No Pi until you finish your Omicron

Link to previous thread

I’ve got it. 24 hours of feeling really bad. Sweated it out and feeling better-ish. It started with a tickle in my throat and itchy lungs.

Hope you are past the worst of it R2.

How can you have any Omicron if you don't finish your Delta!?

I think everyone got it this weekend

Omicron is a weakling.

Delta.

[R4], How can you have any Delta if you don't finish your Omicron!?

New Yorkers are masked up to their tits.

And the tourists are....not.

On the bright side they all fly/drive/crawl back to East Bumfuck in a week, seeding their own little burgs.

January should be a complete shitshow.

Still not too worried about Omicron, with various reports confirming that the vaccinated (and the boosted in particular) have very little to worry about.

Hey response 600 from the previous thread the main reason CDC cut the quarantine period is that civil society will collapse given the speed at which Omicron spreads if you don’t.

Would you rather have a potentially omicron infected fire crew show up if your home catches fire, or no fire crew?

Get boosted now if you aren’t already.

Waiting for post-Christmas stats.

NYT graph shows a big plunge in infections in my state (RI) in the last week—very promising, until you see that they're reporting 0 new infections every day since Christmas Eve (over 1600 on the 23rd). I expect the graph to skyrocket when they factor the last five days' worth of reported infections in.

My county made the incredibly wise decision to move from daily to weekly reporting.* It's like Florida here now, without the sunlight.

*Sarcasm

Attendees At Conspiracy Conference Swear They Were Poisoned And NOT Infected With COVID

Welp.

This too.

Hard to require testing when there are NO tests available though.

Texas has run out of its supply of monoclonal antibodies, and infusion centers in the state will be unable to offer the treatment until more shipments are sent out in January.

That antibody has been shown to be effective against the omicron variant. Other monoclonal antibodies have not been shown to be effective against omicron.

^^If only there were a way to prevent the need for monoclonal antibodies in the first place!

They will also skip Pi. Nice try OP but do some research before playing with the big boys.

Fuck you, R19. ElderLez IS one of the big boys and she can kick YOUR ass before coffee.

I tested positive last Thursday but it never got bad, just some chest congestion and a cough. Never ran a fever, never lost taste or smell. Symptoms pretty much gone now. I was vaxxed and boosted (Pfizer).

My husband and I canceled Christmas plans as well as some social plans this week. He keeps testing negative (Moderna) and is back at work today. I'm off work and under the new guidance I can stop isolating but it's cold and snowy here and not much to do. My big plan for the day is to drive to Burger King in a little bit and go through the drive thru.

[quote]My big plan for the day is to drive to Burger King in a little bit and go through the drive thru.

You might want to post that on the Underwhelmed thread.

Glad to hear you are better already R21 and that your husband is testing negative.

Uh rho R19. I guess you got a booster against understanding silly puns and it worked.

I’ve got what I assume is Omicron. It’s like a mild flu. We were lucky enough to be on the eastern end of LI where we were able to get some at-home test kits. I think it’s been rough getting tested in the city. We noticed that we kept testing negative two days into being symptomatic, so we exposed our family even though we were testing.

It sounds like "testing" on the whole is a hit-or-miss proposition.

That ^^ plus you are spreading the virus two days before you start having symptoms.

The lightning spread of the coronavirus’s omicron variant in the United States pushed the seven-day average of new daily cases to 253,245 as of Tuesday afternoon, surpassing the previous high of 248,209 cases on Jan. 12.

NYT: The C.D.C. significantly lowers its estimate of Omicron’s prevalence nationwide.

The CDC estimated that the Omicron variant now accounts for roughly 59 percent of all Covid cases in the United States, a significant decrease from the agency’s previous estimate.

Last week, the C.D.C. said that Omicron accounted for approximately 73 percent of variants circulating in the United States in the week ending Dec. 18. But in its revision, the agency said the variant accounted for about 23 percent of cases that week.

I don't believe one fucking thing the CDC says anymore. They have botched things repeatedly.

R21 Glad to hear you’re on the mend, and hope you enjoyed your BK lunch. As I passed one the other day, I thought I should visit again soon (been more than a couple years for me.)

What’s the deal with the CDC anyway? First it was OMG omicron is 73% of all cases it’s taken over in just 2 weeks!! Cue mass freakouts! And now they’re like “oopsie, never mind lol.” They’re confusing everyone and rapidly losing their credibility.

Remember last June when they came out of nowhere declaring that masks were no longer required, leading Biden to publicly rip his off and declare Mission Accomplished! Enjoy your summer, everyone! Then came Delta…

#CDCRecommends parody posts are now trending on Twitter. What a shitshow.

Twitter also turning on Fauci after his Chris Hayes interview. They’re just throwing anything to the wall to see if it’ll stick.

[quote]They’re just throwing anything to the wall to see if it’ll stick.

“They,” meaning who? I’m not happy with what I’ve seen either, and it’s not because I’m an anti-vax Trump-humper.

Healthcare workers are being thrown under the bus once again.

Is this the end of the tunnel?

The infection numbers from yesterday are eye popping.

Did we cross the "1M+ new cases in a single day" before?

[quote] Is this the end of the tunnel?

Time will tell.

Ah, just as I predicted, 6757 new cases in RI "yesterday." That's our of a population of about 1.1 million.

You predicted 6,757?

Well, kind of; I would have predicted around 1300-1400 new cases a day, based on what we were seeing before the holidays, and that's what this averages out to. Probably going up, though.

There are cases uncounted. My family has had five at-home tests come back positive. But since we didn’t get tested at an official H+H site or report to a doctor, they’re not part of the official number of cases.

We can’t be the only ones.

R34 to clarify I feel like the CDC, Fauci etc are just winging it at this point and I’m in no way a detractor. For the first time I’m listening to them but shaking my head going “nah, I’m not so sure about this.”

The CDC and Fauci are not up to my standards so I'm just going to do whatever my Facebook friends say they're doing.

You're on a real streak, R41 (of R39 & R12 fame).

First you said the numbers would 'skyrocket' when they accounted for the days they weren't counted due to the holiday, then you said the numbers would probably go up, and they probably did.

You're really good at this.

R43 & R44 Glad you both speak your mind. I suppose many have forgotten, but Fauci was never praised for his handling of the AIDS crisis.

He dragged his feet and denied people cheap, available drugs at the time, like Bactrim, Alpha Interferon, and Pentamidine… Whilst ONLY promoting AZT (which many have claimed proved he was beholden to Pharma Kings Glaxo-Smith-Klein, formerly Burroughs Wellcome.

America’s congress was most displeased with his bungling after allowing something like 370-80 million dollars for NIAID, yet no new drugs for AIDS, or no approval for the very drugs physicians were using SUCCESSFULLY to treat AIDS. (Dallas Buyers’ Club, and several other “Buyers’ Clubs”.

Now Fauci has become a Saint in some peoples’ eyes. Infallible, and brilliant. Funny how we have also forgotten the fear sowed by telling people that AIDS [italic] might [/italic] be spread by casual contact within a family home, or other shared living arrangements, even though the rest of the medical community understood fully well that wasn’t possible. Not a Fauci fan as I still remember it all.

Why are people still looking at case counts at all? Hospitalizations and deaths are the numbers that matter, and they’re not changing much from the Delta surge.

Many states are still mired in the Delta surge, with maxed out hospital capacity.

[quote]Hospitalizations and deaths are the numbers that matter, and they’re not changing much from the Delta surge.

The hospitalization trend line doesn't look so good to me:

My apologies, R43. I misunderstood. See R44 for an example of how that mistake could be made.

And no, I don't have a Facebook account and I'm not "N A" ventilator, but I have spent almost two years managing the AKI of those who are and therefore feel I have every right to criticize the shit-show I witnessed yesterday.

You can put me on ignore and check my posting history if you'd like, but I suspect you'll jump straight to calling me a MAGAt Walmart greeter pretending to be an MD on Datalounge.

R45, I said the *graph* would skyrocket when the NYT factored in all those days' worth of reported infections for one day. I would have predicted a continued rise in those days with a rising average over 1000. Not sure why you're so weirdly invested in trying to pin down my rough estimate.

As far as I can tell In New York City, hospitalization numbers are around the winter last year total, with a lower number in ICU and a much, much large number being screened, treated and sent home without requiring hospitalization. Let’s hope that total holds steady and hospitalizations are also much shorter and we can be done with this by the end of February.

And I agree with R42. If you test positive on a home test and you are sick there is very little sense in going out to wait for hours in a line in the freezing cold infecting everyone around you unless your job requires a PCR test.

And

If hospitals are full, there's no upward place for hospitalization numbers to go.

Last winter was less than a quarter of March/April 2020 in NYC so not great, but by canceling some less time sensitive procedures it’s workable as long as there are still staff.

[quote] If hospitals are full, there's no upward place for hospitalization numbers to go.

Hospitals will say they’re 110% full, for instance, when they need to start housing patients in recovery rooms, etc.

From today’s NY Times, referring to Omicron in kids:

“I think the important story to tell here is that severity is way down and the risk for significant severe disease seems to be lower,” said Dr. David Rubin, a researcher at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

I now know of 4 people who have COVID, they all found out through self-testing. 3 out of 4 will NOT get a PCR-test, as they don’t want to “get registered”.

In other words: I suspect the actual vs reported number of cases is at least 25% higher.

R57 you are correct.

[QUOTE] Hospitalizations and deaths are the numbers that matter, and they’re not changing much from the Delta surge

Exactly. The UK had 198k cases yesterday but only 33 deaths. Death tolls are getting lower week on week. I know ten people in London who've had/have Omicron and it's just like a bad cold. Delta is being pushed out, which is a good thing. The next strain will be even weaker.

