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The good and bad news about the omicron variant

The <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/22813896/omicron-covid-variant-cases-hospitalizations-vaccines">omicron variant</a>, the latest curveball in the pandemic, may lead to less severe cases of Covid-19 than earlier strains of the coronavirus, according to one of the <a href="https://www.discovery.co.za/corporate/news-room#/pressreleases/discovery-health-south-africas-largest-private-health-insurance-administrator-releases-at-scale-real-world-analysis-of-omicron-outbreak-based-dot-dot-dot-3150697">largest real-world studies of omicron</a> released so far.
That’s good news, but it could be overshadowed by other data showing that the variant is far more contagious than any version of the virus to date — and that it can evade some immune protection from vaccines and prior infection.
Taken together, these traits make for a counterintuitive situation: Omicron poses a lower risk to most individuals, at least for those who are vaccinated, but the threat to the overall population is high. The question now is whether omicron will infect so many people that it overwhelms the health care system and drives up hospitalizations and deaths — in spite of the smaller percentage of people who come down with severe disease.
The answer is partly in our hands. The strategies that have contained Covid-19 throughout the pandemic still work against omicron, but governments, institutions, and individuals have to be willing to use them.
Viruses are always mutating, and RNA viruses like SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, are particularly mercurial. The more the virus multiplies and spreads, the greater the chances of a mutation. Most mutations have no effect or are harmful to the virus, but occasionally the virus undergoes a change (or group of changes) that makes the virus spread more readily, better evade the immune system, or cause more severe illness. Viruses with distinctive groupings of mutations are categorized as variants.
<a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/2021/12/9/22824112/covid-omicron-variant-south-africa-cases-hospitalizations">South Africa</a> was one of the first places to detect the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 in November. South Africa’s largest private health insurer, <a href="https://www.discovery.co.za/corporate/news-room#/pressreleases/discovery-health-south-africas-largest-private-health-insurance-administrator-releases-at-scale-real-world-analysis-of-omicron-outbreak-based-dot-dot-dot-3150697">Discovery Health</a>, on Tuesday published a study looking at 211,000 Covid-19 test results, including 78,000 positive tests from omicron.
The study showed that hospitalization risk was 29 percent lower with omicron infections compared to infections in South Africa last summer, even after controlling for vaccination status.
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<figcaption>Visitors have Covid-19 vaccines administered at the Discovery Ltd. mass Covid-19 vaccination site in Johannesburg, South Africa, on December 9.</figcaption>
<cite>Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images</cite></figure>
So do vaccines shield against omicron? The study found the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine mostly held strong, granting 70 percent protection against hospitalization and 33 percent protection against infection from omicron.
Vaccine protection against omicron infection isn’t as high as its protection against earlier variants, which may contribute to a higher rate of breakthrough infections. Pfizer reported last week that while the two-dose course of its vaccine showed diminished protection against omicron, a <a href="https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-provide-update-omicron-variant">booster dose of its vaccine</a> ramped it back up.
