The variant is called EG.5 and is a descendant of Omicron.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that EG.5 accounted for roughly 17.3 per cent — or one in six — of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. in the past two weeks.
Idk what people are so worried about, I’ve been assured that the pandemic is over and we beat covid in 2020 2021 2022 2023
COVID-19 is now endemic, like influenza. However, we do have vaccines so every 6-12 months when we get a booster shot we can get a bivalent vaccine that contains some of the latest variant to help prevent serious illness. This allows us to recover much more easily, reduce transmission, and ultimately eliminate the clogging of hospitals.
The real danger is from people who refuse to vaccinate because they’re going to be more susceptible to the endemic virus and its subvariants.
Nah, the real danger is the result of repeated cumulative reinfection damage from a still-poorly-understood virus that causes more and more damage to the vascular system and every organ connected to it. Long Covid is only beginning to be recognized for the mass disabling event it is, and the response of governments from the municpal all the way to the federal levels have been to let it rip, stop testing, shut down tracking sites, repeal mask mandates, and declare victory. Literally doing the thing they rightly mocked Trump for suggesting.
Now over a million people have died in the US alone, and our government has decided to force everyone back to work to sustain commercial real estate profits, and in the process condemned us all to a lifetime of body-destroying reinfections by a virus who’s key traits are infectiousness and rapid evolution.
None of this had to happen. We could have had a real quarantine, just a month or two back in 2019, but that would require making slightly less money for a brief period of time, so instead we get to live in eternal plague world. The hobbling of any effective covid response by our ruling class in favor of more lucrative half-measures and non-measures is beyond a humanitarian disaster, it’s a crime of unprecedented scale.
The number of people ignoring this is terrifying. Study after study keeps showing its a problem.
There’s going to be a massive accumulated health crisis in 10-20 years where a quarter of the population has a wrecked vascular system. On par with diabetes, but in this case untreatable which is going to kill millions far earlier than they should.
At the beginning of the pandemic someone very correctly predicted that America was going to do the plague the same way we did Vietnam: enthusiastically for a little bit, then once we realize how expensive it is we were gonna give up, run away and loudly declare victory.
You have said it very well.
In Australia even our absolute harshest lockdowns made allowances for millions of “essential” industries.
Unless you owned a business installing styrofoam nuns, you kept going to work in some capacity.
We’re an island for fuck’s sake! We could have stopped this thing in it’s tracks. But no, the flights must keep arriving. Business must business.
None of this had to happen. We could have had a real quarantine, just a month or two back in 2019, but that would require making slightly less money for a brief period of time, so instead we get to live in eternal plague world.
Even if you could have gotten an entire country to agree that this was a good idea and pull it off, you still have other countries to worry about. Stopping it in one country wouldn’t have stopped it anywhere else.
Now, what I do agree with is that the response could’ve been a lot better, and many lives would’ve been saved as a result. But completely defeating COVID was always a fantasy.
None of this had to happen. We could have had a real quarantine, just a month or two back in 2019, but that would require making slightly less money for a brief period of time, so instead we get to live in eternal plague world. The hobbling of any effective covid response by our ruling class in favor of more lucrative half-measures and non-measures is beyond a humanitarian disaster, it’s a crime of unprecedented scale.
Yes it did. If all countries did this around the world many people would have starved to death. It’s simply not ethical. Without eliminating it everywhere it would spread eventually - just look at Australia.
You can’t even enforce a total lockdown in western countries without excluding “key workers” that would allow the virus to spread anyway.
Nothing you have suggested would work in the real world. The only solution to prevent this is new medicines and prophylactics. We have developed some of these in the form of antivirals but they are not used enough to stop the spread.
We already enjoy a level of health unknown to people 100 years ago even with COVID-19. There will always be new diseases and this is the nature of evolution unfortunately. Previous generations had to accept this, now we have to as well. I hate to say it but probably our current level of health and healthcare isn’t sustainable without further advances thanks to antibiotic and antiviral resistance. We will need to change our approach going forward using things like bacteriophages, increased sanitation, healthier life styles, less cattle antibiotics, and new treatments to keep up.
the result of repeated cumulative reinfection damage from a still-poorly-understood virus that causes more and more damage to the vascular system and every organ connected to it
When I ask actual doctors, they disagree. Then we laugh about how anti-vax karen-convoy it sounds.
