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The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

theatlantic.com

911–920 of 1001 posts

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#911
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearly 300 hospitalized per day, nearly 500 dead so far. https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/07/health/children-covid-19-prot... Unknown how many will long-term health effects. Even seemingly innocuous viruses like Epstein-Barr are tied to various health problems later in life. Why should we knowingly expose an entire generation to a little understood virus?

So less than one in a million children hospitalized per day. And 500 dead after almost two years is nothing, sorry to be so blunt. You can say epstein-barr, I can say other corona viruses like the cold virus. You can't just choose an arbitrary virus to compare to. We need strong evidence of serious risk to impose such restrictions, and not ungrounded fear which is not backed by data.

Fear mongers run out of ammunition for forever lockdowns. Low quality of arguments will be compensated by hysteria and insults. For instance that you don't care about children (while in their age group it's less harmful than a flu).

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#912
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?

Israel has close to full vaccination, yet cases are going up because immunity is falling again and there are new variants. It's understandable why the restrictions are back again.

Yet deaths aren't.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#913
post #489

"The transition to endemic COVID-19 is also a psychological one. When everyone has some immunity, a COVID-19 diagnosis becomes as routine as diagnosis of strep or flu—not good news, but not a reason for particular fear or worry or embarrassment either. That means unlearning a year of messaging that said COVID-19 was not just a flu. If the confusion around the CDC dropping mask recommendations for the vaccinated earli…

> Today, thanks to air travel, the world is a village. Wuhan is exposed one week, and the world the next. I'm really hoping we can reduce the intermixing by some degree by banning lineups at airports security screen and customs/immigration lines, but I'm not holding my breath.

Except 15 minutes before/after those lineups everyone was/is crammed together in the legally allowed minimum space on board the plane?

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#914
post #869

It is surprisingly difficult to explain this even to otherwise intelligent people. Everyone has been so brainwashed by mass media's narrative of "stopping covid" that they don't see that even in January of 2020 it was already impossible to "stop" it in any meaningful way. And they're still talking about it today. The strategy, it seems to me, should be to vaccinate as many people as possible, and then, within 6 month…

I'm not saying there's some kind of grand conspiracy theory but there are people who benefit from states/country not being fully open. Let it rip announced today would mean the end of eviction moratorium.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#915
post #132

What baffles me is the total failure to highlight one of the best ways to mitigate the risk of severe covid complications: don’t be obese[1]. It’s also a good life choice for those who also prefer not to die of non-covid conditions. Edit: And it increases your risk for long covid[2]. [1] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/latest-evidence-on... [2] https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20210608/obesity-increases-r...

Assuming US' context, this is very politically incorrect and Americans would rather die than make someone uncomfortable.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#916

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…

On the curve, hospital beds are basically flat compared to a covid spike. There is no rational amount of beds that is enough, because bed estimates are always a guess: wrong and wasteful because too many and then suddenly too few. And then you need doctors and nurses. And the disease spikes in one area and then another. Do you ship beds around? Easier to take personal responsibility than depend on the government or w…

You ship patients around to big hospitals.

Personal responsibility is fundamental, that's what makes the collective measures work efficiently. But there are simply things that are near impossible to do personally. Are you going to build a personal ICU for your family just in case? Are you going to train as an ICU nurse, a respiratory disease specialist, and are you also building a personal protective equipment factory for yourself too? Of course not.

Though we need a bit of both. Depending on cheap just-in-time shit from China is great when you are dealing with a local flu outbreak in the local preschool, but not great in a pandemic. And the efficient solution is that everyone stocks up a few at home, and collectively we stock up a few billion in the country and then distribute it when and where needed instead of everyone trying to stock up thousands at home. (And so on for other aspects of protective measures.)

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#917
post #869

It is surprisingly difficult to explain this even to otherwise intelligent people. Everyone has been so brainwashed by mass media's narrative of "stopping covid" that they don't see that even in January of 2020 it was already impossible to "stop" it in any meaningful way. And they're still talking about it today. The strategy, it seems to me, should be to vaccinate as many people as possible, and then, within 6 month…

I'm not saying there's some kind of grand conspiracy theory but there are people who benefit from states/country not being fully open. Let it rip announced today would mean the end of eviction moratorium.

"Today" is probably too early. You have to message this well in advance so that people who want to get the vaccine but perhaps were holding out for the fall season could get it in time. I know a good number of folks like that myself. It'd also be great if we could, _after a year and a half_, actually scale up capacity for N95 masks as well, at least for people who can't take the vaccine for medical reasons, if not for everyone who wants them.

The whole "fighting COVID" thing is 100% political at this point. If it wasn't, instead of requiring masks on a plane (stuffed like sardines in a can), we'd see TSA at least measure body temperature and look for symptoms. We'd see the same thing in grocery stores, hospitals, and other public places. Gavin Newsom wouldn't be dining unmasked at The French Laundry, and Barack Obama wouldn't call a 500+ person superspreader event.

People who tell us to worry about COVID, as a rule, demonstrably aren't worried about it themselves. Fauci himself rips that mask off his face immediately after cameras turn off. So after I received the vaccine, I basically said "fuck it" and I'm not going to comply with anything anymore. Nor will I get any "booster" shots or whatever else they come up with. I will also not work with or for anyone who mandates any of this useless garbage.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#919
post #458

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…

Cuckdowncels, get cancer and die...masked.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#920

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…

Or how about how everyone was anti mask in the beginning, including the CDC, WHO, and my very liberal coworkers. When I said it would be advisable to wear a mask when in crowded places March, 2020 - I was heckled for not following the science. Hindsight is always 20/20, early on the virus was not believed to be airborne, only spread through relatively large droplets from coughing/sneezing which you'd likely only enco…

> Hindsight is always 20/20, early on the virus was not believed to be airborne, only spread through relatively large droplets from coughing/sneezing which you'd likely only encounter in close contact with an actively ill person.

This isn't about hindsight. Coronaviruses are not an unknown and airborne spread should have been assumed unless ruled out. And it was assumed by many: Taiwan immediately mobilized their military to ramp up mask production, even before the WHO admitted there was a problem.

> Plus, Fauci had the responsibility to preserve masks for those that would be exposed directly to infected people - the medical workers and first responders.

Then he and other leaders should have communicated that. Treating people like dumb idiots that you need to lie to to get what you want results in those people mistrusting your future recommendations, e.g. to get vaccinated.

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