Coronavirus

[Tigers of Old]

Symptoms of Omicron.

Does the Omicron COVID-19 variant have different symptoms? Here's what we know

With a new wave of infections, here's what you need to know about the virus and when you should get a COVID-19 test.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Ian4]

What is going on in Newcastle is terrible. Something like 25% of active cases in NSW are there after that nightclub super spreader event and people are too scared to out. Bookings being cancelled everywhere and hospitality venues are closing down due to lack of customers.

Yeh I work in logistics and its insane right now. Labour hire companies cannot get staff, transport companies cannot get staff and you lump on work related cases and the associated absences and the pressure is immense.

I cannot understand why no one seems to want to work in transport and distribution anymore. The pay is ok, although the work can be at times physical & monotonous. But there is a massive shortage of people looking and willing to work.

We got an Aust Post delivery today at work and I was speaking with the driver and he said he usually works in the office but like heaps of others from the office is out on the road delivering parcels!

The pressure people are under right now is pretty intense and combined with the current uncertainty around covid I can see a lot of family distress over this xmas/new year period. Hopefully everyone can keep their heads together and show each other some kindness and empathy.

Yep. I work for Post. And I am tired. The amount of work is endless and dispiriting. It would be different if there was a light at the end of the tunnel, but it doesn’t exist in my department. 2020 was bad, but 2021 is just ridiculous.

 

[Redford]

The FDA has approved Paxlovid as an anti viral drug in the USA. Reported as being 89% effective in preventing hospitalisations if a 5 day course is taken from the onset of symptoms. This includes the Omicron variant apparently, where vaccine efficacy is under question.

Critical development.

Australia already has a deal with Pfizer for 500,000 courses of the drug. The questions are however, how long will it take ATAGI and the Federal government to approve and secure supplies ? Have ATAGI even started looking at it in preparation ? I know you have to lodge with ATAGI first to begin with, but that’s a fait accompli. Would Hunt or Morrison have any update on this ???

Pfizer will produce a minimum of 80 million full courses over the next 12 months.

 

[Sintiger]

Yep. I work for Post. And I am tired. The amount of work is endless and dispiriting. It would be different if there was a light at the end of the tunnel, but it doesn’t exist in my department. 2020 was bad, but 2021 is just ridiculous.

This is what is happening in the hospital system. The ability to handle the same level of activity going into 2022 is severely hampered by the fatigue of so many people in dealing with this for 21 months.
There is also real concern about the potential of a lot of people leaving the health system in 2022.
I am sure there are other industries in the similar position, clearly logistics is one as you note. There is a mismatch with so many people out of work due to COVID and others working their backsides off with very few breaks.

 

[Harry]

They told us get vaccinated to stop the spread to protect grandma, yet here we are.

 

[tigerman]

The FDA has approved Paxlovid as an anti viral drug in the USA. Reported as being 89% effective in preventing hospitalisations if a 5 day course is taken from the onset of symptoms. This includes the Omicron variant apparently, where vaccine efficacy is under question.

Critical development.

Australia already has a deal with Pfizer for 500,000 courses of the drug. The questions are however, how long will it take ATAGI and the Federal government to approve and secure supplies ? Have ATAGI even started looking at it in preparation ? I know you have to lodge with ATAGI first to begin with, but that’s a fait accompli. Would Hunt or Morrison have any update on this ???

Pfizer will produce a minimum of 80 million full courses over the next 12 months.

While being a prescription medication, if Paxlovid is as effective as they are saying, it will be soon be like Panadol, on top of everyones fridge or wherever they keep their medication.

 

[Redford]

While being a prescription medication, if Paxlovid is as effective as they are saying, it will be soon be like Panadol, on top of everyones fridge or wherever they keep their medication.

Heh heh heh… right above the beer prescription below.

 

[caesar]

I checked out Rapid Antigen Test Kit prices at Chemist Warehouse online yesterday and they had a 5 pack for $50, walked into a store today all that is available is a 3 pack for $60, I said stuff that. Talk about jacking up prices and fleecing people trying to do the right thing

 

[Sintiger]

They told us get vaccinated to stop the spread to protect grandma, yet here we are.

yes and if you are vaccinated you have much less chance of being hospitalised and a considerably less chance of being in ICU
There are reports now coming from countries that have high Omicron numbers that there are large numbers of vaccinated people testing positive with virtually no symptoms even to the point where there is a strong suspicion there are positive people in the community who are not getting tested because they have no symptoms at all.
So the message is get your Grandma vaccinated

 

[BT Tiger]

They told us get vaccinated to stop the spread to protect grandma, yet here we are.

So I guess the logical conclusion is we should never have gotten vaccinated in the first place.

 

[artball]

when the pandemic started a few of us were talking about what it meant...

about how the last 5 decades have been a life of privilege for most of the western world (and others)...

and how the HYSTERIA that Covid19 will bring may outweigh the virus itself ..