What’s happening more and more in the Bay Area is that 3x-vaxxed people with high blood pressure, obesity, and/or diabetes are having a positive antigen (with maybe a sore throat or headache) and then running to the ED because they’re worried about the sudden declines we used to see. I would imagine that most aren’t even aware that SpO2 can be monitored at home.

What frequently happens with those patients is that something else turns up in their labs or imaging and they’re admitted for further testing.

It’s great for them that things are being picked up before their next scheduled visit, but they’re filling beds they would never have been in. When there’s a lot of virus circulating in the community, even a small percentage of patients being admitted for these incidental findings adds up.

You can’t just dismiss mild/asymptomatic cases as no big deal, because people haven’t suddenly stopped having strokes, cardiac events, and going through windshields, and their beds are now filling up with patients who would otherwise not have been there.

[quote]Delta is being pushed out, which is a good thing. The next strain will be even weaker.

"The sky-high circulation of the Delta variant and the rise of Omicron — aided by inequitable vaccine roll-outs to lower-income countries and minimal control measures in some wealthy countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom — offer fertile ground for SARS-CoV-2 to take additional surprising evolutionary leaps.

For instance, a document prepared by a UK government science advisory group in July raised the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 could become more severe or evade current vaccines by recombining with other coronaviruses. Continued circulation in animal reservoirs, such as mink or white-tailed deer, brings more potential for surprising changes, such as immune escape or heightened severity."

R60 That's an interesting perspective on hospitalizations. I'm not disputing you, but curious how you know that. Are you a HCW?

r61 is what I fear

I think if you're the type who actually has to be told cruise ships are a bad idea right now you're the type who will pay no attention to anything the CDC has to say.

R60 To go along with your post, From a nurse on tiktok

That was good, r65. People just refuse to believe that there might not be a place for them when they snap their ankle and need emergency surgery. The horrific messaging they’re receiving will only embolden them in their denial.

Sylvia R62, I’m the poster who works in immuno-oncology drug development, who foolishly decided to take a locum position when clinical trials were put on hold. I did it because one of my subspecialties (of which there’s always a shortage) is needed by vented COV+ patients.

If I had known then what I know now, I would have gotten out the second vaccines became widely available. Worse, I’ve learned that I can be manipulated by a sob story, so I’m still not 100% out.

Biden Says He'll Issue Vaccine Mandate For Domestic Air Travel If Medical Team Says To

Oh pretty please Biden!!!

R61 - Covid Doom Troll. Viruses get weaker, not stronger. Omicron is this troll's worst nightmare. He was hoping for millions of deaths in the US from it and an excuse never to leave his house again.

True, R69, omicron won’t result in millions of deaths but is likely to cause millions to suffer various health issues over the next few years. Even those with “mild symptoms” such as myself have been fucked with by this virus for 18 months straight with no end in sight.

Hmmm, R69...

Viruses get weaker more often than they get stronger. Claims stronger than in either direction are kind of silly.

The UK recorded 382 deaths today which is the worst since Delta was rampaging back in March. I think this will prompt Boris to close all non essential shops, plus clubs, bars and restaurants, for a month long lockdown after New Year. Schools and colleges will remain open.

'Even those with “mild symptoms” such as myself have been fucked with by this virus for 18 months straight with no end in sight.'

But you had Delta, hoe face. Omicron is like a bad cold, over in a week with no long covid symptoms.

[quote] But you had Delta, hoe face. Omicron is like a bad cold, over in a week with no long covid symptoms.

And you know this how, Dr.?

March wasn’t Delta except for people in India and even then the timing is a little early.

In South Africa Omicron has peaked and restrictions are now being lifted, according to the BBC World Service exactly 15 minutes ago.

'And you know this how, Dr.?'

Because you got it 18 months ago, you spaz. Maybe it was a variant before Delta but it sure wasn't Omicron which was only detected in October 2021.

'In South Africa Omicron has peaked and restrictions are now being lifted, according to the BBC World Service exactly 15 minutes ago.'

Nooo! How iwll the Covid Doom Troll spin this? Say the SA authorities are lying to get tourists back into the area?

'March wasn’t Delta except for people in India and even then the timing is a little early.'

What Elderlez? Delta hit the UK just before Christmas in December 2020. That's why Boris cancelled Christmas.

[quote] Because you got it 18 months ago, you spaz. Maybe it was a variant before Delta but it sure wasn't Omicron which was only detected in October 2021.

No, shithead, how do you know Omicron carries no long Covid issues? And learn how to quote.

Avoid armchair doctors and doctors funded by political anyones/anythings in times like these. Fuck all of the former, now is the time for medical heroes.

R80, Delta didn’t reach the UK until late March 2021.

Here in Honolulu, 2 friends started feeling poor, took a home test and are now positive and very sick. Mid 30s, boostered. But they are home, their illness not reported. It is cultural here, not to let Health Dept know.

I imagine many of these horrible #s of infection are under-reported.

ya'll such experts...yawn.

crocheting is a hobby.

[quote]It is cultural here, not to let Health Dept know.

But. But can that accurately be described as "cultural"?

que exotique!

Oy wrong thread above. I am pretty sure alpha is what caused Boris to cancel Christmas 2020 R80. Alpha is probably what my wife had in February 2021 in the US. Delta hit India hard around May 2021. We’ve never actually had a Delta winter surge in the West.

[quote]True, [R69], omicron won’t result in millions of deaths but is likely to cause millions to suffer various health issues over the next few years.

There's really no basis for this assertion, unless you're only talking about unvaccinated people (and even then it's dubious).

Define Alpha R80.

My brother is only 3 months out from his second jab of Pfzier. He got covid on Xmas Eve and has been VERY ill. He said he's never experienced anything like it and thought he was going to die. He is starting to feel a little better but now his wife (also vaxxed at the same time as him) has it.

Omicron doesn't seem to care if one is vaccinated or not.

Definitely

Reuters reports:

Coronavirus deaths in Eastern Europe topped 1 million on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally, as the Omicron variant threatened to batter the region. Three out of the five countries reporting the highest number of daily deaths in Europe are from the East.

Eastern Europe makes up 39% of the region’s population and has reported more than half the total COVID-related deaths in Europe, according to the Reuters tally.

The death toll in Eastern Europe reached 1,045,454 on Thursday, compared with 1,873,253 in all of Europe. The region includes Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine.

I got my booster in mid September. Am I doomed? Has it expired?

Why is the booster just half a dose? Just blow a full load in me and be done with it. So much confusing information. Total botch job. R94 is right. Does he/she need yet another boost?

I think there isn't enough info yet to determine if the booster helps. I think I read that only 30% of vaccinated folks have had the booster. I'm boosted and I went out to restaurants and other places before Xmas and never got sick. But then, maybe I just didn't get exposed...yet. I think the preliminary findings were that boosters do help but not by much.

Only the Moderna booster is a half dose.

Right and a Moderna half dose is still more than Pfizer

Thank you.

Since 11 pm last night there are 625,906 new cases and 1,384 deaths in America

I tested on Wednesday before Christmas. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't carrying the virus before getting together with family. It came back negative, so I felt OK about Christmas gatherings.

Fast forward to Monday evening. I started getting sinus drainage, a sore throat and a cough. By yesterday, it was full-blown bronchitis. I went to the doctor today and I tested positive. So I either got it last Thursday while shopping (masked), or at a family gathering on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

I'm fully vaxxed with Moderna and got my Moderna booster on Nov 1.

R101, were you out and about in the day or two right before your test? You could have contracted the virus then, and it was just too soon for the test that Wednesday to pick it up.

You likely got it from your family gathering. They were warning people not to go. How many people were there and were they all vaxxed and boosted?

[quote] Omicron is like a bad cold, over in a week with no long covid symptoms.

Unless you're one of the 38% of the population that is especially vulnerable.

Unless you're not fully vaccinated.

Unless you don't have some other underlying issue that it exacerbates even if you're vaccinated.

But generally, most people, who did what they needed to do (two shots + a booster) will be fine.

There's a way to not be an alarmist but to also be realistic.

However, for the love of God, people have got to stop treating Omicron like it's just a damn cold or as this article states the difference is

[quote]“The common cold typically causes mild, self-limited symptoms whereas omicron, like other COVID variants, can result in serious or fatal illness,” Culver said via email.

Being fully vaccinated makes it highly unlikely you will end up in a hospital but it doesn't make it impossible. If you are fully vaccinated, you'll likely be out in 2-5 days but during that time, if a hospital is full, (See R65) you could be taking space away from someone else with a more serious problem.

[quote]How many people were there and were they all vaxxed and boosted?

I know that everyone at two of the three gatherings was vaxxed, but I don't think many, if any, of them had gotten the booster yet. The other gathering was on Friday night and I think everyone there had been vaxxed, but I'm not certain. There was one relative who wasn't able to attend Sunday's get-together because she had tested positive earlier in the week. But everyone else in her family tested negative. I'm pretty sure it was transmitted to me via one of them, but who knows.

I typically have a bout of bronchitis every winter. This one seems about average to me. I've had a bout or two in the past that felt much worse than this one. I'm just going to quarantine and relax through the weekend and hopefully the worst of it will pass. At least I'll be able to binge watch "Succession".

You were an absolute idiot to do any get-togethers, R105. I'm so sick of everyone pretending people doing these stupid things are not doing stupid things. No, you did not get it shopping with a mask on. You got it by gathering with multiple groups of viral hosts, er, I mean people. Hope none of the multiple people infected at your oh so necessary gatherings die or killed anyone else by passing it along. Dumbfucks.

