���� waited 31 days to ban travellers from India when Delta was discovered, but less than 24 hours when Omicron was discovered
Delta - 31 days
Discovered 24 March_
India reports new COVID-19 virus variant, daily deaths at year's high
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/india-covid-19-new-virus-variant-daily-deaths-yearly-high-277621
Banned 24 April
COVID-19: Singapore to stop entry for all long-term pass holders, short-term visitors with recent travel history to India
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/covid-19-travel-history-to-india-cannot-enter-singapore-236141.
Omicron - less than 24 hours
S'pore bans travellers from 7 African countries; no cases of new Covid-19 variant here
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/spore-tightens-border-measures-for-travellers-from-7-african-countries-no-cases-of-new
Anonymous
9 comments:
Omicron COVID-19 variant response exposes bias - discriminative bad attitude toward African nations and nice affection for India . . .
HO Ching
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1908844135970078&id=100005335308340
One metric we track is the number of Covid cases in ICU, whether incubated, or not yet incubated but requiring close monitoring as they teetered towards the need for incubation.
There is now clear signal that this pressure is starting to come off our ICUs. More importantly, the pressures are coming off our healthcare workers.
At a weekly growth ratio of 0.76, our ICU cases should theoretically halve in another 2-3 weeks.
However, the base load of those needing incubated ventilation support is likely to track down slower.
This is bcos the drop in new cases is mostly likely driven by the boosters. We are already about 25% boosted.
Boosters are especially important for our seniors above 60 years old, and strongly advisable for folks over 40 years old. Immunocompromised folks should have their 3rd shot early too - within 1-3 months of their 2nd shot.
Folks taking Sinovac or SinoPharm should take their 3rd shot to complete their primary protection. They should do so within 1-3 months, and can possibly wait to do at the 2 months mark for better immune response.
Or they can consider taking the Pfizer full dose, or the Moderna half dose as their 3rd shot for better protection esp if they are seniors.
All these will help drive down the risk of severe, critical or fatal illness from covid infection.
Yet, the incubated ICU cases will likely track down slower, than the drop in the new cases, until we can get the new antiviral and monoclonal antibody treatments.
When we start the vaccination of our 5-11 year old kids, we expect another level of reduction in community cases, which helps protect the vulnerable who are medically unable to vaccinate, esp to take their 2nd shots.
This would be timely protection against the more infectious Omicron that has appeared in the horizon.
By early next year, we should be able to get our supplies for antivirals and antibody treatments.
That would be another layer of protection to complement Nd supplement the vaccine layer.
Hopefully, by early next year, we should also have vaccines authorised for the younger toddlers below 5, and perhaps the infants from 6-18 months too.
Let’s continue to keep safe and move steadily towards living with covid, be it the Delta or the Omicron.
Calvin cheng
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=461361742015138&id=100044239488878
OMICRON
Policy makers all over the world need to be logical about the new variant.
Some have closed borders “to buy time”, but to what end ?
There are only two logical possibilities :
A) Omicron is only as dangerous or not as dangerous as Delta.
B ) Omicron is more dangerous than Delta.
No matter how much time you wait, these are the only two possibilities.
If Omicron is as dangerous or less dangerous, then we do nothing.
If it’s more dangerous, then what?
The only solution is still vaccination and boosters, because even if Omicron is more resilient to current vaccines, it is still essentially the same virus. There will be some efficacy.
In the meantime, let the mRNA manufacturers create the new ones. Just like for flu boosters and flu variants.
Going back into prolonged lockdowns and border closures is socially and economically unsustainable.
The same measures used for delta are still the only way forward.
No matter how much time we wait , this is still the only logical outcome.
Countries that are implementing knee-jerk border closures are just playing to irrational fears of illogical people.
- CC
For those with natural immunity after being infected, and those who used inactivated virus vaccines, this is the time to say good riddance. For the natural immunity ability of the body would adapt and modify its immune system to fight the virus and if the virus is essentially of the same stock, the resistance would be quite good.
For those who jabbed themselves with drug A to fight virus A, die, because drug A cannot fight virus B or other types of virus.
They will need the pharma companies to keep coming up with new vaccines, D, O, W, Y, Z. And each jab lasts only a few months. Naturally immunity is life long. Do not confuse natural immunity with drugs.
Moderna chief predicts existing vaccines will struggle with Omicron
Stéphane Bancel foresees ‘material drop’ in effectiveness of current jabs, sending stocks and oil prices lower
Stéphane Bancel says it will take several months before pharma companies can manufacture new variant-specific jabs at scale © Gretchen Ertl/FT
The chief executive of Moderna has predicted that existing vaccines will be much less effective at tackling Omicron than earlier strains of Covid-19 and warned it would take months before pharmaceutical companies can manufacture new variant-specific jabs at scale.
Stéphane Bancel said the high number of Omicron mutations on the spike protein, which the virus uses to infect human cells, and the rapid spread of the variant in South Africa, suggested the current crop of vaccines may need to be modified next year.
“There is no world, I think, where [the effectiveness] is the same level . . . we had with Delta,” Bancel told the Financial Times in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He added: “I think it’s going to be a material drop. I just don’t know how much because we need to wait for the data. But all the scientists I’ve talked to . . . are like ‘this is not going to be good’.”
The Moderna chief executive’s comments come as other public health experts and politicians have tried to strike a more upbeat tone about the ability of existing vaccines to confer protection against Omicron.
On Monday, Scott Gottlieb, a director of Pfizer and former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, told CNBC: “There’s a reasonable degree of confidence in vaccine circles that [with] at least three doses . . . the patient is going to have fairly good protection against this variant.”
Joe Biden, US president, subsequently said Omicron was “a cause for concern, not a cause for panic,” adding that the government’s medical experts “believe that the vaccines will continue to provide a degree of protection against severe disease”.
However, Bancel said scientists were worried because 32 of the 50 mutations in the Omicron variant are on the spike protein, which the current vaccines focus on to boost the human body’s immune system to combat Covid-19.
Most experts thought such a highly mutated variant would not emerge for another one or two years, Bancel added.
Bancel’s predictions rattled investors in Asia, with equities and stock futures dropping and crude prices losing ground.
This moderna guy sounded like a snake oil salesman. All the existing vaccines will be useless. The world needs a whole new batch of vaccines. Moderna going to sell to the whole world another 10b doses of new vaccines.
Hahaha, where is the bank? We have so much money coming in. Make sure the bank is big enough.
And the suckers are all lining up to place orders for another batch of 99% efficacy vaccines.
These new vaccines no longer need long and tedious trials. No longer experimental or for emergency use only. Instant vaccines to be used on new virus.
Actually not suckers lah. They are very smart and see good opportunity to make a lot of money. Just join hands with the pharmas and make the jabs compulsory, sure make big big profits from the hapless unthinking masses.
Every year comes out with one new virus, raise alarm and stoke fear, and push out new vaccines to sell. Making money is so never easy.
"When we are faced with the unknown, we buy insurance. The insurance now is the existing vaccines," he said during a multi-ministry taskforce (MTF) media conference on Tuesday (30 November).
"It is not the case where existing vaccines do not work, because the human body is much more capable than that, once vaccinated. There is a good chance that existing vaccines will work against Omicron."
Ong also mentioned during the media conference that his ministry is making good progress in preparing for paediatric vaccination for those aged between five and 11 years old, and details will be announced when ready.
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/absolutely-wrong-refuse-vaccination-omicron-variant-ong-ye-kung-070116861.html
Joker Biden said the existing Pfizer jabs can fight the Omicron, probably after Pfizer boss sent him a huge donation for his next presidential campaign.
Big Snake Head of Pfizer said the existing Pfizer vaccine can still fight the Omicron, just like the Delta variant.
Singapore blur kings in the MMTF also follow them and said the same thing.
But Moderna Chief said the present vaccines cannot fight the Omicron and a new vaccine must be created because many scientists said so.
So make your own conclusion. Politicians correct or businessmen correct or scientists correct?
I think each and everyone of them is wrong because the Covid-19 coronavirus has outsmarted them again and again.
Post a Comment