Update on Omicron

[Rm2s]

11 hours ago, Blueray said:

aiya, as usual task force is 2 few steps behind. 

already a known fact that Omicron is highly transmissible. 

No one can do what China is doing, shut their doors and still has huge domestic market.

The only other example we can see is NZ, attempted to shut their door to prevent delta from entering, in the end, they are going to live with the virus as well.

I only hope that omicron is not deadlier than delta, at least there is fighting chance to survive.

[Beregond]

8 hours ago, Jamesc said:

Omicron has spread to 30 countries.

Na Mo E Mi Tuo Fo😂

[Jamesc]

36 minutes ago, BanCoe said:

Is that all ?? 30 countries only??? and counting .......... 

No one even heard of omicron 1 week ago.

Now no one has NOT heard of omicron.

That's fast!

 

[Jamesc]

So much for natural immunity.

Scientists in South Africa say omicron is at least three times more likely to cause reinfection than previous variants such as beta and delta, according to a preliminary study published Thursday.

Statistical analysis of some 2.8 million positive coronavirus samples in South Africa, 35,670 of which were suspected to be reinfections, led researchers to conclude that the omicron mutation has a “substantial ability to evade immunity from prior infection.”

[Jamesc]

In India got many people had original Covid

and then kenna Delta.

If they kenna Omicron then its kenna Covid three times!

Simi herd immunity lah

Simi natural immunity lah!

[Karoon]

This smart guy thinks omicron has an R0 of 8.45. 

His tweets have lots of researchers chipping in.

https://mobile.twitter.com/TWenseleers/status/1466501989500653568?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1466501989500653568|twgr^|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theforum365.com%2Findex.php%3Fapp%3Dcoremodule%3Dsystemcontroller%3Dembedurl%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FTWenseleers%2Fstatus%2F1466501989500653568

https://mobile.twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1466694933998411777

Summary: not enough data but early signs not good

[Kb27]

Glaxo, Vir Antibody Drug Works Against Omicron, Tests Show. Vir Stock is Soaring.

By Lina Saigol

Updated Dec. 2, 2021 8:42 am ET / Original Dec. 2, 2021 4:32 am ET

GlaxoSmithKline said Thursday that a preclinical analysis of its antibody-based Covid-19 therapy it is developing with U.S. partner Vir Biotechnology is likely to work against the new Omicron coronavirus variant. Vir stock is soaring on the news.

GlaxoSmithKline (ticker: GSK), the U.K. drugmaker, said in a statement that early tests showed that the antibody treatment, called sotrovimab, was effective against the new strain, which was first identified in southern Africa

[Kb27]

Researchers think that omicron variant is COVID that could have picked up the common-cold virus, and thus bcum "more human" and transmissible but causing less mild symptoms.

Yeap, COVID caught a cold. 

---------------------------------------

Omicron variant may have picked up a piece of common-cold virus

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 likely acquired at least one of its mutations by picking up a snippet of genetic material from another virus - possibly one that causes the common cold - present in the same infected cells, according to researchers.

This genetic sequence does not appear in any earlier versions of the coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, but is ubiquitous in many other viruses including those that cause the common cold, and also in the human genome, researchers said.

By inserting this particular snippet into itself, Omicron might be making itself look "more human," which would help it evade attack by the human immune system, said Venky Soundararajan of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based data analytics firm nference, who led the study https://osf.io/f7txy posted on Thursday on the website OSF Preprints.

This could mean the virus transmits more easily, while only causing mild or asymptomatic disease. Scientists do not yet know whether Omicron is more infectious than other variants, whether it causes more severe disease or whether it will overtake Delta as the most prevalent variant. It may take several weeks to get answers to these questions.

Cells in the lungs and in the gastrointestinal system can harbor SARS-CoV-2 and common-cold coronaviruses simultaneously, according to earlier studies. Such co-infection sets the scene for viral recombination, a process in which two different viruses in the same host cell interact while making copies of themselves, generating new copies that have some genetic material from both "parents."

This new mutation could have first occurred in a person infected with both pathogens when a version of SARS-CoV-2 picked up the genetic sequence from the other virus, Soundararajan and colleagues said in the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.

