COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Right now the graph of new cases in Britain is pretty much a vertical line downward.

[beaver2.0]

I am curious to know at this point what the endgame is.  Maybe I am wrong, but it seems to me like there are no populations left that are planning on getting the vaccine en masse but have not yet done so.  I’m sure the percentage of people vaccinated will continue to rise, but not quickly.  I imagine that, sans large-scale mandates, there is going to be a large population (30%) that remains unvaccinated.  Won’t the virus stay in this pool of people and continue to mutate?

I also wonder at the efficacy of a new mask mandate.  Given that many of the unvaccinated people the mandate ostensibly exists to protect are likely to go maskless, how effective will it be if most of the people wearing masks are already vaccinated?

This is not meant to start an argument, just some musings.

[politicallefty]

Yeah, I think I'm done with this topic. This is legitimately the stupid country and there will be a price to pay for that. It's clear that some on the so-called left are just as bad as those on the right. Wearing a f-cking mask in a grocery store isn't harming anyone. Vaccines and masks together have the potential to crush this virus, but so many want to relinquish some of our best tools. What's going to start happening is that a significant part of the population is going to start staying home again because they're legitimately freaked out. It may be that the Delta variant isn't enough to send vaccinated people to the hospital for the most part, but allowing this virus to run rampant across the population is both reckless and dangerous.

The left including probably a majority of the thread want vaccine mandates. The right does not. So stop saying they are the same. And quit blaming vaccinated folks for allowing this virus to run rampant when the transmission is from unvaccinated folks.

As I said, I was going to try to avoid this topic, but the new CDC recommendations brought me back and I feel the need to respond. I was noting people like Bandit that seem to be celebrating that some states are prohibiting mask mandates in schools when people under 12 aren't even eligible to be vaccinated yet. I don't even know what to say to that. I would be afraid to send my <12 year old to school in one of those states. I want to schools to be open, but safely. That means masks and socially distancing for K-12, as the CDC now recommends. (I'm also supportive of vaccine passports, as I have been for a very long time. Those that aren't vaccinated should be prohibited from most societal functions.)

I'm not blaming the vaccinated. I am part of the majority on that. It's been three months to the day since I got my second dose and I'm glad. Otherwise I wouldn't have gone out to eat recently. But the day the CDC said that masks weren't necessary for the vaccinated changed everything. I was in a Walmart in early May and it was nearly 100% masking. One month later it was about 20%. The vaccination rate was certainly not 80%. Those of us that are vaccinated still have to take some precautions. No more lockdowns. Just masks and basic social distancing in places with strangers. The danger isn't just the Delta variant, it's what it might mutate into with enough exposure.

[Hammy]

Right now the graph of new cases in Britain is pretty much a vertical line downward.

What's interesting there as well is the expected dramatic rise in deaths never materialized. The fact that you have nearly half the population (possibly more than that in the UK) vaccinated is vastly reducing the viral load that even the unvaccinated are exposed to.

[emailking]

Biden will announce vaccination requirement across federal government on Thursday

President Joe Biden will announce on Thursday a requirement that all federal employees and contractors be vaccinated against Covid-19, or be required to submit to regular testing and mitigation requirements, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

The announcement will come in remarks where Biden is also expected to lay out a series of new steps, including incentives, in an attempt to spur new vaccinations as the Delta variant spreads rapidly throughout the country. It will also follow the decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs to require its frontline health care workers to be vaccinated over the course of the next two months.

Biden alluded to the looming announcement on Tuesday.

"That's under consideration right now," Biden said, when asked if he would impose a vaccination mandate on federal workers.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/27/politics/vaccine-mandate-for-federal-employees-under-consideration/index.html

[Roll Roons]

Biden will announce vaccination requirement across federal government on Thursday

President Joe Biden will announce on Thursday a requirement that all federal employees and contractors be vaccinated against Covid-19, or be required to submit to regular testing and mitigation requirements, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

The announcement will come in remarks where Biden is also expected to lay out a series of new steps, including incentives, in an attempt to spur new vaccinations as the Delta variant spreads rapidly throughout the country. It will also follow the decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs to require its frontline health care workers to be vaccinated over the course of the next two months.

