COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Filuwaúrdjan]

This is all extremely similar to the sort of language used to describe Boris Johnson's covid experience earlier this year...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Six reported cases.  In Britain, reports of blood clots from the AZ vaccine tripled after doctors knew to start looking for them.  19 people have died.

Out of about twenty million or so jabs administered. Meanwhile, over 125,000 people here have died of Covid during the past twelve months.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

For the AstraZeneca vaccine, it similarly was just a few sporadic cases that were identified. Big whoop. But once government regulators and scientists started to look into the issue, the number of clots identified dramatically increased.

This is not correct (the number of potential cases went from beyond minuscule to, well, beyond minuscule: even on the worst estimates we are talking of literally a million-to-one chance of death), please do not spread misinformation about vaccines on this forum.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

That dude is nothing but an anxiety machine. He spreads fear porn to get people to keep reading him.

Is he still in Austria?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

No vaccine-denialism and no conspiracy theories, thank you.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I've actually seen quite a few articles around saying this should be safe to do for people who got the J&J/AZ vaccines if they're concerned with the current level of protection.

This pandemic really has unleashed the hidden idiot in a lot of people. I don't think I even quite have the words for this one.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It’s not likely necessary,

Then given the desperate need to vaccinate to ordinary levels as many people as possible as soon as possible across this Earth of ours, it is surely immoral as a consumer choice; one motivate by outright irrational cowardice in nearly all instances.

And Fil, you’re the real idiot for slinging that word without even looking at the issue itself. Several studies have been done on organ transplants and show that a third vaccine did provide a boost to those who previously had very low levels because of their condition. Of course, what would I expect from one of many pseudo-intellectuals here?

You should be very careful about what you assume about people.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It's been well over a year now and you cannot reasonably expect people to live thoroughly restricted lives on an indefinite basis. I suppose it's easy to say 'look it's just another year' if you are healthy, young and arrogant, but a year is a not-insignificant proportion of ones life and not everyone has the assurance that they have plenty of them more to come. Extreme measures can really only be justified in extreme circumstances, and most of the measures put in place across the world during this pandemic have been, and are, extreme. A lot of cruelty has been inflicted over the past year and a half: that at least some of it has been the necessary price to avoid something worse does not lessen the blow. Public health policy is a matter of balance, not of utopianism.

That, by the way, is not an argument for 'no restrictions at all', but to say that any restrictions (by this point) must be proportionate, must be properly justified and must be carefully balanced alongside other factors. It is also an argument against screaming tones of judgment, of which there really has been too much. This has been a horrible time. It will continue to be unpleasant for a while (if significantly less do due to vaccinations). People are not detestable because they have found it difficult.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It's fascinating (if incredibly depressing) quite how many liberals have memed themselves into taking what amount to soft anti-vaxxer positions. This thread heaves with that kind of nonsense.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It's an incredible comment on American insularity that absolutely none of the discourse around dEltA and the vaccines incorporates... you know... places that have had significant outbreaks of it with large numbers of the population vaccinated.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

They are very effective against certain other respiratory conditions (notably seasonal flu) and if your priority is to limit the pressure that hospital systems are under, then, well, keep it up.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

We have vaccines and therapeutics. There will be outbreaks of it every Autumn and Winter to some extent or other, in the same way that there is of flu, and that really is the best way to view it now.