What would you have done?

New Covid Strain May Evade Vaccines

Aug. 24, 2023 – A new strain of COVID-19 that was only identified a week ago in the U.S. has prompted the CDC to take the rare step of issuing a formal message that it could evade vaccines or the protection of natural immunity.

The strain is called BA.2.86 and is of particular concern because of its more than 30 mutations, which means it may behave very differently than previous versions of the virus. That number of mutations is on par with the difference between variants so serious that they were formally named, such as between Delta and Omicron, the CDC explained in the risk assessment issued Wednesday.
BA.2.86 may be more capable of causing infection in people who have previously had COVID-19 or who have received COVID-19 vaccines,” the CDC risk assessment stated.


😕
I guess I'm safe then.
 
For those who know someone who recently got Covid do you know if they already had Covid within the last 1.5 years? Are we getting Omicron reinfections? That would be a serious bummer...

I have a close friend who both she and her husband got it last August after traveling to Europe and now her whole family (her, her husband, and both of their kids) have it again after traveling, so basically almost exactly a year after their last infection, they have it again. The kids didn’t have it last summer, but I know one of the kids had it in April, so only about 4 months between infections. The other kid had it it earlier in the school year but I don’t remember timing exactly, so less time between infections than the parents but more than the sibling. This go around was less severe symptoms for them than the previous one, mostly just major fatigue this time.

I have family members who had two Covid infections about 6 weeks in between, first infected last May and then infected again last July.

A meta-analysis looking at how protective prior Covid infection is against reinfection published in Feb. 2023 found, “Our findings show that immunity from COVID-19 infection confers substantial protection against infection from pre-omicron variants. By comparison, protection against re-infection from the omicron BA.1 variant was substantially reduced and wanes rapidly over time. Protection against severe disease, although based on scarce data, was maintained at a relatively high level up to 1 year after the initial infection for all variants.” So basically, the data is showing that pre-omicron, a prior infection protected pretty well against reinfection of pre-omicron variants, but omicron changed the game and post-omicron, protection from reinfection doesn’t last that long, although appears to still be protective against severe disease. This study does’t cover XBB and it’s subvariants which are the currently dominant strains.

A different meta-analysis published in Jan, 2023 looking at the difference between protective effectiveness of prior Covid infection alone versus protective effectiveness of hybrid immunity (vaccine + prior infection) found, “All estimates of protection waned within months against reinfection but remained high and sustained for hospital admission or severe disease. Individuals with hybrid immunity had the highest magnitude and durability of protection, and as a result might be able to extend the period before booster vaccinations are needed compared to individuals who have never been infected.” They found the hybrid immunity more protective than infection alone. This is all before XBB as well though, so who knows how true this still is.

Until the rate of mutation slows down (which it won’t unless fewer people are getting infected), I think we’re going to just not know how durable any sort of immune protection is going to be from prior infection, vaccination, or hybrid immunity at any moment in time with any sort of confidence. We’ll just be able to look back at the data and figure it out after the fact.
 
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I guess I'm safe then.
The headline of that article (as so many headlines are) is misleading. If you read the article, it says that immune protection from prior infection or vaccination may not hold up to this new strain. It makes no statements either way about people who have never been vaccinated nor had a prior Covid infection, but the implication from the body of the article is that no one, regardless of prior infection status or vaccination status is “safe” from being infected with BA.2.86. They hope the updated XBB booster this fall will convey some level of immune protection but they don’t have data either way about that yet. The article says they are especially keeping an eye on this variant because it’s different enough from the previous dominant variants that ALL immune protection may not hold up against it, sort of how pre-omicron immune protections (from all sources) didn’t hold up very well against infection to omicron. They hope that, like omicron, even if immune protections don’t hold up against infection, they will still hold up against severe disease, hospitalization and death, but, as the article states, it is still “early days” with this variant and they just don’t know.

“BA.2.86 may be more capable of causing infection in people who have previously had COVID-19 or who have received COVID-19 vaccines.”
Is this article cause for panic? No. Is it reason to maybe be a little more cautious until more is known? I think so.
 
I have a close friend who both she and her husband got it last August after traveling to Europe and now her whole family (her, her husband, and both of their kids) have it again after traveling, so basically almost exactly a year after their last infection, they have it again. The kids didn’t have it last summer, but I know one of the kids had it in April, so only about 4 months between infections. The other kid had it it earlier in the school year but I don’t remember timing exactly, so less time between infections than the parents but more than the sibling. This go around was less severe symptoms for them than the previous one, mostly just major fatigue this time.

I have family members who had two Covid infections about 6 weeks in between, first infected last May and then infected again last July.

A meta-analysis looking at how protective prior Covid infection is against reinfection published in Feb. 2023 found, “Our findings show that immunity from COVID-19 infection confers substantial protection against infection from pre-omicron variants. By comparison, protection against re-infection from the omicron BA.1 variant was substantially reduced and wanes rapidly over time. Protection against severe disease, although based on scarce data, was maintained at a relatively high level up to 1 year after the initial infection for all variants.” So basically, the data is showing that pre-omicron, a prior infection protected pretty well against reinfection of pre-omicron variants, but omicron changed the game and post-omicron, protection from reinfection doesn’t last that long, although appears to still be protective against severe disease. This study does’t cover XBB and it’s subvariants which are the currently dominant strains.

