~*Official #COVID-19 Thread of Doom*~ Revenge of Omicron Prime

[SaysWho?]

The end of the pandemic is in sight, WHO director-general says, 'so let's seize this opportunity'

WWW.CNN.COM

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The world has never been in a better position to end the Covid-19 pandemic, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said in a news briefing in Geneva on Wednesday.

 

[chakoo]

13 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

No Ketchup flavor? Are you even Canadian?

All Dressed is a Canadian flavor, imo better than ketchup 

 

Spoiler

Yet my heart is still with Cool Ranch Doritos as the best. 

 

[Jason]

13 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

No Ketchup flavor? Are you even Canadian?

 

1 minute ago, chakoo said:

All Dressed is a Canadian flavor, imo better than ketchup 

 

 Ketchup is one of the flavors in All Dressed isn't it?

[silentbob]

All Dressed over Ketchup for sure. I remember when Ruffles was just bringing out the flavour (or so it seem when I was young) We took a 3.5hr drive down to Windsor to see my grandfather, and got to pick a treat for the ride. We found the AD Chips and were hooked for years to come. Although my go too flavour is Ruffles Sour Cream and Bacon BUT you gotta let the chips breath a bit. I find them so much better the following day as the flavour just gets better after exposure to air. 
 

Also did you guys know they brought out a KFC flavour chip. Doesn’t taste like the chicken but more like the gravy.

 

[chakoo]

16 minutes ago, Jason said:

Ketchup is one of the flavors in All Dressed isn't it?

Yes it is. 

 

"The flavor is a brilliant cocktail of barbecue, salt and vinegar, and ketchup"
https://www.esquire.com/food-drink/a24752080/all-dressed-potato-chips-are-the-best-flavor/

 

[Brick]

The best is regular flavoured Ruffles chips, and get a chip dip. Heluva Good French onion dip for example.

[AbsolutSurgen]

17 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

No Ketchup flavor? Are you even Canadian?

Ketchup flavour exists in Canada.  I don't know any Canadians who eat it.

22 hours ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

 

My heat level is currently All Dressed. So, more tangy than spicy.

 

[AbsolutSurgen]

 

 

[Captain Pickle]

8 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

Ketchup flavour exists in Canada.  I don't know any Canadians who eat it.

I has always been my favourite flavour. Ha, unintentional double use of ‘u’s

[marioandsonic]

I'm scheduled to get both my flu shot and a booster this evening.  I assume the booster is the Omicron one?

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

1 hour ago, marioandsonic said:

I'm scheduled to get both my flu shot and a booster this evening.  I assume the booster is the Omicron one?

 

Yes, the new bivalent boosters are the only ones currently authorized by the FDA to be administered at this point.

[Jason]

1 minute ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

Yes, the new bivalent boosters are the only ones currently authorized by the FDA to be administered at this point.

 

Apparently this has led to no boosters being available for the 5-12 group because the authorization for use of the old boosters was pulled across the board even though the new boosters aren't approved for under 12 and under.

[marioandsonic]

Got both my Omicron booster and my flu shot today.

 

They had an issue with the flu shot, because it was leaking somehow, so I got a second shot for that.  It was weird...

[Joe]

My immune system threw in the towel :(. I officially have the rona.

[marioandsonic]

9 hours ago, marioandsonic said:

Got both my Omicron booster and my flu shot today.

 

They had an issue with the flu shot, because it was leaking somehow, so I got a second shot for that.  It was weird...

 

Both of my shoulders feel sore this morning because of the shots.  I really don't want move my arms right now...

 

Other than that, I feel okay.

[CayceG]

16 minutes ago, marioandsonic said:

 

 I really don't want move my arms right now...

 

 

 

Ah, but you MUST!

 

It's good for them. 

 

 

I plan on getting my Flu/Rona combo today or tomorrow. I've had Pfizer for everything until now and might get the Moderna bivalent. Do we think the side effects be worse with that, or worse with the Pfizer?

[Joe]

I thought I had some bland pho for lunch but turns out I lost my sense of smell and taste. My worst nightmare has come to fruition.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

7 minutes ago, Joe said:

I thought I had some bland pho for lunch but turns out I lost my sense of smell and taste. My worst nightmare has come to fruition.

