Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Sheilbh]

Mixed news here
BBC News - Omicron up to 70% less likely to need hospital care
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59769969
More confirmation of omicron being weaker...

But those boosters only last 10 weeks....

Yeah - everything now everywhere seems to be pointing to about two-thirds less severity.

And the booster thing is, I think, only related to omicron so it's less effectiveness waning than waning against the variant with immune escape.

It looks like London's definitely peaked now which seems to follow what's happened in South Africa. Interesting to see if the same happens elsewhere.

[Grey Fox]

Mixed news here
BBC News - Omicron up to 70% less likely to need hospital care
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59769969
More confirmation of omicron being weaker...

But those boosters only last 10 weeks....

Shame there's no quick and easy way to check your variant (I think?).
As for me the worry is not so much catching covid and dying but having to quarantine and all that shit. Fair enough if it's a deadly version but thinking a month or two down the line it feels a bit much for a drastically weakened version.

10 day quarantine goes fast. It really wasn't that bad.

Not being able to travel would suck. And my partner has to go to work.

Around here, she would not be in isolation while she remains symptoms less.

@BB Those 4 extra days really hurt.

[Syt]

[Sheilbh]

Obviously covid data in the UK is probably fucked for the next fortnight because of reporting delays etc over the holidays.

But one really striking factor is the percent of patients on ventilation/ICU, which has been pretty stable for the last year, has halved in recent weeks. This is another thing that was seen in South Africa - the further we go into other countries having omicron the less likely it looks that South Africa's experience was exceptional (because of high previous infections v vaccine coverage, becaue of beta etc). Which is very good news.

[Josquius]

The news in Switzerland / France by and large reports the end of times in the UK. Only remember one guy pointing out the UK is testing more than France so likely the story there is quite different.

One potentially worrying comment I heard though - it 30% (or was it 60%...) of infected in France don't have an identified variant. Hopefully this just means they never bothered sequencing and just did a basic test

[Sheilbh]

The news in Switzerland / France by and large reports the end of times in the UK. Only remember one guy pointing out the UK is testing more than France so likely the story there is quite different.

France is ramping up but the UK is currently doing about double the number of tests and three times the number of tests than Switzerland. And both have double the rate of fatalities as the UK at the moment, plus higher admissions and more hospitalised patients. Also any data in the West right now is bound to be a bit useless - except for admissions, maybe - just because of holidays and lags.

I think when we're dealing with a largely vaccinated population and a variant that is known to be milder I'm not sure case numbers are the metric that we should care about.

I also find it really annoying with the Guardian's map of "where's been worst hit by covid" which is based on case numbers - because the answer is, apparently, rich countries who can afford large-scale testing programs. It's a very different map than, say, the EIU's estimated excess mortality (based on stats over the last year) which shows, I think more accurately, that the worst hit parts of the world have been Latin America, parts of Africa, India and other regions that maybe aren't able to do enough testing but have absolutely seen a lot of deaths. I think it's almost bordeline unethical in that example because it gives such a distorted picture and I don't think it's directly contributing to vaccine hoarding but if you looked at the Guardian map then you'd think actually Europe and the US need the vaccine more anyway.

[DGuller]

There is a chess championship for rapid and blitz going on right now.  Originally it was thought to be cancelled due to Covid protocols at their venue, but then they found a place with lax enough Covid protocols that would host several hundred players from all over the world.  Unfortunately, the last day of the championship is a little delayed at the moment as multiple players making pre-flight Covid checks tested positive. 

[DGuller]

There is a chess championship for rapid and blitz going on right now.  Originally it was thought to be cancelled due to Covid protocols at their venue, but then they found a place with lax enough Covid protocols that would host several hundred players from all over the world.  Unfortunately, the last day of the championship is a little delayed at the moment as multiple players making pre-flight Covid checks tested positive. 

Now it's resuming.  Many of the opponents of the player who was infected the whole tournament are still playing without masks, three feet away from their opponents' faces.  It's like people gave up.

[mongers]

There is a chess championship for rapid and blitz going on right now.  Originally it was thought to be cancelled due to Covid protocols at their venue, but then they found a place with lax enough Covid protocols that would host several hundred players from all over the world.  Unfortunately, the last day of the championship is a little delayed at the moment as multiple players making pre-flight Covid checks tested positive. 

Now it's resuming.  Many of the opponents of the player who was infected the whole tournament are still playing without masks, three feet away from their opponents' faces.  It's like people gave up.

Also demonstrates many chess players aren't the most rational of people outside of their own special interest.


And not aiming that at you DG.

[Iormlund]

Exponential growth here right now, with a massive number of cases flying under the radar (rapid tests yesterday showed a staggering 50% positivity). Admissions are at their highest since vaccines were available. And we still have NYE and the Three Magi events left.

We do fuck all sequencing, so unknown how much of that is still Delta and how much is Omicron.

[Josephus]

So here in Ontario, we have officially surrendered to COVID. Yes, we've decided to give up the fight, admitting the damn thing is prevalent and we can't keep up with it. So there won't be anymore free PCR tests except for the "most vulnerable."  The ruling is if you have symptoms assume you have it, and lie low for 5 days. No need to get tested.
This is one way to bring the numbers down, incidentally.

[Legbiter]

Exponential growth here right now, with a massive number of cases flying under the radar (rapid tests yesterday showed a staggering 50% positivity). Admissions are at their highest since vaccines were available. And we still have NYE and the Three Magi events left.

We do fuck all sequencing, so unknown how much of that is still Delta and how much is Omicron.

Yeah it's the same here. Every couple of days has a higher case count than the entire first wave put together (1400). We sequence every infection and the Omnicron variant is over 97% of all cases. The vaccines aren't even a speedbump at stopping spread at this point. People meticulously mask up when out at the store, etc but nobody is cancelling family gatherings or holidays. Many see it as the vaccination we were needing. We still contact trace religiously, so much so that currently 3% of the entire nation is quarantined. Yet nobody is freaking out, this is a very mild variant when encountering an almost fully vaccinated and boosted population. So far around 20 people are hospitalized, almost all have the delta variant and are unvaccinated.

[viper37]

Back under confinement and curfew 22:00 to 05:00.

Hospitals at near limit or above the limit everywhere in the province, around Quebec city, hospitals are still in "Christmas" mode, which means no appointment, no surgeries, etc, only emergencies.  Some people I know got it, and despite the vaccine, they felt like crap, but no need for special care, so far.

[garbon]

My day 2 PCR test hasn't even yet been received by Royal mail. Might be hard to take that by day 2 (Monday).

[Tamas]

My day 2 PCR test hasn't even yet been received by Royal mail. Might be hard to take that by day 2 (Monday).

I am using the Tory Party endorsed provider Randox, they send them via DPD.