COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[DINGO Joe]

If anyone is still vaccine hesitant, consider this:

https://twitter.com/StevenTDennis/status/1409955273465344004

It's a weird pattern that in most of the stats I've seen recently, vaccinated people account for a much higher % of covid deaths than covid cases.   Whereas during the first several months of the year, everything we heard about vaccines suggested they prevented deaths much more effectively than infection itself.  So what's going on here?

Because the unvaccinated skew younger.  I'd be willing to bet if you controlled for age that the vaccinated survive better than the unvaxxed.

[DINGO Joe]

So why was New Mexico so weird about things (compared to Kentucky)?

Care to elaborate?

[DINGO Joe]

Imagine a few years ago thinking that you could own and upset the libs by riding mass transit

You just fell for their secret plot Jimmie

[DINGO Joe]

Reported for misinformation and vaccine denialism.

People are looking for ANY reason to reinstate covid restrictions forever.

No, people actually want the opposite. They want everyone to be vaccinated so we can reopen safely and not need to lockdown again. Rushing to reopen is going to necessitate another lockdown.

Are you living in a box? We've been reopened for literally months now. Texas has been completely reopen since March. I swear the Atlas COVID doomers don't go outside at all

Well, plenty of Atlas didn't go outside before the pandemic either

[DINGO Joe]

I am going to visit relatives in Alabama (my mother is from Alabama) and many of them are anti-vaxxers.

Which precautions should I take?

If you're fully vaccinated, you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

I mean, the vaccine is not 100% effective and is less effective against certain variations (i.e. Delta).

Wow, you're really f**king stupid.

It's like some people want the pandemic to continue forever.

Well, if he's traveling and visiting unvaxxed kin he could potentially bring the COVID to them, so he should take precautions.  How do you think the Delta gets into the boonies anyway?

[DINGO Joe]

Finally an Atlas republican that makes SirWoodbury look smart

Inconceivable!

[DINGO Joe]

So, is Florida back to reporting everyday?  Cause they are putting up some lopsided numbers

[DINGO Joe]

https://twitter.com/NewDay/status/1417070883164803077

If the media really has a liberal bias and isn't dumber than hell, by the end of the year, Republicans will be seen as literal vermin.

Yes, but that's true every year.

Currently, their cult leader Donnie Dumb**** is demanding more praise from people for pretending to create the vaccine he demands they don't take in hopes large numbers of them will die and make the guy who defeated him look bad. 

"Vermin" is really too generous.

By "vermin", I literally mean "vermin" like rats, fleas, and roaches. Disease vectors.

Shouldn't be confused with perennial Libertarian candidate Supreme Vermin

[DINGO Joe]

County coroner in Missouri says he omits Covid-19 from some death certificates

Apparently, it upsets some families to have it listed as a cause of death.  Sad

[DINGO Joe]

And another layer of stupidity from Missouri

https://www.ky3.com/2021/08/03/doctors-warn-not-take-drug-horses-sold-farm-home-stores-treat-covid-19/

People in rural Missouri are rushing out to buy a drug called ivermectin which is used to treat horses for worms and does nothing for Covid in humans.  Vaccine bad, random horse drug good.

[DINGO Joe]

Just get vaccinated and wear a mask (for now) in crowded areas and live an other wise normal life is the best advice here.

Alright, what'd you do with jimmie?

[DINGO Joe]

At this point, unvaccinated covid deaths in the US probably should just be recorded as suicides.

Darwincide and suicide just aren't the same thing.

[DINGO Joe]

Kate Brown is gonna put in a new statewide mask mandate tomorrow. What an idiot.

And yet, Oregon clearly has one of the best track records in limiting deaths from Corona.

[DINGO Joe]

Kate Brown is gonna put in a new statewide mask mandate tomorrow. What an idiot.

And yet, Oregon clearly has one of the best track records in limiting deaths from Corona.

I live in a county with over a 75% vaccination rate and several counties are around that mark as well. I can even see the justification for mask mandates in a state like Louisiana but here it makes zero sense whatsoever.

Well, there's been a substantial uptick in cases in Oregon though the high vax rate should keep deaths down (at least in the populated areas), so it does make sense especially for the rural areas and for the vaxxed it's a minor inconvenience to aid your fellow man--who, granted, you don't like anyway. 

[DINGO Joe]

Today is a significant decrease in cases from last week, but Sun/Mon were significant increases so mixed bag so far this week.

Worldometer doesn't have anything from Florida for today so that's the difference.

[DINGO Joe]

Kate Brown is gonna put in a new statewide mask mandate tomorrow. What an idiot.

Mask mandates are shaping up to be an issue in next year's midterms.

Democrats would be committing mass political suicide if they're still imposing mask mandates by November 2022.

If there are still mask mandates at that point, then something else horrible has happened.

[DINGO Joe]

Honestly I know there is a lot of doom and gloom amongst some here, but compare the death rate now

Just a quick look at the numbers at the Jan peak we had a max of about 250k cases/7 days with deaths peaking at about 3k/7 days for a death rate of .01%.

This is a death rate of 1%, not .01%.

Now we've got cases at 120k/7 days with deaths at 600. Even if that lags a little, we've got the death rate down by half to .005% and we know most of those are from the 1/2 of the country that is not vaccinated.

This is a death rate of .5%, not .005%.

To further this point, in the 2018-19 flu season we had 35,000,000 cases and 34,000 deaths for a death rate of 0.0001%

This is a death rate of .1%, not .0001%.

With these caveats, it does seem like the covid death rate among vaccinated people is in fact substantially lower than the death rate for flu.   And thus I'm not sure why vaccinated people should need to take more precautions to avoid covid than they do against the flu.

