COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/status/1326186436232671240

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://mobile.twitter.com/keribla/status/1325914300096110592

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

More than 180k cases today. sh**t is getting all too real. And it is clearly going to keep getting worse. The rate at which we are approaching the 200k cases per day marker is startling. Illinois alone is with 15k+ confirmed cases today, which is higher than CA or TX got in previous surges. The bad thing is there is no sign of any sort of deceleration, and policymakers (ha) are so far showing no signs of serious reaction. A relative of mine recently had a serious non-covid medical condition that required hospitalization, and was only barely able to get a hospital bed.

Trump actually got lucky that the election was in early november. A few weeks later and it would have been apparent to everyone how awful his handling of this pandemic has been. 300k cases per day within the next couple of weeks does not seem out of the question at this rate.

It wouldn't have mattered. Republicans are a death cult.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

is this a scorched earth policy? Biden entering with 2k dead per day and uncontrolled spread in 48 states?

It would be classic Republican/Trumpian MO. On the other hand, it's getting increasingly difficult to distinguish between Republican malevolence and Republican stupidity anymore.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1327816877301772291

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/edyong209/status/1328053977720758273

While many of us intellectually realize this already, there's something about seeing it laid out that helps the magnitude of the disaster facing us in the final days of a President who has completely abandoned his responsibilities.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

It’s terrible.
Our hospitals are getting close to being completely overloaded.
Even worse, many healthcare workers are getting sick and that means they can’t treat patients.
Please stay healthy in all aspects, (so like try not to break a limb). You may not be able to get hospital treatment at all this winter.
Although the average ICU stay is currently less time than it was in March, much of that is due to better treatment. And when we run out of either treatment or healthcare workers to administer that treatment...well it’s back to square one.
Be prepared, this is actually hitting nuclear levels.


And for those of you who still need more proof to accept the severity of this catastrophe...don’t worry you will get some proof soon, and there will be no turning back the clocks. To anyone who tried to downplay this virus...I hope you read this post on March and think back to what could have been had you and people like you acted like rational human beings. It’s too late now, you reap what you sow.

Those who "still need more proof" are soon going to pivot overnight to "This is horrible! Why didn't Biden fix it/make us act better?"

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Even Jake Tapper of CNN admits the obvious.



https://twitter.com/Mediaite/status/1328457745620668430

Trump sat on his toilet tweeting and played golf while Pfizer and Moderna did all the hard work. All Trump did was assure companies that whichever one came up with a vaccine first would be able to sell millions of doses to the US government. This is exactly what Biden, Sanders, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Bloomberg, or even Cruz, Rubio, Kasich, Romney would have done. It's nothing special that Trump deserves credit for.

https://twitter.com/NewsPolitics/status/1328435377187680256

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Death Cult Eager To Kill Elderly Americans Before They Can Be Vaccinated:
https://twitter.com/NikkiMcR/status/1328502026381176832

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Examining the situation for a few weeks now, I think we need a national lockdown for 3-4 weeks. Close all nonessential stores and prohibit any in person contacts outside your own household. Additionally, enforce rigorous mask mandates in supermarkets and other essential businesses. That's not a popular stance to take, but I see no other short term solutions. The number of daily new infections must be drastically reduced, or we lose many, many, many more lives. Even people who wouldn't die with proper treatment since the health system can't handle that many COVID-patients.

I agree with the need for it, but the lockdown itself isn't a complete solution. It needs to be accompanied by a major stimulus/bailout for businesses and workers (and should really include comprehensive national healthcare), and it needs to be accompanied by a rollout of coordinated nationwide contact tracing.

And that last one need to be fiercely apolitical (like the IRS or the military) and funded to stick around, at least as a cadre ready to rapidly expand, for the next pandemic.  New Zealand tracked points of infections down to a specific garbage can and elevator button and we should be able to do the same.

The awful part is that I don't think we can. It's not outside our technical or financial capabilities, but as a nation we lack something  - willpower, or unity, or basic rationality, or simply the ability to care enough about our fellow citizens.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Examining the situation for a few weeks now, I think we need a national lockdown for 3-4 weeks. Close all nonessential stores and prohibit any in person contacts outside your own household. Additionally, enforce rigorous mask mandates in supermarkets and other essential businesses. That's not a popular stance to take, but I see no other short term solutions. The number of daily new infections must be drastically reduced, or we lose many, many, many more lives. Even people who wouldn't die with proper treatment since the health system can't handle that many COVID-patients.

I agree with the need for it, but the lockdown itself isn't a complete solution. It needs to be accompanied by a major stimulus/bailout for businesses and workers (and should really include comprehensive national healthcare), and it needs to be accompanied by a rollout of coordinated nationwide contact tracing.

The problem is it will take time to pass a stimulus. All the left wants on this site are for people to be locked down and they are all rich here so they obviously do not care if millions are evicted in January. They just want to protect their 110 year old grandmother or something.

