COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[DaleCooper]

This thread (and Twitter replies) sometimes feels like a different planet.  Masks are uncommon enough here that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see one.  The grocery store is the only place you see them, and it's even a minority there.  Apart from a vague understanding of things being different elsewhere, the Delta and- especially- Omicron waves have felt culturally a lot like the 2009 swine flu.  You know that people are getting sick, but probably don't know anyone who has been seriously ill*, and don't think too much about it.

*I'll be honest- I don't know a single person who has had anything worse than the seasonal flu from any variant of covid.

I feel the same feeling in the exact opposite direction! Masks are almost universal here in indoor public settings that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see people flouting the mandate. I had many friends who got sick during Omicron, none seriously, and it seems like almost everyone was at least exposed at some point; almost everyone I know changed their behavior in some way or another. I've known people who died due to COVID at the onset of the pandemic. People in this thread are hurled into a paroxysm of madness whenever they see a mask but I've never heard anyone in real life who's had a more negative opinion of a mask then "sometimes they make my glasses fog up". Nobody wants the mask mandates to last forever, but I've heard many people (especially older folks) say, "I think I'll just start wearing a mask in the wintertime so I don't get the flu", and I've definitely heard many folks say (and I myself agree!) that masks are kind of nice in the winter when you're outside because they help keep your face warm, like a scarf.

It just goes to show you what bubbles we all live in. To both of us, this thread seems like an unrelenting stream of opinions we can't understand; we also have cognitive biases to fixate on the opinions we disagree with and ignore the ones that we agree with.

I am also living in a place where everyone wears a mask indoors. My read of the situation is that everyone tolerates them, people don’t often complain about them, and nobody loves them. This paranoia that we all want to wear masks forever is ludicrous. We don’t want to wear them forever—it’s just that, you know, we’re still in a pandemic. We need to be careful that we won’t be too scared to revert back when it’s time, but even though we might be close, it’s not time yet. We are just getting past our peak of record hospitalizations.

When do you think people should stop wearing masks in their day to day lives?

[Calthrina950]

This thread (and Twitter replies) sometimes feels like a different planet.  Masks are uncommon enough here that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see one.  The grocery store is the only place you see them, and it's even a minority there.  Apart from a vague understanding of things being different elsewhere, the Delta and- especially- Omicron waves have felt culturally a lot like the 2009 swine flu.  You know that people are getting sick, but probably don't know anyone who has been seriously ill*, and don't think too much about it.

*I'll be honest- I don't know a single person who has had anything worse than the seasonal flu from any variant of covid.

I feel the same feeling in the exact opposite direction! Masks are almost universal here in indoor public settings that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see people flouting the mandate. I had many friends who got sick during Omicron, none seriously, and it seems like almost everyone was at least exposed at some point; almost everyone I know changed their behavior in some way or another. I've known people who died due to COVID at the onset of the pandemic. People in this thread are hurled into a paroxysm of madness whenever they see a mask but I've never heard anyone in real life who's had a more negative opinion of a mask then "sometimes they make my glasses fog up". Nobody wants the mask mandates to last forever, but I've heard many people (especially older folks) say, "I think I'll just start wearing a mask in the wintertime so I don't get the flu", and I've definitely heard many folks say (and I myself agree!) that masks are kind of nice in the winter when you're outside because they help keep your face warm, like a scarf.

It just goes to show you what bubbles we all live in. To both of us, this thread seems like an unrelenting stream of opinions we can't understand; we also have cognitive biases to fixate on the opinions we disagree with and ignore the ones that we agree with.

I am also living in a place where everyone wears a mask indoors. My read of the situation is that everyone tolerates them, people don’t often complain about them, and nobody loves them. This paranoia that we all want to wear masks forever is ludicrous. We don’t want to wear them forever—it’s just that, you know, we’re still in a pandemic. We need to be careful that we won’t be too scared to revert back when it’s time, but even though we might be close, it’s not time yet. We are just getting past our peak of record hospitalizations.

When do you think people should stop wearing masks in their day to day lives?

Answering this for myself, I think that people should stop with the Omicron wave receding. But in reality, I expect for many people to wear them regularly for now on at least seasonally. Masks will never entirely go away.

[It’s so Joever]

This thread (and Twitter replies) sometimes feels like a different planet.  Masks are uncommon enough here that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see one.  The grocery store is the only place you see them, and it's even a minority there.  Apart from a vague understanding of things being different elsewhere, the Delta and- especially- Omicron waves have felt culturally a lot like the 2009 swine flu.  You know that people are getting sick, but probably don't know anyone who has been seriously ill*, and don't think too much about it.

