4 ms·

This is completely incorrect. As the sibling comment notes, antibody titer against a pseudovirus (synthetic virus containing spike protein; what this figure sho

by timr 5y ago

This is completely incorrect. As the sibling comment notes, antibody titer against a pseudovirus (synthetic virus containing spike protein; what this figure shows) is a proxy for immunity, and nobody has ever shown that it bears any practical significance at all. Antibody levels go down over time. If they didn't, your blood would be peanut butter. Antibody levels for absolute neutralization of a synthetic virus in a dish? I have no idea what that means. It's something people look at because it's easy to look at in a dish. In contrast, a recent paper from JHU and the NIH shows that people who were previously infected have T-Cell responses to spike protein that are almost completely unaffected by mutations in Omicron: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.06.471446v1 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.06.471446v1 In short, there's excellent data showing that long-term immunity to Omicron is robust after exposure to prior strains.

tambourine_man 5y ago
And yet, first American confirmed death from reinfection in a unvaccinated person was yesterday: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/12/21/us-omicron-coronavirus-death-first-reported/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/12/21/us-omicron-...
- spurgu 5y ago
  Don't trust this source but that might be fake: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/busted-cnn-reports-first-omicron-death-texas-hospital-says-not-true-video/ https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/busted-cnn-reports-...
- timr 5y ago
  Rare things happen, rarely. It's a big world. Also that "may" in the headline is a logical hole that you can drive a truck through -- being PCR positive prior to death is by no means dispositive evidence that the virus is what killed the person. Pretty much everyone setting foot in a hospital today is tested for Covid, whether they went there for cancer, a heart attack, or the infection itself. WaPo and "if it bleeds, it leads" coverage like this will give you a completely distorted view of reality. Stop feeding the beast.
  - tambourine_man 5y ago
    Let’s hope so. Checkout this comment in 2-3 weeks to see how well it fares.
    - timr 5y ago
      This is not reddit. I have no doubt that in 2-3 weeks there will be numerous people who have died of Omicron. Given sufficient time, I'm sure there will be examples of people who die from the virus after reinfection. As I said: it's a big world, and people die of incredibly innocuous things, every day.
      - tambourine_man 5y ago
        This is not Reddit, as you said. You’re claiming it will be innocuous with nothing to support it. The little data we do have shows it’s much more transmissible, with partial vaccine scape and probably just as deadly. We have every reason to be worried.
        timr 5y ago
        The very first comment I posted -- the one to which you're replying now -- is a link to a paper showing that cellular immunity to Omicron is likely quite robust after exposure to a prior strain. There is now ample evidence that vaccines provide robust protection as well: https://twitter.com/miamalan/status/1470712673629261837 https://twitter.com/miamalan/status/1470712673629261837 You will be fine. Please stop panicking. And turn off the news.
        tambourine_man 5y ago
        jacquesm 5y ago
        > will I find similar baseless dismissive content? I don't think you'll be very surprised by what you find. There are a number of accounts on HN that have been systematically downplaying the pandemic since the beginning, ranging from wishful thinking to simply not knowing a whole lot about viruses and RNA viruses in particular. The 'usual suspects' promote their preferred solutions, ranging from untested medication to just pretending the problem doesn't exist. It's a bit frustrating that this forum, which prides itself on being so smart harbors some of the worst elements of the conspiracy fueled story lines that are being pushed for way more than they are worth. With 830,000 Americans verified dead from this virus (and probably a lot more than that once you look at excess deaths for that same period) and on average 1250 new ones added every day, besides the long term effects for the ones that survive a heavy case you'd think that by now even the most hardy of these people would have realized that their mantras are getting a bit long in the tooth. We have a serious problem, it could easily get much worse and we've squandered our options for cheap and fast solutions. The problem is a global one and as humanity we have a piss poor record of dealing with global problems (except for the Ozone layer issue, but I wonder if we would have been able to deal with that in the political climate that we have today). This isn't over yet and the only way we are going to solve it is by collectively admitting that yes, we do have a problem and that no amount of wishful thinking or quackery is going to get us out of it.
- orra 5y ago
  Maybe not a huge surprise. The initial reports in South Africa, which referred to Omicron being mild, referred to double vaccinated people. Ballpark, (surviving) infection confers immunity similar to one vaccine dose—with all the downsides of having been infected.

