COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[jamestroll]

The CDC made another change to their guidance indicating that vaccinated people should get tested upon exposure, even if not showing symptoms. It's clear that the CDC now acknowledges at least one of the following is true: that either breakthrough infections are not rare events and more common than previously acknowledged, or vaccinated people can be contagious just like unvaccinated, or both.

So Democrats and others who take the virus seriously, if you refuse to put on a mask now, you're both endangering yourself and endangering others like the unvaccinated plague rats. Do the right thing. Wear a mask.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/health/cdc-covid-testing-vaccine.html

In addition to revising its mask guidance on Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also quietly updated its testing recommendations for people who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The agency now advises that vaccinated people be tested for the virus if they come into contact with someone with Covid-19, even if they have no symptoms. Previously, the health agency had said that fully vaccinated people did not need to be tested after exposure to the virus unless they were experiencing symptoms.

“Our updated guidance recommends vaccinated people get tested upon exposure regardless of symptoms,” Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the agency’s director, said in an email to The New York Times. “Testing is widely available.”

Fully vaccinated people should wear a mask in public indoor spaces after exposure, the agency said. Three to five days later, they should be tested for the virus.

Stop putting public distrust in the vaccine! You are just making it worse.

"When I ran for President, I promised to be straight with you about COVID—good news or bad. And I promised to follow the science."

-Statement by President Joe Biden on CDC Guidance, 7/27/2021

Well said, Mr. President. The recent developments on COVID are unfavorable for the vaccine and bad for everyone, no doubt about it, but we need to know the facts and downplaying it or outright covering it up is a sure way to get an even worse result. Do you really want to return to the days of "We have it totally under control", "You have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero", "Anyone that wants a test can get a test", and "The risk is low to the average American"?

If the vaccine wasn't working why are all the covid hot spots in largely unvaccinated jurisdictions?

I never said vaccines don't work. 80% efficacy or whatever it is now is still much better than 0%. However, the prior messaging convinced many, including most on this forum, that the vaccine is an impenetrable COVID-repelling force field that would allow one to do anything safely with no protection. This was never true, but while in May it could be classified as a mild exaggeration, now with the Delta variant it is outright false and a dangerous lie. I applaud Joe Biden for having the courage to risk political blowback in order to do the right thing and allowing the CDC to amend the guidance.

I also never called for closing businesses or bringing back social distancing restrictions. Those cause economic damage while masks cause zero economic damage. You can go back through my posts in this forum, in May I called for removing the social distancing restrictions while retaining the mask mandate. Social distancing is absolutely not sustainable for long periods of time while masking should be.

One study that has Pfizer at 80%. Guess what? It is one study. Guess what, it still is an amazingly effective vaccine. Guess what? We could well have boosters for it. It was incredible we could develop such an amazing vaccine in less than a year against such a viral virus.  We may need a booster shot next year. We may need to have boosters every two to three years. But this is not the flu, coronaviruses can not mutate to the point of rendering a vaccine useless in less than a year. It will be evey two or three years after the third booster we need a new booster.

I have stated 100 times i am not against masks but I am against mask mandates due to the political fall back. Would you like to see Youngkin as Governor of Virginia who would roll back mask mandates anyway? Would you like to see Murphy face an surprisingly close race?

Problem with mask mandates is people will not wear them correctly. When worn correctly, masks are also highly effective but less effective than the present vaccines we have!

Electing Democrats is more important to me than public health. Especially since we have vaccines now.

[jamestroll]

The CDC made another change to their guidance indicating that vaccinated people should get tested upon exposure, even if not showing symptoms. It's clear that the CDC now acknowledges at least one of the following is true: that either breakthrough infections are not rare events and more common than previously acknowledged, or vaccinated people can be contagious just like unvaccinated, or both.

So Democrats and others who take the virus seriously, if you refuse to put on a mask now, you're both endangering yourself and endangering others like the unvaccinated plague rats. Do the right thing. Wear a mask.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/health/cdc-covid-testing-vaccine.html

In addition to revising its mask guidance on Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also quietly updated its testing recommendations for people who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The agency now advises that vaccinated people be tested for the virus if they come into contact with someone with Covid-19, even if they have no symptoms. Previously, the health agency had said that fully vaccinated people did not need to be tested after exposure to the virus unless they were experiencing symptoms.

“Our updated guidance recommends vaccinated people get tested upon exposure regardless of symptoms,” Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the agency’s director, said in an email to The New York Times. “Testing is widely available.”

Fully vaccinated people should wear a mask in public indoor spaces after exposure, the agency said. Three to five days later, they should be tested for the virus.

