Good info here. Spreading like wildfire, not making most people very sick.
Maybe people will stop using the hospital bed argument.

Where are all the headlines about these UK numbers? No reason to live in fear anymore. Seems like the world should be celebrating this wonderfully good news!

There are articles but not on major media.

Nobody talking about how few deaths in South Africa compared to previous surges either. And now it's already on the way down.

This appears to be the variant that ends it.

New Covid deaths vs. cases in South Africa during four waves. pic.twitter.com/iBe6BtJEkE

— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) December 23, 2021

It appears to rapidly displace Delta, in the matter of a single week we went from non in Aggieland to >90% omicron.
And that appears to be a blessing.

If the numbers on hospitalization and death hold up over the next few weeks then this could be the end game. Fingers crossed.

PJYoung said:

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This appears to be the variant that ends it.

New Covid deaths vs. cases in South Africa during four waves. pic.twitter.com/iBe6BtJEkE

— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) December 23, 2021

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This is what our media should be showing people and giving them confidence that they can go about life as normal; however, we just get the fear porn side of things and people are retracting back towards behaviors like in 2020. This should be the variant that ends this but so many people are still scared ****less

The % hospitalization is down, but because of the significantly increase in vaccinations and a slightly reduced virulence, the raw numbers will rival if not surpass Delta for hospitalization in the US.

The Vaccinated have a 13X less hospitalization rate, and deaths with Omicron for vaccinated are virtually zero.

"The vaccine is one of the greatest achievements in mankind."
- DJT

Omicron may or may not be the beginning of the end, but it's part of the process towards an endemic. For folks that are vaccinated, each peak at a COVID wave or booster is another Cheat Code for the immune system.

I think we'll see continued reduction of the quarantine for vaccinated folks testing positive. We've moving from 10 to 7 and then 5 days in the near future.

Make no mistake, at Duke Hospital North (NC), the beds and ICUs are filling up, with some (unvaccinated) leaving in bags.

Why is Fauci telling us to cancel NYE parties?

Not political, staff

Just wondering why the world's authority in all things COVID is recommending people not attend NYE parties if this variant is so mild, which it obviously is

Captain Pablo said:

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Why is Fauci telling us to cancel NYE parties?

Not political, staff

Just wondering why the world's authority in all things COVID is recommending people not attend NYE parties if this variant is so mild, which it obviously is

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Because of the post above yours.

DukeMu said:

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The % hospitalization is down, but because of the significantly increase in vaccinations and a slightly reduced virulence, the raw numbers will rival if not surpass Delta for hospitalization in the US.

The Vaccinated have a 13X less hospitalization rate, and deaths with Omicron for vaccinated are virtually zero.

"The vaccine is one of the greatest achievements in mankind."
- DJT

Omicron may or may not be the beginning of the end, but it's part of the process towards an endemic. For folks that are vaccinated, each peak at a COVID wave or booster is another Cheat Code for the immune system.

I think we'll see continued reduction of the quarantine for vaccinated folks testing positive. We've moving from 10 to 7 and then 5 days in the near future.

Make no mistake, at Duke Hospital North (NC), the beds and ICUs are filling up, with some (unvaccinated) leaving in bags.

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Still more worried about getting shot at Southpoint.

cisgenderedAggie said:

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DukeMu said:

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The % hospitalization is down, but because of the significantly increase in vaccinations and a slightly reduced virulence, the raw numbers will rival if not surpass Delta for hospitalization in the US.

The Vaccinated have a 13X less hospitalization rate, and deaths with Omicron for vaccinated are virtually zero.

"The vaccine is one of the greatest achievements in mankind."
- DJT

Omicron may or may not be the beginning of the end, but it's part of the process towards an endemic. For folks that are vaccinated, each peak at a COVID wave or booster is another Cheat Code for the immune system.

I think we'll see continued reduction of the quarantine for vaccinated folks testing positive. We've moving from 10 to 7 and then 5 days in the near future.

Make no mistake, at Duke Hospital North (NC), the beds and ICUs are filling up, with some (unvaccinated) leaving in bags.

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Still more worried about getting shot at Southpoint.

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lol Southpoint is in the woods toward Chapel Hill. Crime rate there is relatively low. East Durham has the high incidence of lead poisoning.

Good thing you weren't around during the Revolutionary War.

https://health.mil/News/Articles/2021/08/16/Gen-George-Washington-Ordered-Smallpox-Inoculations-for-All-Troops

KlinkerAg11 said:

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I still think the amount of people who aren't vaccinated or recovered from covid is really low.