The only reasons for the vaccinated to take more precautions is for the benefit of the unvaccinated and for the medical professionals that have to treat them and are already maxxed out in places.  It's for society at large though the unvaxxed are primarily composed of assholes,  kids under 12 and the more marginal members of society.  I suppose you could make an argument that if you are vaxxed and have another medical issue your at risk of not getting prompt medical care if your in a high corona area.

[DINGO Joe]

Not fight cities and counties trying to implement mask mandates recommended by the CDC, for one thing.

This is so beyond irrelevant at this point that I struggle to understand why people are still bringing it up. We're done with the masks. The only people who will even consider wearing them are a small handful of health-nut conspiracy theorists who think Big Pharma tainted the vaccine, or people that are already vaccinated and at extremely low risk. Any breath wasted on mask mandates rather than figuring out how to increase the number of vaccinated Americans is nothing but a distraction now.

People on this forum keep saying this but it's just in total contradiction to all the polling we see on this issue. 58% of adults plan to wear masks "always" or "most of the time" in public indoor spaces, and 69% support mask mandates (Source). It's not just this poll either, several other polls report similar results.

It's pretty clear now that vaccines alone are not enough to stop Delta from spreading out of control; breakthrough cases are not rare and such people could spread the virus just as much as unvaccinated infected. Vaccine mandates are great and I'm glad they're gaining traction, but we need mask mandates and vaccine mandates to control Delta, or whatever variant later takes its place which is guaranteed to be even worse. We can only hope the two together can slow the spread enough so that we don't need to bring back social distancing which actually harms the economy.

I'm very skeptical of that polling. Maybe it's accurate and this is just yet another example of America's cultural divide, but I can tell you right now that nowhere near 58% of adults in Nebraska plan on wearing masks always or most of the time, not even in Lincoln or Omaha. It's vaccines or bust as far as combatting this virus goes. Sorry to be blunt, but it's how I feel and the evidence seems to back me up. The vaccines work and everything else is just settling for less.

Was actually in a Wal Mart on Sunday and the mask rate was 99%

[DINGO Joe]

Another Giant Wisconsin Turd is hospitalized with COVID

GOP Senator Railed Against Vax, Caught COVID, Then Hid It From Dem Colleagues

[DINGO Joe]

Congrats to Mississippi for surging into 3rd place into deaths per capita on the Worldometer.  And given that the Worldometer is still using 2019 pop estimates instead of 2020 Census data it doesn't show that they're actually closing in on New York for 2nd.

[DINGO Joe]

Some recent deaths from COVID:

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/south-carolina/articles/2021-08-19/sc-county-republican-party-leader-dies-from-covid-19

Tea Party Trumper and Greenville county GOP organizer Pressley Stutts

“Mandates and coercions DO NOT WORK especially when they come to us from a government that has repeatedly lied to the American People time and time again,” Stutts wrote on his Facebook page.

His final post came five days before his death, when he wrote he chose to go on a ventilator and planned to “wake up from this short rest and be back in the game soon!”

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Christian radio host who asked if vaccine is form of government control dies of COVID

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Steve Walsh, the Press Sec for US Rep/Senate candidate Vicki Hartzler-MO and husband of state rep Sara Walsh who is running for Hartzler's seat.  Was not vaxxed cause blah blah blah

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/missouri-lawmaker-s-husband-who-was-not-vaccinated-dies-covid-n1277171

Continuing to be in bad shape are the Jr. Pope in Wisconsin, the Jacque-Ass Senator in Wisconsin and conservative radio host/ vaccine skeptic Phil Valentine,

[DINGO Joe]

Florida does not try and measure residents just shots. That means actual vaccination rates are likely much lower, especially for older folks because those shots began in the winter when a lot of North Easterners were down. My parents got both shots in Florida but are not in the state currently.

Florida counts shots/population to get their numbers but if shots are from 180% of the actual state population, they are greatly increasing the rate.

A good comparison may well be teenagers. Florida has had a huge push to vaccinate them but the rates are still below Texas. That implies that Florida's actual numbers may be closer to Texas, or perhaps a bit below which would explain a lot.

If Florida's actual on the ground numbers this summer are not 62/51 but 52/41 or so it would make a huge difference.

Don't know how wide spread this is either, but I noticed that more than one group of the victims in the condo collapse were South Americans who were vacationing but also in the US to get their shots--vaccine tourism.

[DINGO Joe]

Every time I see one of you posting a smug headline about an antivaxer/republican/libertarian dying of covid or being hospitalized for it I use one of my 57 twitter sockpuppets to do anti-vaccine posting.

Maine lawmaker who reportedly lost wife to COVID attends anti-mandate rally


I guess that's true commitment to a death cult.

[DINGO Joe]

Mississippi is mandating that all people who test positive for COVID-19 isolate for 10 days.

Those caught flouting the order will be fined $500 and might face imprisonment for six months.

https://news.yahoo.com/mississippi-orders-everyone-whos-tested-124240901.html


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Mississippi’s Poison Control is reporting an alarming uptick in calls from people who took a drug bought at a feed store meant to deworm livestock.

Some believe it will help with COVID-19, but veterinary experts warn if you buy it at a feed store, it could possibly leave you paralyzed.

“Everyday, everyday, people, phone calls, phone calls, people coming in,” Raina Boudreaux at Double M Feed, Garden & Pet Supply describes.

https://www.wafb.com/2021/08/21/uptick-mississippi-poison-control-calls-people-who-take-livestock-dewormer-treat-covid-19/

Forcing people to quarantine? Trying to stop you from horse de-wormer?  It's like the Taliban have taken over Mississippi too.

[DINGO Joe]

https://twitter.com/US_FDA/status/1429050070243192839