7 minutes ago, sandyf said:

Sorry, I didn't get the memo that the pandemic had come to an end.

Every country is the world has been through multiple waves of infections and we're going on 2 years now. That means it's over. You either learn to live with it or go insane fighting the wind.

22 minutes ago, Joules said:

Folks are waiting for a decent vaccine.  the smart ones that a left unvaccinated don't want ass zeneca or Chinese surprise.  If the authorities want the country fully vaccinated the need to stop blocking the legitimate vaccines people want.

Smart ones? I'd say exactly the contrary.

 

4 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

The fact variants arise to me should mean learning to live with it ,not running from it anymore and not shutting everything down again.

 

The stark choice is between some death - mostly of unvaccinated, lifestyle unhealthy people and those 90 and above  - or even more total destruction of the economies of the world. The trade off with  non-covd deaths and starvation is not worth it.

 

As a slightly unhealthy person, even I still vote open up and live with it. 

 

Vaccinate , mask up, test where necessary, wash your hands, and get on with life 

Agreed.  But your last sentence is the problem.  Many are not vaccinated and for sure hate wearing masks or social distancing.

4 minutes ago, SymS said:

There are some indications Sinovac may protect better against Omicron, because it was a full inactivated virus. If I had to take a vaccine now, I'd personally take one with a mix of Sinovac and another one, probably Astra.

Would love to see some data that indicates that?

1 minute ago, Bkk Brian said:

Would love to see some data that indicates that?

there's none yet.  No vaccine manufacturer has confirmed how their jabs work with Omicron.  As you know, we'll need a few weeks for this.

But But the Prime Minister said it will not get into Thailand ????

2 hours ago, zzaa09 said:

Another invented scare the world is taking to heart....

Another dead-neck conspiracy theorist

13 hours ago, tgw said:

what I've heard so far is that omicron causes mild symptoms - if this is true, couldn't that be a chance to instead spread it as much as possible, achieving herd immunity?

It's not been determined if it's mild or not.  We do know it's more transmissible.  And hospitals are filling up in Africa.  Covid is not something you want people to catch.  Long covid is a real problem with many. 

 

https://twitter.com/rid1tweets/status/1466828284445040645

 

1 minute ago, Jeffr2 said:

Agreed.  But your last sentence is the problem.  Many are not vaccinated and for sure hate wearing masks or social distancing.

The unvaccinated are the biggest problem:

 

When the 2020 virus became Alpha and Alpha became Delta, prior infection continued to protect against the new variant. Not so with Omicron.

 

Conclusion: We find evidence of a substantial and ongoing increase in the risk of reinfection that is temporally consistent with the timing of the emergence of the Omicron variant in South Africa, suggesting that its selection advantage is at least partially driven by an increased ability to infect previously infected individuals.

 

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.11.21266068v2.full.pdf+html

 

 

 

 

I think everyone knows that there will be new variants that will strike around the globe, as we can see the pattern: in 2020, there was just Covid without variants, in 2021 there's the Delta variant, so in 2022 there will be the Omicron variant and so on… until those who are not unvaccinated will be vaccinated, because billions out there still have not been vaccinated yet. So be ready live with c19 variants. My question is, why are all the variants are popping up at end of the year?

8 minutes ago, SymS said:

I'm not sure I can post a link here. It's the John Campbell video on YouTube entitled "Omicron good news". He talks about "Sinovac recipients may do well", but I can't remember which study or health official he refers to.

He has some pretty good videos, but remember, he's not a scientist and is a retired nursing teacher. 

 

Just listened to it.  He's speculating and says nobody knows.

Baiting post and reply has self destructed

6 minutes ago, SymS said:

I'm not sure I can post a link here. It's the John Campbell video on YouTube entitled "Omicron good news". He talks about "Sinovac recipients may do well", but I can't remember which study or health official he refers to.

There is no hard data, just assumptions;

 

https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/inactive-jabs-may-serve-better-against-omicron-turkish-expert/news

7 minutes ago, Jeffr2 said:

Covid is not something you want people to catch.  Long covid is a real problem with many. 

 

The 4 family members I know aged 25 to 72 that got COVID all had mild or flu like symptoms. 

Was already detracted in July in South Africa.

According to the discovering doctor, it breaks trough the vaccine, but the symptoms are very mild and not requiring hospitalization. 

 

So what difference would vaccination make?

 

8 minutes ago, NorthernRyland said:

The 4 family members I know aged 25 to 72 that got COVID all had mild or flu like symptoms. 

And I've got friends who died.  One was under 40.  Individual data points like this mean nothing.

6 minutes ago, aBigSmile said:

Was already detracted in July in South Africa.

According to the discovering doctor, it breaks trough the vaccine, but the symptoms are very mild and not requiring hospitalization. 

 

So what difference would vaccination make?

