Graph showing level of Covid, flu and RSV in US wastewater systems, by city • Hacker News Board

Re: Graph showing level of Covid, flu and RSV in US wastewater systems, by city

#141

Post by chrisco255 » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 9:03 PM UTC

mjevans wrote: post #85

The post holiday gathering spike is rather obvious. Not just for COVID but for everything. We really should have test kits, and people should test BEFORE travel. A national level policy of full refunds if tested positive (for any illness / disease) could help prevent the needless spread of illness.

Diseases are inevitable. It's not all that useful to be testing for every random disease that comes up. Testing doesn't help. Lockdowns don't help. Even mRNA treatments don't help. You WILL get Covid. You WILL get the flu. And your immune system will get stronger as you get exposed.

Covid used to be novel. Now it's endemic and mutates multiple times per year. It's looking more and more like Covid will be with us for decades if not forever, just like the flu and the common cold.

Re: Graph showing level of Covid, flu and RSV in US wastewater systems, by city

#142

Post by akavi » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 9:06 PM UTC

morsch wrote: post #56

fullmoon wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We Europeans are continually surprised that talking about masks is still a thing.* Except for 1 or 2 outlier countries masking is over. * Unless they are familiar with U.S. politics

Small outlier countries like Germany, where I still see masks regularly in various settings, and where FFP2 masks are either still mandatory in public transport or just stopped being mandatory a few days ago. Also mandatory in doctor's offices, hospitals.

When I was in Germany at the end of this September, there were certainly plenty of signs saying masks were mandatory on public transport. Compliance with said signs, however, was well south of 50%.

Re: Graph showing level of Covid, flu and RSV in US wastewater systems, by city

#143

Post by ma2t » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 9:11 PM UTC

ampersandy wrote: post #100

timr wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The post holiday gathering spike is rather obvious. Not just for COVID but for everything. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc. It's not a "holiday gathering spike". It's literally the same respiratory pathogen pattern we've seen for as long as we've bothered to look: in the winter, as we go inside and the air becomes cool and dry, respiratory infections go up. The viruses evolved to work this way, because it's a great surv…

What about staying inside with cool/dry air causes these infections? Genuinely curious.

Recent studies suggest it's not just staying indoors or viruses hanging around longer in cold/dry air. Exposure to cold temperatures may suppress specific immune mechanisms in respiratory tract. See paper out this month, Huang et al "Cold exposure impairs extracellular vesicle swarm–mediated nasal antiviral immunity" https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009167492...

Re: Graph showing level of Covid, flu and RSV in US wastewater systems, by city

#144

Post by TaylorAlexander » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 9:11 PM UTC

dxhdr wrote: post #43

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #13

I am continually surprised at how many people don’t wear masks at places like the grocery store even as cases are rising. I got covid over the summer and it was horrible! I lost two weeks of work which was a lot of money to lose, missed multiple dates with my partner I would have really enjoyed and felt totally isolated. Then I felt fatigue and brain fog for months afterwards. Afterwards I got the bivalent vaccine so…

I'd rather be sick for 2 weeks than wear a mask every day. Surveying those around me I'd say 98% came to the same conclusion.

There’s a lot of people in my life that don’t want to get sick. And I don’t want to have to cancel plans with them every time I feel a little fatigue, because 99% of the time that’s just due to weird sleep. But if I wasn’t masked I would be constantly wondering if I was getting sick and if I should cancel plans. My parents are elderly, my partners partner is vulnerable. There’s a lot of people in my life that can’t afford to get sick because they would infect their entire household.

I guess it’s fine if no one you hang out with cares, but that’s not the case for me.

I should also note that I don’t work with other people. I might feel differently if I had to mask at work all the time. I do keep a mask for the 2% of the time at work I interact with others. But the biggest thing is grocery stores. Not masking there you’re just asking to elevate community transmission. You’re increasing the risks for others. I’d love it if the virus was gone, but it just isn’t.

Re: Graph showing level of Covid, flu and RSV in US wastewater systems, by city

#145

Post by rayiner » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 9:14 PM UTC

ABCLAW wrote: post #121

gernb wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

While I understand the sentiment of saying that a purely individual perspective is egregious, selfish, myopic and inappropriate for a situation in which individual selfishness can cause extensive social harm, it's not a good look to tell people that you hope their loved ones die. I don't hope their loved ones die, I hope they become better.

I’m not coming from an “individual perspective.” I wore masks the whole time because I’m an obedient Asian who will do whatever social convention requires. But now the prevailing social consensus is to not wear masks, and I think that’s correct.

