COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

I do believe covid measures hurt Democrats a bit in 2020 election. Though I do believe Virginia Governor 2021 was the only major race lost due to predominantly covid measures.

I think Nevada in 2022 was. Some other states came really close.

Whitmer was definitely vulnerable until the Republicans tripped over fifty rakes on the way to the election. NM was also probably closer than it would have been due to this factor.

New York was the big one. That was almost the upset of the evening.

I think that one might have had more to do with crime - Hochul wasn't in office for most of the Covid crackdowns.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Does this megathread still need to be pinned?  There hasn't been much new on the COVID front in months and the thread title is from 2021.

[jamestroll]

Does this megathread still need to be pinned?  There hasn't been much new on the COVID front in months and the thread title is from 2021.

Absolutely! I want this thread to reach 1,000 pages.

In fact, we should have an entire sub board dedicated to covid!

[It’s so Joever]

Does this megathread still need to be pinned?  There hasn't been much new on the COVID front in months and the thread title is from 2021.

Absolutely! I want this thread to reach 1,000 pages.

In fact, we should have an entire sub board dedicated to covid!

This would have been a remotely reasonable request in March 2020. I can’t even begin to describe what it is now.

[Frodo]

CDC reports 3,500 deaths from long COVID. That's only 'scratching the surface,' experts say.

More than 3,500 people have died from long COVID-19 in the United States, accounting for about .3% of all coronavirus deaths, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While the tally is likely an undercount, health experts say it marks the first official report looking at long COVID mortality.

But what the report doesn’t capture is how the post-COVID condition can rob lives without being fatal, said Dr. David Putrino, director of Rehabilitation Innovation and Abilities Research Center at the Mount Sinai Health System.

“Many people with long COVID are extremely disabled as a result of their illness,” he said. “I very much hope that these data are not being taken in any way to measure the severity of Long COVID.”

[SnowLabrador]

I'm sick of people pretending COVID is over. It's not. Even if you are up to date with boosters, repeat infections are more likely to lead to long COVID, which, as we are now seeing, can be fatal. What is more, we still have a significant percentage of Americans who are unvaccinated. Granted, nothing in the world can probably convince them, but I don't want them to die.

You may be sick of COVID. I am too. But the virus isn't sick of us, and keeping yourself safe during a pandemic is not like dieting; there's no such thing as a cheat day.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I'm sick of people pretending COVID is over. It's not.

If not now, when?

[SnowLabrador]

I'm sick of people pretending COVID is over. It's not.

If not now, when?

When it's no longer killing 500+ Americans a day, more than thrice the amount die of the flu in a typical flu season.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I'm sick of people pretending COVID is over. It's not.

If not now, when?

When it's no longer killing 500+ Americans a day, more than thrice the amount die of the flu in a typical flu season.

It hasn't been 500 a day since April.

[SnowLabrador]

I'm sick of people pretending COVID is over. It's not.

If not now, when?

When it's no longer killing 500+ Americans a day, more than thrice the amount die of the flu in a typical flu season.

It hasn't been 500 a day since April.

Well, the pandemic is over from a social standpoint. But it really shouldn't be, because so many people are still completely unvaccinated. No one is safe until everyone is safe, and what's more, most people dying of COVID in the US were vaccinated.

I understand that different people have different comfort levels, but I still wear a mask in any indoor public space unless I'm eating. I don't think I'll ever stop doing that.

[jamestroll]

I'm sick of people pretending COVID is over. It's not.

If not now, when?

When it's no longer killing 500+ Americans a day, more than thrice the amount die of the flu in a typical flu season.

It hasn't been 500 a day since April.

Well, the pandemic is over from a social standpoint. But it really shouldn't be, because so many people are still completely unvaccinated. No one is safe until everyone is safe, and what's more, most people dying of COVID in the US were vaccinated.

I understand that different people have different comfort levels, but I still wear a mask in any indoor public space unless I'm eating. I don't think I'll ever stop doing that.

the OMICRON will not wait for you to put your MASK back on just because you are eating.

