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

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

#141

Post by acdha » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:21 PM UTC

ls15 wrote: post #131

lotsofpulp wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

That you should be glad that your vaccination made you an order of magnitude less likely to have a severe case? Polio didn’t kill most people either.

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

#142

Post by wccrawford » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:23 PM UTC

meibo wrote: post #34

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.

I had to deal with a family member not being able to get a place in the hospital this week, even though they would have otherwise(covid unrelated) - taking care of them at home is nearly impossible. No one cares until it affects them.

>No one cares until it affects them.

While many don't care until it affects them, that is not even close to universally true.

I was surprised at the number of people who didn't care, and it seems to be about 50%, but characterizing everyone that way is incredibly unfair to all the people who worked tirelessly to try to convince people to get the vaccine.

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

#143

Post by christophilus » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:23 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.

There’s a massive difference between COVID and those diseases, though, in terms of impact (death, crippling, etc) on the young and healthy. COVID isn’t all peaches and cream, but it’s not smallpox. The response to smallpox warrants a different level of severity than COVID.

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

#144

Post by distances » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:24 PM UTC

stephenhuey wrote: post #132

distances wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I see, sorry to hear that. It's better in Europe though here too the number of parent chauffeurs has definitely increased. I thought the school bus is still the US way but that's probably then just movies keeping up that appearance.

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

#145

Post by orobinson » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:24 PM UTC

nkrisc wrote: post #133

orobinson wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Understandable. Although vaccinations have proven only partially effective at preventing you getting covid so even if he was vaccinated you wouldn’t be in a much better position in that regard.

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

#146

Post by biorach » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:24 PM UTC

rob_c wrote: post #21

Frankly about time given that Omicron peaks are preceding peak number of booster shots. The magical broken product we can't sue over strikes again. It's still not understood what pressures led to Omicron favouring lower lethality so I'll be curious if that's ever explained over the normal "that's what viruses do _shrug_"...

The evolutionary pressures that can lead to some diseases becoming less lethal and more transmissible over time are actually well researched and modelled, and has happened many times. That this could happen with Covid has been quietly mentioned in scientific publications over the last 2 years

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

#147

Post by VoidWhisperer » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:24 PM UTC

ls15 wrote: post #131

lotsofpulp wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Have you considered that you may have had more mild Omicron due to being vaccinated? It is true that breakthrough infections exist, especially in something as transmissable as Omicron. However, the point has also been made that being vaccinated helps prevent more serious illness[1] which in turn can help prevent hospitals from collapsing under the weight of the severely ill.

[1]: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/effective...

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

#148

Post by lotsofpulp » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:24 PM UTC

stephenhuey wrote: post #132

distances wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You probably just hang out with people in the top income quintile or decile.

If I were to guess, the vast majority of kids still get to school via school bus.

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

#149

Post by encryptluks2 » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:25 PM UTC

ls15 wrote: post #131

lotsofpulp wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Gotta topper up once a month. That boosting is all about recharging your battery to fight whatever else is out there lurking around every corner just waiting for you. God this is ridiculous. The vaccines were approved to prevent transmission and they didn't do that, but now Pfizer and the likes will make sure that they get their money's worth and then some.

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

#150

Post by eloff » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 2:25 PM UTC

glogla wrote: post #138

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I feel like I really started to have more empathy and better understand the world the moment in my life where I realized that black and white don't actually exist, they're unattainable ideals. It's all just shades of gray. It's so rare to find things like math where the answer is either right or wrong.