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Ireland drops most Covid restrictions in wake of 'Omicron storm'

reuters.com

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Re: Ireland drops most Covid restrictions in wake of 'Omicron storm'

#121

Post by lotsofpulp »

ls15 wrote: post #118
rfrey wrote: post #85

Many (I suspect most but I only follow a few) epidemiologists are saying there's no stopping Omicron. It's more contagious than measles - if you're in a room with somebody who has it, you're exposed barring a properly fitted N95 mask. All of us will be exposed by mid February. It's also many times less pathogenic than Delta, and it's a gift that nothing at present can outcompete it. I believe it's the version that wi…

> The only thing I'm dreading is the smugness of the antimask/antivax crowd who will ignore the herculean effort that avoided complete collapse of the health system and just claim they were right all along. I am pretty happy that the vax-mandaters are being taught a lesson by the virus. They would have pulled through otherwise.

Perhaps I can set you up on a call with my grandparents and aunts and uncles so you can find out what life with measles and smallpox and polio was like. A few still have scars.

Those days are gone because of vaccine mandates.

Re: Ireland drops most Covid restrictions in wake of 'Omicron storm'

#122

Post by melling »

Mizza wrote: post #26
akmarinov wrote: post #7

At this point, you’re either vaccinated, have been sick or are dead, so all good. With Omicron beating out Delta and not causing as many hospitalizations - sure, why not.

Am I fucking crazy for not knowing what's going on any more? US hospitalizations are at an all time high, 2000 people are still dying every day, and it feels like everybody is just okay with that now. What happened? I get that everybody is tired of it, I am too, but it feels like we wasted two years of everybody's life just the take the bullet anyway.

Wouldn’t the number be 80-90% less if people chose to be vaccinated and boosted?

If we didn’t have vaccines how much larger would the numbers be?

Re: Ireland drops most Covid restrictions in wake of 'Omicron storm'

#123

Post by xienze »

Mizza wrote: post #26
akmarinov wrote: post #7

At this point, you’re either vaccinated, have been sick or are dead, so all good. With Omicron beating out Delta and not causing as many hospitalizations - sure, why not.

Am I fucking crazy for not knowing what's going on any more? US hospitalizations are at an all time high, 2000 people are still dying every day, and it feels like everybody is just okay with that now. What happened? I get that everybody is tired of it, I am too, but it feels like we wasted two years of everybody's life just the take the bullet anyway.

> US hospitalizations are at an all time high

Well, about that. A few governors have admitted what has been known by “conspiracy theorists” for the past two years: that included in the count of Covid hospitalizations are people who come to the hospital for something else entirely and happen to test positive [0]:

> Officials from New York City-based NYU Langone Health told The New York Times in a Jan. 4 report that about 65 percent of its COVID-19 patients were "incidentally" found to be infected after admission for other reasons. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul asked hospitals to adjust their reporting on COVID-19 hospitalizations beginning Jan. 4 to make the distinction between those admitted for the virus as their primary condition and those who incidentally test positive.

...

> "We have a few patients in the hospital for COVID, but not many, thank goodness," Dr. Jha tweeted. "More common on our service is folks admitted with COVID. That is, they came to the hospital for something else and found to have COVID."

So the count numbers have been exaggerated for who knows how long. An accident, I’m sure.

0: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/patient-safety-outcome...

Re: Ireland drops most Covid restrictions in wake of 'Omicron storm'

#124

Post by rfrey »

ricardobayes wrote: post #102
rfrey wrote: post #85

Many (I suspect most but I only follow a few) epidemiologists are saying there's no stopping Omicron. It's more contagious than measles - if you're in a room with somebody who has it, you're exposed barring a properly fitted N95 mask. All of us will be exposed by mid February. It's also many times less pathogenic than Delta, and it's a gift that nothing at present can outcompete it. I believe it's the version that wi…

Your second and third sentences are factually incorrect. Check microcovid.org for an activity-based risk assessment.

Thanks for that site, it's very interesting and a very worthwhile project.

I do note that their Omicron model was last updated on January 4, and they say "we suspect that Omicron also does not affect the hourly multiplier, but do not have data for this". Their suspicion comes from a paper published on December 16 that uses data collected in the last two weeks of November.

Re: Ireland drops most Covid restrictions in wake of 'Omicron storm'

#125

Post by Operyl »

ThunderSizzle wrote: post #88
01100011 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have the same issue, but the person chose not to get vaccinated. Hopefully she makes it because she is otherwise a wonderful person but if it happens, well, we tried to tell her.

Quoted post unavailable.

Not the poster you replied to, but: The very very few, of course I’d feel sorry for her but I’d not have made a different decision in pushing for vaccination. Any treatment could have adverse reactions, it’s just how it goes.

