Omicron, Guess work so far
More transmissibility
Some vaccine escape
Some natural infection escape
Causing reinfections in SA in people that had had infection and vaccination
Mostly mild symptoms in the vaccinated
Effecting younger people
Sinovac recipients may do well
Global within the week
Lateral flow tests still work
Every vaccinated and unvaccinated person will encounter this variant
Tiredness, headache, body aches, scratchy throat, dry cough
Netherlands
https://www.dw.com/en/omicron-present-in-netherlands-earlier-than-thought-say-health-authorities/a-59977047
Omicron present at least a week
Before 13 (out of 61) passengers from South Africa found to be omicron positive
National Institute for Public Health (RIVM)
https://www.rivm.nl/en
November 19th and 23rd
Omicron variant in two test samples
(South Africa announced they had identified omicron November 26th)
(First Belgium case, 24th November)
(Botswana on November 11th)
It is not yet clear whether the people concerned (in the earlier cases) had also been to southern Africa
Tracking down some 5,000 passengers from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe
Michael Hoelscher, Department for Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Munich University Hospital
We’re finding an increasing number of variant cases all around Europe, and in fact we believe that the introduction of those variants has been ongoing for a few weeks already
What we are also seeing is that there are now first cases of community transmission, so it’s within Europe, and the travel bans will probably delay the spread of the disease a little bit but will not be able to hold it up
US
President Biden
Cause for concern not a cause for panic
Get boosted
No new US lockdown
Sequencing 80,000 samples per week
Moderna
No tweaked vaccine until 2022
Endemic with yearly vaccines
UK
13 England, 9 Scotland omicron cases
All 5 English cases linked to southern Africa
Scotland
Nine omicron cases so far
Scotland Chief Medical Officer Gregor Smith
Not aware of anyone dying of the omicron variant as of yet
Boosting boosters
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html
Prime Minister, throw everything at it
Next Thursday
Finished by end of Jan, next 2 months
Sites all over the place
Boosters to all over 18
Gap between 2nd dose and boosters, cut to three months
From December 1, doctors, £15 per jab
£20 for Sunday and Bank Holiday
400 soldiers will help
The best thing to happen?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10253611/Could-Omicron-GOOD-news-Variant-speed-end-pandemic-causes-mild-illness.html
Professor Karl Lauterbach, clinical epidemiologist
(Germany’s next health minister)
Could mean omicron it is optimised to infect, in line with how most respiratory viruses evolve
Professor Paul Hunter
The theory may prove to be true
? levels of protection from previous infection in SA
High levels of previous infection and vaccination, offering protection
Franco Locatelli, president of Italy’s Higher Health Council
Not overly concerned by the new variant
May be more contagious but it is not more dangerous than other strains
The time it took to become predominant was much less compared to other variants
But we don’t have any evidence to suggest it can provoke more serious illness or evade the protective effect of vaccines in a major way
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