South Africa Covid-19 cases have nearly quadrupled since Tuesday, with Omicron fueling the surge On Thursday, the NICD also revealed that some of the new cases were people who had previously had Covid-19 and had been reinfected with the Omicron variant. "Previous infection used to protect against Delta but now with Omicron that doesn't seem to be the case," Professor Anne von Gottberg, a microbiologist from the country's National Institute for Communicable Diseases, said during news briefing on Thursday. _________________ Another bad sign, if previous infection doesn't give immunity to Omicron.
Good summary of the state of affairs in the US, 12/4/21. While some patients recently traveled in southern Africa, where the variant was first detected, others had no travel history, suggesting that community transmission is underway in the U.S. Many of the people who have tested positive in the U.S. were fully vaccinated, but they all have experienced mild symptoms so far. White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday that lab studies indicate booster shots increase antibody protection against a range of variants. Utah, Massachusetts, California, Minnesota, Colorado, Hawaii, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Missouri, New York and New Jersey have all confirmed cases.
First NJ, MA, GA cases, all fully vaccinated. Many of these cases are community transmission. It seems like Omicron is vaccine evasive for transmission, but the vaccines help keep the cases mild. Again, the hospitalized under 5 year olds in South Africa seem to suggest that the virus is capable of creating severe cases in the unvaccinated.
So much for natural immunity. By the way, looks like this will be another year of practically no flu infections. Especially now that many places are offering the COVID shot as a combo with flu shot.
The MN man who attended the anime exhibition in NYC (where everyone needed to be vaccinated) has infected "about half" of the 35 (also vaccinated) friends he met up with.
Profile of patient data out of Guanteng in S. Africa: https://www.samrc.ac.za/news/tshwane-district-omicron-variant-patient-profile-early-features
Omicron 'Ultimate Evidence' Of Danger From Vaccine Inequity: Red Cross https://www.ibtimes.com/omicron-ultimate-evidence-danger-vaccine-inequity-red-cross-3350862