The same genetic sequence appears many times in one of the coronaviruses that causes colds in people - known as HCoV-229E - and in the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, Soundararajan said.

South Africa, where Omicron was first identified, has the world's highest rate of HIV, which weakens the immune system and increases a person's vulnerability to infections with common-cold viruses and other pathogens. In that part of the world, there are many people in whom the recombination that added this ubiquitous set of genes to Omicron might have occurred, Soundararajan said.

"We probably missed many generations of recombinations" that occurred over time and that led to the emergence of Omicron, Soundararajan added.

More research is needed to confirm the origins of Omicron's mutations and their effects on function and transmissibility. There are competing hypotheses that the latest variant might have spent some time evolving in an animal host.

In the meantime, Soundararajan said, the new findings underscore the importance of people getting the currently available COVID-19 vaccines.

"You have to vaccinate to reduce the odds that other people, who are immunocompromised, will encounter the SARS-CoV-2 virus," Soundararajan said.

[Nolicense]

20 minutes ago, Kb27 said:

Researchers think that omicron variant is COVID that could have picked up the common-cold virus, and thus bcum "more human" and transmissible but causing less mild symptoms.

Yeap, COVID caught a cold. 

---------------------------------------

Omicron variant may have picked up a piece of common-cold virus

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 likely acquired at least one of its mutations by picking up a snippet of genetic material from another virus - possibly one that causes the common cold - present in the same infected cells, according to researchers.

This genetic sequence does not appear in any earlier versions of the coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, but is ubiquitous in many other viruses including those that cause the common cold, and also in the human genome, researchers said.

By inserting this particular snippet into itself, Omicron might be making itself look "more human," which would help it evade attack by the human immune system, said Venky Soundararajan of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based data analytics firm nference, who led the study https://osf.io/f7txy posted on Thursday on the website OSF Preprints.

This could mean the virus transmits more easily, while only causing mild or asymptomatic disease. Scientists do not yet know whether Omicron is more infectious than other variants, whether it causes more severe disease or whether it will overtake Delta as the most prevalent variant. It may take several weeks to get answers to these questions.

Cells in the lungs and in the gastrointestinal system can harbor SARS-CoV-2 and common-cold coronaviruses simultaneously, according to earlier studies. Such co-infection sets the scene for viral recombination, a process in which two different viruses in the same host cell interact while making copies of themselves, generating new copies that have some genetic material from both "parents."

This new mutation could have first occurred in a person infected with both pathogens when a version of SARS-CoV-2 picked up the genetic sequence from the other virus, Soundararajan and colleagues said in the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.

The same genetic sequence appears many times in one of the coronaviruses that causes colds in people - known as HCoV-229E - and in the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, Soundararajan said.

South Africa, where Omicron was first identified, has the world's highest rate of HIV, which weakens the immune system and increases a person's vulnerability to infections with common-cold viruses and other pathogens. In that part of the world, there are many people in whom the recombination that added this ubiquitous set of genes to Omicron might have occurred, Soundararajan said.

"We probably missed many generations of recombinations" that occurred over time and that led to the emergence of Omicron, Soundararajan added.

More research is needed to confirm the origins of Omicron's mutations and their effects on function and transmissibility. There are competing hypotheses that the latest variant might have spent some time evolving in an animal host.

In the meantime, Soundararajan said, the new findings underscore the importance of people getting the currently available COVID-19 vaccines.

"You have to vaccinate to reduce the odds that other people, who are immunocompromised, will encounter the SARS-CoV-2 virus," Soundararajan said.

that is bizarre, if they vaccinated the HIV guy, and he didnt eventually get both pathogens, and SARS-CoV-2 didnt pick up the genetic sequence from the other virus, omnicron would not have emerged.. and that is supposed to be good right?

[Karoon]

The winds are saying mmtf announcement incoming... 

[Atonchia]

On 12/2/2021 at 9:58 PM, Sosaria said:

The article further says:

South Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world, with 20.4 per cent of its general population infected with HIV.

However, only 71 per cent of its infected adult population are on treatment for HIV, and 47 per cent of children, leaving many immunocompromised.

Like that, I think they have a much much bigger problem than covid-19 😅 What is covid to them when a fifth of the population has HIV??

