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    Omicron Mass Surge: The Silver Lining & Concerning Indications for Children & Elderly


    Omicron Mass Surge: The Silver Lining & Concerning Indications for Children & Elderly
    What makes a variant a new strain? What makes a new disease, such as Covid-19 versus Covid-21? Well, much of it turns out to be semantics. What is
    trialsitenews.com


    What makes a variant a new strain? What makes a new disease, such as Covid-19 versus Covid-21? Well, much of it turns out to be semantics. What is supposed to classify a new strain is a significant change in a virus’ behavior in relation to pathogenicity, immunogenicity, transmissibility, and/or virulence. So, is Omicron just another variant?


    Let’s look a little closer at its traits compared to previous variants in these critical areas:


    1. Pathogenicity – there is convincing data that Omicron does indeed possess a dramatic change in pathogenicity. Multiple animal models evidence that Omicron infects the bronchi tissue much more efficiently (7000%), and infects the lung cells much less efficiently (-3000%) than Delta.


    Omicron appears to not need or use the transmembrane protease, TMPRSS2 for Spike protein priming or cell membrane fusion. Another major divergence in pathogenicity is that Omicron no longer exhibits cell to cell fusion via syncytia. It exclusively infects via the ACE2 endocytosis pathway.


    2. Immunogenicity – It’s recently been shown that Omicron generates robust immunity against the prior VOC, Delta. However, the converse is not true. Convalescent serum from previous variants shows a dramatic reduction in the neutralization of Omicron as does vaccination-derived serum. These in vitro neutralization assays are born out in the large increase in real-world reinfection and breakthrough cases.


    3. Transmissibility – a quick glance at the new case rates in Omicron dominant countries illustrates how easily Omicron transmits. However, the partial escape from immune protection also contributes to the rapid dominance of Omicron cases. Nevertheless, Omicron is showing to be much more transmissible than even the daunting Delta variant. A recent study out of France showed Omicron as being 105% more transmissible than Delta.


    4. Virulence – Here is where there is good news. Omicron is proving to cause less severe disease compared to previous variants. There is epidemiological evidence of this in lower hospitalization rates compared to new cases. There is also a drop in the Case Fatality Rate with Omicron. However, there are many confounders in this data, including higher population immunity, younger age groups being infected, and higher incidental Covid-19 hospitalized cases. However, this recent preprint out of Ontario, Canada performed a matched cohort study. After adjustment for vaccination status and other variables, the risk of hospitalization or death was 54% lower for Omicron vs Delta (HR=0.46, 95%CI: 0.27-0.77).


    It’s clear that Omicron possesses meaningful differences in all four of these categories used to determine a new strain. It begs the question if Omicron should be classified as not just a new variant but a new member of genus Betacoronavirus in the subgenus Sarbecovirus, taking its place alongside the two existing members: SARS-COV (which causes the disease SARS) and SARS-CoV-2 (which causes Covid-19). The qualifications are there to make the argument that the disease caused by Omicron is so different that it should be called Covid-21. We’ll leave the classification determination up to the evolutionary virologists. However, it’s clear that the disease caused by Omicron is vastly different than previous variants. The common symptoms are dramatically different. No longer are anosmia, ageusia, high fever, and persistent cough so prevalent. Omicron’s most common symptoms are sore throat, headache, running nose, and fatigue. Recognizing these dramatic changes in Omicron with a new disease designation would call attention that there has been a major change in the path of the pandemic, and everyone should take notice.


    Transforming Risk Profile

    The changes ushered in with Omicron are mostly very positive at the macro level. However, it is so different that individuals should reassess their personal risk which might have changed significantly. For example, if an individual is feeling very secure in their protection from vaccination or recovered immunity, they should understand that the probability of breakthrough and reinfection has dramatically increased. While disease severity will likely be much lower than in the past, higher-risk individuals should reassess their personal risk levels. Should a highly comorbid 70-year-old still consider themselves low risk just because they are vaccinated and boosted, or should they increase their avoidance measures for the next month? That same high-risk individual had multiple approved early treatment therapeutics available prior to Omicron. However, Omicron has rendered all but one of the very efficacious monoclonal antibodies useless. The remaining efficacious MAB, GSK’s Sotrovimab, is fleetingly scarce, as are the recently authorized oral antivirals Paxlovid and Molnupiravir.


