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Post by Admin on Jan 20, 2022 18:09:42 GMT
Back to normality in South Africa as Covid cases fall - BBC News
7,485 views • Jan 21, 2022 • The Omicron variant of Covid-19, first discovered in South Africa, eight weeks ago, appears to be fading and life in South Africa is returning to normal.
The scientific consensus in South Africa is that while Omicron is very contagious the death toll has been much smaller than in past waves of Covid.
Some of South Africa’s scientists are speaking out, accusing richer nations of being quick to believe bad news about Covid but questioning good news about the virus coming from South Africa.
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Post by Admin on Jan 21, 2022 17:55:19 GMT
Press Briefing by White House COVID-19 Response Team and Public Health Officials 142 watching now • Started streaming 5 minutes ago • The White House
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Post by Admin on Jan 24, 2022 4:13:20 GMT
Are omicron cases close to peaking? 11,815 views • Jan 24, 2022 • Dr. Anthony Fauci said it appears the U.S. is headed in the right direction.
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Post by Admin on Jan 25, 2022 18:19:05 GMT
All California schoolchildren must be vaccinated against COVID-19 under new bill 130,900 views • Jan 25, 2022 • State Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) announces legislation to add COVID-19 vaccines to California's list of required inoculations for attending K-12 schools.
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Post by Admin on Jan 26, 2022 4:31:31 GMT
As the omicron variant of covid-19 continues to be the dominant strain in the U.S., there’s a subvariant of the virus that the World Health Organization is keeping an eye on.
It’s called the ‘stealth’ omicron variant.
“The message really right now is that it’s not worth worrying about per se, but it’s definitely worth thinking about and monitoring closely,” said Dr. Dan Shirley, Interim Medical Director for Infection Prevention at UW-Health.
Dr. Shirley said it’s too early to tell if this new subvariant of omicron will be a problem.
“I think the big question here is, does it matter if this variant sort of overtakes the original type of Omicron?” said Dr. Shirley. “I think this time we have some clues that it may not impact the actual clinical pathway, as it did before when we’re talking about the change from delta to Omicron.”
Early indications show the ‘stealth’ variant may not be a huge concern because it’s a subvariant of omicron, which we already know quite a bit about. Unlike when we jumped from the Delta variant to a whole new omicron variant where there were major mutations leading to increased transmissibility.
“Omicron is changing a little bit and that’s probably somewhat expected. Now we need to find out if that has any actual clinical meaning,” said Dr. Shirley.
The World Health Organization has been keeping track of variants and subvariants since the beginning of the pandemic. On its website, there are variants that were monitored at one point during the pandemic that never amounted to a concerning level.
Health experts said virus mutations are expected as it continues to spread and infect people.
“Variants occur because of replication,” said Dr. Ashok Rai, President, and CEO of Prevea. “When a virus replicates, it replicates thousands and millions of times over and mistakes happen during that replication process and that is how we get a variant.”
Although some variants never amount to anything, it’s still too early to tell if that will be the case for the ‘stealth’ omicron variant too.
“People shouldn’t let their guard down yet and think that Omicron is going to be peaking … and then we’ll be fine in a couple of weeks, and we’ll be out of this, and it will be an endemic status and we don’t need to worry about it. It’s not true. Nobody knows what’s going to happen in the future and this new subvariant is just another example of something that may prolong things,” said Dr. Robert Mead, a family physician at Bellin Health.
“I think it’s kind of early to tell if this really has any major, real-life implications for the United States and Wisconsin as a whole,” said Dr. Shirley. “For everyday kind of advice. I mean, we already are dealing with a very contagious variant Omicron. And so, you know, slight differences in that transmission probably won’t make a huge difference, at least for the advice of how to turn the tide of this surge.”
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