It's how we use it in my native language, to denote something shapeless or which changes shape, something undefined, non-specific. I've noticed English dictionaries don't point out this meaning. I thought it was an international word that has the same meaning everywhere.

Lots of detail around Omicron here.
https://thezvi.substack.com/p/omicron-variant-post-1-were-fed-its

look into polio, small pox, etc. — James Riley

Stable viruses.

Corona virus 19 (and variants)

Unstable virus.

Vaccine for stable virus: effective.
Vaccine for unstable virus: Watch the news for efficacy. Also see: Optics; the importance of being seen to be doing something. Also consider: Chanting, Covering one's face in cloth, Cleansing with smoke, and other faith-based treatments.

Or becomes substantially more lethal so at least we know why we are supposed to be concerned about it at all. Either way, an improvement eh.

Stable viruses.

Corona virus 19 (and variants)

Unstable virus.

Vaccine for stable virus: effective. — Book273

Again, you missed the point of the analogy. The stable/unstable distinction does not address the purpose for which the analogy was proffered. Specifically, there was a claim that if there was a failure to have 100% vaccination rates, the vax would fail. That is simply not true. It is not true of stable or unstable viruses. You do not need 100% vaccination rates for either. Hope that helps.

On another tangent, I read somewhere that POTUS was trying to get the rest of the world to go along with freeing up the patents on the vaccines so they would become ubiquitous. I don't know if that is true, but for the life of me, I can't figure out why, back when this all started, we were trying to block other countries from access to data. I would have thought that the Chinese, Russians, et al would not need to engage in pharma espionage to steel the vax data. I would have thought everyone everywhere was working hard to stop this shit.

Damn, I'm naïve sometimes. Hell, I thought people would mask, distance and vax. I thought Uncle Sugar was funding all this, directly, or with subsidy, or through universities, etc. I thought states would encourage, and feel free to share information about infections, without fear of travel restrictions that weren't applicable to all states.

I guess the whole thing is not that big of a deal. Only millions dead, and packing long-haul symptoms. And most of them are useless members of society, who don't do the Plutocracy any good anyway. Thinning the heard, I guess.

Hopefully it's not a dry run for some worse, airborne, highly contagious thing that kills after 30 days of incubation. Humanity has proven itself unworthy. On the other hand, wildlife and wildlands will have a party.

it was the Muricans who started the 1918 influenza pandemic and let the damn thing spread — baker

Sure, but A) they had no idea what it was, and B) no idea of how to stop it, also, as it was over 100 years ago, maybe we cut them some slack eh, not go for reparations or anything. Interestingly, no one that died of the flu in those years had a confirming PCR test, so, as per current standards, we don't KNOW they died of the flu. Actually, since things are only true if confirmed by laboratory testing, no one ever died of anything prior to the creation of modern lab testing. The things you learn online eh! Wow.

Humanity has proven itself unworthy. On the other hand, wildlife and wildlands will have a party. — James Riley

About damn time you got the real picture. Welcome to the club eh. Wednesday night is wing night and the jackets are on order.

About damn time you got the real picture. Welcome to the club eh. Wednesday night is wing night and the jackets are on order. — Book273

Oh I've always been on board for a reset. I've just got an ingrained opposition to those who I perceive as bullies, conservatives, Trumpers, Republicans. If it just about bringing us back to the Pleistocene, I'm all in.

Something we agree on. Cool.

Nope, but I like the use.

Look at the bright side. When the next variant evolves, we'll all get a piece of Pie ($\pi$).

@James Riley @Manuel better news today (for the vaccinated at least):

Well, that's a bit of a relief. Now we have to hope poorer countries get enough vaccines so as to stop new variants from arising.

:up: Yeah, it's harder to de-globalize than it is to vax.

, just noticed you tagged me, but never got a notice. Maybe a forum bug. Well, hopefully Ο just goes away quickly, maybe giving someone a mild flu. :) Getting SARS-CoV-2 stomped down would be great.

The Telegraph may not be perfect, but I doubt that Nature is much better. — Apollodorus

You should put that in your profile.

Getting SARS-CoV-2 stomped down would be great. — jorndoe

I want to know the role of the placebo effect in all this.

Also, I want to know inhowfar people end up with more severe symptoms, depending on their psychological state and philosophical outlook on life.

I wanna know a lot of shit. But in the middle of a firefight, I'll belay my curiosity, default to the veteran, and try not get myself or my buddy killed. If the veteran say's "Shoot the virus" then I'll shoot the SOB.

When I hear "I want to know" coming from someone who doesn't really want to know, because he/she is not in a lab coat trying to figure it out, then I figure they are with the virus. If they are searching the internet for their information, then they are part of the problem.

