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Update on Omicron

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Re: Update on Omicron

#761

Post by ed_balls »

yufeng66 wrote: post #285

The omicron variant could be a blessing in disguise if the early stories on how it is less deadly checks out. That means people refuse to get the vaccine shot will be infected with the omicron variant with relatively low consequence and get immunity that way. Btw this is how it suppose to work. The virus has no incentive to kill its host. The variant that is fast spreading and less deadly eventually wins out.

> The omicron variant could be a blessing in disguise

Not really. There is a very low evolutionary pressure to become less deadly.* You start infecting people in day 3, have symptoms on day 8 and die on day 20. You can walk around for a week infecting people before you die. Compare it to previous SARS epidemic, where people started infecting others much later. It just died out, because people were isolated at homes and hospitals.

*SARS-COV-2 is an upper respiratory track disease and SARS-COV-1 is a lower respiratory track disease.

Re: Update on Omicron

#762

Post by 9935c101ab17a66 »

tibbon wrote: post #103
pydry wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

South Africa is also pissed that they've been cut off from the rest of the world. They might be downplaying.

I'm not sure I get this assumption. Few other countries were "pissed off" when borders were closed to them. I still cannot travel recreationally to Japan from the US, and that's fine.

Well, South Africa have publicly stated they’re pissed and feel like they are being punished, so it’s not really baseless.

Re: Update on Omicron

#763

Post by mythrwy »

Afforess wrote: post #684
scoopdewoop wrote: post #654

The media and government can't be trusted with germ theory. The whole idea that we have control over the virus and that our actions are tantamount to killing people with it or not is ludicrous. The virus is going to spread, and its going to kill people. People aren't killing each other. We will all catch covid. The "treatment" has been so much worse than the disease. 5 million died due to covid, but hundreds of milli…

The existence of and overall success of China's zero covid strategy says you're wrong, human actions can contain it. If your reply is China's data can not be trusted, then Australia or NZ. But same conclusion, we can and should mitigate the virus. Also, the economy is doing fine. Some places better than other, but we're much better off now than in 2009, the last global recession. If this is a crisis, it's milder than…

"Delay" is not "Contain".

Re: Update on Omicron

#764

Post by rajup »

himinlomax wrote: post #758
rajup wrote: post #729

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The number of studies suggesting people exposed to other coronaviruses (common cold etc) having possibly more immunity to COVID disagree with you. You seem to be absolutely sure it makes no difference. Care to back that up?

Care to back THAT up? I'm aware of that hypothesis, but it hasn't been conclusively demonstrated afaik.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02260-9

https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3563

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/09/07/1033677...

https://www.mpg.de/17434954/0907-moge-prior-exposure-to-comm...

Literally a Google search away, but here you go.

Re: Update on Omicron

#765

Post by rajup »

supernovae wrote: post #754
rajup wrote: post #729

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The number of studies suggesting people exposed to other coronaviruses (common cold etc) having possibly more immunity to COVID disagree with you. You seem to be absolutely sure it makes no difference. Care to back that up?

Care to back up your claim with citations? Looking at the comment history its clear you don't understand immunology so i'm not sure you get a free pass on virology.

I freely and humbly admit I'm neither an immunologist nor a virologist. But I doubt neither are you nor the many commenters on here who have strongly held beliefs backed by nothing substantive.

Re: Update on Omicron

#766

Post by merpnderp »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #725
merpnderp wrote: post #650

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Please stop propagating this BS." At least in the US hardly anyone has or uses FFP2 level masks (N95 here) and the government has not promoted them (except on the last page of the CDC page on masks with half a sentence saying they're better). And the data on cloth masks does show their effectiveness is much lower than initially advertised. If the parent was speaking about the US, then they weren't propagating BS, as…

> I assume it is because the government ran a massive ad campaign to get people to not wear them in the beginning. They said the the same thing in Europe, in order to prevent opportunists from scalping them and the general population from hoarding them, so the healthcare workers would have access to them. IMHO, intentionally deceiving the population in order to save masks for healthcare workers was a terribly short s…

The irony, at least in the US, is that the ad campaign against using N95 masks was completely unnecessary as they were diverted in the supply chain to hospitals and government. There were no masks to be had at the hardware store or retail goods.

This pandemic has shown our public health organizations are not very good at their jobs.

