Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

My understanding was that the original and alpha variants had R0 in the 2-3 range. Delta in the 5-7 range. And Omicron potentially above 10. 

I haven't heard anywhere but the above suggest that Omicron is anywhere near as low as 3. 

I don't trust the Politburo.  I'm undecided on Politfact.

Why do some people get Covid while others don't? (cnbc.com)
Why do some people get Covid while others don't? (cnbc.com)

Never COVID cohorts.

I have an issue with how we define infected and having a disease... Even at the beginning, 50% of people who tested positive for the virus didn't have any symptoms. We clearly already understand that there is a difference between SARS-nCOV-2 (the virus) and COVID-19 (the disease). If you never have symptoms, even if you encountered the virus, can it be said that you TRULY have the disease? Even if you test positive for the virus?

So for 50% of people (at least what we understood at the beginning), their immune system is sufficient to keep the virus at bay and never to allow an actual disease to develop. 

Well, what about those who have better immune systems, who encounter the virus, and their system knocks it down before the virus has enough time to multiply enough to even turn up positive on a PCR has had the virus. But they will never exhibit symptoms and won't test positive. 

If a single SARS-nCOV-2 virion enters your system, attaches to one cell, and starts forcing that cell to multiply more virus, you have been infected. If your immune system is so strong that you sufficiently repel the virus from attaching to any further cells, you have beaten the infection. 

By our current rhetoric, we base "having COVID" on "testing positive", rather than on "having symptoms of a disease". Well, the only difference between an asymptomatic positive and the example I just gave, of encountering the virus, having a small infection, and beating it, is the degree of viral load. 

So is there a true #neverCOVID cohort? Perhaps. But I'd argue that the #neverCOVID cohort must include all asymptomatic cases of the virus, even with a positive test. Because the only difference between them and someone who knocked down the virus before reaching sufficient viral load to trigger a PCR is amount of virus, not whether they've been infected at all. 

So is #neverCOVID the group who encountered the virus and handled the infection without symptoms? Or is it ONLY the group who encountered the virus and handled the infection without symptoms, but did so efficiently enough to fool a PCR test into coming up negative?

Yeah, makes sense, and then there are false positives at some rate I don't know.

I'd think any "germ" to which one is exposed is not going to have a 100% "success rate".  Stuff happens.  Maybe the measles or ebola is most efficient, I don't know.  I'd like to see data on how often a person exposed to a variety of diseases contracts said disease in some obvious form.

Maybe "we" get hit with disease X often and for whatever reason it doesn't get a foothold.

I wonder if 100 people eat potato salad with salmonella how many get sick.

Agreed. And your statement inadvertently proves my point. 

You talk about being exposed to a variety of diseases or getting hit with a "disease" and it doesn't gain a foothold. 

We're exposed to viruses and bacteria. Those are a cause. A disease is a result. 

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease

A disease is an abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not due to any immediate external injury.^[1][2] Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that are associated with specific signs and symptoms. A disease may be caused by external factors such as pathogens or by internal dysfunctions. For example, internal dysfunctions of the immune system can produce a variety of different diseases, including various forms of immunodeficiency, hypersensitivity, allergies and autoimmune disorders.

In humans, disease is often used more broadly to refer to any condition that causes pain, dysfunction, distress, social problems, or death to the person afflicted, or similar problems for those in contact with the person. In this broader sense, it sometimes includes injuries, disabilities, disorders, syndromes, infections, isolated symptoms, deviant behaviors, and atypical variations of structure and function, while in other contexts and for other purposes these may be considered distinguishable categories. Diseases can affect people not only physically, but also mentally, as contracting and living with a disease can alter the affected person's perspective on life.

I agree that it would be really good to understand how and why some people exposed to / infected by a disease-causing virus/bacteria never get the disease. 

But it would require us to say that people who were asyptomatic positives for SARS-nCOV-2 never had the COVID-19 "disease", because their bodies fought off the virus without it causing disease. And those who encountered the virus but never had enough viral load to trigger a PCR test still had the virus, but also never had the COVID-19 disease. 

But these #neverCOVID people are trying to figure out why someone didn't test positive, not why someone who tested positive never got the disease. 

It's over.

Covid is 28 points down with 6 minutes left in the 4th, and Covid does not have Tom Brady.

yeah, but it does have a brain dead moron named Joe Biden....which helps COVID out a lot....so there's that. 

this is medical misinformation....especially this part: “With the omicron variant, kids are either going to get the vaccine or they're likely to get a serious condition of omicron,” Dr. Emanuel says.

misinformation by a major establishment corporate media outlet....why are there no calls to censor this?


https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1489400069203939335?s=20&t=bDf6kdMPVrUfd02WoBNDCw

I saw this and wondered how long it would take to end up here.

This is pretty bad from a scaremongering headline/misinformation standpoint.  And if you actually read/listen to what he's saying, it's not really as extreme as the headline MSNBC chose to apply to it.  But they know their base audience well, and are quite good at pandering to them.