Omicron will infect ‘just about everybody,’ Fauci says

[brownelvis54]

No surprise here. Just hearing it said out loud is a kick in the gut.


The omicron coronavirus variant will infect

[DaveBrown74]

If everyone is going to get it then why worry excessively about it?

[MightyGiants]

If everyone is going to get it then why worry excessively about it?

Certainly, excessive worry is never a good thing.  However, if you were to ask, "why avoid it"?   I would say two things:

1)  To the unvaccinated Omicron is not nearly as mild

2)  We can't afford to have everyone sick at once, we need to spread things out or everything could come to a crashing halt as we run out of critical workers and healthcare workers and resources

[DaveBrown74]

Certainly, excessive worry is never a good thing.  However, if you were to ask, "why avoid it"?   I would say two things:

1)  To the unvaccinated Omicron is not nearly as mild

2)  We can't afford to have everyone sick at once, we need to spread things out or everything could come to a crashing halt as we run out of critical workers and healthcare workers and resources

Solid points.

I do think it's safe to say though that it does not deserve the level of fear (at least not among the vaccinated) that we have had of other strains. And while I agree with your points, they're not enough to convince me that this strain is a reason to say never go to a restaurant, a sporting event, or on a trip somewhere. I'm not currently at that extreme of a level of worry/caution, personally. Moreover the government clearly is not recommending such a level.

[brownelvis54]

Omicron waves appear to slow in New York City, other major metropolitan areas


The explosion of omicron cases along the Interstate 95 corridor from the Mid-Atlantic to New England is showing signs of slowing down, according to health officials and epidemiologists, offering reason for cautious optimism that the turning point could be near and that the coronavirus variant

[GordonGekko80]

I remember the words of the Austrian Health Minister back on October...
"At the end of the next Winter, there will be 3 sort of people; The vaccinated, the recovered and the dead".

That stuck with me, still does.

Funny enough, my daughters (5&7) brought COVID home in mid-November. My wife and I had the second jab of the Moderna Vaccine at the end of May, right before the 6-mth deadline for the booster was approaching, we got it.
It wasn't a walk in the park. Reminds me of my mom being seriously ill but being tested negative before new years, telling me the other day she was sure to have had it nonetheless.
I just said "mom, when you contract the virus you feel it, trust me. It's something I've never felt before and you can feel that it's just a different beast than anything felt before."
This bastard sticks with you and the perseverance that it has is absolutely insane; You feel like someone went through every bone in your body and broke them one by one. You take a painkiller, goes away for a while, then when the effects of the painkiller dwell down it comes back with a vengeance - even worse than before. I remember being in day 4/5 and thinking 'ffs, when is the time I actually do call the Doc?'
Luckily, after about a week it was all over, but it's definitely not 'just a flu'. And I do not want to know what would've happened if I wasn't vaccinated...

Now I will need to wait for my booster being recovered for about 2 months only. I believe it wasn't the Omicron variant, but the Delta. So the hope is that if I do get Omicron (and I think I will at some point), it won't be as bad as Delta was.

At the end of the day this one's about reducing the risk of serious illness from COVID - so get the jab, reduce that risk and hope to be able to cope with it when you do get it.

And I seriously hope (or like to think) that Omicron is the beginning of the end of this Pandemic because like all of you I am sick and tired of it.

[MightyGiants]

I remember the words of the Austrian Health Minister back on October...
"At the end of the next Winter, there will be 3 sort of people; The vaccinated, the recovered and the dead".

That stuck with me, still does.

Funny enough, my daughters (5&7) brought COVID home in mid-November. My wife and I had the second jab of the Moderna Vaccine at the end of May, right before the 6-mth deadline for the booster was approaching, we got it.
It wasn't a walk in the park. Reminds me of my mom being seriously ill but being tested negative before new years, telling me the other day she was sure to have had it nonetheless.
I just said "mom, when you contract the virus you feel it, trust me. It's something I've never felt before and you can feel that it's just a different beast than anything felt before."
This bastard sticks with you and the perseverance that it has is absolutely insane; You feel like someone went through every bone in your body and broke them one by one. You take a painkiller, goes away for a while, then when the effects of the painkiller dwell down it comes back with a vengeance - even worse than before. I remember being in day 4/5 and thinking 'ffs, when is the time I actually do call the Doc?'
Luckily, after about a week it was all over, but it's definitely not 'just a flu'. And I do not want to know what would've happened if I wasn't vaccinated...

Now I will need to wait for my booster being recovered for about 2 months only. I believe it wasn't the Omicron variant, but the Delta. So the hope is that if I do get Omicron (and I think I will at some point), it won't be as bad as Delta was.

At the end of the day this one's about reducing the risk of serious illness from COVID - so get the jab, reduce that risk and hope to be able to cope with it when you do get it.

And I seriously hope (or like to think) that Omicron is the beginning of the end of this Pandemic because like all of you I am sick and tired of it.

Thanks for sharing your experience, Dom.  It truly amazes me how different everyone's experience is with Covid.  It's sort of surprising how strong your illness was considering you were less than 6 months out of being fully vaccinated.   One thought that pops into my head is, imagine how bad things would have been for you had you not be vaccinated.

[Sem]

Yet another experience - The uncle of a guy I work with has refused to get vaccinated. His choice is not driven by the typical reasons we currently hear about. I'm not sure what he suffers from, only that he has some sort of a mental health condition. About 20 years ago he lost his sense of taste and smell, and his doctors can't explain the reason why. A couple of weeks ago he tested positive for Covid and ended up in the hospital for a week or so, but is home now. Thankfully he never reached the point of needing to be put on a ventilator. The really weird part of all this is that while in the hospital with Covid he regained his sense of smell and taste. Quite strange.