by timr 5y ago

tambourine_man 5y ago

And yet, first American confirmed death from reinfection in a unvaccinated person was yesterday: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/12/21/us-omicron-coronavirus-death-first-reported/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/12/21/us-omicron-...

spurgu 5y ago
Don't trust this source but that might be fake: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/busted-cnn-reports-first-omicron-death-texas-hospital-says-not-true-video/ https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/busted-cnn-reports-...
timr 5y ago
Rare things happen, rarely. It's a big world. Also that "may" in the headline is a logical hole that you can drive a truck through -- being PCR positive prior to death is by no means dispositive evidence that the virus is what killed the person. Pretty much everyone setting foot in a hospital today is tested for Covid, whether they went there for cancer, a heart attack, or the infection itself. WaPo and "if it bleeds, it leads" coverage like this will give you a completely distorted view of reality. Stop feeding the beast.
- tambourine_man 5y ago
  Let’s hope so. Checkout this comment in 2-3 weeks to see how well it fares.
  - timr 5y ago
    This is not reddit. I have no doubt that in 2-3 weeks there will be numerous people who have died of Omicron. Given sufficient time, I'm sure there will be examples of people who die from the virus after reinfection. As I said: it's a big world, and people die of incredibly innocuous things, every day.
    - tambourine_man 5y ago
      This is not Reddit, as you said. You’re claiming it will be innocuous with nothing to support it. The little data we do have shows it’s much more transmissible, with partial vaccine scape and probably just as deadly. We have every reason to be worried.
      - timr 5y ago
        The very first comment I posted -- the one to which you're replying now -- is a link to a paper showing that cellular immunity to Omicron is likely quite robust after exposure to a prior strain. There is now ample evidence that vaccines provide robust protection as well: https://twitter.com/miamalan/status/1470712673629261837 https://twitter.com/miamalan/status/1470712673629261837 You will be fine. Please stop panicking. And turn off the news.
        tambourine_man 5y ago
        jacquesm 5y ago
        > will I find similar baseless dismissive content? I don't think you'll be very surprised by what you find. There are a number of accounts on HN that have been systematically downplaying the pandemic since the beginning, ranging from wishful thinking to simply not knowing a whole lot about viruses and RNA viruses in particular. The 'usual suspects' promote their preferred solutions, ranging from untested medication to just pretending the problem doesn't exist. It's a bit frustrating that this forum, which prides itself on being so smart harbors some of the worst elements of the conspiracy fueled story lines that are being pushed for way more than they are worth. With 830,000 Americans verified dead from this virus (and probably a lot more than that once you look at excess deaths for that same period) and on average 1250 new ones added every day, besides the long term effects for the ones that survive a heavy case you'd think that by now even the most hardy of these people would have realized that their mantras are getting a bit long in the tooth. We have a serious problem, it could easily get much worse and we've squandered our options for cheap and fast solutions. The problem is a global one and as humanity we have a piss poor record of dealing with global problems (except for the Ozone layer issue, but I wonder if we would have been able to deal with that in the political climate that we have today). This isn't over yet and the only way we are going to solve it is by collectively admitting that yes, we do have a problem and that no amount of wishful thinking or quackery is going to get us out of it.
orra 5y ago
Maybe not a huge surprise. The initial reports in South Africa, which referred to Omicron being mild, referred to double vaccinated people. Ballpark, (surviving) infection confers immunity similar to one vaccine dose—with all the downsides of having been infected.