COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[pbrower2a]

People need to be arrested and fined for violating COVID restrictions and for any disorderly conduct related to violations.

Businesses have some right and indeed duty to control the conduct of employees and customers for the protection of everyone. No, one has no right to take a nap in a sofa on display in a furniture store. One has no right to be "an irate" when told to wear a mask that the business offers free or at nominal cost. If I own a store, you wear a mask no matter whether you have a vaccine passport or not. (Damn fakes!)     

[Hammy]

While they might not escape, aren't these outbreaks going to be less pronounced is areas of the country with high vax rates?

Cases probably equally as pronounced (COVID is COVID, it goes by you, you get it, you test positive even if you're vaccinated)

The place where we're gonna see differences is mortality rates

Not to mention places like the Northwest you have the unvaccinated all concentrated as there's a big political divide with geography, which is less common of a problem in most of the Northeast.

[Sir Mohamed]

59% of school parents support mask mandates in school. The partisan divide is astonishing.

https://twitter.com/axios/status/1435201196860522498

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Man, if I had known the Democrats would be such a sorry disaster, I never would have voted for them when I was 18.

I was a member of the local Young Democrats in college in the mid-'90s, and I regret it now.

I didn't know I was signing up for a totalitarian fascist party. The whole reason I used to support them was to prevent garbage like this.

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

Man, if I had known the Democrats would be such a sorry disaster, I never would have voted for them when I was 18.

I was a member of the local Young Democrats in college in the mid-'90s, and I regret it now.

I didn't know I was signing up for a totalitarian fascist party. The whole reason I used to support them was to prevent garbage like this.

wearing a piece of cloth is literally 1984

[GeorgiaModerate]

Man, if I had known the Democrats would be such a sorry disaster, I never would have voted for them when I was 18.

I was a member of the local Young Democrats in college in the mid-'90s, and I regret it now.

I didn't know I was signing up for a totalitarian fascist party. The whole reason I used to support them was to prevent garbage like this.

I know!!!  Isn't it horrible how the unvaccinated are being rounded up and sent to camps!?

[Bandit3 the Worker]

The CDC map makes it almost impossible for counties to improve from the red tier. It's been weeks since there's been any counties within hundreds of miles from me that have been in a better tier.

Yet I went to a huge festival with a fireworks display on Sunday, and there were very few masks anywhere in sight. Even in counties in the red tier, everyone has forgotten about covid.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

As an example of how hard it is for counties to move up on the CDC map, there's one or two counties in western Alabama that have really good vaccination rates and rapidly dropping case numbers. Even CovidActNow has moved them to a good tier. Yet the CDC still has them in the red tier.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

59% of school parents support mask mandates in school. The partisan divide is astonishing.

https://twitter.com/axios/status/1435201196860522498

As I said years ago, for all their talk of God, the Republicans are the party of Baal, Mammon, and Cain.

Mammon and Cain are obvious, but for anyone confused by Baal,

Baal Hammon (from Wikipedia):

The worship of Baʿal Hammon flourished in the Phoenician colony of Carthage. His supremacy among the Carthaginian gods is believed to date to the fifth century BC, after relations between Carthage and Tyre were broken off at the time of the Battle of Himera (480 BC).[8] Baal Hammon was known as the Chief of the pantheon of Carthage and the deity that made vegetation grow; as with most deities of Carthage, he was seemingly propitiated with child sacrifice, likely in times of strife or crisis, or only by elites, perhaps for the good of the whole community. This practice was recorded by Greeks and Romans, but dismissed as propaganda by modern scholars, until archeologists unearthed urns containing the cremated remains of infants in places of ritual sacrifice. Some scholars believe this confirms the accounts of child sacrifice, while others insist these are the remains of children who died young.

Ancient Carthaginians really did sacrifice their children

Dr Josephine Quinn of Oxford University's Faculty of Classics, an author of the paper, said: 'It's becoming increasingly clear that the stories about Carthaginian child sacrifice are true. This is something the Romans and Greeks said the Carthaginians did and it was part of the popular history of Carthage in the 18th and 19th centuries.

