COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Zohranism is OUR future]

https://twitter.com/kelleykga/status/1490074005541466113

https://twitter.com/KelleyKga/status/1490108637058150403#m

These photos are dystopian: The charismatic leader greeting the faceless masses!

I don't know how politicians who do this can live with themselves. Maybe it's just a lack of self-awareness, but even that says a great deal about them, i.e. that special treatment is such an entitlement to be unworthy of notice.

Let me emphasize that these were photo-ops. This isn't just an incidental capture of a day in the life. They reflect how her campaign wants her to be portrayed.

Absolutely disgusting.
Never donating to her organization.

[roxas11]

I honestly never understood why people were so freaked out over a mask in the first place

I get why people are upset over lockdowns and I even get why people dislike vaccine mandates, but the hate for mask never made any sense to me. At worse, it was sometimes annoying for me to wear, but that is nothing compared to people who lost their jobs and businesses because of the lockdowns in 2020

I honestly think the worst political mistake Trump made during the 2020 election was his decision to come out against wearing a mask at the beginning of the pandemic because had he not done that he could have easily opposed the lockdowns and offered mask as an alternative

That would have put the Dems in an awkward position and Trump could have gone to all of his rallies and gave these things away for free...



Had he done that there is a very good chance that Trump would have gotten reelected

[compucomp]

https://twitter.com/kelleykga/status/1490074005541466113
https://twitter.com/KelleyKga/status/1490108637058150403#m
These photos are dystopian: The charismatic leader greeting the faceless masses!

I don't know how politicians who do this can live with themselves. Maybe it's just a lack of self-awareness, but even that says a great deal about them, i.e. that special treatment is such an entitlement to be unworthy of notice.

Let me emphasize that these were photo-ops. This isn't just an incidental capture of a day in the life. They reflect how her campaign wants her to be portrayed.

I don't know how "practice what you preach" has not been drilled into every politician by now. It seems like many Democrats are not true believers in masking and social distancing and are just supporting it because their voters support it, but obvious hypocrisy like this is just the worst. I strongly disapprove of it. It's like the "family values" politicians who get caught banging their mistress or pressuring them to get abortions.

[emailking]

That picture is pathetic.

Read the room.

[ilikeverin]

This thread (and Twitter replies) sometimes feels like a different planet.  Masks are uncommon enough here that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see one.  The grocery store is the only place you see them, and it's even a minority there.  Apart from a vague understanding of things being different elsewhere, the Delta and- especially- Omicron waves have felt culturally a lot like the 2009 swine flu.  You know that people are getting sick, but probably don't know anyone who has been seriously ill*, and don't think too much about it.

*I'll be honest- I don't know a single person who has had anything worse than the seasonal flu from any variant of covid.

I feel the same feeling in the exact opposite direction! Masks are almost universal here in indoor public settings that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see people flouting the mandate. I had many friends who got sick during Omicron, none seriously, and it seems like almost everyone was at least exposed at some point; almost everyone I know changed their behavior in some way or another. I've known people who died due to COVID at the onset of the pandemic. People in this thread are hurled into a paroxysm of madness whenever they see a mask but I've never heard anyone in real life who's had a more negative opinion of a mask then "sometimes they make my glasses fog up". Nobody wants the mask mandates to last forever, but I've heard many people (especially older folks) say, "I think I'll just start wearing a mask in the wintertime so I don't get the flu", and I've definitely heard many folks say (and I myself agree!) that masks are kind of nice in the winter when you're outside because they help keep your face warm, like a scarf.

It just goes to show you what bubbles we all live in. To both of us, this thread seems like an unrelenting stream of opinions we can't understand; we also have cognitive biases to fixate on the opinions we disagree with and ignore the ones that we agree with.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

This thread (and Twitter replies) sometimes feels like a different planet.  Masks are uncommon enough here that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see one.  The grocery store is the only place you see them, and it's even a minority there.  Apart from a vague understanding of things being different elsewhere, the Delta and- especially- Omicron waves have felt culturally a lot like the 2009 swine flu.  You know that people are getting sick, but probably don't know anyone who has been seriously ill*, and don't think too much about it.

