COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[T'Chenka]

Some companies trust the CDC to give good health advice, some don't. You are free to go and work for a company that doesn't listen to the CDC. Also, it isn't the CDC's fault that some states or businesses have failed to listen to their advice. You can either blame your state or other companies for getting rid of masks, OR blame your company for NOT getting rid of masks, but blaming the CDC is illogical.

This is very patronizing on your part, and you are not the first person on here who has told me this. I can't just up and leave my job, and neither can many other people. It's not that easy or as simple as you make it. And what would be the purpose, since so many employers still have these mandates in force? Are you seriously advocating that we keep employees perpetually masked, even if there is no such requirement for the general public? Why should there be such a distinction?

Guess what? My company has absolutely abandoned it's employees during the pandemic in regards to safety. The difference is, I'm complaining about worker safety and you're complaining about being inconvenienced. I can't afford any sympathy for your complaints because they're privileged as compared to the more serious concerns of other workers including myself. I wish I could be complaining about inconvenience instead of safety right now.  That sounds like a great place to be.

What I'm saying is, if it's THAT important for you, there are places out there hiring that don't require you to wear a mask. What I'm advocating for is states, counties and businesses following CDC guidelines. If they choose not to, I think it's unfortunate.

Also, "perpetually" is hyperbolic and has nothing to do with my posts.

[T'Chenka]

ANTHONY FAUCI ON SCHOOLS WITHOUT MASKS:

"It's understandable why people want to take masks off the kids. But, right now, given the level of activity that we have, it is risky."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10525469/Fauci-says-taking-masks-kids-school-RISKY-despite-42-drop-cases.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7_dmrP2Q5Q

[T'Chenka]

Fortunately, the CDC is supposed to be changing sometime this week.

This is fake news. Mask mandates are going to be permanent. Atlas told me so.

[T'Chenka]

Why is Iceland going out of their way to kill and injure people? Not commenting on what they are doing by WHY they say they are doing it.

[T'Chenka]

Why is Iceland going out of their way to kill and injure people? Not commenting on what they are doing by WHY they say they are doing it.

Because dodging COVID is impossible and Iceland is going to be 80% vaccinated within a month. I'm pretty sure the experts in Reykjavik know more than you.

Plenty of experts have been saying for over a year that trying to infect everybody as fast as possible is not a good strategy. They didn't stop saying this during omicron. Again, I'm not objecting to what they're actually doing. I'm objecting to their reasoning / objectives.

[T'Chenka]

Why is Iceland going out of their way to kill and injure people? Not commenting on what they are doing by WHY they say they are doing it.

They've probably looked at the situation in the countries that have opened up (including all of Scandinavia), and managed to avoid the complete hysteria so widespread among American liberals.

Their stated intentions were to infect as many citizens as possible, as quickly as possible. Other countries that are opening up are not doing so for the same reasons. This strategy is dangerous and not recommended by most epidemiologists.

[T'Chenka]

If you want a cheap source of heat for the remainder of the cold season, take all those useless cloth masks and burn them.

Lol. I'm keeping mine to wear when I'm sick or spending LOTS of time outdoors in the colder Canadian weather. And there could be another variant or pandemic in a few months or years or in 25 years... who knows.

[T'Chenka]

I am glad for mask mandates being lifted, so don't misread this....

I hope nobody judges the people who continue to mask up despite no longer being required to do so.

The last couple of years have been a whirlwind for everyone, obviously, but those with anxiety are still going to have those anxieties. Those with underlying conditions are still going to have those conditions. People wore masks in public before covid, but maybe you just didn't notice them because it wasn't that often. In 2011, my grandfather was told to wear a mask in public because he'd just been diagnosed with leukemia and being around people could be risky.

You don't know what might cause someone to continue to wear a mask today, tomorrow, or ongoing into the next month, year, or decade. If you see someone wearing one, don't stare. Don't tell them "hey, you don't have to wear that anymore." Just let them go on wearing their mask...I promise you they don't need your input (and giving them a funny look or coming here to ridicule the never-ending-mask-wearers is included in "input").

