COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

'Vigilante treatments': Anti-vaccine groups push people to leave ICUs

Anti-vaccine Facebook groups have a new message for their community members: Don’t go to the emergency room, and get your loved ones out of intensive care units.

Consumed by conspiracy theories claiming that doctors are preventing unvaccinated patients from receiving miracle cures or are even killing them on purpose, some people in anti-vaccine and pro-ivermectin Facebook groups are telling those with Covid-19 to stay away from hospitals and instead try increasingly dangerous at-home treatments, according to posts seen by NBC News over the past few weeks.

The messages represent an escalation in the mistrust of medical professionals in groups that have sprung up in recent months on social media platforms, which have tried to crack down on Covid misinformation. And it’s something that some doctors say they’re seeing manifest in their hospitals as they have filled up because of the most recent delta variant wave.

I suppose this is a good thing because if this gains traction, then ICU spaces are preserved for people who deserve them. Eating sh**t and dying to own the libs must be the new fad. Maybe they think Trump is still the president and that they need to keep the COVID numbers low so their glorious leader doesn't look bad. 

The fact that we now have people nebulizing hydrogen f***ing peroxide because they refuse to get the vaccine really does a lot to show just how bad a place we are in as a society when it comes to misinformation and delusional pseudo-populist fanaticism against scientific expertise.

I really don't know how we fix this, and it scares me. This is the sort of thing that five years ago, if I had made it up as a caricature of anti-vaxxers, it would have been considered too over-the-top and unrealistic.

Either the willful idiocy eventually dies back down to much lower levels, or society eventually collapses under the weight of it.

[emailking]

I actually used hydrogen peroxide to remove an earwax blockage the other day, the 2nd of my life. I didn't nebulize it though, just poured it in.

[Hammy]

Unfortunately I don't think we're going to see that happen. It's clear to me that the powers that be prefer universal restrictions over a vaccine mandate.

Dems have essentially surrendered to antivaxxers.

[Person Man]

'Vigilante treatments': Anti-vaccine groups push people to leave ICUs

Anti-vaccine Facebook groups have a new message for their community members: Don’t go to the emergency room, and get your loved ones out of intensive care units.

Consumed by conspiracy theories claiming that doctors are preventing unvaccinated patients from receiving miracle cures or are even killing them on purpose, some people in anti-vaccine and pro-ivermectin Facebook groups are telling those with Covid-19 to stay away from hospitals and instead try increasingly dangerous at-home treatments, according to posts seen by NBC News over the past few weeks.

The messages represent an escalation in the mistrust of medical professionals in groups that have sprung up in recent months on social media platforms, which have tried to crack down on Covid misinformation. And it’s something that some doctors say they’re seeing manifest in their hospitals as they have filled up because of the most recent delta variant wave.

I suppose this is a good thing because if this gains traction, then ICU spaces are preserved for people who deserve them. Eating sh**t and dying to own the libs must be the new fad. Maybe they think Trump is still the president and that they need to keep the COVID numbers low so their glorious leader doesn't look bad. 

The fact that we now have people nebulizing hydrogen f***ing peroxide because they refuse to get the vaccine really does a lot to show just how bad a place we are in as a society when it comes to misinformation and delusional pseudo-populist fanaticism against scientific expertise.

I really don't know how we fix this, and it scares me. This is the sort of thing that five years ago, if I had made it up as a caricature of anti-vaxxers, it would have been considered too over-the-top and unrealistic.

Either the willful idiocy eventually dies back down to much lower levels, or society eventually collapses under the weight of it.

I saw something in Medium today about what a “post-society America” would look like. I imagine it being that the life I led in between school becomes the norm for most people.

[emailking]

I don't have a link but I've been hearing it on the news all day. The CDC formally approved boosters for Pfizer after 6 months for >65 or high risk medical conditions or high risk occupations, and the CDC Director overruled the advisory panel to increase the conditions that are covered.

For Moderna and J&J it sounds like there will eventually be boosters but not yet.

[Calthrina950]

I don't have a link but I've been hearing it on the news all day. The CDC formally approved boosters for Pfizer after 6 months for >65 or high risk medical conditions or high risk occupations, and the CDC Director overruled the advisory panel to increase the conditions that are covered.

For Moderna and J&J it sounds like there will eventually be boosters but not yet.

Does anyone know why it has taken so long for the FDA to grant full approval to Moderna and J&J? Moderna, in particular, should have received full approval by now, considering it's the most effective of the three vaccines.

