Hallucigenia wrote:WHO have officially named it omicron, they've not called it "nu" to avoid confusion when a new variant emerges that's not nu.
Did they explain why not "Xi"
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Hallucigenia wrote:WHO have officially named it omicron, they've not called it "nu" to avoid confusion when a new variant emerges that's not nu.
Julian wrote:zico wrote:Pfizer have said it will take just 100 days to get a new vaccine tailored to the new variant with regulatory approval.
Aren't scientists amazing?
All governments need to do in the meantime is to take effective measures to delay the arrival and spread of the new variant.
Yes, it’s impressive. I saw that quote about the 100 days that was attributed to the Pfizer CEO but unfortunately it was the first few lines of an article behind a paywall so I couldn’t see more. I wonder how long each of the individual stages are which crudely I could break down into creating the new vaccine, getting the approval, and ramping up production of the new version. I did read somewhere that the first step could literally be done in a few days, it’s pretty much a case of deciding on the new coding sequence and substituting it into the already established manufacturing process. To create volume however I assume the existing manufacturing plants would need to go through some sort of very thorough sterilisation/purging process to make sure all traces of the previous vaccine were expunged so that they didn’t contaminate the new version. I suspect the approval process accounts for a very large part of that 100 day estimate.
- Julian
Julian wrote:To create volume however I assume the existing manufacturing plants would need to go through some sort of very thorough sterilisation/purging process to make sure all traces of the previous vaccine were expunged so that they didn’t contaminate the new version.
- Julian
monabri wrote:"Prof Whitty said he was more concerned about the risks posed by existing variants, describing the delta epidemic as "undoubtedly the principal thing we need to concern ourselves with between now and Christmas".
9873210 wrote:Julian wrote:To create volume however I assume the existing manufacturing plants would need to go through some sort of very thorough sterilisation/purging process to make sure all traces of the previous vaccine were expunged so that they didn’t contaminate the new version.
- Julian
Would you care to expand on that? I would have thought that say a 50:50 mix of new and old vaccine would be perfectly fine (boost against delta and earlier at the same time as immunizing against omicron). On that basis a <1% "contamination" would be unnoticeable.
I'd expect the normal production protocols designed to keep stray chemicals, molds and other pathogens out of the vaccine would be way more than enough, so no special "deep clean" required. You don't want to be sloppy, but you're already a good deal better than not sloppy.
9873210 wrote:monabri wrote:"Prof Whitty said he was more concerned about the risks posed by existing variants, describing the delta epidemic as "undoubtedly the principal thing we need to concern ourselves with between now and Christmas".
Good to know somebody is dealing with the long term planning.
(insert head banging against brick wall emoji)
9873210 wrote:monabri wrote:"Prof Whitty said he was more concerned about the risks posed by existing variants, describing the delta epidemic as "undoubtedly the principal thing we need to concern ourselves with between now and Christmas".
Good to know somebody is dealing with the long term planning.
(insert head banging against brick wall emoji)
zico wrote:9873210 wrote:monabri wrote:"Prof Whitty said he was more concerned about the risks posed by existing variants, describing the delta epidemic as "undoubtedly the principal thing we need to concern ourselves with between now and Christmas".
Good to know somebody is dealing with the long term planning.
(insert head banging against brick wall emoji)
Various modelling approaches (pre-Omicron) show the numbers are expected to go down a lot over the next few months.
Two ways to use this information
1. We don't need to do anything because we'll only have 150 deaths per day for a few weeks.
2. We only need to reintroduce masks for 2-3 weeks to prevent at least 50% of those 150 deaths per day.
(With Omicron around, obvious we snowflake option 2 - but willwe?)
A KLM flight from Johannesburg has had all its passengers tested and 60 were positive (though most may have Delta). Given that UK hasn't tested South. Africa inbound flights in last few days, it's almost certain the Omicron variants already here.
zico wrote:A KLM flight from Johannesburg has had all its passengers tested and 60 were positive ...
88V8 wrote:zico wrote:A KLM flight from Johannesburg has had all its passengers tested and 60 were positive ...
It does make a mockery of the pre-flight testing notion. I heard there were 650 people on those flights so that's a one in ten chance you have of sitting next to someone with Covid.
If we were serious about stopping/delaying the Africa's arrival, we should have turned around the flights that were already in the air... although I do agree, it's already here.
V8
dealtn wrote:It's certainly possible it is already here. But to paint a more accurate picture it is 61 people on 2 flights, and the destination of the flights, where the resulting tests occurred, were to the Netherlands, not here.
dealtn wrote:88V8 wrote:zico wrote:If we were serious about stopping/delaying the Africa's arrival, we should have turned around the flights that were already in the air... although I do agree, it's already here.
V8
How does that work in practice?
dealtn wrote:zico wrote:9873210 wrote:
Good to know somebody is dealing with the long term planning.
(insert head banging against brick wall emoji)
Various modelling approaches (pre-Omicron) show the numbers are expected to go down a lot over the next few months.
Two ways to use this information
1. We don't need to do anything because we'll only have 150 deaths per day for a few weeks.
2. We only need to reintroduce masks for 2-3 weeks to prevent at least 50% of those 150 deaths per day.
(With Omicron around, obvious we snowflake option 2 - but willwe?)
A KLM flight from Johannesburg has had all its passengers tested and 60 were positive (though most may have Delta). Given that UK hasn't tested South. Africa inbound flights in last few days, it's almost certain the Omicron variants already here.
It's certainly possible it is already here. But to paint a more accurate picture it is 61 people on 2 flights, and the destination of the flights, where the resulting tests occurred, were to the Netherlands, not here.
9873210 wrote:Julian wrote:To create volume however I assume the existing manufacturing plants would need to go through some sort of very thorough sterilisation/purging process to make sure all traces of the previous vaccine were expunged so that they didn’t contaminate the new version.
- Julian
Would you care to expand on that? I would have thought that say a 50:50 mix of new and old vaccine would be perfectly fine (boost against delta and earlier at the same time as immunizing against omicron). On that basis a <1% "contamination" would be unnoticeable.
I'd expect the normal production protocols designed to keep stray chemicals, molds and other pathogens out of the vaccine would be way more than enough, so no special "deep clean" required. You don't want to be sloppy, but you're already a good deal better than not sloppy.
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