There is a lot of nonsense going on in West which translates to looking down and telling the Indians about how bad that they are and how bad things are going to get for them and how Indians will drop like flies and since those things do not come true there is more frustration that shows up as how bad things are in India in media outlets like WaPo or other racist rags. And the cycle repeats.
And some members here do extend that nonsense, advertently or inadvertently spreading unnecessary fear (classic FUD) and becoming shills of the west.
Here are their cases in point (and answers to them) :
1. India does not have 70% coverage of vaccination required for herd immunity.
Ans: Is India a homogenized equidistant equal distribution of population that the number 70% is tossed out? When people toss out that one generic number as gospel truth, they are not using their brains. No country (real country, not city-states) has equal population distribution. As long as dense population clusters get the required percentage (note the required percentage) of vaccinations, then it is okay.
2. Indian vaccines are not effective for Omicron.
Ans: Please take some time to discern the above points:
a. Covaxin was studied as a vaccine and *after* six months its efficacy against omicron. What does this mean? It means in reality, only population in the June, July 2021 Cohort will need a booster now in Jan/Feb. And within that, only populations with co-morbidity have to worry. However, if you had a Covaxin in say June/July PLUS you had coronavirus before/after, then your virus-fighting capacity is not significantly impacted (per study parameters) (n=20, 18 out of 20 or say 90% had anti-nucleocapsid antibodies)
2a.i. Just to note:
Antibodies against the spike protein of SARS-CoV-1, the target of neutralizing antibody and vaccine development, emerge at a later time than those against the nucleocapsid protein.
. That is the study was targeting the titer of first-line antibodies that help detect wuhan virus. But does not take into account that the immune system might have developed B-cell/T-cell-mediated immunity before grandly declaring "loss of immunity"
b. Check the funding sources.
Funding is from BMGF (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). Just click on the link and check out the funding.
And of course such a lose statement was thrown in between the graphs here:
"Why" of mRNA is better (or not) than "traditional" will probably take years of study to get definite answer. What we do know is that some part - eg neutralization of antibodies can be tested rather fast (with in weeks) of emergence of new variant.
In my post I think I mentioned one study (but there are various other studies) which have confirmed that Moderna and Pfizer (Moderna measurably better than Pfizer but both around the same range) were significantly better (in *these studies*) than Adenovirus Vaccine (J&J doing worse than Covidshiled but both behind mRNA). In USA/Canada *most* boosters are now mRNA. (There are many factors involved - I am commenting here some summary - for details please see the original papers).
Pfizer CEO himself admitted that the pfizer vaccines are pretty much useless against Omicron. Including the boosters. They need a new vaccine that encodes a different set of spike proteins. Same will be the case with moderna. And here couple of days back, we had blatant FUD on Covaxin. Just see the quote above.
Links:
For 2a.i
Not my daughter-in-law's son-in-law's 3rd cousin from Timbuktu working at a top post under Fauci
3. Indians are not masking up enough.
Here are the links from the racist nytimes and their Indian gadflys
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/10/worl ... 2021-06-24
And in shrill alarming tones:
as much as possible when you are with your parents (even indoors) - coupled with washing hands etc is *very* important..
.
Ans: I need to tell my story. Visited south of border with family. Including 75 year old grandmother. Last possible trip for her outside of country. Interacted with lot of people. Sometimes with mask, sometimes without masks. All times with cloth masks. Outdoors, no need for masks. Anyway, it was sparsely populated areas.
Zero covid infection. Traveled via two flights. Lay over in one of US southern state. Flights were packed. Multiple covid tests. All negative.
Point is, live your life with appropriate precautions without going crazy. Do you require N95 masks all the time and even indoors? No. They are costly & pollute. At the same time if you can use N95 in a densely packed train/bus, please do so! So use your judgment, the more human density, the more filtration your mask requires. The guidelines of GOI is what the world should follow. Not some shrill nonsense from western racist propagandus.
---
Data after data is telling that Omicron is *not* virulent. It is highly transmissible. People who get it does not mean it is mild for them. That is, its symptoms are severe but epidemiologically it is mild.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/d ... 10514.html
Hospitalisation has remained relatively low in Delhi, and Health Minister Satyendar Jain said Wednesday that the plateauing of hospital admissions indicates that the ongoing wave has peaked and cases may go down soon.
Note: Try to go past the headline and into the article.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/coronav ... s/3496015/
People hospitalized with the omicron variant of COVID-19 spend three days less in the hospital than the average delta variant patient, with lower rates of mechanical ventilation and death, a new study has found.
..
The study comprised nearly 70,000 patients in the Kaiser Permanente healthcare system in southern California from Nov. 30 to Jan. 1. Omicron cases outnumbered delta cases more than 3-1, but total omicron hospitalizations were only about a dozen higher.
Among those hospitalized with omicron, the median stay was 3.4 days shorter than for delta patients, reflecting about a 70% reduction in overall hospitalized time.
The authors found much lower rates of ICU admission and death for those who started with an outpatient positive test for omicron, as opposed to delta. They also noted that none of the omicron patients in the study period needed a ventilator, but 11 of the delta patients did.
All baboocrazy mandates like lockdowns/partial lockdowns/school closures etc needs to be thrown out of the door. Lockdown impacts the poor the most and their livelihoods. At this point, livelihoods matter.
To start with, one has to accept that this virus is going to stay, is endemic and will produce mutants, and no need to watch just the daily case numbers and only the daily case numbers & run to the exits as if the sky is falling.
What needs to be watched from the data is the hospitalization rate. The ICU rate. The mortality rate.
PS: Will tell the story of Pedro in next post.