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The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

theatlantic.com

971–980 of 1001 posts

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#971

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly, though how often has a routine flu strain become a pandemic that overwhelms hospitals?

agreed in the early days, and i'm not scientician, but my understand was that once you've had it you become increasingly immune (or unlikely to require hospitalization). I was more thinking about the future, than the immediate response. Seems like someday Corona virus will be something we just get like a cold or chicken pox?

And also just like the other four common coronavirus types that we already live with.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#972

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or maybe the whole 'if we just lock down for two weeks, this will be over' tops the list of stupidity New Zealand had 26 deaths in over a year of the pandemic. Not 26 per 100k population. Not 26 per day. Twenty six people full stop. Because in fact "We go hard and we go early" works. Right now they are locked down (since last week) because they had one case in their community, but of course it isn't ever one case a…

I look at New Zealand and see close to the opposite. A near-complete failure. They've isolated themselves from the world for nearly 2 years, and have approximately zero things to show for it. They're not significantly vaccinated (25%, what happened??) and have no plan to be able to re-open up anytime soon. It sounds harsh, but I don't see that they've done a lot other than waste 2 years of their life sitting on their…

[deleted]

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#973

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think 2 years is enough to just "build new hostipal", let alone staff them It totally is enough time to build one. Staffing is more problematic, but if it was a state-run hospital you could've converted a lot of national guardsmen into nurses in the meanwhile. You don't need a lot of talent to handle most Covid cases, just people able to follow the protocol.

> You don't need a lot of talent to handle most Covid cases, just people able to follow the protocol. Does this have any basis in facts? My understanding is keeping a covid patient alive in the ICU is incredibly demanding.

It is, but you don't need ICU for most hospitalizations. My dad had a cytokine storm, and the doc looked at the health ministry Covid protocol that said "inject IL-6 inhibitor and keep the patient prone and on supplementary oxygen" and did exactly that. You don't need full-grown doctors to do that.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#974
post #952

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point taken about Typhoid Mary. I should have said never before have we had so much information about asymptomatic disease transmission to see / worry about. As for the testing ... I still do think Covid is extremely unique here. The US has given over 500M tests (~1.5/person) and the UK has given over 250M tests (~4/person) in less than two years. Many employers and schools are scaling up plans to do one or more test…

It's an interesting question of how to qualify your words when you talk about how widespread the tests are. I'm sure fewer than half the people I know have had COVID tests (versus tests everyone gets), which makes the tests per person metric potentially a little deceptive. I think it's a fair point that the possibility of constant testing tied to access to employment or entertainment could change our culture. > I sho…

Totally agree. Having objective and open data sets on anything is great. Having daily headlines recoloring that same data is less great.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#975
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…

> Turning vaccines into a political wedge issue is one of the stupidest things I've seen in my life. This is just history repeating itself, unfortunately. The Spanish flu had people protesting the counter-measures put in place to reduce transmission, as well.

How is this "history repeating itself"? A few people objected during the Spanish flu so if we have even a single person that objects nowadays it's "history repeating itself"? What if we discriminate against a minority based on their belief (e.g. refusing a medical intervention) and don't allow them to live a normal life. Is that also history repeating itself? I can think of a few instances in history where groups were prosecuted for their convictions. Are we currently repeating that part of history?

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#976

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to reply to this because I want you to know that I hear your views and I understand them. She is very healthy, 40 years old, good Vitamin D levels (she checked them often). She took HCQ for a while, but then stopped. I also would hug you if I could because I've seen first-hand what's coming your way if you don't get vaccinated. This is so contagious; it's going to get to everyone. You probably won't die, but y…

Thank you for your genuine concern. I am in exceptional health metabolically & hormonally. I don’t think the CCP virus will do much harm to me, and would rather get natural immunity than risk the side effects of the mRNA vaccines. To each their own. I hope your wife gets well soon. I am surprised that the Ivermectin didn’t cut the symptoms dramatically, based on what doctors I follow have been saying.

Does the AZ vaccine not appeal either? It is made from a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) from chimpanzee which has then been modified to contain genetic material from the coronavirus itself. Thus exposing your immune system to the same viral genetic material it would see if you were infected by COVID naturally, albeit in a much weaker dose.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#977
post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People aren’t scared up. Concern is around ICU usage and that elective surgery in hot areas are put on hold which include critical cancer removal surgeries. Also we have a large group of unvaccinated group which are under kids under 12. With life going back to normal, the standard diseases are back like RSV, paraflu and others. Get two at the same time and it’s a emergency room visit. Get 3 at the same time and it’s…

> 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…

Not entirely true. Switzerland is starting to mandate masks for kids in schools again because current numbers show that kids (again) are a thriving factor for infections.

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#978

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has actually getting Covid changed her mind at all?

She has changed her mind. But she will not get the vaccine after this because she will have natural immunity (her view).

Is your view different? You don't believe natural immunity?

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#979

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> True, though usually viruses mutate into less virulent forms. Citation needed. The delta variant is the prime counter-example with higher R0 and slightly higher mortality. SAGE admitted SARS-CoV-2 will very likely mutate to defeat all build-up immunity. Variants of SARS-CoV-2 (SARS and MERS) showed the potential to have very high infection fatality ratios. There is no reason at all to suspect COVID will suddenly be…

Lots of misinformation in the parent comment as well as yours. I’m not going to correct it - I think discussion on HN has been on a large spectrum - interesting policy discussions, technical debates to insane upvoted misinformation and scaremongering. We need to pay attention to virologists, not HN armchair experts.

virologists sponsored by which party?

Re: The Coronavirus Is Here Forever

#980
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…

> Turning vaccines into a political wedge issue is one of the stupidest things I've seen in my life. Something tells me that this is just history repeating. The difference here is the same as your metaphor; the world is a village and now its much easier to see that one conspiracy nut every village has that gets outcasted. The problem of course is that now those nuts can band together in the thousands thanks to worldw…

Conspiracy theorists said the virus came from Wuhan, then they said it had a low fatality rate, then they said COVID would be here to stay like the flu. Now the village is slowly accepting and even promoting all those “conspiracies”
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