Omicron may be significantly better at evading vaccine-induced immunity, but less likely to cause severe disease

[Whathefisgoingon]

www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/omicron-may-be-significantly-better-at-evading-vaccine-induced-immunity-but-less-likely-to-cause

Reinforcing the need for boosters. Good news

Is good news allowed on here any more? Somebody will be along to discredit it presumably, but it sounds good to me.

This is fantastic, thanks for sharing!

Prof Gupta still writes
“Omicron still represents a major public health challenge. Individuals who have only received two doses of the vaccine – or worse, none at all – are still at significant risk of COVID-19, and some will develop severe disease.”

Remember that “less likely” does not necessarily mean “very unlikely”.

And there it is.

It’s becoming endemic. Novel Coronaviruses usually evolve over time to spread faster/easier but also to kill fewer hosts (milder illness). Every common cold was once a novel coronavirus. So this is entirely expected. Novel pathogens...ones that jump the species barrier are really our only predator.

@EmpressCixi

It’s becoming endemic. Novel Coronaviruses usually evolve over time to spread faster/easier but also to kill fewer hosts (milder illness). Every common cold was once a novel coronavirus. So this is entirely expected. Novel pathogens...ones that jump the species barrier are really our only predator.

They were not, the common colds are predominantly Rhinoviruses which are Enterovirus, there are other viruses which cause the common cold as well, Coronaviruses being around 12% of colds.

Viruses are never predators, they do not hunt, they make no choices, they do not even meet many definitions of life.

@Sparklingbrook

And there it is.

In all fairness, it is worth pointing out since the OP, like much of MN has failed to grasp the problem we are facing.

The level of restrictions in the U.K. mean that omicron rates are still doubling so fast it doesn’t really matter how severe it is. And I’m not sure that giving false hope is helpful Although I wouldn’t rule out that there are people who do get on better being falsely optimistic right up until the shit hits the fan.

@MatildaIThink

True that “common cold” includes other virus types in addition to the coronavirus. I didn’t word my statement quite right, but meant every common cold caused by a coronavirus was once a novel coronavirus.

On the predator thing, have to agree to disagree. Viruses live and die, so are a type of living entity. And a predator is any living entity in nature that can and does kill another living entity to further it’s ability to live and reproduce. Choice only applies to human predators, most animal predators act out of involuntary instinct. And just because some predators hunt, doesn’t mean all predators do. After all, most of our prey we do not hunt but domesticate and essentially farm meat. Other great apes farm termites to eat. Even the lowly ants farm meat prey by having domesticated aphid farms.

Nature doesn’t really have any way to kill humans other than by infectious diseases. So they’re quite literally our primary predator. Teeny tiny but powerful.

Christmas Day alone will cause the virus to become uncontrollable

Lockdown will be too late, as before

Viruses live and die, so are a type of living entity
Viruses are generally not considered living organisms because they cannot reproduce by themselves. They are complex proteins, not cells. www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-viruses-alive-2004/

The definition of "predator" is an animal which kills and eats another. Viruses don't eat humans. Predator is not the right word, I think the closest word would be parasite but even then, a parasite is an organism whereas a virus is not.

Good news

I think that's great news!
Yes I understand that a virus that spreads so fast is more likely to infect more people at once severely enough that higher numbers are going into hospital, but surely the way it's ripping through the population, alot of us will have some immunity to omicron over the next month or two due to having the virus? I understand the need to be careful with mixing with others, but surely the fact it's less severe is very good.

@DockOTheBay

Viruses live and die, so are a type of living entity Viruses are generally not considered living organisms because they cannot reproduce by themselves. They are complex proteins, not cells. www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-viruses-alive-2004/

The definition of "predator" is an animal which kills and eats another. Viruses don't eat humans. Predator is not the right word, I think the closest word would be parasite but even then, a parasite is an organism whereas a virus is not.

It’s old fashioned to think a virus is not a type of life in nature. You don’t have to be sentient like an animal is to be alive.

I know a virus is not a cell. But it has its own unique DNA, and again can be alive or dead. We know this because we have vaccines with live, but weakened, viruses in them AND we have vaccines with dead virus DNA components in them.

Predator is closer than parasite when talking about a new virus that kills as parasites do not kill their hosts. Again, you don’t have to be an sentient animal to be predator, several plants and fungi are also predators.

The definition of "predator" is an animal which kills and eats another. Viruses don't eat humans.

They do eat humans at the cellular level. Every cell invaded by a virus is eaten as the virus reproduces inside it and then it is dissolved so more viruses can spread to new cells within the host. It’s “eating” just on a micro scale instead of a macro scale.

Viruses as humanity’s natural predator
www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a06601/an-endless-arms-race-viruses-as-humanity’s-natural-predator.html

Yes. I am determined to work with the power of positive thought this week.

We have approx another week before we find out if serious illness is largely avoided. If that is the case, we could stop isolating positive but well people, which would solve the staffing crisis in the NHS/schools/everywhere.

Coronaviruses usually evolve over time to spread faster/easier but also to kill fewer hosts (milder illness).

Not really. Viruses evolve to spread more efficiently. This generally means that viruses that kill or incapacitate their hosts quickly need to evolve to be a bit less deadly to allow time for their hosts to associate with other potential hosts.

SARS-COV2 does not kill or incapacitate it's host quickly so there is no evolutionary pressure to become less deadly.