On Wednesday, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/12/15/1064202754/omicron-evades-moderna-vaccine-too-study-suggests-but-boosters-help">Moderna</a> released early data showing a similar pattern with its mRNA vaccine, with lower efficacy against omicron from the initial two doses but increased protection with a booster. Two other common Covid-19 vaccines — from <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/coronavirus-johnson-johnsons-vaccine-loses-antibody-protection-against-omicron-in-study-2651899">Johnson & Johnson</a> and from <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/two-dose-vaccines-induce-lower-antibodies-against-omicron-study-finds-2021-12-13/">AstraZeneca and Oxford University</a> — also generated a lower immune response to omicron compared to earlier variants.
Discovery Health cautioned that the findings only draw from three weeks of data, but researchers on the ground say it fits with what they’ve seen so far.
“One thing we found was that the patients were staying for a shorter time in hospital, and that was across all age groups recently, compared to over time,” said <a href="https://phasa.org.za/profile/harsha-samaroo/">Harsha Somaroo</a>, a public health medicine specialist at the University of the Witwatersrand. Somaroo is also an adviser to the health department of Gauteng, the South African province that has become the epicenter of the country’s omicron wave.
Omicron may still become a major threat to public health because what omicron lacks in severity, it makes up in transmission. “The rates of increase in the number of cases has been exponential. It’s the highest it’s ever been in the pandemic in Gauteng,” said Somaroo. “The increases we saw were around 300 percent increases week-on-week.”
Since its detection last month, omicron has already spread worldwide. “The reality is that omicron is probably in most countries, even if it hasn’t been detected yet,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/omicron-probably-in-most-countries-spreading-at-unprecedented-rate-who-2651520">told reporters this week</a>. Omicron is now in <a href="https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/states-where-the-omicron-variant-has-been-detected.html">more than 30 US states</a>, just as the country is facing another spike in Covid-19 cases.
Most US cases are still driven by the delta variant, but omicron could end up fueling a towering spike in hospitalizations and overwhelm the health system just as the winter respiratory infection season hits its peak.
The higher transmission rate of omicron means that people who have so far avoided the disease are at higher risk of infection than before.
Omicron may be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/12/health/britain-omicron.html">25 to 50 percent more transmissible</a> than the delta variant, according to some estimates. Delta is <a href="https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/5-things-to-know-delta-variant-covid">50 percent more transmissible</a> than the alpha variant, which itself is 50 percent more transmissible than the original version of SARS-CoV-2.
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<figcaption>A woman waits to receive a Covid-19 booster shot in Burlingame, California, on December 4.</figcaption>
<cite>Wu Xiaoling/Xinhua via Getty Images</cite></figure>
Omicron has also shown that it can cause breakthrough infections in vaccinated people and reinfections in people who had the virus before.
“One worry is: Even if it’s very mild in people who have some immunity, but we have very high reinfection rates, it’s going to get in all those nooks and crannies of people who have never been infected or vaccinated — and managed to avoid the virus this whole pandemic,” said <a href="https://sph.unc.edu/adv_profile/justin-lessler-phd/">Justin Lessler</a>, a professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health.
It’s not certain that omicron will replace delta as the main variant in the US. But it will likely be a major driver of new Covid-19 infections well into the new year, according to Lessler. In the coming weeks, the answers to which path the US will take will inevitably emerge.
The higher infection rate of omicron could follow two main pathways. The US could see a rise in milder infections that don’t translate into a surge in hospitals — or there could be so many infections overall that omicron still drives more hospitalizations and deaths.
“Possible scenario number one is we’ll have more cases of less ... severity. That will mean fewer people will have to go to hospital,” <a href="https://www.mayo.edu/research/faculty/badley-andrew-d-m-d/bio-00026694">Andrew Badley</a>, an infectious disease researcher at the Mayo Clinic, told reporters last week.