I also fear having bland pho

[MarSolo]

Eating pho again is my worst nightmare.

[Jason]

21 minutes ago, Joe said:

I thought I had some bland pho for lunch but turns out I lost my sense of smell and taste. My worst nightmare has come to fruition.

 

f

[Air_Delivery]

1 hour ago, Joe said:

I thought I had some bland pho for lunch but turns out I lost my sense of smell and taste. My worst nightmare has come to fruition.

Are you Omicron boosted?

[Joe]

6 minutes ago, Air_Delivery said:

Are you Omicron boosted?

Nope but I got my second booster at the end of July. I’ve experienced a weird chain of events the past month that I THINK I have an explanation for but not positive. Basically I think I had two different exposures and for the first one, the 2nd booster either stopped me from getting the virus (but I experienced symptoms) or I had it and cleared it absurdly quickly. For this second one, I think my immune system was like fuck it you’re on your own bud.

[CayceG]

I am Omicron boosted.

[Joe]

Turns out I did not lose my sense of smell and taste haha. But it was insanely suppressed like I’ve never experienced for a few hours today.

[Jason]

 

 

 

[Jason]

New York hospitals got COVID bailouts. Then executives got $73M in bonuses. How we reported it

WWW.LOHUD.COM

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As frontline hospital workers faced unsafe conditions and taxpayer-funded COVID bailouts flowed to health systems, executive bonuses averaged $273K.

 

[AbsolutSurgen]

To boost or not to boost - by Eric Topol - Ground Truths

T.CO

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Should that be the question?

 

Quote

Now is the time to stop chasing SARS-CoV-2 and start mounting an aggressive get- ahead strategy. There’s the intertwined triad to contend with: more immune escape, more evidence of imprinting, and the inevitability of new variants that are already laying a foundation for spread. Enough of the booster after booster, shot-centric approach; it has been formidable, lifesaving, sickness-avoiding, and essential as a bootstrap, temporizing measure. Now we need to press on with innovation for more durable, palatable, and effective solutions. They are in our reach.

 

[CitizenVectron]

I also read an article yesterday that shows having four shots reduced severe illness in the 50+ population by 14x compared to three shots. So...I'm going to say boosters are a good thing. There's a reason we get annual flu shots.

 

Edit - having read the above linked article...I don't get it. It argues that boosters are incredibly protective and work...but we need to stop them and find a different way. But it doesn't suggest any alternatives.

 

Uh...yeah. I would love an alternative to 2 boosters a year, but if we don't have one, then I'll keep getting boosters. I don't get why people hate taking 15 to 30 minutes every six months for something that is proven to work.

[AbsolutSurgen]

Key points from the article (I'm not really doing it justice):

1)  "there is a disturbing trend of much lower antibody induction vs Omicron compared to that mounted against the ancestral (original) strain."  Even with the BA.1 bivalent booster, there is a much lower number of antibodies against Omicron.

2)  Present boosters only provide ~2 months of protection against infection.

3)  "There’s ample evidence from multiple studies that mucosal IgA antibodies are what will be needed to help block infections and transmission, such as this NEJM new report with 60-80% reduction of breakthrough infections (and reduced viral load, higher Ct, Tables below) as a function of mucosal IgA antibodies, not related to IgG antibodies."  Mucosal antibodies might be what we need a vaccine to create.

4)  I don't think anybody believes that the general population is willing to get a booster every 3-4 months.

5)  We don't have any data that a 5th (or 6th booster) will continue to provide the same benefits as the first boosters did.

[CitizenVectron]

27 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

Key points from the article (I'm not really doing it justice):

1)  "there is a disturbing trend of much lower antibody induction vs Omicron compared to that mounted against the ancestral (original) strain."  Even with the BA.1 bivalent booster, there is a much lower number of antibodies against Omicron.

2)  Present boosters only provide ~2 months of protection against infection.

3)  "There’s ample evidence from multiple studies that mucosal IgA antibodies are what will be needed to help block infections and transmission, such as this NEJM new report with 60-80% reduction of breakthrough infections (and reduced viral load, higher Ct, Tables below) as a function of mucosal IgA antibodies, not related to IgG antibodies."  Mucosal antibodies might be what we need a vaccine to create.

4)  I don't think anybody believes that the general population is willing to get a booster every 3-4 months.