Re: Ireland drops most Covid restrictions in wake of 'Omicron storm'

#126

Post by jamps »

prohobo wrote: post #82
pizza234 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's the opposite "hard proof", CDC official: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidvi... . I've actually had a look at the document you pointed. It's very confusing. The last line of the report at page 7 states: Rates of hospital admissions in the time range (8/nov - 5/dec): - fully vaccinated: 493 - partially vaccinated + unvaccinated: 267 Rate per 100k admitted to hospital, same time range: -…

The report you just linked doesn't show the raw numbers of people in the hospital, it shows the proportionate rates, which is exactly what I just addressed. Most people in the hospitals for Covid are vaccinated. And I'm sorry, I thought this was a thread about Ireland?

Well, if we look at their neighbors, Scotland, it is showing that even the proportion rate of positive case is lower with the unvaxed.

Page 38 https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/11223/22-01-19-covid...

Re: Ireland drops most Covid restrictions in wake of 'Omicron storm'

#127

Post by tagoregrtst »

Mizza wrote: post #26
akmarinov wrote: post #7

At this point, you’re either vaccinated, have been sick or are dead, so all good. With Omicron beating out Delta and not causing as many hospitalizations - sure, why not.

Am I fucking crazy for not knowing what's going on any more? US hospitalizations are at an all time high, 2000 people are still dying every day, and it feels like everybody is just okay with that now. What happened? I get that everybody is tired of it, I am too, but it feels like we wasted two years of everybody's life just the take the bullet anyway.

“US hospitalizations are at an all time high,”

How do you know that? My question, really, is how do you know what you know and are not being misled? (A la WMD to use an easy, universally understood, example?)

“2000 people are still dying every day,”

No, they’re not. According to the CDC (why do I trust them?) its currently 500/day [1]. It hasn't been > 2000 since September in the midst of the Delta spike. But even before I looked at the CDC I doubted your claim because:

- The vast majority of adult Americans are vaccinated. (>70%?). Its far greater in the vulnerable population.

- Of the unvaxxed, a great number of them are already recovered (or dead)

- You agree, this leaves a significantly reduced pool of people for the Grim Reaper to harvest.

Therefore, 2000 dead/day in January 2022 would have been far far worse than the all time high of 25 000/ week (>3000/day) we reached in Jan last year because the normalizing population was much higher then.

For your figure to be correct then, omicron would have to be, not just more contagious (it is), but a spectacularly more deadly variant than Delta instead of being relatively benign.

“and it feels like everybody is just okay with that now. What happened?”

We’re not OK with it, we’ve made peace and learned to live with something that has become endemic and will never go away.

2 years of pandemic implies 1/40th of an average lifespan. Thats not insignificant. But it gets worse

2 years is 66% of my toddler’s life. A toddler that doesnt know what a peer’s smile is since she’s masked all day.

2 years is 33% of my first grader’s life. Who luckily avoided any long term school closures, but goes crazy whenever there’s a two week “virtual learning” session.

What happened is, therefore, that peoples lives cannot be put on hold indefinitely. There are worse fates than death [2]. We have the tools and knowledge to deal with COVID and we want to return to normal.

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/COVID19/index.htm

[2] ironically, a person who doesn't understand that doesn't have much to live for.

Re: Ireland drops most Covid restrictions in wake of 'Omicron storm'

#128

Post by biorach »

outsidein wrote: post #89

Ireland has a younger population (age structure) compared to all other EU states. Vaccination priority was strictly based on age (oldest first). This decision is no suitable template for other countries with different age structure and vaccination status. Especially no template for US. Next, consider Ireland is practically Dublin as capitol and single large city, and a more rural less dense populated rest of the coun…

While Ireland does have a capital that contains a higher proportion of the population than is normal for other European countries you are still overstating how rural the rest of the country is

Re: Ireland drops most Covid restrictions in wake of 'Omicron storm'

#129

Post by syntaxing »

Sure the death “rate” is lower per infection but in absolute numbers, we’re creeping towards the peak again. Kinda of sad people are thinking 3-4000 people dying per day is acceptable and an excuse that everything is ok. That’s one 9/11 event per day in terms of death.

Re: Ireland drops most Covid restrictions in wake of 'Omicron storm'

#130

Post by nkrisc »

akmarinov wrote: post #48
nkrisc wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you’re someone with a child under 5 who hasn’t been able to get vaccinated yet. My wife and I are fully vaccinated + booster but we are still choosing to be extra careful because our 4 year old can’t get vaccinated yet. So it’s a little frustrating to hear people talk like this when not everyone can get vaccinated yet.

Child death rate is basically 0

Cool. Can you say the same for my elderly relatives that would like to spend time around our child? I’m not as worried about the child as I’m worried about him spreading it to someone who won’t be spared.
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