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1639628093_5422_115597" data-cdata='{"asset_id":23097074,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Vaoh_NXIwJr3QIx2Tf32cyD0J9c=/0x0:3600x2400/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Z_1PjsZScLbDs8BNq_dCKyjL0_I=/0x0:3600x2400/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/t-rjK6DBLvob_zelZ69lqY5TWqk=/0x0:3600x2400/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/eSuMCnJhY7f7TW7iH2ik06E9NMM=/0x0:3600x2400/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UxelTZwZDFpFgsSAtSJVBZsn7nU=/0x0:3600x2400/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7hhrKX1o_CWIA0DnDQdE4EfCxc4=/0x0:3600x2400/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Q0uLPIFnoMlUZHGwvvxkT9ohPlE=/0x0:3600x2400/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TjJsGx58Fu-4Q5RT3m3lXpdrEks=/0x0:3600x2400/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/NVFm5QDPkoPGjOClwMqwZ6oavcE=/0x0:3600x2400/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="" data-upload-width="3600" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/6-AX3eSAbv2axXwep-uKC9ebK5g=/0x0:3600x2400/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/GsEXUXZlF7ZHEOumi8xdWY0qgEw=/0x0:3600x2400/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2SvIG3x13rDy5YaFq9zCmAov0nY=/0x0:3600x2400/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/28jpk1mlBSTqdRn0_l9BOwOMeC0=/0x0:3600x2400/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Ri65DMY-y_t1kfvmWaO7jRu5qHo=/0x0:3600x2400/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oMw9--H68NfdOZ98OBEjq-lYcpw=/0x0:3600x2400/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/q8IR9J6KL-49-FN6QU6DNuMKtZo=/0x0:3600x2400/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/b2VRMXGSCKlgkIlDZIJ1YbDKJFA=/0x0:3600x2400/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/igiz66DRyCH71-oZQpzbgG6jOTc=/0x0:3600x2400/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VMKMcLzDLGcNWCLZOq8qAanJcmc=/0x0:3600x2400/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3600x2400):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097074/GettyImages_1358816077.jpg 1920w" /></picture>
<figcaption>Dr. Kristen Hasson gives a bleak update to colleagues on the state of her patients, most of whom have Covid and are clinging to life in the South Seven ICU at North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, on December 8.</figcaption>
<cite>Aaron Lavinsky/Star Tribune via Getty Images</cite></figure>
“The second possible scenario is more cases, but because it will likely impact more of those who have not yet been vaccinated, the total number of cases will go up,” Badley added. “The fraction of cases that require hospitalizations might be lower, but because of the sheer number, we see lots more hospitalizations.”
What’s probably the best-case scenario — a rise in cases without a rise in hospitalization and death — depends a bit on luck. But it also depends on robust public health measures to slow the spread of the variant and ensure that hospitals have enough capacity to treat the patients who do fall ill.
While the recent findings from South Africa are important data points, countries like the US are starting with a different Covid-19 baseline, so some comparisons won’t hold.
South Africa is currently experiencing summer, while Americans are heading indoors as the cold sets in. About 72 percent of US adults are now vaccinated against Covid-19, compared to around <a href="https://sacoronavirus.co.za/latest-vaccine-statistics/">38 percent</a> in South Africa.
However, South Africa also faced multiple waves of infection with different variants, so upward of 75 percent of the population may have been exposed to the virus at some point, providing a degree of protection, Somaroo said.
