COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Horus]

[snipped for space]

Anti mask nuts? I literally wore my mask everywhere until two weeks after my second shot.

Then why are you flipping out over a recommendation and my calling out of propagandistic wording?

I honestly don't care what WHO says. Like I said, I listen to the CDC. My problem is you somehow thinking Lief's criticism of them was racist when it was just anti CCP, shouldn't every sane human be anti CCP?

[Hammy]

[snipped for space]

Anti mask nuts? I literally wore my mask everywhere until two weeks after my second shot.

Then why are you flipping out over a recommendation and my calling out of propagandistic wording?

I honestly don't care what WHO says. Like I said, I listen to the CDC. My problem is you somehow thinking Lief's criticism of them was racist when it was just anti CCP, shouldn't every sane human be anti CCP?

It's being used too often by too many people I know, Republicans in general, and quite a few people here as veiled racism and often involved in spewing conspiracy theories--as with the WHO being "owned by the CCP" as I was initially replying to in the first place.

[Dr. Arch]

The updated numbers for COVID-19 in the U.S. are in for 6/29 per: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

I'm keeping track of these updates daily and updating at the end of the day, whenever all states finish reporting for that day.

ΔW Change: Comparisons of Weekly Day-to-day Growth or Decline of COVID-19 Spread/Deaths.

• IE: Comparing the numbers to the same day of last week, are we flattening the curve enough?

Σ Increase: A day's contribution to overall percentage growth of COVID-19 cases/deaths.

• IE:What's the overall change in the total?

Brackets []: These represent the total change for the day, including backlogged reports, if any.

• These numbers are inflated relative to the actual reports for the day, so they are not used to calculate the comparative percentage shifts.

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6/20 (Holiday): <Sunday>

• Cases: 34,406,001 (+4,289 | ΔW Change: ↓17.93% | Σ Increase: ↑0.01%)
• Deaths: 617,166 (+83 | ΔW Change: ↑418.75% | Σ Increase: ↑0.01%)

6/21: <M>

• Cases: 34,419,838 (+6,609 [+13,837] | ΔW Change: ↓9.59% | Σ Increase: ↑0.04%)
• Deaths: 617,463 (+121 [+297] | ΔW Change: ↑14.15% | Σ Increase: ↑0.05%)

6/22: <T>

• Cases: 34,433,696 (+9,898 [+13,858] | ΔW Change: ↓16.71% | Σ Increase: ↑0.04%)
• Deaths: 617,864 (+335 [+401] | ΔW Change: ↓1.76% | Σ Increase: ↑0.06%)

6/23: <W>

• Cases: 34,449,004 (+12,942 [+15,308] | ΔW Change: ↑1.45% | Σ Increase: ↑0.04%)
• Deaths: 618,294 (+326 [+430] | ΔW Change: ↓7.39% | Σ Increase: ↑0.07%)

6/24: <Þ>

• Cases: 34,464,956 (+13,365 [+15,952] | ΔW Change: ↑16.56% | Σ Increase: ↑0.05%)
• Deaths: 618,685 (+329 [+391] | ΔW Change: ↑16.67% | Σ Increase: ↑0.06%)

6/25: <F>

• Cases: 34,482,672 (+15,537 [+17,716] | ΔW Change: ↑16.04% | Σ Increase: ↑0.05%)
• Deaths: 619,152 (+387 [+467] | ΔW Change: ↑1.53% | Σ Increase: ↑0.08%)

6/26: <S>

• Cases: 34,490,134 (+7,462 | ΔW Change: ↓11.62% | Σ Increase: ↑0.02%)
• Deaths: 619,343 (+150 [+191] | ΔW Change: ↓7.98% | Σ Increase: ↑0.03%)

6/27 (Last Sunday Holiday): <Sunday>

• Cases: 34,494,677 (+4,543 | ΔW Change: ↑5.92% | Σ Increase: ↑0.01%)
• Deaths: 619,424 (+81 | ΔW Change: ↓2.41% | Σ Increase: ↑0.01%)

6/28 (Yesterday): <M>

• Cases: 34,511,636 (+10,754 [+16,959] | ΔW Change: ↑62.72% | Σ Increase: ↑0.02%)
• Deaths: 619,595 (+137 [+171] | ΔW Change: ↑13.22% | Σ Increase: ↑0.03%)