2,500 years from now, future scholars will probably be debating whether Republicans in 20th century North America really refused to protect their children's' lives, while worshiping a golden idol.

[emailking]

The μ variant could be scary. It's dwarfed by delta right now, but there are some signs it may be more resistant to the vaccines.

[Fargobison]

A few more people in the hospital with covid now than when I posted this a week or so ago, unvaccinated making up a bigger percentage in all categories than previously. The one person vaccinated on a vent in the ICU is severely immunocompromised...

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Just Say It: The Health Care System Has Collapsed

In countries with modern health systems, gallstone pancreatitis is a dangerous but highly treatable diagnosis—often requiring an emergency interventional procedure that can be done at most large referral hospitals (including many in the Houston area), followed by a short ICU stay. But with the COVID-19 pandemic raging throughout Texas and much of the larger region, finding an ICU bed these days is no small task. Wilkinson was forced to wait more than seven hours before a bed finally opened at a VA hospital in Houston. But by then, gas pockets had started to form inside Wilkinson’s pancreas, suggesting that the failing organ was spreading an infection throughout his body. After waiting too long to have that procedure done, Daniel Wilkinson died.

For a year or so, we’ve been told repeatedly that the American health system has been on the brink of collapse. In the past month, this phrase has been used to describe the plight of hospitals in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama, and Alaska; last winter, it was used to describe health systems in California and Idaho. Mississippi’s health care system, in a recent New Yorker essay, was observed to be approaching statewide failure, while in a Politico headline at the start of the pandemic, hospitals in New York were quickly reaching a breaking point. Descriptions of health systems at the very limit of functionality rank among other COVID clichés like new normal and in these trying times.

But to say that our health care system is on the brink of collapse is to sugarcoat it. The story of a veteran dying near a city known for having some of the best hospitals in the world—and from a very treatable ailment—illustrates that our health system has already collapsed.

[Not Me, Us]

If you need any more proof that vaccines work, my university just released COVID numbers after students have been on campus for 2 weeks. There is a vaccine mandate for all staff and students, a total of over 17,000 people, including grad students. There is also an indoor mask mandate in place, though it is only really enforced in classes, of which almost all are in person. There have only been 22 positive cases in the first 2 weeks and zero hospitalizations, which is pretty great if you ask me.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

In the past 10 days or so, I've had very personal reasons to encourage these vaccines. I know the vaccines won't have 100% usage, but in recent days I've seen what could happen if people wait too long to get vaccinated.

Despite what the CDC seemed to imply when it reimposed mask recommendations, I'm pretty confident vaccines work. There does seem to be a correlation when you look at the map broken down by state or county.

I think it's the only major action that has really worked, and it's the only one that was in most pandemic plans before 2020. That's why I trusted vaccines, and not the other measures.

[Hammy]

The μ variant could be scary. It's dwarfed by delta right now, but there are some signs it may be more resistant to the vaccines.

There's a lot of 'could' and 'maybe' any time they see these variants, based purely on what mutations they see, but there were several other recent ones that they said could be the next big threat and didn't pan out.

https://theconversation.com/whats-the-mu-variant-and-will-we-keep-seeing-more-concerning-variants-167183

But one reassuring element is that, despite being around since January 2021, it doesn’t seem to be outcompeting Delta, the dominant variant across most of the world.

If Mu was truly a really bad variant, we would have expected to have started to see indications of this, and we haven’t yet.

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/what-we-know-about-mu-the-who-s-latest-variant-of-interest-69161

The agency announced the designation had been made in last week’s epidemiological update, citing an uptick in Mu infections in Ecuador and Colombia, where the variant was first identified in January. In Colombia, it underlies nearly 40 percent of cases, according to WHO data.]he agency announced the designation had been made in last week’s epidemiological update, citing an uptick in Mu infections in Ecuador and Colombia, where the variant was first identified in January. In Colombia, it underlies nearly 40 percent of cases, according to WHO data.

