BF2S Forums Pandemic thread

Australians may have to receive two or even three Covid jabs each year to maintain defences against the virus if early results on the efficacy of booster shots turn out to be a useful guide.

Weekly data published just before Christmas by the UK’s Health Security Agency shows the effectiveness of both the Pfizer and Moderna boosters against symptomatic diseases is lower for the Omicron than the Delta variant across all periods after the injection.

Health worker with Pfizer vaccine
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The analysis included 147,597 Delta and 68,489 Omicron cases in the UK. The agency stressed the “results should be interpreted with caution due to the low counts and the possible biases related to the populations with highest exposure to Omicron (including travellers and their close contacts) which cannot fully be accounted for”.

The UK data showed both Pfizer and Moderna boosters had 90% effectiveness against symptomatic diseases from the Delta variant up to at least nine weeks.

By contrast, efficacy against the Omicron strain was about 30% lower, and appeared to drop away further after nine weeks.

Last edited by Larssen (2022-01-01 12:48:01)

Last edited by Larssen (2022-01-01 13:12:19)

Among those who received
an AstraZeneca primary course, vaccine effectiveness was around 60% 2 to 4 weeks after
either a Pfizer or Moderna booster, then dropped to 35% with a Pfizer booster and 45% with
a Moderna booster by 10 weeks after the booster. Among those who received a Pfizer primary
course, vaccine effectiveness was around 70% after a Pfizer booster, dropping to 45% after 10+
weeks;

Dilbert_X wrote:

30-40%? You're thinking of Israel

Aus is at 91.4% vaccination

Where on earth are you getting your information? A potato?

Delta, variant 4?, was a nasty shock no?

Of course it can mutate into anything it likes.

Last edited by uziq (2022-01-02 01:59:03)

A growing body of evidence indicates that the Omicron Covid variant is more likely to infect the throat than the lungs, which scientists believe may explain why it appears to be more infectious but less deadly than other versions of the virus. Six studies – four published since Christmas Eve – have found that Omicron does not damage people’s lungs as much as the Delta and other previous variants of Covid. The studies have yet to be peer-reviewed by other scientists.

“The result of all the mutations that make Omicron different from previous variants is that it may have altered its ability to infect different sorts of cells,” said Deenan Pillay, professor of virology at University College London.

“In essence, it looks to be more able to infect the upper respiratory tract – cells in the throat. So it would multiply in cells there more readily than in cells deep in the lung. This is really preliminary but the studies point in the same direction.”

If the virus produces more cells in the throat, that makes it more transmissible, which would help to explain the rapid spread of Omicron. A virus that is good at infecting lung tissue, on the other hand, will be potentially more dangerous but less transmissible.

Last edited by uziq (2022-01-02 02:56:56)

Last edited by uziq (2022-01-02 03:21:05)

uziq wrote:

you’re a remote island of 20 million.

a much better example would be, say, a nation like korea. who never closed their borders.

in any case, australia started to slip and fail after delta, like all nations theretofore pursuing ‘zero-covid’ policies. omicron, being an order of magnitude more infectious, has certainly done for your policy of suppression. the point being that 250 days of lockdown and any number of other measures still didn’t produce the desired result. you were slowly losing your grip on the inevitable.

you’ve never been able to actually produce a coherent exit strategy for this australia model. city-wide lockdowns and closed borders, even to your own citizens, every time there’s a new wave or variant? or just permanently? what’s the measurable, defined goal or point at which you can pivot away from this? it’s not sustainable. especially considering the rest of the world, including more importantly your near-neighbours, are not in lockstep with your strategy.

judging from the rates of compliance, protests, rule breakers, etc, in your general population, it looks as if it was becoming unsustainable in the very near future, indeed. yes, 'people are stupid, iDiOcRacY', etc, etc, - yawn - but also people are not machines. people won't endure being asked to do nothing in their lives except risky work/WFH on a poorly defined/indefinite basis.