*I'll be honest- I don't know a single person who has had anything worse than the seasonal flu from any variant of covid.

I feel the same feeling in the exact opposite direction! Masks are almost universal here in indoor public settings that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see people flouting the mandate. I had many friends who got sick during Omicron, none seriously, and it seems like almost everyone was at least exposed at some point; almost everyone I know changed their behavior in some way or another. I've known people who died due to COVID at the onset of the pandemic. People in this thread are hurled into a paroxysm of madness whenever they see a mask but I've never heard anyone in real life who's had a more negative opinion of a mask then "sometimes they make my glasses fog up". Nobody wants the mask mandates to last forever, but I've heard many people (especially older folks) say, "I think I'll just start wearing a mask in the wintertime so I don't get the flu", and I've definitely heard many folks say (and I myself agree!) that masks are kind of nice in the winter when you're outside because they help keep your face warm, like a scarf.

It just goes to show you what bubbles we all live in. To both of us, this thread seems like an unrelenting stream of opinions we can't understand; we also have cognitive biases to fixate on the opinions we disagree with and ignore the ones that we agree with.

I am also living in a place where everyone wears a mask indoors. My read of the situation is that everyone tolerates them, people don’t often complain about them, and nobody loves them. This paranoia that we all want to wear masks forever is ludicrous. We don’t want to wear them forever—it’s just that, you know, we’re still in a pandemic. We need to be careful that we won’t be too scared to revert back when it’s time, but even though we might be close, it’s not time yet. We are just getting past our peak of record hospitalizations.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

That picture is pathetic.

Read the room.

It would be one thing if someone else had taken this picture as some sort of "gotcha".  
But this was posted on her own social media.
How is it not immediately obvious "what's wrong with this picture"??
I like Stacey Abrams a lot, but at the very least this really call into question the competence of the people working on her campaign.

[roxas11]

That picture is pathetic.

Read the room.

It would be one thing if someone else had taken this picture as some sort of "gotcha".  
But this was posted on her own social media.
How is it not immediately obvious "what's wrong with this picture"??
I like Stacey Abrams a lot, but at the very least this really call into question the competence of the people working on her campaign.

Well, in fairness, even when saw the picture on twitter it did not really stand out to me at the time. As far as I was concerned, it was just another one of those photo ops that politicians on both sides love to do

I had basically forgotten about it until I got on here is saw some people talking about that same picture and the fact that Abrams was not wearing a mask. Now at the time I did not think it was a big deal, but after seeing other people's opinions on this issue I can now see how this could be a big PR problem for the Dems in Georgia

now to be clear, I don't think this a fatal error that they can't come back from but I definitely agree that these are the kinds of rookie mistakes that the Abrams campaign should be trying to avoid going forward

[DaleCooper]

This thread (and Twitter replies) sometimes feels like a different planet.  Masks are uncommon enough here that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see one.  The grocery store is the only place you see them, and it's even a minority there.  Apart from a vague understanding of things being different elsewhere, the Delta and- especially- Omicron waves have felt culturally a lot like the 2009 swine flu.  You know that people are getting sick, but probably don't know anyone who has been seriously ill*, and don't think too much about it.

*I'll be honest- I don't know a single person who has had anything worse than the seasonal flu from any variant of covid.

I feel the same feeling in the exact opposite direction! Masks are almost universal here in indoor public settings that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see people flouting the mandate. I had many friends who got sick during Omicron, none seriously, and it seems like almost everyone was at least exposed at some point; almost everyone I know changed their behavior in some way or another. I've known people who died due to COVID at the onset of the pandemic. People in this thread are hurled into a paroxysm of madness whenever they see a mask but I've never heard anyone in real life who's had a more negative opinion of a mask then "sometimes they make my glasses fog up". Nobody wants the mask mandates to last forever, but I've heard many people (especially older folks) say, "I think I'll just start wearing a mask in the wintertime so I don't get the flu", and I've definitely heard many folks say (and I myself agree!) that masks are kind of nice in the winter when you're outside because they help keep your face warm, like a scarf.

