14 minutes ago, VBF said:

11 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

Now all that said - Omicron is staying in the upper respiratory system and does not move down to lungs. The whole reason why COVID became global emergency was because it moved to lungs, and caused deadly pneumonia. Now if Omicron doesn't move to lungs - how is it any different from a common cold, which is just like COVID, just it doesn't move to lungs?

Interesting last paragraph - could you support it with a link to a reputable source please.

There are lots of articles out there now that are reporting that Omircon causes upper respiratory tract infection.....  

 

Here are two sources. 

Reuters & research carried out by LKS Faculty of Medicine at The University of Hong Kong (HKUMed).

 

 

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/omicron-thrives-airways-not-lungs-new-data-asymptomatic-cases-2021-12-15/

 

https://www.med.hku.hk/en/news/press/20211215-omicron-sars-cov-2-infection

 

 

To summarise: 

Omicron replicates 70x faster in the upper respiratory tract, but 10x slower in the lower respiratory tract than the original SARS-CoV-2 strain.

Disease severity is still individual to the patient, however, it would appear that infection and consequence complications if any are in the upper respiratory tract for ‘most’.

1 hour ago, VBF said:

Symptoms

 

The most important symptoms of COVID-19 are recent onset of any of the following:

• a new continuous cough
• a high temperature
• a loss of, or change in, your normal sense of taste or smell (anosmia)

 

So the official guidance in UK doesn't treat Omicron differently from other variants. 

I'm not sure when "high temperature" translates to "fever" - are you?

Appears they are slow in updating perhaps because research is in the early stages.

 

With Omicron severe fatigue and runny nose are more common.

High fever is less common.

Loss of taste smell less common.

 

In other words many people infected with Omicron may have a cold or flu instead.

Sad story. It would seem that this guy likely worked out of the country, and his wife stayed in Buriram 

with her family. That may be the reason that he had to visit her.  Some people sure have no

imaginations.  Hope they all survive and get well again.

20 hours ago, webfact said:

But by Christmas Eve he had developed a high fever and checks at the house revealed it was Covid-19.

If he has multiple tests and assuming his hosts had not been tested prior to his infection, what stops the hypothesis, the family had been infected and he got infected from them?

19 hours ago, smedly said:

sounds to me like he got infected in Thailand, this is what happens when there is no mass testing going on, the virus could be rampant and you will only find out when someone gets sick, out of all the people involved in this, the only person very recently and extensively tested is the foreigner, logic tells me - it didn't originate with him 

Logic? That's hard to find here. Xenophobic headlines are easy to find. They abound.

20 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

 

 

With Omicron being 70x more infectious than Delta (I read this number in the news, but a bit skeptical)

Omicron is not 70x 'more infectious' than Delta. It has been reported to spread in the bronchus 70 times more/faster than Delta. It might be three times more infectious.
https://inews.co.uk/news/science/omicron-covid-variant-infectious-delta-r-value-1340005

13 hours ago, JustAnotherHun said:

And another bar stool expert not knowing what he's babbling about. But at least he found a scapegoat.

You, in contrast are an expert and therefore able to recognize and critique others.

We are all thankful for your unlimited wisdom to guide us onto the proper path, i.e. yours.

It looks like today, Europe is tightening its restrictions, as COVID19 is spiking so much. 

  Maybe not so many people are dying, but if the hospitals are still getting full again, with the staff

close to being fully burned out I feel very sorry for all those who are working in the health

sector.  Sick is sick and the posters who think that the Delta variant is gone are fooling themselves.

  i just had another friend who died from COVID, and it was the Delta variant. He did not live long

enough to catch the latest version..  Good Luck to all, and maybe you will be lucky enough to get Omicron

if you catch COVID 19 at all.

Those bloody Brits. I bet if he showered at least once every three days he could have washed it away. ????????????

Lots of risks.

 

Taking a flight is probably the most risky thing anyone can do as it's a perfect way to get covid.

