The important metric is protection against severe infection not symptomatic infection. An infection with symptoms similar to that of the common cold and symptoms severe enough to land a patient in the ICU are both symptomatic although they are not even remotely similar in terms of real impact and even after 10 weeks the booster provides protection against severe infection.
It went from 70% against any infection to 45% against any any infection for 10 weeks. That's not terrible and about what I would have expected. Omicron has significant variaations from the original covid but to still get 70% vs infection is not bad. As mentioned this says nothing about efficacy against severe disease which is more important. Also I wouldn't be shocked if Omicron is already on the decline in 10 weeks.
moving goal post huh? Forcing people to get the vaccine because it stops spread is just not true anymore. Also, there is no proof yet the vaccine does anything regarding serious illness. South Africa has a very low vax rate yet had no problem with Omicron. It’s more likely that Omicron mutation weakened it to the point it’s more of a common cold.
As to no proof vs serious illness, it would be a great mystery if it didn't. Boosters help against Omicron infection. It would be weird if the shot helped vs infection but did nothing for serious illness. The only reason you don't have hard evidence yet is it hasn't been around long. You mentioned only 26% immunized, but 70% have been previously infected with prior variants. (Glorius Natural Immunity!!). So it is difficult to say how much the milder response is due to nature of omicron and how much is due to natural+vaccine immunity. Also the median age in South a rice is 28, substantially younger than here. All indications point to it being less severe, but it isn't as clear cut as you say.
Boosters after 10 weeks drop to 45% against infection. The spike protein just had too many mutations. UK data once again leads the world and showing us this data. Median age is lower in South Africa but they still have an older population and a very low vax rate. South Africa is not the only country reporting that Omicron is just naturally a milder virus. A big part of that is due to the mutation and the fact that it doesn’t replicate very well in the deeper part of our longs like Alpha or Delta did. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cn...faster-than-delta-in-human-airways-study.html
I responded to each of these points, and you u just said the same thing over again. Yes it is likely milder. But hospitalizations are up. Are those increased covid hospitalizations actually the the common Cold?
UK is not showing hospitalizations up. People here are finally realizing there is a big difference those being hospitalized for covid and those with Covid. On top of that, the fear factor (thx to the media) is causing people to visit the ER just because they start having symptoms. My sister works at the downtown ORMC as an ER nurse. Many get sent home with instructions to just rest and meds to manage symptoms but not many with a serious illness.
Hospitalizations are rising here, although not as much as infections. I only realized now this was the covid treatment thread - I didn't mean to muddy it up responding to others - these conversations should go in the covid news thread.
Experts Warn Pfizer Antiviral Pills May Pose Risks With Other Medications | Newsmax.com Experts warn that despite the first antiviral pills for COVID-19 promising protection for those at risk of severe disease, Pfizer's or Merck's new medications may not be safe for everyone, NBC News reported over the weekend. One of the two drugs in Pfizer's Paxlovid antiviral cocktail could cause severe or life-threatening interactions with commonly used medications, including statins, blood thinners and some antidepressants, and the FDA does not recommend Paxlovid for those with severe kidney or liver disease. In addition, due to concerns about the potential side effects of Merck's molnupiravir, the FDA has restricted its use to adults and only in cases in which other treatments are inaccessible or are not ''clinically appropriate.'' He told NBC News that ''some of these potential interactions are not trivial, and some pairings have to be avoided altogether,'' adding that ''some are probably easily managed, but some we're going to have to be very careful about.'' The FDA has published in its Paxlovid fact sheet a list of medications that may interact harmfully with ritonavir, including those that should not be paired with the COVID antivirals. Anderson stressed that, despite concerns, ''Paxlovid is a breakthrough drug [that] could make a real difference in the pandemic by making an effective COVID treatment available to many people.''
Oh for God sake just stop it. People have been taking Ritanovir for decades. Protease inhibitors have been around almost as long. People taking this cocktail will be on it for 5 days and not years or decades. The impact on the liver should be minimal and drug interactions should be well understood by now.
Watching for drug interactions is also why we have pharmacists, not just at CVS, but clinical pharmacists in hospitals. Sounds like this is something they’d want to watch the dosing on, but it doesn’t sound particularly unusual. Who needs a PharmD when you have a Youtube PhD though?
Scientist surprised by discovery of '99%' effective, cheap COVID treatment (wnd.com) Scientist surprised by discovery of '99%' effective, cheap COVID treatment University of Florida researcher tells WND people already reporting results from Benadryl The scientist who combined two widely available over-the-counter compounds that inhibited the novel coronavirus by 99% in early tests told WND he's hopeful his treatment will be available "within months." Ostrov, an immunologist and associate professor in the University of Florida College of Medicine’s department of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine, combined diphenhydramine, which is marketed as Benadryl, and lactoferrin, a protein in milk, as WND reported in December. "My prediction is that antiviral drug combinations, such as diphenhydramine and lactoferrin, will provide a similar level of benefit as Regeneron monoclonal antibodies, Pfizer and Merck antivirals, at less than 1/100 the cost of those therapies," he told WND. Ostrov said he knew he was facing an uphill battle in his effort to find a combination of cheap, safe and available drugs to combat COVID-19. We did the experiments at the University of Florida College of Medicine, and the data was published in a peer reviewed journal. Diphenhydramine exhibits direct antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2. Diphenhydramine inhibits virus replication, inhibits virus shedding and inhibits host cell killing.
If you want any chance at being taken seriously, though it's a ship that has long since sailed anyway, stop quoting World Nut Daily and Newsmax.
It's promising, but it hasn't gone through human trials yet. Here's the UF Health discussion: Two common compounds show effectiveness against COVID-19 virus in early testing
