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

publichealth.verily.com

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

#171

Post by ethbr0 »

chrisco255 wrote: post #141
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…

It is worth all of those things... when you have a novel pandemic to blunt.

However, once the disease is characterized, you have effective treatments and protocols for the most sick, and you have decent rates of vaccination and recent infection... needs shift.

The critical factor is {max hospital ICU capacity} + 1 more seriously ill person, and when you're dealing with exponential growth rates and a virgin population, that can be hit pretty easily.

The fact that we didn't (in most parts of the world, for most of the time) is a triumph of modern health policy.

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

#172

Post by micromacrofoot »

anon_coward_ghk wrote: post #170
micromacrofoot wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

falling bricks didn't kill 1 million americans over the past 2 years

Generally everyone is vulnerable to falling bricks, whereas the evidence shows that those who will die from covid are most likely obese / elderly / smokers / diabetics / etc.

this doesn't really influence my comment, if 1 million people over the past 2 years died of falling bricks I'd wear a helmet

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

#173

Post by TurkishPoptart »

timr wrote: post #98
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.

> 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…

>This impulse to blame/scold people for a natural phenomenon is unnerving.

Yeah, but as far as our governments will share more information on this, this SARS-CoV-2 virus was invented by people in a lab, and it escaped from a lab, due to human error.

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

#174

Post by howinteresting »

TurkishPoptart wrote: post #164
howinteresting wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indoor masking is quite common in the SF Bay Area.

It's a cult over there. They get guilted into feeling like bioterrorists if they don't.

Many people are prosocial and don't need to be guilted into things, unlike what conservatives think.

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

#175

Post by amalter »

landemva wrote: post #162
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…

You got actual covid and recovered, then did you get blood test to check for development of antibodies? Then you later got the shot for what purpose?

Caught a medium severity case of omicron almost exactly a year ago when I was triple vax'd.

Took the bivalent booster about 2 months ago then went on a cruise and directly after to re:invent.

Since then had multiple exposures with people around me getting week long fevers. So far I had something in my system that made me feel "slightly off" - but nothing worse.

Yay antibodies.

I'm a big believer in "more antibodies the better" - but I am also on the side of "COVID amnesty". The pandemic was an immensely scary time for everyone, and got co-opted by politics of all stripes. We need to forgive each other and move on.

I now support everyone's choice - with the standard exceptions (Childhood vaccines, don't go out when sick, respect others).

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

#176

Post by blockwriter »

Diederich wrote: post #54
dxhdr wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How would you characterize the costs associated with wearing a mask most of the time when in public? I tried it for a year and it's dehumanizing. Not sure how you'd rate that vs the unknown chance of long covid but I've made my choice.

I suppose it's a matter of perspective. My wife, son and I have been masking with 100% consistency since April 2020 (in indoor/crowded outdoor places) and we haven't felt 'dehumanized' to the slightest degree. It's not quite free; the bridge of my nose sometimes experiences some irritation, and we've had to deal with more than a hand full of hateful/snarky in person comments, but that's no biggie.

Does your son do it freely of his own accord, or only at the behest of one or both of his parents? I would check in with him in ten years as to how sanguine he feels about a rather uncommon rite of hygiene being imposed, or simply encouraged, during his childhood or adolescence for 2+ years.

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

#177

Post by anon_coward_ghk »

KerrAvon wrote: post #57
spookthesunset wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is more to life than a myopic focus on avoiding one specific illness. I’ve got a million other problems in my life to worry about. Catching Covid isn’t anywhere near the top of that list. This applies to society as a whole as well. The damage caused by our incredibly myopic focus on Covid is far, far greater than the damage actually caused by the virus itself.

Quoted post unavailable.

I am a resident doctor and based on my reading and general gestalt most healthy people aren't likely to get "long covid". Also confounding, a significant portion of long covid seems to be a mental health diagnosis (as evidenced by https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/09/depression-an...). People who are anxious / depressed are reporting they have "long covid". This same group is more likely to report physical disabily for other reasons eg non-specific back pain.

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

#179

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#180

Post by anon_coward_ghk »

amilios wrote: post #156
jgalt212 wrote: post #150

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.

This is an absolute myth. There is no evidence of "immunity debt", and serious public officials parrotting this nonsense are doing real damage. It's a tempting explanation because it's simple and seems to make intuitive sense, but it's just wrong. The explanation that has much more evidence is that everyone and their dog caught COVID, and COVID has been directly linked to lasting immune system damage, making everyone…

It seems anything that could hurt pfizer or Moderna stock is "misinformation".

"In fact, Furness likens the immune system to a collection of photographs. When people take photos and put them away in an album, the photos don’t fade over time just because they aren’t being looked at regularly."

By that logic I must not need my yearly flu shot because my flu "photo" hasn't faded. Clearly if I wasn't exposed to rsv (and it's most recent variants) my immune system can fight it just as strongly because I have that photo from two years ago.

Also, tetanus vaccines every 10 years, that must be bs.

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