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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'

#371

Post by rsfern »

encryptluks2 wrote: post #370
rsfern wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you continuing to misrepresent the EUA documents? They don’t support your assertion. (If you point to where in the authorization docs they specify the goal is to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection, I’ll change my mind. I linked the moderna application in another sub thread, and the pfizer one is easy to find) Also VAERS is not the only data source we have for vaccine safety, it’s our hypothesis generation system. W…

They clearly do, it is like the very first sentence: https://labeling.pfizer.com/ShowLabeling.aspx?id=14471&forma... > The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to permit the emergency use of the unapproved product, Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, for active immunization to prevent COVID-19 in individuals 5 years of age and older. https://www.modernatx.com/covid19va…

COVID-19 isn’t the same as a positive SARS-CoV—2 test. This is what they measured, from the caption of table 10 in the pfizer fact sheet you linked:

> Note: Confirmed cases were determined by Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) and at least 1 symptom consistent with COVID-19 (symptoms included: fever; new or increased cough; new or increased shortness of breath; chills; new or increased muscle pain; new loss of taste or smell; sore throat; diarrhea; vomiting)

That’s kind of squishy, but I think it’s a clear distinction.

I agree that the effectiveness against symptomatic Covid is lower with omicron, but omicron also evades immunity from prior infection as well.

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

#372

Post by IgorPartola »

bcoughlan wrote: post #366
IgorPartola wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two things. First, low != zero. Second, it isn’t always about taking the most pragmatic approach but the most humanitarian one. People during this whole pandemic have been very cavalier with putting others at risk to not get inconvenienced. “Your kid probably won’t die” is not a winning argument.

Your false statement is that people are just inconvenienced. Younger generations will be picking up the tab for our actions.

If you are talking about the lost economic opportunity then you truly need to weigh that against the lives lost and ones that were saved and provide a very rigorous justification why you are ok sacrificing human lives for that particular cause.

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

#373

Post by s1artibartfast »

igetspam wrote: post #367
s1artibartfast wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Infections or lock downs should never be the barometer of success. Success should be measured by death tolls, happiness, and economic prosperity.

How would you account for happiness in relation to death tolls? Are they neutral or negative? Or maybe positive, if they're religious? An increase in per capita infections feels like a pretty solid negative indicator of success. Happiness during this whole ordeal is often directly related to faith in science and willingness to make hard choices to ultimately strive for a reduction in infections. People who make hard…

I think you missed my point entirely.

Infections alone are meaningless. The only reason to even think about them is they impact other parts of daily life. If infections are 100x higher, but everyone is healthy and happy, who cares.

To the extent we should care, it is because they have impacts on other aspects of our life.

If a country is healthy, happy, and prosperous, their policy was a success, even if infections are high.

Alternatively, if a country is swamped with deaths, miserable, and economically failing, it doesn't matter if their infection numbers are low and they had the harshest lock downs.

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

#374

Post by blindmute »

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.

I'm not vaccinated, have not been sick, don't know anyone who has been sick, do know many other unvaccinated people, and I live in a normal metropolitan area.

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

#375

Post by t0bia_s »

nkrisc wrote: post #351
t0bia_s wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vaccines wont give you imminity for spreading virus. Inform yourself, please.

Of course not, and I never stated as such. That's why even though I'm vaccinated I still wear mask in crowded public places. From the informing of myself I've done, the studies I've seen on the topic so far do suggest reduced transmission by vaccinated individuals. If you know studies that show otherwise, please share them I'd love to read them. We're trying to balance multiple factors: living our life normally, prot…

You can find "study" on everything. So it is a matter of trust. I prefer to do study offline and talk with people personaly about their experiences. Oh wait... Is it dangerous?

Living normally is probably only one thing that we can do. Vaccines, masks, lockdowns... None works. But if we are daily exposed to news with fear agenda, we will never live normally again. We shoul live, not survive and loose our time.

Btw... Reduced chance of spreading virus wont make people immune to catch it. But yet... Gonverments consider vaccinated people as immune. Why?

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

#376

Post by taxyz23 »

tagoregrtst wrote: post #127
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,” 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 be…

You are making too much sense.

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

#377

Post by watwut »

rfrey wrote: post #190
watwut wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. But also, in current culture, it is politically useful to pretend you have only black and white thinking. I dont think all or even most of people who use those is truly confused and dont understand. Instead, allowing anything else then "if not 100% miracle it dont work" would force them to admit they are wrong or politicians they root for are wront. It is much easier to beat the other side in argument if you pre…

I kind of resent being lumped in with a politically motivated, black-and-white, feign ignorance kind of crowd. I try to assess the data as it arises, and the data about Omicron is markedly different than previous variants. I don't think I said anything in my comment that deserves this attack. If anything, attacking anything that hints of "maybe we should reassess given current data" as being the same as the antimask/…

I expanded on previous comments. Yours was 3 levels up. I wanted to make the exact point I did - a lot of black and white thinking is in fact manipulative.

Pretending that all those people don't understand does not help anything. Which is why I made that point.

It is repeated patten from the start of pandemic. If something is not 100% perfect, there is not point on doing it and anyone doing it is stupid sheep. No matter how full hospitals are, you are stupid sheep for doing small things that take chances down (like getting vaccine). Pretending that massive powerful media machine broadcasting these are just confused serves no one.

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

#378

Post by zestyping »

nkrisc wrote: post #183
orobinson wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You might be right, but we’re erring on the side of caution. There are many things we can’t control so we’re focusing on the things we can.

I don't know what the parent of your comment is talking about. Vaccination shots 6+ months ago are not that effective any more, but if you got a booster shot recently, it's very effective. It reduces your chances of getting COVID by a factor of 5 to 10.

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

#379

Post by outsidein »

biorach wrote: post #128
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

Really? In Germany, 79 cities > 100000 In Ireland, 3 (including Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland)

My comment was not meant to express any valuation or disvaluation of Ireland. It’s focus is about differences in age structures, population density, and vaccination strategy / execution, which makes it difficult to take Irelands approach as template for any other country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_settlements_on_the_isl... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Germany_by_p...

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

#380

Post by aurelianito »

ryanbrunner wrote: post #243
aurelianito wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These people also die from the flu and common cold. We cannot stop the world for them.

Public health has also traditionally worked in the interest of high-risk and vulnerable people. With COVID it looks like we'll largely abandon that - for not completely illogical reasons, obviously public health has a cost, but I think it's important to acknowledge that this is giving up and not business as usual.

It is business as usual. They will be in a similar situation as they were before the pandemic.
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