In fact, it is probably waiting for you to eat.

Just learn to live and be friends with omicron.

[Aurelius]

I'm sick of people pretending COVID is over. It's not. Even if you are up to date with boosters, repeat infections are more likely to lead to long COVID, which, as we are now seeing, can be fatal. What is more, we still have a significant percentage of Americans who are unvaccinated. Granted, nothing in the world can probably convince them, but I don't want them to die.

You may be sick of COVID. I am too. But the virus isn't sick of us, and keeping yourself safe during a pandemic is not like dieting; there's no such thing as a cheat day.

I will live free or die.

[jamestroll]

I'm sick of people pretending COVID is over. It's not. Even if you are up to date with boosters, repeat infections are more likely to lead to long COVID, which, as we are now seeing, can be fatal. What is more, we still have a significant percentage of Americans who are unvaccinated. Granted, nothing in the world can probably convince them, but I don't want them to die.

You may be sick of COVID. I am too. But the virus isn't sick of us, and keeping yourself safe during a pandemic is not like dieting; there's no such thing as a cheat day.

I will live free or die.

Masks off! Condoms on!

[Frodo]

Does this megathread still need to be pinned?  There hasn't been much new on the COVID front in months and the thread title is from 2021.

Let's wait until after this winter, and when the World Health Organization officially declares the COVID pandemic over.  Deaths and hospitalizations from COVID are rising again, after all.  

[jamestroll]

Does this megathread still need to be pinned?  There hasn't been much new on the COVID front in months and the thread title is from 2021.

Let's wait until after this winter, and when the World Health Organization officially declares the COVID pandemic over.  Deaths and hospitalizations from COVID are rising again, after all.  

We shall never unsticky this and I hope this thread goes on forever and ever and ever and ever. Its my favorite thread in the entire site.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Does this megathread still need to be pinned?  There hasn't been much new on the COVID front in months and the thread title is from 2021.

Let's wait until after this winter, and when the World Health Organization officially declares the COVID pandemic over.  Deaths and hospitalizations from COVID are rising again, after all.  

I'm not convinced that the WHO will ever officially declare the pandemic "over".  After all, they still technically say we are living in an ongoing AIDS pandemic.

[Ferguson97]

Does this megathread still need to be pinned?  There hasn't been much new on the COVID front in months and the thread title is from 2021.

Let's wait until after this winter, and when the World Health Organization officially declares the COVID pandemic over.  Deaths and hospitalizations from COVID are rising again, after all.  

I'm not convinced that the WHO will ever officially declare the pandemic "over".  After all, they still technically say we are living in an ongoing AIDS pandemic.

I mean, we absolutely are.

[Frodo]

Does this megathread still need to be pinned?  There hasn't been much new on the COVID front in months and the thread title is from 2021.

Let's wait until after this winter, and when the World Health Organization officially declares the COVID pandemic over.  Deaths and hospitalizations from COVID are rising again, after all.  

I'm not convinced that the WHO will ever officially declare the pandemic "over".  After all, they still technically say we are living in an ongoing AIDS pandemic.

We can thank the Chinese Communist Party for not using the time they spent staving off the pandemic wisely due to their prideful refusal to use more reliable western vaccines to inoculate their population (especially the most vulnerable like the elderly) before they ended their lockdowns due to public pressure. So it looks like the WHO won't be able to declare the pandemic over for a few more years, since it has only just begun for the Chinese mainland.  

Without a doubt the end of the pandemic for everyone else would have been made official as early as this spring.  

[Bandit3 the Worker]

So we're stuck with martial law and a mask dictatorship for a few more years?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

So we're stuck with martial law and a mask dictatorship for a few more years?

Only in 中国。

[Frodo]

Congress is getting complacent about COVID:

https://twitter.com/mcbridetd/status/1609536511313076224

The lack of specialized Covid-19 treatments for people with weak immune systems has left millions of Americans with limited options if they get sick as the pandemic heads into an uncertain winter.