Yearly boosters
HA!
I should be so lucky. My last booster was over a year ago, and there are no plans to introduce them for any but the oldest and youngest people in Britain.
Oh, man, the UK was an absolute disaster for getting vaccinated. In 2021 in my area there were literally crowds of young people at “walk-in” vaccination centres getting turned away and being told to wait for another 1-2 months. Meanwhile about 3 elderly patients were getting the shot per hour and the Guildhall looked empty besides.
My friends in other countries were vaccinated months before me. Ended up getting all my boosters outside the UK because they couldn’t give a fuck about anyone under 65.
The problem is that the latest vaccines don’t contain the latest variant - they’re always going to be behind the curve because it takes time to develop them after a new variant emerges.
For example, here in NZ, we’re still giving people the bivalent mix designed for the omicron BA.4/BA.5 variant (and the ones before it) which is now about 2 years old and hasn’t been seen here for about 9 months.
There’s a non-zero level of protection from those vaccines, but they’re not keeping up with the virus in real time.
This is another major reason I have not stayed current with my boosters. What is the point of using something based on a strain that has not been seen for 9 months, and is in fact 2 years old? It doesn’t make a great deal of sense to me.
Sure it will offer SOME ability to improve the immune response to a CV19 variant given how short-lived the protection from natural infection and vaccination seems to be, but it certainly isn’t going to be anywhere near as good as it could be. I’m still going to get horrifically sick again.
From an overseas perspective I can tell you that practically nobody in Australia is taking any form of booster. Elderly populations are, particularly those in a care setting but the general population are completely uninterested.
This is a combination of most people having been infected with CV19 at least once and not being particularly badly affected, and most people having had either direct or indirect experience of negative side effects from vaccination, and the now predominantly negative media coverage of the vaccination campaign.
If there is a marked shift towards increased mortality in any given strain, Australia is fucked. Thankfully that does not seem to be the trajectory of the virus at this time.
combination of most people having been infected with CV19 at least once
I remember when Americans were sending their kids to CoViD parties, thinking it was like the Measles.
It ended horrifically.
Talk to a doc and follow those recommendations.
At this point probably everyone has had omicron or one of the later less harmful variants. The trend of becoming more transmissible and less harmful is normal for corona viruses. Im with most people in being apprehensive about getting additional boosters. Why do you feel there’s a real danger?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A new COVID-19 variant has emerged, serving as a reminder that the coronavirus continues to mutate and spread around the world, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations.
The World Health Organization (WHO) added EG.5 to its list of currently circulating variants that are under monitoring on July 19.
The latest data from the UK Health Security Agency suggests that EG.5 makes up approximately 14.6 per cent — or one in seven — of all COVID-19 cases in the U.K.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that EG.5 accounted for roughly 17.3 per cent — or one in six — of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. in the past two weeks.
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at University Health Network in Toronto, said he expects cases of EG.5 to pop up in Canada soon, if they aren’t already.
Some of the best defences against COVID-19 have been and continue to be masks, vaccination and good ventilation or air quality in indoor spaces, Bogoch stressed.
I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I am the only person, literally the ONLY person who wears a mask anymore. No one in the city, no one during grocery shopping or in schools and no one public transportation. I get looks but I already got covid once, due to my „skeptical“ parents and I don’t intend to get it again.
I had to visit the ER a few weeks ago. Aside from me, there were two or three other people in masks, and they were patients.
I just don’t understand it. Medical professionals should know better, but somehow don’t??
Similar story. I was in the ER today and most staff weren’t wearing masks, despite another patient just a few curtains down testing positive for Covid!
There are so many vectors for infection that it is kinda silly to try. That being said I still wear mine as a matter of professional ethics.
There are so many vectors for infection that it is kinda silly to try.
This statement, in and of itself, is silly. That’s like giving up on washing your hands and sterilizing equipment because it’s just too much effort.
Unless you’re frequently digging for gold with unwashed hands, SARS-COV-2 transmission enormously favours the airborne vector.
Make sure you get N95/KN95/KF94 masks, they are better than cloth or surgical masks. Personally I don’t wear a mask anymore except in doctor’s offices, although I did receive 4 doses of the vaccine and I think both myself and my family would almost definitely be okay if we did get it.
