WHO: Omicron variant poses very high global risk, likely to spread

[vestan]

Update from the WHO on the new variant:

Omicron Covid variant poses very high global risk, says WHO

UN agency urges acceleration of vaccination of high-priority groups to tackle spread of variant

www.theguardian.com

The Omicron coronavirus variant is likely to spread internationally, posing a very high global risk of infection surges that could have severe consequences some areas, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

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"Omicron has an unprecedented number of spike mutations, some of which are concerning for their potential impact on the trajectory of the pandemic," the WHO said. "The overall global risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron is assessed as very high.

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"The presence of multiple mutations of the spike protein in the receptor-binding domain suggests that Omicron may have a high likelihood of immune escape from antibody-mediated protection. However, immune escape potential from cell-mediated immunity is more difficult to predict," it said.

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Some more general updates from today:

• Poland and Norway will announce new restrictions to prevent spread
• Omicron has been detected in Britain, Germany, France, Denmark, Israel, Canada, Australia and South Africa
• Six cases in Scotland have been identified, some of the cases identified have no travel history
• Thirteen cases have been identified in Portugal tied to a football team
• Fauci has warned the US has the potential to go into a fifth wave of COVID infections, says will take about two weeks to have definitive information on Omicron
• Japan has closed its borders to all foreign visitors

 

[____]

So I'm guessing my work trip to France this weekend will be cancelled. Delightful.

 

[DekuBleep]

My trip to the UK in January seems less and less likely every day now.

 

[Deleted member 10445]

 

[Netherscourge]

So all we know is it's a new variant of Covid 19.

We have no idea if it's more dangerous, less dangerous or the same as existing strains.

We have no idea if it will lead to more breakthrough infections or not for people with the current vaccines.

All we know is that it's different and spreading, mostly to unvaccinated people at the moment.

So get vaccinated. Get boosters if you're due. And try to avoid crowded spaces. Wear a mask when you can't avoid them. - same rules as before.

 

[OrangeNova]

So have all the other VOCs, that's why they're VOCs.

But like the tweet linked in OP said, they don't know if it's associated with any concerning traits. It just shows signs that it could, like the other 6 they said could have that, but don't.

I'm going to wait until that's known to be concerned.

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

Okay I can wait 2 more weeks until I go out and eat again indoors.

 

[Mik2121]

It's a potential big risk but right now we basically don't know almost anything about it.
Fingers crossed it's not as bad as it potentially could.

 

[Aiii]

So all we know is it's a new variant of Covid 19.

We have no idea if it's more dangerous, less dangerous or the same as existing strains.

We have no idea if it will lead to more breakthrough infections or not for people with the current vaccines.

All we know is that it's different and spreading, mostly to unvaccinated people at the moment.

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Yes, essentially. It's good to have some caution until we do know specifics, and use the unknowns to "scare" some more of the anti-vax crowd into jumping ship to the sane end of the spectrum.

Variants are going to keep popping up, generally these things become milder as time progresses as it doesn't serve any virus to kill it's hosts as that would inevitably mean it's own demise as well, so until we know more, fingers crossed we're mutating in the right direction.

 

[Fatoy]

As depressing as this news might seem, it's important to remember that, back in early / mid 2020, everyone was mad at the WHO for taking too long to declare the original COVID-19 strain a pandemic, and a lot of people - rightly, in most cases - were angry at their governments for not doing enough to recognise the severity of the situation.

This is the backdrop to the decisions that are now being made at the nation and global levels; nobody is taking any chances. And given how much is still unknown, and is going to remain unknown for at least a couple of weeks, about Omicron, these announcements are probably the right move from a public health perspective. From the point of view of preventing unnecessary deaths, you can't really have people be too scared.

From the point of view of individual mental health and collective morale, announcements like this are obviously less than desirable. But if you find yourself thinking "oh shit, it's back to square one" then it might be helpful to remind yourself just how delayed action really was back in 2020. We're nowhere near returning to square one scientifically, culturally, or at the policy level, and if anything the speed and decisiveness of the international community's reaction to the unknown aspects of this new variant should demonstrate how far we've come in the last two years.

 

[Newlove]

Feels like an endless pandemic for many years to come. I can't see the exit strategy.

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

With Red states like Florida still hell bent on making masks and vaccine mandates political, I wonder how they will code switch to get the upper middle class white Americans to get vaccinated. The poor white Americans will be fodder as usual as I'm sure they know they can't change their minds anymore.

