And now Norway is closing down again. Not as drastically as last year, but the situation is arguably the worst so far. The omikron variant will be dominant soon (some models say in a matter of days), and even if it's not more dangerous than the delta variant, it is way more infectious. Meaning by sheer numbers, it will overwhelm our health services with people needing intensive care.

And the cherry on top is that the majority of those on intensive care are unvaccinated adults. Just get the fucking vaccines already! They are free.

I'm getting so tired of this shit. Another Christmas like this.

About omikron, and I'm speaking as a total layman here, the booster shot is supposed to be very effective against it (I wonder if Osore can tell us something more, because this is his field of expertise from what I understand). However, I've noticed that a lot of people who have taken the first two shots, and for whom enough time has passed now that they are eligible for the booster shot, are kinda avoiding taking it, possibly considering it unnecessary? Sounds like bad news to me. Please, take the booster shot if the time has come for it.

I'd like to, but the booster shot is open only to older people here. It won't be available to me until January.

It's not gonna happen over here in America.

I agree with you. It's definitely frustrating. But, you'd have to pay these non vaccinated people to get the vaccine.

How many non vaccinated people get Covid, end up in the hospital on a respirator being waited on by nurses and staff, make it out alive and then go on to blather about how the "whole thing was a big media scare just like I knew all along". That thought pisses me off. It must be real enjoyable to be a doctor who went to school for over a decade only to be mocked by people with a degree in "do your research" and then a week later have them taking up a hospital bed.

Absolutely. I'm talking about those who can. Btw, where is "here", if you don't mind my asking?

Quebec. I thought it was in my sidebar profile.

We're actually at this point up here in Alberta: the government has been offering $100 per shot for months now if you haven't gotten it yet and there are still tens of thousands of people that refuse to get it. I don't know what's going to convince them if literally getting paid to do it hasn't.

It pisses me off beyond belief as well.

At least certain cities now have vaccine mandates if you want to enter a large amount of in door businesses (not all) like bars, restaurants etc. including: NYC, Philadelphia as of Jan.3rd, L.A., New Orleans, etc. I hope it grows more and more in every major city, then maybe it can extend to suburbs near those cities.

The worst thing is I have friends who are really stupid who I like for other reasons and other things we have in common but they are so dumb when it comes to this. Refuse to get vaccinated and say if they are ever mandated to have to get it to enter ANY kind of business in their area that they will move to those dumb ass southern and midwestern states where the hospitals are chock full of the unvaccinated taking up hospital beds.

I hate to say it about friends, but really, all those people should move to those states. Keep your plague to your red states and keep our blue states clean.

For me though, I got my booster shot (just half a dose) of Modern 2 days ago. I'll be fully protected in a couple weeks.

I'm not concerned about myself, just the immunocompromised and elderly. Well, and the unvaccinated taking up our hospital beds. If they aren't smart enough to protect themselves then I don't care if they get sick, but I do care who they take along with them.

I'd strongly recommend you point your anti-vax friends towards the Herman Cain Awards subreddit. It probably won't work but it's the best shot you'll get.

I've read that and it's hilarious in the darkest and worst way.

But really, the one very close friend I have who is anti-vax I won't even discuss this with. I only know his stances from facebook. He's my martial arts instructor and it's a far more complex relationship because of that and because the entire school i go to (well I haven't been able to go for the past year and a half cause i live with immunocompromised people so even though I'd now be willing to take the risk, I won't for them) that he runs is full of anti-vaxxers.

For some reason, martial artists are an often anti-vaxxers IMO. I guess tough guy = "no government is gonna tell me what to do!!!" = I wont get vaxxed.

This guy, who is my closest anti-vax friend, has already fucking had covid (alpha, not delta) and HE LOST TWELVE FUCKING POUNDS and still hasn't fully regained his sense of smell and taste, and still won't get vaccinated.

He now uses that as his talking point and goes on and on about his "superior natural immunity" and thinks he's even MORE protected than the vaccinated because he had covid, which is NOT true, and the CDC has said that they not only don't have the same level of protection as the vaccinated but also, having had covid DOESN'T PROTECT OTHERS like the vaccine does.