Prior immunity is helping this be mild and both vaccinations and prior infections are helping.

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The booster is the key. Vaccinations use polyclonal technology which gives the immune system a better chance at recognizing the mutated spike protein on Omicron.

Vaccinations greatly reduce the peak viral load (how much virus is in your system) and the body can eliminated the virus in a week instead of 3 weeks. Thus hospitalization, death rates are low. We saw this with the Delta virus in the UK. We were hit harder because vaccination rates

Exposure to the wild-type or alpha variant without vaccination didn't help much vs. Delta and now Omicron.

Prior exposure + vaccinations = good protection.

Why are they not seeing that in South Africa at all? That's where omicron started and they have very low vaccination rates?

DukeMu said:

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KlinkerAg11 said:

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I still think the amount of people who aren't vaccinated or recovered from covid is really low.

Prior immunity is helping this be mild and both vaccinations and prior infections are helping.

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The booster is the key. Vaccinations use polyclonal technology which gives the immune system a better chance at recognizing the mutated spike protein on Omicron.

Vaccinations greatly reduce the peak viral load (how much virus is in your system) and the body can eliminated the virus in a week instead of 3 weeks. Thus hospitalization, death rates are low. We saw this with the Delta virus in the UK. We were hit harder because vaccination rates

Exposure to the wild-type or alpha variant without vaccination didn't help much vs. Delta and now Omicron.

Prior exposure + vaccinations = good protection.

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What vaccine, aside from the military one, is polyconal? As far as I know the mRNA vaccines are all still designed for the alpha variant spike protein only.

I wonder how many of those are in the chart for with covid or for covid

2 days before Christmas…

Houston Methodist is now reporting 90% of COVID cases among its patients are the omicron variant.

The hospital also has a 50% positivity rate for PCR tests. #khou11

— Stephanie Whitfield (@KHOUStephanie) December 23, 2021

John Campbell (guy from OPs video) said at one point last week over half of the reported Omicron hospitalizations in the UK were incidental. They came in for something else but tested positive.

KidDoc said:

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cisgenderedAggie said:

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KidDoc said:

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DukeMu said:

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KlinkerAg11 said:

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I still think the amount of people who aren't vaccinated or recovered from covid is really low.

Prior immunity is helping this be mild and both vaccinations and prior infections are helping.

---

The booster is the key. Vaccinations use polyclonal technology which gives the immune system a better chance at recognizing the mutated spike protein on Omicron.

Vaccinations greatly reduce the peak viral load (how much virus is in your system) and the body can eliminated the virus in a week instead of 3 weeks. Thus hospitalization, death rates are low. We saw this with the Delta virus in the UK. We were hit harder because vaccination rates

Exposure to the wild-type or alpha variant without vaccination didn't help much vs. Delta and now Omicron.

Prior exposure + vaccinations = good protection.

---

What vaccine, aside from the military one, is polyconal? As far as I know the mRNA vaccines are all still designed for the alpha variant spike protein only.

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I had to look that up too since a reasonable understanding of that word would be in contradiction to what is known about available vaccines.

Best I can tell is he is trying to describe epitopes specifically targeted for different parts of the spike protein. This some how being different because you may not know what kind of epitope masking may or may not be present in normal conformation from the actual virus. Regardless, in 3D space, a masked epitope is a masked epitope.

If he's trying to say that the vaccines out there are in fact directed against multiple variants, then we have a lot to unpack here.

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I'm not in vaccine R&D but to my understanding this is not at all what the current mRNA vaccines are doing. They specifically only make antibodies to the alpha spike protein. The mRNA hooks into the ribosomes and the myocytes crank out alpha spike protein to stimulate the immune system.

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You are correct. That is what the vaccines do. The spike protein, however, is large and multiple surfaces may provide an epitope against which antibodies can be raised. In a sense, the full length spike may produce a polyclonal response (ie, different antibodies for different epitopes to the spike) that is different from a monoclonal antibody one may produce from a hybridoma. I found one abstract slideshow type thing that seemed to be suggesting that the spike from the vaccine may provide access to different surfaces than the virus, presumably due to 3D conformations in vivo. That probably doesn't matter that much because if you have antibodies raised against a masked epitope it ain't gonna do **** when it encounters the virus. If the epitope surface is accessible in its natural confirmation, you can raise an antibody against it.

The use of polyclonal here is jargony and misleading. There are only mRNA vaccines against the original alpha variant in wide distribution (unless there's funny business going on behind the scenes). I agree that the use of polyclonal in this sense almost implies multiple variants to someone that doesn't dig real deep into what was said.