6/29 (Today): <T>

• Cases: 34,527,493 (+11,982 [+15,857] | ΔW Change: ↑21.05% | Σ Increase: ↑0.05%)
• Deaths: 619,980 (+164 [+385] | ΔW Change: ↓51.04% | Σ Increase: ↑0.06%)

[Calthrina950]

WHO Urges Fully Vaccinated People To Continue Wearing Masks As Delta Variant Spreads—But No Word From CDC

World Health Organization (WHO) officials stressed Friday the need for fully vaccinated people to “continue to be appropriately cautious” and keep up with social distancing measures like mask wearing as the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus becomes increasingly dominant in the U.S. and spurs new Covid-19 surges around the world—including in highly vaccinated countries.

[...]

“Us[ing] masks consistently” and following other social distancing measures like avoiding crowds, hand washing and being in well-ventilated spaces is “extremely important, even if you’re vaccinated,” Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products, said, warning, “Vaccine alone won’t stop the community transmission.”

I have a sick feeling that we declared victory too early. It's just becoming summer too. I don't think we have a clear picture as to what's going to happen later in the year.

Of course the CCP-controlled WHO is saying this, they have no credibility. The Chinese vaccine has been an embarrassing failure, and now they're trying to convince the rest of the world that our vaccines are too. Luckily I think the United States will largely ignore this.

Yes, lets just ignore the fact that the Delta variant is spreading to vaccinated people just so you can pretend you haven't been brainwashed by Trump cultists and Fox News.

Hey BlueAnoner, stop spreading misinformation. It's like you idiots want to be locked down forever. I'm normally a moderate, but I've run out of patience with liberals and their restrictions.

At this point, any American who wants a vaccine has been able to get it for months. They are extremely effective, even against "muh scary variants". It's why I hate the media. They're losing views and clicks without Trump, so they try to gin up fear of COVID (despite it clearly being on its way out in the US) to keep up their ratings.

I have noticed that the media has paid an extensive amount of attention to the Delta variant, and much of their reporting remains sensationalist, as it has been throughout the pandemic. However, even many journalists seem ready to move forward.

[Hammy]

WHO Urges Fully Vaccinated People To Continue Wearing Masks As Delta Variant Spreads—But No Word From CDC

World Health Organization (WHO) officials stressed Friday the need for fully vaccinated people to “continue to be appropriately cautious” and keep up with social distancing measures like mask wearing as the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus becomes increasingly dominant in the U.S. and spurs new Covid-19 surges around the world—including in highly vaccinated countries.

[...]

“Us[ing] masks consistently” and following other social distancing measures like avoiding crowds, hand washing and being in well-ventilated spaces is “extremely important, even if you’re vaccinated,” Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products, said, warning, “Vaccine alone won’t stop the community transmission.”

I have a sick feeling that we declared victory too early. It's just becoming summer too. I don't think we have a clear picture as to what's going to happen later in the year.

Of course the CCP-controlled WHO is saying this, they have no credibility. The Chinese vaccine has been an embarrassing failure, and now they're trying to convince the rest of the world that our vaccines are too. Luckily I think the United States will largely ignore this.

Yes, lets just ignore the fact that the Delta variant is spreading to vaccinated people just so you can pretend you haven't been brainwashed by Trump cultists and Fox News.

Hey BlueAnoner, stop spreading misinformation. It's like you idiots want to be locked down forever. I'm normally a moderate, but I've run out of patience with liberals and their restrictions.

At this point, any American who wants a vaccine has been able to get it for months. They are extremely effective, even against "muh scary variants". It's why I hate the media. They're losing views and clicks without Trump, so they try to gin up fear of COVID (despite it clearly being on its way out in the US) to keep up their ratings.

I have noticed that the media has paid an extensive amount of attention to the Delta variant, and much of their reporting remains sensationalist, as it has been throughout the pandemic. However, even many journalists seem ready to move forward.

The article with the shock headline over Israel's numbers is a good example of this, and I've been trying to get my pandemic news through scientific sources and journals for this very reason.

