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

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

#251

Post by tagoregrtst » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 3:20 PM UTC

ramoz wrote: post #241

tagoregrtst wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“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…

I’m just going to add, because I want the same trust in the system but it’s f’d me up. In early summer 2020, my mom passed in hospice from cancer. 4mo before that she had a fighting chance, but faced intensive surgeries (ICU for sure based on experience) and chemo — all in isolation. Literally the hospital made it that choice - family has to leave. They basically gaslighted her out. I was furious, and because the hos…

My condolences.

The pervasiveness of dying or suffering alone has exploded in the last two years. It is one of the worst fates.

Hopefully, this pandemic will have served to shock us to take better care of our seniors who have been neglected for too long.

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

#252

Post by jseban » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 3:20 PM UTC

dtjb wrote: post #197

disambiguation wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Preaching "floods don't exist!" to the exhausted people who are watching the river subside after slinging sandbags for three days. Alternatively, many who were caught in the flood washed up safely on the shores, returned back to town to see people ripping down their houses to build barriers against the flood that they thought was the end of the world.

Because many people they knew didn't wash safely back on the shores.

Is 1% "many"?

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

#253

Post by bla3 » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 3:22 PM UTC

jamps wrote: post #195

cm2187 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why on earth would you vaccinate kids? It’s not going to do anything to the spread of the virus, as the grand parent post mentioned it is extremely infectious and neither masks or the vaccines have been shown to make anything else than a dent in the levels of infections. They aren’t at risk of the virus either. The energy would be better spent convincing the few >60yo who haven’t been vaccinated to get the shot. But…

That's correct. At some point we need to look at the real data of deaths. https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps/ In Europe, there has NEVER been A PANDEMIC for people All care should have focused on the elderly (early treatment, access to doctors even when positive...). No restrictions (mask, mandatory vaccine, lockdowns..) makes sense for those aged under 45yo.

Looking at those graphs, it does look like it's getting there for 15-44 years too, no?

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

#254

Post by momirlan » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 3:22 PM UTC

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 none of the three, amazingly.

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

#255

Post by zdragnar » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 3:22 PM UTC

te_chris wrote: post #54

kilroy123 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in London people seem to have largely stop caring. Many have already been vaxed and got COVID. (I have) Lot's of people are ignoring the mask mandates and going with out a mask, even on the public transportation.

This. The PT one annoys the F out of me... but otherwise I'm over it. On PT though, I don't understand how people can't just put a mask on. SE Asia learned from SARS 1 and kept it up out of common sense, but nope, that's too much to ask here. I'm triple vaxxed and had covid in December. I'm going to nightclubs, pubs, restaurants etc. because why not? Who knows what the next variants etc will bring, but really does fe…

With a super contageous aerosol spreading virus, pretty much they only way masks on PT will make any difference at all is if everyone wears well fitted N95 or better masks.

The cute cloth masks and disposable paper ones simply aren't going to make a difference in an enclosed space like a bus or subway. It is the worst kind of security theater, in that it makes people feel safer when they are not, and so more willing to take risks than they would have been otherwise.

Asking people to wear cloth masks on PT during covid is like asking them to wear a bandana while riding a bicycle.

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

#256

Post by jamps » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 3:23 PM UTC

maxerickson wrote: post #219

jamps wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's correct. At some point we need to look at the real data of deaths. https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps/ In Europe, there has NEVER been A PANDEMIC for people All care should have focused on the elderly (early treatment, access to doctors even when positive...). No restrictions (mask, mandatory vaccine, lockdowns..) makes sense for those aged under 45yo.

Vaccinated people suffer much less from a course of infection than unvaccinated, in all age groups. Not necessarily 'long covid' stuff, just the basic injury that comes from the illness. I sure don't want to lose my sense of smell. Even in young children, the consequences of infection appear to be worse statistically than the consequences of vaccination. It's of course not all that well understood yet, but for exampl…

My point here was death. The fact that there is no life threatening disease for 0-45yo on a statistical level in Europe. Death for this age group is lower than it was in 2017.

> Vaccinated people suffer much less from a course of infection than unvaccinated, in all age groups.

I don't know how you can measure that. And that's not how these vaccines have been sold. They were supposed to have 95% efficacy at lowering risk of getting COVID-19 compared with the control group. We know now that is not the case as it does not help to control the epidemic (most vaxed countries with the highest cases). Transmission and contamination are not reduced with the vaccine.

So now we are told that it was never supposed to stop transmission, but miraculously, it makes your body handle the COVID better.

I don't know what data is used, but if you look for example in scotland (Page 44 https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/11223/22-01-19-covid...) There is no obvious difference between the vax or unvaxed in term of hospitalization or covid positivity (p.38) unvaxed even seem to do better.

This is health, people are always going to get sick, not just from COVID. We need to fight all diseases with the best weapons we got. Against Covid, vaccines are 1 weapon, so is anti-viral drugs, antibiotics anti inflammatory and anti coagulant.

But we should let each individual choose with his doctor what treatment he wants. And not guilt young children to take an experimental drug where we don't know the long term efficacy or side effects.

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

#257

Post by jseban » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 3:24 PM UTC

DFHippie wrote: post #200

disambiguation wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Preaching "floods don't exist!" to the exhausted people who are watching the river subside after slinging sandbags for three days. Alternatively, many who were caught in the flood washed up safely on the shores, returned back to town to see people ripping down their houses to build barriers against the flood that they thought was the end of the world.

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.

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

#258

Post by foo_barrio » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 3:24 PM UTC

christophilus wrote: post #143

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.

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.

Just looking at the Wikipedia page suggests that Polio outcomes are quite similar to COVID:

* 70% asymptomatic

* 25% minor symptoms with a 2 week recovery

* 0.5% chance of infecting central nervous system

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polio

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

#259

Post by dns_snek » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 3:25 PM UTC

dessant wrote: post #164

ls15 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

It ok to be ignorant, but you should think twice about that smugness. You are wrong, and you have very little excuse for being this wrong after two years of living in a pandemic.

The comment you replied to is somewhat common factual description of events of someone who was fully vaccinated and still caught covid, which lead them to decide not to get booster shots in the future.

How's that "wrong" or ignorant?

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

#260

Post by JPKab » Sat, Jan 22, 2022, 3:25 PM UTC

fasteddie31003 wrote: post #182

What COVID-19 has taught me is people really have different levels of risk tolerance. I'm realizing I am very risk prone. Omicron never scared me and I got it. It was so mild, I would have thought I was hung over if I didn't have a home test. On the other hand we had a guest visit us from SF who really hasn't left his apartment during the whole pandemic from being terrified of the virus. His personality has changed f…

I refer to these excessively risk averse people as "branch covidians".

It's dumb, corny, and not that funny, but it helps me appropriately pity them instead of being angry at them. Isolation can foster a negative feedback loop of excessive media consumption, and the media is filled with quantitatively illiterate mid-wits who grossly exaggerated the risk for healthy, non elderly people. Fear is the mind killer indeed.