[quote]Fast forward to Monday evening. I started getting sinus drainage, a sore throat and a cough. By yesterday, it was full-blown bronchitis.

What you’ve described is a common Omicron progression in the vaxxed-and-boosted who’ve been hit by a lot of virus.

Given the date of your booster, your antibodies should be at a high level and the initial symptoms you experienced were most likely an inflammatory response caused by those Abs going to war against the virus in your nasopharynx.

Omicron appears to prefer the bronchi to the lower respiratory tract so it makes perfect sense that if you were exposed to more virus than your Abs could handle in the nose and throat, some would sneak through to the bronchi. That’s the beauty of vaccines. If you had been exposed to the similar degree in late 2020, the virus that was neutralized in your nose and throat might have had enough of a head start to make its way through to your LRT.

But...if you do notice ANY shortness of breath, be sure to let your doctor know immediately. Also, I'm like a broken record with pulse oximeters, but they're cheap and everyone should have one.

^^ "A similar degree," and probably a dozen other typos that I missed.

Mea culpa.

They weren't huge gatherings R106. There were 11 people Friday night, 6 on Saturday, and 12 on Sunday. All were vaxxed as far as I know, but I didn't ask to see everyone's vaxx card. I know that many of us had tested negative prior to gathering. I think we were being fairly cautious and as safe as we could be without foregoing the holiday altogether. But it just goes to show that even for the vaxxed, Omicron is a slippery little fucker that can find its way in.

Thanks for the info R107. Monday and Tuesday were the worst days for me. I've been getting gradually better each day since. The sore throat is gone. Just cough and conjestion for the most part. So hopefully by the beginning of next week I'll be back to normal.

That's good to hear, R110. Antibodies peak at around 10-14 days after the booster and your exposure was within the period where they're stable at a high level. If you were going to get it, that was the right time.

Feel better!

R104 = Covid Doom Troll

[quote]They weren't huge gatherings [R106]. There were 11 people Friday night, 6 on Saturday, and 12 on Sunday. All were vaxxed as far as I know...

Like I said...dumbfuck doing stupid things and now continuing to defend getting together with 30 people over multiple days as not a large gathering. But, hey, he thinks at least most of them were probably, ya know, vaxxed. Idiot.

Everyone in my family except 2 kids is vaccinated, everyone got PCR tests before Christmas, and the kids “haven’t seen anyone since their test” (apparently participating in hockey matches doesn’t count). So now we’re all on symptom watch.

How many days until we are in the clear?

So many people playing stupid games and winning stupid prizes. What sucks is you're all going to take the responsible people down with you because you're going to now go to their places of work where they don't have a choice to be and infect them with your stupid prizes.

R114 Sunday. If you have no symptoms by Sunday 2 January, you should be in the clear.

Thank you, R104.

[quote]There's a way to not be an alarmist but to also be realistic.

Why do so many posters (e.g. R112) even need to be told this?

R109, mingling with almost thirty people over three days (who themselves might have been going to three different gatherings with almost three people total, and so on and so on) is pretty *large*.

Corrigendum: *almost thirty people total*

WHET COVID Alarmist, SylviaFowler?

The 30 person mingler if in the northeast devinitely was exposed. Stay put a couple of days to see if you get symptoms.

I'm right here telling you to kiss my ass, Troll. Then go choke on a ventilator.

I just got back from a trip on Amtrak, and mask noncompliance was rife. Everybody had masks, because you couldn't get on without them, and they mostly kept them on while they were on board, but in the stations about half of them were wearing them on their chins. The worst offenders were the Amish. If you want free range Amish Covid, I highly recommend the Pittsburgh Union Station waiting area.

Ron DeSantis Missing As Florida Sets Daily COVID Record

New Year's Eve Quarantine Zoom Pajama Dance Party!

Woohoo!

Who's in?

Only if you leave out the pajamas.

As someone of fairly recent Mennonite descent, I am not surprised by those Amish.

Their ‘sturdy builds’ will be of no help when they get covid. Serves them right for their puppy mills and other sins.

I wonder the vaccination rate in Amish communities.

Sounds like it is pretty much non-existent.

It’s kind of odd though that they wouldn’t embrace masks given how much they value covering up their bodies.

Practically everything Ben Shapiro says in that tweet is a lie, either flat out or by virtue of ignoring the difference between variants. Does that beetle-browed rightist dwarf have any honor at all?

R130 No, no he doesn’t.

A little bit of good news from the UK. Their latest briefing (12/31) includes 3-dose vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization for Omicron.

It will be [italic]Technical Briefing 34[/italic] when it makes it to the link below.

Study 1: 500k Omicron cases, all ages, diagnosed in the community or on the first day of a hospital admission.

Study 2: smaller dataset, 18+, limited to symptomatic cases diagnosed in the community and then admitted to the hospital; done this way to reduce the number of incidental cases.

Study 1:

VE against emergency department visit or admission is ~50% that for Delta.

Risk of admission from emergency department is ~30%.

Compared to unvaccinated Omicron cases, ~80% reduction in the risk of hospitalization after three doses.

Study 2:

Compared to unvaccinated Omicron cases, ~68% reduction in the risk of hospitalization after three doses.

Combined with the protection against becoming symptomatic in the first place, equivalent of VE against hospitalization of ~88% after three doses.

Great news, R132 — thanks for sharing.

R133, I'm going to consider it a good start to 2022 rather than a happy drop in the bucket to close out 2021.

[quote]Risk of admission from emergency department is ~30%.

^^ I'm falling asleep and made it seem like 30% of Omicron cases seen in the ED are being admitted. It's comparative, so Omicron cases admitted from the ED are ~30% of those from Delta.

I'm still at "free range Amish Covid". Boy the writers here on DL!

From today’s NY Times;

Dr. Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, noted that many new infections, especially in people who are vaccinated and boosted, result in no symptoms or mild symptoms, making the absolute number of cases less important than they were for previous versions of the virus.

“As you get further on and the infections become less severe, it is much more relevant to focus on the hospitalizations as opposed to the total number of cases,” Dr. Fauci said.

And the hospitalizations are skyrocketing. Because hospitals are full, it is also better, right now, to look at the total number of hospitalizations instead of the percentage of infected that need hospitalization. That, is directly linked to the number of total infections skyrocketing. Therefore, it is still important as hospitals are overwhelmed to look at the total number of infections. Or, hey, how about we just look at both!

There is no need to pussyfoot around the numbers. Irresponsible assholes are going everywhere and infecting everyone around them and killing innocent people who can't get into the hospital for other things because of their irresponsibility. The unvaxxed should be banned from hospital care.

Fauci also said, when questioned on CNN about why testing was not included in the latest CDC recommendations for 5 days quarantine, that he “agrees testing should be included” and he thinks the CDC will update their recommendations to include testing “soon.” In other words, we couldn’t include testing because there are no tests to be had but we didn’t want to acknowledge that so we just left that part out.

Why can’t these people just admit the truth? How stupid do they think we are? Assholes.

R138 I agree about that testing caveat but another thing they say is you can test positive for up to 12 weeks right? I don’t even know anymore. Sometimes it does feel like March 2020 with so much confusing information and lack of testing available. But yes I realize we are better off with treatments and vaccines.

Yeah the PCR tests can run false positives for months because of viral fragments.

R139 - PCR, as it's being used for COVID testing, is a diagnostic tool rather than a window into disease progression. As such, it uses a very high cycle threshold level, which means that even extremely low levels of RNA or fragments will give a positive result beyond the time period in which someone was actually contagious.

Antigen testing is the one that tells you whether or not you're contagious [italic]right now[/italic]. It doesn't amplify genetic material like PCR. It's very low-tech. All it does is look for is antigen present in the sample, as is, so it's most accurate when there's a lot of virus present in the location being swabbed.

Rochelle Walensky made her position on negative antigen testing to leave isolation very clear on CNN a few days ago:

[quote]It really had a lot to do with what we thought people would be able to tolerate.

[quote]Given that we were not going to change our recommendations based on that rapid test, we opted not to include it.

So that's that...until it changes.

More like Given that no one can get a damn test, they opted not to include it.

Quit lying.

[quote]I typically have a bout of bronchitis every winter.

Are you serious?

Thankfully, they're just mild hospitalizations.

For sure it isn’t going to be mild for the unvaxxed now that we are down to one barely available monoclonal antibody. I expect areas like the New York will start on the downslope next week, but other places in the US are just starting their ascent and with a much larger percentage of unvaccinated people.

So what's the current thought, after more than a month, about omicron and masks? Is it still fairly safe to shop with a mask when (most) others are masked, as I've been doing, or is the current variant getting past masks (due to viral load or whatever reason)? My impression is that all these spiraling breakthrough cases are mainly people who went unmasked to parties thinking they were safe, but I don't know. I just would prefer not to go back to Instacart, but I also don't want to get covid from someone in a store.

Keep wearing masks. Don't take chances and try and limited your contact with other people (not always easy).

I'm wearing two masks at the moment.

[quote]Is it still fairly safe to shop with a mask when (most) others are masked, as I've been doing, or is the current variant getting past masks (due to viral load or whatever reason)?

That would be nice to know. I've seen "experts" saying you have to wear N95 and K95 masks now, so that certainly implies omicron can get past surgical masks. And this, from Dr. Jonathan Reiner:

"At the beginning of this pandemic... we all were taught, you have a significant exposure if you're within six feet of somebody and you're in contact with them for more than 15 minutes. All these rules are out the window. This is a hyper-contagious virus."