It’s anti-social to not wear a mask when society has decided to do so. But it’s perfectly fine for society to decide to prioritize normal interactions over safety and abandon the social convention of masking.

Re: Graph showing level of Covid, flu and RSV in US wastewater systems, by city

#146

Post by haswell » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 9:22 PM UTC

sn0wf1re wrote: post #132

haswell wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree that the parent comment is making huge assumptions about delivery options people have access to (both for geographical and for cost reasons), there are options in the middle. The majority of stores (grocery and otherwise) introduced curbside pickup options early in the pandemic, which at least provides more options for someone who doesn't have access to or can't afford delivery, while removing or minimi…

Can you provide a reference to a discount grocer (since you are replying to a comment about affordability) that offers curb-side or delivery without fee? I am not aware of any.

The moving of the goalposts aside (which were originally "order in or starve"), Target and Walmart are two major examples, since you specifically mentioned “discount”, and all of the major grocery stores in my metro area (Chicago, so YMMV) have a curbside pickup option.

Some of them charge a service fee for pickups under $35, but from what I recall, the bigger chains do not. And with prices these days, you'd be hard pressed to do a grocery run that costs less than $35 unless you need a single item, but if you only need a single item, this is no longer a conversation about starving.

As for free delivery, I believe some of them offer free delivery for orders over a certain size, but I was focused specifically on non-delivery options.

Bottom line: there are many more options than “go in the store or starve”.

Re: Graph showing level of Covid, flu and RSV in US wastewater systems, by city

#147

Post by ch4s3 » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 9:23 PM UTC

basch wrote: post #128

ch4s3 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was under the impression that droplets are only part of the picture and that sick people are in fact spraying tons of much small particles into the air as they breathe.

droplets and airborne is a somewhat arbitrary distinction pulled out of .. thin air. https://www.wired.com/story/the-teeny-tiny-scientific-screwu... Whether the droplet/aerosol float through the air has to do with much more than particle size. "There was just one literally tiny problem: “The physics of it is all wrong,” Marr says. That much seemed obvious to her from everything she knew about how things move through…

That's not my point at all. I didn't make the droplet vs airborne distinction.

I mean that the masks can and do stop some droplets and larger particles, but smaller particles pass through and around them readily. It seems like really small particles might be causing infections with newer variants. But I'm also not sure what we even know for sure about this at the moment. A lot of mask research has been don with modeling or lab setups to spray liquids through them. The narrower set of real world studies cast a lot of doubt on anything but N95s worn properly. So I'm not sure where that leaves us.

Re: Graph showing level of Covid, flu and RSV in US wastewater systems, by city

#148

Post by rconti » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 9:29 PM UTC

fullmoon wrote: post #40

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #13

I am continually surprised at how many people don’t wear masks at places like the grocery store even as cases are rising. I got covid over the summer and it was horrible! I lost two weeks of work which was a lot of money to lose, missed multiple dates with my partner I would have really enjoyed and felt totally isolated. Then I felt fatigue and brain fog for months afterwards. Afterwards I got the bivalent vaccine so…

We Europeans are continually surprised that talking about masks is still a thing.* Except for 1 or 2 outlier countries masking is over. * Unless they are familiar with U.S. politics

Wait, are you saying Europeans are surprised talking about it is still a thing, because everyone wears them? Or because nobody wears them?

Just got back from Germany yesterday, and while masks are required on most public transport (but not airplanes), you'll see a decent amount of compliance (50%?) but not anywhere else indoors.

Minimal masking in public spaces on public transport, stores, airplanes, etc in my experience in Germany/France/UK. There's absolutely more masking going on here in the Bay Area.

Re: Graph showing level of Covid, flu and RSV in US wastewater systems, by city

#149

Post by howinteresting » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 9:33 PM UTC

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #137

howinteresting wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indoor masking is quite common in the SF Bay Area.

I live in the SF Bay Area. Yes you will always see masks but I’m surprised how many people you see who don’t wear them.

Yeah, that's definitely true. At the grocery store near me (bougie area, a lot of older people) I see maybe 50-60% of people masked.

On the other hand, now that I'm quadruple vaccinated and use an N95 I'm not overly bothered by people not wearing masks around me.

Re: Graph showing level of Covid, flu and RSV in US wastewater systems, by city

#150

Post by jgalt212 » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 9:35 PM UTC

The longer a society wears masks, the sicker everyone will be when they eventually come off. In the formerly overly cautious US Northeast, kids are getting sick left and right this school year. And COVID is the least dangerous bold-faced name they need to worry about.