    Children as Higher Risk Targets

    It’s clear that Omicron is behaving more like typical upper respiratory viral infections. No longer are we seeing the high rate of the second stage hyperinflammatory disease and micro thrombosis. However, we might also be seeing a drop in the unusual protection conferred upon young children during Covid-19. Emerging evidence, albeit early, presents concerning signs of potential higher severity in young children. This could be due to their underdeveloped immune systems and Omicron’s pathogenicity resembling a more typical URI. Let’s not forget influenza, RSV, and other URIs are most dangerous for the elderly and young. It’s starting to look like Omicron could be following this path. According to recent CDC data, COVID-19 hospitalization rates among children are rising rapidly in the United States, with an average of 4.3 children under 5 per 100,000 hospitalized with an infection as of the week ending January 1, up from 2.6 children the previous week. The current rate of increase is the most rapid seen in children over the course of the pandemic. Due to confounding factors, the data on this point is far from clear. However, it’s strong enough to justify parents reassessing the risk level of their children and adjusting their personal protective measures as needed.


    Omicron overall, at least up till now, is a much less formidable foe than Delta. The exponential growth in cases will spread immunity far and wide very rapidly. At the end of this month or next hopefully, global societies just might be in a better place (discounting the risk of another variant being created due to the massive amount of viral replication). However, we all need to get there first, so take stock of your personal risk factors, monitor various trusted information sources, check in with your physician or competent licensed health care worker with questions, and protect your loved ones during this massive surge.

    2022-01-09 11:07 Fox 

    Dear Rossi

    We would like to replace a continuous methane-based heat generator with a more economical and ecological source. The average power is about 6 MW with a production of about 50 million kWh per year and a consumption of about 5 million cubic meters of methane per year. It seems difficult to achieve this with 60,000 ECAT-SKlep modules. What do you recommend: ECAT-SK or ECAT-SKlep or is it premature for now to think of a solution of this type?

    Cordial greetings


    2022-01-09 11:39 Andrea Rossi 

    Fox:

    It is convenient an assembly of 60000 SKLeps.

    Warm Regards,

    A.R.


    LOL

    Quote from Fm1

    According to recent CDC data, COVID-19 hospitalization rates among children are rising rapidly in the United States, with an average of 4.3 children under 5 per 100,000 hospitalized with an infection as of the week ending January 1, up from 2.6 children the previous week.

    Unluckily they too did not count in the faked hospital data....Kids with Omicron not delivered due to Omicron...

    But vaccinated vulnerable will face some tough times without Ivermectin ready.... OK they can try a course with carcinogen pills with 7% success rate or an other course with liver damaging drugs with much higher claimed but yet unknown success rate for Omicron.....

    Quote from PhysicsForDummies

    Can someone tell me why Elizabeth Holmes is going to jail but not Rossi?

    Rossi thinks that money has to change hands before he can be held to anything.

    That is certainly wrong in a large number of countries.

    In many countries, simply advertising something that is impossible, does not exist, or if there is almost zero possibility (or intent) of fulfilling the order, is illegal.

    Quote from Paradigmnoia

    Kaminisky seems to be a decent fellow. He does seem to be a real EE, but perhaps was very specialized or is long retired. I don’t know, and don’t mean to pick on him, but since he was Sam’s example…

    Anyways, I mentioned to him, a day after the demo or so, that the wiring would become quite hot with 30-40 W dissipated from them based on Levi’s resistance measurements. Three weeks later he explained that away by calculating power as R2I and not I2R, getting 1.6 W instead of 40 W. That is a major error for an EE. I can only explain it by him ignoring his knowledge and the facts in order to support his feelings. Yes 0.4 or so ohms is a lot of resistance for the wires and probably something isn’t quite right, or the clip-on connection things are not tight or something… but let’s carry on…


    He also hosted a group of EEs to watch the SKlep demo. Apparently none including himself were startled to discover a scattered mess of partly connected electronics and the hopelessly poor quality of all of the electrical measurements. I am not an electrical Engineer, but I do have over a decade of experience with diagnosis and repair of low voltage DC systems. I don’t need any of that experience to tell me that the pile of electronics was just a bunch of crap designed to distract, just like the giant cooling fins …enclosed in a box!

    Wow. That is worse than I expected. Even for a "competent but not good" EE, as most are.


