COVID-19 updates based on what experts on Twitter are talking about.
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Now some 80-90 of the 120 are PCR pos, 13 of these confirmed omicron, the rest waiting for sequencing results. Some of those infected w omicron were not at the party but present at the same restaurant that evening. Not looking good re transmissibility. https://t.co/O9MYseafXy
— Gunhild Alvik Nyborg (@GANyborg) December 3, 2021
This is quite the case report of omicron transmission in a Honk Kong quarantine hotel.https://t.co/EHTTqPnABi pic.twitter.com/NCJiSGgxy6
— Aaron Richterman, MD (@AaronRichterman) December 3, 2021
BREAKING: Underscoring growing concerns about Omicron, scientists in South Africa said on Friday that the newest coronavirus variant appears to spread more than twice as quickly as Delta.https://t.co/WDLFvTySkF
— Apoorva Mandavilli (@apoorva_nyc) December 3, 2021
Botswana first identified the new variant in 4 European diplomats who entered the country on Nov 7th, tested positive Nov 11th, confirmed Omicron Nov 24th, but did not stigmatize the country of origin by identifying which countries they came from.https://t.co/k9kGBmOlKd
— Infectious Diseases (@InfectiousDz) December 3, 2021
When patients and scientists work together as collaborative partners we can move the needle faster and in the right direction.
— Diana Zicklin Berrent 🧣 (@dianaberrent) December 3, 2021
Pls read this #LongCovid paper on tremors and internal vibrations - nightmarish symptoms that can result from the mildest case.https://t.co/LDV8TPtUWL
🦠There’s a lot we don’t yet understand about Omicron, including its impact on immunity and what it means for vaccines. New data will be emerging over the next few wks, which could be misinterpreted w/o context. What we might expect & how to interpret the emerging data? 🧵(1/n)
— Muge Cevik (@mugecevik) December 3, 2021
1. @GuHaogao & colleagues report on an apparent case of #Omicron transmission in a Hong Kong quarantine hotel. Traveler from South Africa tests positive 2 days after arrival; traveler from Canada who is located directly across the hall tests positive 4 days later.
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) December 3, 2021
We at @UWVirology have now screened nearly ~1500 positive samples from the last 2 weeks by a PCR assay which detects S-gene target failure/SGTF/S-dropout, to flag potential Omicron cases. So far we found just ONE sample that had this dropout. Sequencing confirmed .. Delta. 🧵 1/ https://t.co/f22XH5JIkN
— Pavitra Roychoudhury (@pavitrarc) December 3, 2021
I’m so tired of this but I’ll say it once more:
— Kai Kupferschmidt (@kakape) December 3, 2021
If #omicron turns out to be as dangerous as it well might and we once again do little to prepare for it with the time we have, then we are compounding the biggest collective political failure I have witnessed in my lifetime.
COVID Update: The anti-vaccine natural herd immunity-just go get COVID crowd has met their match … with reality. 1/
— Andy Slavitt 🇺🇸💉 (@ASlavitt) December 4, 2021
The Omnicron variant is just another example of how COVID will be prolonged if rich nations and Big Pharma keep blocking vaccine distribution. pic.twitter.com/dPIjn1EW7I
— Karan Menon (@TheKaranMenon) December 3, 2021
I think I speak for almost everybody here: Omicron sucks. I don't like it.
— Florian Krammer (@florian_krammer) December 3, 2021
The rapid growth of Omicron in South Africa can be explained in one of two ways:
— Natalie E. Dean, PhD (@nataliexdean) December 3, 2021
- Much higher transmissibility, with transmission primarily in the remaining susceptible population
- Transmissibility similar to delta but with ⬆️capacity to evade the immune system and reinfect
NEW: 2 @UKHSA reports on Omicron Variant
— Meaghan Kall (@kallmemeg) December 3, 2021
Technical Briefing 30 - Omicronhttps://t.co/WsS354NUGt
Omicron Risk Assessmenthttps://t.co/xwchkoCAYG
I'll break it down🧵 (17 tweets) pic.twitter.com/0cawzalXfm
🧵If you had the choice, would you have a baby when you were 34 yrs+11 mos old or 35 yrs+1 mo old? Does it matter? It does! Our new paper on “advanced maternal age”, prenatal care, + perinatal mortality. @JAMAHealthForum (joint w @markaclapp @ckellrun)
— jessicaleecohen (@jessicaleecohen) December 3, 2021
https://t.co/PH9DkWoWXE
Norway is seeing the world’s first omicron superspreader event after a party downtown Oslo last Friday. Of 120 healthy non-symptomatic fully vaccinated individuals with a negative test, two had recently returned from South Africa and turned out to be positive, omicron. 1/
— Gunhild Alvik Nyborg (@GANyborg) December 3, 2021
Just to give you a really brief glimpse of what we know and what’s to come on #omicron:
— Kai Kupferschmidt (@kakape) December 3, 2021
New UK risk assessment ranks
possible immune escape from vaccine- and infection derived-immunity and antibody treatments as high. But confidence on all three is low. https://t.co/VD5uSNtYeY pic.twitter.com/kZNQneiBxG
Thank you Andy! A number of modeling groups are trying to get these estimates of relative transmissibility of Omicron over Delta dialed in (due to some combination of immune evasion and intrinsic transmissibility). I'd expect firmer numbers in the following days.
— Trevor Bedford (@trvrb) December 4, 2021
If you want to understand the pandemic lessons countries have actually learned after almost two years of COVID, I think you'll discover more watching their response to Omicron than you will reading the various reports on supposed lessons learned so far... https://t.co/Pz7LeQb29N
— Adam Kucharski (@AdamJKucharski) December 3, 2021
Risk Assessment for Omicron has been published.
— Dr Duncan Robertson (@Dr_D_Robertson) December 3, 2021
Everything is still uncertain, but it doesn't look good.
As SAGE said: 'It is important to be prepared for a potentially very significant wave of infections with associated hospitalisations now, ahead of data being available.
🧵 pic.twitter.com/ZtSPyurEJq
This, along with the now >24% test positivity in South Africa and nearly 5-fold rise in cases in a week certainly (>16,000 cases today) are all concerning https://t.co/EwTOC6nHgW
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) December 3, 2021
Would love to hear from proponents of 'herd immunity' through infection on how much ground we've gained by infecting millions over the summer causing chronic illness & death- only to find a new variant that evades immunity from prior infection.
— Deepti Gurdasani (@dgurdasani1) December 3, 2021
So tell me, was it worth it?
#COVID19 UPDATE: A total of 65,990 tests were conducted in the last 24hrs, with 16,055 new cases, which represents a 24.3% positivity rate. A further 25 #COVID19 related deaths have been reported, bringing total fatalities to 89,994 to date. See more here: https://t.co/PzzZEUQzNl pic.twitter.com/1qn1apRkri
— NICD (@nicd_sa) December 3, 2021
Two weeks ago we were in 200-300 cases a day, a week ago in the 1000s and now > 15,000. In addition 1 of 4 tests are positive in South Africa. Amazing increasing of #OmicronVarient https://t.co/YtNruFnZET
— Tulio de Oliveira (@Tuliodna) December 3, 2021
I really hate this graph! 🚀#Gauteng #COVID19 #4thWave #Omicron #OmicronVariant pic.twitter.com/HaCduVOIaK
— Ridhwaan Suliman (@rid1tweets) December 3, 2021