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

reuters.com

331–340 of 401 posts

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

#331
post #46

The headline doesn't capture the remaining restrictions (although the article does). Masks are still required in shops, taxis, buses, trains. It's unclear for takeaway restaurants and chippers. All staff in those places will still need to wear masks. I assume bar and restaurant staff will also need to wear masks. So really, the 8pm curfew on hospitality has been lifted but that was always silly in the first place. Wh…

What failures? I’m pretty proud of our overall response as a nation, apart for the anti-mask loonies. Most of us did what was asked, and as a national policy we (mostly) followed the medical and scientific advice, with obvious compromises for economic, educational and social factors. And here we are now, having mostly gotten through it without massive loss of life, without overloading the hospitals (apart from unvacc…

> “medical and scientific advice”

Curfew, masks while standing up and not when sitting down, cloth masks which data shows do nothing (from Bangladeshi RCT), etc.

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

#332
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. This isn’t the same virus as at the start of the pandemic. 2. There is a treatment protocol for COVID, unlike at the start of the pandemic. 3. There are now vaccines. There is now a large portion of the population that has vaccine immunity. 4. There is now a large portion of the population that has natural immunity. 5. It should be abundantly clear that case counts is no longer a meaningful metric. 6. Covid is a d…

> 8. It should be clear that universally containing an aerosol virus like COVID is impossible. What is possible is targeted containment, I.e. keeping nursing homes under more precautions. China has done it for pre-omicron variants, so it is possible. You and I are not willing to accept the restrictions necessary to do it and that's fine, but you cannot say it is impossible.

Are you really accepting CCP virus counts? How gullible can people be to believe anything from a totalitarian government? We are talking about a nation that has reported zero cases for months at a time when no other nation on the planet has accomplished the same feat including island nations. I've noticed a trend where people who truly believe that if only we followed the rules they believe in harder we could achieve zero COVID hold up the CCP's policies out of pure wishful thinking. It's truly embarrassing to witness such gullible childish thinking.

In January of 2020, a Chinese born coworker of mine who is now a citizen had her father die in Beijing. Every symptom of how he died was obviously COVID, but the authorities officially classified his death as cardiac arrest. She was enraged by this but that was the common thread in Beijing.

Sure. It's an anecdote but it's not like you can get any real data about this. Who is going to collect it when the entire nation state is turned against you?

It's interesting to watch how this thread changed once people on the West Coast woke up. The branch covidians are in full force.

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

#333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inquiry. Using all our mental gifts to test an assertion’s truth. - Do the numbers add up? Fake numbers often don't. - Does the narrative have a logical flow? Lies often break apart (careful! Consipracy theories are often very consistent) - Aethetics. Lies are often repulsive to our soul (Nazism, socialism -> see nihlism). Careful again; sometimes its “the ugly truth” - Dialectic (for lack of a better word. Not Hegel…

You don't even read carefully!

Terrible reader. Poor listening skills generally. I get disoriented when ppl talk to me except for few individuals in certain settings. At school I liked math because I could just derive the whole thing myself and ignore everybody.

Known personal flaw.

(Im also on the tail end of a week of COVID fever. I’m literally delusional?)

Now, you are an exceptional reader to have spotted that as a general trait as opposed to a once oversight. This is very rare and, despite our disagreement, kudos to you!

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

#334
post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you read the EUA?

Have you? You’re just regurgitating right-wing talking points, conspicuously short on sources or demonstrated understanding. When you do read the lengthy material at https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coro... note that the approvals are based on fighting the disease. Reducing transmission — at which the vaccines were clearly highly effective prior to Omicron — is one part of that but an even more…

Well, for one you are quoting the CDC which is not who approves vaccines.

https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coro...

> The Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine is authorized to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in individuals 18 years of age and older.

https://web.archive.org/web/20211103065325/https://www.fda.g...

> The vaccine has been known as the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, and is now marketed as Comirnaty, for the prevention of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 in individuals 16 years of age and older.

Again, they were approved for prevention. The applications were for prevention. The FDA is trying to rewrite history, but if you look at the actual applications then you can verify what I'm saying is correct.

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

#335
post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FDA didn't approve the vaccines under emergency use to lessen the symptoms, only to prevent transmission.

That’s not correct, the clinical trials explicitly measured symptomatic disease and not transmission e.g. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04470427

The applications specifically said that they are for prevention.

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

#336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pizza comes to mind. On a more serious note, I may be misunderstanding the nuance of what you are saying/asking, but for me there is relatively little overlap between "things worth living for" and "things worth dying for". A few people in my life, that's it. There are plenty of things to live for. Seeing technology advance, traveling, experiencing things, meeting people, creating something of value and/or meaning, ha…

“ Pizza comes to mind.” Thank you, you lived up to your nick :) I believe that, if not for the things that you would die for the things you enjoy in life would, eventually, become insipid. Then, we (maybe not all of is) are liable to enter into a spiral of existential despair at the realization that our lives are meaningless to the universe. My daughters’ play, my parent’s affection, my wife of ten year’s love have n…

> Thank you, you lived up to your nick :)

Cheers! Hearing that is a first on HN, quite the occasion. :)

> I believe that, if not for the things that you would die for the things you enjoy in life would, eventually, become insipid. Then, we (maybe not all of is) are liable to enter into a spiral of existential despair at the realization that our lives are meaningless to the universe.

I think you are spot on, and it may well be why the remark in the GP stuck out the me. Things like depression can accelerate that process and can force us to have this conversation with ourselves much sooner. To me now having a (self-assigned) purpose is only one thing: Less boring than not having one. It is quite freeing, and was the shift in perspective I needed to find some semblance of joy again in the world around me. Still, for better or worse, it has left me without things to completely give myself up for.

Also, clue or not, your comment is a wholesome read and I appreciate that you took the time to write it.

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

#337
post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you? You’re just regurgitating right-wing talking points, conspicuously short on sources or demonstrated understanding. When you do read the lengthy material at https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coro... note that the approvals are based on fighting the disease. Reducing transmission — at which the vaccines were clearly highly effective prior to Omicron — is one part of that but an even more…

Well, for one you are quoting the CDC which is not who approves vaccines. https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coro... > The Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine is authorized to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in individuals 18 years of age and older. https://web.archive.org/web/20211103065325/https://www.fda.g... > The vaccine…

I linked to the FDA, too, since I knew you either hadn’t read or understood the documents someone else summarized for you. The part you quoted confirms that: note the distinction between the disease and the virus which causes it. Everyone knew that vaccinated people could still spread, but it takes longer to get data quantifying exactly how much and since the data showed very high efficacy against serious cases there was no ethical reason to delay protecting people waiting on that.

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

#338
post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not correct, the clinical trials explicitly measured symptomatic disease and not transmission e.g. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04470427

The applications specifically said that they are for prevention.

Prevention of the disease, not just spread.

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

#339
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

Also seeing most virological forms of research this is 'explaining after the fact' which is far from making a predictive forecast. Frankly something the WHO, SAGE and various other governments should be well aware of before even reading Report9...

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

#340
post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ICUs are full. Millions have died. Millions more have long covid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

Enough with this fear mongering bullshit please, what are you trying to achieve, is it fun to spread panic? Show a proper statistically significant excess mortality, or stop talking about people dying.

I am pointing out a) that some people doing fine is not proof that no one need be concerned, and b) there is separate reason for concern. If the pandemic had not initially been treated as a political problem but as a public health problem a lot of suffering would have been spared. And to call making these points "fear mongering bullshit" is to continue treating it as a political problem.
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