Virt

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/bankruptcy-law/evergrande-defaults-for-first-time-as-china-debt-strains-spread I wonder how bad news this is.

I think it's wrong to say that Omicron has no health effects whatsoever. Data from south africa. https://www.nicd.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NICD-COVID-19-Daily-Sentinel-Hospital-Surveillance-report-National-20211208.pdf Quite a rise in hospital admissions in week 47 and 48 Quite a lot on ventilators and needing oxygen. Statistically it's impossible that all of those cases are caused just by the Delta variant. This article seems to indicate it's not all good news when it comes to the omicon variant. https://www.voanews.com/a/south-africa-readies-hospitals-as-omicron-variant-drives-new-covid-19-wave-/6340912.html Hospitals in South Africa’s Gauteng province, which contains two of the country’s biggest cities, are packed with people infected with the omicron variant. Doctors say most of the patients haven’t been vaccinated, and an alarming number of them are children under the age of five-years-old

I think of it like this. A booster will increase the amount of anti bodies once again, and we still have the delta spreading so who knows which version we get if we are infected. No matter if we get delta or omicron a booster shot should be better than none imo.

This article has a graph, which explains why a more transmissible but milder virus might end up causing more deaths. So we're are not out of the woods yet, and i still think it's best to receive the vaccine to try and reduce the submissions to hospitals if it turns out omicron is much more transmissible and the exponential growth will result in more hospitalisations. https://projectprotech.ca/community-news/omicron-variant-will-likely-be-worse-than-delta-according-to-early-research/

Even if it's mostly mild it also causes hospitalizations. Some hospitals in south Africa has seen the submissions to hospitals double by each day this week. It's that worrying? It could be so i would also say it's best to take the vaccines even if a mild mutation is spreading. Sure the chance are that people will not be hospitalized, but if it is really that transmittable, then we will see a huge amount of infected people within 6 months. Much much higher than we saw with the delta. So a certain % of them would need a hospital, and we could reach a point at some time, where infections will rise so fast, that hospitals are getting overburden. Not because it is mild, but because so many more are infected compared to the delta, and that would also mean more at hospitals even if it's milder. Someone better at English can probably better explain the statistics behind what i trying to say.

Don't you think we should try and delay it a bit until we know more? One thing that i can't seem to find any articles about, is what if omicron really is so mild as we hope it is, and it eventually replaced all other variants in the world. Are we then home safe, or could a new mutation from the omicron become way more dangerous than let's say the delta?

I'm familiar with the many articles that describes this case, and yeah it does sound like there are certain things to criticize. I'm not denying that. The most worrying thing might be that some of vaccines were not all stored at correct temperatures. It sounds like a sloppy job at the facility in Texas but not necessarily tampering with the results. It was headlines here in Denmark as well. As far as i know FDA were notified about this by Jackson, and they didn't take any action. Why is that? Wouldn't you think FDA would have taken actions if they were worried at that time? Also we have to remember this was from the trials last year and involved 1000 people of 44000 in total, and since then in the US more than 275 millions doses has been given, and i don't know how many millions in the rest of the world. So should we really worry about the quality of the vaccine? Not in my opinion, but that does mean it's ok to do a sloppy job in a small part of the trials. Sorry for my english but trying as best as i can to explain how i feel about this case.

Another aspect from this story. https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/95484

Yeah that totally sucks big time and it's not fun for those having restaurants, bars, hotels etc. Here in Denmark we just got used to living a normal life and we had some lovely months with no restrictions at all, but now we are back to face masks in public transport/shopping malls, and we can expect some more restrictions later this week. it's getting annoying living like this.

