Continuing coronavirus happenings (Part 3)

NEWS RE OMICRON
From NYT (David Leonhardt) this morning:

Expecting a surge

Get ready for the Omicron surge, and take it seriously. But remember that the vaccines appear to provide strong protection against what matters most: severe Covid illnesses.

That’s my reading of experts’ reactions to the latest developments on the Omicron variant. Today, I will walk through them.

Highly contagious

The news over the past few days — both scientific studies and real-world data — has added to the evidence that Omicron is more contagious than any previous version of the Covid-19 virus.

In South Africa, where Omicron was first identified, the recent rise has been steeper than during any previous surge. “When Omicron enters a community, the increase in case numbers looks like a vertical line,” Dr. Paul Sax of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston said.


Chart shows 7-day daily average.Source: Johns Hopkins University

In Britain, new cases also hit a record yesterday. In the U.S., Omicron has not yet spread as widely, but scientists believe it’s only a matter of time.

One reason that Omicron seems to spread so quickly is that it causes more cases among the vaccinated than earlier variants, although they are likely to be mild. “There will be a lot of breakthrough cases,” Dr. Jennifer Lighter, an epidemiologist at N.Y.U. Langone Health, told me.

Dr. Muge Cevik, an infectious-disease expert at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, noted on Twitter that much about Omicron remains uncertain, but its infectiousness seems clear:

The only thing I am sure of is that Omicron will spread so quickly through the population, making it likely impossible to contain even with the most stringent measures and giving us very little time over the next few weeks. So get your vaccines and boosters!

I know that some readers will find this news extremely alarming. And it is alarming in several respects: Unvaccinated adults are at even greater risk than they were a few weeks ago, and about 15 percent of American adults remain unvaccinated. (The global share of unvaccinated adults is probably not much higher; many of the world’s unvaccinated people are children, and serious Covid illness remains extremely rare in children.)

The large number of unvaccinated adults means that Omicron may lead to spikes in Covid hospitalizations and deaths, which in turn could overwhelm some hospitals. This prospect is why Cevik emphasized the importance of the next few weeks. Persuading more vaccine skeptics in both the U.S. and other countries to get shots — before the Omicron surge has fully arrived — can save a lot of lives.

“I have been telling my unvaccinated patients that it is extremely urgent for them to start a vaccine series as soon as possible,” Dr. Aaron Richterman of the University of Pennsylvania said.

The power of vaccines

The most encouraging news about Omicron is that it does not appear to cause more severe illness than earlier versions of the virus.

Some evidence even suggests Omicron is less severe. A new study from Hong Kong, for example, found that Omicron replicated itself less efficiently than Delta inside the lungs, which could make it less likely to cause acute symptoms. But many scientists say it is too soon to be confident.

Either way, the crucial question for most people is not whether Omicron is less severe than earlier versions of the virus; the question is whether Omicron is more severe. So far, the answer is no.

If that continues to be true, it will mean that Omicron — like earlier variants — presents only a very small risk of serious illness to most vaccinated people. It is the kind of risk that people accept every day without reordering their lives, not so different from the chances of hospitalization or death from the flu or a car crash.

Unfortunately, there are some vaccinated people for whom any Covid case remains a threat. Those whose health is already vulnerable — like the elderly, people undergoing cancer treatments, people who have received organ transplants and some other groups — can become extremely ill from a Covid case that is mild in a technical sense. Their bodies are weak enough that any infection can cause major problems. It’s the same reason that the seasonal flu kills tens of thousands of Americans annually.

These are the people, in addition to the unvaccinated, who need the most attention now that Omicron has arrived.

Next steps

What can be done? A few things, experts say:

  • Anybody eligible for booster shots — Americans 16 and older who received their second vaccine dose at least six months ago — should get one. Boosters appear to make a major difference against Omicron, as Dr. Anthony Fauci and experts at the World Health Organization emphasized yesterday.
  • Even if your health is not vulnerable, a booster can reduce the chances you contract Covid and pass it on to somebody who is vulnerable. Likewise, vaccinating children can protect their grandparents.
  • Rapid tests — more widely available than a few months ago — can help, too. If you’re socializing with somebody who is medically vulnerable, try to take a test beforehand. And the Biden administration can do more to cut the tests’ costs, many experts say.