 

Flight attendants are particularly common spreaders.

11 hours ago, VBF said:

Interesting last paragraph - could you support it with a link to a reputable source please.

https://tna.mcot.net/english-news-849139

 

BANGKOK, Dec 24 (TNA) – The Omicron variant of COVID-19 spreads faster than the Delta variant because it stays in the upper respiratory tract and does not attack lungs, according to the Department of Medical Sciences.

 

Dr. Supakit Sirilak, director-general of the department, said the Omicron variant mostly stayed in the upper respiratory tract and thus spread 70 times faster than the Delta variant. However, the Omicron variant did not harm lungs like the Delta variant.

 

16 hours ago, Andrew65 said:

Some years ago an old Scottish friend came down with meningitis just over a week after he arrived in Bangkok, almost died. I suspected that he caught it on the 12 hour flight over, planes are like flying petri-dishes.

That's a bit of an urban myth. It may have been true once upon a time, but not so much nowadays.

 

Quote

Most, but not all, commercial aircraft are equipped with HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filters.

 

Officially, certified HEPA filters “block and capture 99.97 percent of airborne particles over 0.3 micron in size,” says Tony Julian, an air-purifying expert with RGF Environmental Group.

 

“Cabin air is completely changed every three minutes, on average, while the aircraft is cruising”

How clean is the air on planes?

And ???
What is so remarkable about that?
 

1 case

among 2,437 new “cases”

in a country with a population of 70 million …

16 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Appears they are slow in updating perhaps because research is in the early stages.

 

With Omicron severe fatigue and runny nose are more common.

High fever is less common.

Loss of taste smell less common.

 

In other words many people infected with Omicron may have a cold or flu instead.

Thanks those who replied to my request for information. Note to self: "Keep up, man!" 

I have presently got the daddy of colds with fatigue and runny nose as have several friends of mine here in UK. Took a lateral flow test last night because I just wasn't sure - all clear, so this is getting (more) confusing now.

Having said that if that's all Omicron does, it doesn't seem worth re-imposing restrictions for 

On 12/27/2021 at 11:33 AM, tomazbodner said:

He could have simply gotten infected on a plane, which could have had infected transit passengers so they'd not know the source. As it would have been very early, the infection would not have picked up on initial test, but only a few days later when the viruses had an opportunity to multiply to the detectable levels.

 

With Omicron being 70x more infectious than Delta (I read this number in the news, but a bit skeptical), it should not take much for someone to get it in any closed space. As US health authorities estimate half the Earth's population would catch Omicron over the next 3 months, getting into a pressurised tube with hundreds of strangers for a day, masks off during eating and drinking, is pretty much a sure bet to catch it.

 

Now all that said - Omicron is staying in the upper respiratory system and does not move down to lungs. The whole reason why COVID became global emergency was because it moved to lungs, and caused deadly pneumonia. Now if Omicron doesn't move to lungs - how is it any different from a common cold, which is just like COVID, just it doesn't move to lungs?

If this were true, then it would be likely all people on the flight , vaccinated or not, could be spreading the virus right now in Thailand or other places. With a 99.7% survival rate....is this The End?

1 hour ago, pizzachang said:

If this were true, then it would be likely all people on the flight , vaccinated or not, could be spreading the virus right now in Thailand or other places. With a 99.7% survival rate....is this The End?

I certainly hope so!

On 12/27/2021 at 3:40 AM, Geoffggi said:

Could this possibly be the source of the infection ?????

Good point

On 12/27/2021 at 4:40 PM, rbkk said:

So confirmation that "All the tests....." don't work. The same as with the 2 tourists in Chiang Mai reported yesterday. 

That seems to be the case and also Omicron might not have incubated when given the RT PCR

lets hope Omicron wipes out Delta and proves to be mild and natural immunity occurs, as is looking more likely by the day according to the data coming from SA