It just goes to show you what bubbles we all live in. To both of us, this thread seems like an unrelenting stream of opinions we can't understand; we also have cognitive biases to fixate on the opinions we disagree with and ignore the ones that we agree with.

I am also living in a place where everyone wears a mask indoors. My read of the situation is that everyone tolerates them, people don’t often complain about them, and nobody loves them. This paranoia that we all want to wear masks forever is ludicrous. We don’t want to wear them forever—it’s just that, you know, we’re still in a pandemic. We need to be careful that we won’t be too scared to revert back when it’s time, but even though we might be close, it’s not time yet. We are just getting past our peak of record hospitalizations.

When do you think people should stop wearing masks in their day to day lives?

[Calthrina950]

This thread (and Twitter replies) sometimes feels like a different planet.  Masks are uncommon enough here that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see one.  The grocery store is the only place you see them, and it's even a minority there.  Apart from a vague understanding of things being different elsewhere, the Delta and- especially- Omicron waves have felt culturally a lot like the 2009 swine flu.  You know that people are getting sick, but probably don't know anyone who has been seriously ill*, and don't think too much about it.

*I'll be honest- I don't know a single person who has had anything worse than the seasonal flu from any variant of covid.

I feel the same feeling in the exact opposite direction! Masks are almost universal here in indoor public settings that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see people flouting the mandate. I had many friends who got sick during Omicron, none seriously, and it seems like almost everyone was at least exposed at some point; almost everyone I know changed their behavior in some way or another. I've known people who died due to COVID at the onset of the pandemic. People in this thread are hurled into a paroxysm of madness whenever they see a mask but I've never heard anyone in real life who's had a more negative opinion of a mask then "sometimes they make my glasses fog up". Nobody wants the mask mandates to last forever, but I've heard many people (especially older folks) say, "I think I'll just start wearing a mask in the wintertime so I don't get the flu", and I've definitely heard many folks say (and I myself agree!) that masks are kind of nice in the winter when you're outside because they help keep your face warm, like a scarf.

It just goes to show you what bubbles we all live in. To both of us, this thread seems like an unrelenting stream of opinions we can't understand; we also have cognitive biases to fixate on the opinions we disagree with and ignore the ones that we agree with.

I am also living in a place where everyone wears a mask indoors. My read of the situation is that everyone tolerates them, people don’t often complain about them, and nobody loves them. This paranoia that we all want to wear masks forever is ludicrous. We don’t want to wear them forever—it’s just that, you know, we’re still in a pandemic. We need to be careful that we won’t be too scared to revert back when it’s time, but even though we might be close, it’s not time yet. We are just getting past our peak of record hospitalizations.

When do you think people should stop wearing masks in their day to day lives?

Answering this for myself, I think that people should stop with the Omicron wave receding. But in reality, I expect for many people to wear them regularly for now on at least seasonally. Masks will never entirely go away.

[Zohranism is OUR future]

This thread (and Twitter replies) sometimes feels like a different planet.  Masks are uncommon enough here that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see one.  The grocery store is the only place you see them, and it's even a minority there.  Apart from a vague understanding of things being different elsewhere, the Delta and- especially- Omicron waves have felt culturally a lot like the 2009 swine flu.  You know that people are getting sick, but probably don't know anyone who has been seriously ill*, and don't think too much about it.

*I'll be honest- I don't know a single person who has had anything worse than the seasonal flu from any variant of covid.