*I'll be honest- I don't know a single person who has had anything worse than the seasonal flu from any variant of covid.

I feel the same feeling in the exact opposite direction! Masks are almost universal here in indoor public settings that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see people flouting the mandate. I had many friends who got sick during Omicron, none seriously, and it seems like almost everyone was at least exposed at some point; almost everyone I know changed their behavior in some way or another. I've known people who died due to COVID at the onset of the pandemic. People in this thread are hurled into a paroxysm of madness whenever they see a mask but I've never heard anyone in real life who's had a more negative opinion of a mask then "sometimes they make my glasses fog up". Nobody wants the mask mandates to last forever, but I've heard many people (especially older folks) say, "I think I'll just start wearing a mask in the wintertime so I don't get the flu", and I've definitely heard many folks say (and I myself agree!) that masks are kind of nice in the winter when you're outside because they help keep your face warm, like a scarf.

It just goes to show you what bubbles we all live in. To both of us, this thread seems like an unrelenting stream of opinions we can't understand; we also have cognitive biases to fixate on the opinions we disagree with and ignore the ones that we agree with.

I am also living in a place where everyone wears a mask indoors. My read of the situation is that everyone tolerates them, people don’t often complain about them, and nobody loves them. This paranoia that we all want to wear masks forever is ludicrous. We don’t want to wear them forever—it’s just that, you know, we’re still in a pandemic. We need to be careful that we won’t be too scared to revert back when it’s time, but even though we might be close, it’s not time yet. We are just getting past our peak of record hospitalizations.

When do you think people should stop wearing masks in their day to day lives?

Answering this for myself, I think that people should stop with the Omicron wave receding. But in reality, I expect for many people to wear them regularly for now on at least seasonally. Masks will never entirely go away.

But you were also not for masks during the peak of omicron?

[HagridOfTheDeep]

This thread (and Twitter replies) sometimes feels like a different planet.  Masks are uncommon enough here that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see one.  The grocery store is the only place you see them, and it's even a minority there.  Apart from a vague understanding of things being different elsewhere, the Delta and- especially- Omicron waves have felt culturally a lot like the 2009 swine flu.  You know that people are getting sick, but probably don't know anyone who has been seriously ill*, and don't think too much about it.

*I'll be honest- I don't know a single person who has had anything worse than the seasonal flu from any variant of covid.

I feel the same feeling in the exact opposite direction! Masks are almost universal here in indoor public settings that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see people flouting the mandate. I had many friends who got sick during Omicron, none seriously, and it seems like almost everyone was at least exposed at some point; almost everyone I know changed their behavior in some way or another. I've known people who died due to COVID at the onset of the pandemic. People in this thread are hurled into a paroxysm of madness whenever they see a mask but I've never heard anyone in real life who's had a more negative opinion of a mask then "sometimes they make my glasses fog up". Nobody wants the mask mandates to last forever, but I've heard many people (especially older folks) say, "I think I'll just start wearing a mask in the wintertime so I don't get the flu", and I've definitely heard many folks say (and I myself agree!) that masks are kind of nice in the winter when you're outside because they help keep your face warm, like a scarf.

It just goes to show you what bubbles we all live in. To both of us, this thread seems like an unrelenting stream of opinions we can't understand; we also have cognitive biases to fixate on the opinions we disagree with and ignore the ones that we agree with.

I am also living in a place where everyone wears a mask indoors. My read of the situation is that everyone tolerates them, people don’t often complain about them, and nobody loves them. This paranoia that we all want to wear masks forever is ludicrous. We don’t want to wear them forever—it’s just that, you know, we’re still in a pandemic. We need to be careful that we won’t be too scared to revert back when it’s time, but even though we might be close, it’s not time yet. We are just getting past our peak of record hospitalizations.

When do you think people should stop wearing masks in their day to day lives?

The only metric should be how close hospitals are to being overwhelmed. As I said, British Columbia is just coming down from its all-time peak in hospitalizations. To remove mask mandates now could send numbers shooting right back up, which is not what we should want to happen given we don’t have a ton of wiggle room. I agree that we should let go of the mandates once we’re clearly through this wave. If another wave of some other variant comes, we should wait to understand how the variant is affecting our hospitalizations before we jump into panic mode.

That said, it is unvaccinated people who are driving our hospitalizations, so I am absolutely on board with doing whatever we can to explicitly limit spread among that group by keeping them out of high-risk places. Restrictions on those folks should be very different from restrictions on everybody else.