Now, even a quick, transient encounter can lead to an infection, Reiner added, including if someone's mask is loose, or a person quickly pulls their mask down, or an individual enters an elevator in which someone else has just coughed.

"This is how you can contract this virus," Reiner said.

I've gone back to wearing only KN95 or N95s since they're now easy to get. However, IMO, the cloth masks are more comfortable when outdoors.

I don't think they're saying that Omicron gets through surgical masks, I think they're referring to the fit as surgical masks aren't snug on the face. Original (alpha?) and Delta needed more viral load to cause infection, where it looks like Omicron needs far less to cause infection.

I've gone back to Instacart.. The petite one known who had "mild" Covid are all - ALL -experiencing fallout from it months later. Headaches, nagging cough, fatigue, Los of taste and smell, etc. None had life-threatening cases and most were vaxxed (the only exception is somebody who caught it in mid-2020, pre-vax). Yet they're still struggling with aftereffects.

I'm not taking any chances with milder but more transmissible Omicron . It seems as though it will likely sweep through fairly quickly so I'm fine with going back to using Instacart for a month or two if it avoids getting Covid.

*The people I've known.

All of the masks outside of hospital settings have always been more than 0% and less than 100% effective. Everything is less effective than it was before because of Omicron, but still useful. I think that the decision regarding wearing an N95/KN95 vs. not going out at all (assuming you are vaxxed with no reason to think the vaccine didn’t work) is a personal decision based on risk tolerance. That’s my personal opinion and not something I can necessarily point to a particular study to support.

Oh!!! And wear eye protection with your KN95 mask. (Insert swear words here)

Scientists have rung the alarm bells over "the emergence of a new variant" in southern France.

It comes after 12 patients tested positive in the same region, and their tests showed "an atypical combination".

The index case had returned from travelling to Cameroon, suggesting to experts that it may have originated in the African country.

In a preprint paper, that is yet to be peer reviewed, experts from a French government-back programme said they had identified "46 mutations" in the variant.

Peachy..

Just wait until the Q variant shows up. Heads will asplode.

/s

So all the people looking forward to a rapid downslope/recovery with omicron, do you really think there will be no more new variants after omicron? Especially since Africa is still largely unvaccinated..

There will be new variants for sure regardless of world vaccination status because of animal reservoirs.

But Omicron potentially buys us in the US approximately 4 months of super immunity for the boosted which is a pretty nice temporary firewall until there’s enough Paxlovid for everyone. And of course new, possibly better, cheaper, easier to distribute vaccines are getting approved in 2022 so I’m still optimistic.

@ElderLez

What's your opinion on the vaccine that Walter Reed is working on?

It seems pretty clear that this virus will keep mutating, just like the flu viruses. And there is no medical consensus right now that it is going to mutate itself into a more or less harmless virus. Not trying to be an alarmist, but the science just does not indicate that yet.

R159 I don’t know enough about it to have an opinion, but obviously if it works it would be amazingly wonderful.

Elderlez, I thought it was the rapid tests that kept on showing positive with the viral fragments for 3 months and not the PCRs?

Omicron has not physically altered to be able to slip through masks or HEPA filters. But it takes MUCH less quantity of Omicron to cause infection, therefore the more particles you can filter the safer you'll be. That's why everyone needs to upgrade to a high-filtration N95 or K94 masks ASAP, which really everyone should have been doing for a year and then we wouldn't be in this situation.

When is virus over?

[quote] That's why everyone needs to upgrade to a high-filtration N95 or K94 masks ASAP, which really everyone should have been doing for a year and then we wouldn't be in this situation.

They should have been passing these out like free candy for months now.

This one little thing could have prevented so much pain and suffering.

I haven't stopped wearing my mask when I'm in a large group in public or on public transportation. I enjoyed not even having so much as a cold last year.

R162, I’m not ElderLez and I don’t want to step on toes, but please see my post at R141. I think it will provide some clarification.

R166 feel free to step all over my toes. I love your super informative posts and learn a lot from you.

R139 here and further explaining the confusion around testing. Long story but sharing my family’s experience this past week with Covid. My family has had quite the week with Covid. We got together on Xmas eve, 9 adults and 4 kids. All vaxxed except 13 yo niece & 11 yo nephew(siblings). . Get a text Sunday from my brother that said niece tested positive. Then other brother and SIL say they have symptoms on Tuesday. Text negative, one at home and one rapid PCR. Unvaxxed nephew has symtoms too but testing negative. Parents of unvaxxed kids also have symptoms but test negative. Niece that tested positive on Sunday tests negative on Wednesday via rapid. Then today get a text that other SIL has tested positive and feeling shitty. Also this is her THIRD time getting Covid. First in March 2020, then March 2021 and now. Doctor was floored that she’s tested positive again. And her other 2 bouts with Covid weren’t mild and she didn’t sound good today. She’s a cancer survivor and fearful she’ll be a long hauler. She’s 46 and fitness instructor so otherwise healthy. Anyway that’s my long story, probably confusing too lol

Stay safe out there

[quote]We got together on Xmas eve, 9 adults and 4 kids.

Your family is a bunch of idiots. The end.

R168 hope everybody is ok and damn that’s a scary story. Thanks for the heads up about the rapid tests.

Re: home testing

R169 fuck off and go back to the bridge you crawled out from under.

Aussie here who is double vaxxed and had my booster - I suspect I had/have Omicron in the past few weeks. I have an underlying health issue for which I am on immunosuppressants to help keep it under control. Went to hospital two days before Christmas as the paramedics thought I was having heart problems. Overnight stay with all testing done but my heart was fine. My symptoms kept evolving into something new everyday - fatigue, dizziness, chest pains, headaches, brain fog, aches and pains - but then I developed problems with my breathing, and along with it, an irritating tickle in my throat that made me want to dry cough constantly. I never had a fever, sore throat or night sweats.

I went back to emergency a couple of days after Christmas, and other than my blood work showing more than twice the high normal range of inflammation, on paper at least, I’m healthy. Chest X-ray was clear and my lungs sounded clear. The doctor wrote it off as a “flare” and allergies, and has given me Prednisone to take until I can get in touch with my rheumatologist.

At no point, was I ever tested or suspected to have Covid but my symptoms seem to marry up with Omicron. I did a little investigating, and it seems high dosages of steroids can help the immune compromised, and I have to say, within two hours of the first dose, I felt so much better. I know this sounds very Mary-ish but before the Prednisone, I could feel my body winding down. What do you all think?

And thank you r170 for the nice words

R173 It sort of sounds like and given how riddled much of Australia is with COVID makes it likely but without a COVID test result you'll never know.

Why don't you and your family fuck off instead, R172, since you are all irresponsible assholes who can't be bothered to not gather during the most contagious phase of a pandemic that's been going on for two fucking years because you just fucking felt like it.

R168, I'm going to be nicer than some other people but

[quote]We got together on Xmas eve, 9 adults and 4 kids.

This was your first mistake which lead to ...

[quote]Also this is her THIRD time getting Covid. First in March 2020, then March 2021 and now. Doctor was floored that she’s tested positive again. And her other 2 bouts with Covid weren’t mild and she didn’t sound good today. [bold]She’s a cancer survivor and fearful she’ll be a long hauler.[/bold]

This pure stupidity.

Being double vaxxed and boosted is great but a lot of that goes out the window when someone has an underlying condition. That poor woman's body was already stressed to hell and back in the past from surviving cancer so continually exposing it to COVID is not a great idea.

[quote]Stay safe out there

Babe, you're not even staying safe.

I'm triple vaxxed and live in London. I don't like masks so don't wear one unless asked to by London transport staff (which has only happened once). In the last three weeks I've travelled into the City and back out every day on crowded trains, not worn a mask in shops - and nothing. It's not that easily transmissable.

Until it is.

It’s super easily transmissible, but it’s also symptom free for a lot of people, so it’s possible R178 who is kind of a selfish jerk (sorry R178, but you know that you kind of are right?) has already had it or has it currently.

When something is super scary we engage in truly protective measures (like getting vaccinated and masking in the case of COVID) and also in psychologically comforting measures like assuming anyone who got infected must have deserved it, unlike us! (Seriously, you might be able to Omicron through your eyes.)

Thanks for sharing your story R168, I hope everyone makes a full and quick recovery and please do let us know any updates.

"More than 1 million people in the U.S. were diagnosed with Covid-19 on Monday as a tsunami of omicron swamps every aspect of daily American life."

Here’s my favorite graph, for NY state

[quote] (Seriously, you might be able to Omicron through your eyes.)

Have a source for that or just an educated guess?

It’s an educated guess Sylvia. And I hope I am wrong, but it would explain a lot of things that don’t make a lot of sense at the moment.

CDC Director Walensky doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Maybe it's that she's a sucky communicator.

What doesn't make sense, R184? People are acting irresponsibly either by not getting the vaccine in the first place or by pretending the vaccine is a 100% armored shield that allows them to do whatever they want, whenever they want, with whomever they want to do it with.

I declined all Xmas invites re family get-togethers (for the 2nd year in a row), because of omicron. I learned yesterday that of the 10 fully vaxx'd attendees, 4 came down with Covid. I told em not to do it...

Stay away from the unmasked hordes. I know that's easier in the blue states, but soon in the red states the unmasked hordes will have sidelined themselves.

Good for you, R187. Hope your relatives all recover fully.

^Two of those 4 covid infectees, in R187, had already had it early last year, before there were any vaccines, so having had it once, and been trebly vaccinated apparently did not protect them against a 2nd infection in just about a 12-month period.

That's what I'm waiting for, R188.

[quote] pretending the vaccine is a 100% armored shield

My university has suspended in-person instruction for two weeks, but only for two weeks. That'll help!!

