COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Koharu]

33,000 children.

[Koharu]

And now my 94 year old nursing home resident grandmother has tested positive.

I'm so sorry, Badger. Praying for her, your family, and the folks at her home.

[Koharu]

Dr. Vin Gupta on MSNBC said false negatives are like 10% common in the rapid test, but false positives are extremely rare so Dewine's negative test the same day should be disregarded.

I have a feeling they'll be retesting him pretty regularly over the next few days to see if they can sort the matter out.

[Koharu]

Apparently the federal government is still trying to fight the states for supplies.

https://twitter.com/WPR/status/1296580286940172289?s=20

For those unaware, Tommy Thompson was the (Republican) governor of Wisconsin from 1987-2001. He was also Secretary of HHS under W.

[Koharu]

Glad to know that 320 people a day is "nobody." That's still significantly higher than, say, the flu (~90ish a day, averaged out over the year) and car accident deaths (~100 a day).

[Koharu]

It is of course possible for Covid to be killing people, and yet for "excess deaths" to be zero.   -Snip-

I wasn't directly responding to you--I should have quoted the post I was. It was a page earlier.

yawn.. covid smovid.

just live normally.. go to work.. take your trip Gmac.

Don't worry about covid. pretend you are not even infected!

"Go out, infect other people. Some will die. Covid smovid."

No one's really dying of covid anymore.  The winter Omicron wave was the last time covid was causing a statistically significant number of deaths.  It's never going to be literally zero due to the whole deaths from covid/deaths with covid thing, but recent waves haven't seen deaths increase at all from the trough.  So, yes, I unironically believe covid positive people should go about their lives unless they feel sick enough to be more comfortable staying at home.

Like I said, 300 people a day, more than the flu or car accidents on a daily average, is not nobody.

[Koharu]

https://twitter.com/gregggonsalves/status/1552296188514369548?s=20&t=plhFYRO...

The article discusses COVID as well as America's failure at healthcare in general.

The concluding lines of the article sum it all up pretty well:

We have no interest in combating this pandemic any longer, nor do we really show any ambition in American competitiveness in saving lives overall. We are happy to live with death. It’s the American way of life.

[Koharu]

https://twitter.com/asosin/status/1554825979255832576?s=20&t=UE6ZBf8xaZatcR6...

https://twitter.com/mims/status/1553794492733554694?s=20&t=_M1dv1Jou-Ozuy3Eh...

[Koharu]

The growing evidence that Covid-19 is leaving people sicker

A Financial Times analysis of data from the UK’s NHS, one of the world’s richest health data sets, showed significant rises in deaths from heart disease since the start of the pandemic in all but the very oldest age groups. In the 40-64 age group, heart attack deaths increased 15 per cent in 2021 compared with 2019.

In February, meanwhile, an analysis of more than 150,000 records from the national healthcare databases at the US Department of Veterans Affairs suggested that even some people who had not been seriously ill with Covid had an increased risk of cardiovascular problems for at least a year afterwards.

Researchers found that rates of many conditions, such as heart failure and stroke, were substantially higher in people who had recovered from Covid than in similar people who had not been infected. A separate analysis of VA data, published in March, suggested that in the “post-acute phase” of the disease, people with Covid “exhibit increased risk and burden of diabetes”.

[Koharu]

The Lancet: "COVID-19 mortality and excess mortality among working-age residents in California, USA, by occupational sector: a longitudinal cohort analysis of mortality surveillance data"

Workers in essential sectors have continued to bear the brunt of high COVID-19 and excess mortality throughout the pandemic, particularly in the agriculture, emergency, manufacturing, facilities, and transportation or logistics sectors. This high death toll has continued during periods of vaccine availability and the delta surge. In an ongoing pandemic without widespread vaccine coverage and with anticipated threats of new variants, the USA must actively adopt policies to more adequately protect workers in essential sectors.

[Koharu]

https://twitter.com/gregggonsalves/status/1571106995318722561?s=20&t=V1p7A3x...