 

[Soap]

The real concern for me is societal compliance and the government's will to act. I can't see any kind of major lockdown happening again in my country… Hell, just over the border they can't even be bothered doing the bare minimum and having people working from home.

 

[Donepalace]

Yes, essentially. It's good to have some caution until we do know specifics, and use the unknowns to "scare" some more of the anti-vax crowd into jumping ship to the sane end of the spectrum.

Variants are going to keep popping up, generally these things become milder as time progresses as it doesn't serve any virus to kill it's hosts as that would inevitably mean it's own demise as well, so until we know more, fingers crossed we're mutating in the right direction.

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can't imagine an anti-vax crowd jumping in to get the vaccine at this point they are never gonna get it imo

 

[LFMartins86]

13 cases have been confirmed in Portugal. A football player arrived from South Africa a week ago and after 4 or 5 days 12 team mates had been infected.

 

[bionic77]

Feels like an endless pandemic for many years to come. I can't see the exit strategy.

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Yeah this is horrible.

We were in NYC over the weekend and I really appreciated the requirement to show a vaccine card to gain entry to anything but man it is getting annoying having to wear a mask everywhere at this point.

On the other hand no one in my house has gotten seriously sick yet so I do appreciate that very much and am very thankful for everything the scientists and doctors have done to keep us alive. But it is wearing on everyone.

 

[BassForever]

can't imagine an anti-vax crowd jumping in to get the vaccine at this point they are never gonna get it imo

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One way or the other the anti vax crowd will shrink, either because more governments/businesses will require vaccinations to do anything, or they'll end up dying of the disease.

 

[OrangeNova]

Feels like an endless pandemic for many years to come. I can't see the exit strategy.

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Did you read the tweet associated? They still don't know if it's more dangerous, or more infectious, or even vaccine resistant.

It could be a dud like Gamma

 

[Joni]

It could. We don't know. We know that in spreads well in countries where Delta didn't break through that well. So maybe it can outcompete Delta, maybe it can't.

 

[YozoraXV]

If the current vaccines don't work against this I can imagine a lot less people being willing to get a new vaccine. It almost feels hopeless.

They should really be laser focused on creating a treatment that you can buy over the counter.

 

[Joni]

They should really be laser focused on creating a treatment that you can buy over the counter.

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"Prevention is better than the cure"

 

[OrangeNova]

If the current vaccines don't work against this I can imagine a lot less people being willing to get a new vaccine. It almost feels hopeless.

They should really be laser focused on creating a treatment that you can buy over the counter.

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No.

It's two part, and even if the vaccines work less against it, you're better being vaccinated with the current vaccine than to not have anything.

Yes, an OTC treatment is needed, but OTC won't do much without a vaccine.

 

[nsilvias]

eh, ill get my booster in january but im not really worried abot this

 

[CrazyDude]

Doesn't seem have any new info here.

 

[Wallace Wells]

If the current vaccines don't work against this I can imagine a lot less people being willing to get a new vaccine. It almost feels hopeless.

They should really be laser focused on creating a treatment that you can buy over the counter.

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The current vaccines will work against Omicron, they might just be less effective against than the other variants

 

[OrangeNova]

It could. We don't know. We know that in spreads well in countries where Delta didn't break through that well. So maybe it can outcompete Delta, maybe it can't.

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It might just last longer in heat, or in those specific circumstances, We don't even know if it's spreading well in countries where delta didn't break through that well, because it's currently mostly unvaccinated, first time infected cases.

 

[Aiii]

can't imagine an anti-vax crowd jumping in to get the vaccine at this point they are never gonna get it imo

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I mean, there's a portion of that crowd that's full-on conspiracy nut that you won't ever convince. But there's a bigger bunch that's just more scared of vaccines than of Covid, that balance can still shift from being more scared of Covid than vaccines and that's when they'll jump.

 

[SixelAlexiS]

One way or the other the anti vax crowd will shrink, either because more governments/businesses will require vaccinations to do anything, or they'll end up dying of the disease.

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The no-vax will still fill up the hospitals and remove spot to people that need to be cured, cured for something they couldn't predict or prevented by a simple vaccination.

 

[VAD]

This fucking sucks, I'm due for a booster shot but I can't get an an appointment before next year.