[emailking]

I think Moderna is still working on theirs, maybe with a reduced dosage. J&J just found found it increases effeciveness to 95%.

[Darthpi – Anti-Florida Activist]

I don't have a link but I've been hearing it on the news all day. The CDC formally approved boosters for Pfizer after 6 months for >65 or high risk medical conditions or high risk occupations, and the CDC Director overruled the advisory panel to increase the conditions that are covered.

For Moderna and J&J it sounds like there will eventually be boosters but not yet.

Does anyone know why it has taken so long for the FDA to grant full approval to Moderna and J&J? Moderna, in particular, should have received full approval by now, considering it's the most effective of the three vaccines.

From what I understand, Moderna and J&J didn't have all of the required data/forms/whatever submitted to the FDA at the time the Pfizer one received full approval. Not sure if that has changed since then.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Leaked Grant Proposal Details High-Risk Coronavirus Research

A grant proposal written by the U.S.-based nonprofit the EcoHealth Alliance and submitted in 2018 to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, provides evidence that the group was working — or at least planning to work — on several risky areas of research. Among the scientific tasks the group described in its proposal, which was rejected by DARPA, was the creation of full-length infectious clones of bat SARS-related coronaviruses and the insertion of a tiny part of the virus known as a “proteolytic cleavage site” into bat coronaviruses. Of particular interest was a type of cleavage site able to interact with furin, an enzyme expressed in human cells.

The EcoHealth Alliance did not respond to inquiries about the document, despite having answered previous queries from The Intercept about the group’s government-funded coronavirus research. The group’s president, Peter Daszak, acknowledged the public discussion of an unfunded EcoHealth proposal in a tweet on Saturday. He did not dispute its authenticity.

Daszak, the EcoHealth Alliance president, has actively sought to quash interest in the idea that the novel coronavirus originated in a lab. In February 2020, as the pandemic began to grip major cities in the U.S., he began organizing scientists to write an open letter that was published in the Lancet addressing the origins of the virus. “The rapid, open, and transparent sharing of data on this outbreak is now being threatened by rumours and misinformation around its origins,” read the statement signed by Daszak and 26 co-authors. “We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.”

[walleye26]

'Vigilante treatments': Anti-vaccine groups push people to leave ICUs

Anti-vaccine Facebook groups have a new message for their community members: Don’t go to the emergency room, and get your loved ones out of intensive care units.

Consumed by conspiracy theories claiming that doctors are preventing unvaccinated patients from receiving miracle cures or are even killing them on purpose, some people in anti-vaccine and pro-ivermectin Facebook groups are telling those with Covid-19 to stay away from hospitals and instead try increasingly dangerous at-home treatments, according to posts seen by NBC News over the past few weeks.

The messages represent an escalation in the mistrust of medical professionals in groups that have sprung up in recent months on social media platforms, which have tried to crack down on Covid misinformation. And it’s something that some doctors say they’re seeing manifest in their hospitals as they have filled up because of the most recent delta variant wave.

I suppose this is a good thing because if this gains traction, then ICU spaces are preserved for people who deserve them. Eating sh**t and dying to own the libs must be the new fad. Maybe they think Trump is still the president and that they need to keep the COVID numbers low so their glorious leader doesn't look bad. 

The fact that we now have people nebulizing hydrogen f***ing peroxide because they refuse to get the vaccine really does a lot to show just how bad a place we are in as a society when it comes to misinformation and delusional pseudo-populist fanaticism against scientific expertise.

I really don't know how we fix this, and it scares me. This is the sort of thing that five years ago, if I had made it up as a caricature of anti-vaxxers, it would have been considered too over-the-top and unrealistic.

Either the willful idiocy eventually dies back down to much lower levels, or society eventually collapses under the weight of it.

I saw something in Medium today about what a “post-society America” would look like. I imagine it being that the life I led in between school becomes the norm for most people.

I would say eventually we get to Idiocracy levels of stupidity.

[Person Man]

'Vigilante treatments': Anti-vaccine groups push people to leave ICUs

Anti-vaccine Facebook groups have a new message for their community members: Don’t go to the emergency room, and get your loved ones out of intensive care units.

Consumed by conspiracy theories claiming that doctors are preventing unvaccinated patients from receiving miracle cures or are even killing them on purpose, some people in anti-vaccine and pro-ivermectin Facebook groups are telling those with Covid-19 to stay away from hospitals and instead try increasingly dangerous at-home treatments, according to posts seen by NBC News over the past few weeks.

