Is this the part in Plague Inc where the virus infects everyone and then mutates into a 99% chance of death monster?
Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
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Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
#232If it’s milder than Delta - then that’s good right? Or do the increased cases lead to more hospitalizations than Delta?
It's still largely the same severity of the original Wuhan variant tho. It's the people getting immunity that's lowered mortality.
Hospitalizations are down 70%, yet in South Africa only 26% of the population is vaccinated, this goes to show that Omicron is less severe than the original variant.
The reason for this is Omicron replicates mainly in the upper respiratory areas and does not invade vital organs. This is also why its so contagious.
Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
Covid has a death rate hundreds of times higher than a cold. Colds don't make healthy women in their twenties stay up all night coughing so hard their oxygen dips into the 80s. Colds don't cause lung, heart, and cognitive damage that is potentially cumulative. If covid brain fog compounds over time there will be some serious damn consequences.
Is there even a single confirmed death from Omicron yet? I've heard of a couple but they turned out to be fake. This is a highly dynamic situation. Omicron is not alpha or even delta.
There are yes.
On another note "28-day average case fatality rate in South Africa, the likely origin of the Omicron variant, tumbled in the past six weeks from 8% to 0.2%" from WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/omicron-variant-may-end-up-savi...
Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have omicron right now (4-5 months after 2nd jab, so pretty much no effect from that) and it's just like a common cold (certainly wouldn't call it "battling omicron"). I have zero problems with getting this each year.
Hmmm... mild symptoms after being vaccinated. It's almost like the vaccine worked or something. How weird.
4-5 months..... even against Delta that would've been close to 50% efficacy. With Omicron probably non-existent.
Also, see most of South Africa.
Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s just politicians trying to save face at this point. Trillions of dollars lost and total debasement of western currencies was all to arrive at the natural solution to a virus that was destined to become endemic from the very start: let it play out. Two administrations, one from both parties. Same fed chair. Same people at the CDC and WHO. It’s not partisan. It’s institutional failure.
More like corporate capture imo.
I think this is a good take.
Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hmmm... mild symptoms after being vaccinated. It's almost like the vaccine worked or something. How weird.
That's the point. It's often a mild cold for the vaccinated
It's mild for non-vaccinated South Africans as well.
The same still applies as always: Vaccinate the risk groups.
Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
#237Surely this is the end of the pandemic? With an estimated 300k+ cases per day here in the UK, that is 10 million this month on top of everyone who has already had it. It’s as though nobody is ready to acknowledge the elephant in the room that Covid is nearly finished. Or am I missing something?
You're missing the fact you can catch it over and over. My wife is currently battling Omicron after we both had covid at the start of last year. Fully vaccinated and boosted three weeks ago, caught it anyway. With an infected population this massive mutations happen fast enough to cause a new wave before the old one burns out.
But even after mutations, the next time you catch it, symptoms will likely be a lot less severe than the first. At that point, we can stop tracking it and write it off as a variant of the common cold.
Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
But what about weddings? Church? Hospitals? Even during the lockdown, a family friend of mine needed to go to a hospital for an unrelated issue, and that's when a nurse from there passed COVID19 to him. Then he passed COVID19 to his father. He was 35, no kids, didn't work in an office. Still got COVID19 and spread it with deadly results. Etc. etc. Church, Weddings, Thanksgiving / Christmas / New Years, Birthday parti…
Hospitals can be unavoidable if you're unlucky and get hurt. Grocery stores, too, but you can minimize your trips. But the other ones? Totally voluntary and avoidable. The public health guidance around COVID has been atrocious, even as scientists learn more about how the disease spreads indoors. We're going to probably need to change our "indoor event" focused culture if we want to have any hope of getting this behin…
> inconvenient to people
Certainly. But why is it inconvenient to people? We don't really discuss personal issues in the public space, so I'm forced to use my own examples.
My grandma is in her late 80s and soon will be 90. She's had brain cancer decades ago, recovered, but maybe that's finally catching up to her. Our family pretty much murmurs about it behind her back, but her sharp mind simply isn't as sharp as it used to be. Every year is a diminishing of her memory, her ability to focus, her ability to hold discussions and interact with us.
To the point where she's pretty much locked herself inside her own house (we're worried about her but she refuses to live with any of her children) in most situations.
So what does this have to do with parties? Well, parties are one of the only ways we can manage to draw her out of her house and interact with us.
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I can't imagine that I'm the only one who is dealing with the diminishing mental abilities of an elderly grandparent (or parent). But my grandma's extreme stubbornness and pride makes this entire exercise more difficult.
Now sure, maybe we do have to worry about COVID19 killing her. But on the other hand, her lack of socialization and isolationism is another issue that our family struggles to find a balance with. That certainly can't be healthy either, and arguably the social part takes priority at this point.
Furthermore: COVID19 has vaccines and booster-vaccines to mitigate that particular disease. But we don't really have a "Treatment" for the social isolation she's put herself into, or general aging issues as her mental state deteriorates over the near future.
Frankly, this is probably signs that she's on her last legs. Its something we will have to come to terms with as a family, but hosting parties where she can still see us (even in this state, before she gets worse) is a priority.
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Yes. Its "inconvenient" to cut out the yearly parties out of our life. And I'm sure other people have similar stories about why _THIS_ Thanksgiving / Christmas was like no other, and why it was very important to meet up again.
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Don't get me wrong. I'm largely pro-lockdown, and pro-mask, pro-vaccine. But you cannot underestimate the importance of social interactions or family, especially since we all are in different circumstances. Sickness and health changes the calculus in many ways.
I didn't share this story last year, because I felt like the lockdowns were a needed step (pre-vaccine). But this year, I'm speaking towards opening up again and relying upon the vaccine to keep us safe. Perhaps its two-faced for me to take different stances just one year apart, but things really have changed and pushed my calculus towards the other way. After losing Thanksgiving/Christmas 2020, people are aching to see family again. And 2021 has vaccines, dexamethasone, monoclonal antibodies and the Pfizer pill. We've cut the death rate by 80%+ on treatment alone and vaccines can cut it by 90%+.
2021 is just not the same year as 2020.
Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're missing the fact you can catch it over and over. My wife is currently battling Omicron after we both had covid at the start of last year. Fully vaccinated and boosted three weeks ago, caught it anyway. With an infected population this massive mutations happen fast enough to cause a new wave before the old one burns out.
I have omicron right now (4-5 months after 2nd jab, so pretty much no effect from that) and it's just like a common cold (certainly wouldn't call it "battling omicron"). I have zero problems with getting this each year.
No post body was provided.
Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
> No optimism for you! This is a weird observation to make. Optimism is by far the dominant ideology in our society and has been for well over 300 or so years. Even currently when you browse mainstream media news postings the vast majority of the articles focus on how mild omicron is and how people should get to back to work. I'll agree that the media makes plenty of money pedaling anxiety but real pessimism is nearl…
I live in Berkeley and this is basically 90% of the people I meet, see and interact with. Btw they’re also almost all vegetarian and Soylent drinkers. I felt awkward having a sausage pizza yesterday with a friend. So my observations are at the very lease factual in my area, pretty sure factual across the Democratic Party. Progressivism isn’t what it used to be (Obama era).
> vegetarian and Soylent drinkers.
How does this contradict optimism? They're doing these things because they believe this will lead to a brighter, better future. Just because they disagree with your path to get there doesn't mean they are pessimists.