COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Bandit3 the Worker]

https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1321466255124033537

Why does CovidActNow say Nebraska is the highest with 21.8%? They have Wisconsin down at 12.1%, and no big states are even that high.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

President Trump told us to not let COVID dominate your life. Clearly this woman just didn't take his advice. /s

https://twitter.com/stephenjnesbitt/status/1323665713815576576?s=20

I had a pulmonary embolism in April. I actually thought it was a heart attack.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I have concerns about the accuracy of new antigen tests:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-fda-test-idUSKBN27J2K6

The FDA just put out a warning that said these tests are so inaccurate that if a state has a 1% positivity rate, 70% of positives are false positives:

https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/letters-health-care-providers/potential-false-positive-results-antigen-tests-rapid-detection-sars-cov-2-letter-clinical-laboratory

States began ramping up their use of these tests in mid-October, which was really when the nationwide spike in cases seemed to begin. Notice this spike is pretty uniform, and not really limited to certain states and regions like past spikes.

How can we trust these case numbers to guide public policy? How many recent cases are actually false positives? This isn't conspiracy stuff. This is straight from Reuters and the FDA.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

According to the graph, North Dakota has gotten past its peak.

I don't know if antigen tests are behind the increase in the other states, but I'm sure those aren't far off from their peak. This is the same thing we saw in New York in the spring and Arizona in the summer.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

According to this, lockdowns are losing support precipitously...

https://news.gallup.com/poll/324146/americans-less-amenable-covid-lockdown.aspx

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Much of the Midwest is pretty chill and easygoing regarding COVID-19...

https://apnews.com/article/iowa-south-dakota-coronavirus-pandemic-nebraska-north-dakota-bf7197b284401dea8b779cfa764dfab2

This represents what most people around here think. They know the virus is out there, but they can't keep upending their lives over it.

Most people just instinctively stop panicking over things after a few months.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

But why why why why why is the left so pro lockdown?

The Democratic establishment really isn't part of the left by any raw measure.

But I think lately the left has drawn people who don't care about things the left is supposed to care about, and instead just want to pretend to be morally superior. Actually they are bullies and narcissists, not legitimate leftists. But if we don't denounce these narcissists, we're really ceding the moral high ground.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Mark Crispin Miller, Naomi Wolf, and Kim Iversen are prominent people on the left who oppose lockdowns.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

\
I've never heard of any of these people, and also the first one is a 9/11 truther.

You've never heard of them, yet somehow you know they're a 9/11 truther.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Are you an anti vaxxer Bandit?

No. Neither are any of the people I listed above.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

It's pretty sad how nobody gives a damn about education anymore.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I just saw that Pfizer is submitting its vaccine TOMORROW...

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-11-18/pfizer-biontech-to-file-for-emergency-use-of-coronavirus-vaccine-on-friday

Pfizer also said that it will ship out the vaccine within hours of FDA approval. Not weeks. Not days. Hours...

https://nypost.com/2020/11/19/pfizer-ready-to-ship-covid-19-vaccine-within-hours-of-approval

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I can not wait until this BS is over. I can be in harmony with the left again.

I really only dissent from the left on two issues:

1) Lockdowns

2) Mass gatherings to burn down buildings and riot.

There's a Reddit forum called "LockdownCriticalLeft" which is designed for people on the left who oppose lockdowns. It's actually somewhat popular.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Why does every anti-lockdown rally have to have people walking with Confederate flags?

https://bronx.news12.com/business-owners-march-in-protest-of-gov-murphys-new-restrictions

Their big goal is to recruit. They don't care about the issues at hand.

I want to make it perfectly clear that real anti-lockdown folks do not support this sort of thing.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=402803.msg7581075#msg7581075

So far I'm only up to the part where they ask for views on China. I'm shocked that the Democrats have become so pro-China.

When did the Democrats become the pro-China party?

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Just open the damn schools like normal already.

