Surely 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?
>Surely this is the end of the pandemic? Yes, welcome to the endemic. Covid is here to stay, it doesn't matter if 100% of the world were vaccinated tommrow, covid would not go away. It doesn't matter if you get the vaccination or not, in your life time you WILL get covid (just like the flu, no one escapes it, you typically get the flu about every decade or so regardless of shots). We need to just accept this and move…
Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
431–440 of 703 posts
Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
#432Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, sure. Who knows what viruses could be spreading and mutating amongst those weasels. It's not like SARS-CoV-2 is the first, and it won't be the last. But when you say > This is a lottery that's less fun to play How exactly do you propose not playing? Lockdowns, social distancing, masking, etc. for life? We're eventually going to have to start treating Covid the same as we've always treated "the flu" and it defin…
> Lockdowns, social distancing, masking, etc. for life? Very few places did lockdowns at any point so I wouldn’t expect that to start now, butthe ones which did were successful in breaking spread. It doesn’t need to be continuous, but it’s clearly effective for preventing huge spikes. Similarly, we’d save lives and billions of dollars if we established the same social norms which some Asian countries have about weari…
This is some grade-a gaslighting, plenty of countries had long brutal lockdowns where no-one was allowed outside unless it was "essential".
> butthe ones which did were successful in breaking spread.
No. Many of those places had worse outcomes than places that didn't do any sort of lockdown.
(When I say lockdown I mean stay-at-home orders. Do you have a different definition?)
Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
#433Earlier quoted context omitted.
Congratulations. Both my wife and I (double vaxxed for 5 months, not boosted yet although were just about to do so) caught Omicron-flavoured Covid in the lead-up to Christmas and it wiped us out each for 2-3 days each, with a combination of fatigue, aches, fever, and violent coughing. Certainly worse than any cold or flu we've had up until that point. I still have a pretty nasty cough and a throat inflammation. Aren'…
Congratulations. You haven't had a bad cold or flu before. It's not uncommon for the flu to knock someone out for a good week. Or for a cold to leave a lingering cough for weeks.
Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
#434Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's mild for non-vaccinated South Africans as well. The same still applies as always: Vaccinate the risk groups.
SA had very high numbers of previous infections, so there was a ton of pre-existing immunity.
Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
#435omicron has solidly taken over Vancouver BC. Anecdotal evidence: in the past two years (except this past week) I have only known 1 person who got covid. In the past week I know over 20 people who have got covid. I sincerely hope that this is the beginning of the end of covid lockdowns. omicron is taking the world by storm and I wouldn't be surprised if the entire world gets it in the next few weeks.
It appears to be infeasible to stop omicron through non-extreme lockdown measures. What I'm not yet clear on is: - to what extent does recovering from Omicron prevent Delta? - how long does that immunity last? We probably are going to have to live with this, but I'm not sure many countries have caught up to the healthcare staffing implications of that.
If Omicron is reaching 100% prevalence in so many locations, I wonder if Delta will not be as much of a threat anymore? It seems like there haven't been any infections with older variants for a long time now.
Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
#436Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have a rather crucial misunderstanding. There are lots of endemic viruses; that is part of why we vaccinate new humans against so many of them.
Most of those viruses are actually very deadly, and most of those vaccines actually make you not-get-it-at-all. The only comparable virus is the flu, and the vaccine is equally shitty [0] as the covid vaccines are. Death rates for young and (currently healthy) people are very very low (lower than traffic deaths in my country, much lower than suicides), and they are the most affected by the lockdowns. By reopening and…
Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
#437Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
That disease doesn't somehow make in-person interactions with family and friends unavoidable, though, when people don't have the disease. The fact that people with dementia requiring stimulation to stave off decline are also members of families doesn't magically make all interactions with family members medically necessary.
I generally agree with your conclusions about the change in circumstances, but I personally limit in-person social activities to a small circle of people who are also limiting in-person social activities precisely because I want to continue visiting my grandmother without killing her.
Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
#438Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been watching over both my parents the past week. Both Omicron cases. "Very mild" is... not accurate. It hasn't hospitalized them, but even without quarantining, they'd be incapable of living anything like a normal life. The common cold it most certainly IS NOT. (Both are double vaxxed and boosted, btw)
Very mild is exceptionally accurate. It’s a nothing burger even for unvaccinated people.
Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado
#439Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, MPH PhD, has a nice substack from perspective of an epidemiologist. Two notable recent Omicron posts on that substack: The potentially scary aspects: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/state-of-affa... The potentially good news: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/there-is-good... Obviously it is still early, but imo those 2 posts give a decent lay of the land.
Plus, to preemptively address any assumptions that Dr Jetelina may have an optimistic bias, compare her " There is good news " article from 5th January, which is based on what we now know, with her article from 26th November when Omicron (initially called "Nu") was first detected: " New Concerning Variant: B.1.1.529 " https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/new-concernin... At the time, little was known about…