COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[President Johnson]

I'm just leaving this good news here as well: BioNtech, Pfitzer's German partner in vaccine development, begun producing an adjusted vaccine for Omicron. First deliveries expected for March.

BioNtech also developed a method for fast detection of new variants:

https://twitter.com/Reuters_Health/status/1480955224395239434

[GeneralMacArthur]

About the tests. Flashback from June 2020:

https://twitter.com/RonaldKlain/status/1276502449898041344

Is this supposed to be some kind of dunk?  The Biden administration fixed testing, and then Omicron hit and suddenly demand for tests was like 10x higher than previously.  Were they supposed to somehow anticipate Omicron?

[Horus]

C) You should only do a PCR test if you have tested positive on the antigen test (they are super expensive anyways so why would you test?)

Because I have a life and want to spend the next two weeks living it instead of hiding inside waiting to find out whether or not I have COVID.  But I also don't want to spread COVID to dozens of other people, especially people I care about, if I do have it.

Dude that ain't cool.  There's literally people that need to get those tests to come back negative in order to get back to work.

I have no idea what you're trying to say here, are you implying I shouldn't get tested even after spending significant time with someone who was infected with COVID, because someone else might need the test more than me?

Correct. It's selfish to hog tests if you're low risk.

Tell that to my loved ones who don't want to get COVID from me.

Your loved ones are going to get omicron from someone no matter what.

You can't dodge it.

So the end result of this story is that I do, in fact, have COVID, and it sucks.  Wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, and certainly not the people I love.

So, do you feel like you failed morally? That's how many pro restriction/forever maskers feel when they catch this extremely transmissible, mild variant that is impossible to avoid.

[Can't Bear]

About the tests. Flashback from June 2020:

https://twitter.com/RonaldKlain/status/1276502449898041344

Is this supposed to be some kind of dunk?  The Biden administration fixed testing, and then Omicron hit and suddenly demand for tests was like 10x higher than previously.  Were they supposed to somehow anticipate Omicron?

Not a dunk, just stating a fact about how incompetent this administration has been.

Excuses, excuses. Europe, and especially UK, has been hit earlier by Omicron and has less problem with testing (again, especially UK). They testing more, it's easier and cheaper (mostly free?).

[GeneralMacArthur]

About the tests. Flashback from June 2020:

https://twitter.com/RonaldKlain/status/1276502449898041344

Is this supposed to be some kind of dunk?  The Biden administration fixed testing, and then Omicron hit and suddenly demand for tests was like 10x higher than previously.  Were they supposed to somehow anticipate Omicron?

Not a dunk, just stating a fact about how incompetent this administration has been.

Excuses, excuses. Europe, and especially UK, has been hit earlier by Omicron and has less problem with testing (again, especially UK). They testing more, it's easier and cheaper (mostly free?).

It's a valid excuse.  European nations are much more compact and have much lower populations than the United States.

[GeneralMacArthur]

C) You should only do a PCR test if you have tested positive on the antigen test (they are super expensive anyways so why would you test?)

Because I have a life and want to spend the next two weeks living it instead of hiding inside waiting to find out whether or not I have COVID.  But I also don't want to spread COVID to dozens of other people, especially people I care about, if I do have it.

Dude that ain't cool.  There's literally people that need to get those tests to come back negative in order to get back to work.

I have no idea what you're trying to say here, are you implying I shouldn't get tested even after spending significant time with someone who was infected with COVID, because someone else might need the test more than me?

Correct. It's selfish to hog tests if you're low risk.

Tell that to my loved ones who don't want to get COVID from me.

Your loved ones are going to get omicron from someone no matter what.

You can't dodge it.

So the end result of this story is that I do, in fact, have COVID, and it sucks.  Wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, and certainly not the people I love.

So, do you feel like you failed morally? That's how many pro restriction/forever maskers feel when they catch this extremely transmissible, mild variant that is impossible to avoid.

No, I don't feel like I failed morally at all.  But my friend getting tested despite being asymptomatic let him know early that he had it, which let me know early that I might get it, which led to me separating from my girlfriend, so now I have COVID and she doesn't.  Without testing, I would have just gone home to her none the wiser and now we would both have COVID.  Thus testing was able to help me avoid giving COVID to someone I love.

[compucomp]

It enrages me that Republicans can now win political points by criticizing Biden's pandemic response as not good enough. I might agree with them on their points but it is ludicrous and utterly hypocritical for Republicans to lodge this criticism when their standard bearer is Donald Trump whose pandemic policy was to have us inject bleach and shine UV light up our asses, and their party stands proudly and loudly against the vaccine and any containment whatsoever. I know Fauci and Walensky should stay away from partisan politics but they would have been within their rights to say that they could have done so much more if not for the obstruction and resistance from the Republicans.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/01/11/world/omicron-covid-testing-vaccines#us-health-officials-defend-the-administrations-response-to-the-omicron-variant

Senator Richard Burr, the top Republican on the panel, said the Biden administration had spent months issuing confusing, contradictory recommendations. He cited zigzagging guidance on booster shots, and noted that this month Dr. Fauci had publicly contradicted Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the C.D.C. director, in suggesting the agency’s guidance on isolation for those who had tested positive would be revised to include a testing recommendation.

