Ireland drops most Covid restrictions in wake of 'Omicron storm' • Hacker News Board

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

#131

Post by ls15 » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:16 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #121

ls15 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I just recovered from Omicron and I was vaccinated. I am not sure what your grandparents are going to tell me. That I should get another shot of the vaccine that did not prevent the disease?

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

#132

Post by stephenhuey » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:17 PM UTC

distances wrote: post #113

thejackgoode wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same goes for a child walking or using public transport to school, but almost everyone drives them. Endangering a child in a preventable way is now a socially punishable behavior

Where do almost all parents drive kids to school? In the US?

Yes, in a lot of the US. I know so few people who do not drive kids to school that the outliers are remarkable.

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

#133

Post by nkrisc » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:17 PM UTC

orobinson wrote: post #98

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.

That's because the chances of serious illness with Covid in under 5s is extremely small. Here in the UK nobody under 12 has been vaccinated except those who are extremely vulnerable. The data for England[0] puts the death rate within 28 days of a positive test in the 0-4 age group at 0.8 per 100,000. I believe there are around 3 million children in that age group in the UK so that works out as 24 deaths in that age g…

I’m worried about him spreading it to immuno-compromised relatives.

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

#134

Post by lotsofpulp » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:18 PM UTC

xienze wrote: post #123

Mizza wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ab…

I believe leaders also have an incentive to muddy waters because wage shortages are causing hospital capacity to fall, but it is easier for them to claim COVID. It would be nice if we were able to see the change in how many nurse/technician hours were available over the past few years.

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

#135

Post by gambiting » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:18 PM UTC

xfitm3 wrote: post #45

lotsofpulp wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is mostly unvaccinated people choosing to not get vaccinated, which people have lost patience for, and I cannot blame them.

Quoted post unavailable.

Let's stop going on the internet and showing off stupid decisions first, shall we?

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

#136

Post by lotsofpulp » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:18 PM UTC

anovikov wrote: post #103

aurelianito wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In order for that to be true, unvaccinated people should not be hospitalized.

In the U.S. (for the better or not) there are economic mechanisms that help making that the case...

What are those? EMTALA seems like it would cover hospitalization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Treatment_an...

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

#137

Post by refurb » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:19 PM UTC

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #4

Irish govt realizing that if it doesnt change something soon, all of the irish will throw their tourist and entertainment euros... across the border. Refreshing to see tha even at the govt level, there is competition of ideas.

I spent a good chunk of last year in a developing country that locked down.

The economic consequences are still being recognized. Drive around the prime tourist areas and all the storefronts are empty. Factory workers are going back to their small towns and waiting it out, so factories can’t find workers. Western companies are canceling orders, etc.

They are learning you can’t turn chunks of the economy on/off. Every change of rules mean investors and customers eventually just “sit and wait it out”. Plus the cost of restarting factories, bringing tourism back, etc isn’t small, so when countries go back and forth the smart move is to just sit back and wait.

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

#138

Post by glogla » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:19 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #90

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…

> Many (I suspect most)epidemiologists are saying there's no stopping Omicron. Which doesn’t mean we all have to get it at the same time. I’m so tired of these false dichotomies. There’s a lot of middle ground between full lockdown and completely giving up so everyone gets it at the same time. We’re already running out of ICU beds and emergency treatments like monoclonal antibodies where I’m at. Yet the prevailing lo…

Some people just have black-white thinking. See also "vaccines are not working" and lots of other nonsense.

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

#139

Post by ryanbrunner » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:20 PM UTC

csee wrote: post #101

ryanbrunner wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canada and the U.S. might be a better comparison (particularly prior to vaccination, since the US has a notably lower vaccination rate). Canada largely had stricter lockdowns than the US and had about a third of the death rate. The populations aren't identical but fairly comparable, and the most notable differences in 2020 were degree of restrictions, along with better support for people unable to work due to COVID i…

But they also would've had better mask compliance and vaccination rates, less obesity, and as a country they're more sparse.

A large part of the mask compliance IMO was due to having consistent mandates and messaging around masking, so it's tied into the overall approach to restrictions.

Canada being sparse is a bit misleading. While yes, it's a very large country with relatively few people, 90+% of people live within 150 km of the US border, and the population density in major population centres (Toronto / Vancouver / Montreal) is comparable to US metro areas.

Vaccination rates you're correct, but the lower impact of COVID was observed pre-vaccination as well.

General health is a good point though, I'm sure it's a factor - I don't know if it explains such a large difference in death rate though.

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

#140

Post by disambiguation » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:20 PM UTC

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…

> Preaching "floods don't exist!" to the exhausted people who are watching the river subside after slinging sandbags for three days.

Alternatively, many who were caught in the flood washed up safely on the shores, returned back to town to see people ripping down their houses to build barriers against the flood that they thought was the end of the world.