COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

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Edited: Today at 06_59_23 PM by YE

Before YE edited a post, we have people (someone) here literally saying that "it's probably good for society anyway, that people who are unvaccinated, die" (paraphrasing).
Some of you here, really need to take a break.

If you have chosen time and time again to not get the vaccine, I can only assume you don't care about your own life. Why should we base our policies around protecting those who outright refuse to protect themselves?

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One positive of this epidemic is that it may finally be opening people’s eyes to how pernicious and corrupt public sector unions really are. Disgusting people.
https://twitter.com/kimmaicutler/status/1421197752344535040?s=21

If you work in a hospital, police station, nursing home or school, you should not be able to unionize. The pandemic has shown unions to be antiquated and nothing but unnecessary red tape.

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Honestly it feels like this is never going to end.

We make progress, then we go two steps back.

It seems like it’s going to be a never ending cycle of infection/vaccination/infection/death over and over.  And it feels like we’re getting to a point where a future mutation will eventually completely evade vaccines altogether.

This is just the way the world is going to be now.

I don't think so. The vaccines work amazingly and we're currently witnessing an overcorrection. Look at where we were last year in terms of masks/social distancing and compare it to today.

There's a light at the end of the tunnel and nothing is going to convince me otherwise here.

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We need a vaccine mandate.

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So now there's a lambda variant? This is just getting silly.

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I find it interesting that posters on here are going hard against sturgis, but were utterly silent about lollapalooza

Both are outdoor events and even if they weren't, who cares? Personally I'm glad people are having a fun and normal summer.

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Sadly, there is more to fear than fear itself (even if you are sensible enough to be vaccinated). Such as the possibility that you will get into a car accident or something similar and need emergency medical care, but not be able to get a hospital bed due to (mostly) the unvaccinated idiots clogging up all the hospitals in certain areas. Or long COVID. Chronic conditions that can last for years (or who knows how long, potentially for the rest of your life) are no joke.

So we're supposed to live in a permanent state of depression, anxiety and fear? Not sure what the point of your response was.

Fighting a virus and fighting a war are pretty similar. The quote makes perfect sense.

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It is worth reminding people that there has been absolutely NO surge in covid deaths in blue America (with a small number of local exceptions).

Here's a graph from the Washington Post of the states with the highest current average deaths per 100k residents:



And states with the lowest:

Sadly it doesn't matter. Look through this thread. People are terrified and I don't think any data is going to calm them.. The country is truly in the depths of neurosis. Thanks msm.

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This is pathological.

https://twitter.com/CBSMiami/status/1424825696921194496

While mask mandates in schools are dumb, an extra hassle for the teacher and an annoyance at minimum to kids, it would make a lot more sense to withhold the salaries of those refusing the vaccine.

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Mask mandates with financial and legal consequences if violated are necessary.

Vaccine mandates for every single person in the country.

Whiners can whine but they’re getting jabbed.  It’s time we force this on people because the situation won’t improve until we do.

Stop trying to force masks on the vaccinated. We need a vaccine mandate, and we need it now. Mask mandates are utterly pointless virtue signaling. It is the unvaccinated who are causing problems, no one else.

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Mask mandates with financial and legal consequences if violated are necessary.

Vaccine mandates for every single person in the country.

Whiners can whine but they’re getting jabbed.  It’s time we force this on people because the situation won’t improve until we do.

Stop trying to force masks on the vaccinated. We need a vaccine mandate, and we need it now. Mask mandates are utterly pointless virtue signaling. It is the unvaccinated who are causing problems, no one else.

My reason for wanting a mask mandate: The vaccines don't last forever and people don't get them all at the same time.  I got mine back in January and February and my protection will be lower than someone who got theirs in June/July.  Depending on the vaccine, you're going to get varying degrees of protection.  With certain variants, that protection decreases.  No vaccine is 100%, and some vaccines see vast decreases in protection against certain variants.

Therefore, until the situation eases considerably, I think we should all be wearing masks in public places.

No mask is 100% either. You seem to trust masks more than vaccines, an increasingly common position on the left that I find extremely troubling. Maybe it's because you can see a mask and not a vaccine? Really don't get it.

