COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Donerail]

I would much rather be somewhat sick for a few days than miss a concert or sporting event I really want to go to.  Or certainly cancel an international trip or major conference.  And we’ve been missing these for most of two years now.  I just can’t fathom how people think this trade-off is sensible (at least now that we’re vaccinated).

Ok? You've said this several times now I feel like.

I can fathom your position, I don't know why you can't fathom mine. In the long run I'm going to do that stuff, but for 2 months? I'll take staying at home over the high likelihood of a cold.

If you have a different cost benefit analysis, go for it. I support personal freedom.

What do you think will be different two months from now? If you were waiting to get vaccinated, that would make sense, but I don't believe that's the case. Why do you feel a need to delay your encounter with the virus by two months?

[Donerail]

What do you think will be different two months from now? If you were waiting to get vaccinated, that would make sense, but I don't believe that's the case. Why do you feel a need to delay your encounter with the virus by two months?

The wave will be over. I might not encounter the virus after that.

That's not an option. You will encounter the virus, whether it is now or two months from now. This virus will be circulating in humans for centuries. If anything, your health outcomes will be worse two months from now — as your vaccine immunity wanes — than if you encountered the virus now. That's what it means for a virus to be endemic.

[Donerail]

There are no overarching government restrictions in force. A mask mandate is not a restriction.

Reported for gaslighting

[Donerail]

So uh, out of curiosity, do the US still require close contacts to self-isolate? Even if vaccinated?

I mean, require's a funny word. In America you are not required to do anything you don't want to do.

[Donerail]

It's worth paying careful attention to what's happening in this thread. The lockdowners are arguing that there are NO costs associated with wearing a mask, that it "isn't a burden," that masks aren't "preventing you from doing anything." At most, they concede it's a "minor inconvenience," a cost that we all must bear to control the pandemic.

What they're doing here is laying the groundwork for permanent cyclical mask mandates. Several members of Biden's transition team have said as much in JAMA, arguing that we need to "retire previous public health categorizations . . . and focus on a new category: the aggregate risk of all respiratory virus infections," with masking and distancing enforced by OSHA rules. The chair of UCSF Medicine has mentioned a resurgent threat in December 2022, and other epidemiologists have suggested canceling college classes in January 2023.

The logic is, after all, identical: The flu stretches the healthcare system "to the breaking point" just about every year, with ~30,000 deaths in an average flu season. If "masks aren't a burden," why shouldn't the state mandate them to mitigate those costs? If they're no big deal, why are they temporary? The argument that masks are costless is an argument for continued public health mission creep, asserting ever-greater control over our lives and over society.

[Donerail]

What they're doing here is laying the groundwork for permanent cyclical mask mandates. Several members of Biden's transition team have said as much in JAMA, arguing that we need to "retire previous public health categorizations . . . and focus on a new category: the aggregate risk of all respiratory virus infections," with masking and distancing enforced by OSHA rules. The chair of UCSF Medicine has mentioned a resurgent threat in December 2022, and other epidemiologists have suggested canceling college classes in January 2023.

Yeah no…Covid killed 200,000 in the past few months alone and the extent to which hospitals are overstrecthed is far worse than flu seasons.

I'm just telling you what the public health people are saying, man. What you choose to conclude from that information is obviously up to you, but the signs are pointing in the same direction — unless, I suppose, enough of us vote for some real awful candidates with Rs next to their names between now and next winter.

[Donerail]

Here's the problem with the anti-restriction mob on this forum; they're intransigent ideologues and there's no middle ground possible with them. You give them an inch, they demand a mile.

After two years of delegating ever-expanding power to public health officials to dictate rules for society, what do you expect? The tactical lesson here is clear: Public health officials are loathe to withdraw a regulation, even when the science clearly supports doing so. How else can you explain the continued devotion to plexiglass barriers and obsessive surface cleaning, the widespread opposition to the CDC's shortened quarantine requirements, or the insistence on masks for populations that face basically no risk from the disease? It only makes sense that opponents of such excessive measures are unwilling to compromise — when we've compromised, we got burned. Not gonna make that mistake again.

[Donerail]

Sonoma County has banned "large gatherings" (defined as anything >50 people) and has issued what they call a "voluntary stay at home order," recommending residents to shelter in place and avoid contact with others for at least the next 30 days. But "there are no government policies restricting any behavior."

[Donerail]

If you don't want a booster (3rd, 4th, 10th, whatever) then don't take it.

A lot of people keep saying they're going to be required, but that hasn't happened. They're good for people who want them.

What? Many universities (including the Cal State & UC systems, the Colorado State system, basically every university in Oregon, etc.) and employers (including all healthcare workers in California, as well as Meta) require boosters.

[Donerail]

2 is false, every new variant has been deadlier than the previous ones until Omicron miraculously became milder. It should also never be a goal for people with Covid to live their lives if they feel up to it. People should stay home until they're not infectious whenever they're sick, not just with Covid, and the government should support people so they can do this. We should not think it is OK to infect others.

That's not how we treated any cold or flu for all of modern history up until this.  I don't want to live in some sort of bio-security state.

I don't think you need to read "bio-security state" into the suggestion that people should get guaranteed paid sick leave, just like they do in fifteen states and a lot of other countries. Frankly kind of insane that Democrats have not hammered home that as their pandemic message — polls well, not burdensome to individuals, and would meaningfully reduce the spread of the disease — and instead have focused on mask mandates that do none of those things.

[Donerail]

Maybe anti-mask sentiment on this forum started out as anti-mandate but by now it is firmly anti-mask, to the point that they'd probably join in those mask-burning protests. They're going to have a rude awakening when they see those masks in the mail.

Why would I complain about being sent more kindling?

[Donerail]

We need normalcy now!