5)  We don't have any data that a 5th (or 6th booster) will continue to provide the same benefits as the first boosters did.

 

6) Boosters have proven incredibly effective at preventing severe illness

 

You know, the stat that matters most.

[AbsolutSurgen]

9 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

6) Boosters have proven incredibly effective at preventing severe illness

 

You know, the stat that matters most.

He's talking about the future, and how we improve from where we are.

[AbsolutSurgen]

 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

6) Boosters have proven incredibly effective at preventing severe illness

 

You know, the stat that matters most.

“But it worked in the past!” is a pretty terrible takeaway.

 

Here is the cold hard truth: the vaccines have become less and less effective over time. The vaccines were god-tier incredible against both infection and transmission prior to Delta.  They lost a little something on both sides with Delta.

Omicron came along and slashed most of the transmission blocking affects and greatly reduced the infection blocking effects.

 

With the Ba lineage, there is virtually no noteworthy transmission blocking going on and infection reduction is now down to a fairly tiny window which would require shots every 3 months to maximize the benefits.

 

That isn’t sustainable on a physiological level for any population, on a cost level for most nations, or a pragmatic distribution level for most of the developing world.

 

We need something better for the future than what we have.

[CitizenVectron]

49 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

He's talking about the future, and how we improve from where we are.

 

11 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

“But it worked in the past!” is a pretty terrible takeaway.

 

Here is the cold hard truth: the vaccines have become less and less effective over time. The vaccines were god-tier incredible against both infection and transmission prior to Delta.  They lost a little something on both sides with Delta.

Omicron came along and slashed most of the transmission blocking affects and greatly reduced the infection blocking effects.

 

With the Ba lineage, there is virtually no noteworthy transmission blocking going on and infection reduction is now down to a fairly tiny window which would require shots every 3 months to maximize the benefits.

 

That isn’t sustainable on a physiological level for any population, on a cost level for most nations, or a pragmatic distribution level for most of the developing world.

 

We need something better for the future than what we have.

 

I agree in general, that we need "something better," but for now the best tools we have (especially in 50+ pop, and especially especially in 65+ pop) are boosters. Of course they need to continue to be shown to work (against severe infection at a minimum), even if they are reduced in efficacy against infection.

 

My main issue with this type of messaging "yeah vaccines work but they don't work as well so we should stop using them for COVID" is that it's taken over and used by anti-vax people. The correct messaging is "vaccines have been incredible, and they continue to be incredible especially for vulnerable people (including 50+), so we should continue to use them at least for the most vulnerable while also trying to find other ways to mitigate the impact of COVID."

 

Because the numbers I saw from last week show that COVID is still the #2 or #3 cause of death in the US. It's not over, and we need to use whatever tools we can to fight it, even if many in the pop are too dumb to appreciate those tools. In a perfect world everyone would get boosters every six months, but if we at least can get the most vulnerable to have access, then that's a good thing.

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

 

I agree in general, that we need "something better," but for now the best tools we have (especially in 50+ pop, and especially especially in 65+ pop) are boosters. Of course they need to continue to be shown to work (against severe infection at a minimum), even if they are reduced in efficacy against infection.

 

My main issue with this type of messaging "yeah vaccines work but they don't work as well so we should stop using them for COVID" is that it's taken over and used by anti-vax people. The correct messaging is "vaccines have been incredible, and they continue to be incredible especially for vulnerable people (including 50+), so we should continue to use them at least for the most vulnerable while also trying to find other ways to mitigate the impact of COVID."

 

Because the numbers I saw from last week show that COVID is still the #2 or #3 cause of death in the US. It's not over, and we need to use whatever tools we can to fight it, even if many in the pop are too dumb to appreciate those tools. In a perfect world everyone would get boosters every six months, but if we at least can get the most vulnerable to have access, then that's a good thing.

Whoooooo cares what anti-vax people think? And honestly, nobody reading Eric Topol articles are the sorts of people who need to be persuaded that vaccinating older people is still the most important strategy in the the near term.

 

The article is forward looking and trying to avoid the pitfalls the US has already seen with the current booster strategy. And to point out what should be obvious: whatever fatigue the US experiences on Covid stuff comes to the rest of the world soon enough. The uptake on boosters outside of the US will drop if the benefits continue to diminish round after round.