The messages represent an escalation in the mistrust of medical professionals in groups that have sprung up in recent months on social media platforms, which have tried to crack down on Covid misinformation. And it’s something that some doctors say they’re seeing manifest in their hospitals as they have filled up because of the most recent delta variant wave.

I suppose this is a good thing because if this gains traction, then ICU spaces are preserved for people who deserve them. Eating sh**t and dying to own the libs must be the new fad. Maybe they think Trump is still the president and that they need to keep the COVID numbers low so their glorious leader doesn't look bad. 

The fact that we now have people nebulizing hydrogen f***ing peroxide because they refuse to get the vaccine really does a lot to show just how bad a place we are in as a society when it comes to misinformation and delusional pseudo-populist fanaticism against scientific expertise.

I really don't know how we fix this, and it scares me. This is the sort of thing that five years ago, if I had made it up as a caricature of anti-vaxxers, it would have been considered too over-the-top and unrealistic.

Either the willful idiocy eventually dies back down to much lower levels, or society eventually collapses under the weight of it.

I saw something in Medium today about what a “post-society America” would look like. I imagine it being that the life I led in between school becomes the norm for most people.

I would say eventually we get to Idiocracy levels of stupidity.

We’d lose about 90% of our population due to starvation long before then. The documentary Earth 2100 is far more likely than that though I know this is a joke but still.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

'Vigilante treatments': Anti-vaccine groups push people to leave ICUs

Anti-vaccine Facebook groups have a new message for their community members: Don’t go to the emergency room, and get your loved ones out of intensive care units.

Consumed by conspiracy theories claiming that doctors are preventing unvaccinated patients from receiving miracle cures or are even killing them on purpose, some people in anti-vaccine and pro-ivermectin Facebook groups are telling those with Covid-19 to stay away from hospitals and instead try increasingly dangerous at-home treatments, according to posts seen by NBC News over the past few weeks.

The messages represent an escalation in the mistrust of medical professionals in groups that have sprung up in recent months on social media platforms, which have tried to crack down on Covid misinformation. And it’s something that some doctors say they’re seeing manifest in their hospitals as they have filled up because of the most recent delta variant wave.

I suppose this is a good thing because if this gains traction, then ICU spaces are preserved for people who deserve them. Eating sh**t and dying to own the libs must be the new fad. Maybe they think Trump is still the president and that they need to keep the COVID numbers low so their glorious leader doesn't look bad. 

The fact that we now have people nebulizing hydrogen f***ing peroxide because they refuse to get the vaccine really does a lot to show just how bad a place we are in as a society when it comes to misinformation and delusional pseudo-populist fanaticism against scientific expertise.

I really don't know how we fix this, and it scares me. This is the sort of thing that five years ago, if I had made it up as a caricature of anti-vaxxers, it would have been considered too over-the-top and unrealistic.

Either the willful idiocy eventually dies back down to much lower levels, or society eventually collapses under the weight of it.

I saw something in Medium today about what a “post-society America” would look like. I imagine it being that the life I led in between school becomes the norm for most people.

I would say eventually we get to Idiocracy levels of stupidity.

What do you mean "eventually"? The last president was a reality tv host who drew on official National Weather Service maps with sharpies and lied about it, when he didn't want to nuke hurricanes,  buy Greenland, or have people drink bleach. He ended his term (after an election he barely lost) by attempting the most stupid coup in the history of coup attempts: he told his Vice-President to just tell everyone he was still President, because reasons. And his Vice-President had to think about it really hard.

We're in the middle of the worst pandemic in a century, and over a third of the country won't get vaccinated because they think the vaccines are full of microchips that magnetize you.  Half the country is upset because after two decades of failed war they really wanted some more, and can even articulate why. One of the two political party's has promised to bankrupt the nation. And in Congress, a woman dressed like Peg Bundy is responding to a global climate crisis by red-baiting with Scooby-Doo memes.

We've left Caligula making his horse a Senator in the dust and we don't even realize it. The United States is a zombie nation - we're brain-dead, but we're still moving and eating whatever we can grab.

[Former President tack50]

'Vigilante treatments': Anti-vaccine groups push people to leave ICUs

Anti-vaccine Facebook groups have a new message for their community members: Don’t go to the emergency room, and get your loved ones out of intensive care units.

Consumed by conspiracy theories claiming that doctors are preventing unvaccinated patients from receiving miracle cures or are even killing them on purpose, some people in anti-vaccine and pro-ivermectin Facebook groups are telling those with Covid-19 to stay away from hospitals and instead try increasingly dangerous at-home treatments, according to posts seen by NBC News over the past few weeks.