[GordonGekko80]

Thanks for sharing your experience, Dom.  It truly amazes me how different everyone's experience is with Covid.  It's sort of surprising how strong your illness was considering you were less than 6 months out of being fully vaccinated.   One thought that pops into my head is, imagine how bad things would have been for you had you not be vaccinated.

I don't want to know... I really don't. And I am happy I actually was vaccinated.

I think my illness was moderate, but not more than that. My wife and my big daughter recovered quite quickly, while the little one and myself still struggled with excessive tiredness until after Christmas.

[Blue4Life]

No surprise here. Just hearing it said out loud is a kick in the gut.


The omicron coronavirus variant will infect

[MightyGiants]

"a kick in the gut" is one way putting it, the other is that CDC threw in the towel. Especially, if you take it into account, that CDC cut the quarantine time to half in the middle of Omicron outbreak. Doing so also resulted in the employers cutting the paid time for COVID infection from ten to five days. Way to protect business interest CDC...

I am not certain from where Faucci's numbers came from, but I see different numbers in my home state of CT:

Compared to being vaccinated, being unvaccinated currently has the following relative risk:

• 3 Times higher risk of being infected with COVID-19
• 17 Times higher risk of dying from COVID-19
• 11 Times higher risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19

These relative risk factors will change as the fully vaccinated number increases, while the unvaccinated number decreases and yet another variant of COVID shows up.

The second booster shot is probably just around the corner, Denmark already started to rollout the second booster shot:

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/denmark-ease-coronavirus-restrictions-despite-omicron-surge-2022-01-12/

I know that it's not hard to see how businesses reacted to the new standard and conclude the CDC caved to business interests.  That is not really what happened the CDC saw that science that would allow for shorter isolation times and saw the driving need to get people back to work quicker or else nursing home patients would go untended to.  Fires wouldn't be put out.  Power plants would shut down and so on.    The driving factor was the need to get critical employees back to work as quicky as was possible with safety.  Even with the shortened time frame, the feds are sending manpower to one of the local hospitals in my area.

[Blue4Life]

I don't want to know... I really don't. And I am happy I actually was vaccinated.

I think my illness was moderate, but not more than that. My wife and my big daughter recovered quite quickly, while the little one and myself still struggled with excessive tiredness until after Christmas.

The impact of the COVID infection is really boils down to the individual immune system and health condition. Vaccine do help to boost their immune system, but it's not the panacea for everyone. Fully vaccinated people do get infected and while in most cases the symptoms are mild, there are exceptions as well. This is similar with unvaccinated people as well, some of them have mild symptoms and their immune system developed the "organic vaccine" against the COVID virus.

Being fully vaccinated can be hospitalized and die from COVID infection. Yes, their risk is lower than for unvaccinated people, but it's there. Again, within Connecticut, 1/3 of the hospitalized  with COVID infection are fully vaccinated. So far, there had been 311 death with COVID infection due to break through infection since February 2021. Interestingly, up until 12.09.21, there had been "only" 213, resulting in close to 50% increase just in a month. So much for lower impact for  Omicron variant...

[MightyGiants]

One thing I suggest to people is if you are not taking one, start taking a vitamin D supplement


https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.736665/full


https://www.rheumatologyadvisor.com/home/conference-highlights/asbmr-2021/asbmr-2021-effect-of-vitamin-d-on-risk-for-sars-cov2-covid19-infection-severity-death/

Now I know there were a few studies that suggest that vitamin D doesn't matter but the studies I linked were meta-studies looking at many studies and the dates of these studies are also newer

[MightyGiants]

In short, if it walks like a duck...

Certainly, the change had been more about economics, than science, sacrificing people in the process . This change would had have less impact, if people returning to work have access to N95/KN95 masks, rapid test kits, etc. Not everyone agreed to the sudden CDC changes...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/28/health/covid-isolation-period-omicron.html

Depending on your favored drink, food, etc., there are always some studies that will show benefits of the subject at hand, like:

https://www.rheumatologyadvisor.com/general-medicine/three-days-of-remdesivir-reduces-risk-for-severe-covid-19-in-outpatients/

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2021/07/coffee-veggies-covid-19/

https://health.ucdavis.edu/blog/good-food/covid-19-nutrition-4-eating-tips-to-keep-your-immune-system-in-top-shape/2021/08

Take your pick as to which one to believe in?

You can choose to ignore my advice, that certainly is your right.

However, I did click on the links you provided for various help and cures. 

Did you find it somewhat troubling that the first study touting the benefit of remdesivir had this disclaimer, "The study was funded by Gilead Sciences, the manufacturer of remdesivir."?

As to your second study/point, I happen to agree with this:

[Bill Brown]

One thing I suggest to people is if you are not taking one, start taking a vitamin D supplement


https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.736665/full


https://www.rheumatologyadvisor.com/home/conference-highlights/asbmr-2021/asbmr-2021-effect-of-vitamin-d-on-risk-for-sars-cov2-covid19-infection-severity-death/

Now I know there were a few studies that suggest that vitamin D doesn't matter but the studies I linked were meta-studies looking at many studies and the dates of these studies are also newer

Thanks to an article about vitamin D that was posted by Vette on this board  I started taking 4000 in a day. A year ago I had covid and I believe that because I take vitamin D it resulted in no lung issues.

Thank again  Ed!

Bill