Biden alluded to the looming announcement on Tuesday.

"That's under consideration right now," Biden said, when asked if he would impose a vaccination mandate on federal workers.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/27/politics/vaccine-mandate-for-federal-employees-under-consideration/index.html

Good. With this, hopefully Pelosi wises up and reopens the Capitol.

[Hammy]

Biden will announce vaccination requirement across federal government on Thursday

President Joe Biden will announce on Thursday a requirement that all federal employees and contractors be vaccinated against Covid-19, or be required to submit to regular testing and mitigation requirements, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

The announcement will come in remarks where Biden is also expected to lay out a series of new steps, including incentives, in an attempt to spur new vaccinations as the Delta variant spreads rapidly throughout the country. It will also follow the decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs to require its frontline health care workers to be vaccinated over the course of the next two months.

Biden alluded to the looming announcement on Tuesday.

"That's under consideration right now," Biden said, when asked if he would impose a vaccination mandate on federal workers.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/27/politics/vaccine-mandate-for-federal-employees-under-consideration/index.html

Good. With this, hopefully Pelosi wises up and reopens the Capitol.

I still suspect the capitol being closed is related to Jan 6, even if they're using covid as the public excuse.

[It’s so Joever]

Right now the graph of new cases in Britain is pretty much a vertical line downward.

Correct.
The same thing kinda happened in India but to a greater degree because they aren’t vaccinated.

Could this be a characteristic of Delta itself, or is it just that we aren’t bothering to flatten the curve anymore? Hard to say.

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/kylieatwood/status/1420127149235834887

[Calthrina950]

https://twitter.com/kylieatwood/status/1420127149235834887

Perhaps this might finally push my father to get vaccinated. He works for an Army Education Center at the federal courthouse up in Denver, and still hasn't gotten the vaccine.

[The Undefeatable Debbie Stabenow]

Continually cycling between masking/lockdowns and no masking/lockdowns is not a tenable way of addressing the pandemic. Those who are primarily responsible for COVID transmission (i.e. the unvaccinated) won't adhere to social distancing and masking impositions nearly as much as those who aren't primarily responsible (i.e. the vaccinated), and compliance among both groups undoubtedly decreases with every passing day as the beginning of the pandemic gets further behind us.

With less than half of the American population fully vaccinated and the vaccination rate plateauing, I have no reason to believe that we will ever keep COVID below its current prevalence for long; it will be endemic à la influenza for the forseeable future, maybe forever. A nationwide vaccine mandate, or something close to it, is very obviously the only longterm solution, but it goes without saying that this will never be realized. Until there's a drastic uptick in the vaccination rate, we will forever be stuck in this purgatory, and it's painfully evident at this point that we're not gonna get that uptick with the carrot; if we're serious about mitigating COVID, we need to turn to the stick.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I am curious to know at this point what the endgame is.  Maybe I am wrong, but it seems to me like there are no populations left that are planning on getting the vaccine en masse but have not yet done so.  I’m sure the percentage of people vaccinated will continue to rise, but not quickly.  I imagine that, sans large-scale mandates, there is going to be a large population (30%) that remains unvaccinated.  Won’t the virus stay in this pool of people and continue to mutate?

Broadly speaking, the endgames seem to be that either we mandate vaccinations (save for those for whom they are truly medically contraindicated - which should go without saying, but Republicultists) and take other appropriate precautions until we sunset this thing, or a whole lot more people die.

[Former Dean Phillips Supporters for Haley (I guess???!?) 👁️]

Redundant precautions prevent calamities.

There was no redundancy at Chernobyl.

Excellent post. People should pay more attention to this.

Unfortunately, human beings systematically underestimate the risk of large scale disaster from low probability events.

This is one of the major flaws in how human beings naturally think, and has been repeated many times throughout history.

Ideally we could learn from history, but if there is one lesson we can learn from history, it is that human beings do not learn from history.

[Calthrina950]

Redundant precautions prevent calamities.

There was no redundancy at Chernobyl.

Excellent post. People should pay more attention to this.