Anyone who sincerely wants to know will pay attention in science class next time.

, I think placebos typically are part of trials.
Don't think they capture "their psychological state and philosophical outlook" though.
Both Robert David Steele (denier, QAnon'er) and Irfan Halim (active medical doctor), for example, died due to the virus.

Placebo effect will increase the efficacy of the vaccine by about 30%, the usual rate of improvement associated with the placebo effect with medication administration. As far as psychological state and related philosophical outlook on life, and the effect of same on viral response, I would say that the nocebo effect is in play. Placebo, 30% increase in efficacy due to belief in same. Nocebo, 30% decrease in efficacy due to belief in same. You think something will work well, so it does. You think it won't work for shit, so it works for shit. You are stressed out and fearful that if you get the virus you are going to die...much higher chance of dying if you get the virus (and you know that you have the virus). Think about going down stairs, we do it all the time and rarely fall, then, when we are concerned and fearful about falling, we a much more likely to do so. Self-fulfillment is a bitch.

I think placebos typically are part of trials. — jorndoe

Ideally, they should be, yes, provided enough test subjects and time.

Don't think they capture "their psychological state and philosophical outlook" though.

Surely a person's psychological state and philosophical outlook factors in how strong the placebo or nocebo effects will be for said person.

Given that this covid situation has become so drawn out and cannot be termed an emergency anymore, I think a new, more long-term approach is needed. It would be really helpful if it would be possible to induce and even increase the placebo effect deliberately.

I think that the overwhelming push to vaccinate, and the constant sales pitch for it, is working against the placebo effect and supporting an increase in Nocebo effect. Methinks the government doth sell it too much, and too hard; thus reinforcing those who say "Something is wrong here; the response is not supported by numbers"

I expected this level of response when Ebola was moving out of Africa. It did not happen, despite the 70% death rate. Now, despite the under 1% death rate, we have this monster response. The math does not add up. However, as long as we are comfortable ignoring bad math...Carry on!

I already had some negative side effects after vaccination. If next time around, I get some more negative side effects, will the science fans tell me, "That's because you didn't have faith in the vaccine!" --?

Placebo effect will increase the efficacy of the vaccine by about 30%, the usual rate of improvement associated with the placebo effect with medication administration. As far as psychological state and related philosophical outlook on life, and the effect of same on viral response, I would say that the nocebo effect is in play. Placebo, 30% increase in efficacy due to belief in same. Nocebo, 30% decrease in efficacy due to belief in same. You think something will work well, so it does. You think it won't work for shit, so it works for shit. You are stressed out and fearful that if you get the virus you are going to die...much higher chance of dying if you get the virus (and you know that you have the virus). Think about going down stairs, we do it all the time and rarely fall, then, when we are concerned and fearful about falling, we a much more likely to do so. Self-fulfillment is a bitch. — Book273

Great point. It is very interesting how frenetic the mind can become. It is unfortunate that neuroscience and psychology are confined to a deterministic/mechanistic model of how it works, and have severely insufficient data concerning how the mind can, both individually and collectively, shape reality. I have a hunch that the power of the mind would be better understood through the lense of quantum mechanics. But I could be wrong, it's a terrible tragedy.

Some of us are working on it, but publishing anything too early is career suicide. Still, you are considering things through quantum mechanics, as am I, as are others. Eventually one of us will be able to move with a substaniated theory.

The consideration that I find most troubling is that given the placebo effect, there is the possibility that if we believe in the dogma "the covid vaccines are safe and effective", this will induce/increase the placebo effect.

It's irrational, but at the same time, it could make the difference between life and death. Possibly, it has made that difference many times already.

Three teenagers from the indigenous Binjari community recently escaped from one of Australia’s internment facilities, the “Centre for National Resilience”. The authorities had initially rounded them up and interned them, it appears, for the non-crime of being in contact with covid-positive people, not because they carried any virus or posed any sort of threat.

The facility seems a frightening place, to me, especially for children. No visitors, no toys, no care-packages, round the clock confinement, and an ever-present police force—one wonders the point of it all if it is not an exercise in totalitarianism. According to Washington Post correspondent, Robyn Dixon, who was forced to stay there, "the feeling is part trailer camp, part hospital, part prison". At least the good officials there provide propaganda on how to maintain insanity during your internment:

“Tip: Instead of looking at this quarantine as ‘prison,’ try seeing it as a time to get to know yourself again, reflection, media detox and so on.”

