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submitted 1 year ago by girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca

The variant is called EG.5 and is a descendant of Omicron.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that EG.5 accounted for roughly 17.3 per cent — or one in six — of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. in the past two weeks.

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[-] ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 107 points 1 year ago

Idk what people are so worried about, I've been assured that the pandemic is over and we beat covid in ~~2020~~ ~~2021~~ ~~2022~~ ~~2023~~

[-] NathanielThomas@lemmy.ca 78 points 1 year ago

COVID-19 is now endemic, like influenza. However, we do have vaccines so every 6-12 months when we get a booster shot we can get a bivalent vaccine that contains some of the latest variant to help prevent serious illness. This allows us to recover much more easily, reduce transmission, and ultimately eliminate the clogging of hospitals.

The real danger is from people who refuse to vaccinate because they're going to be more susceptible to the endemic virus and its subvariants.

[-] ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 101 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Nah, the real danger is the result of repeated cumulative reinfection damage from a still-poorly-understood virus that causes more and more damage to the vascular system and every organ connected to it. Long Covid is only beginning to be recognized for the mass disabling event it is, and the response of governments from the municpal all the way to the federal levels have been to let it rip, stop testing, shut down tracking sites, repeal mask mandates, and declare victory. Literally doing the thing they rightly mocked Trump for suggesting.

Now over a million people have died in the US alone, and our government has decided to force everyone back to work to sustain commercial real estate profits, and in the process condemned us all to a lifetime of body-destroying reinfections by a virus who's key traits are infectiousness and rapid evolution.

None of this had to happen. We could have had a real quarantine, just a month or two back in 2019, but that would require making slightly less money for a brief period of time, so instead we get to live in eternal plague world. The hobbling of any effective covid response by our ruling class in favor of more lucrative half-measures and non-measures is beyond a humanitarian disaster, it's a crime of unprecedented scale.

[-] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 63 points 1 year ago

The number of people ignoring this is terrifying. Study after study keeps showing its a problem.

There's going to be a massive accumulated health crisis in 10-20 years where a quarter of the population has a wrecked vascular system. On par with diabetes, but in this case untreatable which is going to kill millions far earlier than they should.

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[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 38 points 1 year ago

At the beginning of the pandemic someone very correctly predicted that America was going to do the plague the same way we did Vietnam: enthusiastically for a little bit, then once we realize how expensive it is we were gonna give up, run away and loudly declare victory.

[-] snoons@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 year ago

Funny, I was just going to mention Vietnam; they did the lockdown as it should have been. Closed borders, no gatherings, the whole shebang. And wouldn't you know it; economic damage from the pandemic was extremely minimal because of all the people (read: workers, read: customers) that didn't needlessly die or were permanently disabled.

[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 17 points 1 year ago

This was the case with Cuba as well. They did the damn thing right and ended up in a position where they were exporting doctors and techniques to the rest of the world.

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[-] bandario@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 1 year ago

You have said it very well.

In Australia even our absolute harshest lockdowns made allowances for millions of "essential" industries.

Unless you owned a business installing styrofoam nuns, you kept going to work in some capacity.

We're an island for fuck's sake! We could have stopped this thing in it's tracks. But no, the flights must keep arriving. Business must business.

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[-] Pseudoplatanus22@hexbear.net 29 points 1 year ago

Yearly boosters

HA!

I should be so lucky. My last booster was over a year ago, and there are no plans to introduce them for any but the oldest and youngest people in Britain.

[-] DrScienceBear@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 year ago

Oh, man, the UK was an absolute disaster for getting vaccinated. In 2021 in my area there were literally crowds of young people at "walk-in" vaccination centres getting turned away and being told to wait for another 1-2 months. Meanwhile about 3 elderly patients were getting the shot per hour and the Guildhall looked empty besides.

My friends in other countries were vaccinated months before me. Ended up getting all my boosters outside the UK because they couldn't give a fuck about anyone under 65.

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[-] smeenz@lemmy.nz 13 points 1 year ago

The problem is that the latest vaccines don't contain the latest variant - they're always going to be behind the curve because it takes time to develop them after a new variant emerges.

For example, here in NZ, we're still giving people the bivalent mix designed for the omicron BA.4/BA.5 variant (and the ones before it) which is now about 2 years old and hasn't been seen here for about 9 months.

There's a non-zero level of protection from those vaccines, but they're not keeping up with the virus in real time.

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[-] bandario@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 year ago

From an overseas perspective I can tell you that practically nobody in Australia is taking any form of booster. Elderly populations are, particularly those in a care setting but the general population are completely uninterested.

This is a combination of most people having been infected with CV19 at least once and not being particularly badly affected, and most people having had either direct or indirect experience of negative side effects from vaccination, and the now predominantly negative media coverage of the vaccination campaign.

If there is a marked shift towards increased mortality in any given strain, Australia is fucked. Thankfully that does not seem to be the trajectory of the virus at this time.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 year ago

combination of most people having been infected with CV19 at least once

I remember when Americans were sending their kids to CoViD parties, thinking it was like the Measles.

It ended horrifically.

Talk to a doc and follow those recommendations.