Unfortunately, human beings systematically underestimate the risk of large scale disaster from low probability events.

This is one of the major flaws in how human beings naturally think, and has been repeated many times throughout history.

Ideally we could learn from history, but if there is one lesson we can learn from history, it is that human beings do not learn from history.

Are you saying that reimposing mask mandates is a good idea?

[The Free North]

https://twitter.com/AndySwan/status/1420131409646264334

[ProudModerate2]

New evidence shows Trump appointees' political interference with CDC weekly Covid data reports, House subcommittee says.

A Democratic-led House select committee says it has uncovered evidence of political interference by the Trump administration into the federal government's coronavirus response last year, including attempts to alter or block data reports from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention detailing the dire effects of the virus.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/27/politics/house-covid-committee-trump-administration-cdc-data-reports/index.html

[HAnnA MArin County]

When do you plan to stop wearing a mask and socially distancing?

Social distancing was my life even before the pandemic began, as I’m naturally an introvert and hate being around large groups of people. I probably do have some sort of social anxiety disorder, but I've learned to live with it. It's one of the many reasons why I work nights as well (limited interactions with people).

I’ll stop wearing a mask when we have this thing under control. I really don’t understand what is so offensive to some of the blue avatars on here about wearing a mask when you go out. You’re protecting yourself by doing so, and isn’t that the only thing righties care about (themselves)? Well, that and money, “but I digress.”

You know if COVID only affected fetuses, the same snowflakes triggered by mask mandates would be doing everything in their power to regulate the zygotes. "My body, my choice."

Would you be following every order if it was Red Team telling you to do so?

Same Red Team whose maniacal messiah suggested injecting ourselves with bleach to “disinfect” the virus? Same Red Team whose propagandists on Faux Noise pushed hydroxychloroquine as a treatment? Same Red Team who to this day still espouses the Big Lie? Same Red Team who’s trying to whitewash the January 6 insurrection as a “tour” of “peaceful” something something Antifa? Yeah, I think I’m good with not doing anything that Red Team orders. (Unless you mean Atlas Red Team… )

[Hammy]

I’ll stop wearing a mask when we have this thing under control. I really don’t understand what is so offensive to some of the blue avatars on here about wearing a mask when you go out. You’re protecting yourself by doing so, and isn’t that the only thing righties care about (themselves)?

I will preempt this with the fact that I am speaking only for the vaccinated.

Most people, regardless of party at this point, are opposed to mask mandates. Constantly wearing a mask is uncomfortable, especially when it starts getting warm and humid. I have terrible anxiety which leads me to wear one if I'm out, purely to remove the endless, irrational, intrusive 'what if' from my conscious (plus the air quality has been downright awful here lately so I've also been wearing them when stepping outside)--but it still worsens eczema that I have around my nose.

A large percentage of people who received vaccinations did so in order to bring some normalcy to their life. I maintain that suddenly mandating masks for the vaccinated again for the vaccinated--especially as the unvaccinated will continue to ignore them--will do nothing but result in reduced vaccination rates and further spread of COVID, far beyond what we're already seeing.

The overwhelming majority of people are not going to do something when told it will allow them to avoid doing something they don't enjoy, only to be told they must do it anyway.

[Calthrina950]

I’ll stop wearing a mask when we have this thing under control. I really don’t understand what is so offensive to some of the blue avatars on here about wearing a mask when you go out. You’re protecting yourself by doing so, and isn’t that the only thing righties care about (themselves)?

I will preempt this with the fact that I am speaking only for the vaccinated.

Most people, regardless of party at this point, are opposed to mask mandates. Constantly wearing a mask is uncomfortable, especially when it starts getting warm and humid. I have terrible anxiety which leads me to wear one if I'm out, purely to remove the endless, irrational, intrusive 'what if' from my conscious (plus the air quality has been downright awful here lately so I've also been wearing them when stepping outside)--but it still worsens eczema that I have around my nose.

A large percentage of people who received vaccinations did so in order to bring some normalcy to their life. I maintain that suddenly mandating masks for the vaccinated again for the vaccinated--especially as the unvaccinated will continue to ignore them--will do nothing but result in reduced vaccination rates and further spread of COVID, far beyond what we're already seeing.