Once heralded as game-changers for Covid patients considered at risk for getting seriously ill — one was used to treat then-President Donald Trump in 2020 — monoclonal antibodies are now largely ineffective against current Covid variants. Easier-to-administer antiviral drugs, such as Paxlovid, have largely taken their place but aren’t safe for all immune-compromised people because they interact with many other drugs.

But the federal government funding that drove drug development in the early days of the pandemic has dried up, and lawmakers have rebuffed the Biden administration’s pleas for more. Without that, there’s little incentive for drugmakers to work on new antibody treatments that could be more effective.

And without a government program like Operation Warp Speed to develop second-generation vaccines and treatments, at-risk patients could be in danger of developing severe cases of Covid and flooding hospitals when the U.S. health care system is already strained, thanks to an influx of patients with an array of respiratory illnesses, including flu and RSV.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Does this megathread still need to be pinned?  There hasn't been much new on the COVID front in months and the thread title is from 2021.

Good point. Maybe the China thing is still alive.

They were the first to get it and the last to get it. I can't wrap my brain around how that happened.

[It’s so Joever]

Congress is getting complacent about COVID:

https://twitter.com/mcbridetd/status/1609536511313076224

The lack of specialized Covid-19 treatments for people with weak immune systems has left millions of Americans with limited options if they get sick as the pandemic heads into an uncertain winter.

Once heralded as game-changers for Covid patients considered at risk for getting seriously ill — one was used to treat then-President Donald Trump in 2020 — monoclonal antibodies are now largely ineffective against current Covid variants. Easier-to-administer antiviral drugs, such as Paxlovid, have largely taken their place but aren’t safe for all immune-compromised people because they interact with many other drugs.

But the federal government funding that drove drug development in the early days of the pandemic has dried up, and lawmakers have rebuffed the Biden administration’s pleas for more. Without that, there’s little incentive for drugmakers to work on new antibody treatments that could be more effective.

And without a government program like Operation Warp Speed to develop second-generation vaccines and treatments, at-risk patients could be in danger of developing severe cases of Covid and flooding hospitals when the U.S. health care system is already strained, thanks to an influx of patients with an array of respiratory illnesses, including flu and RSV.

We desperately need more public funding for pathological and pharmaceutical research. This also applies to antibiotics, we are f**ked and getting more f**ked each day and nobody seems to care, which is a common theme.

[Hammy]

Congress is getting complacent about COVID:

https://twitter.com/mcbridetd/status/1609536511313076224

The lack of specialized Covid-19 treatments for people with weak immune systems has left millions of Americans with limited options if they get sick as the pandemic heads into an uncertain winter.

Once heralded as game-changers for Covid patients considered at risk for getting seriously ill — one was used to treat then-President Donald Trump in 2020 — monoclonal antibodies are now largely ineffective against current Covid variants. Easier-to-administer antiviral drugs, such as Paxlovid, have largely taken their place but aren’t safe for all immune-compromised people because they interact with many other drugs.

But the federal government funding that drove drug development in the early days of the pandemic has dried up, and lawmakers have rebuffed the Biden administration’s pleas for more. Without that, there’s little incentive for drugmakers to work on new antibody treatments that could be more effective.

And without a government program like Operation Warp Speed to develop second-generation vaccines and treatments, at-risk patients could be in danger of developing severe cases of Covid and flooding hospitals when the U.S. health care system is already strained, thanks to an influx of patients with an array of respiratory illnesses, including flu and RSV.

Congress doesn't care about healthcare--this isn't exclusive to covid, not by a long shot.

[Dr. MB]

Does this megathread still need to be pinned?  There hasn't been much new on the COVID front in months and the thread title is from 2021.

How Dare You. We're still in the middle of a pandemic. Listen to the science, trust the experts, mask up, get your vaccines and stay 6 feet apart. We're all in this together.