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The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

theatlantic.com

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Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#541

Post by swader999 »

spookthesunset wrote: post #462
2trill2spill wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you want country wide restrictions solely for your own comfort? Sounds incredibly selfish.

That is exactly what people are asking for and it is super selfish. Asking everybody to hunker down to assuage people who continue to be afraid. Sorry. Life is short. I’ve sacrificed 1.6 years of it for something I’ve never been afraid of. I’ve played by all the rules, but enough is enough. It is super selfish to insist we continue to live this way. We aren’t living, we are being kept alive… life was meant to be live…

I don't care about myself but the social isolation of kids was pretty bad. I hope we can get back to where they can fully interact with each other again.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#542

Post by Wohlf »

xadhominemx wrote: post #511
SQueeeeeL wrote: post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People will always be sceptical of deviations from the status quo and politicians will always be there to capitalize on those fears for substantial gains of power. We have the most educated populis in human history and we're still seeing these problems. I'm not sure how you could fix vaccines becoming a political issue without major changes to the political structure.

Vaccine refusal has not become a major partisan political issue in any other country. It happened here because of the shameless cynicism of the Republican Party and aligned media apparatus.

The US isn't even the most anti-vaccine country in the developed world, that goes to France.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#543

Post by linuxftw »

datameta wrote: post #539
linuxftw wrote: post #530

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> FYI, ~6.4K people still die every year to chicken pox and shingles BS. Maybe if you have AIDs or are terminally ill or have some genetic abnormality.

So those people aren't worth taking into account and can be written off? The number of Americans with an autoimmune condition is in the single digit millions.

I'm saying, they didn't die of Chicken Pox. They might have died from some underlying condition and simply contracted Chicken Pox.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#544

Post by q-rews »

geofft wrote: post #196
cm2187 wrote: 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?

Long-term mask-wearing seem like an entirely reasonable social change. It's like any other clothing: you're protecting a vulnerable part of your body and also displaying respect for others. And it's mostly enforced by social norms: though in many places it is in fact illegal to go without clothing, people wear clothes regardless of the law. (I was in San Francisco at the time the public nudity ban, or shall we call i…

People love downvoting 'round here, but the comment is sensible.

Don't shoot the messenger, even if we all hate the news they bring.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#545

Post by quixoticaxolotl »

resource0x wrote: post #528
thaumasiotes wrote: post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> can someone write a script to compare current covid cases among countries as a function of vaccination rates This isn't really a good idea, because cases as a function of vaccination rates won't tell you anything meaningful. Vaccinations aren't distributed at random - they are heavily skewed towards people at risk of serious health effects from the virus, and skewed away from people with low risk. So if you were to…

So, there's no way to figure out the effectiveness of vaccines from the data? Then how?

Vaccine trials run large randomized control experiments to estimate vaccine effectiveness. i.e. they compare a control group to an experiment group, both equally likely to contract the virus, and observe if a smaller percent of the experiment group contracted the virus compared to the control group over a certain time period.

Continued vaccine efficacy data is measured longitudinally, by tracking the cumulative infection rate across populations with similar risk profiles but different preventative measures in place.

The data for vaccine effectiveness is already publicly available and compiled through reports and infographs on the CDC website, the FDA website and the WHO website. xkcd even had a comic about a graph of vaccine efficacy pulled directly from the FDA's preliminary brief about the Moderna vaccine trial results last year. There are papers that have been published regarding longitudinal results for countries - for instance, you might have heard about studies from Israel claiming that vaccine efficacy has dropped by some 60%, while other studies continue to cap the drop at anywhere from 0 to 10%.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#546

Post by werm82 »

autokad wrote: post #521

There is lots of competition for the top of the stupidity list. NYC locking down all summer and then 'opening up' in September seemed top of the list to me. It's not that I thought they should have stayed locked down the entire time, its that they should have opened in the summer so they could lock down in the winter if they really needed it. But seriously though, locking down in the summer to only open up in flu sea…

> some research has shown that they don't do very well at stopping spread, so why all the fuss to force people to get vaccinated?

Do you have a link/links to where you read that vaccines don't do well at stopping the spread? Everything I've read is that vaccines, while not 100% effective at stopping the vaccinated person from infecting someone else, significantly lower the risk of spreading the virus[0]. That risk drops dramatically when both parties involved are vaccinated.

[0] https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/keythings..., see Effectiveness --> What we know

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#547

Post by autokad »

gowld wrote: post #531
autokad wrote: post #521

There is lots of competition for the top of the stupidity list. NYC locking down all summer and then 'opening up' in September seemed top of the list to me. It's not that I thought they should have stayed locked down the entire time, its that they should have opened in the summer so they could lock down in the winter if they really needed it. But seriously though, locking down in the summer to only open up in flu sea…

Blaming the US Southern border for coronavirus spread is a racist and Republican (anti-immigration excuse-making) trope.

I'm not blaming the southern border, I am pointing out a fact that has implications on how we manage our expectations, and what actions to mitigate the corona virus that will work better than others given our situation. if you think facts should be suppressed then you hardly believe in science. its sad that russdpale thinks this comment should be removed by moderators. I also didn't state this is the only reason, nor that the solution should be stopping the border crossings.

In fact, I am arguing for increased capacity to handle the corona virus long term. short term measures like trying to lock down borders is going to have little meaning in the long run, and hurt a lot of people.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#548

Post by danenania »

simonw wrote: post #458
rayiner wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It boggles my mind why there is pushback on mandating kids to wear masks in schools. It really shouldn’t if you’re an educated person who is following what scientific authorities are saying. The science here is still uncertain, but leaning towards masks for kids in schools not being worth it. See: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/08/the-science-of-maski... > At the end of May, the Centers for Disease Control an…

How is "the science here is still uncertain" an argument against masks in schools? If it turns out they are useful, wearing them will have been a good idea. If it turns out that they weren't useful, what harm has been caused? (I'm aware that there are people out there who think wearing masks for a year or two will scar children for life, but for the most part I don't think those people are arguing in good faith. The…

It seems obvious that wearing masks all day would hinder social and verbal development in toddlers and small children, at least to some extent. I think everyone can agree that they wouldn't help in these areas?

You might think the public health benefits outweigh this concern, but it's disingenuous imo to just assert that there are no conceivable negative effects for a two year old having their first social experiences.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#549

Post by xadhominemx »

Wohlf wrote: post #542
xadhominemx wrote: post #511

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vaccine refusal has not become a major partisan political issue in any other country. It happened here because of the shameless cynicism of the Republican Party and aligned media apparatus.

The US isn't even the most anti-vaccine country in the developed world, that goes to France.

No, their single dose rate is already 10% higher than the US and increasing at a faster rate.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#550

Post by [deleted] »

thingification wrote: post #389
h3cate wrote: 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.

Long COVID exists. Personally, it's always worried me more than the risk of death from COVID. I think people who haven't had a chronic condition (including doctors) tend to underestimate the impact they can have on your life. Long COVID symptoms may not be "severe" or "serious" in a medical coding dictionary, but those terms in a medical dictionary are quite distinct from their everyday meanings. The best evidence we…

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