Also, everyone has a different definition of what the situation "easing considerably" means. To me, the situation already has eased considerably and for the vaccinated has never been safer. But the hypochondriacs and germophobes among us, many of whom are employed in public health, are screeching and panicking like there's no tomorrow.

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No mask is 100% either. You seem to trust masks more than vaccines, an increasingly common position on the left that I find extremely troubling. Maybe it's because you can see a mask and not a vaccine? Really don't get it.

You really don't? Masks + vaccines is more effective than vaccines even if neither is 100%. Just like you should wear a seat belt even if you have an airbag that you can't see. I don't know about a mandate, but that's clearly the advantage in doing both, reducing risk.

When would you feel comfortable removing your mask in a public space?

And no, I absolutely don't understand why someone would trust masks more than vaccines when the latter does far, far more to protect you.

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No mask is 100% either. You seem to trust masks more than vaccines, an increasingly common position on the left that I find extremely troubling. Maybe it's because you can see a mask and not a vaccine? Really don't get it.

You really don't? Masks + vaccines is more effective than vaccines even if neither is 100%. Just like you should wear a seat belt even if you have an airbag that you can't see. I don't know about a mandate, but that's clearly the advantage in doing both, reducing risk.

When would you feel comfortable removing your mask in a public space?

And no, I absolutely don't understand why someone would trust masks more than vaccines when the latter does far, far more to protect you.

I already do remove it.

It's not trusting masks more than vaccines, it's trusting masks + vaccines more than vaccines.

No, it's treating mask wearing as the epitome of good citizenship while constantly going on about how the shot isn't that great and might stop working or something. I can't begin to tell you how many fully vaccinated people I know who now, thanks to the msm think they're no longer protected and have reverted to wearing a mask indoors at all times. What is the endgame?

Anyone who supports a mask mandate but not a vaccine mandate does not really want COVID to end. And that's currently the position of pretty much all Dem politicians.

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... Anyone who supports a mask mandate but not a vaccine mandate does not really want COVID to end. And that's currently the position of pretty much all Dem politicians.

What? No.
Please stop.

Vaccines are our best tool to fight COVID, a far better tool than masks, as even GWBfan just pointed out. If you don't want to mandate our best tool to fight the virus, why should I think you want the virus to go away?

No one on either side of the aisle supports vaccine mandates, but at least the GOP doesn't pretend to care.

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... Anyone who supports a mask mandate but not a vaccine mandate does not really want COVID to end. And that's currently the position of pretty much all Dem politicians.

What? No.
Please stop.

Vaccines are our best tool to fight COVID, a far better tool than masks, as even GWBfan just pointed out. If you don't want to mandate our best tool to fight the virus, why should I think you want the virus to go away?

I want a vaccine mandate.

But you can’t argue that masks increase protection.  At certain times, when variants decrease vaccine effectiveness, I want mask mandates as well.  But that wouldn’t be all the time…just when the situation is dire like it has once again become.

But no one with any power does. DeBlasio of all people is the only exception I can think of.

And if you are fully vaccinated the situation is not even close to "dire." Alarmist rhetoric like this helps no one.

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No mask is 100% either. You seem to trust masks more than vaccines, an increasingly common position on the left that I find extremely troubling. Maybe it's because you can see a mask and not a vaccine? Really don't get it.

You really don't? Masks + vaccines is more effective than vaccines even if neither is 100%. Just like you should wear a seat belt even if you have an airbag that you can't see. I don't know about a mandate, but that's clearly the advantage in doing both, reducing risk.

When would you feel comfortable removing your mask in a public space?

And no, I absolutely don't understand why someone would trust masks more than vaccines when the latter does far, far more to protect you.

"I'm safe" is irrelevant. This isn't about protecting individuals. This is the human race vs. COVID. All of us. All our DNA, all our cells (and the other living things that can get COVID infections, too).  The more cells that are infected with COVID, the more chances it has to spread, the more chances it has to mutate into something worse for all of us.  Mutation rate is roughly proportional to the number of infected. It's about cutting down aggregate COVID numbers. Masks help do that. Vaccinations help a lot, but are non-trivial to create, distribute, and use. On this scale, the costs of masks is trivial. Anyone anywhere that there are enough cases that trace and quarantine isn't practical should be masking in public at all times. Additional measures beyond masks, vaccinations and good public hygiene awareness should be implemented on a rational cost-benefit basis, with stopping COVID (and not political PR points or entitled whining) as the primary factor.