I feel the same feeling in the exact opposite direction! Masks are almost universal here in indoor public settings that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see people flouting the mandate. I had many friends who got sick during Omicron, none seriously, and it seems like almost everyone was at least exposed at some point; almost everyone I know changed their behavior in some way or another. I've known people who died due to COVID at the onset of the pandemic. People in this thread are hurled into a paroxysm of madness whenever they see a mask but I've never heard anyone in real life who's had a more negative opinion of a mask then "sometimes they make my glasses fog up". Nobody wants the mask mandates to last forever, but I've heard many people (especially older folks) say, "I think I'll just start wearing a mask in the wintertime so I don't get the flu", and I've definitely heard many folks say (and I myself agree!) that masks are kind of nice in the winter when you're outside because they help keep your face warm, like a scarf.

It just goes to show you what bubbles we all live in. To both of us, this thread seems like an unrelenting stream of opinions we can't understand; we also have cognitive biases to fixate on the opinions we disagree with and ignore the ones that we agree with.

I am also living in a place where everyone wears a mask indoors. My read of the situation is that everyone tolerates them, people don’t often complain about them, and nobody loves them. This paranoia that we all want to wear masks forever is ludicrous. We don’t want to wear them forever—it’s just that, you know, we’re still in a pandemic. We need to be careful that we won’t be too scared to revert back when it’s time, but even though we might be close, it’s not time yet. We are just getting past our peak of record hospitalizations.

When do you think people should stop wearing masks in their day to day lives?

Answering this for myself, I think that people should stop with the Omicron wave receding. But in reality, I expect for many people to wear them regularly for now on at least seasonally. Masks will never entirely go away.

But you were also not for masks during the peak of omicron?

[HagridOfTheDeep]

This thread (and Twitter replies) sometimes feels like a different planet.  Masks are uncommon enough here that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see one.  The grocery store is the only place you see them, and it's even a minority there.  Apart from a vague understanding of things being different elsewhere, the Delta and- especially- Omicron waves have felt culturally a lot like the 2009 swine flu.  You know that people are getting sick, but probably don't know anyone who has been seriously ill*, and don't think too much about it.

*I'll be honest- I don't know a single person who has had anything worse than the seasonal flu from any variant of covid.

I feel the same feeling in the exact opposite direction! Masks are almost universal here in indoor public settings that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see people flouting the mandate. I had many friends who got sick during Omicron, none seriously, and it seems like almost everyone was at least exposed at some point; almost everyone I know changed their behavior in some way or another. I've known people who died due to COVID at the onset of the pandemic. People in this thread are hurled into a paroxysm of madness whenever they see a mask but I've never heard anyone in real life who's had a more negative opinion of a mask then "sometimes they make my glasses fog up". Nobody wants the mask mandates to last forever, but I've heard many people (especially older folks) say, "I think I'll just start wearing a mask in the wintertime so I don't get the flu", and I've definitely heard many folks say (and I myself agree!) that masks are kind of nice in the winter when you're outside because they help keep your face warm, like a scarf.

It just goes to show you what bubbles we all live in. To both of us, this thread seems like an unrelenting stream of opinions we can't understand; we also have cognitive biases to fixate on the opinions we disagree with and ignore the ones that we agree with.

I am also living in a place where everyone wears a mask indoors. My read of the situation is that everyone tolerates them, people don’t often complain about them, and nobody loves them. This paranoia that we all want to wear masks forever is ludicrous. We don’t want to wear them forever—it’s just that, you know, we’re still in a pandemic. We need to be careful that we won’t be too scared to revert back when it’s time, but even though we might be close, it’s not time yet. We are just getting past our peak of record hospitalizations.

When do you think people should stop wearing masks in their day to day lives?

The only metric should be how close hospitals are to being overwhelmed. As I said, British Columbia is just coming down from its all-time peak in hospitalizations. To remove mask mandates now could send numbers shooting right back up, which is not what we should want to happen given we don’t have a ton of wiggle room. I agree that we should let go of the mandates once we’re clearly through this wave. If another wave of some other variant comes, we should wait to understand how the variant is affecting our hospitalizations before we jump into panic mode.

