James Gallagher, the BBC's health & science correspondent, a complete prick, here to scare people again.
Understanding how fast Omicron spreads and how sick it makes you is key to comprehending its threat.
www.bbc.co.uk
archived 9 Dec 2021 08:33:32 UTC
archive.md
Here are two big questions: How fast can Omicron spread? And how sick will it make you?
No question of how likely you are to die from it. Is that because... no one has died from it? Better not mention that!
Will I catch it and will I get ill?
So if a wave of Omicron could be coming, what does that mean for me?
The worry since scientists first saw the list of mutations on Omicron is it would make vaccines less effective. It just looks so different to the original virus that was used to design the vaccines.
We now have the first data on how our immunity might hold up from experiments using neutralising antibodies. These stick to the surface of the coronavirus to stop it infecting cells.
Studies have suggested a 20 to 40-fold reduction in the ability of these antibodies from double-vaccinated people to take out the virus.
It is too big a leap to say what laboratory studies mean in the real world, but fewer protective antibodies suggests a higher risk of catching Omicron.
But then came the good news. Experiments by Pfizer-BioNTech have shown a third dose massively boosts levels of neutralising antibodies. They suggest that three doses fare as well against Omicron as two doses did against the original variant, which was very good.
Prof Eleanor Riley, from the University of Edinburgh, described the data as "reassuring" as "this suggests that a booster should provide high levels of protection against infection and severe disease".
We still don't have clear answers about how severe an Omicron infection is.
But even if you have only had two doses of a vaccine, or even a past infection, then your immune system is still likely to be in better shape to fight Covid that at the start of the pandemic.
Neutralising antibodies are an important part of your body's defences and seem to have taken a hit without a booster, but they are only one component in the vast and complicated immune system.
T-cells, which kick in after you've been infected, are able to "see" more of the virus than neutralising antibodies so they are less easily evaded by new variants.
But it will take monitoring of who ends up in hospital to fully understand how severe the disease caused by Omicron is.
So many people I know are worried about Omicron, because they trust what the media says and don't recognise the duplicity.
The quote above, if you trust the narrative and don't realise what they're trying to do, reads as scary. Omicron looks so different to previous strains? A 20-40-fold reduction in efficacy? Higher risk of catching Omicron (which is super scary, because of its name and being super mutated)? Phew, thank god for three doses being effective, better go roll up my sleeve and get the jab!
The last article I posted by this douche also said 'We still don't have clear answers about how severe an Omicron infection is'.
I mean, thanks for churning out yet another pointless article saying the same thing, but the thing is -- yes, we do know about its (lack of) severity, it's just that the answer doesn't fit the narrative. So better try to instill fear into the minds of those who don't yet realise they've been duped, by focusing on how quickly it spreads, leaving out that it's now mutated into a cold, focusing on how ineffective two jabs are against this, and throwing up so much 'uncertainty' about it all into the air.
The only uncertainty is what you are attempting to manufacture.
But [Professor Michael Tildesley, from the University of Warwick] warns there is still huge uncertainty in all the data.
There aren't universally agreed numbers for how fast Omicron spreads, how severe it is or how much it evades vaccines. So you get a radically different view of the coming weeks depending on which numbers get plugged into the mathematical models.
"You can get everything from no wave, to a wave there's no need to worry about, to doomsday; that's the problem there is massive uncertainty," he said.
I. E. don't listen to sources saying this is a nothingburger. There's just so much uncertainty! They got there by using different mathematical models, is all, don't look at doctors such as the South African one who first identified this variant saying it's a very mild illness. So much uncertainty!!
You and I can see this article is spouting absolute shit about nothing at all. But my friends, coworkers, much of my family, would read this and would be scared of what's to come. I don't want these people to be scared. I don't want them, as many of them are, to avoid normal everyday interactions, even avoid visiting their elderly parents, because they're scared of what is now a cold, just because they don't know any better thanks to the media.
James Gallagher and his ilk (looking at you Prick Triggle) are faggots and need to hang (out in Minecraft).
