health

Is Omicron leading us closer to herd immunity against COVID?

18 Comments
By VICTORIA MILKO

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Covid pandemic is as heavy rain

vaccines are as rain coat

with good rain coat you can walk under the rain , can get a little wet to your face but you not get soaked which you can get sick and die

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Even Bill Gates, the ”world’s number one doctor” (of computers?), has said "sadly" (?!) the Omicron variant is a better vaccine than what he helped develop

Yes, Omicron appears to be a great live attenuated vaccine. We should be very happy about this, but some are saddened by this because it means a lower return on their investments....

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

Then there's the huge variation in vaccinations. In some low-income countries, less than 5% of the population is vaccinated. Rich countries are struggling with vaccine hesitancy. And young children still aren't eligible in many places.

That's the biggest problem here. We need to get vaccines out to the developing nations and help them vaccinate their people

As long as the virus spreads, it mutates — helping the virus survive and giving rise to new variants. Those mutants — such as Omicron — can become better at evading the protection people have from vaccines or an earlier infection.

Was watching DW news and a german scientist was asked if it is possible that a new strain more deadly than Delta and more contagious than Omicron can emerge and the scientist said that scenario is plausible.

Fact is we don't know what the next strain will look like, so we can't make any predictions. We just don't know. What is certain is that as long as we hoard vaccines and not help the developing world get vaccinated we are playing with fire.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Even Bill Gates, the ”world’s number one doctor” (of computers?), has said "sadly" (?!) the Omicron variant is a better vaccine than what he helped develop

That is false, he never said it was a better vaccine, that is just dangerous disinformation, he said it was providing immunity for more people (which obviously is a sad situation since vaccines would do the same with less risk).

But I didn't use up a hospital bed.

My bet paid off.

Which still do not make it appropiate to bet with resources that other people could have found necessary, that is like a smoker saying that he is betting children that he is exposing with his second hand smoke would not get lung cancer.

Yes, Omicron appears to be a great live attenuated vaccine. 

By protecting much less than a booster of the available vaccines while producing many times more serious complications and death? that is the opposite of great, at least for people that actually are interested in public health instead of promoting anti-scientific agendas.

We should be very happy about this, but some are saddened by this because it means a lower return on their investments

This is a forced interpretation that depends completely on ignoring the serious problems and risks that come with Omicron, vaccines are a much safer alternative to provide immunity so it is sad that people have to get it from the much more risky option.

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

Covid pandemic is as heavy rain

vaccines are as rain coat

Vaccines are like a rain coat that doesn't prevent you from getting wet...

These vaccines do not prevent infection, but Omicron will.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

virusrex

This is a forced interpretation that depends completely on ignoring the serious problems and risks that come with Omicron,

What serious problems and risks? We now know that Omicron is extremely mild.

vaccines are a much safer alternative

Since everyone will get in contact with Omicron, this is not an "alternative". The choice is if you want to get mRNA shots in addition to Omicron or not.

to provide immunity so it is sad that people have to get it from the much more risky option.

Nobody claims any more that any of the existing vaccines provides "immunity". That claim has been dropped many months ago. The current claim is that they lower the risk of hospitalizations for a few month. Do you actually read any of these expert sources you constantly refer to?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

These vaccines do not prevent infection, but Omicron will.

According to the best available science you are completely wrong, Omicron can't produce even a small fraction of the elevation of protection against other variants than what a booster cause, and its duration is predicted to be even shorter because of this lack of cross-neutralization. This means exactly the opposite of what you want to believe.

What serious problems and risks? We now know that Omicron is extremely mild.

Look at the numbers even in Japan, people die from the infection, that is a serious problem and risk. You may want to downplay these fatal consequences, but that does not make them disappear, it evidence a complete lack of empathy.

Since everyone will get in contact with Omicron, this is not an "alternative".

Of course it is, if people is already immune thanks to vaccines then their immunity came from a much safer alternative. Specially taking into account the much higher protection it brings against other variants compared with the subpar immunity produced by omicron.

Nobody claims any more that any of the existing vaccines provides "immunity"

Between antivaxxers and other anti-scientific groups? that is the same as always, between health care professionals and scientist everybody does, because it is still true even when antivaxxers wants to misrepresent the meaning of "immunity" as if it meant perfect protection even from the first ever replication of a pathogen inside of the body. The same as many other vaccines COVID vaccines protect against the most serious consequences of the infection but not against mild or asymptomatic infection. People vaccinated against Polio, Measles, Rubella, etc. etc. do get infected during outbreaks, and some get a mild disease, but same as with the COVID vaccines fatalities become much more rare.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

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