This has gone on far too long.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Almost every interview I see with scientists recently supports this position.  Really the only people opposing school openings are teachers unions, Democratic politicians who don’t want to look like they are on the same side as Trump on any positions, and NIMBY rich parents who can afford alternative education.

I have been very, very disappointed with teachers' unions in all this. Their refusal to bring back our schools is bad for children and for teachers, who will find themselves Zoomed right out of a job. They're like that union in West Virginia in the Michael Moore movie that wouldn't stand up for its workers.

At least one of the unions for amusement park workers wants to reopen. But I don't know why other unions haven't been at the forefront of ending lockdowns. I've supported unions for a long time, but their leaders have failed us. The teachers' unions certainly are not progressive. To be progressive means to make sure children get a quality education. Not some Zoom nonsense for 10 months.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Has anyone else noticed a big drop-off in cases in Wisconsin, the Plains, and northern Rockies (the states that were doing worst in October or November)? The main increase now is in California.

Also, brace yourself for a big jump in Ohio today. Ohio has announced it's releasing 13,000 extra cases that they backlogged today.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Interesting article about countries with more lenient covid rules but very few cases...

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/davidmack/countries-without-coronavirus-no-covid

I feel great for the people in those countries, but this makes me so damn mad. Why can't America loosen its rules like those countries did? Because America would rather mimic China, that's why.

I am ashamed to say I ever was in the same party as Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer. Instead of copying Sweden, they copied China.

There should be a monument dedicated to victims of neoliberal authoritarianism.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

You'd have to be a substantial moron to tout Sweden as successful vs Covid at this point.

Their death rate isn't as bad as America's is.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Here's another chart-topping smash from the "why nobody trusts the media" greatest hits collection.

The media has reported multiple times that South Dakota (the state with the most lenient covid rules) has the highest per capita number of covid deaths. But this isn't even close to being true. New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts make up the top 3, and those states were pretty strict.

Not sure why the media chooses to make up stuff. Maybe it's something against the northern Plains, or the Midwest in general. Maybe they're mad because a person from South Dakota hurt their feelings or something.

There were some journalists and commentators who I respected a lot before this, but my respect for them is out the window now.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

A large amount of excess deaths are a result of Lockdowns that cause mass unemployment and subsequent Drug overdoses, Heart attacks/strokes from Stress and bad Food, people dying from lack of medical care, along with suicides from depression caused from increased poverty and Social alienation.

After I had a pulmonary embolism and possible heart attack in April because of lockdowns, I can confirm this.

Life means nothing to our corporatist overlords.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

So now the Pfizer vaccine has been approved and will be distributed starting this week, with Moderna likely to follow suit on the 17th. How soon before we see a real effect?

It would probably blast a hole in the case numbers about a month from now. I just don't buy it when people say things won't improve until next fall or something.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Vaccinating the people in nursing homes alone will have a major effect. That combined with protecting health care workers will help with the hospital capacity crunch a ton.

I also wonder at what level do things start to drop on their own. Seems like the Dakotas are hitting some kind of natural slowdown where the virus is having a harder time spreading. It is still lingering but cases and hospitilzations have really fallen off in ND.

Of course both states have some advantages in their lack of density.

It looks like almost all the Plains and northern Rockies are reaching a natural slowdown now. I think a lot of other states are too, but the case counts now aren't comparable to those before mid-October because they use more sensitive tests now.

What states haven't had big surges so far? Maybe Oregon or northern New England, or maybe even Kentucky, but that's about it.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Fauci just said on MSNBC that he expects every adult who wants a vaccine will have it by the end of the 2nd quarter of 2021. But when asked about getting back to normal, he said that a vaccine is a complement not a substitute for COVID public health measures, and that it may be in the 2nd half of 2021 or longer before the level of infection is low enough that things can get back to what they were before.  🤷‍♂️

They should come out with a new version of the TV show 'That's Incredible!' and call it 'That's Ridiculous!' Nobody is going to wait until the second half of 2021 - or even close.