That said, it is unvaccinated people who are driving our hospitalizations, so I am absolutely on board with doing whatever we can to explicitly limit spread among that group by keeping them out of high-risk places. Restrictions on those folks should be very different from restrictions on everybody else.

[Calthrina950]

This thread (and Twitter replies) sometimes feels like a different planet.  Masks are uncommon enough here that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see one.  The grocery store is the only place you see them, and it's even a minority there.  Apart from a vague understanding of things being different elsewhere, the Delta and- especially- Omicron waves have felt culturally a lot like the 2009 swine flu.  You know that people are getting sick, but probably don't know anyone who has been seriously ill*, and don't think too much about it.

*I'll be honest- I don't know a single person who has had anything worse than the seasonal flu from any variant of covid.

I feel the same feeling in the exact opposite direction! Masks are almost universal here in indoor public settings that I do a double-take on the rare occasion I see people flouting the mandate. I had many friends who got sick during Omicron, none seriously, and it seems like almost everyone was at least exposed at some point; almost everyone I know changed their behavior in some way or another. I've known people who died due to COVID at the onset of the pandemic. People in this thread are hurled into a paroxysm of madness whenever they see a mask but I've never heard anyone in real life who's had a more negative opinion of a mask then "sometimes they make my glasses fog up". Nobody wants the mask mandates to last forever, but I've heard many people (especially older folks) say, "I think I'll just start wearing a mask in the wintertime so I don't get the flu", and I've definitely heard many folks say (and I myself agree!) that masks are kind of nice in the winter when you're outside because they help keep your face warm, like a scarf.

It just goes to show you what bubbles we all live in. To both of us, this thread seems like an unrelenting stream of opinions we can't understand; we also have cognitive biases to fixate on the opinions we disagree with and ignore the ones that we agree with.

I am also living in a place where everyone wears a mask indoors. My read of the situation is that everyone tolerates them, people don’t often complain about them, and nobody loves them. This paranoia that we all want to wear masks forever is ludicrous. We don’t want to wear them forever—it’s just that, you know, we’re still in a pandemic. We need to be careful that we won’t be too scared to revert back when it’s time, but even though we might be close, it’s not time yet. We are just getting past our peak of record hospitalizations.

When do you think people should stop wearing masks in their day to day lives?

Answering this for myself, I think that people should stop with the Omicron wave receding. But in reality, I expect for many people to wear them regularly for now on at least seasonally. Masks will never entirely go away.

But you were also not for masks during the peak of omicron?

Not for mask mandates. As I've said above, I align with our Governor on this issue.

[Roll Roons]

https://twitter.com/NewRochelleED/status/1489419992860872704?cxt=HHwWgMCyvfPlvas...
https://twitter.com/RepBowman/status/1489018294774419462?cxt=HHwWjMCywf-Ph6opAAA...

Polis can stay, but vote every single one of the rest out. This wave needs to be absolutely brutal and leave no corner of the country untouched. Stop the tyranny!

[Blue3]

Well, after 2 shots of Pfizer in March and 2 shots of Moderna in July, I am positive with COVID.

I felt off last Friday, but symptoms began Monday, and Monday night into Tuesday was horrible, but thankfully the vaccines seemed to make sure the worst of it was only a couple days, have already started getting better (but still feel sick ) and have to continue in quarantine isolation until after my dad’s birthday on 2/10 (the full 10 days minimum because of my Crohn’s disease medicine making me immunocompromised). I think I just got it from work, we began giving candy to students in our room for those chronically absent on days they came in. The first night was bad. Feeling very hot then very cold, sweating a lot, felt too tired to move, like I had melted into the couch or bed, and kept shaking. Now it’s just coughing, sneezing, chest congestion, headaches, and very bad fatigue and brain fogginess. Sore throat going away. But I still feel very tired and brain foggy, and now I just lost the sense of smell.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

This is so humiliating.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Well, after 2 shots of Pfizer in March and 2 shots of Moderna in July, I am positive with COVID.