[Calthrina950]

This thread (and Twitter replies) sometimes feels like a different planet.  Masks are uncommon enough here that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see one.  The grocery store is the only place you see them, and it's even a minority there.  Apart from a vague understanding of things being different elsewhere, the Delta and- especially- Omicron waves have felt culturally a lot like the 2009 swine flu.  You know that people are getting sick, but probably don't know anyone who has been seriously ill*, and don't think too much about it.

*I'll be honest- I don't know a single person who has had anything worse than the seasonal flu from any variant of covid.

I feel the same feeling in the exact opposite direction! Masks are almost universal here in indoor public settings that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see people flouting the mandate. I had many friends who got sick during Omicron, none seriously, and it seems like almost everyone was at least exposed at some point; almost everyone I know changed their behavior in some way or another. I've known people who died due to COVID at the onset of the pandemic. People in this thread are hurled into a paroxysm of madness whenever they see a mask but I've never heard anyone in real life who's had a more negative opinion of a mask then "sometimes they make my glasses fog up". Nobody wants the mask mandates to last forever, but I've heard many people (especially older folks) say, "I think I'll just start wearing a mask in the wintertime so I don't get the flu", and I've definitely heard many folks say (and I myself agree!) that masks are kind of nice in the winter when you're outside because they help keep your face warm, like a scarf.

It just goes to show you what bubbles we all live in. To both of us, this thread seems like an unrelenting stream of opinions we can't understand; we also have cognitive biases to fixate on the opinions we disagree with and ignore the ones that we agree with.

I am also living in a place where everyone wears a mask indoors. My read of the situation is that everyone tolerates them, people don’t often complain about them, and nobody loves them. This paranoia that we all want to wear masks forever is ludicrous. We don’t want to wear them forever—it’s just that, you know, we’re still in a pandemic. We need to be careful that we won’t be too scared to revert back when it’s time, but even though we might be close, it’s not time yet. We are just getting past our peak of record hospitalizations.

When do you think people should stop wearing masks in their day to day lives?

Answering this for myself, I think that people should stop with the Omicron wave receding. But in reality, I expect for many people to wear them regularly for now on at least seasonally. Masks will never entirely go away.

But you were also not for masks during the peak of omicron?

Not for mask mandates. As I've said above, I align with our Governor on this issue.

[Roll Roons]

https://twitter.com/NewRochelleED/status/1489419992860872704?cxt=HHwWgMCyvfPlvas...
https://twitter.com/RepBowman/status/1489018294774419462?cxt=HHwWjMCywf-Ph6opAAA...

Polis can stay, but vote every single one of the rest out. This wave needs to be absolutely brutal and leave no corner of the country untouched. Stop the tyranny!

[Blue3]

Well, after 2 shots of Pfizer in March and 2 shots of Moderna in July, I am positive with COVID.

I felt off last Friday, but symptoms began Monday, and Monday night into Tuesday was horrible, but thankfully the vaccines seemed to make sure the worst of it was only a couple days, have already started getting better (but still feel sick ) and have to continue in quarantine isolation until after my dad’s birthday on 2/10 (the full 10 days minimum because of my Crohn’s disease medicine making me immunocompromised). I think I just got it from work, we began giving candy to students in our room for those chronically absent on days they came in. The first night was bad. Feeling very hot then very cold, sweating a lot, felt too tired to move, like I had melted into the couch or bed, and kept shaking. Now it’s just coughing, sneezing, chest congestion, headaches, and very bad fatigue and brain fogginess. Sore throat going away. But I still feel very tired and brain foggy, and now I just lost the sense of smell.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

This is so humiliating.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Well, after 2 shots of Pfizer in March and 2 shots of Moderna in July, I am positive with COVID.

I felt off last Friday, but symptoms began Monday, and Monday night into Tuesday was horrible, but thankfully the vaccines seemed to make sure the worst of it was only a couple days, have already started getting better (but still feel sick ) and have to continue in quarantine isolation until after my dad’s birthday on 2/10 (the full 10 days minimum because of my Crohn’s disease medicine making me immunocompromised). I think I just got it from work, we began giving candy to students in our room for those chronically absent on days they came in. The first night was bad. Feeling very hot then very cold, sweating a lot, felt too tired to move, like I had melted into the couch or bed, and kept shaking. Now it’s just coughing, sneezing, chest congestion, headaches, and very bad fatigue and brain fogginess. Sore throat going away. But I still feel very tired and brain foggy, and now I just lost the sense of smell.