I have a friend in Florida that gets harassed constantly for wearing a mask in public. People are offended that you're ruining their safe space where the pandemic is 105% over. Most of the people harassing him seem to be Republicans, the "freedom" party. Ironic.

[T'Chenka]

We just got an email from the president of my university that they are -not- lifting our mask mandate as many of us had expected, because we are still in an are of "high" transmission according to the CDC. :/

Give it a few weeks. I doubt it will last.

[T'Chenka]

The MRNA Injections are demonstrably horrible for healthy adults and children per the Pfizer Lawsuit, and Bill Gates is even acknowledging that giving yourself Omicron would have preferable cause it protect from T and B Cell.  This was the science months ago when I declared I would no longer wear a mask cause I had omicron immunity. Duh!

I think this thread can be closed.  D comments were Shameful in light of the propaganda campaign they leveled against the science. 

If this isn't a troll post, I'd love to find out where to get some of whatever you've been smoking.

[T'Chenka]

I haven't heard anything in the news about the vaccines being horrible for children.

You forgot to watch far right propaganda, that's why you haven't seen it.

[T'Chenka]

Republicans need to put ballot measures in every state that bans the state from being able to implement any restrictions

That isn't small government or "states rights". Reagan would be ashamed.

[T'Chenka]

Republicans need to put ballot measures in every state that bans the state from being able to implement any restrictions

That isn't small government or "states rights". Reagan would be ashamed.

Ballot Measures are the definition of states rights

Sorry I misread your post, somehow skipped over the word "ballot". You're right.

I still don't understand writing laws to prevent public health measures in potentially high risk scenarios. Seems like a "feelings over facts" kind of thing.

[T'Chenka]

Are they trying to set the scene to bring back the mandates?

Doubtful.  I think more than anything they want congressional Republicans to fund their full $22.5 billion COVID funding request and not be so parsimonious when there is still a pandemic.

"Omicron was the off ramp, the pandemic is over".

[T'Chenka]

Florida residents will find a way to blame the deaths on something else or deny that they're happening, I predict. This will barely hurt DeSantis. Florida is beyond redemption.

[T'Chenka]

Based on what you read, do you suspect you have 'long COVID'?

Long COVID symptoms lasted a median of 15 months, Northwestern study finds

Blah blah blah fake news.

Do you think Long COVID doesn't exist? I know a far right Trumpist who has it.

[T'Chenka]

Dude what I'm saying is the whole field moved. We don't have herd immunity. That's just a fact. People are getting sick all the time. Who cares if 70% immunity in 2020 would have eradicated the virus? I'm telling you why we don't have herd immunity at 95%. The immunity people have to measles is stronger too.

With the original virus, there were two competing strategies- herd immunity and elimination.  The big issue was that a lot of the world went with the worst of both worlds.  The other thing is that the vaccine was actually incredibly good at stopping transmission of the original virus.

The initial success of the vaccine allowed herd immunity to again become a viable goal in 2021.  By the beginning of summer, a combination of vaccine-derived and natural immunity got cases down to next to nothing, and we were probably on track for herd immunity-derived elimination.

No actual non-schill scientists were advocating for herd immunity as a "strategy"... the time duration and effectiveness of the immunity you got from getting COVID or a vaccine were not clear, and the dangers to long-term health and to life itself were too high for reasonably experts to recommend that herd immunity was a real option. Right wing media, COVID conspiracy theorists and ivermectin takers were advocating for it, but it was never an ACTUAL solution to the problem.

[T'Chenka]

The general consensus among real scientists is that we should have just followed the Great Barrington Declaration.

"Real scientists"...

[T'Chenka]

It's not a big deal. I didn't even understand what RR was getting at. I didn't even notice it lol

I didn't notice it either. It's a phrase that makes 100% sense and doesn't stick out like a sore thumb in a sentence. I think once people see it used more and more often, it will quickly be something that people don't even notice as out of the ordinary anymore. Something akin to people saying "East Asian" instead of "oriental". It just seems normal after a while.

Cultural conservatives will turn it into the next "it's MERRY CHRISTMAS not HAPPY HOLIDAYS" thing, which will be fun.