These people are in denial about the idea that the vaccine helps prevent the spread, but if you look on the CDC site, at least for alpha and delta (we aren't yet sure about Omicron) it says that if you are vaccinated you are 63% less likely to pass covid on to others if you are sick with it.

They don't care. If having had covid won't convince you, then nothing will. People are literally dying and on their death beds denying they have covid or at least that the vaccine works.

When it comes to the die-hards, there's no point in even talking about it, and I refuse to to even try. I want no part in their shit.

Basically, the news reports are fine, except that it has not been verified yet that omicron adopted a sequence from common-cold virus (Venkatakrishnan, A. J., et al. "Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 harbors a unique insertion mutation of putative viral or human genomic origin." 2021).
It turns out omicron does not escape immunity completely. Apart from memory B cells involved in antibody-mediated response (humoral immunity), we also have memory T cells, wheres ''memory'' refers to the fact they remember the antigen, which is a part of spike protein from coronavirus. The problem is that virus mutates, which lowers the defence mechanism (as if meeting an old friend and taking some time to recognise her/him) + it takes extra time to synthesise and secrete antibodies that wane ~5 months after infection/vaccination, which is logical because you don't need high concentration of antibodies against coronavirus in your circulation when you are not infected, so the body allocates resources into other things. Hopefully this was clear. You'd be surprised to hear how many of my colleagues (biologists) either don't want to get vaccinated and/or get confused with the fact this cannot be prevented via two shots for lifetime, and I say them to look at influenza virus vaccination that requires two shots every year. Different virus, different story; Covid vaccine is not MMR vaccine.

I'm having trouble understanding the above post. I have been sick with Covid, a year ago, and since had both shots and recently the booster, all pfizer. Am I still vulnerable? I had the alpha or whatever and nearly had to be hospitalized a year ago.

I'm not a biologist but I would be absolutely stunned if you could be considered vulnerable. Most importantly, you've taken every available precaution and as long as you're not sharing a cone of silence at a MAGA rally, you're good. If you plan on attending crowded indoor engagements, an N95 wouldn't hurt, but otherwise I wouldn't worry.

Although it depends from person to person, I would say you probably have a particularly strong hybrid immunity (since you were infected and triple vaccinated) which is going to last around 6 month after your booster shot, enabling some level of protection against omicron as well. ^_~
Sooner or later manufacturers will offer vaccines modified to protect against new strains; until then, be careful, people.

For clarity, see this article and attached pictures (zoom out or open in new tab):

Thanks for the posts, Osore, it's gonna take me some time to parse them out completely, but I get the gist of it.

I should have mentioned, I've been contact traced 3 times this year due to a friend or family member I was with, in all cases, everyone there turned up positive, some got mildly ill. Probably been exposed many more times. I didn't get tested with all the calls, I live alone and wear a mask when out, haven't been sick this year, other than a half day after the 2nd shot, I'm pretty isolated anyways.

Just got my booster. No side effects at all.

Got the Pfizer booster almost two weeks ago. Sore arm for a day or two, nothing else.

Got my booster and flu shot in late November and was sick with a cold for three days. Rising temperature, weak body then it was over.

Moderna booster was given to me on Monday. Felt like I had a whiskey without the aftertaste and just felt lethargic for the next 30ish hours without really feeling feverish. Best part though was waking up today and feeling totally full of energy though.

Got the booster shot a day before New Year's Eve. Felt nothing but a sore arm and little bit of weakness the same day. Next day - nothing and went on partying on New Year's.

Got my booster today (Moderna), one less thing to worry about.

I got my booster on December 2nd. I decided to get the Moderna booster. I had originally gotten the 2 Pfizer shots before. I got the Moderna because I read the efficacy was a little better than Pfizer. I got a fever the day after the booster but I was fine the day after. I also had a fever after my second Pfizer shot.

Just learned that a close family friend has died due to complications from Covid at a fairly young age. This is the closest it has hit so far for me, though I acknowledge that many people, including board members, have suffered much greater losses. Just needed to share it.

What makes it worse is that the person was fully vaccinated and otherwise extremely careful and responsible. However, and without going into details, circumstances related to the completely mind-numbing recklessness of others complicated the situation once our friend got infected. Some losses can't be avoided. This one was 100% avoidable.

