COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[DINGO Joe]

A pretty good story on why the US is dying at a higher rate than comparable countries

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/02/why-are-so-many-americans-still-dying-of-covid.html

Big shock, it has to do with vaccines.

Still really haven't seen anyone in the media notice that the pandemic has gotten much whiter and younger post vax.

[DINGO Joe]

https://twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1491441851748204546?ref_src=twsrc%5Et...

Mr. Masie is being roundly ridiculed for this because he is a moron, as he doesn't seem aware that old people make up the vast majority of deaths in the US, even before the pandemic.  I actually have an interesting fact that kind of blew my mind though.  In 2019 before the pandemic, people 65 and over made up 74% of all deaths in the US.  Last year, with like 99.5% of all deaths reported, 65 and over made up 72% of all deaths.  You see, the death rate actually rose at a faster pace for those under 65 than over, but since most people that always die are old, we didn't notice.

Also, on the Klandemic front,  in January 2022 the % of Covid deaths by white people 73%.  In January of 2021 it was 63%.   Good work Trumpers.

[DINGO Joe]

Isn't it funny that a lot of the statements Trump made in 2020.. make a lot of sense in the Omicron era

SLOW THE TESTING DOWN

ITS JUST LIKE THE FLU

ITS JUST THE SNIFFLES

IT WILL ONE DAY DISAPPEAR

haha

So, what's your explanation for all the dead bodies?

[DINGO Joe]

Isn't it funny that a lot of the statements Trump made in 2020.. make a lot of sense in the Omicron era

SLOW THE TESTING DOWN

ITS JUST LIKE THE FLU

ITS JUST THE SNIFFLES

IT WILL ONE DAY DISAPPEAR

haha

So, what's your explanation for all the dead bodies?

Based on my convos with him, he doesn't have rational counter-arguments. He just WILL NOT accept COVID measures any longer, period, under any context. Whatever the implications of that are, it's irrelevant to him. The ends justify the means.

So, he's just mentally incapable?  There is quite a bit of that here.

[DINGO Joe]

Isn't it funny that a lot of the statements Trump made in 2020.. make a lot of sense in the Omicron era

SLOW THE TESTING DOWN

ITS JUST LIKE THE FLU

ITS JUST THE SNIFFLES

IT WILL ONE DAY DISAPPEAR

haha

So, what's your explanation for all the dead bodies?

Based on my convos with him, he doesn't have rational counter-arguments. He just WILL NOT accept COVID measures any longer, period, under any context. Whatever the implications of that are, it's irrelevant to him. The ends justify the means.

So, he's just mentally incapable?  There is quite a bit of that here.

Ehh, I wouldn't go that far. He's just a libertarian, and he thinks freedom is more important than saving lives.

Well, then he should say that instead of things that are medically and factually untrue.

[DINGO Joe]

Whatever glitch TX had in reporting deaths to the CDC has been in glitched and January 2022 is officially the 3rd highest month for deaths for the entire pandemic

[DINGO Joe]

This article discusses how the CDC has withheld much of the data concerning the effectiveness of the vaccine and of boosters among 18-49 year olds. This decision has been justified on the fear that such data could be "misinterpreted", in a manner that would cast doubt on vaccine effectiveness and fuel conspiracy theories regarding them. But I also feel that it is an abdication of duty on the agency's part, particularly since many health officials and experts say that their efforts would have been boosted by having access to this data.

I remember just a few weeks ago someone linked to CDC data in this thread that included covid death rates by age and vaccination status, including 18-49.  I distinctly remember that the total number of reported deaths among boosted 18-49s was 5 people.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7104e2.htm#T1_down

I think this what you were citing, and while the incident of vaxxed boosted deaths were quite low, it was from 25 jurisdictions for Oct and Nov with a total of 16527 Covid deaths across all ages.  Plus, there's no data as to what % of 18-49 were actually boosted and at what point.  I'm over 50 and I didn't get boosted until October.  I mean vaxxing and boosting are good, but they probably aren't that good.

Like with everything else with Covid as the pandemic has progressed, to me the most striking thing is how much whiter the deaths have become and that has even been super magnified among the younger deaths.

[DINGO Joe]

To that point, in 2020 Whites made up 23% of the deaths in the 40-49 group and 21% in the 30-39.  In 2021 Whites made up 46% and 41% of the deaths in the respective age groups.  And in the limited 2022 data, those numbers are 56% and 50%

[DINGO Joe]

This looks interesting



-As expected, a lot of vaccinated Trump voters in retirement areas of Florida and a lot of unvaccinated Biden voters in the cultural South (particularly in Atlanta)

-Less well known is the high concentration of vaccinated Trump voters in Appalachia (!)