Just a little correction and i'm sorry it it's off topic. Todays new cases are 6629 (179 of them are omicon so far) from 199.223 PCR test which is positive % of 3,35% 461 hospitalizations. (4 less than yesterday) (151 unvaxed, 12 that had their first shot and 290 fully vaxed) In intensive care is 66 and 38 of them are in respirator (433 respirators are what we have total at our disposal) Statistically it makes sense why the number of unvaxxed in hospitals are higher than the unvaxxed and the unvaxed are having a 4 x higher chance of getting hospitalized if we look at our numbers. So overall we're actually not doing that great at the moment when it comes to new daily cases because they are the highest ones we're seeing during the entire pandemic, but our numbers is hospitals are more than 50% less than they were when we had most in hospitals. So that shows that the vaccines are doing what they are suppose to do. Omicron is still so new that we haven't started to see the real impact of it. Give it a month or so and we will see if it's so harmless that we all hope it is. Let's hope in a year from now, that we don't have to sit here and argue about another mutation and that we can start talking about vacations and such in Thailand once again. It's been a while and i can't wait to return to Thailand.

No my English is to bad ???? As far as people getting less sick at the moment that's just great news if it continues like that, but since we have no idea how it will look in a month or two, it might be a good idea to try and slow it down if possible. And testing is an easy way to track the omicron cases so why not. Fingers crossed that we continue to see low hospitalizations with omicron cases

I don't think anyone can at the moment, since it's so new. The data from south Africa is still quite new, but it looks promising, but we just have to wait and see. Personally i hope omicron pushes delta away if it turns out omicron are less deadly.

I agree they shouldn't try and bury their data. That's just like asking for trouble. As for their trial data I'm not that worried. They had one of the largest if not the largest study ever when it comes to a new vaccine. If something has been hidden it will be revealed, but i highly doubt that. As for them making money on this situation. I'm totally fine with that. If they had not invested and researched in the mRNA tech just like moderna, they wouldn't be able to deliver the new vaccines so fast as they did. It's only fair they make some money off that, so they can put some of the profit back into research for new drugs etc. It's not like it's that expensive for a life saving vaccine. But they shouldn't have tried to bury their data in the first place.

Or you can jump straight to the end. 5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION Review of the available data for this cumulative PM experience, confirms a favorable benefit: risk balance for BNT162b2.

It might be under control at the moment, but if it spreads so fast as it does here, it's just as matter of time before Thailand will face a new wave. Here in Denmark we're seeing more and more cases of omicron each day that has not been related to traveling in Africa. We went from 18 cases Friday to 183 Sunday and i think we passed 300 yesterday. (EDIT. We're at 398) We do test a lot more than other countries (200,000 daily PCR test in a 5.8 million population plus 100,000+ quicktests) and we sequence a lot so of course we catch more cases, compared to some other countries. We're also starting to find the omicron in our sewer samples as well, so i don't think we're able to control it any more. We might be able to slow down the spread, but it looks like it's going to take over the delta within a short time if the pace continue. I will suggest Thailand to massively ramp up their PCR testing, if they want to keep track of the omicron variant. It's the only way to know how widespread it is. I don't know if Thailand do sewer samples, but they could do that too if they don't use that method now.

The omicron numbers are probably a lot higher in Europe, when we look at Denmark's spiking numbers. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/12/05/denmark-omicron-sequencing/ So maybe restrictions like the ones Germany planned will be rolled out in more countries? Or it could flip the game plan if it turns out to be less deadly. It seems like more and more experts are slightly optimistic, but i still think it's feels a bit weird to celebrate a new mutation. "YAY for omicron. Let's raise our glasses. All hail the new mutation" Yeah that felt weird to say out loud. ????

Africa, a place the world has tried so long to save/exploit. No wonder they don't trust what the west is telling them, but it's also a region that still has witch doctors and all sorts of mumbo jumbo. In don't know how many that still can't read or have access to trustworthy news channels, but i would imagine it's still quite a few people that does not live in the major cities. Another problem is the logistics when it comes to the mRNA vaccines that needs to be kept at certain temperatures, so they might have a better chance with AZ etc. If it's so hard to get people vaccinated in the west, i can only imagine the problems the health authorities got in Africa, when it comes to the vaccines. It's still a place where countries are at war, famine in certain countries, poverty and high death rates when it comes to births. COVID is probably not a concern to many Africans, if life is all about surviving every day

