Live data from Hacker News

Delta Variant

unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com

161–170 of 442 posts

Re: Delta Variant

#162
post #32

Is seems kind of logical in hindsight: the first mutation of the predecessor bat/pangolin/whatever virus genome to cross over to humans is an MVP full of "compatibility bugs" that barely achieves R0>1. A few billion dicerolls later many of those "compatibility bugs" have found fixes. Remember the hand washing phase of the pandemic? Aerosol transmission was basically ruled out because it was assumed that spread would…

This is also why vaccination is so critical and why "young healthy people" should not opt out: when you get the virus, even if it's a mild case, you are in effect donating processing power to what amounts to a global supercomputing project to evolve more virulent strains of COVID. That's how evolution works. The more chances the virus has to replicate, the more likely it is to become more virulent or even worse learn to evade the vaccine.

If the delta variant jumps the vaccine hurdle we are back to early 2020 but with something 2-4X as contagious.

Scientific literacy matters and know-nothing populist bullshit (regardless of whether it is "left" or "right" in flavor) is dangerous. There is no such thing as a "post-truth era." Being wrong carries the death penalty, eventually. Civilization insulates us quite a bit allowing a lot of people to go nuts with little consequence, but if enough people are wrong enough for long enough the wall collapses and the consequences arrive.

If you think this is fun, your kids and grandkids are gonna have a blast with 800ppm CO2 levels.

Re: Delta Variant

#163

The article purposefully conflates numbers to tell a narrative. I am talking only about EU, and at that southern EU which is where I've been following the numbers closely. Delta variant has been acting for up to 1 month in some regions, and as described in the article yes cases are up very quickly. However, the article says: > COVID deaths [...] And if you think Europe or the US will be spared This is not reflected a…

[flagged]

Prior to this pandemic, were you getting the yearly flu vaccine?

Re: Delta Variant

#164
post #61
post #4

I have to admit, I'm a little perplexed about all the discussion around the Delta variant. It almost feels like people are discussing this like it's a plot point in a novel, a new looming threat that comes after Act II, rather than a cold scientific fact. As someone who lives in New York and has been vaccinated for months, should I worry about this? It seems like the answer to that question is no, I shouldn't. Also n…

I hear you and it's now inevitable that the news cycle will move beyond Delta soon as other variants take over from it. It's also inevitable that future dominant variants are going to be more resistant to the current vaccines as they evolve inside of vaccinated populations. That said, I think the article conveyed a lot of subtle but important points that some people miss in all the noise. One is that vaccination is i…

> The other is that vaccines are unlikely to ever stop the spread of the virus but that's not a bad thing since we will be increasingly able to prevent deaths

Letting it escape is not a bad thing? Are you kidding?

Think of what the Flu costs the world each year, now this on top ?

The only people who benefit from an escape are big pharmaceutical companies who will now sell you a 2 for 1 package, yearly flu shot and yearly Covid19 shot.

Re: Delta Variant

#165
As a reader of HN for several years now, it blows my mind how polarized we all are on this issue. Something smells here, you're not allowed to question anything without being down voted to oblivion, one way or another.

Why?

Re: Delta Variant

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US the Delta variant has been in the news non-stop for months. Once the vaccines began bringing the pandemic under control here, the Delta variant as the new big risk is what the news media began focusing on heavily. That began shortly after case counts exploded dramatically higher in India and gained coverage the further it spread around the globe.

The Netherlands has a decent vaccination rate (38.5% fully vaccinated, something like 66% has received their first shot). The delta variant is wreaking havoc here. The number of cases went from 500 to 10 000 in 3 weeks... Yes this coincided with very poor decision making on the government side (deciding to open all clubs/bars for people who had a negative tests), but still something to be taken serious. So far the #…

And doesn't the delta variant break through the first shot immunity (after a few weeks) but 2nd dose provides durable immunity.

And parts of the use (including my county) have >70% of 2 doses. (parts of) the US are in a completely different place vaccine wise compared to most of europe.

Re: Delta Variant

#167

The article purposefully conflates numbers to tell a narrative. I am talking only about EU, and at that southern EU which is where I've been following the numbers closely. Delta variant has been acting for up to 1 month in some regions, and as described in the article yes cases are up very quickly. However, the article says: > COVID deaths [...] And if you think Europe or the US will be spared This is not reflected a…

I hate having to be skeptical of this stuff, because the consequences of skeptics being accurate are even more horrifying than the pandemic. This is so challenging because when you look at each number he uses, and then compare it to its base rate, you can see why hesitancy levels are 30-50% in regions of developed countries. If you are among that cohort of people in your region who are not vaccinated, should you get…

There are many reasons people choose not to get the vaccine. What evidence do you have that the main issue is a distrust of authority?

The main authority on this, the FDA has not even officially approved the vaccine and likely won't for quite awhile. For some people it is logical to ask why other vaccines require 10year+ trials and for this a few months was sufficient.

While personally, I think the risk of the virus greatly outweighs the risk of getting the vaccine, I do not think we should force that choice on everyone. Either the FDA is ridiculously over-conservative in their other trials, or this one is extremely rushed. Can't have it both ways.

Re: Delta Variant

#168
post #151

I honestly don't know how to feel about Tomas Pueyo. He's very opinionated about what he writes, and has gained good readership and influencer status on this topic. It's clear in his writings that he fancies himself as an "amateur of expert insight". He may be 100% correct. He may also be 100% wrong. It's hard to tell (let alone without invoking the conditional fallacy). However, the most lasting impression I have of…

ive never heard of this author and i thought it was a good blog post. your post is for better or worse the definition of ad-hominem and also black-and-white thinking (100% right or 100% wrong). In the US, we are in a dangerous place where social distancing and masking have basically stopped, and with a much more contagious variant like Delta we're defintiely going to have a much bigger problem again in the coming mon…

I've never heard of him either, and clicked around until I found some background on him. He has no medical or health care related education or experience. He's a tech guy with a blog.

Re: Delta Variant

#169

The article purposefully conflates numbers to tell a narrative. I am talking only about EU, and at that southern EU which is where I've been following the numbers closely. Delta variant has been acting for up to 1 month in some regions, and as described in the article yes cases are up very quickly. However, the article says: > COVID deaths [...] And if you think Europe or the US will be spared This is not reflected a…

[flagged]

Ignoring the higher risk of major long-term damage incurred by letting yourself get sick when you could've been vaccinated, I don't understand how this thought process accounts for anyone else.

What if my main reason for getting vaccinated is to lower my chance of infecting an immunocompromised person I care about? Even if I could somehow be 100% certain that if I were to be infected it'd be fully asymptomatic, the vaccine still helps me avoid spreading COVID-19 further.

Do you imagine young people who get flu shots do so only because they're worried about dying from influenza at 20?

Re: Delta Variant

#170
post #26
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the EU for major countries you can get vaccinated any time, it's the same reasons as in the US some people just don't want to.

What major countries? I live in Spain and in most regions people under 30 still can't get vaccinated.

Right now in Germany vaccines are available in abundance, just today Berlin opened a Drive-In Vaccination Center at a furniture store and at Vaccination Centers in Saxony appointments are not needed anymore [1].

[1] https://www.tagesschau.de/newsticker/liveblog-coronavirus-di...

Post reply on HN