R180 thank you ElderLez- appreciate it

R185 Glad I'm not the only one who feels like that. I was watching an interview with Wallensky focused on changing quarantine and isolation guidelines, and she continually shook her head from side to side, which we read as "not affirmative" as she kept saying "yes"...

When she said "thanks, good question" she shook her head "no" yet again. It also immediately occurred when she "good to be with you". I believe it aired on MSNBC, but not quite sure. It drove me mad.

She inspires very little confidence, even aside from being a bobble head!

R186 19% of hospitals in the US are experiencing critical staffing shortages (unable to meet minimum staffing ratios even with temp employees) because of medical providers being out sick this week, including almost 53% of hospitals in Vermont and 46% of hospitals in Rhode Island. Do you really think that doctors and nurses in Northeast states are running around unvaxxed and unmasked? In previous surges medical providers had lower rates of infection because they had such good mask adherence. Something has changed fundamentally.

There are 98,000 people in the hospital with Covid right now. From the link below, dated 12/30/21: "By subtracting the number of breakthrough cases among the already vaccinated, the researchers found that over 98 percent of coronavirus-related hospitalizations occurred among patients who were not vaccinated against the virus."

It is OUTRAGEOUS that something can't be done to stop this, e.g. make them GET vaccinated or PUT them out on the sidewalk when they come to the emergency rooms.

R195 Since Omicron is just so much more infectious, I can easily believe that vaxxed healthcare workers are picking it up on their unmasked off hours, if my former nurse friend who's been running around having big family gatherings, traveling to FL, and eating indoors at restaurants since the moment it was allowed is in any way typical.

R178 ah… so you are the big baby arsehole on the tube making it worse for everybody else then? “I don’t like masks”… well boo fucking how. You are a grown man, you can wear one for a little time while on PUBLIC transport.

[quote]Do you really think that doctors and nurses in Northeast states are running around unvaxxed and unmasked?

I really, really do think that a good portion of them are doing unmasked gatherings and going to restaurants and other things. Like R197 said, it is just that much more infectious that the risks they were willing to take before are now leading to infections. It's like smoking amongst nurses. You would think they'd know better, but they still smoke at a higher rate than other groups.

Every time I read someone's story about someone getting covid who is "doing everything right", it inevitably follows that they were going to restaurants or just got together with this one big group of friends this one time or just got together with their 12 relatives for Christmas and on an on. Get vaxxed (although it might be too late for that to make much individual difference for this surge of Omicron), wear a mask, and stay as far the fuck away from other people as you can.

If they're not running around maskless, it definitely comes in thro the eyes. I bought a box of 10 pairs of goggles way back when Wuhan was being whispered about on reddit. I work retail in the south. I'm tempted to slap on the goggles.

I went online to locate some N95, KN95 etc. masks. The cheapest ones I cold find were $2 apiece which sounds great but that’s with a minimum of 10 per order. Add on shipping and that’s $25. I said fuck that, I’ll just keep wearing my surgical masks until SOMEONE sees fit to provide these masks they keep insisting are ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to the public at a reasonable cost.

Well, good luck with that. Rochelle Walensky wants everyone to know that N95 (and even KN95!) masks aren't comfortable and people won't be able to keep them on. Somehow, I've managed to wear an N95 hour upon hour for years on end without ever giving it a second thought.

Everyone must bow down to the full-grown infants, and the CDC's message to them is that a KN/N95 is too uncomfortable, so why even bother trying. Just carry on with your double-layered cotton masks and hope for the best.

blather from both sides.

if you die, do you care or does anyone else?

Ridiculous. I've worn KN95 masks on a daily basis for hours on end. Are they super comfortable? No. Are they tolerable? Fuck yes. The worst part is the pulling down on the tops of my ears, but there are things that can be done for that, attachments and such. (I don't like head straps because I have long hair and those straps pull on my hair.

We switched from surgical masks to KN95s after my wife got COVID last year and we both find them more comfortable since they mostly sit above your face other than the edges which provide a better seal and less eyeglass fogging.

The most uncomfortable mask (but I am forever grateful to the microbiologist who gave it to me) was a double layer cloth mask with N95 inserts which I wore while flying in February 2020 and then again to my wife’s movie premiere right before the world shut down in March 2020.

Maybe the eyes concern is just my own projection.

Anyway 98% of the hospitalized being unvaccinated is fabulous news for those of us who are vaccinated. It’s terrible insofar as you’d need medical care for any other reason while the hospitals are understaffed and swamped with unvaxxed, but given that there’s more of us than them, it sounds like the vaccines are providing an extraordinary level of protection.

Very sobering interview with Ed Yong, a journalist with The Atlantic, on Amanpour on CNN International today. He basically says we’re fucking screwed this winter and that the CDC has been awful this past year.

R146, almost everyone I know either has COVID or has friends/family who have tested positive in the past few weeks. I suspect my wife had it over Christmas as well, despite negative rapid tests (we were unable to get a PCR). Of my friends, all are fully vaccinated and did not attend any parties. One friend with MS only leaves her house go to/from her doctor yet still contracted the virus and passed it on to her girlfriend. Another either caught it at the grocery store or when picking up the keys to a car she purchased at the dealership (both while being fully masked).

Omicron is a beast and it’s definitely not only affecting people playing fast and loose with large, unmasked gatherings.

Anyone catch the CDC’s latest update? Now you still don’t need a negative rapid test after 5 days of isolation but IF you can get your hands on one and it’s still positive then you should do 5 more days of isolation. Medical commentator on CNN says she wishes they would just be upfront and acknowledge that there AREN’T ENOUGH TESTS.

These people are becoming a joke. A bad one.

Really confidence-inspiring, aren’t they?

ElderLez, you’re a sane voice here. Thanks.

Elder Lez, would you fly domestically right now? If not, when?

It is more than a bit concerning how many in my orbit have tested positive, have become sick, and one in hospital. The good news is we still have Paxlovid, and Sotrovimab to prevent hospitalisation. I keep reading posts where people claim the monoclonal antibodies do not work against Omicron. We still have one, and that's still something to take comfort in.

R207 Hope your people are on the mend soon griff.

Fox News Gets Angry About Dictionary Definition Of ‘Anti Vaxxer’

[quote]The good news is we still have Paxlovid

We don't have nearly enough of it.

Reuters: Israel to offer fourth COVID vaccine shot to over 60s, medical staff

A fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine boosts antibodies five-fold a week after the shot is administered, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said, citing preliminary findings of an Israeli study.

My wife and are fighting right now about whether to go to Disney in a few days (which would certainly be a flight) My view is that we are both in the 2 week to 3 month window since the booster and I want to do all our highest risk activities when we both have the most antibodies. Also it will, for Disney, be a lower crowd time and she refuses to give up things like going to the gym and to restaurants so we are going to get Omicron anyway even if we don’t go.

She hates Disney, is scared of flight delays and is terrified of having to stay in Florida a day longer than necessary if we get sick there.

At this point I believe I have lost all claim to be a voice of sanity and probably deserve any abuse you’d like to throw my way.

This should be the strategy around the globe.

Two more doctors from my ICU group text tested positive this afternoon. It’s usually a mix, but today it’s two ped pulmonary intensivists; the most in-demand at the moment.

And, nope, they haven’t been out superspreading. They go to work, get DoorDash, and sleep.

WTF, ElderLez. Disney?

I live in NYC and am triple vaxed, flu shot and everything else you can imagine has been injected in me the last 6 months. Anyway, I have to be out and about every day for work, travel on planes to different states and deal with various people face to face. I haven't caught Covid. However, many of my co workers that ae working remotely, locked up at home and drowning in hand sanitizer have in the last couple weeks. But what I hear from them anecdotally is that they were all out and about over the holidays in parities, church, feast of the 7 fishes and all the bullshit you can imagine. I stayed home over Xmas and NYE but in between I went out to eat and and sat at bars. No COVID here. Maybe I just have a good immune system?

Thank you, R212! So far, everyone’s case has been mild and akin to a cold, knock wood. However, an acquaintance’s cousin did end up in the hospital, despite being young, healthy, and fully vaccinated. He’s on the mend, but it drives home how unpredictable this thing can be.

ElderLez, I definitely see where you’re coming from re: now potentially being a better time to risk traveling. Were it not for having a toddler, I think I’d consider doing the same thing. We took a trip to Hawaii after being fully vaccinated in May and it did wonders for our mental health. Other than that, I’ve been pretty cautious this entire pandemic due to having a pregnant wife and then an infant to keep safe. However, now that my daughter is closer to 18 months and finally in daycare, I’ve had to mentally and emotionally make peace with the fact that we’re all going to get it, given how virulent Omicron is. A lot of other parent friends are agonizing over whether or not to pull their kids out, which I completely understand, but we’ve made the decision that given the reality of this thing, we may as well take advantage of the mental health benefits daycare provides not only to us, but to our very extroverted and social child.

I know R219. I know. But I still love it.

(I do hate cruises, so I at least have that little bit of dignity intact)

Anyway part of why I am willing to go now, whereas I had postponed several time over past two years was because my antibody levels five months after my second Moderna shot were super high when I got them tested and my wife’s illness after her first shot was minimally symptomatic and she wasn’t an efficient spreader, not having given it to me. If I was still worried about my immunosuppressant infusions interfering with my immune response or with how she was likely to respond I’d almost certainly put it off again. Or if I had to go back in to the office immediately I’d put it off. But I have to work from home through the end of the month anyway and my wife is mostly retired so we can isolate easily.

And we really tired for a week after our mid December gallivanting and while I tested negative on a home test we both suspect we might have already had it.