Stop putting public distrust in the vaccine! You are just making it worse.

"When I ran for President, I promised to be straight with you about COVID—good news or bad. And I promised to follow the science."

-Statement by President Joe Biden on CDC Guidance, 7/27/2021

Well said, Mr. President. The recent developments on COVID are unfavorable for the vaccine and bad for everyone, no doubt about it, but we need to know the facts and downplaying it or outright covering it up is a sure way to get an even worse result. Do you really want to return to the days of "We have it totally under control", "You have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero", "Anyone that wants a test can get a test", and "The risk is low to the average American"?

How about what the left said.. such as

"Shut down until covid zero" - which is logistically impossible.

"CHECK YOUR TEMPERATURE!! BEFORE ENTERING PUBLIC PLACE" - which is useless.. literally literally useless.

"Close all outdoor parks to prevent the spread of the virus" - When it was obvious early on outdoor transmission was extremely rare and pushed more people indoors.

"close all non-essential businesses" - which pushed people into target and walmart and caused crowds there.

"J&J must be paused due to a 1 in million chance of a "blood clot"".

The left culture has demonized masks and now are demonizing vaccines for not being 100% perfect. Are you a teacher or something who does not want to go back to the classroom?

[GeneralMacArthur]

Man I am so sick of the gaslighting about "here's what the left said."

Like this wasn't even a year ago.  At least wait a few years if you're going to lie to my face about events I still remember vividly.

You know what doesn't get talked about enough?  What the right was saying.
"COVID is a hoax."
"Fauci should be in prison."
"COVID will go away on its own and we don't need to do anything."
"The Democrats are exaggerating the COVID threat."
"Wearing a mask means you're a bitch."
"We're not shutting anything down."
"Old people are going to die anyway."
"It's ok for everyone to get COVID, 2% isn't really that many deaths."
"Hydroxychloroquine cures COVID."
"Drinking bleach cures COVID."
"Eating dog poop cures COVID but the science cabal is hiding it from you."
etc.

Like we're still seeing this today.  Right-wingers still refuse to wear masks.  Right-wingers are still attacking Fauci.  Right-wingers are still refusing to get vaccinated and relying on hoax miracle cures.  Right-wing politicians are still refusing to take COVID seriously and encouraging dangerous behavior.  Right-wingers are still trying to downplay COVID and pretend all the death and misery is actually ok, as justification for their other atrocious COVID behavior.

[jamestroll]

Man I am so sick of the gaslighting about "here's what the left said."

Like this wasn't even a year ago.  At least wait a few years if you're going to lie to my face about events I still remember vividly.

You know what doesn't get talked about enough?  What the right was saying.
"COVID is a hoax."
"Fauci should be in prison."
"The Democrats are exaggerating the COVID threat."
"Wearing a mask means you're a bitch."
"We're not shutting anything down."
"Hydroxychloroquine cures COVID."
etc.

Guess what.. only on Atlas would an entire forum be against someone like me just because I am telling the truth about the covid situation... a guy who still wears a mask and before getting vaccine practiced all mitigation measures and checked daily on number of cases and deaths in horror.

I will not stand for bullied just because I have slightly different position on covid compared to most of this site.

The covid debate feeds off of each other.  We live in an immoral that put us in this situation. The business owners who had to close down their businesses due to covid are not the same as the anti mask protesters.

[jamestroll]

Johnson and Johnson was paused for an absurd reason.

I am not the same as the people who are attacking fauci, refusing to wear masks, refusing to be vaccinated, saying to drink bleach to cure covid.

[LabourJersey]

Washington DC is bringing back its mask mandate for indoor spaces.

Personally it strikes me as kind of an over-reaction given the low case levels (8 cases per 100,000 residents has been our average in DC), but it does seem that the racial gap in young Washington residents when it comes to vaccine is a concern (much fewer black teens/young people are vaccinated compared to their white peers).

However given the quick declines in cases we saw in India and the UK, plus given the very high vaccination rate in DC (I think 70% of adults here are vaccinated) I don't see this mandate lasting. Not to mention there's plenty of apathy and annoyance at this rule, which isn't too surprising.

[jamestroll]

Washington DC is bringing back its mask mandate for indoor spaces.

Personally it strikes me as kind of an over-reaction given the low case levels (8 cases per 100,000 residents has been our average in DC), but it does seem that the racial gap in young Washington residents when it comes to vaccine is a concern (much fewer black teens/young people are vaccinated compared to their white peers).

