Posted on 12/16/2021 10:12:06 PM PST by SeekAndFind
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Omicron appears to cause less severe illness than earlier variants of the coronavirus but is much more resistant to the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine widely used in South Africa, according to a major private study of the variant.
The study by Discovery Health, South Africa’s largest health insurer, showed that risk of hospital admissions among adults who developed covid-19 was 29 percent lower than in the initial pandemic wave that emerged in March 2020.
Discovery Health provided conflicting information about the size of the study. In the initial release, the company said the study was based on 211,000 positive test results in South Africa, of which 78,000 were attributed to omicron. A subsequent correction to the release removed the word “positive” from the test results and said the change “does not affect any of the calculations.” Later information provided by a Discovery Health spokeswoman put the number of total cases at 78,173, of which 19,070 tests were positive during the “omicron period” from Nov. 15 to Dec. 7. The company did not respond to requests for further clarification.
The study found that the vaccine from U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German partner BioNTech provided just 33 percent protection against infection, much less than the level for other variants detected in the country.
At the same time, the vaccine may offer 70 percent protection against being hospitalized with omicron, the study found, describing that level of protection as “very good.”
The protection was maintained across all age groups, Ryan Noach, Discovery Health’s chief executive, told a news briefing. He said the disease may be less severe in South Africa because more than 70 percent of the population had already been exposed to the coronavirus.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
He cautioned, however, that it was still in the early days and hospital admissions could rise sharply as the variant evolves.
Sounds very flu-like.
By the way, anyone heard about that “flu” thing lately? Seems like it’s just flat-out disappeared over the past couple of years or so.
Modern medicine, I guess.
Covid has been blasting through the vaccinated like a hot knife through butter...Fortunately, Omicron showed up...to take the blame for new restrictions.
Omicron variant, a.k.a. the common cold, was said to be a milder version of what you didn’t get in the last three waves.
I asked my doctor for a flu test early this year. He said the labs won’t do flu tests. Only COVID tests. (He’s very critical of the politics in medicine)
My son just came down with stomach flu & obviously kept him home from
school, only lasted 24 hours or so.
The school nurse called to ask how he was feeling, exact symptoms..before I answered her ?, I asked if anyone at school had become infected with COVID, she said no & we would obviously be informed immediately if that was the case.
I then asked if this stomach flu was going around at school, she said yes.
She then had no answer on why parents weren’t informed about flu outbreak, especially when kids all masked up..
No answer, she nervously laughed & quickly ended the conversation
It was strange..
Who’s the dumbass who decided that allowing the infected to come to America from Sud Afrika was a good idea. As though America really needed another Covid Flavor of the Week here. Dumbass democrats and their “refugees.” Idiots.
No vaccine, spreads rapidly, but mostly harmless. They’re describing the common cold.
Glenda Gray, president of the South African Medical Research Council, said… “We don’t think it’s a question of virulence, but more a question of exposure to vaccination and prior infection, so we would be cautious to try and interpret that this is a less virulent strain“
I think both are occurring, some lower virulence and some mitigation from prior infections and vaccination.
But they do seem to be backing off a bit, from how mild they described it early on, when they were stinging from the sudden travel bans imposed on South Africa.
I think they got about 1/3 of the hospitalization rates of earlier waves, and for shorter durations.
Now that Omicron has been dominant for a few weeks there, it is possible that their current COVID deaths may be Omicron deaths.
Is Omicron “more resistant” to the vaccines, or are the vaccines “more conducive” to acquiring the disease. It’s an important distinction. The data are not in yet on the answer, but the possibility is certainly real that being vaccinated makes one more likely to get the disease than one who is not vaccinated. This certainly needs to be studied and revealed to the population. Somehow, I suspect that neither will happen quickly.
It also may be true that the answer is that this effect is beneficial. If Omicron is a much less deadly variant, and acquiring it makes one more immune to subsequent variants this could possibly lead to herd immunity in us ignorant herds, and maybe even the ignorant hoards running the government.
I will read what South Africa says about the virus as their medical system has survived well from Apartheid and is FAR LESS CORRUPT than our own.
Bottom line is that few patients are showing up in hospitals and likely nothing different than a typical flu season.
High flu rates in New Mexico.
I did hear there is one reported flu case now. Funny how it has envolved in to not spreading much, isn’t it?
Their COVID death rates dropped off a cliff weeks ago and have remained in the low double digits. With rates still going up and such low deaths it’s hard to tell if the are dying with or from omicron, especially with reports of most hospitalizations being for other conditions and omicron being found incidentally.
“Their (South Africa) COVID death rates dropped off a cliff weeks ago and have remained in the low double digits.”
Their death rates dropped before Omicron. The effect of a new variant on Death rates would normally be expected to lag changes in case numbers, by 3-4 weeks.
Although detected on 24 Nov, Omicron cases did not pop until around 1 December.
https://ftp.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/south-africa/
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