Additional measures beyond masks, vaccines and good hygiene? Like a return to social distancing? Do you want the suicide and overdose rates to spike even more? Do you want riots? Do you want to suck all the joy out of what makes us human? My God man, this is deranged.. You and several other folks in this thread need to take a deep breath, look at the data and calm the hell down.

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https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1425086627232325632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Not only are Republicans the most dangerous enemy to American democracy, they are also an enemy to the health of the American people.

You're insane.  Seek mental help.

Anyone who opposes vaccine mandates is an enemy to the health of the American people. And this currently includes every politician on both sides of the aisle with the exception of Bill DeBlasio.

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Excellent.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1425522889575501825?s=19

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When is the Delta surge projected to level off?

I saw some recent projections saying it would level off right about now. "TheLawyerCraig" on Twitter might have posted some.

Robert Redfield is saying it’s very likely another variant, more dangerous than Delta, is coming this fall.

People who say things like this with such evidence-lacking certainty really do validate the claim some are making that people just want this go to on forever out of some apocalypse fetish.

Some people do want this to go on forever and have an apocalypse fetish (i.e., liberals.)

Liberals aren't the ones stockpiling for the next 2012 joke or raving on about vaccines being the mark of the beast bringing about the "end times." Apocalypse fetishes are not something either side has a monopoly on.

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Oh my....
https://twitter.com/stanforddaily/status/1425563524986589184?s=21

Unreal. Might as well just switch to fully online instruction if that's the case. Unlike under 18s, I see no reason why doing so would hurt a person's social development.

If this is how institutions are going to act, good luck getting more than a quarter of the country to get boosters.

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I could see maybe 40% of the country taking the time to get a booster.

We were told vaccines would let us return to normal life. Obviously that's not the case, we will quite likely be masking for the foreseeable future, probably indefinitely, and social distancing mandates are coming back, so why get another one?

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I could see maybe 40% of the country taking the time to get a booster.

We were told vaccines would let us return to normal life. Obviously that's not the case, we will quite likely be masking for the foreseeable future, probably indefinitely, and social distancing mandates are coming back, so why get another one?

Because I'd rather not be intubated.

Well, good luck getting the vast majority of the country to listen. We haven't even hit 70% for the first two shots, a booster will go nowhere. The messaging is absolutely horrendous.

And if you've already had two shots, intubation is extremely unlikely unless you're very old or immunocompromised or something. Seems like a needlessly panicky way to go through life.

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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.

I said mask mandates and vaccine mandates, both in combination. Now that vaccine mandates are gaining traction and becoming more acceptable I'm happy to advocate for them too.

I think the most likely explanation is that people who will wear masks will also go out in public less often; for example I'm sure there is still something like 10-15% of the population that stays home all the time and gets everything delivered. So you're less likely to see them and disproportionately see the people who don't wear masks because they also go out in public more often.

Do you personally know anyone who still does that? I don’t know anyone who still locks down and stays at home nearly all the time.

I know literally zero people who still do this and I live in a very, very blue area not far from the CDC.

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https://twitter.com/JonLemire/status/1429800811010445314


Finally.

Took far, far too long.

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Louisiana State University to require fans at football games to show proof of vaccination or recent negative test:

LSU will require anyone attending Tiger Stadium who is 12 years of age or older to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within the last 72 hours, the school announced on Tuesday.
...
Those younger than 12 will not have to show proof of a negative PCR test. However, masks will be required for children between 5 and 11 years old and encouraged for those younger than 5.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32077089/proof-vaccination-negative-covid-19-pcr-test-required-enter-tiger-stadium

And here's the counterpoint, which it greatly pains me to post:

https://twitter.com/bluestein/status/1430238454617722883

There should definitely be proof of vaccination but other than that this is the correct policy for outdoor events.