I felt off last Friday, but symptoms began Monday, and Monday night into Tuesday was horrible, but thankfully the vaccines seemed to make sure the worst of it was only a couple days, have already started getting better (but still feel sick ) and have to continue in quarantine isolation until after my dad’s birthday on 2/10 (the full 10 days minimum because of my Crohn’s disease medicine making me immunocompromised). I think I just got it from work, we began giving candy to students in our room for those chronically absent on days they came in. The first night was bad. Feeling very hot then very cold, sweating a lot, felt too tired to move, like I had melted into the couch or bed, and kept shaking. Now it’s just coughing, sneezing, chest congestion, headaches, and very bad fatigue and brain fogginess. Sore throat going away. But I still feel very tired and brain foggy, and now I just lost the sense of smell.

Sounds very similar to my experience.  Your rough symptoms will probably be gone entirely by Tuesday, but the sense of smell takes a week or two to come back, and the cough will take a week beyond that to fully disappear.

Get TheraFlu AM/PM to help with the fever and sore throat, Amazon should be able to 2-hour deliver it or you can have someone bring it to you.  Really made things so much better.

[Raccoon]

[Calthrina950]

https://twitter.com/NewRochelleED/status/1489419992860872704?cxt=HHwWgMCyvfPlvas...
https://twitter.com/RepBowman/status/1489018294774419462?cxt=HHwWjMCywf-Ph6opAAA...

Polis can stay, but vote every single one of the rest out. This wave needs to be absolutely brutal and leave no corner of the country untouched. Stop the tyranny!

What about the New Rochelle tweet is of concern, aside from those masked students in the photographs? Of course, that's not a sight I'd like to see.

[Roll Roons]

https://twitter.com/NewRochelleED/status/1489419992860872704?cxt=HHwWgMCyvfPlvas...
https://twitter.com/RepBowman/status/1489018294774419462?cxt=HHwWjMCywf-Ph6opAAA...

Polis can stay, but vote every single one of the rest out. This wave needs to be absolutely brutal and leave no corner of the country untouched. Stop the tyranny!

What about the New Rochelle tweet is of concern, aside from those masked students in the photographs? Of course, that's not a sight I'd like to see.

Bowman is the only one in that photo not wearing a mask, despite what he said in his tweet.

[Calthrina950]

https://twitter.com/NewRochelleED/status/1489419992860872704?cxt=HHwWgMCyvfPlvas...
https://twitter.com/RepBowman/status/1489018294774419462?cxt=HHwWjMCywf-Ph6opAAA...

Polis can stay, but vote every single one of the rest out. This wave needs to be absolutely brutal and leave no corner of the country untouched. Stop the tyranny!

What about the New Rochelle tweet is of concern, aside from those masked students in the photographs? Of course, that's not a sight I'd like to see.

Bowman is the only one in that photo not wearing a mask, despite what he said in his tweet.

I see. I didn't click to expand the photograph, and didn't realize it was happen. Yes, that follows upon what Stacey Abrams did.

[Trump Is A Maoist]

Okay so, they're probably planning to lift it in the spring/summer if it becomes reasonable to do so, with the emphasized statement to the public that "you should expect a very realistic chance of it returning in the fall / winter but we'll see how things evolve between now and then".

Sounds... about right?

[Roll Roons]

Okay so, they're probably planning to lift it in the spring/summer if it becomes reasonable to do so, with the emphasized statement to the public that "you should expect a very realistic chance of it returning in the fall / winter but we'll see how things evolve between now and then".

Sounds... about right?

It should never be brought back, period.

[Trump Is A Maoist]

Okay so, they're probably planning to lift it in the spring/summer if it becomes reasonable to do so, with the emphasized statement to the public that "you should expect a very realistic chance of it returning in the fall / winter but we'll see how things evolve between now and then".

Sounds... about right?

It should never be brought back, period.

Making definite statements about how safety protocols should be in the future despite not knowing what the conditions could be is foolish.

[KaiserDave]

Terrible, terrible