Vaccinations, mutations among reasons why Omicron is less potent, says Thai virologist

[webfact]

Photo from AFP

 

Dr. Yong Poovorawan, chief of the Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology at the Faculty of Medicine of Chulalongkorn University, has offered an explanation as to why the Omicron variant is not as potent as and causes less severe symptoms than other COVID-19 strains.

 

Writing in his Facebook post today (Wednesday), he suggested the following:

 

• Although more children are being infected by the Omicron variant, their conditions are not severe and most experience flu-like symptoms or no symptoms at all, unlike older people, whose condition tends to be more serious, depending on age.
• Since most adults, including the elderly, have been inoculated, their symptoms tend to be less serious.
• The SARS-CoV-2 virus, according to studies in South Africa, has mutated to the extent that the Omicron variant has become less potent than the Delta variant.
• From lab studies, the Omicron variant tends to concentrate in the upper respiratory tract, instead of the lungs, resulting to fewer cases of lung infection.
• According to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, a microorganism, such as the virus, is constantly adapting, to enable it to enter the host cells for its own survival, while humans who have been infected with a virus will build up immunity to it. If the virus kills the host, it would have nowhere to multiply and survive.

 

Citing the case of Denmark, during the COVID-19 Alpha variant pandemic in 2020-21, Dr. Yong noted that the average daily infection rate over a week was 3,332 with 30 fatalities in 2020, but one year later, the average daily infections are 41,035, but deaths dropped to 12.

 

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https://www.thaipbsworld.com/vaccinations-mutations-among-reasons-why-omicron-is-less-potent-says-thai-virologist/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2022-01-06

 

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[welshguy]

This guy is a genius!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One day though, "maybe" he will be the first to offer his theories/explanations/answers etc.

 

 

(which havent already been said by others before him I mean!).

[Soikhaonoiken]

That's what the world health scientists have been saying for weeks,  why doesn't the good Dr come up with some new findings.. 

[TooMuchTime]

• According to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, a microorganism, such as the virus, is constantly adapting, to enable it to enter the host cells for its own survival, while humans who have been infected with a virus will build up immunity to it. If the virus kills the host, it would have nowhere to multiply and survive.

 

Wow, I have been saying this for over a year.  It is common knowledge that viruses tend to become more easily spread but less lethal as they mutate.  Why would a virus mutation survive if it kills its host quickly?

 

You learn this in middle school yet so many people on this forum thought it was a false concept.

[RandiRona]

Then can we open up with precautions, booster and masks dear doctor?

[ozimoron]

35 minutes ago, RandiRona said:

Then can we open up with precautions, booster and masks dear doctor?

We need a higher rate of vaccinations first. The economy will collapse otherwise. It already is starting to in all countries.

[phukettrader]

1 hour ago, ozimoron said:

We need a higher rate of vaccinations first. The economy will collapse otherwise. It already is starting to in all countries.

The reason economies and health services in other countries are under pressure is not because of poeple getting sick and dying from omicron, as most of these are asymtomatic and dont even know they've got it, it's because of the madness of having to isolate for 1-2 weeks for something we used to simply take a couple of asprins for and get on with life. So basically there is no staff left to operate these businesses.

[jacko45k]

These guys see the end in sight and want to be noticed before the fanfare. 

[Bohemianfish]

2 hours ago, RandiRona said:

Then can we open up with precautions, booster and masks dear doctor?

Not until the tourism industry in Thailand is completely decimated.

[RandiRona]

2 hours ago, ozimoron said:

We need a higher rate of vaccinations first. The economy will collapse otherwise. It already is starting to in all countries.

Everyone who wanted one got one, even boosters as well. Closedown hasn't solved it for any country. Even Australia and NZ are opening despite Omicron.

[jacko45k]

2 minutes ago, RandiRona said:

Everyone who wanted one got one, even boosters as well. Closedown hasn't solved it for any country. Even Australia and NZ are opening despite Omicron.

One might say they have decided to open up because it is omicron. Have NZ decided this now?

[ozimoron]

1 hour ago, phukettrader said:

The reason economies and health services in other countries are under pressure is not because of poeple getting sick and dying from omicron, as most of these are asymtomatic and dont even know they've got it, it's because of the madness of having to isolate for 1-2 weeks for something we used to simply take a couple of asprins for and get on with life. So basically there is no staff left to operate these businesses.

The staff themselves won't work in high exposure environments. It's not a matter of government policy.

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Dr. Yong Poovorawan, chief of the Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology at the Faculty of Medicine of Chulalongkorn University, has offered an explanation as to why the Omicron variant is not as potent as and causes less severe symptoms than other COVID-19 strains.

I suddenly feel more at ease now.????

[ozimoron]

37 minutes ago, RandiRona said:

Everyone who wanted one got one, even boosters as well. Closedown hasn't solved it for any country. Even Australia and NZ are opening despite Omicron.