“Most Americans can’t make heads or tails of anything coming out of this administration,” Senator Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, said. “At times it doesn’t seem like anyone’s in charge.”

Mr. Burr was also harshly critical of the administration’s promise to deliver 500 million rapid tests to the homes of Americans, saying that Mr. Biden had pledged to do so without having the tests in hand.

Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, said the scarcity of tests “appears to have been entirely preventable,” and that the administration failed to anticipate the need even though Congress allocated billions of dollars for testing efforts.

[GregTheGreat657]

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/coronavirus/might-be-over-that-peak-ny-viral-spread-rates-ease-as-deaths-hospitalizations-rise/3489703/

LETS F***ING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! *knocks on wood*

[Migrant Crime]

I'm just leaving this good news here as well: BioNtech, Pfitzer's German partner in vaccine development, begun producing an adjusted vaccine for Omicron. First deliveries expected for March.

BioNtech also developed a method for fast detection of new variants:

https://twitter.com/Reuters_Health/status/1480955224395239434

That is great news for Pfizer’s bottom line and my holdings!

[GregTheGreat657]

At this point, we should shift our focus to COVID-positive individuals with little to no symptoms who go to the hospital. Hospitals should reject all COVID patients with mild or no symptoms (maybe send them off with some preventative meds in case more severe symptoms do develop) so the rest of us aren't forced to pay for their hysteria

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Today is the first day since Dec. 15 in which the 7-day case average in the U.S. dropped.

[GregTheGreat657]

Today is the first day since Dec. 15 in which the 7-day case average in the U.S. dropped.

Looks like we are over the hump, but I will knock on wood to make sure it stays that way

[Fascism Must Be Defeated]

At this point, we should shift our focus to COVID-positive individuals with little to no symptoms who go to the hospital. Hospitals should reject all COVID patients with mild or no symptoms (maybe send them off with some preventative meds in case more severe symptoms do develop) so the rest of us aren't forced to pay for their hysteria

The problem with this is that Omicron is widespread enough that a decent percentage of hospital admissions who are coming in for completely unrelated issues will test positive.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Today is the first day since Dec. 15 in which the 7-day case average in the U.S. dropped.

But is that just the holiday backlog dropping off? Today wasn't a good day.

[Frodo]

It's okay to stop panicking now:

Omicron may be headed for a rapid drop in US and Britain
----------------

And on a separate note, thanks for changing the thread title Virginia! 

[Roll Roons]

It's okay to stop panicking now:

Omicron may be headed for a rapid drop in US and Britain

Yeah, just like what we saw in South Africa.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

It remains to be seen whether another variant will come after Omicron that is capable of causing a major wave, but I think two things are pretty clearly true at this point:

1. SARS-COV-2 is never going away
2. The disease that we came to know as COVID-19 in the spring of 2020 doesn't really exist anymore.  Each new variant seems to be milder than the previous one, and this one has a whole different set of symptoms than previous ones.

The combination of these two puts us in a situation where we have no end game.  As long as the virus keeps circulating, people will keep testing positive.  But, with these new variants (and I'd think the next one will be even milder than Omicron), the disease that the virus causes is less and less.  The biggest question is what the first country will be to finally say "people with covid are encouraged to live their lives if they feel up to it" and not endorse any precautions that would not have been taken for a cold in 2019.

[Pericles]

2 is false, every new variant has been deadlier than the previous ones until Omicron miraculously became milder. It should also never be a goal for people with Covid to live their lives if they feel up to it. People should stay home until they're not infectious whenever they're sick, not just with Covid, and the government should support people so they can do this. We should not think it is OK to infect others.

[Calthrina950]

It remains to be seen whether another variant will come after Omicron that is capable of causing a major wave, but I think two things are pretty clearly true at this point:

1. SARS-COV-2 is never going away
2. The disease that we came to know as COVID-19 in the spring of 2020 doesn't really exist anymore.  Each new variant seems to be milder than the previous one, and this one has a whole different set of symptoms than previous ones.

The combination of these two puts us in a situation where we have no end game.  As long as the virus keeps circulating, people will keep testing positive.  But, with these new variants (and I'd think the next one will be even milder than Omicron), the disease that the virus causes is less and less.  The biggest question is what the first country will be to finally say "people with covid are encouraged to live their lives if they feel up to it" and not endorse any precautions that would not have been taken for a cold in 2019.

2 is false, every new variant has been deadlier than the previous ones until Omicron miraculously became milder. It should also never be a goal for people with Covid to live their lives if they feel up to it. People should stay home until they're not infectious whenever they're sick, not just with Covid, and the government should support people so they can do this. We should not think it is OK to infect others.

