COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[GregTheGreat657]

Why does it seem like we have to rely on right-wing Republicans to save us from draconian COVID measures?

Because they're going to do literally the opposite of whatever the Dems are doing, purely for the sake of it. If Democrats started opening back up and saying the pandemic is over, wait a few months and you'd start seeing Republicans attacking that and wanting restrictions.

This, but the opposite. It was Dems who did the opposite to whatever Trump say.

Close border.
Reopen.
Keep school open.
Stop masks jerking.

Yes, let's just casually ignore the fact that Dems were actually in full support of Trump for the few weeks it looked like he might actually put some mitigation measures in place, or the fact that Republicans long ago declared themselves the Party of No, having literally zero policy beyond "do what the Dems aren't doing."

And his border policy was rightfully criticized because at no point did he advocate closing the border. First he wanted to keep Muslims out, then once covid was already spreading to Europe, his idea was to stop travel only from China while allowing it into the country from Italy.

Democrats were telling people to go to Chinatown when Trump shut off travel from China. Democrats weren't exactly supportive of travel restrictions against Italy at that time either.

[emailking]

Video: Man caught on camera berating kids over wearing masks.

Police have opened an investigation after a concerned parent captured a man wearing a "your mask makes you look stupid," shirt yelling children who were wearing masks.

Click here to watch ... https://us.cnn.com/videos/us/2022/01/26/man-yells-at-children-mask-wearing-affil-pkg-vpx.kcal-kcbs/video/playlists/top-news-videos/

This idiot has been on the news for the last several days.
He is such a coward, he seems to be going around saying these things to just young teenagers and doesn't have the nuts to target adults.
The crackpot reminds me of one or two Altas users with pathetic excuses, "demeanings," and/or lies about masks and mask-wearing.

An adult who follows random kids around yelling at them needs to be arrested.

[Hammy]

Democrats were telling people to go to Chinatown when Trump shut off travel from China. Democrats weren't exactly supportive of travel restrictions against Italy at that time either.

When Trump issued the China restrictions, most of the talk was questioning why this didn't include Italy and other European countries where it was exploding, so this is untrue.

About mitigation, so Red states had generally lower deaths rates until the vaccines come, so I don't know why you keep pretending, that Dems followed some super-duper smart politics. They did the opposite to Red states and still failed. Now vaccination is another thing. Here Red states generally failed.

Red states had lower death rates because of population density. The further apart people are, the lower viral load people will be exposed to--this is why Florida was an exception for the longest time, as it's population is denser than most red states.

Regarding the bold, you're playing the strawman game here, and showing how low effort your posts are that you're confusing me for a generic red avatar. Dems' policies were just as bad, given many of the mitigation measures weren't even enforced in the first place, and we had people like Cuomo killing nursing home residents.

[Zinneke]

The way some seem to think all covid problems disappear and any response is #sanitarydictatorship with Omicron is honestly as disturbing as the zero covid loons.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I'm pretty sure I had COVID early this week. It felt like the mildest cold I ever had, with none of the worst cold symptoms. At worst, my nose ran like a faucet.

[Lief 🗽]

The midterms are going to be a total and complete slaughter.

[Bootes Void]

The midterms are going to be a total and complete slaughter.

At least half of dems(43%) don’t think to push more lockdowns and restrictions. Much higher than I thought

[Calthrina950]

The midterms are going to be a total and complete slaughter.

At least half of dems(43%) don’t think to push more lockdowns and restrictions. Much higher than I thought

Nevertheless, there is still a staggering divergence between the two parties on this question. The poll also seems to imply that a majority of Independents now believe that we should be treating this virus as an endemic disease.

[GeneralMacArthur]

It's not a good question.  COVID can only be made endemic by continuing to treat its current pandemic status as a crisis.  Get a vaccine that limits COVID to only the mildest possible form of Omicron, and force everyone to get it, and only then can you say that COVID is "basically just the flu."

[Donerail]

It's not a good question.  COVID can only be made endemic by continuing to treat its current pandemic status as a crisis.  Get a vaccine that limits COVID to only the mildest possible form of Omicron, and force everyone to get it, and only then can you say that COVID is "basically just the flu."

do we force everyone to get a flu shot

[Lief 🗽]

It's not a good question.  COVID can only be made endemic by continuing to treat its current pandemic status as a crisis.  Get a vaccine that limits COVID to only the mildest possible form of Omicron, and force everyone to get it, and only then can you say that COVID is "basically just the flu."

We’ve done everything we realistically can to get people vaccinated though (short of going door to door and forcefully injecting people but obviously that’s not happening).

[Bandit3 the Worker]

According to covidestim.org, the Rt is now below 1 in every state except Tennessee. It's down to 0.29 in Utah, 0.31 in Rhode Island, and 0.4 or lower in a host of other states.

