"Danielle... I intend to do something rash and violent." - Betsy Braddock
Krakoa, Arakko, and Otherworld forever!
We're not done yet
BA.5, now dominant U.S. variant, may pose the biggest threat to immune protection yet
A new version of omicron is dominant in the U.S.
The coronavirus subvariant known as BA.5 accounted for nearly 54% of the country's Covid cases as of Saturday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A similar subvariant, BA.4, makes up 17% more.Montefiori estimated that BA.4 and BA.5 are about three times less sensitive to neutralizing antibodies from existing Covid vaccines than the original version of the omicron variant, BA.1. Other research suggests that BA.4 and BA.5 are four times more resistant to antibodies from vaccines than BA.2, which replaced the omicron variant as the U.S.'s dominant version of the coronavirus in April.
Francois Balloux, the director of the University College London Genetics Institute, said that's most likely another reason the subvariants have taken over.
"At this stage now, I think all these variants actually are roughly equally transmissible, so there’s not a huge difference," he said."It’s just some are slightly better at infecting people who have been vaccinated or infected by previous variants."The Food and Drug Administration last week recommended modifying coming booster shots from Pfizer and Moderna to target BA.4 and BA.5 directly.
Pfizer has told NBC News that it could have an updated vaccine targeting BA.4 and BA.5 ready to be distributed in October.
Original join date: 11/23/2004
Eclectic Connoisseur of all things written, drawn, or imaginatively created.
Masks in my area are now mostly by choice, except for certain places like Doctors' Offices and Hospitals. Some places still ask visitors to mask up, many have started taking down their barriers and allowing their workers to decide for themselves.
I try to carry masks with me, and if I feel that I need to wear them I do. I got a little lax this year, partly from Mask Fatigue, partly from being fully vaccinated and boosted, and partly because of my Asthma and how masks would fog up my glasses.
Ironically, I recently found out that some of the breathing problems that I have been having with my asthma can be lessened by wearing a mask. So I am thinking of doing it more often, especially come the Fall and Winter.
Original join date: 11/23/2004
Eclectic Connoisseur of all things written, drawn, or imaginatively created.
"Danielle... I intend to do something rash and violent." - Betsy Braddock
Krakoa, Arakko, and Otherworld forever!
Europe is seeing some catastrophic staff shortages, often connected to many people calling in sick with covid.
It's annoying when you have to stand in line for 6 hours at the airport. But now hospitals have shut down entire departments and are moving non-essential surgeries to god knows when. And there are reports of patients dying because, for example, there was nobody there not notice the oxygen bottle was empty.
All because people cannot be bothered to wear a mask of get boostered.
I always carry a mask with me now, whether or not I plan to use it. Its just a normal part of my wardrobe.
Many here in southern California have been getting COVID again, but there is a big difference now in that the strains seem less virulent. They are more contagious, it seems, but less likely to throw someone into a death spiral than in 2020.
Every day is a gift, not a given right.
If you compare recent death rates in Hong Kong (largely unvaccinated or vaccinated with a lower quality vaccine) and New Zealand (largely vaccinated with mRNA vaccines), you will see that it's not a less virulent strain, people just have a level of immunity from either vaccines or previous infections.
New study shows vaccines lower the risk of Long Covid significantly:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...tm_term=070122
last week we had a mandatory all staff meeting. Including people in from overseas and guess what happened? at least 3 of us got it. including me. I might not have tested myself today but I've had a head cold and sore throat for a few days.
Anybody going for the monkeypox shot? Little jealous that my roommate still has a smallpox vaccination from childhood that should protect him.
Yes:
https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeyp...x-vaccine.html
Because Monkeypox virus is closely related to the virus that causes smallpox, the smallpox vaccine can protect people from getting monkeypox. Past data from Africa suggests that the smallpox vaccine is at least 85% effective in preventing monkeypox.
I recently had Covid here in the UK. And while I was triple vaccinated (two initial vaccines plus the more recent booster) it still wasn’t a pleasant experience. 3 days with fever, body aches and headaches, followed by 2 weeks were I was feeling exhausted throughout the day.