COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[MATTROSE94]

COVID is endemic, *fingers crossed* there isn't much to worry about rn

Not according to Kathy Hochul, Phil Murphy, Anthony Fauci, Joe Biden, Eric Feigl-Ding, and Jonathan Reiner. /s

[MATTROSE94]

Well, people just stopped caring about Covid.

This.  Especially in Florida.  Went to Disney in February and the 90,000 people in the Magic Kingdom and the other parks weren't wearing them, including Disney employees.  And everyone is up everyone's butt when you visit there.

Really the only places that seem to care about COVID anymore are in California, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, DC, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, and New Jersey. Most other states have (rightfully) moved on.

[MATTROSE94]

Did you guys see all the monekypox cases that are being reported? A lot of the zero COVID proponents on Twitter are using that as an excuse to push for masking and lockdowns.

[MATTROSE94]

Sounds like it's a lot harder to spread, plus smallpox vaccine works if needed.

Yeah. Most of the spread seems to be sexually transmitted. Also, most people in the US born prior to 1980 had the smallpox vaccine at least and that vaccine can be deployed quickly if needed.

[MATTROSE94]

Some of you seriously need to be muted from this thread... permanently.

Compucomp is already gone and that took care of 99% of the problem.

Was he banned from the site or no? The last posts I saw from him were a lot of pro-Putin and pro-Xi posts back in March or April.

[MATTROSE94]

If we hold to this hopeful pattern through next winter, we can declare the pandemic all but over by March or April next year, and I will have officially joined Camp 5:

Covid Cases Surge, but Deaths Stay Near Lows

That’s pretty good news. I am in Camp 4 at the moment, but will move to Camp 5 if the predictions stay true.

[MATTROSE94]

The growing evidence that Covid-19 is leaving people sicker

A Financial Times analysis of data from the UK’s NHS, one of the world’s richest health data sets, showed significant rises in deaths from heart disease since the start of the pandemic in all but the very oldest age groups. In the 40-64 age group, heart attack deaths increased 15 per cent in 2021 compared with 2019.

In February, meanwhile, an analysis of more than 150,000 records from the national healthcare databases at the US Department of Veterans Affairs suggested that even some people who had not been seriously ill with Covid had an increased risk of cardiovascular problems for at least a year afterwards.

Researchers found that rates of many conditions, such as heart failure and stroke, were substantially higher in people who had recovered from Covid than in similar people who had not been infected. A separate analysis of VA data, published in March, suggested that in the “post-acute phase” of the disease, people with Covid “exhibit increased risk and burden of diabetes”.

Okay,  do you have a solution for this that is logistical ?

I would say boosters, development of a universal COVID vaccine that stops transmission, and focused protection for the most at risk. Masking I am not crazy about anymore and post early 2021 lockdowns were obsolete.

[MATTROSE94]

The COVID pandemic is not over, not when so many people remain vulnerable to the virus. Granted, many of them are unvaccinated by choice. I may disagree with them politically, but that doesn't mean I want them to die of COVID.

Do you still wear N95 masks and do you think Joe Biden should institute a nationwide N95 mandate?

[MATTROSE94]

The COVID pandemic is not over, not when so many people remain vulnerable to the virus. Granted, many of them are unvaccinated by choice. I may disagree with them politically, but that doesn't mean I want them to die of COVID.

Do you still wear N95 masks and do you think Joe Biden should institute a nationwide N95 mandate?

Yes and yes.

Some states like New York, California, Illinois, and DC I think will do N95 mandates this winter. Some cities like St. Louis, Boston, Newark, Paterson, West Orange, and Philadelphia I think will do so as well.

[MATTROSE94]

I don't know what you're talking about. I went to CVS recently to get my flu shot, and I'd say most people weren't wearing masks.

That's because everyone stopped when they realized it didn't work.

Almost everyone, at any rate. You still have ~10% or so of the public where I live donning masks. I occasionally still see entire families where everyone, parents and children alike, are masked. In fact, I had to check out such a family at my job just yesterday. A half-dozen of my coworkers are still masking up, and one of them told me that she's "gotten used to" and seems intent on masking up permanently from now on. My stepmother still masks up whenever she goes out in public and has no intentions of stopping anytime soon. It's obvious that there will be a segment of the population masking up in perpetuity. It's their right, but it's unfortunate.

I agree as well. I see about 10-25% of people still masking up where I live. Mostly Asians, African American women, older white people, and white women born after 1985 seem to be the main maskers.

[MATTROSE94]

Am I the only one who had never had any Covid vaccine side effects?

I didn’t either other than being a little bit fatigued for a day.

[MATTROSE94]

Looks like we’ll need to sticky this thread again. Cases and hospitalizations are rising.

You're not serious are you?

Cases are going way up and hospitalizations are on a trajectory to exceed the Omicron surge. I am masking up again and after reading about how bad the new variant is in terms of CFR, I want restrictions to be reinstated again at least until the Walter Reade developed Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle COVID-19 vaccine becomes available to the public.

[MATTROSE94]

Looks like we’ll need to sticky this thread again. Cases and hospitalizations are rising.

You're not serious are you?

Cases are going way up and hospitalizations are on a trajectory to exceed the Omicron surge. I am masking up again and after reading about how bad the new variant is in terms of CFR, I want restrictions to be reinstated again at least until the Walter Reade developed Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle COVID-19 vaccine becomes available to the public.

The world has moved on from Covid, you should too.

I moved on from COVID in early 2022, but things are getting bad again. Look at Eric Feigl Ding and Yaneer Bar Yam’s Twitter pages, as well as data from the World Health Organization and from former surgeon general Jerome Adams.