[quote] A fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine boosts antibodies five-fold a week after the shot is administered,

Does this equal a half dose like the booster for Moderna or a full dose. To much conflicting news. My booster is probably worthless by now.

Full dose of Pfizer; 150 healthcare workers at Sheba Med Center with a big drop in Abs 4-5 after first boost.

Congratulations on your baby (and day care!) R222.

Oy my sister who had long COVID last year and took over six months to get over the headaches and have her smell and taste return, just texted me that she just tested positive and all her symptoms are back.

On my end, I just finished cancelling the long weekend in Santa Fe we had planned for the third week of Jan. We had our boosters in October, we have a big stack of N95s to wear, but I don't fly well at the best of times. I just know that if I had an unmasked pretzel-muncher anywhere near me on the flight, I'd have such a panic attack. That coupled with the extreme likelihood of delays? Sounds like a recipe for No Fun Whatsoever.

Though I really would like to get a glimpse of sun.

R226, I’m So sorry for your sis Elder lez . This is not right

My phone has been blinging with text alerts all day! Seems my niece's household of 5 all have Covid. Another niece from another household, and another nephew from yet another household have tested positive too. And 2 more are feeling ill and waiting for test results.

Luckily, I haven't been around any of them in quite some time as I stayed home for both Christmas and New Year's.

Not sure when everybody got exposed. It's about 10 days since Christmas so that may be too long for the current variants. It's 4 days from NYE, and I've read that Omicron's incubation period is even shorter than Delta (which is about 5-6 days). Hoping for mild omicron cases.

4 million new US infections in the past week.

4 million.

I think a lot of kids off from school/college last week drove the numbers up from hanging out and working.

I'm flying to Houston tomorrow morning. Jealous, bitches?

My last flight was uneventful, but that was only SFO to LAX. My expectations for this one are different and I don't know what I'm most looking forward to: the delays, the mask fights, my first time seeing a passenger get duct-taped to their seat? And that's before I even get there. How exciting!

We condole you, R232.

R232 be sure to let us know how it went. I’ve never seen a duct-tape passenger restraint before in person and want to prepare.

Sylvia, I hope you’ll be able to reschedule your trip soon.

Someone talking sense. This guy is saying what the CDC should be saying.

Thank you, R235. There are some on these threads who could benefit from this word of caution:

[quote]Some people are saying everybody is going to eventually get Omicron, and that’s just the wrong attitude. We can make it so that not everybody gets it, and therefore reduce the risk of long Covid in too many people. We can’t just let it spread to everyone on the globe, because that’s going to be a medical catastrophe.

We’re all going die ! Won’t somebody think of the children ?

R237 has probably had Covid three times.

[quote]We’re all going die ! Won’t somebody think of the children ?

Maybe you shouldn't have gone ahead with that Xmas eve slumber party, bitch.

From that article just above: "All the evidence right now shows that vaccines are incredibly effective in reducing the risk of severe illness and death from Covid. And this is true even for new variants such as Delta and Omicron, even though the vaccines were not specifically designed for them. One can reduce the risk of severe illness even more by getting a booster shot. This reduction in risk is very, very clear from all the data. The one issue with Omicron that is different than with other variants is that just getting the regular vaccine dose (e.g., two Pfizer shots) does not reduce the risk of severe illness as much as it did for other variants. In other words, to reduce the risk of severe illness or death, it seems that a booster is very important here. "

He says eating in a restaurant right now is, point-blank, asking to get infected.

[quote]This guy is saying what the CDC should be saying.

Unfortunately, the CDC bowed to political and business pressure and steadfastly refused to point out that indoor dining has been an idiotic choice since the beginning of the pandemic, even after the vaccines were introduced.

^^"One of the growing concerns with the virus is long Covid, where symptoms can far outlast the initial infection. What are your thoughts on that?

That is one of my biggest concerns with this attitude of not worrying about Omicron too much because it might cause less severe symptoms. We know that long Covid is a problem for the other variants. It’s a big problem that is poorly understood medically, but is very clearly a real thing. These are real medical problems that people are having for months to now years after infection. "

If you don't think COVID is a big deal or vaccines aren't effective, shouldn't you be on the website where you can discuss your research with other like-minded scholars?

I mean, is Facebook down?

R236 Yes I can't wait to trot that out on the subreddit for my university, where all the kiddos are whining about having to have online classes for two weeks.

I put the quote just above on here because he raises the very important point that even IF Omicron is no more serious than a cold (IF you're triply vaxx'd), it DOES NOT seem certain that that virus won't be kicking around in your body for a long time afterwards. Most of those who seem to think Omicron is the end of Covid-19, and that we are all being nervous ninnies about it, over-reacting, really have NO IDEA what they are talking about in terms of the virus's ability to do damage further on.

Well, we just had our first Flurona case detected in California.- and it was a kid coming from Cabo San Lucas:

I made that point upthread. I had “mild symptoms” back in April 2020 but those motherfuckers stuck around in my blood cells, causing chest tightening/discomfort for many months afterward. And within the past few months I’ve noticed a breath issue day to day, not unlike what a mild form of bronchitis felt like. This piece of shit could have traveled to my lungs. I’ve scheduled a check-up for Friday. Anyway Long Covid is no joke and is probably going to hit people with only “mild” cases of omicron.

R241 Whom do you mean to refer to when you say "He"? Did Fauci say that?

^The doctor interviewed in R235.

Cheers R250

Republican Activist Who Fought COVID Safety Measures Dies From COVID

The 64th annual Grammy Awards show has been postponed indefinitely as omicron Covid cases continue to rise.

“Given the uncertainty surrounding the Omicron variant, holding the show on January 31st simply contains too many risks,” the two organizations added. “We look forward to celebrating Music’s Biggest Night on a future date, which will be announced soon.”

[quote] Anyway Long Covid is no joke and is probably going to hit people with only “mild” cases of omicron.

I lost my sense of smell and taste. After a year+, they have not returned. Although on occasion, I get “phantom” smells out of the blue. Very freaky.

[quote]be sure to let us know how it went. I’ve never seen a duct-tape passenger restraint before in person and want to prepare.

Unfortunately, I have no tips on how to get the best view or camera angle. Everyone behaved.

I'm not naming names, but the same can't be said for the one place you'd go in Houston if you needed to round up a batch of immunocompromised/suppressed patients.

People were streaming in, taking the ASTM 3 masks that visitors are required to wear, then pulling them down as soon as they thought no one was looking. The poor security guards. It was like WalMart, but with extra cancer.

MD Anderson, R255?

New CDC guidelines...

"Just held an emergency press conference to address the secret stockpile of about one million COVID tests Ron DeSantis didn't distribute, let expire, and then attempted to cover up when I called him out for it."

Can't have new COVID cases to add to our state total, if we don't test for 'em! *taps temple slyly*

Remember, if you can't test for COVID it DIDN'T HAPPEN.

*cough*

*hack*

*wheeeeeeeeeeze*

'It’s super easily transmissible, but it’s also symptom free for a lot of people, so it’s possible [R178] who is kind of a selfish jerk (sorry [R178], but you know that you kind of are right?) has already had it or has it currently.'

Except we have to take LFT tests every morning before coming into work so I'd know if I had covid or not, Joey Deacon.

Do we have any graduates of Trump University School of Medicine here who can explain this one to me?

I had lunch today with an oncologist who told me that the BYO-ivermectin trend is now spreading to other areas of medicine. He recently had a grandmother who was inconsolable after being unable to talk her daughter-in-law and son out of "killer chemo" for her grandson's osteosarcoma. She brought in a baby-food jar of liquid and was begging him to inject it into the kid's implanted port. Sure, Jan.

She called it "clean droxy," home brewed from citrus peels and free of Big Pharma's toxins. Her reasoning was that hydroxychloroquine is used "for legs."

I surmise it's something like: malaria causes muscle and joint pain --> osteosarcoma causes bone pain --> grandson's bone pain is in his leg --> hydroxychloroquine is for legs --> obvious cancer cure. I may be way off, which is why I need a TUSM grad to explain this.

As much as we laugh about these stories as a coping mechanism, it is terrifying how far gone some people are.

I'd ask if you were kidding, R262, but I know you aren't. That memaw is unbelievably stupid, wow.

Right? The EST of 2019 is SOP in 2022.

R178 Hey KGT!

As anticipated some medical facilities are now allowing COVID positive staff to work in order to deal with extreme staffing shortages.

So Covid 2 now?

All I know is that in the last two days, my state has had nearly 30,000 new cases. I'm keeping my ass home for the foreseeable future.

^1,000,000 in the US on this past Monday (holiday weekend), 800,000 on Tuesday, etc...

Hospitalizations in my state (RI) are approaching their peak last winter. Not sure whether death rates will follow. So the vaccine has made almost no difference for numbers of serious cases: I assume this is because the diagrams of unmasked and antivaxxers basically overlap. More than 75% of Rhode Islanders are fully vaxxed, with more than 36% boosted, but vaxxed people only account for 1 out of 3 to 4 new infections.

One Rhode Island hospital that called in covid-positive personnel is now dealing with an outbreak among patients.

Eleanor Slater Hospital in Cranston used two asymptomatic COVID-positive workers to staff operations on Saturday and three more on Monday, according to the state’s website.

On Thursday, the hospital reported that 28 patients had tested positive for the virus as of that morning, totaling about 14% of the facility’s roughly 200 patients.

The hospital is going to get the shit sued out of it, plain and simple.

Thanks, R272, I'm going to close the airlocks and not leave the house (without two KN95 masks) until this is all over.