May she rest in peace, and I hope those other folks take a long hard look in the mirror.

I work in a school, and they just announced that our state (MA) is removing mask restrictions later this month. No decision yet on what the school policy will be, but we have been very strict on mask wearing. Many of us teachers are probably going to continue to wear a mask, and I probably will and see how things go for a while before I decide to not wear it. It will be nice to not have to keep reminding students to wear the masks properly though.

Just got my Pfizer booster. Wish me luck.

PhilosophyTube commissioned a study about Covid anti-vaccination sentiment in the UK and made an awesome video about it. Highly suggested.

So the protection of the fully protected didn't work because the not fully protected didn't get their full protection to protect those who were already fully protected? I'll let it sink in for you how 100% absurd that is. Take a long hard look in the mirror and see just how much you have been scammed and re-framed to believe such utter nonsense.

Spewing covid misinformation is one thing, but it takes a special kind of fucking rat to mock someone whose close family friend has died with that absolute nonsense. Fuck off.

I also wish I knew what the fuck he's talking about anyway, so I can get properly offended. I mean, I get that he's probably an antivaxxer, but what a convoluted way of expressing it, holy shit.

Btw, have had Covid myself for about a week now, and having had my three shots on time, I got away with a runny nose and a sore throat for a couple of days. Funny how that works.

For real. Trying to spread your anti-vax crap to someone who just lost their loved one to COVID is just about the shittiest thing one can do

It means he doesn't understand that the vaccine isn't 100% effective, because of that, we somehow shouldn't blame anti-vax for not taking the vaccine, because if it isn't 100% effective, then it's not worth taking, and that we've somehow been scammed somewhere along the way. You know, the usual "since it's not 100% effective, it's 0% effective" bullshit.

Ultra pro-not-so-secret tip for the people in the back: if everyone was vaccinated, the disease would spread less, mutate less and would be less likely to infect and cause harm to people who are vaccinated and for whom the protection would otherwise fail, and of course the people who have issues that weaken their immune system or cannot be vaccinated at all...

I figured as much (and checked some of his previous posts), but thanks for reinforcing my interpretation.

Second paragraph, spot on and cannot be repeated often enough.

SIL/BIL and their daughter are all positive. My partner, myself, and our son live with them and, thus far, are negative. Everybody's vaxxed except for our son, who's not even 2 yet. SIL feels like she's been hit by a truck but can still move around, BIL has a cough and congestion but that's about it, their daughter has been in bed all day and feels awful but isn't showing any hospital-worthy effects.

My partner? She's convinced we have it. Two negative tests two days in a row isn't enough to ease her mind. I'm taking another one tomorrow before work, and she's taking one during the day to be sure. It's easy enough to quarantine with a two-story home, but our son is beginning to lose his mind being cooped up in just our bedroom.

Been through this, you will test positive. Stay strong, take your vitamins and meds and hunker down for a week. It fucking sucks. I've had it twice, first time I was close to being hospitalized, I refused because I'm ornery, lol. 2nd time was just two months ago and I am fully vaxxed, just a bad cold but I still can't taste anything and that sucks.

Anyways, best to you and you're family.

Third day, third test, still negative.

You might not get it. My old roommate's son got it (he was staying in our small apartment with both of us at home), as did his son's mom and all her family, but neither me nor my roommate got it at all.

That was pre-vaccine availability too.

Six days. Six tests. Six negatives.

...but our ~2yo son has it. Wonderful.

I was ill from 1.1.2022 to last week. I had fever here and there, was very tired and felt it in my lungs on 5th week or so, when coughing began. I have 2 jabs.

One person I know had the long covid symptoms for a year. Blood tests, x-rays etc. etc. Then she went and paid MRI by herself (it's not cheap at all, and she did not manage to get it via occupational health care). MRI show inflammation in her brain and lungs (x-rays did not). Let's see how doctors act. She was also jabbed twice before it all.

I also went to x-raying, nothing found. I am observing how I feel, but pretty okay after 1 work week (physical work outside, 8 hours per day). I it comes back, I am paying for MRI.