Cases in Colombia, were it makes up 40%:



While I don't want to count on this as the way out, it's not impossible that Delta is simply so contagious that it's out-breeding other variants that might otherwise be more trouble, as has already happened with a few earlier in the year.

It's also within the realm of possibility that eventually we see a variant that is more resistant but also less dangerous.

[Inmate Trump]

`I'm drinking a little bit.so I'm sorry for any typos and the display of feelings.

This feels like we aren't getting anywhere. We get 1 step forward then 3 steps back. The mu variant is going to end up being worse than delta. then there'll be another variant after it that'll take us completely back to the beginning and make delta seem like no big deal

I haven't seen my family in months. I guess I won't be see them anytime soon. All I do now is work and eat and sleep. I don't see anyone, I don't go anywhere. There's got to be a light at the end of this tunnel right?  Why aren't we seeing it yet?   I'm starting to think we never will

the goalposts keep getting pushed back.

[Hammy]

`I'm drinking a little bit.so I'm sorry for any typos and the display of feelings.

This feels like we aren't getting anywhere. We get 1 step forward then 3 steps back. The mu variant is going to end up being worse than delta. then there'll be another variant after it that'll take us completely back to the beginning and make delta seem like no big deal

I haven't seen my family in months. I guess I won't be see them anytime soon. All I do now is work and eat and sleep. I don't see anyone, I don't go anywhere. There's got to be a light at the end of this tunnel right?  Why aren't we seeing it yet?   I'm starting to think we never will

the goalposts keep getting pushed back.

Mu appears less contagious (it carries the same transmissibility mutation as Beta variant) and has not been able to out-compete Delta--which in fact has already stopped 2-3 other variants from becoming established.

Stop sensationalizing literally every single strain as if it's the end of the world especially when data to the contrary has already been posted--it helps nobody.

[Inmate Trump]

`I'm drinking a little bit.so I'm sorry for any typos and the display of feelings.

This feels like we aren't getting anywhere. We get 1 step forward then 3 steps back. The mu variant is going to end up being worse than delta. then there'll be another variant after it that'll take us completely back to the beginning and make delta seem like no big deal

I haven't seen my family in months. I guess I won't be see them anytime soon. All I do now is work and eat and sleep. I don't see anyone, I don't go anywhere. There's got to be a light at the end of this tunnel right?  Why aren't we seeing it yet?   I'm starting to think we never will

the goalposts keep getting pushed back.

Mu appears less contagious (it carries the same transmissibility mutation as Beta variant) and has not been able to out-compete Delta--which in fact has already stopped 2-3 other variants from becoming established.

Stop sensationalizing literally every single strain as if it's the end of the world especially when data to the contrary has already been posted--it helps nobody.

I'm not sensationalizing. I'm worried. There's a difference.

Plus I'm drunk.

[Hammy]

`I'm drinking a little bit.so I'm sorry for any typos and the display of feelings.

This feels like we aren't getting anywhere. We get 1 step forward then 3 steps back. The mu variant is going to end up being worse than delta. then there'll be another variant after it that'll take us completely back to the beginning and make delta seem like no big deal

I haven't seen my family in months. I guess I won't be see them anytime soon. All I do now is work and eat and sleep. I don't see anyone, I don't go anywhere. There's got to be a light at the end of this tunnel right?  Why aren't we seeing it yet?   I'm starting to think we never will

the goalposts keep getting pushed back.

Mu appears less contagious (it carries the same transmissibility mutation as Beta variant) and has not been able to out-compete Delta--which in fact has already stopped 2-3 other variants from becoming established.

Stop sensationalizing literally every single strain as if it's the end of the world especially when data to the contrary has already been posted--it helps nobody.

I'm not sensationalizing. I'm worried. There's a difference.

