The Coronavirus Thread

[Brian Peacock]

Back to reality

What Is COVID Actually Doing to Our Immune Systems?
The research sounds scary. It’s not bunk—but it’s important to understand its purpose.

BY TIM REQUARTH
JAN 31, 20235:45 AM

https://slate.com/technology/2023/01/im ... ml?via=rss

Very similar to the Erasmus study I posted a few days ago. I'm wondering if this might explain my 3-week Xmas flu.

[macdoc]

Japan at highest death rate of the pandemic



https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64494095

[pErvinalia]

No one is dying from Covid. It doesn't exist.

[Brian Peacock]

Dictators!

[Strontium Dog]

3 dead in every million people, how will they survive that.

[macdoc]

It's not the deaths that are the problem..

UK Economy Withers as Covid Puts Workers on the Sidelineshttps://www.nytimes.com › Business › Economy
9 Jan 2023 — Many people who want to work can't because of long-term health problems, ... in a country troubled by high inflation and the economic costs of Brexit

that said ....what's 2-3000 dead Yanks a day ...

The same trend has been seen in the US, where some 2,000-3,000 Americans are still dying from Covid-19 every week. The Harvard University epidemiologist William Hanage says that he wrote to reporters at one large media organisation in July last year, informing them that if the ongoing weekly death toll was extrapolated to a full year, it would be equivalent to three particularly devastating flu seasons. But such news no longer automatically makes headlines.

"The numbers are actually really quite large," says Hanage. "But one of the things that happens with humans is that things which are constant just become part of the everyday."

Between January and November 2022, more than 248,000 Americans had died from the virus. You could be forgiven for wondering how we have all become so inured to these numbers, as if such a degree of mortality is now little more than mundane.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/2023 ... f-covid-19

[JimC]

3 dead in every million people, how will they survive that.

It has put huge pressure on already strained health systems all over the world, and the legacy of long covid sufferers continues to add more...

[rainbow]

3 dead in every million people, how will they survive that.

Dead people don't survive, it's sort of by definition.

[macdoc]

One more reason to avoid getting Covid. We wore masks shopping yesterday

https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/fea ... etrayed-me

[JimC]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2023 ... /101999092

If your last interaction with COVID-19 — either by vaccination or infection — feels like a distant memory, it might be time to book in for a booster shot.

As of this week, all Australian adults who haven't had a COVID-19 booster or a confirmed case of the virus in the past six months are eligible for an additional jab.

And that's not all that's changed: an updated Omicron-specific booster is also set to be rolled out early next month.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) has advised that Pfizer's bivalent BA.4/5 booster can be used in all people aged 12 years and over.

Here's what you need to know.

As SARS-CoV-2 has spread around the world, the virus evolved in ways that allow it to transmit more easily and better evade pre-existing immunity generated by vaccination and prior infection.

In a bid to keep up with this viral evolution, newer COVID-19 "bivalent" vaccines have been developed to target both the original strain of the virus and newer, more immune-evasive variants.

Pfizer's latest bivalent vaccine is the first booster to be approved in Australia that specifically targets Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

Both rose to prominence in 2022, overtaking previous subvariants like BA.1 and BA.2.

Rapidly evolving SARS-CoV-2 variants have driven new waves of infection and reinfection.(Pixabay: BlenderTimer)
The latest jab is the third bivalent vaccine approved for use in Australia, all of which are Omicron-specific.

The first bivalent option was Moderna's (Spikevax) original/BA.1 vaccine which was made available in October last year, shortly followed by Pfizer's original/BA.1 vaccine in December.

Pfizer's new BA.4/5 bivalent vaccine differs from its previous formulation by replacing mRNA of the BA.1 Omicron subvariant with mRNA that encodes the BA.4/5 spike protein instead.

A fourth bivalent vaccine — from Moderna, also targeting BA.4 and BA.5 — was approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) last week and is undergoing consideration by ATAGI.

How much more effective is it?

Compared to Pfizer's original COVID-19 vaccine, studies in laboratory settings suggest the new bivalent booster offers better protection against Omicron BA.4 and BA.5, said epidemiologist Terry Nolan.

"Antibody response studies have been done — in the test tube — to show what the boost is, and if it neutralises the virus," said Professor Nolan, head of the vaccine and immunisation research group at the Doherty Institute.

"There's good evidence [the new bivalent vaccines] produce very good antibodies against their targets, BA.4/5, and the original ancestral strain."

Early studies also found BA.4/5 vaccines induce "higher neutralising activity" against other emerging Omicron subvariants — including BQ.1 and XBB — than the earlier bivalent and original vaccines.

This is important because although the BA.4 and BA.5 continue to circulate in Australia, other Omicron subvariants are becoming increasingly dominant.

"At the moment, the closest we can get to the virus is with the bivalent BA.4/5 vaccine," Professor Nolan said.

I'll getting mine as soon as I can...

[Svartalf]

my last shot was in december, I think I still have some time before next

[pErvinalia]

I'm thinking of holding off until I get closer to my India trip (September).

[Brian Peacock]

I understand your thinking, but your immune system won't.

[pErvinalia]

I'm far more likely to get Covid in India than here in Oz. And India is a place I really don't want to get it.

[macdoc]

It takes time to build up anti-bodies.
The vaccine does not prevent you from getting covid ...it just reduces the risk of a severe case.