I don't know how many countries that use them, but here in Denmark they are using a variant-PCR test that is so accurate to detect omicron that it counts as an omicron case if detected with that PCR test. That is way faster than sequencing it. Apparently it's developed by the danish national serum institute, but i would guess a lot more countries are using some sort of the same technique. They still sequence it to make sure if it's a mutated omicron or just the "standard" type. The numbers of omicron went from 18 to approx 250 in 3 days here, and more to come the next couple of days. So it's spreading pretty fast. Which could be a good thing or a bad thing. Time will tell. Let's hope it's the mutation that will put an end to this pandemic, so we can start living our normal lives again.

If Thailand tested as much as other European countries, Thailand numbers too would be through the roof. Try and look at this one and look at tests pr million. Thailand ranked 145. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries Would i prefer to stay in Thailand compared to staying in Europe during this winter? Hell yeah, but i wouldn't use the current numbers of positives in Thailand as an indication of the reality.

I don't think a lot of people will cancel their already bought tickets, since it's not possible to get a refund in the current situation, so he might be correct if 600,000 already had bought their tickets, but it does sound a bit to optimistic.

This article is optimistic, so let's cross fingers and wish for a better future where COVID is no more the huge problem as it is now. https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/omicron-variant-may-signal-the-end-of-covid-suggests-south-african-health-expert/news-story/9788a1687cfad162d4d18089aa952aff Off course we can't control how deadly the next mutations will become, but if it follows the same path as the Spanish flu there is light at the end of the tunnel.

So the ones that are previous infected with Delta do now have to take that test? Is that smart when south african data shows there are a rise in reinfections after Omicron surfaced. "If you recently recovered from COVID-19, you may instead travel with documentation of recovery from COVID-19 (i.e., your positive COVID-19 viral test result on a sample taken no more than 90 days before the flight’s departure from a foreign country, and a letter from a licensed healthcare provider or a public health official stating that you were cleared to travel). "

In Denmark we just hit 183 cases of omicron, which is quite an increase in 2 days. Friday we had 18 confirmed cases. We're testing like crazy so of course more cases will be found if not testing, but it's still a huge increase in a short time. Testing 200,000 pcr tests pr day and we're one of the countries that sequence the largest % of the positive cases. A lot of the new cases did not have any relation to travelers from south Africa or close contacts. So looks like it's out of the box, and time will tell which way out goes.

I would have to vote all 3 at the moment. Our guess is as good as all the experts because they are also all over the dart board with their prognoses. Time will tell who hit bulls eye. Personally i boarded the train with the experts who think it is less deadly and could push delta out of the way, but we just have to wait and see. I just hope my vaccinations will still do what they are supposed to do if i get infected. So far more than 90% has not had covid here in Denmark during the entire pandemic, but that could change if the new version are much more transmissible. Time will tell. I just hope we can avoid lockdowns and move on with life with the few restrictions we have here. We have covid 19 pass and mandatory masks while shopping and using public transport. We just started wearing masks again last week, after having several months with no restrictions what so ever. We never had mandatory masks outdoors and i hope it stays like that. I hate those annoying masks even if i am a huge fans of the vaccines.

Yeah it's valuable, but I'm not worried about the data collection itself. It's happening all over and has for many years. I'm more worried about data safety. The value of data has been discussed several years ago. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.economist.com/leaders/2017/05/06/the-worlds-most-valuable-resource-is-no-longer-oil-but-data This data collection might sound off topic, but it's also related to the vaccines and the strict rules in Germany. They have to collect data of each person to know if they are vaccinated or not. If that data were leaked it could cause some problems for the individual. As for the stricter rules in Germany. I think the world are looking at Germany and Austria and awaiting their next steps in the next couple of months. If it turns out both countries make vaccines mandatory and the virus more or less disappear after that, i think we will see more countries consider mandatory vaccines. But those countries might as well prepare for some violent protests, because the most extreme anti vaxers are not giving up without a fight. 2022 is going to be interesting in so many ways.