They’re worse.
I’ve also read some informed speculation that everyone in SA who hasn’t been vaccinated has already been infected. If true, that would mean that all of these cases are breakthroughs or reinfections, who have some degree of immune protection to protect them from the worst outcome.
If that pattern holds, the real danger is to populations that haven’t been vaccinated and also weren’t ravaged by Delta already. Are there any countries like that left?
Also bad for vulnerable individuals in general. The idea of herd immunity is that people can be protected both by their own immune systems but also by the immune systems of people in the transmission chains between them and the virus. If Omicron is able to spread effectively through immune people, even if it doesn’t make them sick, it can reach vulnerable people more easily.
Also, under-5 vax approval needs to happen before year-end, or it’s going to be a dead letter. That is, of course, not going to happen, so…
This seems really unlikely. Even delta doesn’t have that kind of penetration. Measles could do something like that maybe.
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Has anyone seen any updated research or studies on whether immunity is passed in utero or from breastfeeding? I suppose this is still pretty new, but maybe someone has done enough research now to feel confident one way or the other if a mother passes immunity to her baby.
I think you’re underestimating how bad Delta is. Excess deaths are 0.44% of South Africa’s entire population:
Delta’s terrible in the US and Europe, where it’s blunted by vaccination and greater flexibility to adopt NPIs (telework, etc). It’s way worse in other places.
Warning: Speculation ahead.
IF omicron is faster and significantly milder, then should the question we should asking is- does omicron infection provide protection from the earlier, more dangerous strains?
The reporting seems to still fit the faster/milder concept. So rather than worry if vax/prior infection can slow omicron, maybe it’s just what we need (though then those covidiots won’t suffer)
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And to be clear the answer is vax vax vax, but for either the morons or those unfortunate to not have access it might blunt the worst phase of this pandemic.
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My daughter has been told both her first shot while pregnant and then second shot after birth with nursing offer the baby some protection. I don’t know if specific studies.
Man we could definitely get antivaxxers to suckle at recent mothers in lieu of getting vaccinated.
I mean they did consume horse paste.
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Don’t give them any handmaiden type ideas. They could make it a law that any lactating mother is obligated to breastfeed on demand.
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I don’t have the influence or social media proficiency to make that happen.
But I totally would come up with fucked up things antivaxxers could do to protect themselves from covid just to see how much they’re willing to degrade themselves to avoid a vaccine. At what point do they go, “I know semen has antibodies but I’m not sucking off my dad for it!”
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TMI
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Not surprising, of course. Also not clear if it will actually have any electoral impact at all. See VA and NJ election results.
Exponentiality says the R number of omicron doesn’t need to be much higher than delta’s to infect a much greater number in the same period.
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We aren’t talking about omicron, we are talking about delta, and whether basically the entirety of South Africa has already been infected with it, in a span of 7 months.
OK. It is possible. The UK has seen 10M positive tests in a country with severe lockdowns and 70% of the population fully vaxxed. Obviously the total number of infections is way higher than that. Many people have been infected without even knowing it or having to take a test.
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You’re basically arguing that SA achieved herd immunity against delta in 7 months. Again, that is very unlikely.
Speaking of hippos
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I haven’t really looked into this, but is COVID very unusual in that it can infect so many different animals. Are there other viruses that can seemingly infect pretty much every mammal at a zoo?