 

[Red Liquorice]

As depressing as this news might seem, it's important to remember that, back in early / mid 2020, everyone was mad at the WHO for taking too long to declare the original COVID-19 strain a pandemic, and a lot of people - rightly, in most cases - were angry at their governments for not doing enough to recognise the severity of the situation.

This is the backdrop to the decisions that are now being made at the nation and global levels; nobody is taking any chances. And given how much is still unknown, and is going to remain unknown for at least a couple of weeks, about Omicron, these announcements are probably the right move from a public health perspective. From the point of view of preventing unnecessary deaths, you can't really have people be too scared.

From the point of view of individual mental health and collective morale, announcements like this are obviously less than desirable. But if you find yourself thinking "oh shit, it's back to square one" then it might be helpful to remind yourself just how delayed action really was back in 2020. We're nowhere near returning to square one scientifically, culturally, or at the policy level, and if anything the speed and decisiveness of the international community's reaction to the unknown aspects of this new variant should demonstrate how far we've come in the last two years.

Click to shrink...

I've had nagging background anxiety about this since Friday and honestly reading this helps put things in to perspective a little, thank you.

 

[Kyuuji]

Really hoping this doesn't pan out. Things would still be being worked through but 2022 had a light around it for the most part.

 

[Rosebud]

How vaccines work against it? We have any info?

 

[Inki]

This fucking sucks, I'm due for a booster shot but I can't get an an appointment before next year.

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From what I'm seeing both Moderna and Pfizer are working on an Omicron booster and expect to have it made in 100 days.

Also Moderna's current booster is a 50cc injection and they're working on upgrading the normal booster to be 100cc (which the original 2 shots were).

 

[LycanXIII]

Just booked my booster for today

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

This is really bad timing after grade school kids were authorized to get their shots too. Anyone who kept waiting for boosters when their pharmacists were handing them out like Halloween candy should get their booster now or wait until next year.

 

[OrangeNova]

As depressing as this news might seem, it's important to remember that, back in early / mid 2020, everyone was mad at the WHO for taking too long to declare the original COVID-19 strain a pandemic, and a lot of people - rightly, in most cases - were angry at their governments for not doing enough to recognise the severity of the situation.

This is the backdrop to the decisions that are now being made at the nation and global levels; nobody is taking any chances. And given how much is still unknown, and is going to remain unknown for at least a couple of weeks, about Omicron, these announcements are probably the right move from a public health perspective. From the point of view of preventing unnecessary deaths, you can't really have people be too scared.

From the point of view of individual mental health and collective morale, announcements like this are obviously less than desirable. But if you find yourself thinking "oh shit, it's back to square one" then it might be helpful to remind yourself just how delayed action really was back in 2020. We're nowhere near returning to square one scientifically, culturally, or at the policy level, and if anything the speed and decisiveness of the international community's reaction to the unknown aspects of this new variant should demonstrate how far we've come in the last two years.

Click to shrink...

Honestly, the wikipedia article is great because we've done this song and dance a few times, with Epsilon, with Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa... even some that are still classified as VOCs are obviously not, and have fallen out of conversation, notably, Beta and Gamma

 

[PostModernMaybe]

I was going to get a booster this week, should I still get it or wait and see if we end up needing another shot for this variant?

 

[cyba89]

So all we know is it's a new variant of Covid 19.

We have no idea if it's more dangerous, less dangerous or the same as existing strains.

We have no idea if it will lead to more breakthrough infections or not for people with the current vaccines.

All we know is that it's different and spreading, mostly to unvaccinated people at the moment.

Click to shrink...

We know it has a high amount of mutations at the spike protein, some that were associated with higher transmissability and immune evastion in past Variants of Concern. That's what is surprising and concering scientist around the world right now and caused WHO and countries to react so quick.

How these mutations relate to real world behaviour in vaccinated, unvaccinated or previously infected patients and the transmissability of the virus is indeed very unknown so far. The coming weeks will answer that.

I was going to get a booster this week, should I still get it or wait and see if we end up needing another shot for this variant?

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No, as Delta is still the prevalent variant everywhere and you want to be protected from that. If the vaccine needs adjustment for Omicron development and rollout of an updated version will take a while anyway.

How vaccines work against it? We have any info?

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Not yet. BioNtech already said they will know more in two weeks.

 

[entremet]

This shit never ends. Hope the vaccines are effective.

