I'll just avoid political commentaries and posts that bug me then. For me, conversations introduce me to new info I may have missed and open my eyes to other possbilities. eg. I had heard that 80% of hospitalisation were among the unvaccinated. When I looked months later, that had changed to 50/50. When it was raised the disease mostly circulates in the unvaccinated, I went looking for info to confirm that. The data I found seemed solid, but then I learnt, from discussion, that it's not accurate. New data showed a more accurate picture, which is not supportive of either theory, but instead a middle ground. I'm now better educated, but to get there, I keep having to hear that a source I've found is part of some political agenda or only an antivaxxer would quote that survey, or "why are you questioning vaccines?" It's so tiring!Don't leave, you made me think about that subject!
Yes, I think the argument of impact of vaccine on mutations is to reduce the rate at which it mutates by reducing the number of actively infected persons. However, if the mutations mostly happen in the immunocompromised, vaccinating everyone for the purposes of suppressing mutations isn't efficient. In the end, vaccinating everyone for their own health is the objective, with any suppression of case rates and mutation rates being a bonus.I have mentioned something that is not shown by your data: the viral load is reduced by the vaccines, so even infected people will develop less mutations than if they were not vaccinated because they carry less viruses. Of course this effect reduces as time goes on, hence the need for a 3rd injection (and likely more in the future).
But others in the discussion had, which is what the data was about, and which you should have engaged in one way or another - either to support the view, or oppose it, or just present improved data without regard for its interpretation.For what it's worth, I've never particularly argued we should start vaccinating people to stop the virus turning into something more serious...
I've not advocated anything. I have no position, nor faith that I can work out the best course of action. I'm only here to have a conversation that challenges views because the 'right' course of action should be the one that stands up to scrutiny the best. Personally, I don't think there is a right option, only a choice of outcomes with different pros and cons, and most people who feel there is a 'right' are selecting a set of pros/cons that suits their values.It should be noted that it is thought most of the variants have developed in the immuno-compromised who wouldn't be alive in previous eras due to the lack of modern medical treatments. If you are advocating that we should not use vaccines for Covid-19 because of the risk of future escape variants
That's an option. There's a good case that humanity's attempts to save people is actually weakening the whole species. An interesting pointer in this direction is childbirth and caesarians. We manage to save many women and children from fatal birth complications, but we are now seeing a shrinking of the birth canal and a species headed towards being unable to give birth naturally. There's ongoing discussion around whether the 'problems' of childbirth are due to weird evolution or too much medical intervention. Possibly, if the natural faults were allowed to play out, the health of the whole species would actually be stronger overall and not require medical science to prop it up?do you also think we should also stop treating people with certain cancers or auto-immune diseases who are the most likely 'culprits' as hosts? Just a thought experiment
For me, conversations introduce me to new info I may have missed and open my eyes to other possbilities. eg. I had heard that 80% of hospitalisation were among the unvaccinated. When I looked months later, that had changed to 50/50.
Edit: Also, we don't yet know that mutations in the immunocompromised is truly a thing - it's only a hypothesis - or even if it's bad!
Unvaccinated case rates are proportionately higher. We have a real problem with how numbers are reported, with too many raw counts. Yes, more vaccinated people may be in hospital as an absolute count, but the relative count for vaccinated vs unvaccinated shows you are far more likely to end up in hospital if you are unvaccinated.I keep hearing that the unvaccinated account for the majority of hospitalisations, but isn’t this statistically unlikely?
Covid or C19, as the natural language evolution (mutation!). We moved from SARS-CoV-2 to SARS-COV2 to COVID-19 (actually to talk about the disease, not the virus, hence Coronavirus Disease 2019) to Covid. Scientists will need to stuck with scientific convention but people just need a name they can use that's efficient for purpose. 'Covid' and 'C19' fit Whatsapp etc., so they the correct option for the general populace and what they'll be using no matter what official name exists.A stupid thing that's been bugging me apparently has been bugging someone else, how do you capitalize the disease? Is it "Covid" or "COVID"?
Indeed. For me in this crisis the biggest problem is how they define "unvaccinated" in most hospitals and how this is inevitably creating inaccurate (IMHO) reports and long-term studies based on those numbers.Unvaccinated case rates are proportionately higher. We have a real problem with how numbers are reported, with too many raw counts. Yes, more vaccinated people may be in hospital as an absolute count, but the relative count for vaccinated vs unvaccinated shows you are far more likely to end up in hospital if you are unvaccinated.
You got AZ x 2 first I assume.unfortunately I'm not suffering from enlarged testicles
New report about Omicron just released by the UKHSA:
Estimating an R0 rate of approximately 4, cases doubling every 3 days, 1 million infections a day by Christmas!
2xAZ offers pretty much no protection against infection, 2xPfizer not very much. However, a Pfizer booster after either vaccine appears to show 75% protection against symptomatic infection. Whether or not this means asymptomatic cases to some proportion remains to be seen. Also very early data on limited numbers. I'm hoping it is accurate and that 2xAZ followed by Moderna has similar efficacy as that's what I had at the end of last month!
I'd be astounded if the UK wasn't in lockdown by Christmas.
So much for Christmas fricking cheer. Just taken my young daughter for a PCR after a kid in her room at nursery tested positive earlier in the week. It's her birthday this weekend and we were supposedly going to have a party, but that's no going to happen now (and one of her cousins has just had a positive LFT as well).
Medical condition of those in hospital is way better than previous waves. Far less ICU occupancy and even oxygen support.In Gauteng, cases are apparently up 400% over the past week, hospitalisations up 200%.
One thing that surprised me was the 'serious healthcare' and 'case fatality' rates for Germany are so much higher than the UK. Substantially lower hospitalisations but more patients on ICU and dying. Any theories? Are they still aggressively intubating? Difference in metrics?