Coronavirus and Walt Disney World general discussion

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Disney Analyst

Disney Analyst

Well-Known Member
hopemax said:
South Africa is one of the countries with highest level of viral surveillance. They have detected several variants because they are one of the few that have been looking for them and reporting on it. They aren't all "originating" from South Africa; just found there.
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Yes. I believe this one is believed to be from Botswana.
 
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Lilofan

Well-Known Member
mmascari said:
It's the wrong perspective to really think of this as a "ban" or imagine that it's to "stop all travel from" those places. Think of it as more of a reduction and adding friction making it harder to get here from there.

Even right in the original tweet above, it doesn't stop all travel from there to here. The virus doesn't care if you're a "U.S. citizens or lawful permanent resident" and all of them are still allowed to travel.

So, this isn't really a "ban" in the sense that if you don't have a park ticket you're not allowed in. It'll reduce the number of travelers though, as lots will not take the extra effort to get around the restriction and the pool of allowed people is smaller than the pool of all travelers.

It's not 0 travel though, nobody should read the ban announcement as think it means nobody from those areas are getting here, it's not even trying to do that.
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But the media does make it front page news about the "travel ban" and unfortunately the stock markets worldwide react nervously to the news.
 
hopemax

hopemax

Well-Known Member
Tweet thread from Trevor Bedford about the genomic origins of Omicron. This variant originated from a different SAR-COV-2 branch than Delta or the other named variants. This is not a descendant of Delta or Alpha, or Beta. This is from the pool of virus that was circulating mid-2020 and has been doing its thing in an area with low surveillance.

I know people are trying to remain calm, wait for the info to come in, but all the Epi, Virology, people on my Twitter are way more concerned in their "let's try not to get ahead of ourselves" than they have been for any of the other variants. This one seems like it's making them extremely nervous and they know they have a responsibility to not prematurely add to panic while noticing all the red flashing warning lights pop up all around them. They sound like parents trying to herd their kids to safety without the kids freaking out, while feeling very freaked out themselves.

 
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hopemax

hopemax

Well-Known Member
The other thing they are talking about is the likelihood of the Belgian case having an 11 day incubation period. They all think it’s unlikely that it can transmit fast in South Africa and that it would take 11 days in Belgium. So he didn’t get infected in Egypt. He got infected in Belgium. Which means community transmission in Belgium. So as far as travel bans go…
 
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DisneyFan32

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes

MSN

www.msn.com

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has declared a state of emergency ahead of potential COVID-19 spikes this winter due to the already-circulating Delta and newly-identified Omicron variants of coronavirus.

The declaration, which goes into effect on Dec. 3, will allow the state to acquire pandemic-fighting supplies, increase hospital capacity and fight potential staffing shortages. It would also allow the state Health Department to limit non-essential and non-urgent procedures at hospitals.

"We continue to see warning signs of spikes this upcoming winter, and while the new Omicron variant has yet to be detected in New York State, it's coming," Hochul said.

The move comes hours after the governor said her office was closely monitoring the new variant, which was first sequenced in South Africa earlier this week.

The variant contains around 50 concerning mutations from the original SARS CoV-2 virus that appeared in China in 2019, including more than 10 to the spike protein that allows the virus to access human cells.

On Friday, the World Health Organization named the new strain and labeled it a variant of concern. But it remains whether it will take a foothold globally - or dodge immune responses from either prior infections or vaccination.

Nevertheless, the news roiled markets worldwide; the Dow posted its worst day in more than a year on what is otherwise the single biggest day on the calendar for retailers. And the United States joined Canada and much of Europe in blocking travelers from several countries in southern Africa as a result.

In her release Friday, Hochul again urged New Yorkers to get the jab, noting that just under 10 percent of adults in the state hadn't gotten at least one shot.

"The vaccine remains one of our greatest weapons in fighting the pandemic, and I encourage every New Yorker to get vaccinated, and get the booster if you're fully vaccinated," she said.
 
Patcheslee

Patcheslee

Well-Known Member
DisneyFan32 said:

MSN

www.msn.com

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has declared a state of emergency ahead of potential COVID-19 spikes this winter due to the already-circulating Delta and newly-identified Omicron variants of coronavirus.

The declaration, which goes into effect on Dec. 3, will allow the state to acquire pandemic-fighting supplies, increase hospital capacity and fight potential staffing shortages. It would also allow the state Health Department to limit non-essential and non-urgent procedures at hospitals.

"We continue to see warning signs of spikes this upcoming winter, and while the new Omicron variant has yet to be detected in New York State, it's coming," Hochul said.

