COVID-19: Chapter 9 - OMGicron

[MrWookie]

This, and an earlier one like it posted by CN.

@Surf

Can’t remember if posted already but nice to see boosters do indeed boost

A third (booster) shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine appears to counteract the waning protection of the first two shots, at least in the short term, according to new data November 30 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Tal Patalon, MD, with the Kahn Sagol Maccabi Research and Innovation Center, Maccabi Healthcare Services, in Tel Aviv, Israel, led a case-control study of 306,710 Israeli adults aged 40 years and older.

The researchers found that the estimated odds of becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2 were significantly reduced within a few weeks for those who got the booster compared with those who received only two primary shots.

Comparing those groups, there was an estimated odds ratio of 0.14 (95% CI, 0.13 – 0.15) 28 to 65 days following the booster ― an 86% reduction in the odds of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 after the booster.

“This reduction comes on top of the reduction in the risk conferred by the first 2 doses,” the authors write.

[Melkerson]

@otatop

Reddit - Dive into anything

This is too good to hide behind a link

TLDR; My malicious compliance results in anti-vax woman getting fully vaccinated. The tears were delicious.

So I am a doctor in NZ, currently working in Immunology.

Our country recently (like, today) introduced a policy where you need to show a vaccine pass to be able to access hospitality or retail stores. To get this vaccine pass, you either need to be fully vaccinated or have a legitimate medical exemption.

As I just started working in Immunology, I have a weekly allergy clinic. I had a woman referred into me, who we shall call Karen, who had reportedly had a reaction to the first vaccine dose. We take that very seriously, and there was a strong possibility that she could receive an exemption from the second dose or subsequent booster shots, depending on the nature of the reaction.

However it became clear within the first few minutes of the consult that this woman had not had a serious reaction to the vaccine. She was not telling me any of the symptoms she experienced, and just kept referring to the “reaction”. Even direct questioning was getting nowhere. However, after a frustrating 10 minutes, I was able to rule out a severe allergic reaction, or a possible cardiac event (the two major concerns for the Pfizer vaccine).

During the course of the consult, it became obvious that Karen was more interested in grandstanding about the vaccine than in actually receiving medical care. She accidentally let slip that getting a vaccine exemption would benefit her “politically”, whatever that meant. She also let slip that she was against vaccines in general, and was trying to prove a point.

I offered her an alternative vaccine, the AstraZeneca, which she vehemently refused due to risk of blood clots.

So, I explained what the standard procedure is to confirm a serious allergy. It’s called a challenge. Basically we give the patient the thing they might be allergic to. If they react, we have all of the necessary care with experts on severe allergy right there (this is in a major hospital), and if they don’t have a reaction we know you aren’t allergic. I explained it by saying “We give you the shot, and see what happens. If you have a reaction, I’ll happily write you an exemption for the booster”.

She agreed to this, signed the consent form after I went through it in detail. I gave her the vaccine, and she promptly had a “seizure”. I put that in quotation marks, because it was the least convincing seizure I have ever seen. I’ve seen drug addicts trying to score benzos in the ED have more convincing seizures. I’m not even willing to call it a pseudoseizure, it was that terrible. She literally lay down (didn’t fall, she actually lay down slowly on the ground) and started flopping like a fish while periodically looking at us to make sure we were watching. I’ve never seen anything like it. Her vitals signs were all completely normal, blood work was completely normal, everything was fine.

After she had “recovered” (read: got tired and gave up), my boss (who had taken over at this point because of how bizarre it was) explained to her that she did not have a reaction to the vaccine, was kind enough to call it a pseudozeizure, which is essentially a seizure like event cause by a psychological trigger rather than physical that to the patient feels like a real seizure but is not typically dangerous.

He informed her she would not be receiving an exemption. That resulted in much yelling and shouting, until I calmly informed her that she did not need an exemption as she was now fully vaccinated. She received the first dose prior to being sent to our clinic, and we gave her the full second dose during the challenge so she was covered. The look on her face was absolute gold.

She then proceeded to declare that she had not consented to being vaccinated (she had, in writing), and that she refused to accept that she was vaccinated (she was) and that we were lying to prevent her from claiming to be unvaccinated (we weren’t). She then stormed out of the clinic when I gave her a “I’m fully vaccinated” sticker which we normally give out after a second dose. I kinda got in a tiny bit of trouble for that bit, but it was soooo worth it.

It was an entertaining afternoon.

