8 ms·

A super-spreading event of Omicron amongst triple-vaccinated healthcare workers

48 points by lnyan 5y ago

noduerme 5y ago
Sometimes this feels like a dress rehearsal for the flu that wipes out 99% of humanity, but, thankfully they're all alive and none was admitted to hospital.
- ant6n 5y ago
  > but, thankfully they're all alive and none was admitted to hospital. So it's like a dress rehearsal?
throwaway984393 5y ago
I wonder if it might have to do with a lack of Vitamin D? I can't imagine people get a lot of sun in the Faroes in December?
- sp332 5y ago
  Addressing a vitamin deficiency doesn't hurt, but it's taken a lot of data to figure out vitamin D's relevance to COVID. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8669943/#!po=1.25000 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8669943/#!po=1.... There are so many people with low vitamin D levels that it would be hard to blame any one outbreak on it.
  - nradov 5y ago
    It hasn't actually taken a lot of data it figure out vitamin D's relevance to COVID. While updated review articles are always appreciated, we had clear data from clinical studies over a year ago. https://vitamin-d-covid.shotwell.ca/ https://vitamin-d-covid.shotwell.ca/
- schnebbau 5y ago
  They were visitors to the islands, not inhabitants.
oxymoran 5y ago
The last nail in the coffin for the argument of vaccinating young children. They have “statistical immunity” from covid itself and as this article shows, the notion that the vaccines significantly prevent transmission is fanciful at this point.
- somewhereoutth 5y ago
  - makomk 5y ago
    The only reason Covid vaccines for young children are seen as so important is the absurd politicisation. To be fair, they're not harmful on balance - they just don't seem to have much benefit that justifies them. The UK government actually failed to convince the independent vaccine advisory board here to support them even for over-12s for that reason, and ended up just ignoring their advice and going ahead anyway for essentially political reasons.
    - somewhereoutth 5y ago
      What political reason could there be for vaccinating children? (apart from implanting 5G of course)
      - makomk 5y ago
        Parts of the media were pushing the idea that the government was incompetent and dragging their feet for not doing it, including I think even the BBC, and there seems to be a reasonably large chunk of parents that think not doing so was massively harming their kids due to wildly wrong estimates of how much risk Covid poses to them. Also, a bit of the usual need to be seen to be doing something on top. Normal boring stuff - no 5G implants or secret kickbacks from big pharma in sight.
        somewhereoutth 5y ago
fbn79 5y ago
Vaccine do not prevent spreading, their main advantage is reduce hospitalization and death
- _fizz_buzz_ 5y ago
  It’s all about probabilities. Vaccinated people have less of a viral load and infect fewer people. It’s never all or nothing. Reducing the r-value even by just 0.1 compounds in huge returns in exponential growth scenarios.
  - lambdaba 5y ago
    I can see that in theory, but when you look at the cases curve in the US pre and post-vaccination you can't really tell there has been a "huge" effect, I would even call that a failure, frankly if we had given everybody enough vitamin D to fix the significant average deficiencies, that would have a much more dramatic effect on reducing infection and spread. Maybe we could even have a vitamin D pass :P...
    - telchar 5y ago
      You’re not seeing how the delta variant would have spread in a fully unvaccinated population. Notice how the original variant and the more infectious alpha variant failed to thrive post-vaccine. There was some competition effect from delta but it isn’t as if one variant directly suppresses another. Delta would have ravaged the country without vaccination reducing its rate of spread.
      - lambdaba 5y ago
        Bulgaria has a very low vaccination rate (27%) and the curve doesn't look that much different from the US's: https://www.google.com/search?q=bulgaria+covid https://www.google.com/search?q=bulgaria+covid It does seem better, but can we know for sure to what this can be attributed? Usually places that had an easier time in 2020 got worse this year, and vice-versa, which makes sense...
hnburnsy 5y ago
21 infections is classified as a 'super spreading event'? What is 100 or 1000 infections, a super duper spreading event?
- fivea 5y ago
  > 21 infections is classified as a 'super spreading event'? What is 100 or 1000 infections, a super duper spreading event? Wikipedia defines a super spreading event as an event where an infectious disease spreads much more than usual. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superspreading_event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superspreading_event The study refers to a private social event attended by 33 participants comprised of triple-vaccinated healthcare workers, where 21 triple-vaccinated attendees contracted COVID.

