommendations “balance what we know about the spread of the virus and the protection provided by vaccination and booster doses. These updates ensure people can safely continue their daily lives.”
Some places are reporting their worst caseloads of pandemic. Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Puerto Rico have reported more coronavirus cases in the past week than in any other seven-day period, data show.
The numbers point to the ease with which Omicron is spreading across the country,
even as some studies from overseas suggest that the variant might cause less severe illness. Experts warn that the surge of infections, combined with the fact that tens of millions of Americans remain unvaccinated, could still create a severe strain on the
U.S. health system and lead to many more deaths.
On Friday, before holiday interruptions to data reporting began to affect daily case totals, the seven-day national average of new daily cases surpassed 197,000, a 65 percent jump over the past 14 days. Deaths also increased by 3 percent during that time, to a seven-day average of 1,345, according to a New York Times database.
The national record for average daily cases is 251,232, set in January during a post-holiday surge.
Hospitalizations are up, too, although not as much as cases. Nearly 71,000 Americans are hospitalized with Covid-19, 8 percent higher than the previous week but still well below previous peaks.
From Dec. 5, there has been a fourfold increase of Covid hospital admissions among children in New York City, where the new variant is spreading rapidly, the New York State Department of Health said in an advisory. About half were under 5, and not eligible for vaccination.
Elective surgeries were put on pause at many hospitals after New York’s governor,
Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency this month. In Massachusetts last week,
Gov. Charlie Baker said he would activate up to 500 members of the National Guard to help in overburdened hospitals. Many other states have done the same.
Government data show that vaccination is still a strong protector against severe illness. Unvaccinated people are five times as likely to test positive and 14 times as likely to die of Covid compared with vaccinated patients, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Still, only 62% of Americans are fully vaccinated, the nation’s medical infrastructure is dangerously frayed two years into the pandemic as hospitals contend with staff shortages fueled by burnout and early retirements. Speaking on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday,
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said: “When you have such a high volume of new infections, it might override a real diminution in severity.”
Data out of South Africa and some European countries suggest that Omicron infections have been milder and are producing fewer hospitalizations. But experts warn that might not be true everywhere, adding that the surge in cases may still flood hospitals in many countries.
“Each place has its own demographics and health care system access and, you know, vaccine distribution,” Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist and researcher at the Yale School
of Medicine, said in an interview.
She added that people in England, Scotland and South Africa could have acquired enough immunity from other infections to be able to deal with this variant, or that there could be intrinsic differences in the pathogenicity of Omicron that results in fewer people needing to be hospitalized.
“We cannot assume the same things will happen to the U.S.,” Dr. Iwasaki said.
“That is not a reason to relax our measures here, and we still need to vaccinate those pockets of people who are unvaccinated.” Chicago dispatcher sounds alarm on rising crime amid staffing shortages: ‘All hell has broken loose’| Fox News
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