There was a case of a person recovered fully from HIV recently.

So probably a cure is in the near future.

[Atonchia]

22 hours ago, Jamesc said:

So much for natural immunity.

Scientists in South Africa say omicron is at least three times more likely to cause reinfection than previous variants such as beta and delta, according to a preliminary study published Thursday.

Statistical analysis of some 2.8 million positive coronavirus samples in South Africa, 35,670 of which were suspected to be reinfections, led researchers to conclude that the omicron mutation has a “substantial ability to evade immunity from prior infection.”

"Suspected"

They didn't keep record of people infected and re-infected?🤦

[Jamesc]

1 hour ago, Atonchia said:

"Suspected"

They didn't keep record of people infected and re-infected?🤦

 2.8 million positive coronavirus samples in South Africa,

35,670 had Covid twice

332 had Covid 3 times

and 1 had Covid 4 times

[Jamesc]

1 hour ago, Atonchia said:

"Suspected"

They didn't keep record of people infected and re-infected?🤦

People think that almost everyone in SA had Covid

but many people did not go to hospital and tested positive.

They just got sick and recovered themselves.

[Jamesc]

Over the nest few weeks

its is very possible that

almost everyone in South Africa

will get Omicron!

[Jamesc]

1 hour ago, Karoon said:

The winds are saying mmtf announcement incoming... 

Thanks for the tip.

I just had a hair cut.

[Karoon]

4 hours ago, Kb27 said:

Researchers think that omicron variant is COVID that could have picked up the common-cold virus, and thus bcum "more human" and transmissible but causing less mild symptoms.

Yeap, COVID caught a cold. 

---------------------------------------

Omicron variant may have picked up a piece of common-cold virus

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 likely acquired at least one of its mutations by picking up a snippet of genetic material from another virus - possibly one that causes the common cold - present in the same infected cells, according to researchers.

This genetic sequence does not appear in any earlier versions of the coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2, but is ubiquitous in many other viruses including those that cause the common cold, and also in the human genome, researchers said.

By inserting this particular snippet into itself, Omicron might be making itself look "more human," which would help it evade attack by the human immune system, said Venky Soundararajan of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based data analytics firm nference, who led the study https://osf.io/f7txy posted on Thursday on the website OSF Preprints.

This could mean the virus transmits more easily, while only causing mild or asymptomatic disease. Scientists do not yet know whether Omicron is more infectious than other variants, whether it causes more severe disease or whether it will overtake Delta as the most prevalent variant. It may take several weeks to get answers to these questions.

Cells in the lungs and in the gastrointestinal system can harbor SARS-CoV-2 and common-cold coronaviruses simultaneously, according to earlier studies. Such co-infection sets the scene for viral recombination, a process in which two different viruses in the same host cell interact while making copies of themselves, generating new copies that have some genetic material from both "parents."

This new mutation could have first occurred in a person infected with both pathogens when a version of SARS-CoV-2 picked up the genetic sequence from the other virus, Soundararajan and colleagues said in the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.

The same genetic sequence appears many times in one of the coronaviruses that causes colds in people - known as HCoV-229E - and in the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, Soundararajan said.

South Africa, where Omicron was first identified, has the world's highest rate of HIV, which weakens the immune system and increases a person's vulnerability to infections with common-cold viruses and other pathogens. In that part of the world, there are many people in whom the recombination that added this ubiquitous set of genes to Omicron might have occurred, Soundararajan said.

"We probably missed many generations of recombinations" that occurred over time and that led to the emergence of Omicron, Soundararajan added.

More research is needed to confirm the origins of Omicron's mutations and their effects on function and transmissibility. There are competing hypotheses that the latest variant might have spent some time evolving in an animal host.

In the meantime, Soundararajan said, the new findings underscore the importance of people getting the currently available COVID-19 vaccines.

"You have to vaccinate to reduce the odds that other people, who are immunocompromised, will encounter the SARS-CoV-2 virus," Soundararajan said.

Covid kanna virus? What is this...

Independence Day? 

[Atonchia]

1 hour ago, Jamesc said:

Thanks for the tip.

I just had a hair cut.

That is like CB period.....😱