48 points by lnyan 5y ago

Sometimes this feels like a dress rehearsal for the flu that wipes out 99% of humanity, but, thankfully they're all alive and none was admitted to hospital.

ant6n 5y ago
> but, thankfully they're all alive and none was admitted to hospital. So it's like a dress rehearsal?

throwaway984393 5y ago

I wonder if it might have to do with a lack of Vitamin D? I can't imagine people get a lot of sun in the Faroes in December?

sp332 5y ago
Addressing a vitamin deficiency doesn't hurt, but it's taken a lot of data to figure out vitamin D's relevance to COVID. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8669943/#!po=1.25000 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8669943/#!po=1.... There are so many people with low vitamin D levels that it would be hard to blame any one outbreak on it.
- nradov 5y ago
  It hasn't actually taken a lot of data it figure out vitamin D's relevance to COVID. While updated review articles are always appreciated, we had clear data from clinical studies over a year ago. https://vitamin-d-covid.shotwell.ca/ https://vitamin-d-covid.shotwell.ca/
schnebbau 5y ago
They were visitors to the islands, not inhabitants.

oxymoran 5y ago

The last nail in the coffin for the argument of vaccinating young children. They have “statistical immunity” from covid itself and as this article shows, the notion that the vaccines significantly prevent transmission is fanciful at this point.

somewhereoutth 5y ago
- makomk 5y ago
  The only reason Covid vaccines for young children are seen as so important is the absurd politicisation. To be fair, they're not harmful on balance - they just don't seem to have much benefit that justifies them. The UK government actually failed to convince the independent vaccine advisory board here to support them even for over-12s for that reason, and ended up just ignoring their advice and going ahead anyway for essentially political reasons.
  - somewhereoutth 5y ago
    What political reason could there be for vaccinating children? (apart from implanting 5G of course)
    - makomk 5y ago
      Parts of the media were pushing the idea that the government was incompetent and dragging their feet for not doing it, including I think even the BBC, and there seems to be a reasonably large chunk of parents that think not doing so was massively harming their kids due to wildly wrong estimates of how much risk Covid poses to them. Also, a bit of the usual need to be seen to be doing something on top. Normal boring stuff - no 5G implants or secret kickbacks from big pharma in sight.
      - somewhereoutth 5y ago

fbn79 5y ago

Vaccine do not prevent spreading, their main advantage is reduce hospitalization and death

_fizz_buzz_ 5y ago
It’s all about probabilities. Vaccinated people have less of a viral load and infect fewer people. It’s never all or nothing. Reducing the r-value even by just 0.1 compounds in huge returns in exponential growth scenarios.
- lambdaba 5y ago
  I can see that in theory, but when you look at the cases curve in the US pre and post-vaccination you can't really tell there has been a "huge" effect, I would even call that a failure, frankly if we had given everybody enough vitamin D to fix the significant average deficiencies, that would have a much more dramatic effect on reducing infection and spread. Maybe we could even have a vitamin D pass :P...
  - telchar 5y ago
    You’re not seeing how the delta variant would have spread in a fully unvaccinated population. Notice how the original variant and the more infectious alpha variant failed to thrive post-vaccine. There was some competition effect from delta but it isn’t as if one variant directly suppresses another. Delta would have ravaged the country without vaccination reducing its rate of spread.
    - lambdaba 5y ago
      Bulgaria has a very low vaccination rate (27%) and the curve doesn't look that much different from the US's: https://www.google.com/search?q=bulgaria+covid https://www.google.com/search?q=bulgaria+covid It does seem better, but can we know for sure to what this can be attributed? Usually places that had an easier time in 2020 got worse this year, and vice-versa, which makes sense...

hnburnsy 5y ago

21 infections is classified as a 'super spreading event'? What is 100 or 1000 infections, a super duper spreading event?

fivea 5y ago
> 21 infections is classified as a 'super spreading event'? What is 100 or 1000 infections, a super duper spreading event? Wikipedia defines a super spreading event as an event where an infectious disease spreads much more than usual. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superspreading_event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superspreading_event The study refers to a private social event attended by 33 participants comprised of triple-vaccinated healthcare workers, where 21 triple-vaccinated attendees contracted COVID.