[Frodo]

We may not need a third booster shot after all:

[Interlocutor is just not there yet]

WHO Urges Fully Vaccinated People To Continue Wearing Masks As Delta Variant Spreads—But No Word From CDC

World Health Organization (WHO) officials stressed Friday the need for fully vaccinated people to “continue to be appropriately cautious” and keep up with social distancing measures like mask wearing as the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus becomes increasingly dominant in the U.S. and spurs new Covid-19 surges around the world—including in highly vaccinated countries.

[...]

“Us[ing] masks consistently” and following other social distancing measures like avoiding crowds, hand washing and being in well-ventilated spaces is “extremely important, even if you’re vaccinated,” Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products, said, warning, “Vaccine alone won’t stop the community transmission.”

I have a sick feeling that we declared victory too early. It's just becoming summer too. I don't think we have a clear picture as to what's going to happen later in the year.

I still wear a mask when I go places.

I stopped wearing it at work though, even though most of my coworkers are not only unvaccinated but anti-vaccination :/

Interestingly enough, I have a coworker who is still wearing a mask, even though she's fully vaccinated. When I asked her why, she told me that she still does so because she doesn't trust many of the other people in our workplace, who claim to be vaccinated but who are lying and actually aren't.

I believe you mentioned before that you live in a very Republican county. Do you mind me asking which county you live in?

Tons of people I know, including my mom, still wear a mask after vaccination while inside. She doesn’t seem to have a concrete reason, but you do you I guess, it can’t hurt.

It is everyone's choice. I do recall seeing a poll somewhere about a week or two ago saying that a majority of Biden voters are still wearing a mask in public, whereas the majority of Trump voters are no longer doing so. And there is this poll from Axios-Ipsos, stating that 92% of Democrats are very or somewhat concerned about the new Delta variant, along with 73% of independents, while only 50% of Republicans say the same. So there continues to be a massive partisan divide with regards to coronavirus precautions and the pandemic itself.

It's been exactly 3 months since I've been vaccinated and 2 weeks since California got rid of the mask mandates. I haven't let up at all on the mask wearing at all & there's still a good chunk of people wearing them indoors. Putting the mask on is basically habit for me now.

Though I don't blame folks for not wearing a mask anymore. I'm fine with that as long as folks don't rake me to the coals and call me an idiot for still wearing a mask.

[Inmate Trump]

WHO Urges Fully Vaccinated People To Continue Wearing Masks As Delta Variant Spreads—But No Word From CDC

World Health Organization (WHO) officials stressed Friday the need for fully vaccinated people to “continue to be appropriately cautious” and keep up with social distancing measures like mask wearing as the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus becomes increasingly dominant in the U.S. and spurs new Covid-19 surges around the world—including in highly vaccinated countries.

[...]

“Us[ing] masks consistently” and following other social distancing measures like avoiding crowds, hand washing and being in well-ventilated spaces is “extremely important, even if you’re vaccinated,” Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products, said, warning, “Vaccine alone won’t stop the community transmission.”

I have a sick feeling that we declared victory too early. It's just becoming summer too. I don't think we have a clear picture as to what's going to happen later in the year.

I still wear a mask when I go places.

I stopped wearing it at work though, even though most of my coworkers are not only unvaccinated but anti-vaccination :/

Interestingly enough, I have a coworker who is still wearing a mask, even though she's fully vaccinated. When I asked her why, she told me that she still does so because she doesn't trust many of the other people in our workplace, who claim to be vaccinated but who are lying and actually aren't.

I believe you mentioned before that you live in a very Republican county. Do you mind me asking which county you live in?

Dawson, but I work in Forsyth.  Very Republican and pro-Trump areas.  Forsyth is remarkably better than Dawson (both in terms of politics and vaccination) but still very Republican.

[GeorgiaModerate]

WHO Urges Fully Vaccinated People To Continue Wearing Masks As Delta Variant Spreads—But No Word From CDC

World Health Organization (WHO) officials stressed Friday the need for fully vaccinated people to “continue to be appropriately cautious” and keep up with social distancing measures like mask wearing as the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus becomes increasingly dominant in the U.S. and spurs new Covid-19 surges around the world—including in highly vaccinated countries.

[...]

