Omicron, symptom changes

Link for free download of John's two text books,

Campbell's Pathophysiology Notes, Amazon orders for the UK,

Campbell's Physiology Notes

Omicron, clinical picture (7th December)

Dr Angelique Coetzee, South African Medical Association

First to raise alarm about the new omicron

Totally different symptoms

Can be easily missed

Body aches and pains

Muscle pains

Headache

Tiredness (1 to 2 days)

Slight sore throat

No severe cough

No runny nose

Decrease in patients coming to doctors

South Africa vaccines

Pfizer

J and J

Hospitalizations, 99% unvaccinated

Symptoms more intense in unvaccinated

More intense but not severe

Body aches and pains

Muscle pains

Headache

Lateral flow testing and Omicron

Becomes positive after 24 hours up to 5 days

Very accurate

Omicron prevalence in SA

Ref for graphics (3rd December data)

SGTF has increased from 0.9% in October to 96.3% for November.

Children under the age of 12 years accounted for 7.9% of the SGTF positives,

and those 13 – 18 years old for 6.1%.

For week 47,

Hospital data from SA

Live data, hospital patients who have tested positive

Omicron and common cold

Omicron has insertion mutation ins214EPE

(From the common cold, HCoV-229E coronavirus)

Could have been acquired by switching

Involving the genomes of other viruses that infect the same host cells as SARS-CoV-2

It is plausible that the Omicron insertion

could have evolved in a co-infected individual

PFIZER AND BIONTECH PROVIDE UPDATE ON OMICRON VARIANT

Preliminary laboratory studies demonstrate that three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine neutralize the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529 lineage),

while two doses show significantly reduced neutralization titers

Data indicate that a third dose of BNT162b2 increases the neutralizing antibody titers by 25-fold compared to two doses against the Omicron variant;

titers after the booster dose are comparable to titers observed after two doses against the wild-type virus which are associated with high levels of protection

As 80% of epitopes in the spike protein recognized by CD8+ T cells are not affected by the mutations in the Omicron variant, two doses may still induce protection against severe disease

The companies continue to advance the development of a variant-specific vaccine for Omicron and expect to have it available by March

in the event that an adaption is needed to further increase the level and duration of protection – with no change expected to the companies’ four billion dose capacity for 2022