The move comes hours after the governor said her office was closely monitoring the new variant, which was first sequenced in South Africa earlier this week.

The variant contains around 50 concerning mutations from the original SARS CoV-2 virus that appeared in China in 2019, including more than 10 to the spike protein that allows the virus to access human cells.

On Friday, the World Health Organization named the new strain and labeled it a variant of concern. But it remains whether it will take a foothold globally - or dodge immune responses from either prior infections or vaccination.

Nevertheless, the news roiled markets worldwide; the Dow posted its worst day in more than a year on what is otherwise the single biggest day on the calendar for retailers. And the United States joined Canada and much of Europe in blocking travelers from several countries in southern Africa as a result.

In her release Friday, Hochul again urged New Yorkers to get the jab, noting that just under 10 percent of adults in the state hadn't gotten at least one shot.

"The vaccine remains one of our greatest weapons in fighting the pandemic, and I encourage every New Yorker to get vaccinated, and get the booster if you're fully vaccinated," she said.
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Employers better start giving more PTO for boosters. Just had mine Wednesday after work. Fever and chills didn't break until after noon today. Not exactly what I want to continue doing every 6-9 months.
 
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Lilofan

Well-Known Member
drizgirl said:
With every booster needed they'll lose more and more participation. Sorry you had a rough time with it.
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The effectiveness of the Covid vaccines are said by medical experts to diminish over time. The ones who decline boosters are foolish. If they make their bed, they better be prepared to sleep in it.
 
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Bob Harlem

Well-Known Member
Scanning the hospital info for South Africa it appears onicron seems to be very much more mild compared to other strains even to unvaccinated. It's weird they shutdown flights there when SA just Identified it first (its becoming obvious it didn't originate there) since they have the infrastructure there to ID strains much better than other areas there do so.

If omicron does cause breakthrough cases but remain extremely mild then here's the way out of the pandemic if it suffocates out all the other strains. We'll see though.
 
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Patcheslee

Patcheslee

Well-Known Member
drizgirl said:
I wasn't advocating for people to skip boosters. Just saying that's the reality of what will happen.
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There's already people reluctant to get their booster around work because of the lack of time off. We work 6-7 days a week, so lack off weekends to recover from reactions doesn't help. I had J&J originally which just made me exhausted for a day and swollen arm. But there is no booster for it unless I drive 45 minutes away, so had to switch to Moderna. If there was need for yet another booster I'd probably try to get Pfizer to hopefully have less reaction to it.
 
Heppenheimer

Heppenheimer

Well-Known Member
Bob Harlem said:
Scanning the hospital info for South Africa it appears onicron seems to be very much more mild compared to other strains even to unvaccinated. It's weird they shutdown flights there when SA just Identified it first (its becoming obvious it didn't originate there) since they have the infrastructure there to ID strains much better than other areas there do so.

If omicron does cause breakthrough cases but remain extremely mild then here's the way out of the pandemic if it suffocates out all the other strains. We'll see though.
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And if it doesn't? Oops....

We really don't know enough about omicron yet.
 
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dreday3

Well-Known Member
Looks like it's already in the UK, but they are isolating at home, so hopefully not severe illness. 2 cases related to travel to South Africa.

I'm not ready to panic about this. I'm also not throwing away any masks at this point either! :D
 
Heppenheimer

Heppenheimer

Well-Known Member
JoeCamel said:
They said most of the current sequencing would be known late next week so I imagine the picture will be much clearer with an increased sample size.
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Sequencing is just the start, but it won't tell as much about how the variant actually behaves in vivo and on a population level. But if we need to re-jig the mRNA vaccines, knowing the genetic sequence is crucial.

Best case scenario is that we never learn much about it because it follows the fate of variants that fizzled out.
 
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Lilofan

Well-Known Member
Patcheslee said:
There's already people reluctant to get their booster around work because of the lack of time off. We work 6-7 days a week, so lack off weekends to recover from reactions doesn't help. I had J&J originally which just made me exhausted for a day and swollen arm. But there is no booster for it unless I drive 45 minutes away, so had to switch to Moderna. If there was need for yet another booster I'd probably try to get Pfizer to hopefully have less reaction to it.
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I believe health trumps everything but obviously some don't share that opinion.
 
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Disorbust

Well-Known Member
I am by far not a conspiracy theorist however my memory of WHO sitting on their hands when CV began is still fresh. As well as our top infection control MD speaking in 1/20 how she is not concerned about CV, we should worry about the flu.

Maybe its a over reaction, but they didn't get this excited by the Mu variant, which had 3 mutations. This one has over 30.
 
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