The overwhelming majority of people are not going to do something when told it will allow them to avoid doing something they don't enjoy, only to be told they must do it anyway.

I fully agree with everything here. As I've said elsewhere, I have no intentions of resuming mask-wearing unless if I'm compelled to by my job.

[Badger]

New evidence shows Trump appointees' political interference with CDC weekly Covid data reports, House subcommittee says.

A Democratic-led House select committee says it has uncovered evidence of political interference by the Trump administration into the federal government's coronavirus response last year, including attempts to alter or block data reports from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention detailing the dire effects of the virus.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/27/politics/house-covid-committee-trump-administration-cdc-data-reports/index.html

Shocking.

[KaiserDave]

When do you plan to stop wearing a mask and socially distancing?

Social distancing was my life even before the pandemic began, as I’m naturally an introvert and hate being around large groups of people. I probably do have some sort of social anxiety disorder, but I've learned to live with it. It's one of the many reasons why I work nights as well (limited interactions with people).

I’ll stop wearing a mask when we have this thing under control. I really don’t understand what is so offensive to some of the blue avatars on here about wearing a mask when you go out. You’re protecting yourself by doing so, and isn’t that the only thing righties care about (themselves)? Well, that and money, “but I digress.”

You know if COVID only affected fetuses, the same snowflakes triggered by mask mandates would be doing everything in their power to regulate the zygotes. "My body, my choice."

Would you be following every order if it was Red Team telling you to do so?

Same Red Team whose maniacal messiah suggested injecting ourselves with bleach to “disinfect” the virus? Same Red Team whose propagandists on Faux Noise pushed hydroxychloroquine as a treatment? Same Red Team who to this day still espouses the Big Lie? Same Red Team who’s trying to whitewash the January 6 insurrection as a “tour” of “peaceful” something something Antifa? Yeah, I think I’m good with not doing anything that Red Team orders. (Unless you mean Atlas Red Team… )

40% of this post is bilge, and 40% is just objectively false information

[emailking]

Pfizer data suggest third dose of Covid-19 vaccine 'strongly' boosts protection against Delta variant

A third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine can "strongly" boost protection against the Delta variant -- beyond the protection afforded by the standard two doses, suggests new data released by Pfizer on Wednesday.

The data posted online, which are expected to be discussed in a company earnings call on Wednesday morning, suggest that antibody levels against the Delta variant in people ages 18 to 55 who receive a third dose of vaccine are greater than five-fold than following a second dose.

Among people ages 65 to 85, the Pfizer data suggest that antibody levels against the Delta variant after receiving a third dose of vaccine are greater than 11-fold than following a second dose.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/28/health/pfizer-third-dose-data-bn/index.html

[Calthrina950]

Pfizer data suggest third dose of Covid-19 vaccine 'strongly' boosts protection against Delta variant

A third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine can "strongly" boost protection against the Delta variant -- beyond the protection afforded by the standard two doses, suggests new data released by Pfizer on Wednesday.

The data posted online, which are expected to be discussed in a company earnings call on Wednesday morning, suggest that antibody levels against the Delta variant in people ages 18 to 55 who receive a third dose of vaccine are greater than five-fold than following a second dose.

Among people ages 65 to 85, the Pfizer data suggest that antibody levels against the Delta variant after receiving a third dose of vaccine are greater than 11-fold than following a second dose.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/28/health/pfizer-third-dose-data-bn/index.html

Booster shots are on the way, it seems. I'm not sure how much success they are going to have given that vaccination rates for the two shots we have already have plateaued, and given that the unvaccinated segment of our population seems to be unshakable at this point.

[Fargobison]

The latest surge seems to be peaking in a few states...

https://twitter.com/ScottGottliebMD/status/1420398811080503296

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

This new CDC guidance and the all the places that are reimplementing masks mandates for vaccinated people are absolute disaters for the vaccine effort. 

If everyone agree that the problem entirely likes with unvaccinated people, why would you change policy in a way that specifically harms only the vaccinated??? 

Why not just enforce the mandates we already have for the unvaccinated?

This is insane.