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1639628093_294_115598" data-cdata='{"asset_id":23097373,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oXZP96JxQA43W9xvKLa5uk1kTFk=/0x0:6240x4160/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ijBuSEPsoW0v-eDK0wdLxNJTKgA=/0x0:6240x4160/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Z4_dqlrzfX4Tle3shkuxUJ-aH6Y=/0x0:6240x4160/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/6MnsaaKxAbhJtihQd_5926_Lklc=/0x0:6240x4160/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/M9Uao43ak2mveSwCBt7xBz2lQPs=/0x0:6240x4160/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jnwfGs4nn8ACiKkYcFUvSeH35Ds=/0x0:6240x4160/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lM_WAyrMu6u1enBr-AQiuMqRHiY=/0x0:6240x4160/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ouV-DFvPCQrYwB0A1V-q9e3qwAc=/0x0:6240x4160/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/bw1DwG6URM_HxQIweBBjfIHTiN8=/0x0:6240x4160/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="" data-upload-width="6240" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kx28dM4BCBzHmW-jKMkxwhLT7XE=/0x0:6240x4160/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pOp8pWicGqN7VFpEkdRZf2Div38=/0x0:6240x4160/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4xhiGzwKbNYsRjg26vnvwJZuqpM=/0x0:6240x4160/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tu8F9G3DnumZSpPeJbA2Kt99fDg=/0x0:6240x4160/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FLuyvIw2i26EaIadCBs_GQgVSio=/0x0:6240x4160/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BtzjFvDB5hkSBYeLubuKEBdymr4=/0x0:6240x4160/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LE_DFRcZdY7-lMUnMP0IsWrqY_0=/0x0:6240x4160/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9YXuzE_IevW-J9Zo1Gr6m45Fojs=/0x0:6240x4160/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4gpjol6Ro_yAv0cwgARoLia08CE=/0x0:6240x4160/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0W8rhqju7U7wb6TNWtCTcu13h7Y=/0x0:6240x4160/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:6240x4160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23097373/GettyImages_1357338547.jpg 1920w" /></picture>
<figcaption>A group of protesters gather in Times Square in Manhattan to show their opposition to Covid-19 vaccines on December 5.</figcaption>
<cite>Spencer Platt/Getty Images</cite></figure>
There’s also a lag between cases being identified, which happens quickly, and hospitalizations and deaths that come later. A month of omicron in South Africa doesn’t provide a complete picture of the dangers of the variant.
The US has also struggled with big <a href="https://www.vox.com/22587443/covid-19-vaccine-refusal-hesitancy-variant-delta-cases-rate">regional variations in vaccination rates</a>, adherence to public health precautions, and overall Covid-19 cases across the country. “The US is very heterogeneous right now in terms of its experience of the pandemic,” Lessler said. The impacts of omicron will be very different where high numbers of people are vaccinated with booster shots, compared to a place where vaccination rates are low.
Getting vaccinated against Covid-19 and getting a booster dose six months later remain the most effective things individuals can do to protect themselves against omicron. And many of the standard public health precautions remain effective — handwashing, wearing a face mask, social distancing, testing, contact tracing, and isolating in case of infection.
For the people who get infected, there are now more treatment options, and soon antiviral pills may be widely available. That could keep even more people out of hospitals.
But almost two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, public <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/15/democratic-governors-covid-fatigue-524425">patience is wearing thin</a>, and the will to pursue many tactics is fading. The news that omicron may be less severe than other variants could worsen a sense of complacency. It’s also a tough messaging challenge for public health officials.
“How do we confront this where many of us will be at relatively low risk if we end up getting infected — but the secondary impacts of an out-of-control wave that fills up the hospitals with cases ... could be quite dire?” asked Lessler.
What we know about omicron is still preliminary. Our understanding of its spread and severity could still change, so people should remain ready to adapt. “There’s a ton of uncertainty,” Lessler said. “Even the best-supported suppositions are far from sure.”
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/22824183/omicron-variant-covid-19-vaccine-south-africa-pfizer-vaccine">https://www.vox.com/22824183/omicron-variant-covid-19-vaccine-south-africa-pfizer-vaccine</a>