EDIT: Wow, thanks for the awards, and thanks for the platinum

EDIT 2: Seeing as so many people keep commenting on it, yes she was fully consented for the procedure. I had explained to her on at least 3 occasions that she would be getting an actual dose of the vaccine, I wrote the name of the vaccine, both the generic name and the brand name, on the top of the consent form infront of her, went through the full consent process, witnessed by a nurse, which she signed, and even showed her the label of the vial I drew the injection from. It’s an entire process to give an allergen challenge, and I followed it to the letter. Maybe she thought it didn’t count because it was a medical test, I don’t know, all I know is she knew she was getting it, she knew why she was getting it, and was aware of what was in the syringe I was injecting her with, but didn’t seem to understand that this meant she was now vaccinated

I wouldn’t mess with an allergy challenge. It’s a serious procedure that I take deadly seriously. I’m aware that I am administering a potentially deadly substance to someone. As much as I joke around on Reddit, I’m a doctor and I take my job very seriously.

[CaffeineNeeded]

Saw that earlier, and while I’m deeply skeptical of stories like that, they sure sound like a physician.

[VoteForSocialists]

the only remaining question is are we invading new zealand before australia, or immediately after.

[NotBruceZ]

I wish she’d had a seizure reaction to a placebo.

[Melkerson]

@NotBruceZ

I wish she’d had a seizure reaction to a placebo.

Yeah, that’s kind of where I thought he was going with the story. But then I would have thought it was fake for sure.

[CaffeineNeeded]

i’ve definitely seen placebo treated psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (yes, PNES is the abbreviation - try to say it as a word) with saline, but I’m not a fan of that. I just give them benzos.

i’m just glad they’re vaccinated.

[CaffeineNeeded]

yeah, and it’s really awful. While this woman is clearly being a manipulative piece of shit, most PNES are people with seizure disorders under some sort of stress. They don’t really control it, and they honestly are shaking uncontrollably the vast majority of time.

[LikeClockwork]

LikeClockwork odds of getting COVID -950 BOOSTED to -1500.

the numbers are made up, ya dingdongs. I know some of you calculated the real percentages lol

[iron81]

I suffered from something similar to this in college. The neurologist didn’t have to give me a placebo, just putting a name to the “tic” made it go away. The GP I went to first was worried enough to order an MRI.

[Danspartan]

What I mean is the variation in the genome is essentially random. Mutations occur. Some species do better in the short term with little mutation and have extensive error correction mechanisms during replication and generates variety by recombination (sex, people).RNA Viruses do better in the short term by having much less error correction and geenerate mutants at a high rate.

Then once a new genome arises, it succeeds (propagates) or fails based on its fitness for its environment, plus impact of competition, plus some random chance elements (more spreading Covid mutant forms in a host but that host dies before transmitting it).

So evolution isn’t just the end result. It’s not like a biochemical pathway that has been optimized by selection for a specific function like making lipids.

I’m using a very specific definition of process. Evolution is a scoreboard is the best simplest definition I’ve ever heard. Evolution doesn’t happen, rather it’s what had happened in the past. Based on past patterns we can make predictions of the direction of evolution (eg immune escape) but we don’t really know all the factors. We could get more deadly Covid or we could get less morbidity strain dominant.

At the end it comes down to probabilities.

[Huehuecoyotl]

https://twitter.com/BristOliver/status/1466871028026589184

[Danspartan]

This is awesome.

[Jalfrezi]

Covid: First data points to Omicron re-infection risk

The first real world data showing the coronavirus variant Omicron may evade some of our immunity has been reported by scientists in South Africa.

Scientists have detected a surge in the number of people catching Covid multiple times.

It is a rapid analysis and not definitive, but fits with concern about the mutations the variant possesses.

It is also not clear what this means for the protection given by vaccines.

The study, which has not been formally reviewed by other scientists, estimates Omicron could be twice as likely to cause a re-infection than earlier variants.

Prof Juliet Pulliam, from Stellenbosch University and one of the researchers, said: “These findings suggest that Omicron’s selection advantage is at least partially driven by an increased ability to infect previously infected individuals.”

However, it is still only one piece of the puzzle.

There are questions about how much waning immunity is a factor and the extent to which any variant would be able to take off now.

In addition, this was a rapid analysis and more data will come with time. The high burden of HIV, which suppresses the immune system, in the country also makes it harder to interpret the findings for the rest of the world.

[Jalfrezi]

Omicron’s R number estimated at greater than 6

Omicron driving record rate of Covid infection in South African province

[otatop]

@Jalfrezi

Omicron’s R number estimated at greater than 6

Holy shit.

[CaffeineNeeded]

“We know currently that the virus is transmissible. According to the scientists, the R value is 6.3, I think.”
Think we should wait a bit on this one.

[Tilted]

If this is actually true does this effectively mean we are all getting it at some point? No way to suppress it?

[j8i3h289dn3x7]

Only if you also assume that omicron reduces vaccine efficacy against infection to 0 percent which seems… unlikely.

[Jalfrezi]

The article states that delta is 5 so it’s not as bad as first seems.

Does that mean it’s expected to out compete delta?