My working theory about omicron is that it’s already here and is partly responsible for the current uptick in cases, and that we just don’t have the data yet because we don’t sequence that many samples. I could be wrong, but covid moves so fast we’ve been pretty reactive this whole pandemic. We get new information after the fact. By the time we detect a new variant, it’s already in the community.
If that’s the case, it’s honestly pretty good news because the case increase is still mostly in the unvaccinated (at least from what I can tell from NY’s data).
I read somewhere that regular PCR tests can detect Omicron - wouldn’t that mean that we should know? Or do the folks doing the PCR test have to do something extra to tell if it’s Omicron?
— somebody who hasn’t taken a human biology course since freshman year of high school so this is all confusing
More specifically, a PCR test amplifies any covid RNA present in the sample by copying it a lot of times. The copies have fluorescent tags built in, so they will glow. The result is a yes/no based on whether the sample lights up.
There was initial worry that omicron was different enough from regular covid that our current PCR tests wouldn’t copy it. Luckily, that does not appear to be the case. I think the news reports saying that the PCR tests can detect omicron just mean that the test will turn up a “yes you have covid” result if you are infected.
To know which variant is present, you have to do a more detailed test that tells you the exact sequence of the RNA. It’s more time consuming and expensive to do that, which is why we don’t do it for every sample.
Apparently there is one PCR test that can tell if it is omicron without further sequencing due to…. Science I don’t understand? The company that makes it has announced they are ramping up production.
I guess the different tests target different portions of the covid genome. Good that the manufacturers are all double checking to see how they work with omicron.
We’re lucky that a “regular” PCR test can detect omicron. Mutations in the spike protein are such that one set of PCR primers don’t work for it, but 2 other sets will. So you’ll see bands for two wells light up (instead of three for delta) when you run the PCR. This is called “S gene dropout.” Alpha does the same thing, but there’s almost no alpha variant out there anymore; it’s all delta.
Was typing this as you were posting your google research, ha. Yes, sequencing is needed to confirm.
Work’s team leadership holiday dinner was just cancelled/postponed to Feb thanks to the new variant. On the one hand, I like the place we were supposed to go for dinner, but otoh, I’m happy to get an evening back, and hopefully the online activity they choose instead doesn’t suck.
Airport today was very chill. My workplace is still sitting at about 15% not vaxxed. But those who were due to fly to work today just didn’t turn up/called in sick. Only 3 non vaxxed people tried to board but they were calm enough when we told them they couldn’t
TIL that I can’t get some vaccines I’m recommended to get for travel due to being on an immunosuppressant and I just had a moment of “this is what happens when you don’t think about vaccines until there’s a global pandemic”
Also… seemingly…biased and maybe a bit racist? Lots of countries banning south African countries but not the UK or USA despite higher omicron cases sequenced and higher case rates in those countries.*
*acknowledging of course that rich countries were able to sequence faster and more due to access to resources
i’m glad it’s over!