“Us[ing] masks consistently” and following other social distancing measures like avoiding crowds, hand washing and being in well-ventilated spaces is “extremely important, even if you’re vaccinated,” Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products, said, warning, “Vaccine alone won’t stop the community transmission.”

I have a sick feeling that we declared victory too early. It's just becoming summer too. I don't think we have a clear picture as to what's going to happen later in the year.

I still wear a mask when I go places.

I stopped wearing it at work though, even though most of my coworkers are not only unvaccinated but anti-vaccination :/

Interestingly enough, I have a coworker who is still wearing a mask, even though she's fully vaccinated. When I asked her why, she told me that she still does so because she doesn't trust many of the other people in our workplace, who claim to be vaccinated but who are lying and actually aren't.

I believe you mentioned before that you live in a very Republican county. Do you mind me asking which county you live in?

Dawson, but I work in Forsyth.  Very Republican and pro-Trump areas.  Forsyth is remarkably better than Dawson (both in terms of politics and vaccination) but still very Republican.

I live in northwestern Forsyth and worked in north Fulton until the pandemic hit, and I agree with all of these statements.  What's interesting to me is how much things have changed politically/culturally since I moved to Forsyth in the early 2000's, as metro Atlanta spreads ever northwards.  Dawson now is what Forsyth used to be, while Forsyth (especially the southern part) is what Roswell and Alpharetta used to be. 

[GeorgiaModerate]

If anyone is still vaccine hesitant, consider this:

https://twitter.com/StevenTDennis/status/1409955273465344004

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

If anyone is still vaccine hesitant, consider this:

https://twitter.com/StevenTDennis/status/1409955273465344004

It's a weird pattern that in most of the stats I've seen recently, vaccinated people account for a much higher % of covid deaths than covid cases.   Whereas during the first several months of the year, everything we heard about vaccines suggested they prevented deaths much more effectively than infection itself.  So what's going on here?

[DINGO Joe]

If anyone is still vaccine hesitant, consider this:

https://twitter.com/StevenTDennis/status/1409955273465344004

It's a weird pattern that in most of the stats I've seen recently, vaccinated people account for a much higher % of covid deaths than covid cases.   Whereas during the first several months of the year, everything we heard about vaccines suggested they prevented deaths much more effectively than infection itself.  So what's going on here?

Because the unvaccinated skew younger.  I'd be willing to bet if you controlled for age that the vaccinated survive better than the unvaxxed.

[MATTROSE94]

If anyone is still vaccine hesitant, consider this:

https://twitter.com/StevenTDennis/status/1409955273465344004

It's a weird pattern that in most of the stats I've seen recently, vaccinated people account for a much higher % of covid deaths than covid cases.   Whereas during the first several months of the year, everything we heard about vaccines suggested they prevented deaths much more effectively than infection itself.  So what's going on here?

The vaccines seem to be somewhat less effective than originally thought, but are still 100% worth it to get. That’s why we need both vaccines, strict mask mandates, and strict public health measures to reduce COVID cases.

[MATTROSE94]

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/560871-cdc-director-vaccinated-people-safe-from-delta-variant-do-not-need-to-wear

Another galaxy brained move on the part of the CDC. The US needs to implement a National mask mandate and in prison any person who does not wear a mask. Ideally, the US should also deny medical care to individuals who do not wear masks.

[DaleCooper]

I wore my masks everywhere indoors and in crowds up until 14 days after I got my second dose of the vaccine. I did everything right, and I'm done now. I was always patient with the common-sense restrictions and I still have no patience with the conspiracy kooks and anti-vax people, but I'm growing equally impatient with those that are pretending that masking up and social distancing are tenable ways of life even now that we have the vaccine. In fact, I just saw another article from the New York Times about how we need masks again, and judging from nearly everything I've been hearing from liberal outlets, I'm thoroughly convinced that their goal is to endure COVID restrictions indefinitely. When does it end if not with the 99% effective vaccines that have time and again been proven to be mostly effective against all the variants?

[Calthrina950]

I wore my masks everywhere indoors and in crowds up until 14 days after I got my second dose of the vaccine. I did everything right, and I'm done now. I was always patient with the common-sense restrictions and I still have no patience with the conspiracy kooks and anti-vax people, but I'm growing equally impatient with those that are pretending that masking up and social distancing are tenable ways of life even now that we have the vaccine. In fact, I just saw another article from the New York Times about how we need masks again, and judging from nearly everything I've been hearing from liberal outlets, I'm thoroughly convinced that their goal is to endure COVID restrictions indefinitely. When does it end if not with the 99% effective vaccines that have time and again been proven to be mostly effective against all the variants?