Lock downs and lock out saved Australia and NZ big time until we got the vaccines. Right now, the vaccine isn't high enough to prevent an infection tidal wave which will wreck the economy. It's got nothing to do with lock downs now. Staff simply won't work in high exposure environments. Hospitals are seeing mass resignations because of governments attempting to force them to work and burnout from over work.

 

The anti lock down idiots are delusional. Lock downs or not, people are choosing not to go out and staff are choosing not to work because they are getting sick.

 

Here's some anecdotal evidence of that from Australia.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-06/australia-businesses-forced-covid-closure-as-cases-climb/100740866

Edited January 6, 2022 by ozimoron

[spidermike007]

Seems like Dr. Yong Poovorawan, chief of the Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology at the Faculty of Medicine of Chulalongkorn University is also an expert at cutting and pasting findings by more skilled, better funded, and more excellent scientific organizations, labs, nations and real experts. 

[ozimoron]

1 minute ago, spidermike007 said:

Seems like Dr. Yong Poovorawan, chief of the Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology at the Faculty of Medicine of Chulalongkorn University is also an expert at cutting and pasting findings by more skilled, better funded, and more excellent scientific organizations, labs, nations and real experts. 

He is doing nothing different from every person with his position in every country in the world.

[arithai12]

We have an epidemic of eminent/prominent Doctors generating irrelevant/obvious facebook post. The symptoms are a mild headache that lasts for a few hours, 7 days isolation from Asean Now is recommended.

[RandiRona]

17 minutes ago, ozimoron said:

Lock downs and lock out saved Australia and NZ big time until we got the vaccines

My point exactly, everyone who wanted one have one. Those are developed countries with strong social security system so staying home wont starve people to death. Things are different in Thailand. For your selfish reasons , dont lock out poor to death.

[Tropposurfer]

1 hour ago, phukettrader said:

The reason economies and health services in other countries are under pressure is not because of poeple getting sick and dying from omicron, as most of these are asymtomatic and dont even know they've got it, it's because of the madness of having to isolate for 1-2 weeks for something we used to simply take a couple of asprins for and get on with life. So basically there is no staff left to operate these businesses.

Tell that to the 800,000 plus people in the US who got the Delta variant weren't vaccinated and died (and those still dying there of the Delta and Omnicron because they continue to refuse vaccination, and those who obstruct others from being able to receive it through legislative obstruction) ... Aspirins indeed my friend, Aspirins ....

Edited January 6, 2022 by Tropposurfer

[ozimoron]

6 minutes ago, RandiRona said:

My point exactly, everyone who wanted one have one. Those are developed countries with strong social security system so staying home wont starve people to death. Things are different in Thailand. For your selfish reasons , dont lock out poor to death.

There's no economy for anybody with a rampant unchecked pandemic. This notion that things will go back to normal if the economy is opened up is utterly false.

[RandiRona]

3 minutes ago, ozimoron said:

There's no economy for anybody with a rampant unchecked pandemic. This notion that things will go back to normal if the economy is opened up is utterly false.

I am not talking about normal, new normal with boosters, masks and saving vulnerable. With Caution , Cure and  Courage.

Edited January 6, 2022 by RandiRona

[placeholder]

3 hours ago, TooMuchTime said:

• According to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, a microorganism, such as the virus, is constantly adapting, to enable it to enter the host cells for its own survival, while humans who have been infected with a virus will build up immunity to it. If the virus kills the host, it would have nowhere to multiply and survive.

 

Wow, I have been saying this for over a year.  It is common knowledge that viruses tend to become more easily spread but less lethal as they mutate.  Why would a virus mutation survive if it kills its host quickly?

 

You learn this in middle school yet so many people on this forum thought it was a false concept.

Not necessarily.

 

Will the Coronavirus Evolve to Be Less Deadly?

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/will-coronavirus-evolve-be-less-deadly-180976288/

 

The phylogenomics of evolving virus virulence

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41576-018-0055-5

[TooMuchTime]

2 minutes ago, placeholder said:

Not necessarily.

 

Will the Coronavirus Evolve to Be Less Deadly?

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/will-coronavirus-evolve-be-less-deadly-180976288/

 

The phylogenomics of evolving virus virulence

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41576-018-0055-5

Sure seems to be following that logic which is VERY easy to follow.  Covid sure seems less severe now than it's original variant for people with or without injections. I guarantee the long term outcome will be a weak COVID virus.  Same say the covid-19 coronavirus may be as weak as the other coronavirus that is generally called "the common cold". 

 

Don't let your biases blind you.

[Tropposurfer]

4 hours ago, TooMuchTime said:

• According to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, a microorganism, such as the virus, is constantly adapting, to enable it to enter the host cells for its own survival, while humans who have been infected with a virus will build up immunity to it. If the virus kills the host, it would have nowhere to multiply and survive.

 

Wow, I have been saying this for over a year.  It is common knowledge that viruses tend to become more easily spread but less lethal as they mutate.  Why would a virus mutation survive if it kills its host quickly?

 

You learn this in middle school yet so many people on this forum thought it was a false concept.