With that said, I also have a job where I work remotely 100% of the time so that probably helps too.
I feel this.
My immune system is shitty and terrible (suspected condition, but docs have no clue), so getting sick will cause a slew of awful things to happen to me. Last tiny sick bout I had a few months ago caused a chain reaction that landed me in the hospital. I was literally shitting blood due to a tiny infection! The specialist half-jokingly told me “Well, next time, just don’t get sick!” Ha. Ha ha. Ha.
I’ve only had a single person comment on me wearing a mask in 3 years, thank god. My response was “How about you mind your own fucking business?” Don’t wear a mask. Whatever. I won’t comment on it. But leave me the fuck alone if I choose the wear one. I’m not about to explain my medical history to some snide asshole. Fuck off. I like not suffering.
I personally haven’t given a shit about COVID for over a year now. I haven’t even gotten sick in that time. I’m not trying to attack your position here, but at what point is it considered paranoia? I remember seeing the death numbers fall in line with other stuff like the flu. At what point do we just return to normal?
I think a lot of it depends on your personal situation. For some immunocompromised people, the risk may be legitimately higher. And so in terms of it being “just like the flu”, I think it’s maybe more of a realization for people in those groups that it probably would have been a good idea to wear a mask in crowded public places before covid too, to protect against things like the flu. Masking has long been common in East Asia.
Not just personal, but work/community. We had a year at my work with just a handful of staff cases, then got smacked last April with about 25% of our staff all testing positive over a week or two, plus a few not-COVID sick calls. After about 5 cases in 2 days most people masked up again until the sick calls stopped.
I only wear masks when I’m the one who’s sick so I don’t infect everyone else. And maybe at the hospital or clinic since I’ll be in the same room as other sick people or because I’m the one who’s sick.
Otherwise, unless you’re immuno compromised, I don’t see the point and wearing a mask all the time might be too much.
No indicator on severity of this strain in the article
This is my issue with the article.
Headline: Here’s what we know about EG.5 so far
Body: Apparently not much. We uhh, know the name of it? Severity, how contagious it may be, symptoms, breakthrough rate…like umm, anything??
sick right now in Ireland (can’t be sure but we’re exploding with this variant)
for me, fatigue, stuffed & runny nose which is making me cough. on day 1 I had a headache but only for that day. I had a fever for about 6 hours. sneezing, gastro fun.
Wife has a dry cough. she had a wicked fever with chills. also gastro fun, which is fun for me by proxy.
Sick right now in Florida, my symptoms pretty closely match yours. Killer headache, scratchy throat, congestion, and fatigue.
It started with being tired on Saturday, and the full brunt hit Monday. Feeling a bit better today. I didnt get much gastro stuff fortunately
That’s because we literally don’t know much. EG.5 has only had 183 sequences submitted to GISAID, and EG.5.1 has had 3400 sequences submitted. This means we only have about 3600 cases confirmed as EG.5, but it’s growth rate since May is crazy fast. 10% of sequences submitted to GISAID by the end of July were for EG.5, compared to 0.02% in May.
Part of the problem is that people have stopped going to the doctor when they can just do a COVID test at home, so we are less able to track individual strains and calculate things like transmission rates. When’s the last time you heard the phrase “contact tracing”?
Source: https://GISAID.org/lineage-comparison and also I work in COVID monitoring.
Presumably as a descendent of omicron… It is probably easier to catch and less serious. But you’d think they’d address it…
“I don’t know that it’s time to worry about this (EG.5) just yet. We know very little about this new variant. There’s currently no evidence to suggest that it causes more severe illness. And the CDC is indicating that it does appear to be susceptible to COVID vaccines, which is good news.”
From an AMA gathering on July 26, (speaker is Andrea Garcia, JD, MPH, vice president, science, medicine & public health, American Medical Association)
Less serious than what? If my aged brain remembers correctly, Omicron severity is comparable to the original strain, only making it less serious than Delta. As I understand it, the primary factor in reduced severity was that vaccines were available and most people got the vaccine.
Other articles has said it’s nothing special. Not any deadlier.
Huh. I did notice a sudden wave of infections, including me. I wonder…