Plus I'm drunk.

You said matter of factly that Mu is going to be worse, but fair enough on the bold.

[Meclazine for Israel]

People need to be arrested and fined for violating COVID restrictions and for any disorderly conduct related to violations.

Come to Australia then.

Jewish congregation gets $30,000 in fines and shut down for an illegal gathering.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-07/victoria-police-responding-possible-breaches-religious-gathering/100441768

Weird that ABC try and write the article without using the word 'jewish' until the 23rd paragraph.

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

People need to be arrested and fined for violating COVID restrictions and for any disorderly conduct related to violations.

Come to Australia then.

Jewish congregation gets $30,000 in fines and shut down for an illegal gathering.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-07/victoria-police-responding-possible-breaches-religious-gathering/100441768

Weird that ABC try and write the article without using the word 'jewish' until the 23rd paragraph.

It must suck to have ongoing lockdown like that and not even have the benefit of eliminating delta.

Meanwhile over in New Zealand, they did a proper lockdown, rather than the half-assed one that the idiot running New South Wales did. As a result, whereas the virus keeps spreading in Sydney and you still have strict lockdown, in New Zealand the cases have been going sharply down for the last week, down from 70ish to now 15 today. All of New Zealand except for Auckland (where the cases seem to be restricted to at this point) is now able to go to lower stage restrictions, and if things hold up the rest of the country will be back to normal (and not just American style "normal," but normal without the virus) pretty soon.

Hypothetically, if the whole world had acted this way at the very beginning, it might have been possible to quickly eliminate COVID in the same way that SARS-1 was eliminated. But at this point, sadly that is probably effectively impossible since it has multiple animal reservoirs.

And since it now has animal reservoirs, we will now always need to be on the lookout for the possibility of a worse virus, perhaps substantially different from the current one, crossing back over into humans over the next decades and centuries, similar to concerns about bird flu. On the bright side though, the world will be ****ed by climate change anyway, so if we get some new SARS-COV-3 crossing over from deer or rats with a 20% fatality rate maybe 20-30 years from now down the line, it won't much matter that point since the world will already be on fire regardless.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

I have written this time and time again, Biden will have buyers remorse among D's and Indies as long as Covid isnt Eradicated, and he cut off UBi payments, the one thing was keeping his Approvals going were the Stimulus checks

But, IRS paid people's tax refunds in Stimulus checks, we're not getting another, everyone haven't gotten their tax refunds

All  Rs have to do in  2024 is recapture the S with OH, MT and WVA and Prez may fall


Garland has been like all the other AGs mediocrity
Biden said he alone would end Covid, LOL


Trump hasnt been Prosecuted for any of his crimes and FBI cleared him of Insurrection, and FBI has ties to DOJ

[Inmate Trump]

Sorry for my drunken post.


Now for a sober post…

Does anyone know if it looks like Delta has peaked in Georgia, or if it hasn’t peaked here yet?

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Sorry for my drunken post.


Now for a sober post…

Does anyone know if it looks like Delta has peaked in Georgia, or if it hasn’t peaked here yet?

The graph on Worldometer says it's been dropping pretty fast for about a week.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Sorry for my drunken post.


Now for a sober post…

Does anyone know if it looks like Delta has peaked in Georgia, or if it hasn’t peaked here yet?

The graph on Worldometer says it's been dropping pretty fast for about a week.

On a related note:

Metro Atlanta school districts recorded more than 24,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases since the start of the school year, according to the latest data reports.

As of Saturday, the cumulative case count for 14 area districts was 24,270. The number will grow because the Clayton County School District has not yet posted last week’s numbers.

The overall total for last week alone was nearly 6,000. Some districts saw their case counts drop due to a shortened week of classes timed to the Labor Day holiday.

https://www.ajc.com/education/covid-cases-in-metro-atlanta-schools-surpass-24000-in-first-weeks/U2WBJ4ZO2BEDFOU32YVIDSPNVY/