No wonder they escaped. According to Obergruppenführer Michael Gunner, “all of them had tested negative for Covid the day before”. So why not just let them go? They had yet to finish their arbitrary sentence. And the threat was so grave that officials determined a police manhunt was required. They set up police checkpoints, checked registrations and car trunks, and scoured the areas until the young people were found.

The penalty is likely to be severe them. Prisoners are subject to fines and extended quarantines if they flout the rules, and all of it "at your own expense".

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/australia-covid-quarantine-howard-springs-b1967561.html?amp

Three teenagers from the indigenous Binjari community recently escaped from one of Australia’s internment facilities, the “Centre for National Resilience”. The authorities had initially rounded them up and interned them, it appears, for the non-crime of being in contact with covid-positive people, not because they carried any virus or posed any sort of threat.

The facility seems a frightening place, to me, especially for children. No visitors, no toys, no care-packages, round the clock confinement, and an ever-present police force—one wonders the point of it all if it is not an exercise in totalitarianism. According to Washington Post correspondent, Robyn Dixon, who was forced to stay there, "the feeling is part trailer camp, part hospital, part prison". At least the good officials there provide propaganda on how to maintain insanity during your internment:

“Tip: Instead of looking at this quarantine as ‘prison,’ try seeing it as a time to get to know yourself again, reflection, media detox and so on.”

No wonder they escaped. According to Obergruppenführer Michael Gunner, “all of them had tested negative for Covid the day before”. So why not just let them go? They had yet to finish their arbitrary sentence. And the threat was so grave that officials determined a police manhunt was required. They set up police checkpoints, checked registrations and car trunks, and scoured the areas until the young people were found.

The penalty is likely to be severe them. Prisoners are subject to fines and extended quarantines if they flout the rules, and all of it "at your own expense".

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/australia-covid-quarantine-howard-springs-b1967561.html?amp — NOS4A2

Damn! Now everyone has to suffer! Even those who did everything right. Blame the gubmn't, and give a pass to all those who insisted on doing things their own way. Because, you know, research. And freedum. And resistance to distance, masks, and free vax. Here comes the parade of horribles, the slippery slope. The trains to the camps and the ovens.

The epidemiological relevance of the COVID-19-vaccinated population is increasing

High COVID-19 vaccination rates were expected to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in populations by reducing the number of possible sources for transmission and thereby to reduce the burden of COVID-19 disease. Recent data, however, indicate that the epidemiological relevance of COVID-19 vaccinated individuals is increasing. In the UK it was described that secondary attack rates among household contacts exposed to fully vaccinated index cases was similar to household contacts exposed to unvaccinated index cases (25% for vaccinated vs 23% for unvaccinated). 12 of 31 infections in fully vaccinated household contacts (39%) arose from fully vaccinated epidemiologically linked index cases. Peak viral load did not differ by vaccination status or variant type [[1]]. In Germany, the rate of symptomatic COVID-19 cases among the fully vaccinated (“breakthrough infections”) is reported weekly since 21. July 2021 and was 16.9% at that time among patients of 60 years and older [[2]]. This proportion is increasing week by week and was 58.9% on 27. October 2021 (Figure 1) providing clear evidence of the increasing relevance of the fully vaccinated as a possible source of transmission. A similar situation was described for the UK. Between week 39 and 42, a total of 100.160 COVID-19 cases were reported among citizens of 60 years or older. 89.821 occurred among the fully vaccinated (89.7%), 3.395 among the unvaccinated (3.4%) [[3]]. One week before, the COVID-19 case rate per 100.000 was higher among the subgroup of the vaccinated compared to the subgroup of the unvaccinated in all age groups of 30 years or more. In Israel a nosocomial outbreak was reported involving 16 healthcare workers, 23 exposed patients and two family members. The source was a fully vaccinated COVID-19 patient. The vaccination rate was 96.2% among all exposed individuals (151 healthcare workers and 97 patients). Fourteen fully vaccinated patients became severely ill or died, the two unvaccinated patients developed mild disease [[4]]. The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identifies four of the top five counties with the highest percentage of fully vaccinated population (99.9–84.3%) as “high” transmission counties [[5]]. Many decisionmakers assume that the vaccinated can be excluded as a source of transmission. It appears to be grossly negligent to ignore the vaccinated population as a possible and relevant source of transmission when deciding about public health control measures.

If an unvaccinated person with no covid and a vaccinated person with covid show up at busy pub, who gets let in?

The Prevention is Better than Cure Paradox

The Covid-19 pandemic is in full swing. The most effective strategy is not to cure it (given the givens) but to prevent it. Close the stable door after the horse has bolted. :chin:

Damn! Now everyone has to suffer! — James Riley

Hehe. This wouldn't have happened if...