OMICRON

They did start using Nu for this one but binned it, other wise the next one would be New Nu, followed bu New New Nu. etc. It would be too confusing 😉
 
That's not how the Greek alphabet goes. The letters in between are epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu and xi. They've already been assigned to other variants, except nu and xi which were skipped for some reason (probably a phonological one, I reckon).

How Omicron, the New Covid-19 Variant, Got Its Name
Nu would get confused with New and Xi is a common surname worldwide.
 
They did start using Nu for this one but binned it, other wise the next one would be New Nu, followed bu New New Nu. etc. It would be too confusing 😉
No, "they" didn't - at least not if you're referring to the WHO. Some people (including some journalists) assumed it was going be called Nu because that was the next unused letter in the Greek alphabet and so some early reports referred to it as Nu.

However those people were wrong and when the WHO officially announced the designation for the B.1.1.529 variant, it was called Omicron from that very first announcement. See link below.

Update on omicron - WHO
 
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It's a character from the cartoon series Transformers isn't it? Or at least it should be.

What happened to the letters E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N?
Probably the main reason why we didn't hear so much about the intervening letters (which as discussed, were letters in the Greek alphabet) is because they were only "variants of interest" rather than "variants of concern."

Since they never reached the level of being something to be concerned about, they weren't much reported on.
 
Why is this one news worthy? It seems all cases so far have been mild symptoms but it spreads faster. If it spreads fast but is mild what is the worry? Don’t all viruses mutate and get weaker over time?
 
Why is this one news worthy? It seems all cases so far have been mild symptoms but it spreads faster. If it spreads fast but is mild what is the worry? Don’t all viruses mutate and get weaker over time?
I think it's the speed of spread and the fact the effects are still relatively unknown. It makes sense to slow down the spread until we know more about it.

If it is very fast spreading and it is milder then that is a very good thing indeed. It would mean the beginning of the end of the deadly pandemic. It'll speed up sending the virus endemic and just something we have to live with. I don't think we know for certain it's milder though, do we?
 
I think it's the speed of spread and the fact the effects are still relatively unknown. It makes sense to slow down the spread until we know more about it.

If it is very fast spreading and it is milder then that is a very good thing indeed. It would mean the beginning of the end of the deadly pandemic. It'll speed up sending the virus endemic and just something we have to live with. I don't think we know for certain it's milder though, do we?
The guy in Germany who is heading up the pandemic has said he thinks it’s an early Christmas present for just this reason.
 
There was SA scientist/medic who was saying everything she’d seen pointed to it being weaker but faster spreading. I guess we’ll see.
Yeah we have anecdotal evidence which is a good start. Hopefully we can scientifically prove it too. In which case happy days! Lets just hope it's the case
 
Faster spreading and weaker isn't necessarily a good thing. If it spreads 4 times as fast and its half as deadly, it still kills more people, assuming everyone is not going to get infected.

Faster spreading generally makes vaccinations more important.

As someone has already said, be sensible.
 
Firstly, are you sure that the email actually came from the NHS. It certainly doesn't sound like any email the NHS would send to an individual.

Secondly, I know of nothing that suggests a particular variant can lie dormant in a test as the tests detect sars-cov-2 and unless genomically sequenced won't distinguish a variant
 
Firstly, are you sure that the email actually came from the NHS. It certainly doesn't sound like any email the NHS would send to an individual.

Secondly, I know of nothing that suggests a particular variant can lie dormant in a test as the tests detect sars-cov-2 and unless genomically sequenced won't distinguish a variant
Hi Artie

Once I posted I went and did a little digging (should have done that 1st)

Turns out it`s a scam email

So reported it to the National Crime security Centre

Deleted the post now
 
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Milder symptoms is indeed a good thing, but, given the number of mutations this variant shows, it should be a warning that we can't relax. If the virus is agile enough to mutate so heavily then who is to say that the next major mutation will be as benign as this one seems?
Every infection is basically a Petri dish for the virus to mutate, surely we still need to drive down infections to lessen that chance that a horrible mutation occurs.
 
From what I've recently read, virus don't always mutate to be weaker, that seems a massive, massive misconception, which I used to believe too, and I've posted saying I thought that too (I was wrong apparently).

But onto what this could be/ do:

Faster spreading but slightly weaker is extremely bad news for those with poor vaccine uptake or limited supply.
Faster spreading but able to avoid vaccine antibodies is extremely bad news for those with good vaccine uptake, but limited infection.
Faster spreading but able to partially avoid a mix of vaccine and infection antibodies is a big unknown with good vaccine uptake, and boosters, but having a lot of infection in the community over the passed 2 years. We're in this category, but the problem for us is a lot of our most at risk are just vaccinated, but have had limited natural exposure (this has been a good thing though).

In any case, people with boosters would probably fare well if the HAD to face Omicron, but those with two/three vax and exposure to infection probably the best of all.

Antibodies aren't the be all and end all though, there are other things like T cells etc etc.

I think if I had to chose, now (which I don't), I would chose double vax, booster, and then get Delta (assuming I've not already been exposed, which is doubtful) before Omicron takes over, which is possibly around Feb.

This is not in any way a suggestion for people to go out and get Delta mind, especially without being double/ tripled jabbed, I'm young (ish) and have been in many situations where I've already probably been exposed many times. The at-risk are best off getting triple jabbed and then trying to avoid everything until an adapted vaccine becomes available, or until specific healthcare advice changes, or until we know a lot more (very early days).

This below was quite worrying mind, albeit doesn't consider boosters or other protective measures/ body response:
 
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