 

[Aiii]

Really hoping this doesn't pan out. Things would still be being worked through but 2022 had a light around it for the most part.

Click to shrink...

I mean, end of day we're still on our way out in a way. As more people get Covid our immune system learns and adapts, so the threat is likely to still diminish either way. Aside from that treatments are still being further developed, as well as new medicine's to compliment the vaccines. Mutations are always going to be a thing, and Covid itself is never going away, but I still have full faith we're going to get to a point where the anti-vax talking point "it's just like a flu" is going to be a truthful statement.

 

[Rodelero]

We know it has a high amount of mutations at the spike protein, some that were associated with higher transmissability and immune evastion in past Variants of Concern. That's what is surprising and concering scientist around the world right now and caused WHO and countries to react so quick.

How these mutations relate to real world behaviour in vaccinated, unvaccinated or previously infected patients and the transmissability of the virus is indeed very unknown so far. The coming weeks will answer that.

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The other thing that justifies concern is that it appears to be significantly outspreading delta, suggesting it has some kind of advantage over it. That it is likely to be greater transmissibility and/or ability to better evade immunity from infection and/or vaccines. For me this is the main thing that justifies worry -- if it can outspread delta somewhere there's no particular reason to expect it won't do the same elsewhere.

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

I was going to get a booster this week, should I still get it or wait and see if we end up needing another shot for this variant?

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Is there a reason why we need to wait six months for a new shot anyway? If shit hits the fan, your pharmacist and the US will want people to get the new shots asap anyway. They might discourage booster people to get it before six months because a booster shot patient may do better than a non booster patient so the latter are more at risk. But who knows how long until the updated vaccine is out.

 

[Jokerman]

I found this a very level-headed article written in layman's terms so dumbasses like me can follow. It was written before the new strain was named, but I particularly appreciate how it explains what the mutations mean etc.

New Concerning Variant: B.1.1.529

I hope everyone in the States had a fantastic Thanksgiving (even if you’re a Dallas Cowboys football fan). I hate to ruin the holiday, but… We have a new variant. I’ve not seen this much anxiety ridden chatter among scientists about a COVID19 variant before. Even among the calm, cool, and...

yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com

 

[Aiii]

Is there a reason why we need to wait six months for a new shot anyway? If shit hits the fan, your pharmacist and the US will want people to get the new shots asap anyway. They might discourage people to because a booster shot patient may do better than a non booster patient so they are more at risk. But who knows how long until the updated vaccine is out.

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I mean, there's no real reason to get the vaccine every few months. The six months is there because the initial shots are still effective, the booster is to boost efficiency once the effectiveness wears of, not make you more resistant with each shot. If that were the case, they'd just give you endless shots until they get to 100% immunity.

 

[Osahi]

All we can do is do our best to stay safe and keep those around us safe, and wait untill more data comes in and is analysed. Lets just hope the early reports that this strain might be a combination of higher infection rates with lower sick making capabilities are true. It would basically mean Omicron would be a 'free vaccine', giving people cold-like symptoms while also giving them immunity. But I'm not counting on it just yet... I just really hope this one doesn't send us back to square one.

 

[Choppasmith]

My trip to the UK in January seems less and less likely every day now.

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Was planning to finally visit my mom in NZ around March/April. This definitely puts a damper in that.

Yeah, about how I feel.

 

[Garth2000]

 

[The Bookerman]

So all we know is it's a new variant of Covid 19.

We have no idea if it's more dangerous, less dangerous or the same as existing strains.

We have no idea if it will lead to more breakthrough infections or not for people with the current vaccines.

All we know is that it's different and spreading, mostly to unvaccinated people at the moment.

So get vaccinated. Get boosters if you're due. And try to avoid crowded spaces. Wear a mask when you can't avoid them. - same rules as before.

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END this thread.

This is all there is to take away from this type of news.

 

[cyba89]

I just really hope this one doesn't send us back to square one.

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This is extremely unlikely.

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

I mean, there's no real reason to get the vaccine every few months. The six months is there because the initial shots are still effective, the booster is to boost efficiency once the effectiveness wears of, not make you more resistant with each shot. If that were the case, they'd just give you endless shots until they get to 100% immunity.

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Right but let's say the new omnicron shot is out at January. Anyway who got boosted during the fall will have taken shots less than six months prior to January. You would hope they recommend booster shot people to take omnicron shots ASAP if boosters aren't as effective and being overtaken by omnicron.