vox The good and bad news about the omicron variant

The omicron variant , the latest curveball in the pandemic, may lead to less severe cases of Covid-19 than earlier strains of the coronaviru...

Moderna Chief Warns Delta and Omicron Could Combine to Create ‘Monster’ Virus

MPs have been told by experts that a Wuhan lab leak is now “the most likely” origin of COVID-19 and that there’s also a high risk it “was an engineered virus.”
The Telegraph <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/15/wuhan-lab-leak-now-likely-origin-covid-mps-told/?utm_source=ground.news&utm_medium=referral">reports</a> on the comments of Dr Alina Chan, a specialist in gene therapy and cell engineering at MIT and Harvard, who was speaking to the Science and Technology Select Committee.
“I think the lab origin is more likely than not. Right now it’s not safe for people who know about the origin of the pandemic to come forward. But we live in an era where there is so much information being stored that it will eventually come out,” said Dr. Chan.
“We have heard from many top virologists that a genetically engineered origin is reasonable and that includes virologists who made modifications to the first Sars virus,” she added.
“We know this virus has a unique feature, called the furin cleavage site, and without this feature there is no way this would be causing this pandemic.”
“A proposal was leaked showing that EcoHealth and the Wuhan Institute of Virology were developing a pipeline for inserting novel furin cleavage sites. So, you find these scientists who said in early 2018 ‘I’m going to put horns on horses’ and at the end of 2019 a unicorn turns up in Wuhan city.”
Lord Ridley, who co-wrote a book with Chan, also said it was “incredibly surprising” that after nearly two years “we still haven’t found a single infected animal that could be the progenitor.”
Viscount Ridley called on “bad actors” who think “that unleashing a pandemic is something they could get away with,” to be exposed.
The fact that the source of COVID-19 is now likely to have been the Wuhan lab is quite the turnaround from last year, when mere discussion of this possibility was branded a ludicrous “conspiracy theory” and people who circulated it were banned from social media.
As we previously <a href="https://summit.news/2021/06/02/email-researcher-who-funded-wuhan-lab-admitted-to-manipulating-coronaviruses-thanked-fauci-for-dismissing-lab-leak-theory/">highlighted</a>, Dr. Peter Daszak, President of the EcoHealth Alliance, a group that has extensive ties to the Wuhan lab gain of function research, thanked Dr. Anthony Fauci for dismissing the lab leak theory early on in the pandemic.
Daszak was also tasked by Facebook with ‘fact-checking’ (censoring) information related to the hypothesis, while Google, which via YouTube also censored information about the theory, also <a href="https://summit.news/2021/06/22/google-funded-virus-research-by-wuhan-lab-linked-scientist/">funded</a> Daszak’s virus research.
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source <a href="https://summit.news/2021/12/15/moderna-chief-warns-delta-and-omicron-could-combine-to-create-monster-virus/">https://summit.news/2021/12/15/moderna-chief-warns-delta-and-omicron-could-combine-to-create-monster-virus/</a>

revolution summit Moderna Chief Warns Delta and Omicron Could Combine to Create ‘Monster’ Virus

MPs have been told by experts that a Wuhan lab leak is now “the most likely” origin of COVID-19 and that there’s also a high risk it “was an...

Delete Covid- Holocaust Posts, Dutch Leader Told. He Says "Crazy Ruling"

<div class="ins_instory_dv">
<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Delete Covid- Holocaust Posts, Dutch Leader Told. He Says 'Crazy Ruling'" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-12/lq2hpci4_thierry-baudet_625x300_16_December_21.jpg" title="Delete Covid- Holocaust Posts, Dutch Leader Told. He Says 'Crazy Ruling'" /></div>
Thierry Baudet heads the populist Forum for Democracy party.
</div>
The Hague:
A Dutch court on Wednesday banned a right-wing political leader from comparing coronavirus restrictions to the Holocaust on social media following legal action by World War II survivors and Jewish organisations.
Thierry Baudet, an MP who heads the populist Forum for Democracy party, had said on Twitter that "the unvaccinated are the new Jews, those who look away from the exclusions are the new Nazis".
He also posted side-by-side a photo of a young Dutch boy prevented from attending a festive St Nicholas party and one of a Jewish boy from a Polish ghetto before his deportation during World War II.
Baudet, 38, must delete the relevant social media posts within 48 hours and can no longer use pictures of the Holocaust in debates over Dutch health restrictions, local media reported.
He risks incurring a daily fine of 25,000 euros ($28,000) for breaking the court order.
A judge ruled against Baudet for "pointlessly offending Holocaust victims and their relatives", saying the Jews' fate was "implicitly minimised" by the "disproportionate" comparison.
"The right to freedom of expression is not unlimited for a representative of the people," Dutch press agency ANP quoted the judge as saying.
Baudet had also shared a photo of the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany with the comment: "How is it POSSIBLE to not see how history is repeating itself."
Four Jewish World War II survivors, Dutch Jewish organisations and an anti-Semitism monitoring group had initiated proceedings.
The judge said there was a "pressing social need to intervene, to protect the interests of Holocaust survivors, their families and public debate itself".
"Incomprehensible, crazy ruling. We are angry and ready to fight. And of course, we will appeal," Baudet wrote on Twitter afterwards.
Baudet, who is well-known for his opposition to Covid-19 vaccinations and health measures, received a warning from Twitter in March 2021, one week before legislative elections.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/thierry-baudet-dutch-covid-news-delete-covid-holocaust-posts-dutch-leader-told-he-says-crazy-ruling-2653912">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/thierry-baudet-dutch-covid-news-delete-covid-holocaust-posts-dutch-leader-told-he-says-crazy-ruling-2653912</a>

news world Delete Covid- Holocaust Posts, Dutch Leader Told. He Says "Crazy Ruling"

Thierry Baudet heads the populist Forum for Democracy party. The Hague: A Dutch court on Wednesday banned a right-wing political leader...