[-] jadero@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 year ago

Just a note that "Measles parties" are also likely to end badly.

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[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 65 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


A new COVID-19 variant has emerged, serving as a reminder that the coronavirus continues to mutate and spread around the world, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations.

The World Health Organization (WHO) added EG.5 to its list of currently circulating variants that are under monitoring on July 19.

The latest data from the UK Health Security Agency suggests that EG.5 makes up approximately 14.6 per cent — or one in seven — of all COVID-19 cases in the U.K.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that EG.5 accounted for roughly 17.3 per cent — or one in six — of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. in the past two weeks.

Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at University Health Network in Toronto, said he expects cases of EG.5 to pop up in Canada soon, if they aren’t already.

Some of the best defences against COVID-19 have been and continue to be masks, vaccination and good ventilation or air quality in indoor spaces, Bogoch stressed.


I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[-] Sinister@hexbear.net 56 points 1 year ago

I am the only person, literally the ONLY person who wears a mask anymore. No one in the city, no one during grocery shopping or in schools and no one public transportation. I get looks but I already got covid once, due to my „skeptical“ parents and I don’t intend to get it again.

[-] Chronic_AllTheThings@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 year ago

I had to visit the ER a few weeks ago. Aside from me, there were two or three other people in masks, and they were patients.

I just don't understand it. Medical professionals should know better, but somehow don't??

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[-] mr_stevenson_ii@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 year ago

It warms my heart when I see someone still has the heart and the guts to wear a mask.

[-] June@lemm.ee 14 points 1 year ago

i only mask for drs offices, the dentist, and other high risk environments.

if i worked with the general public or lived/interacted with high risk individuals on the regular, i'd behave differently.

[-] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Make sure you get N95/KN95/KF94 masks, they are better than cloth or surgical masks. Personally I don't wear a mask anymore except in doctor's offices, although I did receive 4 doses of the vaccine and I think both myself and my family would almost definitely be okay if we did get it.

With that said, I also have a job where I work remotely 100% of the time so that probably helps too.

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[-] Caststarman@kbin.social 42 points 1 year ago

No indicator on severity of this strain in the article

[-] crowsby@kbin.social 49 points 1 year ago

This is my issue with the article.

Headline: Here's what we know about EG.5 so far

Body: Apparently not much. We uhh, know the name of it? Severity, how contagious it may be, symptoms, breakthrough rate...like umm, anything??

[-] JudahBenHur@lemm.ee 13 points 1 year ago

sick right now in Ireland (can't be sure but we're exploding with this variant)

for me, fatigue, stuffed & runny nose which is making me cough. on day 1 I had a headache but only for that day. I had a fever for about 6 hours. sneezing, gastro fun.

Wife has a dry cough. she had a wicked fever with chills. also gastro fun, which is fun for me by proxy.

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[-] Screwthehole@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

Presumably as a descendent of omicron... It is probably easier to catch and less serious. But you'd think they'd address it...

[-] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 year ago

"I don't know that it's time to worry about this (EG.5) just yet. We know very little about this new variant. There's currently no evidence to suggest that it causes more severe illness. And the CDC is indicating that it does appear to be susceptible to COVID vaccines, which is good news."

From an AMA gathering on July 26, (speaker is Andrea Garcia, JD, MPH, vice president, science, medicine & public health, American Medical Association)

link to PDF here

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[-] CanadaPlus 40 points 1 year ago

Huh. I did notice a sudden wave of infections, including me. I wonder...

[-] twistypencil@lemmy.world 33 points 1 year ago

Covid cases are rising everywhere right now, stay safe out there lemmings!

[-] variants_of_concern@lemmy.one 25 points 1 year ago
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[-] Deceptichum@kbin.social 22 points 1 year ago

How come Canada still has no many anti-vax/lockdown nut jobs still?

Ours went away faster than the virus, what’s going on in Canadian society that they’re still falling for that shit? Kinda had more respect for youse than that.

[-] NathanielThomas@lemmy.ca 45 points 1 year ago

Canadians are, more than ever before, influenced by American media and social media and that includes the dogmatic and polarizing rightwing anti-science narratives rooted in conspiracy theories and anti-intellectualism. We're being absorbed into the American weltanschauung since the advent of the Internet and our culture diluted. You can see it in our politics.

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[-] Powerpoint@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 year ago

Lead poisoning with the boomers and christofacists funding the Conservatives up here. Keep them dumb so they can further attack healthcare and other Canadian values so they can turn us into Americans.

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[-] TheGreenGolem@lemm.ee 19 points 1 year ago

EG.5 -> G.5 -> 5G
YOU KNOW WHAT CAUSED THIS!!!

[-] el_bhm@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago

Primes

1,2,3,5

E + 3 = H

G+ 5 = L

5 -2 = 3

Half Life 3 confirmed.

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[-] BassaForte@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

Who the fuck is in charge of naming these?

[-] dom@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 year ago

This last one was named after a famous battle Droid

(But really the new strains seen are given greco alpha numeric names. There are a bunch of strains that get named that we don't hear about because they Peter out.)

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this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2023
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