However given the quick declines in cases we saw in India and the UK, plus given the very high vaccination rate in DC (I think 70% of adults here are vaccinated) I don't see this mandate lasting. Not to mention there's plenty of apathy and annoyance at this rule, which isn't too surprising.

oh no this is terrible.. it could cause huge backlash in nova and cause Glenn Youngkin to win.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

As far as I'm concerned, the "zero COVID" thought police have forfeited the privilege of being able to say they're on the left.

[jamestroll]

The past year or so people have been arguing with me about covid  and they are arguing with a presently vaccinated and masked individual. I am not part of the problem cause the spread of the virus.

[Horus]

It's fascinating (if incredibly depressing) quite how many liberals have memed themselves into taking what amount to soft anti-vaxxer positions. This thread heaves with that kind of nonsense.

If by "meme" you mean "I want to protect myself and want to know the most accurate current developments so I can adjust my behavior accordingly", then you'd be right. Unlike Trumpists, I'm not interested in sacrificing my own health so the president has a better approval rating.

You keep ignoring the graph I posted.

[Horus]

Johnson and Johnson was paused for an absurd reason.

I am not the same as the people who are attacking fauci, refusing to wear masks, refusing to be vaccinated, saying to drink bleach to cure covid.

No serious person wants a permanent lockdown.
No serious person wants permanent masks.
No serious person believed it was possible to get to COVID Zero.
No serious person on the left was "demonizing masks."

These are lies.  You are a liar.

There are serious people in this thread who want permanent masks. Compucomp literally said he wants masks "in perpetuity." Far as I can tell he's a serious poster (though the praise he's given the CCP in other threads does make me question his agenda)

[ProudModerate2]

Some people in Missouri are getting vaccinated in secret to avoid backlash from loved ones, doctor says.

The Covid-19 vaccine has become so polarizing that some people in Missouri are getting inoculated in secret for fear of backlash from their friends and family who oppose vaccination, a doctor told CNN on Wednesday.

https://us.cnn.com/2021/07/29/health/vaccines-in-secret-missouri/index.html

Can you imagine?
The wacky right has made getting the vaccine so political and toxic in their own families and communities, that some have to literally disguise themselves (clothing), or ask doctors/nurses to go out to the clinic parking lot, to give them a shot.
Good God!

[Hammy]

"J&J must be paused due to a 1 in million chance of a "blood clot"".

The pause was explicitly because J&J did not follow guidelines by listing the clotting as a potential side effect during the approval process, and in fact denied they were happening at all. If you withhold information on side effects (even if there's literally only one occurrence) in order to get faster approval you're going to run into trouble.

If Pfizer for example had not disclosed that it makes your arm sore and gone on a campaign denying it, or even antihistamines denying they make you drowsy, they too would've been paused and needed reapproval once the side effect guidelines were updated.

I never said vaccines don't work. 80% efficacy or whatever it is now is still much better than 0%. However, the prior messaging convinced many, including most on this forum, that the vaccine is an impenetrable COVID-repelling force field that would allow one to do anything safely with no protection. This was never true, but while in May it could be classified as a mild exaggeration, now with the Delta variant it is outright false and a dangerous lie. I applaud Joe Biden for having the courage to risk political blowback in order to do the right thing and allowing the CDC to amend the guidance.

I also never called for closing businesses or bringing back social distancing restrictions. Those cause economic damage while masks cause zero economic damage. You can go back through my posts in this forum, in May I called for removing the social distancing restrictions while retaining the mask mandate. Social distancing is absolutely not sustainable for long periods of time while masking should be.

First, the bold is nothing less than gaslighting. Literally nobody here has ever pretended the vaccines are 100% effective, but people like you are certainly acting like they don't work.

Second, masks are not 'zero cost' because the fact that they are unpleasant is significantly limiting how often and where I'm willing to go--and I'm wearing one on an entirely voluntary basis. Restaurants do not get my businesses, malls will not, places I would've frequented often will only get my business a few times a month, etc. My eczema is also worse than it's ever been (worsened by the fact that I need one to go outdoors at all lately due to poor air quality).

While I'm continuing to wear one purely due to uncontrollable anxiety, if masks are mandated you're going to see tens of millions move vaccinated people like me, who refuse to go to various businesses because it's simply not worth the discomfort.  Not to mention the cloth masks (which most are wearing) have been proven largely ineffective, rendering a mask mandate even more pointless.

[The Dowager Mod]

So I tried (again) to clean up this dumpster fire, I am not kidding when I say some of you will be banned from the thread.