Sounds very similar to my experience.  Your rough symptoms will probably be gone entirely by Tuesday, but the sense of smell takes a week or two to come back, and the cough will take a week beyond that to fully disappear.

Get TheraFlu AM/PM to help with the fever and sore throat, Amazon should be able to 2-hour deliver it or you can have someone bring it to you.  Really made things so much better.

[jamestroll]

[Calthrina950]

https://twitter.com/NewRochelleED/status/1489419992860872704?cxt=HHwWgMCyvfPlvas...
https://twitter.com/RepBowman/status/1489018294774419462?cxt=HHwWjMCywf-Ph6opAAA...

Polis can stay, but vote every single one of the rest out. This wave needs to be absolutely brutal and leave no corner of the country untouched. Stop the tyranny!

What about the New Rochelle tweet is of concern, aside from those masked students in the photographs? Of course, that's not a sight I'd like to see.

[Roll Roons]

https://twitter.com/NewRochelleED/status/1489419992860872704?cxt=HHwWgMCyvfPlvas...
https://twitter.com/RepBowman/status/1489018294774419462?cxt=HHwWjMCywf-Ph6opAAA...

Polis can stay, but vote every single one of the rest out. This wave needs to be absolutely brutal and leave no corner of the country untouched. Stop the tyranny!

What about the New Rochelle tweet is of concern, aside from those masked students in the photographs? Of course, that's not a sight I'd like to see.

Bowman is the only one in that photo not wearing a mask, despite what he said in his tweet.

[Calthrina950]

https://twitter.com/NewRochelleED/status/1489419992860872704?cxt=HHwWgMCyvfPlvas...
https://twitter.com/RepBowman/status/1489018294774419462?cxt=HHwWjMCywf-Ph6opAAA...

Polis can stay, but vote every single one of the rest out. This wave needs to be absolutely brutal and leave no corner of the country untouched. Stop the tyranny!

What about the New Rochelle tweet is of concern, aside from those masked students in the photographs? Of course, that's not a sight I'd like to see.

Bowman is the only one in that photo not wearing a mask, despite what he said in his tweet.

I see. I didn't click to expand the photograph, and didn't realize it was happen. Yes, that follows upon what Stacey Abrams did.

[T'Chenka]

Okay so, they're probably planning to lift it in the spring/summer if it becomes reasonable to do so, with the emphasized statement to the public that "you should expect a very realistic chance of it returning in the fall / winter but we'll see how things evolve between now and then".

Sounds... about right?

[Roll Roons]

Okay so, they're probably planning to lift it in the spring/summer if it becomes reasonable to do so, with the emphasized statement to the public that "you should expect a very realistic chance of it returning in the fall / winter but we'll see how things evolve between now and then".

Sounds... about right?

It should never be brought back, period.

[T'Chenka]

Okay so, they're probably planning to lift it in the spring/summer if it becomes reasonable to do so, with the emphasized statement to the public that "you should expect a very realistic chance of it returning in the fall / winter but we'll see how things evolve between now and then".

Sounds... about right?

It should never be brought back, period.

Making definite statements about how safety protocols should be in the future despite not knowing what the conditions could be is foolish.

[KaiserDave]

Terrible, terrible

[Calthrina950]

Okay so, they're probably planning to lift it in the spring/summer if it becomes reasonable to do so, with the emphasized statement to the public that "you should expect a very realistic chance of it returning in the fall / winter but we'll see how things evolve between now and then".

Sounds... about right?

It should never be brought back, period.

Making definite statements about how safety protocols should be in the future despite not knowing what the conditions could be is foolish.

You would support seasonal mask mandates? Between this and permanent mask mandates, it's alarming to me that so many people are willing to accept a change such as this. But I've been predicting that this would be the case for some time now.

[Sol]

Okay so, they're probably planning to lift it in the spring/summer if it becomes reasonable to do so, with the emphasized statement to the public that "you should expect a very realistic chance of it returning in the fall / winter but we'll see how things evolve between now and then".

Sounds... about right?

It should never be brought back, period.

Making definite statements about how safety protocols should be in the future despite not knowing what the conditions could be is foolish.

I'll just respond with this excellent quote from Blairite:

Alrighty, I'm going to do an overly-long text wall of a post articulating my thoughts about Covid and why I'm on the hard-reopen vanguard of the Democratic Party. Please ignore if this is all too self-indulgent...