Shock as Leftists Who Support Deplatforming Actually Get Deplatformed

YouTube has announced it will hide ‘dislikes’ from videos to curb “creator harassment,” with critics pointing out that this is merely a way of removing the huge amount of downvotes on videos posted by the Biden administration.
“YouTube has announced that it’ll be hiding public dislike counts on videos across its site, starting today,” reports <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/10/22773299/youtube-dislike-button-hide-public-count-numbers-small-creator-protection">The Verge</a>.
“The company says the change is to keep smaller creators from being targeted by dislike attacks or harassment, and to promote “respectful interactions between viewers and creators.” The dislike button will still be there, but it’ll be for private feedback, rather than public shaming.”
Quite how viewer feedback in the form of a thumbs down icon represents “harassment” is anyone’s guess, but the immediate response to the announcement from many was that the Google-owned company was merely moving to protect the Biden White House from ridicule.
“Is this the reason?” asked one respondent, highlighting how Biden speeches and White House press briefings receive massive dislike ratios, sometimes at a rate of ten to one.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="4.6923076923077">
Is this the reason? <a href="https://t.co/BSaM92k9Vl">pic.twitter.com/BSaM92k9Vl</a>
— 🙂FRANK SINATRA (@FRANK_SINATRA7) <a href="https://twitter.com/FRANK_SINATRA7/status/1458481838033416197?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 10, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="7.9483870967742">
Gee, I wonder why they're about to hide dislikes.
It's a total mystery. <a href="https://t.co/tCEwDDVdBY">pic.twitter.com/tCEwDDVdBY</a>
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) <a href="https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet/status/1458492588332359691?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 10, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
“This is for the White House account you KNOW that right?” commented another.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="6.6923076923077">
This is for the White House account you KNOW that right?
— Ryan Ashe (@RealRyanAshe) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealRyanAshe/status/1458481330883375109?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 10, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
“The video department of the Ministry of Truth doing its part for the greater good,” added another.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="6.9206349206349">
The video department of the Ministry of Truth doing its part for the greater good.
— Ian (@ianpiepenbrock) <a href="https://twitter.com/ianpiepenbrock/status/1458481630016942085?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 10, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
Another respondent pointed out the massive dislike ratio received by the Fauci propaganda movie.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="4.5252525252525">
Wonder why 🤔🤔🤔 <a href="https://t.co/5qcqdpZHYK">pic.twitter.com/5qcqdpZHYK</a>
— ₿hargav (@ThatIndianGuy) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThatIndianGuy/status/1458483319440609285?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 10, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
With the recent popularity of the ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ meme, this seems like another transparent attempt to protect the plunging popularity of Biden, whose approval rating just fell to a record low.
As we previously <a href="https://summit.news/2021/01/22/the-most-popular-president-in-u-s-history-isnt-doing-too-well-on-youtube/">highlighted</a>, despite being “the most popular president in U.S. history” after his *totally not unusual* vote record, Joe Biden didn’t fare too well on YouTube in the days after his inauguration, where every single video posted to the official White House channel received massive downvote ratios.
Thanks to YouTube, those ratios will never be a problem again.
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source <a href="https://summit.news/2021/12/15/shock-as-leftists-who-support-deplatforming-actually-get-deplatformed/">https://summit.news/2021/12/15/shock-as-leftists-who-support-deplatforming-actually-get-deplatformed/</a>

revolution summit Shock as Leftists Who Support Deplatforming Actually Get Deplatformed

YouTube has announced it will hide ‘dislikes’ from videos to curb “creator harassment,” with critics pointing out that this is merely a way ...