 

[DavidSSS]

Vaccinations generally do not prevent infection, what they prevent is serious illness leading to hospitalisation or death, and at the same time they reduce infection numbers.

So, yes, here we are: we have high infection rates (but not as high as they would be without vaccination) yet the hospitalisation and serious illness rates have risen only slightly and deaths remain low.

The vaccines, despite some waning of their effectiveness over time (which is largely solved by the 3rd dose) are doing precisely what we want them to do - protect us from serious illness, hospitalisation and death.

Are they perfect? Well, no, of course not.

Are they damned good? Absolutely, we'd be well into lockdown and overwhelming the hospital system and likely the morgue too without the vaccines. That would be a happy Christmas wouldn't it?

DS

 

[mrposhman]

Yeh I work in logistics and its insane right now. Labour hire companies cannot get staff, transport companies cannot get staff and you lump on work related cases and the associated absences and the pressure is immense.

I cannot understand why no one seems to want to work in transport and distribution anymore. The pay is ok, although the work can be at times physical & monotonous. But there is a massive shortage of people looking and willing to work.

We got an Aust Post delivery today at work and I was speaking with the driver and he said he usually works in the office but like heaps of others from the office is out on the road delivering parcels!

The pressure people are under right now is pretty intense and combined with the current uncertainty around covid I can see a lot of family distress over this xmas/new year period. Hopefully everyone can keep their heads together and show each other some kindness and empathy.

I work in Logistics too (Relocation industry) and as with you, its insane right now and you are spot on that its incredibly hard to resource, not as bad as last year when Job Keeper (which was a good initiative but the increase in JobSeeker was the pain point) actually ended up deterring some people from looking for work as their JobSeeker payments almost doubled.

I used to work for Royal Mail in the UK and whilst I was there, most office / management staff were asked to do 2 weeks in the Operation at Christmas. Significant reduction to casual labour was essentially the impact. I actually enjoyed it, you would either completely shut off to the outside world if you were sorting in the depots or you got to go out on special delivery services.

 

[mrposhman]

yes and if you are vaccinated you have much less chance of being hospitalised and a considerably less chance of being in ICU
There are reports now coming from countries that have high Omicron numbers that there are large numbers of vaccinated people testing positive with virtually no symptoms even to the point where there is a strong suspicion there are positive people in the community who are not getting tested because they have no symptoms at all.
So the message is get your Grandma vaccinated

Early indications are it could be upto a 70% reduction in hospitalisation numbers related to Omicron. Apparently its great at replicating, but much worse than Delta at diving into that deep lung tissue that causes people the extent of the problems that require hospitalisation. Its actually great news if Omicron can wipe out Delta, as its getting us much closer to an endemic scenario for Covid.

 

[tigerman]

Heh heh heh… right above the beer prescription below.

Now ya talken.

 

[Sintiger]

Early indications are it could be upto a 70% reduction in hospitalisation numbers related to Omicron. Apparently its great at replicating, but much worse than Delta at diving into that deep lung tissue that causes people the extent of the problems that require hospitalisation. Its actually great news if Omicron can wipe out Delta, as its getting us much closer to an endemic scenario for Covid.

Exactly. I heard an epidemiologist talking about this a couple of days ago. He was at pains to exercise caution with conclusions because it is very early days but he said that Omicron, whilst an issue in itself, may well be good news in a way for the reasons you state. The other interesting thing with Omicron is that there are indications South Africa may have peaked and if true the increase and peaking of the numbers were far quicker than other variants.

What we have to watch however is the sheer numbers of infected people will increase hospitalisations/ICU because the amount of virus in circulation will mean that it is more likely for unvaccinated people to be infected. ICU numbers tend to lag 1-2 weeks behind infections. We are going to have a lot of very sick unvaccinated people imo.

 

[eZyT]

The next couple of weeks

Are not gonna be for the feint hearted.

 

[Tigers of Old]

Personal responsibility didn’t last long.

 

[eZyT]

Personal responsibility didn’t last long.

I assumed personal responsibility for my final PAYG for the year

Asked the boss for cash, handed out 10% to homeless people and bought a load of gravel in my ute and filled the potholes on my road.

I resisted buying my wealthy friend a bottle of Moet and giving it to them secretly.

Thats not really my responsibility.

 

[AngryAnt]

So I guess the logical conclusion is we should never have gotten vaccinated in the first place.

That's the antivax mindset. I also read them saying vaccinated people still transmit and vaccinated people still die - both are true, just in much smaller numbers per capita than unvaxxed people of course . But this is an argument against vaccines for them.

Anyway got my Pfizer booster at a local pharmacy yesterday, no side effects whatsoever. This after two AZ vaccines.