You can't just make a virus go away by screaming "I'M GETTING ON WITH MY LIFE". The logic that just issuing a verbal decree that the pandemic is over will end it is exactly why this pandemic will not go away in reality. You can symbolically declare whatever you like, but in reality that won't stop surges in the future. COVID isn't a person, it is a virus that doesn't care about symbolism. My point is that you can be "done" with COVID restrictions, but you cannot be "done" with COVID itself. You can still get sick and no politician can save you from that.

Here's the thing. The ideal world is one without Covid in it. At one point, we thought mRNA vaccines would get us to that world. And in reality, they've gotten us close enough for people who want to protect themselves. People who don't want to protect themselves can deal with the fallout--and we don't need to make policy for them. Covid spread *does not matter* if vaccinated people aren't dying. Because the vaccines are pretty damn good.

But perhaps more importantly, the tradeoff between restrictions and freedom is very different than in 2020. In 2020, the deal was "we have restrictions until a vaccine is released to protect the vulnerable. Once the vaccine is out, everyone can go back to normal." The cost-benefit calculation is different now. In 2020, the rational choice was to wait a few months until vaccines came out to lift restrictions. We had an immediate, clear solution that would reduce Covid risk. There was a short-term payoff to delaying reopening. No such solution exists today. There is no particularly good reason to expect Covid circulation to be lower in 2024 than it is right now. There is no new vaccine coming--we already have the vaccine. Therefore, the abstract benefit of delaying stuff into the future has been eliminated. I think this is where your argument breaks down. There is no medium-term amount of time over which we can expect Covid risk to meaningfully fall. If this is as safe as things can be, it is not reasonable to expect people to make choices that will minimize spread and save lives. The cost, unlike in 2020, is simply not worth the benefit because you can promise no hard end date after which life will return to 2019. "Don’t do X for some defined period of time after which X will become dramatically safer" (i.e. March 2020-May 2021) is very different than “don’t do X indefinitely.” (i.e. any restriction after May 2021).

Therefore, the only rational choice--in decision making, in risk mitigation, in anything--is to treat Covid like it is, indeed, "done." If future surges cannot be stopped by the mRNA vaccines we all have today, there is no reason to make any effort to stop them.

"Get on with our lives" could mean any number of things.  I got the vaccine, and got on with my life.  Now the only way COVID impacts me is that I occasionally have to wear a mask, which I don't mind at all.

Bagdad GMAC's timeline:

Aug 2021: Afghanistan debacle isn't real!
Oct 2021: Inflation isn't real!
Jan 2022: Restrictions aren't real!

I mean, in the past couple of weeks I went to a football game, the new Matrix movie, a Broadway show, dinner with friends at several restaurants, and an eSports tournament. I literally can't think of anything I could do before COVID that I can't do now, and I live in the ~*liberal hellhole*~ of NYC.

What does "getting on with your life" equal if not the above?

Life is 90% of the way back to normal. Those on the right who think that it is still April 2020 in blue states are entirely detached from reality, but that also does not mean it is 100% of the way back to normal. And because--as I said above--risk mitigation against Covid is not rational, we need to be 100% of the way back to normal.

Here's some stuff that is still happening:

• Concerts, conventions, speaking events, and big gatherings are still being cancelled because organizations don't want to host during Covid.
• People--particularly kids in K12--who are exposed to Covid often have to isolate for a full week.
• Asymptomatic people with breakthrough cases have to isolate for five days.
• Millions of people are still working from home as big employers (and federal agencies, particularly in Washington) push back a return to the office by 2-3 months every 2-3 months. This is particularly decimating to all the businesses that rely on bustling downtowns and office workers to serve.
• Schools, universities, and most businesses still have mask mandates. Many schools also have weekly testing requirements.
• In-person Social Security offices have been 100% closed for two full years. For people without reliable internet access (usually poor and old), this is devastating--and erodes trust in our state capacity.
• You have to wear a mask on the train, on airplanes, and going grocery shopping.
• Service sector workers have to wear masks 8-10 hours per day, every day.
• Transpacific travel is still entirely shut down. (Not our fault, but still). Even where international travel is open, people have to get a PCR test before every flight.
• And crucially, RULES KEEP CHANGING. Back in 2017, I could plan 6-36 months ahead with some certainty. I knew what my life would look like. But two years of constant fluctuation from institutions breaks down the trust and the certainty people need for stability in their lives. And this breeds a constant, toxic feeling of precarity in everything we do.