[DabbingSanta]

This entire thread is a dumpster fire.  I just wanna grill, for God's sake.

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/JonLemire/status/1420838681519312897

Glad to see it, but it should have been done earlier.

[Lief 🗽]

https://twitter.com/JonLemire/status/1420838681519312897

Glad to see it, but it should have been done earlier.

Wonderful news, and with a nice side benefit of giving us an excuse to purge thousands of Trump supporters from our beautiful military.

[Dr. MB]

So Democrats and others who take the virus seriously, if you refuse to put on a mask now, you're both endangering yourself and endangering others like the unvaccinated plague rats. Do the right thing. Wear a mask.

don't think i will, thank you for the concern

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

Good lord. Some of you have absolutely lost your minds.

[Dr. MB]

Well, I came back from work about an hour ago, and I can say that nobody has changed their masking habits (as of yet). I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of people ignore the CDC guidance and continue on as before. And it's highly unlikely that there will be any new mask mandates in Colorado at this point.

This is a massive political loss for Democrats, and if it continues into 2022 it will greatly impact their performance in the midterms.  Most people have moved past COVID.  The hysterical people on Atlas or Twitter claiming Republicans are death squads are a very small minority of Americans.  The new masking rules are confusing and aggravating to many.  Why get vaccinated if you still have to mask up?  People are waking up and moving on.

In your dreams (or your Trumpist bubble): a poll from a few weeks ago found that 68% of people reported wearing a mask outside their home, including 77% of vaccinated:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/07/08/mask-wearing-plummets-especially-among-unvaccinated--but-delta-variant-creates-growing-anxiety-about-covid-19-polls-find/?sh=6546d3276b85

The poll also found 68% of respondents said they wore a face mask outside their home in the past week, down from 79% in May.

After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed their guidelines on mask wearing for the fully vaccinated, the share of fully vaccinated Americans who reported wearing masks plunged from 90% in May to 77% in June.

Of course. I don't think there's been a week since the pandemic began where I never wore a mask. I've had to go to the doctor/dentist and still there are plenty of stores/places of public transport where masks are required. But like, anecdotal evidence I know, but ever since Oregon repealed its mandate a month ago mask use where it's not required has been maybe 30 to 40% at the very most, usually lower depending where you go. And this is Portland, one of the biggest liberal bubbles of them all. Wearing a mask occasionally, when required, is something I think most people have done but that doesn't mean we have one on whenever we leave our house.

[Mr. Illini]

If numbers spike (still an if - look at what happened to Delta surges in London and India), it is indeed a massive failure by the Biden administration.

It was pretty clear to most back in the Spring that the solution that made the most sense would be a system that would allow you to identify vaccination status. This way, private and public entities could require vaccination for non-essential activities like going to restaurants, sporting events, etc. I remember people laminating their vaccine cards in anticipation of something like this.

For some reason, the administration decided not to go this route. When they abandoned the idea, I assumed that they knew something I didn't. I'm starting to question that assumption at this point.

Even more mind-boggling, governors and mayors in cities and states like mine decided to follow the administration and abandon the idea despite being progressive areas that would be unlikely to see much resistance to the idea.

[Horus]

If numbers spike (still an if - look at what happened to Delta surges in London and India), it is indeed a massive failure by the Biden administration.

If numbers spike, it's a massive failure by unvaccinated Americans that will by and large only harm other unvaccinated Americans. Nothing to do with the Biden administration.

[Mr. Illini]

If numbers spike (still an if - look at what happened to Delta surges in London and India), it is indeed a massive failure by the Biden administration.

If numbers spike, it's a massive failure by unvaccinated Americans that will by and large only harm other unvaccinated Americans. Nothing to do with the Biden administration.

We don't have to argue about the irresponsibility of certain people. We're on the same page. That includes certain people on TV and other media that have been encouraging those folks.

The point is that there are things that the administration could have done to prevent us from getting to this point that they chose not to do.

[Hammy]

If numbers spike (still an if - look at what happened to Delta surges in London and India), it is indeed a massive failure by the Biden administration.

If numbers spike, it's a massive failure by unvaccinated Americans that will by and large only harm other unvaccinated Americans. Nothing to do with the Biden administration.

Going with mask guidance that will have no impact aside from lowering vaccination rates and breeding distrust in them is absolutely on the Biden Admin.

[Inmate Trump]

Can anyone explain how badly (or not) I need to worry about Delta right now, being in north Georgia?

I'm fully vaccinated (Moderna, in January and again in February).  But my anxiety level has risen considerably over the last week or so.