So for those of you keeping score at home. Omicron will likely become the dominant strain globally. Omicron, based on the symptoms witnessed by one of the first doctor's to sound the alarm on it in South Africa, causes only mild symptoms - a scratchy throat, chills, mild body aches, etc. We've just been tossed a lifeline out of this pandemic. Coronavirus is adapting to become more transmissible, but less deadly to its host. Within a few months time, coronavirus will be about as bad as having a seasonal cold. 

No more endless jabs of experimental vaccines that wear off in 5 months if they even work at all. No mandates necessary. No myocarditis. We did it. Congrats everyone. 

yeah, we should have just ignored it the whole time because "it's been politicized". almost 800k deaths in less than two years, but "it's been politicized"

the vaccinated die at MUCH lower rates. that's what should matter. 

obviously Kz read the fox article about how omicron is good news.  

enjoy the circle-jerk!

Tell that to my dead unvaccinated friend!  Sorry, don't feel much like celebrating.  

At work today there are 2 out.  One tested positive (unvaccinated), so far mild symptoms.  He's young, we'll see.  Other one is vaccinated and a transplant patient.  Not sure if she's positive.  I stay in my cube and even though the dude was in here yesterday I was no where near him, so I feel pretty OK this time.  Last positive employee was sitting around a table full of people hacking away.

 

6 minutes ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

yeah, we should have just ignored it the whole time because "it's been politicized". almost 800k deaths in less than two years, but "it's been politicized"

the vaccinated die at MUCH lower rates. that's what should matter. 

obviously Kz read the fox article about how omicron is good news.  

enjoy the circle-jerk!

I haven't seen this dude this worked up since he threatened to take his kids out of school because some parents were against the mask mandate.  

This is good news. You should be happy that the pandemic is over. Why you mad?

Oh no, the vaccines, that already suck, are going to be even worse against omicron!

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-moderna-ceo-says-vaccines-055048321.html

Even less reason to mandate them or take it. 

Hospitalizations in Gauteng are in a sharp ascent. We should pump the brakes on all the proclamations that omicron is just like a cold. I know that's what we want it to be, but the data might not be in agreement. The virus doesn't care about our feelings. Lots of confounding factors in SA unfortunately (pop demo, immunocompromised, low vax rates, etc), which makes jumping to conclusions too early, by anyone, a fool's errand. All we know for sure so far is that it's been spreading undetected in several countries, which means as always, the travel ban was largely pointless. That horse has been outta the barn for awhile. It's likely already here in some states, we'll confirm it by week's end I'm guessing.

4 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Hospitalizations in Gauteng are in a sharp ascent. We should pump the brakes on all the proclamations that omicron is just like a cold. I know that's what we want it to be, but the data might not be in agreement. The virus doesn't care about our feelings. Lots of confounding factors in SA unfortunately (pop demo, immunocompromised, low vax rates, etc), which makes jumping to conclusions too early, by anyone, a fool's errand. All we know for sure so far is that it's been spreading undetected in several countries, which means as always, the travel ban was largely pointless. That horse has been outta the barn for awhile. It's likely already here in some states, we'll confirm it by week's end I'm guessing.

This post brought to you by a dude who was completely sure we wouldn't need annual boosters, that coronavirus wouldn't become endemic, and that vaccine immunity is far greater than natural immunity. Leave the fake epidemiologying to Fauci, little dude. No one cares about your predictions.  

Just now, Kz! said:

I haven't seen this dude this worked up since he threatened to take his kids out of school because some parents were against the mask mandate.  

This is good news. You should be happy that the pandemic is over. Why you mad?

yeah, I'm worked up

I had a nice chuckle over you idiots over my late morning coffee. 

9 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Hospitalizations in Gauteng are in a sharp ascent. We should pump the brakes on all the proclamations that omicron is just like a cold. I know that's what we want it to be, but the data might not be in agreement. The virus doesn't care about our feelings. Lots of confounding factors in SA unfortunately (pop demo, immunocompromised, low vax rates, etc), which makes jumping to conclusions too early, by anyone, a fool's errand. All we know for sure so far is that it's been spreading undetected in several countries, which means as always, the travel ban was largely pointless. That horse has been outta the barn for awhile. It's likely already here in some states, we'll confirm it by week's end I'm guessing.

IF Omicron is proven to be less severe, and IF it can become the dominant strain, that would be a massive win. Delta becoming the dominant strain set us back massively because of its high transmission rate and severe illness. I'm actually cautiously optimistic right now that we may be seeing the end.

1 minute ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

yeah, I'm worked up

I had a nice chuckle over you idiots over my late morning coffee. 

Yeah, I'm sure it looked something like this:

 

1 minute ago, vikas83 said:

IF Omicron is proven to be less severe, and IF it can become the dominant strain, that would be a massive win. Delta becoming the dominant strain set us back massively because of its high transmission rate and severe illness. I'm actually cautiously optimistic right now that we may be seeing the end.

