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Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

covid19.colorado.gov

611–620 of 703 posts

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#611
post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Old normal will not return until our hospitals are also back to normal

Our daughter had a fever for four days over the holidays. We literally could not even get into see a pediatrician or an urgent care. There was nothing available. If a minor cold is enough to cripple our healthcare system, you have to wonder if maybe there is some other reason our hospitals aren't able(or willing) to go back to normal. I spend thousands of dollars on health INSURANCE every year. If I go to the ER it s…

It's crippling our healthcare system because it's not a minor cold. People are filling our ICUs rooms needing ventilators and intravenous fluids just to not die. The common cold does not do that. They could not see your daughter about a fever because all hands were too busy keeping people from the literal brink of death.

This is why anti-vaxxers and covid-deniers are such a big problem. They think that even if they are wrong, it only affects them, but it doesn't. If I get in a car accident tomorrow, there is a very real possibility that my own treatment will be delayed because the nearest hospital is overwhelmed with dying COVID patients.

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#612
post #81

omicron 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.

It seems to give partial protection to Delta like 50% reduction in infections.

Different aspects of immunity seem to last different times. Antibodies fade over six months or so but T Cell immunity can last decades in general. Though obviously Omicron hasn't been around that long to check on.

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#613
post #514
post #84

Dr. 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.

I'm not a big fan of this new trend of some random Twitter personality suddenly becoming the go-to source of information on COVID. Granted, it seems true that she's actually an epidemiologist, though not unusually notable as an assistant professor at a mainstream state school. As far as I know she doesn't have unusual access to information, or a hands on role, she's drawing from public sources and doing analysis. Whi…

> though not unusually notable as an assistant professor at a mainstream state school.

We really, really need to get away from this academic obsession with prestige. If she does solid analysis and communicates it effectively, with a record that looks increasingly good as time passes, she's already ahead of the curve. Meanwhile many other highly-credentialed, prestigious experts have been wrong over and over and over again in this pandemic.

Academic/scientific institutions are polluted by the credentialisim/prestige focus. It's the ugliest aspect of the whole space.

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#614

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> It's not uncommon for the flu to knock someone out for a good week. This is why it has a vaccine. That prevents it, prevent seriousness of symptoms, and deaths. (yet a large percent of the population doesn't get it, and so 50k us citizens die each year)

I have gotten a flu vaccine every year since I was 18. The worst flu I ever had was in January 2020. (I was tested and positive for influenza)

Fever for 4 days, horrible coughing, vomiting, barely able to get out of bed. Flu vaccines certainly provide some cross-immunity when the vax isn't matched to the strain, but not too much. That's what my doctor told me when I complained to her (when she told me I had tested positive for flu) that I'd gotten the annual flu vaccine the preceding October. Depending on the strain vs the vaccine for that year and how big of a mismatch it is, it can really whip your ass despite the vaccine. That being said, the flu shot is a good idea for anyone, and crucial for seniors.

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#615
post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are the gatekeeper on feeling sick, now?

We've been under threat of lockdown, under lockdown, or under restrictions for ~2 years now. It's understandable that some are very concerned after or about getting sick but many of us, for our own sanity and psychological health, need to move on.

No post body was provided.

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#616
post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but he's fundamentally right. The symptoms described are no worse than a moderate flu.

People forget that it knocks so many people down at once in a short time, and with quarantine rules in force. It is more contagious than flu/cold. Imagine what would happen every year in winter if this becomes the new normal.

Imagine what would happen if we go in lock down every year. And keep making kids learn remote. And keep letting governments gain more authority without the reasonable discussion

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#617
post #561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you can't add capacity to a system that requires highly trained specialists on a dime. hospital capacity is very much limited by how much it is used on a day to day basis, regardless of pandemic status. what you suggest simply will never be an effective strategy.

It's a combination of doctors and nurses. In some places, it's nursing staff that's keeping all beds from being open. This is absolutely a workforce that can be flexed on a shorter term notice. Doctors can also be incentivized to do rotations in the ER. My primary care physician many years ago used to do ER rotations as a sort of overtime. Inventivize with the right pay, more will do it. Granted this isn't a large la…

nurses take years of training. where are you going to get them during a global pandemic on immediate notice when literally every area needs additional nursing resources?

nurses and doctors are leaving due to the stress of a long term pandemic. are you asserting we can just force them back into labor? that's fairly dictatorial of you. it still doesn't change that we would only revert to original levels, it would not be a significant increase in supply.

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#618

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My 15 yo son got Covid about three weeks ago, symptoms matched what the parent poster described, including feeling "wiped out". Oh wait, no he didn't. Testing all came back negative. Diagnosis from his pediatrician: common cold.

Ah, yeah, you're right. It was probably just the cold that myself, my son, and my wife got after being exposed to someone that had symptomatic, PCR tested Covid. I'm sure it was just a coincidence that we then all three tested positive for covid.

Wow…You definitely missed the entire point of that comment.

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#619

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 10 years ago if your said it was fine to double the annual cases of flu and flu death people would have said that was insane. And if you told them that things like lockdowns and vaccine mandates were still in effect at that point, they'd say that was insane too.

> vaccine mandates were still in effect at that point, they'd say that was insane too. No, that one is particularly weird right now. Vaccines are essentially mandated for many parts of life, and have been for my entire life. At multiple points throughout my development I've had to get required vaccines to do things. I had never even heard of antivaxxers until my late 20s. They used to be laughed at as an insane fring…

Mandated vaccines for adults in the United States actually is weird and unprecedented in the modern era.

It's so unprecedented and unpopular an idea that everyone - including Biden - were falling all over themselves assuring us they would under no circumstances mandate the Covid vaccine.

Re: Omicron at 100% Prevalence, Colorado

#620
post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment makes it out like everyone with Covid had pnuemonia and shortness of breath for weeks, when really it was a small minority.

According to https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59895598 , over 500,000 people in the UK are still suffering health issues a year after catching Covid , and nearly 900,000 are still suffering after 12 weeks. The UK population is around 70 million, so that's around 1% of the entire population. If you take into the fact that many people in the UK have managed to not catch it at all yet, or exclude children who suffer fa…

The problem with a statistic like that is that it is pretty much devoid of almost all data that would make it truly meaningful and valuable. That stat tells us nothing of their health pre-Covid, and I’d bet a very large portion of that number were already dealing with health issues (which we already know significantly increases severe Covid). The meaningful number is how many formerly healthy people are battling Covid caused health issues a year later. My guess is that it is a pretty small number, likely small enough that it would be considered even by you to be a “small minority”.
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