 

There's no evidence it breaks through the vaccine.  None.  And the vaccine will help keep you out of the hospital and potentially dying.  And, it will help reduce the transmission of the virus.  Thus, helping to end the pandemic.  You're not already aware of this?

With fear comes uncertainty, with fear comes anxiety, with fear comes exhaustion, with fear comes stress. 

5 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

The fact variants arise to me should mean learning to live with it ,not running from it anymore and not shutting everything down again.

 

The stark choice is between some death - mostly of unvaccinated, lifestyle unhealthy people and those 90 and above  - or even more total destruction of the economies of the world. The trade off with  non-covd deaths and starvation is not worth it.

 

As a slightly unhealthy person, even I still vote open up and live with it. 

 

Vaccinate , mask up, test where necessary, wash your hands, and get on with life 

Should we have learned to live with MERS, SARS, Ebola, Polio or Smallpox?

 

Your binary comparison of lock downs vs starving to death is completely false. Many countries have been either unaffected or minimally affected economically by coronavirus... Stock markets have boomed and the rich have gotten much richer.

 

Countriies which locked down have fared much better than countries which did not. See Australia and Vietnam.

 

https://www.statista.com/topics/6139/covid-19-impact-on-the-global-economy/#dossierKeyfigures

 

 

Has anyone died yet from this Omicron variant?  Anyone got seriously sick (who wasn't already ill, old with a weak immune system, or with an unhealthy lifestyle?)

 

No?  So carry on with living.  I got a cold last week.......

14 hours ago, tgw said:

what I've heard so far is that omicron causes mild symptoms - if this is true, couldn't that be a chance to instead spread it as much as possible, achieving herd immunity?

Agreed, if that is the case LET IT RIP. 

It will be interesting to see how, and when, the first case if Omicron is reported.

 

I feel like it will be found in a foreigner, with the odds on favorite being Burmese or Laotian (long shot: Botswana). And may not be found until after 1 January.

 

 

 

 

 

Just now, simon43 said:

Has anyone died yet from this Omicron variant?  Anyone got seriously sick (who wasn't already ill, old with a weak immune system, or with an unhealthy lifestyle?)

 

No?  So carry on with living.  I got a cold last week.......

Since Africa doesn't really report deaths well, who knows.  Sick?  For sure.  Hospitals are filling up in South Africa.  Including those who'd already gotten the virus.  But as you know, deaths lag hospitalizations.  Time will tell.

 

You should continue on with living.  Especially if you are vaccinated and follow the standard health precautions.  No one is saying otherwise.  This article is about getting the jab if you haven't.

 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/omicron-variant-puttings-huge-numbers-of-kids-under-5-years-old-in-hospital-in-south-africa

Omicron Triggers ‘Unprecedented’ COVID Surge Hitting Children Under Age 5 in South Africa

37 minutes ago, Jeffr2 said:

It's not been determined if it's mild or not.  We do know it's more transmissible.  And hospitals are filling up in Africa.  Covid is not something you want people to catch.  Long covid is a real problem with many. 

 

https://twitter.com/rid1tweets/status/1466828284445040645

 

 

With more than 11,000 cases just today in Gauteng, that black curve will have soared well above the dark blue Delta curve by this time next week.

 

 

41 minutes ago, SymS said:

I'm not sure I can post a link here. It's the John Campbell video on YouTube entitled "Omicron good news". He talks about "Sinovac recipients may do well", but I can't remember which study or health official he refers to.

 

Edit: It was just a supposition from his side, as Sinovac produces a wider range of antibodies, he concludes with "We don't know yet".

So just unsubstantiated rubbish ? 

3 minutes ago, nchuckle said:

So just unsubstantiated rubbish ? 

He does some good videos.  Not rubbish for sure. 

3 hours ago, vandeventer said:

We don't know if the vaccines will work against omicron but better to have than not at all. Also we know  that the people that have been infected before can be reinfected again according to S.A. doctors.

god it has taken you 2 years to accept this, not just S.A. doctors, doctors all over the world, that is different to the news media not only that they can spread it also

1 hour ago, sandyf said:

Sorry, I didn't get the memo that the pandemic had come to an end.

Straw man. He's not saying that the pandemic has come to an end. He's saying that management of the virus has improved since March 2020.  It makes no sense to attempt to restrain a virus which will come here, inevitably, if it hasn't already arrived. As the good doctor in the OP said, there's no point attempting to delay the inevitable. 

15 hours ago, cyril sneer said:

didn't know this

Now tell me how do the detect this variant if they still have no genome data for the original. Not to mention that SA has no such variation. 

1 minute ago, goatfarmer said:

Straw man. He's not saying that the pandemic has come to an end. He's saying that management of the virus has improved since March 2020.  It makes no sense to attempt to restrain a virus which will come here, inevitably, if it hasn't already arrived. As the good doctor in the OP said, there's no point attempting to delay the inevitable. 

Getting vaccinations and boosters up as high as possible is a very good reason