My town in the rural part of a blue state has 4 x the number of infections than at the previous spike here. Estimated 1 in 4 people have it now. I have to go to the store, fuck.

My state hasn't even dipped into Omicron yet. We are in a huge Delta surge that has our hospitals overflowing with all non essential surgeries cancelled. Of the hospitalized, over three quarters are unvaccinated. ICU COVID patients are above 85% filled with the unvaccinated. Over 90% of COVID patients on ventilators are unvaccinated.

Since Omicron hits the unvaccinated harder, I have no idea how our hospitals will deal with them all plus their regular, emergency cases when omicron does hit us.

The quality of care for the vaccinated, for those with emergency issues, and for chronic issues, etc has been and will be impacted because of the selfish, ignorant, and trashy anti-vaccine people. If the hospitals can't refuse to treat them, I wish their insurance could double charge them. They are harming other people with their willful stupidity.

That's it; we really need draconian rules prohibiting the unvaxxed from mingling in public places and especially from taking medical care away from decent, responsible folks. They have the freedom not to get the vaccine, sure, but not to endanger other people: with freedom comes responsibility.

And you still spread the germs.

For a long time now I've wanted to post what I know of patient breakdowns at UCSF and Stanford, but since I didn't have links and it was my word only, I decided against it. We finally have someone on record:

[quote]There are currently 44 patients with COVID at UCSF hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland. Of those patients, 31 were admitted for other ailments but tested positive, while 13 were admitted because of COVID. Dr. Noble says about half of those admitted due to COVID were unvaccinated. The other half are immunocompromised.

Stanford is much the same.

"mild"

From the doctor at R279’s link:

"A lot of us are still living in this sort of 2020 panic of a positive COVID test means significant illness, it really doesn't mean that anymore," said Dr. Noble. "At some point, we're going to have to dial back our asymptomatic testing."

Biden: 'I Don't Think Covid Is Here To Stay'

Found a helpful link showing ICU and regular bed capacity at hospitals around the country currently.

"Might as well just accept that everyone's going to get it sooner or later...why even bother with masks? Life has to go on."

[quote] Children who have had COVID-19 were up to 2.5 times more likely to receive a new diagnosis of diabetes after infection. Nearly half had diabetic ketoacidosis at time of diabetes diagnosis, a serious diabetes complication, at a much higher rate than previously reported.

Oh YAY

[quote] A researcher in Cyprus has discovered a strain of the coronavirus that combines the delta and omicron variant, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday. Leondios Kostrikis, professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus, called the strain "deltacron," because of its omicron-like genetic signatures within the delta genomes, Bloomberg said. So far, Kostrikis and his team have found 25 cases of the virus, according to the report. It's still too early to tell whether there are more cases of the strain or what impacts it could have.

[quote]"We will see in the future if this strain is more pathological or more contagious or if it will prevail" against the two dominant strains, delta and omicron, Kostrikis said in an interview with Sigma TV Friday. He believes omicron will also overtake deltacron, he added. The researchers sent their findings this week to GISAID, an international database that tracks viruses, according to Bloomberg.

Because of shit like that at R285, we should start locking up, by force, the unvaccinated. If they still won't get it, ship them to islands to fight to the death for our entertainment. The proceeds of the streaming can go to help pay off the costs of the pandemic and get more vaccine into willing people who have so far been unable to get it.

Put the unvacced on the cruise ships. Give them their orange god, some wrestlers, and White Claw. Let Darwin sort them out.

Here's an interesting thread on Reddit by nurses:

My disabled family brother tested positive for Covid at home, Friday evening. Because he was hospitalized with a bout of pneumonia last August, he was taken to the ER. He tested negative for Covid in the ER and was sent home.

The next day, the ER doctor called and said that my brother's PCR test result came back positive. It's worrisome that the home test was accurate but the one in the ER was not. The doctor said that even if the Covid test that was done in the ER had come back positive, they would still have sent my brother home as his symptoms were more like having a cold and he didn't require oxygen.

The doctor said that the only people they were admitting were the ones who needed to be on supplemental oxygen. I just looked at the hospital's bed rate and they are full.

My brother hasn't had the Moderna booster yet, but he was hospitalized with Covid in Jan 2021. The doctor said that having had Covid was better protection than the booster.

typo: "family" should have been deleted

[quote]My brother hasn't had the Moderna booster yet, but he was hospitalized with Covid in Jan 2021. The doctor said that having had Covid was better protection than the booster.

That doctor is a fucking moron. No, having covid a year ago is not better protection than getting a booster within the last three months.

Having had COVID a year ago is like having had J&J a year ago. It isn’t nothing (but it certainly isn’t a recent booster) and it plus the two Moderna shots should mean your brother will meant a healthy defense. I hope he is soon on the mend R289.

Mount not meant.

[quote]The doctor said that having had Covid was better protection than the booster.

He might want to get a second opinion on this. You don’t say what kind of disability, but as he’s been hospitalized for both COVID and pneumonia within the past year and now he’s just landed in the ED for COVID again, is he truly comfortable with the idea of not getting boosted when he becomes eligible? What is the condition of his lungs? If the disability involves general inactivity, weakened respiratory muscles, or poor core strength, those are all things which can impair the cough reflex.

When there are no circulating Abs, it’s really an issue of time. Do you wait for the adaptive immune system to kick in and hope that that happens before any virus which may be in the bronchi has a chance to disseminate to the lungs? Or do you ensure that there are Abs ready to stop the virus while the adaptive immune system is still gearing up to full power?

With the former, there’s uncertainty as to how bad things could get, particularly if there’s an impaired cough reflex. With the latter, the chances of just having a miserable sore throat, headache, and some cold-like symptoms increase.

As always, this isn’t medical advice or opinion; just my musings as a Datalounger.

R287 Cheers, that's the funniest thing I've read all year...and I quite agree; it's a brilliant idea.

[quote]Put the unvacced on the cruise ships. Give them their orange god, some wrestlers, and White Claw. Let Darwin sort them out.

I would pay good money to watch that reality TV series.

I hope the cruise lines can sail on infecting and killing thousands of Repugs until the mid terms and then shut them the fuck down forever.

R292 Thanks, Elderlez. My brother is resting well at his group home. His oxygen levels have been good. He has a bit of phlegm.

He had the 2 Moderna shots after he contracted Covid last year.

He is profoundly mentally challenged and has serious physical disabilities as well.

I've read articles where doctors have expressed the same thing -- that having had Covid in the past offers more protection than a booster.

People who live in congregate care settings are at such risk R299. As someone who also has special needs family members my heart goes out to you. I am glad to hear that your brother is doing well.

I think everyone who is eligible for a booster should get a booster and would never discourage anyone from getting one.

I say this as a physician who has spent far too many hours of my life trying to reason with family members who insisted that immunity from past infections trumped vaccines/boosters, even as their loved ones—some of whom were on their second go-round with COVID—were being kept alive by machines: some very dangerous ground is being walked here.

People will hear what they want to hear, even when the risks have been spelled out for them.

Good luck to everyone here. I hope you all get boosted and stay healthy.

"The findings re-emphasise the importance of short-range Covid transmission, with physical distancing and mask-wearing likely to be the most effective means of preventing infection. Ventilation, though still worthwhile, is likely to have a lesser impact."

R300 My brother and his housemates were just about to get the Moderna booster but then my brother tested positive for Covid.

Thanks, Elderlez. My best to your special needs family member.

Quebec set to tax unvaccinated residents as Canada's health system struggles.

Good. The deliberately unvaccinated should be forced to pay for their care if they catch COVID.

Marjorie Taylor Greene Thinks That COVID Treatments Are Racist

You're a whore, Marj.

And she doesn't wash her hands, r307.

So that's how she managed to cheat on her husband. She'll fuck anything and is quite open about it.

Her cardboard lover, r309.

She puts the tacks in tacky.

She has the eyes of a pillhead. I predict she's into Suburban Speedballs, which are Adderall in the morning, with a Xanax and chardonnay come down at night. Painkillers if she's lucky. If you were a cop and you pulled her over, you'd be ordering a blood test. Bitch is fucked up

She suffers from major flatulence.

Just as long as she suffers.

I’d like to see Marj’s head banged repeatedly against a fireplace mantle like the Manson bitches’ heads were in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Quelle horreur! “When I got out of the hospital, I had some erectile dysfunction issues. Those gradually got better with some medical attention, but I seem to be left with a lasting problem.

“My penis has shrunk. Before I got sick, I was above average, not huge, but definitely bigger than normal. Now I've lost about an inch-and-a-half and become decidedly less than average.

“It's apparently due to vascular damage, and my doctors seem to think it's likely permanent."

Oh, enough with the weinie whining.

Probably the ED and lack of male fertility will get through to some guys.

R316, the sad thing is that if that were the one and only thing that they had put forth as a consequence that every man who got covid would suffer, this would have ended years ago because every asshole antivaxxer would have been fighting each other for shots.

Oh, great. And word today that the Biden admin. is starting to think about and seriously considering whether they should provide KN95 masks to the public.

Always on top of things, they are!

All we have to do is fine and deny medical care to all unvaccinated people. The end.

That's why some of us stocked up on KN95s and N95s when the prices came back down from the original spikes.

[quote]All we have to do is fine and deny medical care to all unvaccinated people.

They can start charging a higher premium similar to smokers or higher co-payments/deductibles since the unvaccinated are more likely to end up in the hospital.

R323, that only works once they are sick and these idiots caught in the toddler magical thinking phase of human development don't understand something unless it slaps them right upside the head. It needs to be fines upfront. Take them out of the tax refunds they are all counting on to make their next truck payment or buy their new 70in TV. A thousand dollar fine should do it.

