Author Topic: The worst virus variant just arrived. The pandemic is not over. (In time for the midterms)  (Read 1744 times)

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Online mountaineer

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Of course, it's the Washington Post.
Quote
The worst virus variant just arrived. The pandemic is not over.
By the Editorial Board
July 7, 2022 at 1:58 p.m. EDT

The pandemic is a relentless race against Mother Nature. Waves of infection took millions of lives, and only highly effective vaccines prevented even more deaths. Now, the coronavirus is speeding up once again, mutating, evading immunity and still on the march. The arrival of subvariant BA.5 should be a reminder that the finish line in this race is nowhere to be seen.

What’s BA.5? This is the latest subvariant of omicron, which stormed the planet late last year and caused a huge wave of infection. As of now, BA.5 and a closely related variant, BA.4, account for about 70 percent of all infections in the United States, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based in part on modeling. These two newcomers are easing out an earlier variant, BA.2.

The obscure names should not hide the punch of BA.5. Eric Topol, professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research, says that BA.5 “is the worst version of the virus that we’ve seen.” He adds, “It takes immune escape, already extensive, to the next level, and, as a function of that, enhanced transmissibility,” well beyond earlier versions of omicron. There has not been a marked increase in hospitalizations and deaths, he reports, because there is so much immunity built up from the winter omicron wave. But there are aspects of this new variant very much worth keeping an eye on as the United States remains stuck at an uncomfortably high plateau of pandemic misery.  ...
:silly: More fear porn! More vaccines! More mail-in ballots!!!
The abnormal is not the normal just because it is prevalent.
Roger Kimball, in a talk at Hillsdale College, 1/29/25

Online mountaineer

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New Omicron subvariant now a majority of US Covid cases; may be 'more virulent'
Dated: July 9, 2022 by Sharyl Attkisson

The following is an excerpt from The Hill via Yahoo! News.

A new omicron subvariant known as BA.5 now comprises a majority of U.S. Covid-19 cases, according to data released Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The data is a sign of the rise of the highly transmissible subvariant, which has prompted concern about a new increase in cases.

BA.5, along with a related subvariant known as BA.4, has mutations that have shown an increased ability to evade the protection from vaccines and previous infection.

BA.5 now makes up 53.6 percent of U.S. cases, according to the CDC, and BA.4 makes up another 16.5 percent, putting the two together at around 70 percent of infections.

“Omicron subvariants BA.4 & BA.5 are even more mutated than the original Omicron, which means that our immune systems are having a harder time recognizing these new subvariants, regardless of whether we’ve previously been vaccinated or infected,” tweeted Celine Gounder, an infectious disease expert at New York University. "We are also seeing early hints that Omicron subvariants BA.4 & BA.5 may be more virulent (causing more severe disease) than the original Omicron.” ... Sharyl Atkisson
 *****rollingeyes*****
The abnormal is not the normal just because it is prevalent.
Roger Kimball, in a talk at Hillsdale College, 1/29/25

Offline libertybele

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Of course, it's the Washington Post. :silly: More fear porn! More vaccines! More mail-in ballots!!!

The article mentions BA.2, BA.4, and BA.5 -- so what happened to BA.1 and BA.3?   :shrug: *****rollingeyes*****

Yeppers, we're all going to die if we go and vote in person, so indeed more mail-in ballots.

As for the vaccines; obviously they didn't help to avoid transmission and duh ... they only lowered ones' natural immunity.  Maybe they'll come out with a dandy super booster of all boosters! 

Offline Kamaji

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Oh please!  The medical community is proving itself to be one of the worst sorts of advisers - the idiot-savant whose only tool is a hammer, so every problem becomes a nail.

First off, covid didn't take millions of lives, and "effective vaccines" didn't substantially reduce that number.  The total excess deaths for 2020-2022 is not very high, which means that, to the extent a death can be attributed on a causal basis to covid-19, it generally only replaced a death that would have been attributable to influenza, or to heart failure, or to some other gross comorbidity.

Secondly, the vaccines are proving themselves to be of only marginal benefit, and certainly not nearly as effective as natural immunity.

Thirdly, the most telling point is the point the medical industry consummately refuses to address:  infections may be going up, but cases of serious symptoms, hospitalizations, or death, are not, for the simple reason that this virus - like every other virus in the world - has evolved to be more infectious and less virulent.

It is not going to suddenly reverse course and evolve into the next Marburg or Ebola, for the simple reason that its primary host pool is the human species, and becoming more virulent would deprive it of the hosts needed to sustain itself.  Marburg and Ebola can continue to remain as virulent as they are because their primary host pool is not humans, but certain animal species.

The medical industry needs to learn to STFU and stop treating every little molehill as if it was an existential threat to the entire human species.

Online Wingnut

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Number 5 is alive!



You don’t become cooler with age but you do care progressively less about being cool, which is the only true way to actually be cool.

Online Fishrrman

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Kamaji wrote:
"It is not going to suddenly reverse course and evolve into the next Marburg or Ebola..."

Interesting that you mentioned Marburg.
New cases of it just reported in Africa today...

Offline PeteS in CA

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In real life, the data, https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/ - daily new cases and daily deaths contradict the "worst virus variant just arrived" claim. The US is in a bump of new cases, but the least severe bump and the bump has peaked. Daily deaths may have had a slight bump - or may not - and currently are declining.

The WashPost lied, unsurprisingly. And the sky is not falling.
I am not and never have been a leftist.

If, as anti-Covid-vaxxers claim, https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2021/robert-f-kennedy-jr-said-the-covid-19-vaccine-is-the-deadliest-vaccine-ever-made-thats-not-true/ , https://gospelnewsnetwork.org/2021/11/23/covid-shots-are-the-deadliest-vaccines-in-medical-history/ , The Vaccine is deadly, where in the US have Pfizer and Moderna hidden the millions of bodies of those who died of "vaccine injury"?

Millions now living should have died. Anti-Covid-Vaxxer ghouls hardest hit.

Online mountaineer

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Asking you scientific folks: is the latest "variant" the same as a mutation? Don't all viruses mutate and, in the process, become weaker?

Why do I suspect these so-called variants may be  newly engineered and created (intentionally)?
The abnormal is not the normal just because it is prevalent.
Roger Kimball, in a talk at Hillsdale College, 1/29/25

Offline Hoodat

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There has not been a marked increase in hospitalizations and deaths, he reports, because there is so much immunity built up from the winter omicron wave.

Immunity built up naturally from the winter wave, but no mention of immunity built up from the jab.  That's quite an omission.
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"The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government."     -Ayn Rand-

Offline Idiot

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Of course, it's the Washington Post. :silly: More fear porn! More vaccines! More mail-in ballots!!!
Both my nieces and 2 friends have had COVID the last couple of weeks.  None of them got especially ill and were over it in a couple of days.

Offline Smokin Joe

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  • I was a "conspiracy theorist". Now I'm just right.
Fool me once...

How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis