Guardian: China battles worst Covid outbreak for two years as cases double in 24 hours.

[abqtommy]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/13/china-battles-worst-covid-outbreak-for-two-years-as-cases-double-in-24-hours

snip

'A nationwide surge in cases has seen authorities close schools in Shanghai and lock down several north-eastern cities, as almost 19 provinces battle clusters of the Omicron and Delta variants.

The city of Jilin has been partially locked down, with hundreds of neighbourhoods sealed up, an official announced Sunday, while Yanji, an urban area of nearly 700,000 bordering North Korea, was fully closed off.

China, where the virus was first detected in late 2019, has maintained a strict zero-Covid policy enforced by swift lockdowns, travel restrictions and mass testing when clusters have emerged.

But the latest flare-up, driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant and a spike in asymptomatic cases, is challenging that approach.'

There's much more text and some photos at the link.

Some of us have survived by taking protective measures like masking, distancing,
sanitizing and getting vaccinated. With many people around the world continuing to
clamor for FreeDumb from mandates and vaccines it's no wonder that the deaths and
complications from covid infection continue.

[Lovie777]

1. Hopefully the vaccinated and wearing mask population will keep this at a minimum . . .

here in the USA although this time around the "children" will be the virus main focus.

[LisaL]

2. Wearing mask population here?

I very much doubt that without mask mandates many people are going to keep wearing masks.

[left-of-center2012]

3. Omicron was the first variant, correct?

So we who are vaccinated and boosted should have protection against it?

However I can see a spike here among the unvaccinated. Until they get vaccinated I am afraid will be on the covid roller coaster with many ups and downs.

[LisaL]

5. No, omicron is the latest variant going around.

Vaccines aren't working well at preventing omicron infections.

[littlemissmartypants]

18. New variant

https://news.yahoo.com/covid-variant-ihu-46-mutations-031400156.html

New COVID variant ‘IHU’ with 46 mutations detected in France

[Farmer-Rick]

16. Delta was the first variant

There have actually been hundreds of variants but the focus has been on the ones that are most likely to spread quickly or are more deadly.

It sounds like that part of China is experiencing Omicron for the first time. I know China claims 80% plus vaccination rate but I wonder how accurate that is, does it include children and younger adults. I wonder what vaccine they use.

The US vaccines work just fine on Omicron. They prevent you from dying from the virus. Look at the Queen of England. She caught it, had all her shots, and now she's back to work. She is a 95 year old woman who survived COVID thanks to the vaccine.

Get your shots and wear your mask. They do prevent spread and death. There is very clear evidence for that. And yes, it reduces your chances of even catching the virus let alone dying from it. I think with the vaccine your chances of catching it are like less than 5% even with Omicron.

[LisaL]

21. They have mostly been using inactivated virus vaccines.

And even mRNA vaccines are not very effective preventing omicron infections. You have a pretty good chance of being infected with omicron even if vaccinated. Effectiveness of vaccines wanes with time.

"Primary immunization with two doses of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or BNT162b2 vaccine provided limited protection against symptomatic disease caused by the omicron variant. A BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 booster after either the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or BNT162b2 primary course substantially increased protection, but that protection waned over time. (Funded by the U.K. Health Security Agency.)"

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2119451

[Farmer-Rick]

26. Thanks for the info about China's vaccine

But All vaccines are effective at preventing just catching all COVID variants of the virus let alone getting severe symptoms, hospitalizations and deaths. Some are better than others obviously.

"According to the latest federal analysis, which included data from fall 2021, a fully vaccinated and boosted person in the U.S. was 10 times less likely to test positive for COVID-19—and 20 times less likely to die from it—compared to an unvaccinated adult."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/time.com/6140281/covid-19-immunity-boosted-infected-safety/%3famp=true

Everything clearly indicates getting vaccinated and boosted enourmously reduces your chances of even getting infected. I dug through the data months ago and came out with a less than 5% chance for me.

Here are some data points that may help you get a more accurate estimate, than I have, on the number of breakthrough cases.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#rates-by-vaccine-status

If you are younger than 65 and do not have other health issues, your chance of catching and spreading the disease are very small but of course not impossible.

[LisaL]

27. I have lots of health issues.

No shortage of health issues here at all. My relative, who also had lots of health issues, died from covid despite being vaccinated and boosted. So someone with health issues can't be too careful these days.

[Farmer-Rick]

28. Absolutely, you can't be too careful.

I forget sometimes how lucky I am that at my age I have no major health issues, I'm not even taking any medication.

I hope you stay safe.

[LisaL]

4. China has very little natural immunity.

The vaccines they used are also not that great as far as I can tell.
Here in US a majority likely had been infected.

[Farmer-Rick]

19. Yeah, and I see no evidence of people in China getting the booster too.

It looks like that part of China, China is huge, is experiencing Omicron for the first time.

[SheltieLover]

6. K&R!

[Marthe48]

7. complications

My daughter works at a dialysis center. She mentioned to me recently that they have been getting an increase of younger people who survived Covid, but the virus has damaged their kidneys to the point the have to be on dialysis. No idea if the kidneys will heal, or if they have to be on dialysis from now on. It is a grim reminder of the ongoing number of survivors who are paying a high price for their freedumb.

The best way to avoid the long-term effects is to avoid catching Covid-19. If you don't mask, social distance, get vaccines, you might not catch Covid. Or you might catch it and die, which sounds like a blessing. Or you might get it and live in a half-life of illness and suffering. Their is no freedom in surrendering your health, no honor in killing off your loved ones.

[Farmer-Rick]

20. The same thing happened with the 1918 flu

The people who survived had deminished life expectancy. Of course they didn't have dialysis or open heart surgery to deal with a lot of the side effects of catching a deadly virus back then.

[DFW]

8. Here in Germany, the number of cases has spiking upward for almost ten days straight

Of course, the "loosen up!" movement has been gaining strength here, as elsewhere.
Just in time for the new wave to hit. This will not end well.

[uponit7771]

9. Looks like China's vaccination rate is 80%, I pray it holds up

[LisaL]

10. Their vaccines weren't even that effective against original covid.

Highly unlikely these vaccines are going to hold up against omicron.
And their natural immunity is very low, since they mostly managed to prevent spread of covid so far.

[uponit7771]

12. damn

[dalton99a]

13. +1. They were too proud to use Pfizer/Moderna

[OnlinePoker]

14. Probably didn't want to pay $16 per dose

To get the 1.35 billion over 5 year olds double dosed would cost them almost $45 billion.

[Johonny]

25. The rich had vaccine vacations

And came to the US to get Pfizer and Moderna. The poor, obviously, didn't have that option. The Chinese vaccine worked well in the young, but had poor effectiveness in the older population.

It always felt impossible China would be able to prevent an eventual Covid tidal storm.

[Beachnutt]

11. When will we be able to

get our 2nd booster ?
Anybody heard ?

[LisaL]

22. You already can if you are immuno compromised.

NT

[dalton99a]

23. Just ask - no documentation required

We're throwing away millions of unused doses

[LisaL]

24. Yes, pharmacies are not requiring proof that a person is immuno compromised.

NT

[llashram]

15. last paragraph so true

trumpian/republikkkan freedumb means death...

[progree]

17. World daily new cases (7 day moving average): Up 11.7% in 10 days

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html
No Paywall, No quota, the "Last 90 Days" button is very helpful

This worries me a lot. All through the pandemic, which areas are getting hit the hardest and which areas are doing well, has alternated back and forth.

Close neighbor to China, South Korea, is 3rd highest in the world in daily new cases per capita, 7 day moving average. 580 new cases/day per 100,000 population (compare to U.S. 11, U.K and France at 80-some each, Germany at 235)