COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[GeneralMacArthur]

I currently have COVID for the second time.  Date of infection Tuesday, June 28.  My friend I had hung out with told me she had tested positive.  Then I noticed my brain just refusing to focus, refusing to put in effort on things, and figured there might be something wrong with me.  Then on Saturday I woke up with a sore throat.  Between those three things I decided to get tested, and tested positive.

I'm on day 6, and so far nothing but some headaches and tiredness despite 10+ hours of sleep every night.  Last time I had COVID, I was already experiencing intense nausea and fever by this point, so I'm hopeful that I'll end up basically symptom-free.  I'm also not coughing up a storm like I did last time.

I've got a trip planned and bumped the date to July 8 so I could have ten days between infection and air travel, following the guidelines.  This is my fourth dose of COVID after vaccine, booster, and infection in January.

[Doomer]

GeneralMacArthur, glad your bout of covid this time is easy going.

This is my first time with it and it’s been basically a sinus infection. I’m vaccinated and boosted.

I’ve read BA.5 may be more severe and also may evade recent immunity garnered from recent infection, which is worrisome.

[Raccoon]

yawn.. covid smovid.

just live normally.. go to work.. take your trip Gmac.

Don't worry about covid. pretend you are not even infected!

[Doomer]

yawn.. covid smovid.

just live normally.. go to work.. take your trip Gmac.

Don't worry about covid. pretend you are not even infected!

"Go out, infect other people. Some will die. Covid smovid."

[100% pro-life no matter what]

yawn.. covid smovid.

just live normally.. go to work.. take your trip Gmac.

Don't worry about covid. pretend you are not even infected!

"Go out, infect other people. Some will die. Covid smovid."

No one's really dying of covid anymore.  The winter Omicron wave was the last time covid was causing a statistically significant number of deaths.  It's never going to be literally zero due to the whole deaths from covid/deaths with covid thing, but recent waves haven't seen deaths increase at all from the trough.  So, yes, I unironically believe covid positive people should go about their lives unless they feel sick enough to be more comfortable staying at home.

[GeneralMacArthur]

yawn.. covid smovid.

just live normally.. go to work.. take your trip Gmac.

Don't worry about covid. pretend you are not even infected!

I'm not a moron so no I'm not going to go infect dozens of other people.

I'm perfectly fine holed up in my room playing Metroid and getting delicious burgers delivered.

[Raccoon]

yawn.. covid smovid.

just live normally.. go to work.. take your trip Gmac.

Don't worry about covid. pretend you are not even infected!

I'm not a moron so no I'm not going to go infect dozens of other people.

I'm perfectly fine holed up in my room playing Metroid and getting delicious burgers delivered.

How do you feel now ? Any better ?

[Mr. Morden]

Assuming this is accurate, it looks like the number of excess deaths in the US is now ~zero.  In fact, there were slightly more deaths per week at this point in 2018 and 2019 then there are now:

https://twitter.com/lymanstoneky/status/1545065471497617408

[Koharu]

Glad to know that 320 people a day is "nobody." That's still significantly higher than, say, the flu (~90ish a day, averaged out over the year) and car accident deaths (~100 a day).

[Mr. Morden]

Glad to know that 320 people a day is "nobody." That's still significantly higher than, say, the flu (~90ish a day, averaged out over the year) and car accident deaths (~100 a day).

It is of course possible for Covid to be killing people, and yet for "excess deaths" to be zero.  That's because, regardless of cause of death, everyone who dies from Cause A, had they not been killed by Cause A, would have eventually died from one of Cause B, C, D, E, etc.  And so, it's a matter of timing.  You could have a situation where Covid is preferentially killing people who would otherwise be soon to die of something else.  Or you could have a situation where a large fraction of those who would have otherwise died this year from some other cause ended up getting killed by Covid in 2020 or 2021.

By some combination of those effects, you could in fact have fewer total people dying in July 2022 than in (pre-Covid) July 2019, and yet Covid still being a top 5 cause of death in July 2022 that was non-existent in July 2019.

[Sic Semper Tyrannis]

Glad to know that 320 people a day is "nobody." That's still significantly higher than, say, the flu (~90ish a day, averaged out over the year) and car accident deaths (~100 a day).

Considering that most of the people dying are disabled, and acknowledging that this is still a problem might mean having to mildly inconvenience oneself by wearing a mask, our society is never going to be admitting that its a problem.

[Hammy]

yawn.. covid smovid.

just live normally.. go to work.. take your trip Gmac.

Don't worry about covid. pretend you are not even infected!

"Go out, infect other people. Some will die. Covid smovid."

No one's really dying of covid anymore.

3000+ people have died in the last ten days. Anybody who's sick with covid should stay away from other people, same with any other communicable disease that can kill--it's completely insane, selfish, and utterly inhuman to decide people with active, visible infections should intentionally go around and spread it to others as some sort of act of normalcy.

[Pericles]

Glad to know that 320 people a day is "nobody." That's still significantly higher than, say, the flu (~90ish a day, averaged out over the year) and car accident deaths (~100 a day).

My feeling is that Covid deaths, while tragically still happening, are now overstated by the official death tolls. Omicron being so transmissible but also milder means that a meaningful portion of it could be people who have mild Covid but also happen to die soon after of other causes.

[Koharu]

It is of course possible for Covid to be killing people, and yet for "excess deaths" to be zero.   -Snip-

I wasn't directly responding to you--I should have quoted the post I was. It was a page earlier.

yawn.. covid smovid.

just live normally.. go to work.. take your trip Gmac.