MPs Told COVID Likely “Engineered” in Wuhan Lab

MPs have been told by experts that a Wuhan lab leak is now “the most likely” origin of COVID-19 and that there’s also a high risk it “was an engineered virus.”
The Telegraph <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/15/wuhan-lab-leak-now-likely-origin-covid-mps-told/?utm_source=ground.news&utm_medium=referral">reports</a> on the comments of Dr Alina Chan, a specialist in gene therapy and cell engineering at MIT and Harvard, who was speaking to the Science and Technology Select Committee.
“I think the lab origin is more likely than not. Right now it’s not safe for people who know about the origin of the pandemic to come forward. But we live in an era where there is so much information being stored that it will eventually come out,” said Dr. Chan.
“We have heard from many top virologists that a genetically engineered origin is reasonable and that includes virologists who made modifications to the first Sars virus,” she added.
“We know this virus has a unique feature, called the furin cleavage site, and without this feature there is no way this would be causing this pandemic.”
“A proposal was leaked showing that EcoHealth and the Wuhan Institute of Virology were developing a pipeline for inserting novel furin cleavage sites. So, you find these scientists who said in early 2018 ‘I’m going to put horns on horses’ and at the end of 2019 a unicorn turns up in Wuhan city.”
Lord Ridley, who co-wrote a book with Chan, also said it was “incredibly surprising” that after nearly two years “we still haven’t found a single infected animal that could be the progenitor.”
Viscount Ridley called on “bad actors” who think “that unleashing a pandemic is something they could get away with,” to be exposed.
The fact that the source of COVID-19 is now likely to have been the Wuhan lab is quite the turnaround from last year, when mere discussion of this possibility was branded a ludicrous “conspiracy theory” and people who circulated it were banned from social media.
As we previously <a href="https://summit.news/2021/06/02/email-researcher-who-funded-wuhan-lab-admitted-to-manipulating-coronaviruses-thanked-fauci-for-dismissing-lab-leak-theory/">highlighted</a>, Dr. Peter Daszak, President of the EcoHealth Alliance, a group that has extensive ties to the Wuhan lab gain of function research, thanked Dr. Anthony Fauci for dismissing the lab leak theory early on in the pandemic.
Daszak was also tasked by Facebook with ‘fact-checking’ (censoring) information related to the hypothesis, while Google, which via YouTube also censored information about the theory, also <a href="https://summit.news/2021/06/22/google-funded-virus-research-by-wuhan-lab-linked-scientist/">funded</a> Daszak’s virus research.
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source <a href="https://summit.news/2021/12/15/mps-told-covid-likely-engineered-in-wuhan-lab/">https://summit.news/2021/12/15/mps-told-covid-likely-engineered-in-wuhan-lab/</a>

revolution summit MPs Told COVID Likely “Engineered” in Wuhan Lab

MPs have been told by experts that a Wuhan lab leak is now “the most likely” origin of COVID-19 and that there’s also a high risk it “was an...

Omicron: White Hat Virus Made To End Pandemic, Or Built To Combine With Delta And Create A Super Strain?