As I've mentioned on here before, I've now been required to wear a mask at home, despite being fully vaccinated. My family is far more concerned about the new Delta variant than I am, and seem to believe that we're going to experience a resurgence. What's frustrating to me is that my father-who imposed this masking requirement-still hasn't gotten his vaccine. He's said it's because of underlying conditions he has, but I don't fully understand.

[emailking]

Is it just around them they make you mask? You don't have to wear it in your room I hope.

[jamestroll]

I am very glad its an election year in Virginia. Highly unlikely a new mask mandate will occur. Let alone any closed businesses or schools.

[soundchaser]

I'm inclined to trust the director of the CDC. Happy to hear she doesn't think there's anything to justify a serious change in policy yet.

[Calthrina950]

Is it just around them they make you mask? You don't have to wear it in your room I hope.

No, not in my room. But my stepmother reiterated to me what my father wants me to do this morning, and it's just compounding other issues I'm already facing. If he had gotten his vaccine by now, this probably wouldn't be an issue. And I still find it ironic, given that early in the pandemic, I was the one who was panicked, and he told me that I was overreacting and needed to calm down. Moreover, as I've said before, he is a two-time Trump voter, so that makes his views on this even more strange.

[DaleCooper]

Is it just around them they make you mask? You don't have to wear it in your room I hope.

No, not in my room. But my stepmother reiterated to me what my father wants me to do this morning, and it's just compounding other issues I'm already facing. If he had gotten his vaccine by now, this probably wouldn't be an issue. And I still find it ironic, given that early in the pandemic, I was the one who was panicked, and he told me that I was overreacting and needed to calm down. Moreover, as I've said before, he is a two-time Trump voter, so that makes his views on this even more strange.

This is interesting, because I was also extremely panicked early on and much more so than anyone around me. In fact, for a few weeks I was ordering all my groceries delivered and everything, but after a month or two I became more relaxed and felt comfortable following the guidance of the CDC. Now, because I'm still following the experts' advice, I've become far less worried than a lot of my liberal peers, who genuinely seem disturbed that we're improving and are able to get back to normal. I've yet to see anyone other than liberal pundits claim that we need to revert back to lockdowns and mask mandates.

[It’s so Joever]

So using the same method I did with deaths, I looked at hospitalizations in the UK due to delta, and yielded an estimated 88% efficacy rate against hospitalizations in the general population.
I also did a similar process with new cases from Mesa County, Colorado. A county with a large delta outbreak and found an overall infection prevention efficacy of 83%.
These are very crude numbers and are based on small figures and should not be taken as scientific evidence, but they do show the vaccines still work against delta, even if less than alpha (although still likely more than beta)

Sources for numbers:
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-06-18/delta-variant-makes-up-nearly-all-new-uk-coronavirus-cases


https://infogram.com/1p6lpe9dpmr9lru5eqq1gkk2rzu3qmgpljq
(This one doesn’t show change, so I did the subtractions manually because otherwise it would be data going back to January)


Preliminary results from Moderna (although that’s a different vaccine) also would support these findings, as there was a reduction in antibodies against delta, but not nearly as much as with beta and not enough to prevent efficacy.

[soundchaser]

So, essentially (and correct me if I'm misunderstanding your conclusions here), you suspect vaccinated people are at less of a risk from the delta variant than we were from the beta? (As you say: recognizing that this is not exactly peer-reviewed science.) That sounds in line with Walensky's remarks from earlier today.

[Hammy]

Got my first shot today, been having bad anxiety though (but this preceded even my going to bed)

[It’s so Joever]

So, essentially (and correct me if I'm misunderstanding your conclusions here), you suspect vaccinated people are at less of a risk from the delta variant than we were from the beta? (As you say: recognizing that this is not exactly peer-reviewed science.) That sounds in line with Walensky's remarks from earlier today.

Yes, although beta never really took off in the first place like alpha did (and like delta is)