Don't worry about covid. pretend you are not even infected!

"Go out, infect other people. Some will die. Covid smovid."

No one's really dying of covid anymore.  The winter Omicron wave was the last time covid was causing a statistically significant number of deaths.  It's never going to be literally zero due to the whole deaths from covid/deaths with covid thing, but recent waves haven't seen deaths increase at all from the trough.  So, yes, I unironically believe covid positive people should go about their lives unless they feel sick enough to be more comfortable staying at home.

Like I said, 300 people a day, more than the flu or car accidents on a daily average, is not nobody.

[emailking]

I think he's saying the the number dying of Covid is a lot less than 300 and may be 0. Now that's debatable, but I don't think he's saying 300 dying of Covid is trivial.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

Assuming this is accurate, it looks like the number of excess deaths in the US is now ~zero.  In fact, there were slightly more deaths per week at this point in 2018 and 2019 then there are now:

https://twitter.com/lymanstoneky/status/1545065471497617408

Who chose the colors on this graph?  You have nine lines, five of which are all shades of red. The shades for 2016 & 2021 and 2017 & 2022 appear to me to be identical.  It makes the graph much more confusing than it needs to be. 

[Хahar 🤔]

Assuming this is accurate, it looks like the number of excess deaths in the US is now ~zero.  In fact, there were slightly more deaths per week at this point in 2018 and 2019 then there are now:

https://twitter.com/lymanstoneky/status/1545065471497617408

Who chose the colors on this graph?  You have nine lines, five of which are all shades of red. The shades for 2016 & 2021 and 2017 & 2022 appear to me to be identical.  It makes the graph much more confusing than it needs to be. 

I don't think there's any way to make it good, because with a line graph you can realistically only manage four or five lines before it becomes too much for the human eye to account for at a glance even with optimal color choices, but these colors certainly make things a lot worse.

https://twitter.com/lymanstoneky/status/1545087431057330176

I sure hope nobody is paying this guy for this kind of work!

[Meclazine for Israel]

Got my 4th COVID shot today.

Sore arm-itis.

[Doomer]

I tested positive on June 30, and only had mild symptoms the whole time.

Still positive today

[Raccoon]

I tested positive on June 30, and only had mild symptoms the whole time.

Still positive today

You'll be fine. You have extra immunity for the winter. Id rather get covid in summer than winter.

Also, STOP WORRYING ABOUT COVID.  you are making yourself SICK.

Relax and calm down

[Raccoon]

Youngkin is getting a lot of back lash from state workers for calling them back into the office.

Nope, they can no longer use the pandemic as an excuse to work in their pajamas. Those lazy s. Virginia state workers are notoriously LAZY.

HAHA I saw a few comments of people upset of this calling him Trumpkin.  Lmao

[Doomer]

I tested positive on June 30, and only had mild symptoms the whole time.

Still positive today

You'll be fine. You have extra immunity for the winter. Id rather get covid in summer than winter.

Also, STOP WORRYING ABOUT COVID.  you are making yourself SICK.

Relax and calm down

I’m not worried. I’m not sick anymore.

Just annoyed that aim still positive because my family is getting together this weekend for my dad’s birthday. If I’m not negative by then I can’t attend.

[BG-NY (permanently retired)]

We need to ramp up vaccinations again.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

I tested positive on June 30, and only had mild symptoms the whole time.

Still positive today

You'll be fine. You have extra immunity for the winter. Id rather get covid in summer than winter.

Also, STOP WORRYING ABOUT COVID.  you are making yourself SICK.

Relax and calm down

I’m not worried. I’m not sick anymore.

Just annoyed that aim still positive because my family is getting together this weekend for my dad’s birthday. If I’m not negative by then I can’t attend.

The CDC doesn't even recommend continuing to test this long after an infection.

[Raccoon]

Youngkin is getting a lot of back lash from state workers for calling them back into the office.

Nope, they can no longer use the pandemic as an excuse to work in their pajamas. Those lazy s. Virginia state workers are notoriously LAZY.

HAHA I saw a few comments of people upset of this calling him Trumpkin.  Lmao

A sampling of comments online from state workers upset with Youngkin's telework policy.

To me, advocating for mostly well off people working in their pajamas is not my idea of "progressive".

Governing to this Youngkin Bumpkin is easy. He just smiles and lies.

It's a play to replace people with Youngkin sycophants. This is how Republicans plan to govern. It doesn't matter the norms, rules, laws, or anything..so long as the institutions are loyal to the party, then they will carry out the party's bidding.We are watching authoritarianism take hold in America.

Maybe they’ll vote blue next time. You get what you vote for. Elect the guys who deny science and you go back to the office.


Me. If they tell me to go back more than one day a week, at my age, I’m retiring.

Fully remote, so I spend about half the year traveling around and staying at Airbnb’s or with friends and family and work from all over the country


if only our electorate weren’t so ing gullible as to fall for the made-up CRT boogeyman


Tough to fight against literal propaganda and racism when so much of the electorate is racist or dumb as .


Youngkin is a pos tbh

*** glenn youngkin this is what he wanted

I am not opposed to telework and see the benefits it has for everyone. But I wouldn't expect a place like Virginia to have lazy state employees. It does... and they need to be monitored.  I have heard many horror stories of bad service in the state.

Oh.. and I am tired of remote workers using "COVID" as an excuse.. just say you work remotely because you can and do not want to deal with out people. It has nothing to do with "covid" at this point.