aintforever

This is what the article said, as I said it’s American but the principle is the same just different numbers: As a country, South Africa had already gone through three massive COVID surges, as vaccination rates there remained low, compared to the U.S. and Europe. So, while only about a quarter of South Africans had been vaccinated when omicron finally arrived, the vast majority of residents had likely already been infected with previous variants of SARS-CoV-2. (Scientists have predicted this based on the excess mortality rate observed in the country through the pandemic.) Given this history, scientists say most South Africans already probably had some level of immune protection generated by these prior infections. "Thus, omicron enters a South African population with considerably more immunity than any prior SARS-CoV-2 variant," concluded Dr. Roby Bhattacharyya, an infectious disease specialist, and epidemiologist William Hanage in a recent paper published online. In other words, there are very few South Africans who have never been exposed to the coronavirus — either through a vaccine or a natural infection. That means the omicron infections happening in South Africa aren't, for the most part, primary infections, but rather secondary infections, also known as reinfections. Here's the thing about secondary infections from SARS-C0V-2: They tend, on average, to be milder, scientists have found. For example, a study published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine found that if you survive the first infection, it reduces the risk of severe illness from a second infection by about 90%. And thus, even before omicron hit South Africa, the population as a whole had built up a significant amount of immunity to COVID-19. A large proportion of people who were once — early in the pandemic — at high risk for severe disease, are now probably at a lower risk. This background level of immunity within a population muddies the water when trying to figure out if omicron causes more mild illness, according to Ryan Noach and his colleagues at Discovery Health. Given South Africa's current level of immunity, you would expect more mild illness – even if the omicron variant is actually just as dangerous as its predecessors. To put it another way, this background immunity only makes omicron appear less harmful. But what happens when omicron makes its way into a population without that background level of immunity? Bhattacharyya and Hanagepoint out another confounding factor: it's still early days. During the initial stages of a surge, the lag between cases and hospitalizations can make a new variant seem less severe — especially if the variant is also spreading much faster than previous variants, as omicron is doing now.

Different countries have different amounts of people who have been exposed. The article I read was American and it said SA had more people infected in the previous waves so their concern is that in the US there was a large amount of people who have had no exposure and are not vaccinated. As it is so contagious it will find them.

Think being previously infected doesn’t stop you catching it but makes serious illness less likely. This is why they are not sure yet wether the virus itself is milder or just that the high amounts of SA people who have already had it in previous waves makes it seem milder.

Do you not know how to use Google?

It’s a balancing act though isn’t it, if we didn’t lock down and the NHS gets complete overwhelmed with Covid patients even more cancer treatments will get effected. It’s a complex situation, SAGE will be more than aware of the negative effects of lockdown.

If the restrictions and vaccine roll out are working it makes sense that we are nowhere near the worst case scenario. Governments always use scare tactics in public health massaging, I’m not sure why you are wetting your pants over it.

True, but if Adrian’s daughter was overweight and died of COVID it would be no less tragic than if she were not. Youngsters getting vaccinated is a different issue to those more at risk but it still makes sense to help minimise spread IMO, agree it’s nothing like a fat middle aged man not being vaccinated though which is just dumb and selfish.

True, some young people are fat though.

Some young people get serious illness, I guess it’s pot luck.

Because Covid only exists on the BBC

Exactly. These bell-ends like to bang on about Nazi Germany but you have to wonder how pussies like this would have coped during the blitz, probably moan about how having to put up black-out curtains infringed their human rights. How hard is it just to put a mask on for a few minutes or show a qr code at the door of an event?

I don’t think they have much choice. Until they know how much milder it is (if it is) because the way it spreads and evades immunity means it could potentially be very bad. The data from SA looks promising but it depends how much of the milder illness is because people were reinfected not because the virus is less severe.

Yeah maybe. Not related to Covid in any way whatsoever, great point though mate.

How is someone not being able to afford decent insulation selfish?

What has insulation got to do with anything?

Same applies to Gammon Cunt for you.

You and Weston even share the same little pet name for me, how cute! You make a lovely couple.

He says, using six emojis in two posts coming on to help out his fellow Gammon fuck-wit. You two are like the dumb and dumber of SWF.

Brilliant! Except Weston started off with the name calling and he’s the one dribbling on about Polio which is completely irrelevant.

Wouldn’t have made any difference IMO, Lib Dems are just the go to party for pissed-off Tories.

Except half the Tory party are against Covid passports and they got a right kicking.

How a population builds up immunity over time to a coronavirus is obviously relevant, surely even someone as slow as you can understand that?

Because some colds are coronavirus, I thought I made that clear.

I was obviously talking about covid vaccines you dumb cunt. It’s a thread about Covid, why would I be talking about Polio?

The media just reported what was happening, it was the ‘critical thinking’ of a bunch of fuck-wits that led to them thinking it would run out. The government message then was a clear, just buy petrol as you normally would.