Re: Update on Omicron

#767

Post by incrudible »

merpnderp wrote: post #766
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #725

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I assume it is because the government ran a massive ad campaign to get people to not wear them in the beginning. They said the the same thing in Europe, in order to prevent opportunists from scalping them and the general population from hoarding them, so the healthcare workers would have access to them. IMHO, intentionally deceiving the population in order to save masks for healthcare workers was a terribly short s…

The irony, at least in the US, is that the ad campaign against using N95 masks was completely unnecessary as they were diverted in the supply chain to hospitals and government. There were no masks to be had at the hardware store or retail goods. This pandemic has shown our public health organizations are not very good at their jobs.

> This pandemic has shown our public health organizations are not very good at their jobs.

They don't abide by the first law of holes. If they stopped at that one "noble lie", maybe we'd be in a better place.

Re: Update on Omicron

#768

Post by marexv »

op00to wrote: post #721
Bud wrote: post #680

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It actually differs from airport security in one crucial way: vaccination actually works, and it will continue to work. Airport security measures, at least the ones commonly discussed, the ones that spring up after 9/11, have zero effect these days, since the threats they were supposedly intended to combat were solved the moment cockpit doors were required to remain locked at all times. Vaccines work, boosters work,…

I advocate keeping all of these measures forever. Before you flame me - I don't think they are to be used constantly, or all at the same time. They are all valuable tools to reducing the pain, suffering, and lost productivity of respiratory illnesses. I'd like to see universal masking in schools during flu season, for example. Limited group of people, limited time, but would happen every year. Maybe there's a trigger…

Im really sad to see that you are willing to sacrifice children (our future) in order to avoid a "bad" flu season.

Re: Update on Omicron

#769

Post by throwawaylinux »

chimprich wrote: post #741
throwawaylinux wrote: post #708

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> > happy to be owned by others The poster I replied to made some weird "argument" about owning ourselves not helping anything. > > continue locking themselves inside their homes Not melodrama or hyperbole. Keep shutting yourself in if you are so petrified that you think everybody else must "wear masks and stay indoors if possible" in response to new covid variants as OP said. It's a great way to reduce contact and m…

> Not melodrama or hyperbole. Keep shutting yourself in if you are so petrified You don't see the contradiction in what you have written here? You're trying to belittle people taking precautions by saying that they're "petrified". You're using emotive language to try to force through a weak argument. Obviously you can't stay indoors all of the time. People need to get food, fix their houses, and so on. People who are…

I don't see the contradiction, no. Petrified isn't belittling it is quite a suitable word for people who are so scared of this that they demand everyone else in the country should shut themselves in, wear masks, stay indoors, etc. How is that belittling? Aren't they pretty much self-describing as incredibly fearful?

And food can and is delivered. Not everything can be but almost everything for most people.

Re: Update on Omicron

#770

Post by BLKNSLVR »

aakresearch wrote: post #476
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree, and it's the macro version of what I realised after having a discussion with a co-worker who's begrudgingly getting the vaccine, but is against being 'forced' to do it. I understand the negative reaction to any authority figure forcing something, and I react negatively, to the point of using technical workarounds, to Australia's metadata retention rules and other privacy-related political BS. Living in…

> 1. If COVID sticks around, ... we'll be getting into that 'vulnerable' category. When that happens, how will you feel about large groups of 'kids' ... protesting getting vaccinated against a disease that may be very mild for them but fatal for you? 1. I, personally, would not care about it in the slightest. If the current "response", dictating that I should fixate on this one thing, and, more importantly, strictly…

> I'm looking to "cut my losses" soon, so to speak

I don't know what to say to this, other than reconsider what other options there are that may allow for further opportunities to feel privileged to be alive; big things, small things, simple things, complex things.

> It may also mean that "we" failed to give these "kids" proper upbringing. I, certainly, did fail

Sounds like you're being too hard on yourself. There are uncountable facets to upbringing, and "proper" is indefinable. I'm happy with how my kids are turning out, but I'm yet to see what the 'jungle of the real world' will bring out of them once they've launched into it on their own. Like that Chinese proverb, "we'll see".[0]

> It is far better to live a short but free life than a looong but thoroughly mandated and controlled.

I'll just say that things are more nuanced than that; those are the two extremes within which a whole spectrum exists.

I don't want to stamp my opinions, borne from my personal life experience, upon your opinions formed from a life experience I am entirely unfamiliar with. Good luck with whatever you choose is the right thing for you and your loved ones.

[0]: https://impossiblehq.com/well-see/

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