    Still - a lot of the mains power low level EEs don't have any experience of electronics - so whereas you and I see a pile of crap and know it, maybe he would not. but nobody other than Rossi could do P = R2I. It is not even dimensionally correct.

    Israel short update: All groups 3x vaxx 2x vaxx unvaxx basically have the same Omicron case rate. So vaccines help zero for infection protection. There is a dramatic increase in severe hospital cases among boostered 2:1 ratio compared to unvaxx.

    But most unvaxx are children and orhodox that most count as recovered.

    Unluckily there is no statics on UK level with clearly separated age groups.


    For clowns: Be also aware that there are two modes one with cumulated (3x vaxx 2x vaxx unvaxx) and daily added! This here is about daily added what reflects what is going on now!


    קורונה - לוח בקרה

    Quote from RobertBryant

    povidone-I2

    No RCTs from Pfizer... don't expect any anytime soon :)

    only $8 for a week ...don't overdo the nosedrops..brown discoloration

    Povidone-iodine solution as SARS-CoV-2 prophylaxis for procedures of the upper aerodigestive tract a theoretical framework - Journal of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery
    Background The COVID-19 pandemic has raised concerns of inadvertent SARS-CoV-2 transmission to healthcare workers during routine procedures of the…
    journalotohns.biomedcentral.com

    EU Confident in Developing Inactivated COVID Vaccine, What Might They Know that Others Don’t?


    EU Confident in Developing Inactivated COVID Vaccine, What Might They Know that Others Don’t?
    The developer of the only inactivated COVID-19 vaccine that is currently underway in Europe recently announced an agreement with the European Union. This
    trialsitenews.com


    The developer of the only inactivated COVID-19 vaccine that is currently underway in Europe recently announced an agreement with the European Union. This move has some wondering: Does the EU know something that the United States or the United Kingdom doesn’t as it relates to a traditional versus mRNA vaccine for combating SARS-CoV-2? Afterall China has centered most of its vaccine development on this traditional approach and while the vaccines haven’t been as effective (based on published findings) could they ultimately be safer? Some controversy swirls around this vaccine. The UK made a big order then cancelled a year later declaring their regulatory agency wouldn’t have authorized the product.


    The Background

    Valneva, a European biotech company headquartered in France, on Nov. 10 announced an agreement to supply the European Commission with 60 million doses of its COVID-19 traditional vaccine, VLA2001, over two years including approximately 27 million doses in 2022. The company, on Dec. 8, additionally signed an advanced purchase agreement with the Kingdom of Bahrain for one million doses of the VLA2001 vaccine.


    The Vaccine

    VLA2001 leverages the traditional approach of vaccines by using inactivated SARS-CoV-2 virus particles as an antigen, unlike an mRNA vaccine which introduces cells with a genetic code to lower the production of proteins identical to the spike protein in COVID.


    Dr. Peter English, a retired consultant in Communicable Disease Control, former editor of Vaccines in Practice, and immediate past chair of the BMA Public Health Medicine Committee, commented on why this vaccine may have better results than the mRNA vaccines currently available.



    “We have seen very little reduction in (the) effectiveness of mRNA and vector vaccines due to viral variation: it may be that the level of mutation that would be required to evade the immune response would reduce the virus’ ability to attach to and infect cells,” English told Science Media Centre.


    After the Valneva vaccine destroys the virus to prevent the disease, English told Science Media Centre that it harbors part of the virus in the form of antigens which could potentially allow an individual to have higher immunity to the virus.


    Results

    Valneva, on Oct. 18 in a presentation of the VLA2001 Phase 3 showed results which compared the VLA2001 vaccine to AstraVeneca’s AZD1222 vaccine. The trial included 2,972 participants that were 30 years of age or older that were randomly given two doses, 28 days apart, of either VLA2001 or AZD1222 at the recommended dose level. They also evaluated the safety and tolerability of the Valneva vaccine in adults 18-29 years of age two weeks after they received their second dose.


    “Overall, 92.0% of participants reported any {adverse events} (92.6%, 88.7% and 98.1% in the VLA2001 Under 30 years, VLA2001 30 years and above, and AZD1222 (ChAdOx1-S) groups, respectively),” the presentation reports. “After any vaccination, statistically significantly fewer participants experienced at least one solicited Injection Site Reaction: 73.2% in the VLA2001 (30 years +) group compared to 91.1% in the AZD1222 (ChAdOx1-S) group (p≤ 0.0001).”