Our national debt is at a dangerous level. Therefore, I oppose any new massive stimulus packages. Our best way forward is to keep the economy open and vaccinated vulnerable populations in December/January.

We're not going to be vaccinating significant numbers of people in under three months.

A stimulus could easily be passed... if the GOP were participating in government in good faith.

Whining about the national debt now, on this particular issue, is either massively ignorant or done in bad faith.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1329796911583404032

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

In a move surprising no one, court rigged by death cult votes for more deaths by plague.

https://twitter.com/adamliptak/status/1331833345215520768

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The major isue with school seems that science doesn't have a clear answer how much they actually contribute to the spread. Studies often contradict themselves. That makes it so difficult.

I don’t think this is really accurate.  The science has come to pretty overwhelmingly show that schools contribute much less to the spread than many other aspects of society that have remained open throughout the pandemic, and which are less important to our future prosperity.  

Almost every interview I see with scientists recently supports this position.  Really the only people opposing school openings are teachers unions, Democratic politicians who don’t want to look like they are on the same side as Trump on any positions, and NIMBY rich parents who can afford alternative education.  

People who really care about achieving social equality through progressive policies over performatively doctrinaire partisan positions should support keeping schools open.

Older but relevant:



(If anyone has a newer equivalent, please share.)

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The major isue with school seems that science doesn't have a clear answer how much they actually contribute to the spread. Studies often contradict themselves. That makes it so difficult.

I don’t think this is really accurate.  The science has come to pretty overwhelmingly show that schools contribute much less to the spread than many other aspects of society that have remained open throughout the pandemic, and which are less important to our future prosperity.  

Almost every interview I see with scientists recently supports this position.  Really the only people opposing school openings are teachers unions, Democratic politicians who don’t want to look like they are on the same side as Trump on any positions, and NIMBY rich parents who can afford alternative education.  

People who really care about achieving social equality through progressive policies over performatively doctrinaire partisan positions should support keeping schools open.

Older but relevant:



(If anyone has a newer equivalent, please share.)

This is really old and very physical-contact-focused, whereas it has since been shown that physical contact is a negligible contributor to spread of the disease, and it's nearly all about airborne particles, and thus activities with no masks and indoor air are the most dangerous, activities with masks or outdoors are much less dangerous, and activities with masks and outdoors are basically zero risk - essentially every activity can be categorized this way, and so there are only four meaningful categories. For example, the risk of hair salons and barber shops is actually very low as long as everyone is wearing a mask, but they are listed as high-risk.

Great. Do you have a link from a reputable medical source that agrees with your summary and proposes a replacement?

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://mobile.twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1332403316907597824

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/PoliticusSarah/status/1334298135200493569

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/brianklaas/status/1334459364455952385

That #DiaperDon is being coddled and humored as he tries to steal another term, rather than hiding from enraged politically diverse mobs is damning.

I'm going to wait until Biden has a chance to get something done, but my gut says the United States is done. Maybe we'll go out like the Roman Empire, or maybe it'll be more like the Soviet Union, but I'm having a hard time seeing or believing that we can pull out of the downward path we're on.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Governor: Oklahoma will fight COVID-19 with hunger and prayers.

In response to the unchecked COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Kevin Stitt has declared a statewide day of prayer and fasting on Thursday.

“Oklahomans have always turned to prayer to guide us through trials and seasons of uncertainty, and I am asking Oklahomans of all faiths and religious backgrounds to join together with me on Thursday,” Stitt said in a press release.

“I believe we must continue to ask God to heal those who are sick, comfort those who are hurting and provide renewed strength and wisdom to all who are managing the effects of COVID-19,” the governor said.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://mobile.twitter.com/v0max/status/1334853341940121600

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

DeSantis sabotaged Florida's coronavirus response for political ends.

Secrecy and spin: How Florida’s governor misled the public on the COVID-19 pandemic

DeSantis, who owes his job to early support from President Donald Trump, imposed an approach in line with the views of the president and his powerful base of supporters. The administration suppressed unfavorable facts, dispensed dangerous misinformation, dismissed public health professionals, and promoted the views of scientific dissenters who supported the governor’s approach to the disease.

The DeSantis administration’s approach to managing COVID-19 information carries costs. It supports a climate in which people proudly disdain masks, engage in dangerous group activities that could spread the disease, and brush aside information that conflicts with their political views. With partygoers packing Florida bars and holiday travelers filling hotels and guest rooms, the state faces a few difficult months before the possible relief of vaccines.

These findings are based on interviews with more than 50 people, including scientists, doctors, political leaders, employees of the state health department, and other state officials, as well as more than 4,000 pages of documents:

The Florida Department of Health’s county-level spokespeople were ordered in September to stop issuing public statements about COVID-19 until after the Nov. 3 election.

There's more, but in a functioning society, that one alone should see him on a swift path from governor's office to prison.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1335660711163334659

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/AdamWeinstein/status/1335972189015855105

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/statnews/status/1336043064687808512

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]