The Covid19 thread

[SV650rules]

Seeing reports coming in that Omicron variant is less virulent than preceding variants, which follows historic trends that viruses get less virulent over time... mainly because a virus that kills its host shoots itself in the foot as far as spreading its DNA is concerned...


https://nypost.com/2021/11/27/omicro...frican-doctor/

[svenrico]

They risk offending Greece by using the Greek alphabet ,and what about France, omicron sounds a bit too much like Macron !

[DJ123]

Originally Posted by svenrico

They risk offending Greece by using the Greek alphabet ,and what about France, omicron sounds a bit too much like Macron !

It's an anagram of Moronic, so you could apply it to the French President or the English PM

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by SV650rules

... mainly because a virus that kills its host shoots itself in the foot as far as spreading its DNA is concerned

HIV would like a word and Ebola and Dengue and Rabies and Smallpox (although we have vaccines for the latter two they are still deadly).

Then there's MERS which is a relative of covid with a 35% mortality rate and Marburg virus with an 88% mortality rate...

Will covid get less deadly? Ask again in 20 years.

[Ruffy]

Originally Posted by SV650rules

Seeing reports coming in that Omicron variant is less virulent than preceding variants, which follows historic trends that viruses get less virulent over time... mainly because a virus that kills its host shoots itself in the foot as far as spreading its DNA is concerned...

https://nypost.com/2021/11/27/omicro...frican-doctor/

Indeed, that's the pattern one was expecting all along. Let's hope the next three weeks see it sufficiently scientifically vindicated to the point that we can return to a state where we are not made to feel paranoid about breathing the air around us and society can return to its path of trying to function evenly again. The mass fear that has been created and propogated is dismaying to me. I find the marginalising of other problems that arise from the covid 'management' measures equally unpalatable.

Of course it's dreadful that people have died unexpectedly or suffered hideous illness episodes that no-one could have anticipated but, at a macro level, that happens every day/year, often in numbers far larger than Covid. So I find it hard to comprehend and justify the widespread authoritarian control that is being imposed.

A real lingering sadness for me is that our health service appears to be no better equipped now than it was two years ago to handle the effects of a severe pandemic on the population.

[SV650rules]

Originally Posted by Ruffy

A real lingering sadness for me is that our health service appears to be no better equipped now than it was two years ago to handle the effects of a severe pandemic on the population.

The Germans said ' in Britain you clap the NHS, in Germany we give them more funding'... ( but the NHS in its present form is a money pit ).


I was shocked that only 10% of NHS employees are medical - see heading 4 and read below..


https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures....rkforce/latest

.

[Ruffy]

Originally Posted by Seeker

HIV would like a word and Ebola and Dengue and Rabies and Smallpox (although we have vaccines for the latter two they are still deadly).

Then there's MERS which is a relative of covid with a 35% mortality rate and Marburg virus with an 88% mortality rate...

Will covid get less deadly? Ask again in 20 years.

So why aren't we in the midst of lockdown, masking, working from home, furloughing etc. to control those other viruses you name? Presenting it the way you have makes them sound far more dangerous than covid. Is it because they haven't really mutated to any great extent so they remain deadly and, thankfully, the established controls are stable and remain effective?

Of course we shouldn't forget influenza too, which is still significantly deadly every year. There's a lot of bad stuff out there that generally goes unremarked in general population.

Or is it just a timing thing? (I have reflected on what I'm witnessing recently compared to what I witnessed/experienced with AIDS/HIV management when it took hold through the 80s/90s.)

Tbh I'm no longer sure what's at the heart of the covid management debate or how to resolve it. It all seems fuelled, I suggest, with a created mass belief that we can stop covid killing, a falsehood that no-one in power/media seems willing to deal with now.


(I am aware of and declare my prejudice: I'm sorry if this sounds harsh or selfish to some, it's just the way I feel, but I'm really struggling with being compelled to put my own life essentially in a parking bay to generally protect over 70s and those at heightened risk of dying anyway. Why? Because I lost both my parents 'early': father at age 58, heart-related, mother at 59, cancer - both some years ago now before I reached age 30. It messed me up far more than I realised at the time and I still struggle today as a result of missng their counsel over the years since and making bad life decisions in the absence of their ongoing support. I've also got other life experiences where there's been, or is likely to be, 'premature' death or serious depression amongst friends and family. It hurts a lot when it happens but I've come to terms with the fact it does happen, and often can't be prevented from happening. So, as I now approach 52, with the possibility that the prognosis might be similar for me, i.e. I could be dead in less than a decade just because of my family history and genetic susceptibility, it's hard for me to act just to preserve a hope of extending 'senior years' by sacrificing or limiting the potential for joy in the present.)

[Ruffy]

Originally Posted by SV650rules

The Germans said ' in Britain you clap the NHS, in Germany we give them more funding'... ( but the NHS in its present form is a money pit ).

I was shocked that only 10% of NHS employees are medical - see heading 4 and read below..

https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures....rkforce/latest

.

Wow, 10%, that's news to me and I agree quite shocking.

I also agree that the intervention required is not necessarily the injection of more funding.

[SV650rules]

The reason we have had successful vaccines for some viruses like smallpox is that they do not mutate, so it is possible to almost wipe them out. It is a competitive advantage to a virus to become more transmissible and less deadly, it maximizes the amount of your virus DNA that gets spread around. Ebola also lives in bats ( a surprising amount of diseases come from bats ) and has mutated to jump the species gap, the Africans have a habit of eating bat meat - and that is the reason Ebola spread to humans... Chinese also eat and live cheek by jowl with some stranger and exotic creatures - which is probably why a lot of diseases originate from there.

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by Ruffy

So why aren't we in the midst of lockdown, masking, working from home, furloughing etc. to control those other viruses you name?

You're mixing two discussions. The first was that it was suggested that virus' get less deadly as they mutate and my point was that they don't necessarily and I listed some still deadly virus'.

If HIV was an airborne virus we would be in deep trouble though. HIV patients are given 2 different retrovirals because HIV can out maneuver one and even then with the virus classed as "undetectable" (viral load <50) it hides somewhere in the body - suspected to be at the brain stem.

Your other comment was about how you thought the government was introducing authoritarian controls and seemed to imply that losing 150+ people a day through covid was acceptable because people die of other things anyway. I do agree that the Tories are overstepping democratic rules but not in this particular area.
We have had almost 150,000 covid deaths some of which could have been prevented if lockdowns/quarantines were introduced sooner. Profit versus health? As I get older the latter becomes more important to me, when I was younger not so much, maybe.

We have had a couple of recent months of optional mask/social distancing rules which was irresponsible (imho) when we know that they reduce the risk of catching covid. Our inspiring leader demonstrated that mask wearing was not needed with his actions yet virus case rates remain stubbornly high. Those rules should not have been relaxed - they were not onerous restrictions and, even now, the rules are half baked.

This government seems to play fast and loose with safety rules. None of the incoming South African passengers (into UK) have been tested for omicron yet the Dutch found 10% of their incoming passengers from SA were carrying the new variant. Let's hope the new strain is weak.