Not surprising since the Holiday season tends to spread and spike Covid... CDC Warns Rapid Spread of Omicron Could Lead to Massive Spike in COVID Cases by January https://people.com/health/cdc-warns...d-to-massive-spike-in-covid-cases-by-january/ Tags: COVIDOMICRON
COVID: Omicron is unstoppable now Experts in Germany say we're unprepared for the inevitable: Hundreds of thousands of omicron infections per day. That is how infectious the new variant is. https://www.dw.com/en/covid-omicron...GK_RSS_SmartNews_Volltext_ENG-20051-xml-media
The United States had how many Covid Deaths and Covid Hospitalizations by the date that vaccines became available ??? Today, we now have 802,000 Covid Deaths in which about 50% could have been avoided had they been vaccinated and then another 100k - 250k Covid deaths could have been avoided under the Trump administration had they not downplayed it, not sabotaged the CDC efforts to protect Americans and not discourage face mask wearing. Yet, even today, the Biden administration is battling courts to try to get people to get vaccinated to prevent more Covid deaths and prevent overwhelming our hospital systems because that then results in more restrictions against the public for its irresponsible behavior during a Pandemic. On December 16th, the U.S. had 1,157 Covid deaths and the 7 day average is 1,281 deaths. Sure, there have been people dying and having severe illnesses from vaccinations but it's not comparable to the number of deaths from Covid by those not vaccinated. These Variants of Concern will be a problem for many years because they're being birthed in low vaccination populations around the world, birth in immuno-compromised populations, birth from Zoonosis, and so on. My point, Variants of Concern are unpredictable and people need to be smart via looking at the risk factors. Simply, people are safer with vaccines in comparison to not vaccinated but this Pandemic and all the Pandemics before it...people mistakenly want 100% guarantees... There are none. We're lucky that Omicron only causes mild symptoms so far during its first wave. Yet, there are other risk factors that may show up out of the blue that could make Omicron just as deadly as the Delta Variant...risk factors that we can not control such as another mutation. If people don't want to get vaccinated...they need to stop bitching about it and wear their damn face mask. Just the same, those vaccinated need to stop pretending they are invincible and wear their face mask too (see what happens when vaccinated people don't follow public health guidelines such as the NYC Anime Convention...indoors). wrbtrader
Why Is Omicron So Contagious? The new coronavirus variant may be better than other versions at avoiding human immune defenses—but that ability may change in different countries https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-is-omicron-so-contagious/
This is where my research would go if I worked in a research lab again as an intern when I was in college especially as the R values change from one country to another country. ---------- What’s still unknown, Bedford emphasized, is how much of Omicron’s rapid rise is because of its intrinsic transmissibility versus its capacity to evade immune defenses. If a given population is broadly immune to other variants, he theorized, then Omicron will spread quickly even if it does not have an inherently superior transmission ability, because people’s immune systems will suppress competing variants. ---------- wrbtrader
The only virus more contagious than Omicron on the face of the earth is measles... Omicron Variant Is ‘Second Most Contagious Virus’ On Earth: What’s Number 1? https://www.ibtimes.com/omicron-variant-second-most-contagious-virus-earth-whats-number-1-3361974
Note this is a very small study involving only 15 individuals. Study shows people infected with Omicron may be less susceptible to Delta variant https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-12-people-infected-omicron-susceptible-delta.html Tags: COVIDOMICRON COVIDDELTA
Scientists struggle to understand the competition between Omicron and Delta https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2021-12-31/omicron-unknowns