We have had normalcy for several months!

what are you talking about

[Donerail]

It's not a good question.  COVID can only be made endemic by continuing to treat its current pandemic status as a crisis.  Get a vaccine that limits COVID to only the mildest possible form of Omicron, and force everyone to get it, and only then can you say that COVID is "basically just the flu."

do we force everyone to get a flu shot

[Donerail]

Governor of California attended an indoor event w/ ~75,000 other people, maskless, in the company of at least one immunocompromised person. Mayors of SF & LA were in the same box, also maskless. Kids are wearing N95s on the playgrounds.

[Donerail]

A newly released study from the California Department of Public Health shows that consistently wearing a mask does protect the wearer. Study was conducted prior to Omicron. Given that most masks are better at protecting others from the wearer than protecting the wearer from others this is a good data point in favor of mask mandates.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7106e1.htm

Neat example of how the game works — you have the big flashy numbers showing how MASKS WORK and then you zoom in on the tiny footnote that says "not statistically significant." What is going on at the CDC??

[Donerail]

In the future, I expect the RP to have a split between the “Old Guard” and the “Revolutionaries” on diseases because of Covid. I expect the Old Guard will obviously want to continue to fund medical research and prevent epidemics (they will want to keep the aristocracy alive) but I do expect the Revolutionaries to ignore pragmatism and seek a Cultural Revolution in America. If the former manages to retain their hold, medical advancement will likely continue albeit with many of those advances only being available to the rich. If the Revolutionaries take control, I expect them to eventually “provide” a degree of universal healthcare, but it will be terrible because most of the educated medical professionals will be locked up and…well I shudder thinking about what will happen to people like my parents once in prison, I probably will know as I will likely be a political prisoner anyways ig.

There is an "Alternative History" board for creative writing projects. This kind of post should go there and not in U.S. General Discussion, which is for discussing real-world events.

[Donerail]

In the future, I expect the RP to have a split between the “Old Guard” and the “Revolutionaries” on diseases because of Covid. I expect the Old Guard will obviously want to continue to fund medical research and prevent epidemics (they will want to keep the aristocracy alive) but I do expect the Revolutionaries to ignore pragmatism and seek a Cultural Revolution in America. If the former manages to retain their hold, medical advancement will likely continue albeit with many of those advances only being available to the rich. If the Revolutionaries take control, I expect them to eventually “provide” a degree of universal healthcare, but it will be terrible because most of the educated medical professionals will be locked up and…well I shudder thinking about what will happen to people like my parents once in prison, I probably will know as I will likely be a political prisoner anyways ig.

There is an "Alternative History" board for creative writing projects. This kind of post should go there and not in U.S. General Discussion, which is for discussing real-world events.

These are soon to be happening real world events. Alternative history is where people who posted things like “Covid is just the flu” should be writing.

If, in ten years, most doctors are in prison, I will give you $5,000. If most doctors are not in prison, you give me $5,000. Fair?

[Donerail]

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.

It's VERY important that they wait until they're 2 feet in the door or an establishment before putting the mask on, otherwise they aren't virtue signalling to everybody that they aren't a lib.

Libs, meanwhile, wear the mask outside until they're two feet into the restaurant, then they take it off. COVID only spreads when you're walking to your table, you know.

[Donerail]

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

we're throwing it around a lot over the last few posts but you should genuinely see a therapist, it's not healthy to be this detached from reality

[Donerail]

It looks like the Super Bowl might be the final nail in the coffin of mask mania.

Way to make a total non sequitur and take a random cheap shot for no reason.

Los Angeles is, in theory, under a mask mandate. The local mask ordinance requires masks at all gatherings of this size. Every fan was provided with a KN95.



And no one complied. We're done, it's over. America is BACK.

[Donerail]

If enough people ignore the rules, the rules go away. You can't kick out 95% of the stadium. Face it, masks are on their way out, rates are crashing, and we're moving on.

Good on these patriots for not letting the hygiene Nazis ruin a fun night.

If you're against law and order and rule of law, that's your prerogative, but I do NOT want to hear you claiming otherwise or see you whining about a lack of law and order in another thread sometime in the future. I no longer have patience or tolerance for people that claim to believe in something when it's convenient for them but then suddenly no longer believe in it when it no longer fits their narrative.

You say you "oppose murder" and "support the rule of law," and yet you do not support strict enforcement of Los Angeles County Health Officer's Order § 11(c)(ii). Hypocrisy much??

[Donerail]

STAND WITH UKRAINE, I agree with you should be able to wear your mask and people should leave you alone about it, but calm down man.

I am calmer now, but I won’t remove or apologize for my posts. They were made in a bit of anger yes, but I do stand by the sentiments I shared. I still do think that those who think like Jimmie present a serious threat to American society and I do genuinely have serious hate for certain posters here. It’s sad but I can’t love my neighbor when my neighbor wants to hurt me and my family. I have some serious religious introspection to do.

I am afraid of people who still wear masks outside, which at this point post-pandemic is a strong indicator of mental illness. If you're still wearing a KYZN987X mask outdoors, now that COVID is over, who knows what other kind of sicko behavior you're capable of? Those are the people who are deranged, who are insane, who are likely a threat to people around them and "American society," not the normal people who are just living normal lives.

[Donerail]

one of the guys followed me and kept shouting for a while. Tbf he (and the other incident) was crazy and likely some guy on drugs but still it’s clear there is a war against those who chose to wear a mask, and just know Atlas supports it in full silently.

a crackhead yelled at me [normal, crackhead]. from this encounter it is clear there is a war on against me personally, and everyone here supports it

[Donerail]

At this point I just go back to this thread whenever I have a bit too much faith in humanity and read the posts.

It's bad, isn't it? Not like I needed another reminder not to vote Democrat, but