[Kamala-Tim 2024]

It's not a good question.  COVID can only be made endemic by continuing to treat its current pandemic status as a crisis.  Get a vaccine that limits COVID to only the mildest possible form of Omicron, and force everyone to get it, and only then can you say that COVID is "basically just the flu."

do we force everyone to get a flu shot

Doesn’t make sense to compare when we’re talking about Covid with the vaccine vs the flu without the vaccine.

[Hammy]

I'm pretty sure I had COVID early this week. It felt like the mildest cold I ever had, with none of the worst cold symptoms. At worst, my nose ran like a faucet.

Probably wasn't covid--I'm like that nearly year-round.

[หมูเด้ง]

I'm pretty sure I had COVID early this week. It felt like the mildest cold I ever had, with none of the worst cold symptoms. At worst, my nose ran like a faucet.

Probably wasn't covid--I'm like that nearly year-round.

It was probably bacterial. I am just getting over a sinus infection I had for over 3 weeks. I did a UA at my new PCP and it came back with bacterial infection.

[Meclazine for Israel]

I'm pretty sure I had COVID early this week. It felt like the mildest cold I ever had, with none of the worst cold symptoms. At worst, my nose ran like a faucet.

Probably wasn't covid--I'm like that nearly year-round.

My symptoms from the Moderna 3rd booster were worse than that.

Then again, there are people who get COVID and have no symptoms and never test positive.

It just doesn't get them.

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1487247488780316672

[Frodo]

The midterms are going to be a total and complete slaughter.

If there is a silver-lining, it is this -the Republican-controlled Congress will force the country to move on past the COVID pandemic at long last, treating it as an endemic like the flu.  And by the time they take over, the return to normalcy will be not only needed but also welcomed across party lines. 

[Pericles]

The midterms are going to be a total and complete slaughter.

The framing of this question isn't great. It's possible to think that America shouldn't pursue an elimination strategy, that Covid will be something to live with, but there may be some restrictions that are right now still worth it. Plus the goal should be to make hospitalisations and deaths fall to a much lower and normal amount. 

[riceowl]

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1487247488780316672

Never going to celebrate the death and suffering of another but I would like to go back in time to Fox airing this clip multiple times as a cause celebre.

[DINGO Joe]

Well, we've still got a death rate running 20% above pre-pandemic level and the deaths (and disabilities) have carved into the workforce so to treat it as endemic means adapting to a new normal and given the inability for a substantial portion of the population to comprehend reality , well, don't expect the "endemic" phase to be any easier than the pandemic phase until Covid is done running it's course.

[Calthrina950]

The framing of this question isn't great. It's possible to think that America shouldn't pursue an elimination strategy, that Covid will be something to live with, but there may be some restrictions that are right now still worth it. Plus the goal should be to make hospitalisations and deaths fall to a much lower and normal amount.  

I would also bet on the political salience of the pandemic fading in the US after the present wave passes, at least at the federal level. The administration seems much more concerned about sudtainging the economic recovery, and rightly so.

That might change if we have another seasonal wave, particularly if its driven by a more dangerous variant, but that's more likely to become a concern to the general public again later in December.

In a way, it seems like coronavirus is taking the path which was taken by the Black Death during the Middle Ages. That is, the "pandemic" or "primary" wave of the virus subsides, but the virus itself never entirely disappears, and there will be recurring outbreaks ("surges") in the coming years, with a renewal of restrictions (such as quarantines and mask mandates) occurring from time to time. That is what the new normal will be defined by.

[GeneralMacArthur]

It's not a good question.  COVID can only be made endemic by continuing to treat its current pandemic status as a crisis.  Get a vaccine that limits COVID to only the mildest possible form of Omicron, and force everyone to get it, and only then can you say that COVID is "basically just the flu."

do we force everyone to get a flu shot

Bad analogy.  The flu changes every year and the flu shot changes every year and is usually not particularly effective.  Furthermore, the flu takes an entire year to kill as many people as COVID is killing every week -- and that's with all these restrictions.

If we could get a vaccine that permanently limited influenza to its most limited form and/or immunized a large portion of recipients against it for life, then I would support the government adding it to the government-mandated vaccine schedule (which nobody except loony vaccines-cause-autism folks had a problem with until a year ago).

[100% pro-life no matter what]

According to covidestim.org, the Rt is now below 1 in every state except Tennessee. It's down to 0.29 in Utah, 0.31 in Rhode Island, and 0.4 or lower in a host of other states.

Tennessee only reports data once a week, so the data is pretty old at this point.  Would guess its past peak in TN as well.

[OSR stands with Israel]

All COVID restrictions should be dropped immediately