We will learn more about Omicron in coming weeks, and the facts could still become either more worrisome or less so. For now, the variant seems to represent a step toward the future of Covid. It will not disappear, but there are many ways to lessen its toll — and live as normal a life as possible.

As Dr. Monica Gandhi and Dr. Leslie Bienen, two public health experts, wrote in a recent Times Opinion article, “America is in the slow process of accepting that Covid-19 will become endemic — meaning it will always be present in the population at varying levels.”

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That’s true. Like you I felt pretty much nothing with my first shot other than a sore arm. The second one was an adventure, as is the third one. I’ve can’t recall ever feeling this awful from any other vaccine before but if it’s anything like before I know I’ll be back to normal tomorrow or Saturday.

Yeah I totally get that. Some people are like “whaaat why do I want to get a shot and feel like crap for a couple days??” - I’ll take take the couple days versus the much higher risk of ending up in the ICU.

I don’t feel bad talking about it here since this is a safe space.

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Totally agree. Hope you feel better soon.

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I have mixed feelings about this. If my wife or I are terminal with no hope and we want to try anything we should be able to.

That doesn’t mean I think ivermectin works, this person is going to die let the family try anything.

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No. Hospitals and doctors have a right to prevent off-label treatments of patients in their care. If the patient is determined to try an unproven treatment, they can sign themselves out AMA - against medical advice. If the patient can’t consent, there’s no fucking way someone should be allowed to experiment on them while the doctor or hospital is responsible for them.

Hell no.

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Nor can I be required to perform any procedure against my will. If you want to give them horse paste, I can’t stop you, but you sure as hell will not require me to administer it. I will walk out the door first.

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There’s nothing in the article that says this patient has consented to the treatment. If she went straight onto a ventilator upon admission, it’s possible she can’t consent.

If it was a matter of a consenting patient seeking to bring their own physician in to provide a treatment, I don’t think the hospital would have fought it this hard.

What a terrible precedent.

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Her treatment was turned over to her doctor who doesn’t have privileges at that hospital. So it sounds like the hospital washed their hands of it.

But I understand what you’re saying, it’s why I have mixed feelings about this.

My wife and daughter have authority to make decisions about my treatment if I can’t. So I would assume the person’s spouse and child probably have the same authority otherwise the court wouldn’t have ruled the way they did.

But the whole thing could likely have been avoided with a safe and effective vaccine.

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Meme Reaction GIF by Robert E Blackmon

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Asshole; I hope his bad karma eats him soon.

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Compared to the earlier Delta variant, Omicron multiplies itself 70 times more quickly in tissues that line airway passages, which may facilitate person-to-person spread, they said. But in lung tissues, Omicron replicates 10 times more slowly than the original version of the coronavirus, which might contribute to less-severe illness.

A formal report of the findings is under peer review for publication and has not been released by the research team. In a news release issued by Hong Kong University, study leader Dr. Michael Chan Chi-wai said, “It is important to note that the severity of disease in humans is not determined only by virus replication” but also by each person’s immune response to the infection, which sometimes evolves into life-threatening inflammation.

Chan added, “By infecting many more people, a very infectious virus may cause more severe disease and death even though the virus itself may be less pathogenic. Therefore, taken together with our recent studies showing that the Omicron variant can partially escape immunity from vaccines and past infection, the overall threat from Omicron variant is likely to be very significant.”

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We’re both double-vaxxed and boosted. Went to a 30-ish person office house holiday party last weekend. Only four people masked including us, and we were the only pair with N95s. When we ate anything, we secluded ourselves in an alcove alone, away from everyone else. Sucks, but seemed to work for us. Thats how we’re doing all gatherings with strangers this year.

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So something like 20× as many as the original we were all so afraid of two years ago?

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That’s good to know. Having been jabbed twice with Pfizer, I’ll opt for Moderna for my upcoming third jab.

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Apparently, I would be eating in a closet all night.

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