-On the other hand, vaccination rates are even lower than would be expected in the Ozarks

-Little or no evidence of an anti-vax granola left effect as NorCal and the Pacific NW have higher vaccination rates than predicted by election results

-Western NM/Eastern AZ are doing really well and look like the Northeast here

-Southside VA looks like the Deep South here and it spills into NE NC

Image Source: https://twitter.com/Mill226/status/1490438915156676610/photo/1

I think the major factor being exposed by this graph is race, and this is unsurprising given what we know about vaccination rates across demographic groups.  Conditional on party, Black Americans are less likely to be vaccinated than Whites (especially rural Black residents), while Latinos are more likely to be vaccinated.

The high vax rates among Latinos is one of the biggest overlooked stories of the pandemic, and one that Democrats should really be trying to capitalize on.

Regardless of what vax data shows, Black Americans were the only ones that may have had a decline in Covid deaths in 2021, granted a decline of less than 1%, but that certainly looks great compared to an increase of 30% in deaths among whites. 

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/health_disparities.htm#RaceHispanicOrigin

I mean white people made up 60% of the deaths in 2020, 66% in 2021 and Feb looks like the 5th straight month with white deaths topping the 70% mark.

[DINGO Joe]

Does anybody else find it at least a little bit creepy that there is a wastewater surveillance system?

No, aside from the usual wacko reasons, why would anyone be bothered by it?

[DINGO Joe]

Pretty interesting web site about Law Enforcement and Covid deaths. 

https://www.odmp.org/search/year?year=2021

The Organization has been around for quite some time and tracked law enforcement deaths and added tracking Covid deaths with everything else.  I knew Covid deaths have been the number one killer of cops since the pandemic started (basically 2/3rds of deaths) but I didn't realize how dominate the Southern cops are in dying from Covid

In 2021, 376 law enforcement officers died of Covid

The top 10 states

Texas--96
Florida--46
Georgia--41
NC--17
Tennessee--16
Pennsylvania--15
California--14
Arizona--11
Arkansas--10
NY-9 (NY had 6 9-11 related deaths in 2021)

Of the states listed only California and NY had declines from 2020

Some of the biggest declines from 2020:

Louisiana from 18 to 2!  (the New Orleans area had a big hit in 2020)
New Jersey from 14 to 4
Illinois from 8 to zero.

Texas had 70 in 2020 and have had 10 this year (out of 33 nationwide) so they've accounted for more than 25% of dead Covid cops since the pandemic began.  Prevax, southern states still had more deaths, but that has widened post vax, especially due to FL and GA.  Sad.
 

[DINGO Joe]

Two years ago WHO declared Covid a pandemic...

I am proud I have been skeptical and fighting against Covid measures since that time!

So you're the one responsible for the million deaths in the US?

[DINGO Joe]

Two years ago WHO declared Covid a pandemic...

I am proud I have been skeptical and fighting against Covid measures since that time!

So you're the one responsible for the million deaths in the US?

I can not be held responsible for that. And many deaths were not entirely related to covid.

So, your just another covidiot who can't explain why there are so many dead people?

[DINGO Joe]

Two years ago WHO declared Covid a pandemic...

I am proud I have been skeptical and fighting against Covid measures since that time!

So you're the one responsible for the million deaths in the US?

I can not be held responsible for that. And many deaths were not entirely related to covid.

So, your just another covidiot who can't explain why there are so many dead people?

I found most covid measures to be too much of a security theater to have any meaningful impact.

It is a devastating situation, but there was not much that could have been done.

Please do not call me a covidiot as I am generally very cordial to people here.

What's a devestation situation Jimmy?  You just said that there really weren't that many who died of Covid, I challenge you to back that up.   Last week, you said "Trump was right, it'll just go away"  I challenged you to explain  how or when it went away. 

Look at the numbers Jimmy

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm

January 2022 was the third worst month of the whole pandemic.  It's already recorded 80,000 more deaths than in Jan 2020 and they're not done counting. 

Just say you don't care that those people died but don't say that it went away or it wasn't Covid because those are both lies unsupported by reality.   Quit trying to assuage your conscious about it and quit acting like your a hero because you can't cope with a mask. 

[DINGO Joe]

After the avg age of those dying from Covid dropped substantially last year, it did swing back to older people in Jan/Feb, not as old as pre-vaccine but older than the Delta wave deaths.  Probably were more breakthrough deaths of the vaxxed or at least the unboosted than in prior months.  Deaths still trending more towards white people but not as dramatically as the Delta wave months at the end of 2021.

[DINGO Joe]

Have you seriously always stayed home when you have a cold?  If so, that's very, very far from what I've experienced most people doing my whole life.  Anecdotally, at least my circle is at the point where no one bats an eye if someone says that they have a cold (and are hanging out with others).

Strangely enough, when I had COVID (the Omicron variant), it wasn't nearly as bad as a cold. I think every cold I've had since I was in middle school was severe. COVID was nothing in comparison.

I'd actually worry about catching a cold, but not COVID.

Well, if your worried about cold or flu, wear a mask and wash your hands frequently.