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2021/12/12-15-21-scientist.jpg" /></div>
With several top doctors around the world saying there’s a possibility the Omicron variant of Covid-19 was created in a lab and only recently released, the next question would inevitably be, why?
As Infowars reported on Tuesday, Dr. Joseph Mercola and Dr. Robert Malone are floating the scenario that the variant could be a manmade virus, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/uk-lawmakers-told-covid-likely-engineered-wuhan-lab" target="_blank">as was the most likely case with Covid-19</a>.
In his article published Tuesday, Dr. Mercola asked, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://basedunderground.com/2021/12/14/is-omicron-another-lab-creation/" target="_blank">“Is Omicron Another Lab Creation?”</a>
According to the report, “There’s a curious feature of Omicron that hints at it having been modified in a lab… It doesn’t seem to belong to any of the evolutionary branches that have emerged since.”
A video posted on Twitter shows the chronological genomic epidemiology of Covid variants and clearly indicates the Omicron variant is different than others.
Essentially, scientists can see that Omicron evolved from a strain that has been circulating since mid-2020, but they have no record of the strain’s mutations since then.
<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"></figure>
Now, a Russian virologist named Petr Chumakov is also promoting the chance that the Omicron strain was artificially created.
Chumakov is a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and is Head of the Cell Proliferation Laboratory at the V.A. Engelhardt RAS.
During a recent interview with Radio Russia, the virus expert told listeners that other specialists cannot explain how the strain suddenly appeared on its own.
“This is not just a mutation,” he said. “It was they who collected all the mutations that were known that were already encountered in this virus spontaneously, that is, when it evolved … They collected all these mutations in one strain, moreover, they also introduced there an insert of three amino acids that are characteristic of the coronavirus season. Nobody can explain how it could arise independently in this strain.”
Chumakov insinuated the British released the virus in order to bring the pandemic to a halt, saying, “I believe it is so that these are the British. We decided to end the pandemic now, because now the time has come for some decisive changes in the world.”
Backing his theory that the new strain was intentionally released for an overall good reason is the fact that Omicron turned out to be “super-attenuated”.
“Now just such a moment has come when, for some political reason, they decided to quickly wrap up the pandemic,” the virologist said of the weakened virus.
Chumakov’s brother, a leading researcher and head of the laboratory of the Vaccine Research and Analysis Department of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), <a href="https://www.rbc.ru/society/15/12/2021/61b9ae169a79470750350c2f" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recently told the ČEZ program</a> the new strain could end the pandemic for good.
“It may even be good that this virus will sweep across the globe and the pandemic will end,” he said. “They do not have pneumonia, they recover in two to three days..”
This narrative coincides with a take by Ph.D. research scientist Dr. Houman Hemmati, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/omicron-variant-speed-end-pandemic-doctor-hemmati" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">who told Fox News last week</a> that a weak Covid strain that is highly transmissible could help us get past the pandemic.
“All of a sudden, you can have a scenario where you have a large subset of the population, if not the entire population, who has gotten a mild version or even no version of the disease, but has developed antibodies and has resistance such that if there ever, later on, comes a more deadly variant, you’re protected,” he explained.
Meanwhile, other headlines covering Omicron claim the variant could combine with the Delta strain to form a super-mutant variant.
On Tuesday, the Chief Medical Officer of Moderna, Dr. Paul Burton, warned British politicians that Omicron and Delta may strike people at the same time, creating a super variant in the next few months.
<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter">
<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper" readability="6.7644787644788">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true" readability="7.6100386100386">
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
"Omicron and Delta may strike people at the same time and COMBINE to create an even worse Covid variant in the coming weeks, Moderna boss warns"<a href="https://t.co/96qRAewzoy">https://t.co/96qRAewzoy</a>
— Bruce McGonigal (@bruce_mcgonigal) <a href="https://twitter.com/bruce_mcgonigal/status/1470872208918474752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>
</figure>
Time will tell whether the seemingly manmade variant was released by “the good guys,” or if it was just another catalyst of the Great Reset.
<hr class="wp-block-separator" />
Dr. Peter A. McCullough joined the Joe Rogan Experience to break down how the coronavirus crisis could have been mitigated had the government researched and administered early treatments.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/omicron-white-hat-virus-made-to-end-pandemic-or-built-to-combine-with-delta-and-create-a-super-strain">https://www.infowars.com/posts/omicron-white-hat-virus-made-to-end-pandemic-or-built-to-combine-with-delta-and-create-a-super-strain</a>

news Omicron: White Hat Virus Made To End Pandemic, Or Built To Combine With Delta And Create A Super Strain?

With several top doctors around the world saying there’s a possibility the Omicron variant of Covid-19 was created in a lab and only recent...