It this actually true? I just did a half hour search and read on a few top-flight medical and allied research sites e.g. Australian AMA, British BMA, CSIRO, (no not just US sites ... and certainly not news outlets or other experts like Dr Rogan and Co) and it seems these medical institutions were saying that NO not all viruses mutate to a weaker and less dangerous form over time, quite the contrary it seems. Some viruses such as the Covid strains have been observed in intensely studied hospitalised cases (where they have had the capacity to do so) where the virus is adapting to avoid detection and uptake of the treatments used to fight it and while mutating is not 'weakening'. But maybe these diverse sites across many nations and the entire globe are all part of the conspiracy which includes big pharma to poison us and implant nano-bots into us so they can control us ????????????????????????????????????????

[placeholder]

1 minute ago, TooMuchTime said:

Sure seems to be following that logic which is VERY easy to follow.  Covid sure seems less severe now than it's original variant for people with or without injections. I guarantee the long term outcome will be a weak COVID virus.  Same say the covid-19 coronavirus may be as weak as the other coronavirus that is generally called "the common cold". 

 

Don't let your biases blind you.

It's bizarre that you accuse me of biases. Had you bothered even to skim the article from Smithsonian you would have noted that the question is a lot more complicated than you believe.  I also cited an article from Nature.com, one of the worlds leading scientific journals about how difficult a question it is to resolve.

And your source of authority is what you learned in middle school. And for you, apparently, that's enough.

[TooMuchTime]

5 minutes ago, Tropposurfer said:

It this actually true? I just did a half hour search and read on a few top-flight medical and allied research sites e.g. Australian AMA, British BMA, CSIRO, (no not just US sites ... and certainly not news outlets or other experts like Dr Rogan and Co) and it seems these medical institutions were saying that NO not all viruses mutate to a weaker and less dangerous form over time, quite the contrary it seems. Some viruses such as the Covid strains have been observed in intensely studied hospitalised cases (where they have had the capacity to do so) where the virus is adapting to avoid detection and uptake of the treatments used to fight it and while mutating is not 'weakening'. But maybe these diverse sites across many nations and the entire globe are all part of the conspiracy which includes big pharma to poison us and implant nano-bots into us so they can control us ????????????????????????????????????????

Half your post looks like it was written by a schizo.  Run out of lithium?

 

I guess covid has become so deadly that it can't be detected and nearly half the cases are asymptomatic.

"He admitted that it is difficult to differentiate between an infection by the Omicron variant and flu, based on the symptoms, noting that, of about half of the Omicron cases are asymptomatic. "

 

Rather just make my decisions based off data which shows that covid has became more mild as time passes.  You can keep fear mongering while normal people continue on with their lives as normal.

 

[placeholder]

1 minute ago, TooMuchTime said:

Half your post looks like it was written by a schizo.  Run out of lithium?

 

I guess covid has become so deadly that it can't be detected and nearly half the cases are asymptomatic.

"He admitted that it is difficult to differentiate between an infection by the Omicron variant and flu, based on the symptoms, noting that, of about half of the Omicron cases are asymptomatic. "

 

Rather just make my decisions based off data which shows that covid has became more mild as time passes.  You can keep fear mongering while normal people continue on with their lives as normal.

 

You made a general claim about the evolution of pathogens. And you cite one instance to support it as a general truth. That you resort to making a personal insult about a poster who was only referencing facts, reveals quite clearly who is suffering from bias.

[TooMuchTime]

Just now, placeholder said:

You made a general claim about the evolution of pathogens. And you cite one instance to support it as a general truth. That you resort to making a personal insult about a poster who was only referencing facts, reveals quite clearly who is suffering from bias.

He was talking nonsense about podcasters and nano-bots...

 

I think I will pass on him.

[ozimoron]

1 minute ago, TooMuchTime said:

Half your post looks like it was written by a schizo.  Run out of lithium?

 

I guess covid has become so deadly that it can't be detected and nearly half the cases are asymptomatic.

 

"He admitted that it is difficult to differentiate between an infection by the Omicron variant and flu, based on the symptoms, noting that, of about half of the Omicron cases are asymptomatic. "

 

Rather just make my decisions based off data which shows that covid has became more mild as time passes.  You can keep fear mongering while normal people continue on with their lives as normal.

 

Proper diagnosis requires genome testing which takes time and has become impracticable due to the overwhelming number of cases. A single variant of covid has probably been shown to be less deadly. Every mutation is random and the next one may be more infectious and more deadly. It's too early to call full time yet. We can only be optimistic. Meantime hospitals are becoming overwhelmed and people are not being treated for other diseases.

[placeholder]

4 minutes ago, TooMuchTime said:

He was talking nonsense about podcasters and nano-bots...

 

I think I will pass on him.

It was obviously a joke directed at conspiracy theorists. And I notice you have nothing in the way of a fact-based reply to the issue as assessed by actual epidemiologists and evolutionary researchers.

Edited January 6, 2022 by placeholder