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The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

theatlantic.com

231–240 of 1001 posts

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does covid transmit to wild animals like deer that have almost no interactions with humans ? The transmission chain must be very long. I'd appreciate any links or resources to read more. Perhaps we can learn to be more mindful of our interactions with other animals, wear masks in public spaces or public transport, and hopefully WFH becomes a permanent option. It seems that I stepped on many nerves, please, feel f…

> How does covid transmit to wild animals like deer that have almost no interactions with humans ? I've been within a few feet of wild deer plenty of times in my life. Humans have a lot more interaction with wild animals than you would think once you move outside of urban areas.

There's literally a market in Brian Head Utah where a bull moose hangs out on the front porch most of the day. I'm sure there are plenty of "wild" animals with petting-zoo-like relationships with random people. This can't be the only one.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#232
post #16

That's why I don't really understand why there are still covid restrictions in countries that are close to full vaccination, like the UK. There isn't really a next step after having vaccinated the population, it is "steady state". So do they want us to have these restrictions (countries you can't travel to, endless testing, mask requirements) forever?

The UK seems to have a 62% full vaccination rate with 71% having at least one dose[0]. That sounds really low to me. "Close to full vaccination" to me would imply close to 100% or, reading "full" as "reaching herd immunity" I'd think 70-80% fully vaccinated - still a very long way to go. I hear you that we will eventually reach a point where we've hit the new normal. It's just going to be whether that point is reache…

> That sounds really low to me.

Low compared to what? Do you know the vaccinations rates for all other diseases for which we have vaccines for?

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Returning to normal is a terrible idea when COVID patients are overwhelming hospitals across the world. How can things be normal if our healthcare systems are nearing collapse? You might be willing to accept the risk of getting sick on your behalf, but by advocating a return to 'normal' before we have the capabilities to deal with this virus, you are advocating for putting even more stress on healthcare systems acros…

It seems one option is to increase hospital capacity. There should be ways to do this without needing more RNs and MDs.

Do you believe that expensive cures are preferable to cheap preventions?

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#234
post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since no one under 16 has been vaccinated yet, about 70% of the population is vaccinated (44M out of 67M). This fact really bothers me. I feel like once adults got vaccinated we all spiked the football and said "F--k the kids, I got mine".

Actually the old have been fucking over the young to protect themselves since March 2020.

Speak for yourself, I have been parasitizing the young ever since before I was born.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#235
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not true of Delta strain. Younger people, under 30, and children are getting it and ending up in hospital. It’s widely reported here in Australia. Children are at risk.

> Younger people, under 30, and children are getting it and ending up in hospital. To emphasise this point, in Victoria, Australia, most of the cases are in the 20-29 age group. Most of the active cases are in the 0-9 age group.[0] NSW data doesn't have the pretty graphs, but the raw data [1] bears out similar groupings. [0] https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/victorian-coronavirus-cov... [1] https://data.nsw.gov.au/d…

Your first link reports that out of the thousands of total cases, only 20 are in the hospital, 9 of which are in the ICU. This does not support the claim that young people are "widely" ending up in the hospital from COVID.

A COVID case != serious illness, especially in vaccinated individuals. We need to stop pretending that they are equivalent.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#237
post #16

That's why I don't really understand why there are still covid restrictions in countries that are close to full vaccination, like the UK. There isn't really a next step after having vaccinated the population, it is "steady state". So do they want us to have these restrictions (countries you can't travel to, endless testing, mask requirements) forever?

Spread of sars-cov-2 in human populations can be stopped. It first requires intramuscular vaccination to provide IgG antibodies in the body proper to prevent serious disease and then just as importantly, an intranasal vaccination to provide resident B and T cells in the surface mucosa tissues of the upper respiratory tract where the B cells will make local IgA antibodies and provide sterilizing immunity and prevent spread from person to person.

Intranasal boosters are the one obvious thing we could do top-down to end the pandemic and only have to deal with epidemics.

ref: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/373/6553/397

ref: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/long-term-evoluti... page 5, #8. "Whilst we feel that current vaccines are excellent for reducing the risk of hospital admission and disease, we propose that research be focused on vaccines that also induce high and durable levels of mucosal immunity in order to reduce infection of and transmission from vaccinated individuals. This could also reduce the possibility of variant selection in vaccinated individuals."

ref: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41577-021-00550-x

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#238
post #221

Good article, but doesn't mention the other reason that covid-19 is never going completely away: animal reservoirs. We know that dogs, cats, hamsters, guinea pigs, mink, white-tailed deer, a gorilla, and a tiger have been found to have been infected with covid-19. It is implausible that it will ever cease to have an animal reservoir, especially given the finding in Canada of 30% of white-tailed deer having it. Of dis…

Unpopular opinion but as countries get majority vaccinated they have to learn to not be as scared of it.

I think the people who don't like that opinion, although very, very loud online, are not actually in the majority. But, it sure sounds like it online though.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#239
post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unpopular opinion but as countries get majority vaccinated they have to learn to not be as scared of it.

I don't think that's unpopular. More precisely, once the vaccine is available to all age groups, the only people that need to be scared of it are the unvaccinated. And they will have had every opportunity to get vaccinated, so we shouldn't optimize for them.

Not the immunocompromised or those who are legitimately unable to get vaccinated? Not a very nuanced take.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm almost sure 100% vaccination rate with the vaccines currently available won't change much. I hope I'm wrong. But there already are cases apparently confirming this. IMHO we should just return to normal, consider this a new kind of flu and deal with the fact it's more deadly. I always knew there is a chance a flu can kill me one day. I'm Ok with the fact the chance is higher now. My personal (apparently risky, I d…

Returning to normal is a terrible idea when COVID patients are overwhelming hospitals across the world. How can things be normal if our healthcare systems are nearing collapse? You might be willing to accept the risk of getting sick on your behalf, but by advocating a return to 'normal' before we have the capabilities to deal with this virus, you are advocating for putting even more stress on healthcare systems acros…

Vaccinated Covid patients are NOT overwhelming hospitals. LA county isn't that extraordinarily highly vaccinated. It's a county much denser and with a greater population than a lot of countries in Europe. There's been This is a blip in the ocean of hospitalizations in LA county.
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