    “mRNA and vector vaccines seem to be a bit more reactogenic (causing local reactions and transient symptoms such as fever and headache) than traditional vaccines, so it is reassuring, but was no surprise, that the Valneva vaccine appears to be less reactogenic than ChAdOx1-S (AstraZeneca vaccine),” English told Science Media Centre.


    Other findings directly from the Valneva presentation:


    After any vaccination, statistically significantly fewer participants experienced at least one solicited Injection Site Reaction: 73.2% in the VLA2001 (30 years +) group compared to 91.1% in the AZD1222 (ChAdOx1-S) group (p≤ 0.0001).

    After any vaccination, statistically significantly fewer participants experienced at least one solicited Systemic Reaction: 70.2% in the VLA2001 (30 years +) group compared to 91.1% in the AZD1222 (ChAdOx1-S) group (p≤ 0.0001).

    Statistically significantly fewer participants experienced any unsolicited AE (27.9% in the VLA2001 (30 years +) compared to 32.7% in the AZD1222 (ChAdOx1-S) group) (p = 0.0075) – Rates of participants with unsolicited serious AEs (0.3% vs. 0.2%) or medically attended unsolicited AEs (7.2% vs. 6.5%) were comparable between the VLA2001 (30 years +) group and the AZD1222 (ChAdOx1-S) group. – No related unsolicited serious AEs have been reported.

    PI POV

    A Professor of Pediatrics at University of Bristol, Chief Investigator of the Valneva vaccine clinical development program in the UK, Adam Finn, said that although they are still waiting on the application and full authorization process, he looks forward to the advancement of the traditional vaccine.


    “I am optimistic that this vaccine – which is a different platform from all those currently in use or approaching authorization in Europe – will become available in the coming months, adding to the range of tools available to us to combat the ongoing pandemic and thus our resilience in the face of this agile and dangerous virus,” Finn told Science Media Centre.


    Deal Making

    In late 2020 Valneva inked a deal with American firm Dynavax to support production goals of 100 million doses by September of 2021. The production facility was in Livingston, Scotland; an additional 190 million doses is planned for production to supply the UK government. Perhaps they sought to diversify from both AstraZeneca/Oxford and the mRNA-based products? Regardless of intention back then something changed: the UK government cancelled the order.


    Painful Termination


    Discussing the cancellation, a Scottish lawmaker declared:


    “There are commercial reasons that we have cancelled the contract, but what I can tell her is that it was also clear to us that the vaccine in question that the company was developing would not get approval by the MHRA here in the UK.”


    Not surprisingly, the company’s stock price plunged 35% thereafter.


    But picking up some of the demand was the European Commission, inking a deal with the French biotech by November 10, 2021, purchasing 27 million doses for 2022. Included in the agreement was a clause to option to adapt to new variants of concern and another order for 33 million doses in 2023.


    The Company

    Based in France, Valneva specializes in the development and commercialization of infection disease prophylactic vaccines “with significant unmet medical need,” their website states. Current Valneva vaccines in development include those unique to COVID-19, Lyme Disease and Chikungunya. Founded in 2013, they have raised over $434 million including an initial public offering (IPO) in 2021. Currently priced at 17.56, their stock 52 week high/low ranges from 7.47 as a low and 29.70 as a high. About 14% of all equity is held by insiders

    My red line yesterday.... negative

    some workers must do one rapid test every morning

    I just wanted to go to a senior's party

    Omicron will not be stopped by the redline test...just slowed down

    Sensitivity/ is low for asymptomatic infected.?

    compared to symptomatic....plenty of false negatives.

    "

    Sensitivity/specificity were 50.0% (41.0-59.0)/99.1% (98.3-99.6) in 62 asymptomatic adults

    and 51.4% (34.4-68.1)/97.8% (94.5-99.4) in asymptomatic children."


    https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.07.21253101v1.full.pdf

    I’m not much of a thermal or dielectric oil expert, but it seems that the specific heat is typically anywhere from 1/2 to 3/4 of that of plain water. So it should heat up 25 to 50% faster than water, it seems.

    Interesting in light of the tub of water results so far.

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