Tonight on The Amazing Race:

While racing through Scotland in February 2020, teams receive shocking and unprecedented news – for the first time in the show's history, The Amazing Race suspends production due to the..

US Sets New Hospitalization Record, COVID Everywhere

Almost 12k new cases here in Norway. New record. I think most if not all of the cases are omicron.

R324 You're making America out to be a great bargain in this "NO VAX TAX". In Canada I believe it is 2, 553. (I saw a document on a news programme, with a similar figure to he paid every six months. It was rather difficult for my eyes to make out the exact figure however.)

I think the amounts proposed are much higher in Austria and Germany. Anyone know if those plans have become law?

GOP lawmaker compares Covid-19 measures to Nazi Germany

Dr. Oz is calling Dr. Fauci a “petty tyrant”? Jesus Christ.

I did a bit of follow up research on No Vax Tax

Since December, Austria have agreed to impose €3,600 for those over 13 yrs.-old EVERY THREE MONTHS. Will begin in February.

Québec Province, CA Though exact tax has not been arrived at, it will be EVERY SIX MONTHS, estimate to be at least $2,568.88 (May increase over time)

I would have preferred including sources/links, however too many different sources were required:

Singapore is considering an income based tax, and already forcing Singaporeans to pay ALL their own expenses when unvaccinated and contracting Covid.

Italy is taxing 50 yr.-olds and up €1,600 annually

Greece is imposing €100 annual fine on unvaccinated residents 60 and over

Both Israel and Germany are presently contemplating similar measures. Germany also considering an income based tax.

We had an all-time high of 200 student and 200 faculty/staff cases at the University this week, and that's without the whole student body back. Then they sent around an email saying, "At this stage in the pandemic, we should begin shifting focus away from case counts as the key measure of how SARS-CoV-2 is affecting regular life” to justify their decision to return to in-person classes.

That’s crazy Sylvia! So many universities are remote just for January. It is such a short time to avoid Omicron.

I am back to the office-office today since I needed to come in for my infusion and the train this morning was back to April levels of ridership.

My university has now cancelled the PCR testing program that had been in place since mid 202. They're bringing all the students back in person and just having them wear KN95 masks and self-test with rapid antigen tests once or twice a week. They haven't said yet how they'll deal with the INEVITABLE waves of absenteeism and disruption. I guess they're hoping for a precipitous drop in infections over the next two weeks as omicron peaks, but I suspect a lot of their plans is just cost-cutting and PR while whistling past the proverbial (and maybe not so proverbial) graveyard.

*mid 2020* that should have been.

Here in Norway they're actually discussing opening up a bit and let people get infected. Omicron is milder and like 90 % of the population is vaxxed and boosted so most should survive it if they catch it. Mind you, not opening up completely, we still have mandatory home office, masks, social distancing etc. But they have opened up in some areas, which is good.

R334 Oh, you're lucky! You get N95 masks! My university is letting students fend for themselves with whatever masks they can scrounge up. They're also relying upon a ridiculous self-test-by-mail system in partnership with Quest Diagnostics.

"COVID perseverance theater" as someone said elsewhere.

First trip to NYC in months

OMG - At 8 am Friday morning Grand Central Station is deserted ! Footfalls echo.

I thought they’d cleared it to film a movie

Sorry to hear that, Sylvia! I know it's worse at a lot of places, and at least here we open later in January (so we can watch the train wreck in slow motion).

Just let everyone get it, no problem.

More than 12k cases now. New record.

Most of Australia has a 'let it rip' policy (Western Australia delaying that until early February once they reach a 90% double vaxx status - but I wouldn't surprise to see them remain shut off from the rest of the country).

It is next to impossible to get a RATs test and hard to get a PCR, particularly for people in regional areas. We will hit 2 millions cases by next Friday but the real figure is much higher. Oddly I don't know anybody who has caught it.

Q-Anon Lunatic Who Said Only "Idiots" Get Vax Dead of COVID

Hoping not to jinx myself, but Omicron appears to be approaching has-been status in New York.

I hope so.

you are all "has-beens" and that's why you are so concerned!

[quote]I hope so.

I hope so, too. But ...

Why is CVS closing? I thought it was everything free, nowadays. No need for staff or security. Why don't they just leave the doors open until its all gone?

Moving in the right direction:

If someone has Covid (he is vaxxed and boosted) and he got it maybe 4-5 days ago, has mild symptoms, would it be possible to have sex with him in roughly 10 days or would I run the risk of getting Covid?

I know they say people aren't contagious after x number of days but there's a difference from being in a room with someone and them going down on you.

Did you order your USDA Covid tests, R350? Use one on your trade.

I have a stack of tests and will have him do one, but I'm wondering if he will test as still having it since it won't be that long.

Hm, maybe you should just wait on the whore fucking, R352.

Not on the antigen quick tests. It’s the PCR tests that test positive for viral fragments for a few months. If you are still nervous after a negative test, but you also still want to go through with the whoring you could avoid kissing and mouth-anal contact. That’s not medical advice and I have no medical degree but I’m just thinking about where we know the virus lives.

Cheers thanks r354!

R350 - I hope that you have a few conversation starters for that awkward 15 minute period between him being swabbed and checking for the results.

LOL, R356, that could SO be a good one act play.

My future sex friend visitor says, when I asked him how he was feeling, that it's just dragging on and this is the first illness he's had where he's gone four days in a row with no improvement.

And he's boosted, too!

(To add - this is the first time he's gotten Covid).

I really want this to happen for you, but I also want you and your bed boo to be well.

Only Utah is seeing an increase in hospitalizations now in the US. Omicron has jumped the shark.

Goodbye, Utah!

Does anyone wonder how many Republicans have died in each state, how many of them were registered voters, and if that might affect some races in the upcoming elections? I don't see how it couldn't affect some.

R363, it will probably only make a difference in purple states or districts, in very close elections. But the Republican Party is so full of brainwashed idiots, who are being told all the deaths are the vaccinated, that I do wonder if there will be some surprises at the next election. At least surprising for them.

Aren’t most elections decided by about three million people at best? Well, we’ve already killed off almost a million. Unfortunately, probably a lot of them are in solid red states with no mask mandates, and it won’t make much difference.

R365 I'm talking more about the local races and even some statewide races where the vote difference can be like 35-50k. Georgia, for example, I think had some like that. And even smaller races too. Nationwide for the presidential election, who knows. But even then a lot of states have "winner take all" elections where whoever wins the vote gets all the electors for President.

The disparity between vaxxed and unvaxxed and Republican vs. Democrat is so large that Dems may lose something like 25 people for every 50 Republicans. There's unvaxxed Dems, but nowhere near the amount in the Republican party.

[quote] Johns Hopkins University study reveals COVID lockdowns prevented just 0.2% of deaths

America never had a lockdown.

The lockdown in the spring of 2020 in New York was very effective. Everything else was lockdown theater.

We did, actually, but it was mostly under Trump near the start of the pandemic.

Regardless we haven't had any in a long while. The right wing is trying to blow this study up into something it isn't, so I don't see any reason to promote it with "OMG" remarks like it means anything bad.

The places this affects are mostly non US countries, where they have had actual country wide lockdowns regularly. It's a meta review of other studies.

Also the study isn't peer reviewed yet, and didn't adequately define "lockdown" as anything meaningful.

[quote]The authors define lockdown ‘as the imposition of at least one compulsory, non-pharmaceutical intervention’. This would make a mask wearing policy a lockdown,” said Samir Bhatt, a professor of statistics and public health. “For a meta-analysis using a definition that is at odds with the dictionary definition (a state of isolation or restricted access instituted as a security measure) is strange.”

[quote]Another Imperial College London professor, Neil Ferguson, noted how lockdown measures differed from country to country and said the report “does not significantly advance our understanding,” according to Science Media Centre.

We never had a full lockdown like China. We asked people to wear masks and they lost their shit.

People were "asked to stay home" for 2 weeks. In my town, this included St. Patrick's Day, and our mayor was photographed in a bar. I live in the red part of a blue state, but my town has never done much, even ignoring mask signs, until the Governor mandated them and threatened fines. They haven't worn masks en masse since the CDC announced that vaxxed people no longer had to wear them. Vax rate is under 60%.

So basically that headline should read "Johns Hopkins University study reveals COVID 'lockdowns' were ignored by deplorables, who went out and died."

R371 yes, we actually did in the US, for two weeks, at the start of the pandemic.

I live in a red state and even the deplorables were scared. It took a bit for the misinformation to spread and people to start ignoring it. This was back when people didn't know how it spread and we were spraying packages with Lysol and there were runs on grocery stores for toilet paper.

That was not my experience, R374. The people who would become the anti vaxxers did not believe that it was real, so perhaps they were listening to regional talk radio. There was never a lockdown, people could still go to Walmart and Safeway and the Dollar Tree here, and some of the restaurants were still open. There isn't much more to do here. I do know the hair dressers were closed, because there was endless complaining about it in our local paper, as well as the schools, so I guess that counts.

I will say that our larger cities were locked the fuck down in my state. I live in a county with only 40K people, and I am in a town of about 20K.

I was all for the lockdowns, just giving a perspective from the West Coast, not at all trying to argue against intelligent behavior.

R375 yes, because there was never a national lockdown, it was dependent upon what individual states and businesses did. Most erred on the side of caution. Stores limited guests, restaurants closed, etc.

New York City cases are down 90%, peak was early second week of January, 2-5 million city residents likely infected.

It’s time for Pi(rola)

(Vaccinated should be fine)

Yeah, NYer here. The masks are back, including my own!