I'm going to aim this series of questions to both of you then. If we accept, on the one hand, that coronavirus is never going to go away, and on the other hand, that people should be cautious and more cognizant of their health going forward, then what is the "new normal" that should be devised? Should that "new normal", as some advocate, include rolling mask mandates? Vaccine mandates and vaccine passports? Quarantines? Some form of expanded virtual learning or work from home? Or should there be a reversion to the conditions of 2019, as much as possible, with perhaps more minor modifications? How much longer should we continue with life as it is now?

[100% pro-life no matter what]

2 is false, every new variant has been deadlier than the previous ones until Omicron miraculously became milder. It should also never be a goal for people with Covid to live their lives if they feel up to it. People should stay home until they're not infectious whenever they're sick, not just with Covid, and the government should support people so they can do this. We should not think it is OK to infect others.

That's not how we treated any cold or flu for all of modern history up until this.  I don't want to live in some sort of bio-security state.

It remains to be seen whether another variant will come after Omicron that is capable of causing a major wave, but I think two things are pretty clearly true at this point:

1. SARS-COV-2 is never going away
2. The disease that we came to know as COVID-19 in the spring of 2020 doesn't really exist anymore.  Each new variant seems to be milder than the previous one, and this one has a whole different set of symptoms than previous ones.

The combination of these two puts us in a situation where we have no end game.  As long as the virus keeps circulating, people will keep testing positive.  But, with these new variants (and I'd think the next one will be even milder than Omicron), the disease that the virus causes is less and less.  The biggest question is what the first country will be to finally say "people with covid are encouraged to live their lives if they feel up to it" and not endorse any precautions that would not have been taken for a cold in 2019.

2 is false, every new variant has been deadlier than the previous ones until Omicron miraculously became milder. It should also never be a goal for people with Covid to live their lives if they feel up to it. People should stay home until they're not infectious whenever they're sick, not just with Covid, and the government should support people so they can do this. We should not think it is OK to infect others.

I'm going to aim this series of questions to both of you then. If we accept, on the one hand, that coronavirus is never going to go away, and on the other hand, that people should be cautious and more cognizant of their health going forward, then what is the "new normal" that should be devised? Should that "new normal", as some advocate, include rolling mask mandates? Vaccine mandates and vaccine passports? Quarantines? Some form of expanded virtual learning or work from home? Or should there be a reversion to the conditions of 2019, as much as possible, with perhaps more minor modifications? How much longer should we continue with life as it is now?

I support a full return to 2019 immediately, with no testing or quarantines.

[Donerail]

2 is false, every new variant has been deadlier than the previous ones until Omicron miraculously became milder. It should also never be a goal for people with Covid to live their lives if they feel up to it. People should stay home until they're not infectious whenever they're sick, not just with Covid, and the government should support people so they can do this. We should not think it is OK to infect others.

That's not how we treated any cold or flu for all of modern history up until this.  I don't want to live in some sort of bio-security state.

I don't think you need to read "bio-security state" into the suggestion that people should get guaranteed paid sick leave, just like they do in fifteen states and a lot of other countries. Frankly kind of insane that Democrats have not hammered home that as their pandemic message — polls well, not burdensome to individuals, and would meaningfully reduce the spread of the disease — and instead have focused on mask mandates that do none of those things.

[Matty]

It will never, ever cease to amaze me that with all of our modern technology, this pandemic is going to end up lasting longer than the 1918 pandemic.

[Calthrina950]

It will never, ever cease to amaze me that with all of our modern technology, this pandemic is going to end up lasting longer than the 1918 pandemic.

Why has that happened?

[Hammy]

I support a full return to 2019 immediately, with no testing or quarantines.

This is utter insanity, given school districts have tended to close schools for a few days even for flu outbreaks among children. You're proposing sending children to school when they become infected with a virus that is objectively worse than one that has always been basic common sense to keep them home for.

It will never, ever cease to amaze me that with all of our modern technology, this pandemic is going to end up lasting longer than the 1918 pandemic.

Why has that happened?

A lot more international travel than in 1918--not just in volume, but general ease of travel, as well as being much quicker thanks to air travel--is a big reason for that. So in a twist of irony, that same modern travel has allowed it to ripple around the world a lot more quickly.

[Calthrina950]

It will never, ever cease to amaze me that with all of our modern technology, this pandemic is going to end up lasting longer than the 1918 pandemic.

Why has that happened?

A lot more international travel than in 1918--not just in volume, but general ease of travel, as well as being much quicker thanks to air travel--is a big reason for that. So in a twist of irony, that same modern travel has allowed it to ripple around the world a lot more quickly.

How long do you think the pandemic is going to last for? We're nearly two years into it now. I sure hope that we still won't be in "pandemic mode" by 2024.