COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Amazing how Uncle Joe is delivering results. If the EU countries would just get their act together with vaccination.

The U.K. got lucky when it left the EU.

I'd always thought the EU was undemocratic and authoritarian, but lately they've proven just how incompetent they are.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I think we're pretty deep in herd immunity territory already. Big Horn County is one of few places in Montana that's had a lot of cases. It had a very high number until very recently. But now on the New York Times map, it's had no recent cases - at all. None.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I've had my fill of people who say that states that loosen restrictions shouldn't get any vaccines.

Even if I was adamant that states should keep restrictions for as long as they dare, you still don't deprive the states' people of vaccines.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Is that the first under 1K death in...I don't even know how many months?

Lowest since Nov. 15.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I have a spreadsheet that compiles the 7-day positivity rate for the U.S. for every day going back to Mar. 7, 2020. The lowest was on Sep. 29, when it was 4.27%.

Well, today it was 4.21%.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

The case counters on Google is showing 98,000 cases for today. Typo?

Someone on Reddit said it was a backlog of 50,000 antigen tests from Missouri. But it hasn't shown up yet on Worldometers or Corona Scanner.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Happy COVID Anniversary everyone. It's been 1 year (give or take a few days for the region) since everything here went to hell.

We now begin our second year of "2 more weeks."

Just 2 more weeks this time! You only have to miss 2 more weeks of school and stay at home for 2 more weeks! We promise! Trust us this time!

[Bandit3 the Worker]

On a more positive note, nationwide 7-day positivity rate crashed down to 4.1% yesterday - another record.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Weekly positivity rate for today (Thursday) is down to 4.04% - yet another record.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Well, I did get my first Pfizer shot today. I'm not very old, but I was able to get it because of heart and kidney disease.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Weekly nationwide positive rate just crashed all the way down to 3.96%.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Another record low weekly positive rate today: 3.84%.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Positivity rate is all the way down to 3.76%.

Also, I got my first dose of Pfizer on Friday, and in case anyone is wondering about the side effects, I did have to take a long nap afterward, but I don't know if that was because of the vaccine. I didn't have any other side effects.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Where is Corona Scanner getting its numbers for new cases in the U.S.? Every few days, they plop down tens of thousands of mystery cases that never show up on Worldometer. This morning, they added another 40,000 mysterious cases.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Any of our regular Kentuckian posters know why Kentucky saw such a massive surge today? Like I said, I assume its a backlog but I can't find anything online about it.

Nursing homes maybe?

I saw it was an audit of really old cases.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

How are you all getting doses? Here it's still not allowed for anyone under 50 unless you're in certain professions.

In my case, it was underlying health conditions.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Today's one-day positivity rate was only 3.24%, the lowest since way back on March 4 of last year.

The 7-day positive rate would have been a record low if it wasn't for the 40,000 mystery cases on Wednesday.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Also, there has been improved testing capacity just in the past couple weeks. Friday was one of the biggest testing days of the entire pandemic.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I also read that somebody said the steep decline of cases in the U.S. wasn't caused by vaccinations, but that a bigger drop from vaccinations will be occurring soon.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Someone (maybe it was somebody here) said this virus spreads the most when it's between 54 and 64 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about the temps Michigan and New York have had lately. But that's about the same temps we've had lately too, and our cases have been dropping slightly. It also doesn't explain why Florida and Arizona were so bad in June.

Someone also said coronaviruses in general spike in winter, plummet in February and early March, go back up a little in late March, then plummet more than before. What we've seen with this virus fits that so far.

But with so many vaccines administered, I would have expected cases to keep plummeting regardless.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Naomi Wolf just had a really good article about all this.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

COVID cases down to record lows not seen since September in Texas, three weeks after Gov Abbott allowed the mask mandates to expire.

The decline might be even steeper in Mississippi.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

4-3 strike down of the mask mandate by the WISC

They struck it down on the grounds that it lasted more than 60 days, which is the limit for emergency orders.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

We've really become accustomed to the death rate. It was several months ago that we found it staggering that we were experiencing a death rate equal to 9/11 every other day. At best this year, it's a 9/11 twice a week. A lot of people seem to think this pandemic is over. It's not even close to over.

I don't know if it's been mentioned here, but pandemics have a "social end." This is when people act as if the pandemic is over even if there's still people getting sick and dying. I think this is just something people do by instinct, when it gets to the point where worrying too much about getting sick poses as much of a threat to them personally as the virus itself. I think people are naturally evolved to just stop worrying too much, once worrying gets too stressful, which is itself unhealthy.

This really is a race now between vaccines and the infection rate of the virus.

Vaccines are winning. Let's say America adminsters 3 million a day. Even if all of them need 2 doses, and if vaccines are 95% effective, that works out to enough for 1.425 million people. Let's say we find 65,000 new cases a day. If we find only half the cases that really exist, that comes out to 130,000 actual cases. That means people are getting vaccinated 11 times as fast as they can be infected.

It's been 13 months since the first major wave of infections in the U.S., and it's already been almost 4 months since the vaccine was rolled out. With so many vaccines administered, how many people remain for the virus to infect before immunity wears off (which might take years)?

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I just got my second dose of Pfizer.