COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[emailking]

I think the masks are annoying, but also not that big a deal (8 hours/day) and I certainly supported them being required indoors before the vaccine. With 80% vax now, I don't think they should be required at this point. However, I have started wearing one again in the store during Omicron.

[emailking]

Some really good news is that it now looks like it's pretty likely that we are past the peak in deaths, which was last week. On the down side, the deaths are still very high and may be for several more weeks.

[emailking]

There's been 900,000 deaths. If you know 350 Americans there's a good chance you know someone who died. I do!

[emailking]

That picture is pathetic.

Read the room.

[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).

[emailking]

The Moderna booster was the sickest I've felt in my adult life. Thankfully, it only lasted one night. It surprised me since the first 2 were annoying but tolerable, and the booster is only a half dose.

[emailking]

Also masking is illegal in Virginia

Your intent has to be to conceal your identity. So if you do not intend to conceal your identity, then it is not illegal for you to mask in your state.

[emailking]

Worldometers has 146K.

[emailking]

If it's a recommendation who cares? Ignore it if you don't want to follow it.

And we're* not in Congress so who cares what they're doing? It doesn't affect you if the states are going to move on anyway.

* Roons excepted

[emailking]

It's their choice too of course. You could take your money elsewhere if it's a problem for you. I'm not convinced it's a bad recommendation, so I'm not sympathetic to the argument that they should drop the recommendation because it's crimping some people's style.

[emailking]

You don't have to work at Home Depot. I get in your life position you might feel like that's your only good option, but yeah the company can choose to require masks for their employees. That's just how it goes. I'm not fond of masks. I stopped wearing them in the store until Omicron. No I don't think masks should be required in schools. Could the feds recommend masks be worn in schools? Sure, I'm fine with that.

[emailking]

But you've been saying that they're going away. I get for you, right now, you still are under one. But there's light at the end of the tunnel for you.

[emailking]

Well I think we discussed this before, but I'm pretty sure they'll drop the recommendation when there are a few dozen thousand cases daily, like they did last summer. I know you think they'll be permanently stuck on the recommendation, but if that happens and there's negligible Covid I'd have to hear the reason for retaining the recommendation before judging it. I just think that's unlikely hypothetical.

[emailking]

Well I think we discussed this before, but I'm pretty sure they'll drop the recommendation when there are a few dozen thousand cases daily, like they did last summer. I know you think they'll be permanently stuck on the recommendation, but if that happens and there's negligible Covid I'd have to hear the reason for retaining the recommendation before judging it. I just think that's unlikely hypothetical.

The mask mandates were never dropped at the federal level, even last summer when almost everyone else had dropped them.

The recommendation from the CDC was that you did not need to wear a mask if vaccinated except in certain very specific scenarios. Many federal agencies followed suit. That's what I am saying will likely happen again.

[emailking]

You don't have to work at Home Depot. I get in your life position you might feel like that's your only good option, but yeah the company can choose to require masks for their employees. That's just how it goes. I'm not fond of masks. I stopped wearing them in the store until Omicron. No I don't think masks should be required in schools. Could the feds recommend masks be worn in schools? Sure, I'm fine with that.

Now this…this is tone deaf.

Yeah I don't care if you think that. If you want to make a substantive argument, go ahead and I'll consider it.

[emailking]

The new movie Kimi on HBO Max is a very good movie that incorporates the pandemic as a facet of reality. It's a thriller that's not about Covid at all, but the realities of Covid affect the narrative.

Most movies that have included the pandemic have been low budget affairs. And all the movies specifically about the pandemic have been terrible.

[emailking]

Week-old article but a new study has confirmed that vitamin D is highly effective in preventing severe COVID. The correlation of vitamin D deficiency with worse COVID has been observed consistently throughout the pandemic before Omicron, but the virus hasn't changed enough to be resistant. And the differences are huge:

In June, researchers published preliminary findings showing that 26 percent of coronavirus patients died if they were vitamin D deficient soon before hospitalization, compared to 3% who had normal levels of vitamin D.

They also determined that hospitalized patients who were vitamin D deficient were 14 times more likely, on average, to end up in severe or critical condition than others.

Eat more eggs and fish and drink milk. It's better for you than fish tank cleaner!

I just take a men's one a day.

[emailking]

I will say the double masking and requiring masks even outdoors in Peru has done nothing to slow the spread there.

Wearing a mask outdoors is hysterical behavior that has much more in common with a phobia than “being cautious.”

I stay far away from people who wear masks outdoors. They're obviously not quite right in the head.

I hope wearing a mask in the parking lot is OK with you guys. Because I do that.

[emailking]

Big difference though between wearing one makes no sense and wearing one => insane.

[emailking]

I genuinely hope masks stay as a fashion thing. Not because I like it, but ONLY because it will be a very slight bit of joy in an otherwise dark time (the early RP state will be the worst prolly) to see the conservatives getting upset.

Yes my parents may be gone, I may be in a cell, but at least the cons will be a bit triggered.

Study: Masks make people look more attractive. I wouldn't know if this is accurate, but I know for some people the area covered by the mask is less attractive than the rest of their face.

I like how I don't have to shave for work lol.

[emailking]

Was astonished to run across this today. A news organisation literally just posting a moralising, pro-restrictions Twitter thread without any pretence of balance. Enemies of the people indeed.

There's nothing wrong with their story. You don't have to agree with the people they're writing about. There have been plenty of stories about the other side. That comparison is absurd.

[emailking]

They're dropping them because people are tired of them, but they weren't going to drop them at the peak of the Omicron wave, regardless of whether people were tried of them or not. I think there's truth to both sides of that.

[emailking]

The Pluto return is an abstract concept and is not going to do a damn thing to inflation or the economy. You can officially cross that out as one of your worries.

[emailking]

I am happy to accept any updated guidance from the CDC, which I believe is apolitical and rooted in data & science, although it seems like very few people in this thread feel the same way.

[emailking]

And that's their prerogative. Just like they can tell you to wear gloves, a hair net, a long sleeve shirt, or anything else that some might hate wearing all day.