It's over. Humanity remains undefeated. I was never at risk of severe illness with any of the variants, but it's nice to know that omicron is the mildest one yet. Huge win that this thing is morphing into something so insignificant. 

20 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

IF Omicron is proven to be less severe, and IF it can become the dominant strain, that would be a massive win. Delta becoming the dominant strain set us back massively because of its high transmission rate and severe illness. I'm actually cautiously optimistic right now that we may be seeing the end.

Omicron is likely not a means to an end in my view. It's fairly distant from the Delta lineage (~20 mutations) and any articles that are painting it as such are basing it on an assumption that it's a direct competitor to delta. For all we know, you can be infected with both, meaning natural immunity from omicron may not confer protection against delta. In the scenario where it's not a direct competitor, based on the phase out / phase in effect we've seen in SA, then that likely means it's much more transmissible, in which case we need it to be much more mild from a disease perspective (and carry less risk for long term complications) otherwise we are in trouble. 

Pathogenesis is the longest thread to pull on. I hope we don't have to bank on that one.

13 minutes ago, Kz! said:

This post brought to you by a dude who was completely sure we wouldn't need annual boosters, that coronavirus wouldn't become endemic, and that vaccine immunity is far greater than natural immunity. Leave the fake epidemiologying to Fauci, little dude. No one cares about your predictions.  

Fauci is an immunologist, dumb ass. Funny that you don't learn anything when you spend all your free time attending Hanson concerts and mowing your lawn.

24 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Omicron is likely not a means to an end in my view. 

The dude who has gotten it dead wrong every step of the way with dire predictions about omicron is probably the best news you can get today, people. Time to celebrate, this thing is done! 

5 minutes ago, Kz! said:

The dude who has gotten it dead wrong every step of the way with dire predictions about omicron is probably the best news you can get today, people. Time to celebrate, this thing is done! 

Only a brain damaged attention seeking moron who thinks bragging about Hanson concerts and lawnmowers to random strangers on the internet would interpret me cautioning against jumping to conclusions in the absence of data as a "dire prediction." 

But please tell us all again how covid was a media hoax meant to unseat your hero. Remember when it was all going to magically end after the election? I guess the whole world is still in on it just for funsies now that Trump is gone.

11 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Only a brain damaged attention seeking moron who thinks bragging about Hanson concerts and lawnmowers to random strangers on the internet would interpret me cautioning against jumping to conclusions in the absence of data as a "dire prediction." 

But please tell us all again how covid was a media hoax meant to unseat your hero. Remember when it was all going to magically end after the election? I guess the whole world is still in on it just for funsies now that Trump is gone.

Yep, never said either of those things, but you did say:

• Coronavirus wouldn't be endemic.
• Vaccines wouldn't become seasonal like the flu
• Vaccine immunity is better than natural immunity.

It's almost if you have no idea what you're talking about at all.  

51 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

IF Omicron is proven to be less severe, and IF it can become the dominant strain, that would be a massive win. Delta becoming the dominant strain set us back massively because of its high transmission rate and severe illness. I'm actually cautiously optimistic right now that we may be seeing the end.

One can hope.

11 minutes ago, Kz! said:

Yep, never said either of those things, but you did say:

• Coronavirus wouldn't be endemic.
• Vaccines wouldn't become seasonal like the flu
• Vaccine immunity is better than natural immunity.

It's almost if you have no idea what you're talking about at all.  

 first two are false, especially seasonality. I've been saying it was seasonal, function of humidity, from the beginning.

and yes, natural immunity is more variable. Omicron or Delta has yet to change that

I do think Omicron is the coolest name of all of the variants.

49 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

 first two are false, especially seasonality. I've been saying it was seasonal, function of humidity, from the beginning.

and yes, natural immunity is more variable. Omicron or Delta has yet to change that

Uhh, no, I remember saying it was going to be like the flu and you wrote some dissertation on why the vaccines could eradicate it. You've been horribly wrong with virtually every prediction. Which makes it so funny that you come in here constantly and regurgitate talking points from whatever article you just read on the subject and pass it off as your own opinion. 

3 minutes ago, Kz! said:

Uhh, no, I remember saying it was going to be like the flu and you wrote some dissertation on why the vaccines could eradicate it. You've been horribly wrong with virtually every prediction. Which makes it so funny that you come in here constantly and regurgitate talking points from whatever article you just read on the subject and pass it off as your own opinion. 

"I 'membr..."

1 minute ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

"I 'membr..."

You don't get to use those. Those are ours. 

1 minute ago, Kz! said:

You don't get to use those. Those are ours. 

Sorry, I didn't mean to attack your parents.