None of these are individually a big deal, but collectively they add up. I think it has been reflected politically. Right now, Joe Biden should be very popular and Americans should be very happy. It's the roaring twenties 2.0. For most people alive today, 2020 was the worst year of their life. It was destabilizing, it was miserable, it was lonely, and it was desperate. Things are better. Even with inflation, most people are doing at least as well as they were in 2019. We can now do *most* of the things we could do in 2019. We have the fastest GDP growth of recent times anywhere in the world. Forget BBB for a moment--everyday voters should approve of Biden 60-40 on the merits of "life isn't like 2020" alone. More importantly, questions like "Is America getting better or worse?" should have 75-80 percent of people answering "better." But for some reason, that isn't happening. I believe it is because two years on, these constant, individually small but collectively immiserating vestiges of the pandemic are sapping the national spirit and making people feel like their lives aren't that great--even though materially, they are.

Biden and Harris have appropriately rejected the worst instincts of the lockdowners, but they haven't articulated a specific date at which life will be exactly like February 2019. A date where masks will not be required anywhere--even airplanes. A date where nobody will have to isolate for testing positive. A date where absolutely no services that were once offered in person are offered only virtually. I know that Covid-19 hawks feel that masks are a no-big-deal low-cost intervention. If we're being entirely rational, it's correct that they don't cost anything. But they offer us extraordinarily marginal protection compared to vaccines so they're frankly not worth bothering with. I was 100% on board with mask mandates right up until May 2021 when everyone had access to the vaccines. I was fine with a national law and fines for non-compliance. But today, they're an unceasing visual and tactile reminder of the misery of the pandemic. Everytime you don't see someone's face, it puts you back in that unpleasant bunker mentality. They don't allow you to look forward and feel optimistic about our current national state, even though there's a lot to be optimistic about. I do not believe most people will feel like we've put the pandemic behind us until we stop seeing (and wearing) masks everywhere we go. Especially on the faces of the President and Vice President.

It's interesting how behind the Democrats are on a lot of issues like this. Virtually everyone on the right and a supermajority of independents agree, but the Democrats are in a dead heat, and that's only the general population. Amongst Democratic politicians (and even primary voters) I bet that their numbers look more like an inverse of the independents.

The left has a similar delusion with cancel culture, where the popular opinion is plain for all to see, but Democrats simply cannot bring themselves to acknowledge it.

You're probably right, but do we really have to treat the phrase "cancel culture" like an appropriate combination of words for adult political culture? It's a real pet peeve. We have a word from zoomer slang (cancel) and threw culture on the end (which isn't correct word choice) and now have boomer pundits uncritically repeating it ad nauseum. The whole thing feels surreal.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

Thanks for pinging me Sol!

May as well take this opportunity to throw in a few graphs:





It is, in fact, appropriate to change your views on Covid mitigation measures (and all other things) as the evidence changes. We just aren't facing the same disease anymore. People who compared Covid to the flu two years ago were dumb and wrong. People who don't think they're similar today (with some age-related discrepancies) are correspondingly incorrect. If you didn't think doing (x) to stop the spread of the flu was a good idea in 2019, it isn't logical to support doing (x) to stop the spread of Covid today.

[BlueSwan]

Thanks for pinging me Sol!

May as well take this opportunity to throw in a few graphs:





It is, in fact, appropriate to change your views on Covid mitigation measures (and all other things) as the evidence changes. We just aren't facing the same disease anymore. People who compared Covid to the flu two years ago were dumb and wrong. People who don't think they're similar today (with some age-related discrepancies) are correspondingly incorrect. If you didn't think doing (x) to stop the spread of the flu was a good idea in 2019, it isn't logical to support doing (x) to stop the spread of Covid today.

Yes, indeed.

I am amazed at the sheer stupidity of people who conclude that because the Omicron variant isn't very dangerous now, COVID was never dangerous to begin with. The ignorance is mind-numbing.

[ElectionsGuy]

The covid nannies have completely lost Bill Maher

https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1490353088045146122

[emailking]

People who compared Covid to the flu two years ago were dumb and wrong. People who don't think they're similar today (with some age-related discrepancies) are correspondingly incorrect.

I don't think they're similar. Omicron killed as many people in January as the flu does in a really bad year (whole year).

[Pericles]

One more thing about the John Hopkins study-it seems to get the correlation the wrong way around. More Covid spread and more deaths can be correlated with longer lockdowns, but the longer lockdown is the effect of the situation being worse when the lockdown began. The study excluded early, preventative lockdowns, which were the type used by countries that eliminated Covid.

[jamestroll]

It has now been nearly a month since we were promised mass deaths of Chicago Public School students if they were returned to school.