A different meta-analysis published in Jan, 2023 looking at the difference between protective effectiveness of prior Covid infection alone versus protective effectiveness of hybrid immunity (vaccine + prior infection) found, “All estimates of protection waned within months against reinfection but remained high and sustained for hospital admission or severe disease. Individuals with hybrid immunity had the highest magnitude and durability of protection, and as a result might be able to extend the period before booster vaccinations are needed compared to individuals who have never been infected.” They found the hybrid immunity more protective than infection alone. This is all before XBB as well though, so who knows how true this still is.

Until the rate of mutation slows down (which it won’t unless fewer people are getting infected), I think we’re going to just not know how durable any sort of immune protection is going to be from prior infection, vaccination, or hybrid immunity at any moment in time with any sort of confidence. We’ll just be able to look back at the data and figure it out after the fact.

My friend got it last summer too after traveling to Italy.
 
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It’s interesting, most of the people in my local facebook pages who are anti vax/conspiracy theorists are also MLM sellers for smoothies and essential oils.
Why do you think this is ?
I’ve never looked at Facebook and generally don’t care or notice what others buy. So I’m curious as to why you think this is and how you noticed this.
 
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The headline of that article (as so many headlines are) is misleading. If you read the article, it says that immune protection from prior infection or vaccination may not hold up to this new strain. It makes no statements either way about people who have never been vaccinated nor had a prior Covid infection, but the implication from the body of the article is that no one, regardless of prior infection status or vaccination status is “safe” from being infected with BA.2.86. They hope the updated XBB booster this fall will convey some level of immune protection but they don’t have data either way about that yet. The article says they are especially keeping an eye on this variant because it’s different enough from the previous dominant variants that ALL immune protection may not hold up against it, sort of how pre-omicron immune protections (from all sources) didn’t hold up very well against infection to omicron. They hope that, like omicron, even if immune protections don’t hold up against infection, they will still hold up against severe disease, hospitalization and death, but, as the article states, it is still “early days” with this variant and they just don’t know.

“BA.2.86 may be more capable of causing infection in people who have previously had COVID-19 or who have received COVID-19 vaccines.”
Is this article cause for panic? No. Is it reason to maybe be a little more cautious until more is known? I think so.
I was being sarcastic.
 
Why do you think this is ?
I’ve never looked at Facebook and generally don’t care or notice what others buy. Some I’m curious as to why you think this is and how you noticed this.
Because they are either posting success stories, showing their delicious shakes, and ranting about masks, vaccines, and bring controlled, on a daily basis.
 
Because they are either posting success stories, showing their delicious shakes, and ranting about masks, vaccines, and bring controlled, on a daily basis.
Two years ago posters on this forum lost their minds with outrage towards those who didn't get the vax or didn't wear masks. In the end, did it matter? You could have 0 shots, 12 shots, wear 5 masks every day, never wear a mask, or smother yourself in essential oil and the outcome was the same. When it comes to ranting I think both sides have done their fair share.
 
Two years ago posters on this forum lost their minds with outrage towards those who didn't get the vax or didn't wear masks. In the end, did it matter? You could have 0 shots, 12 shots, wear 5 masks every day, never wear a mask, or smother yourself in essential oil and the outcome was the same. When it comes to ranting I think both sides have done their fair share.
Yes I know many on both sides, it just seemed odd to me that folks with these particular side hustles share the same views as each other.
 
In the end, did it matter? You could have 0 shots, 12 shots, wear 5 masks every day, never wear a mask, or smother yourself in essential oil and the outcome was the same.

This is 100% false. Millions of lives were saved with the vaccine, by allowed the most compromised among us to safely acquire immunity with the vaccine, rather than catching the virus and having to fight the full brunt of a novel virus with much lower immunity.
 
Hi,

Just wanted to get your opinions on what you would have possibly done in this situation. Friday night, I went out some of my co-workers. This morning, one of my co-workers called me and told me she is very sick with the Covid (she tested positive this morning). Today, I was supposed to go to one my close friend’s birthday party. I told my friends in the group what happened and they all still wanted to me to come (so far I feel ok and tested negative with an at home test), but I went with my judgement and decided to stay home. It costed me a little money as I contributed towards the party, but I didn’t want to take any chances. What would you have done?

Thanks as always.
Not gone. You won't start showing symptoms or test positive until 2-10 days later. But you can be carrying it. So staying was the right decision. Good on you.
 
DH, despite being backwoods VA born and bred and retired military, is pretty liberal but non chalant this week when DD11 got covid for the 4th time. We ended up canceling her orthodontist appointment, but that was at my doing.
 
Millions of unvaccinated people had the same outcome.
Yes, younger and healthier people were able to catch the virus, beat it back and build immunity. Older people and younger people with preexisting conditions....were not always able to do so. 1.2 million of those people died...from this virus. The vaccines saved millions of others like them though, here and around the world.

Had we all just ignored the virus, which seems to be your ingenious plan, and gone on with life as if it was nothing....our hospitals everywhere would have been completely overrun....everywhere, and many millions more would have likely died from conditions unrelated to the virus. Remember....if you're lucky, you're going to be old too one day.
 
I was front and center near ground zero. Our hospitals were crazy overwhelmed, refrigerator trucks 8 miles away, drive by wakes in town.
Same here....with hospital parking lots empty, with plywood and makeshift fans hanging from the sides of the building to turn regular hospital rooms into negative pressure isolation rooms. My SIL managed two covid units during the worst of it. She'd call me crying....they lost so many, especially early on, and she's a tough as any nurse you'll ever meet. They had *70* ventilators going on two floors....70. Normally one of those floors has 2-4. They were turning CPAP machines into ventilators. For people to be so incredibly glib and dismissive about the pandemic just says so much about who they are.
 














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