The messages represent an escalation in the mistrust of medical professionals in groups that have sprung up in recent months on social media platforms, which have tried to crack down on Covid misinformation. And it’s something that some doctors say they’re seeing manifest in their hospitals as they have filled up because of the most recent delta variant wave.

I suppose this is a good thing because if this gains traction, then ICU spaces are preserved for people who deserve them. Eating sh**t and dying to own the libs must be the new fad. Maybe they think Trump is still the president and that they need to keep the COVID numbers low so their glorious leader doesn't look bad. 

I have no objection to this.

These people keep insisting COVID is "just the flu" so if they really want to stick to their principles, they shouldn't be going to the hospital at all, since virtually no one ever needs the ICU for influenza.

I know people who have had necessary surgeries and procedures delayed because the COVID people are overcrowding the hospitals. So if they'll just stop going there, they'll free up the space for the rest of us.

While I agree with your sentiment, the bolded part is completely, 100% false. A bad flu can very well put you in the ICU. I vividly remember an old teacher of mine who got the flu, developed pneumonia and was completely absent for a full month, including a stay at the hospital. She did recover to full health thankfully, though she was quite wean and short of breath for a month after coming back

[Person Man]

'Vigilante treatments': Anti-vaccine groups push people to leave ICUs

Anti-vaccine Facebook groups have a new message for their community members: Don’t go to the emergency room, and get your loved ones out of intensive care units.

Consumed by conspiracy theories claiming that doctors are preventing unvaccinated patients from receiving miracle cures or are even killing them on purpose, some people in anti-vaccine and pro-ivermectin Facebook groups are telling those with Covid-19 to stay away from hospitals and instead try increasingly dangerous at-home treatments, according to posts seen by NBC News over the past few weeks.

The messages represent an escalation in the mistrust of medical professionals in groups that have sprung up in recent months on social media platforms, which have tried to crack down on Covid misinformation. And it’s something that some doctors say they’re seeing manifest in their hospitals as they have filled up because of the most recent delta variant wave.

I suppose this is a good thing because if this gains traction, then ICU spaces are preserved for people who deserve them. Eating sh**t and dying to own the libs must be the new fad. Maybe they think Trump is still the president and that they need to keep the COVID numbers low so their glorious leader doesn't look bad. 

I have no objection to this.

These people keep insisting COVID is "just the flu" so if they really want to stick to their principles, they shouldn't be going to the hospital at all, since virtually no one ever needs the ICU for influenza.

I know people who have had necessary surgeries and procedures delayed because the COVID people are overcrowding the hospitals. So if they'll just stop going there, they'll free up the space for the rest of us.

While I agree with your sentiment, the bolded part is completely, 100% false. A bad flu can very well put you in the ICU. I vividly remember an old teacher of mine who got the flu, developed pneumonia and was completely absent for a full month, including a stay at the hospital. She did recover to full health thankfully, though she was quite wean and short of breath for a month after coming back

You know what he meant. It wasn’t to trivialize flu was to trivialize  the pandemic.

This isn’t the worst pandemic in a century, it’s the worst pandemic in this country’s history. Period. If it’s not under control by the end of the year it will probably have killed more people than AIDS has.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

'Vigilante treatments': Anti-vaccine groups push people to leave ICUs

Anti-vaccine Facebook groups have a new message for their community members: Don’t go to the emergency room, and get your loved ones out of intensive care units.

Consumed by conspiracy theories claiming that doctors are preventing unvaccinated patients from receiving miracle cures or are even killing them on purpose, some people in anti-vaccine and pro-ivermectin Facebook groups are telling those with Covid-19 to stay away from hospitals and instead try increasingly dangerous at-home treatments, according to posts seen by NBC News over the past few weeks.

The messages represent an escalation in the mistrust of medical professionals in groups that have sprung up in recent months on social media platforms, which have tried to crack down on Covid misinformation. And it’s something that some doctors say they’re seeing manifest in their hospitals as they have filled up because of the most recent delta variant wave.

I suppose this is a good thing because if this gains traction, then ICU spaces are preserved for people who deserve them. Eating sh**t and dying to own the libs must be the new fad. Maybe they think Trump is still the president and that they need to keep the COVID numbers low so their glorious leader doesn't look bad.  

I have no objection to this.

These people keep insisting COVID is "just the flu" so if they really want to stick to their principles, they shouldn't be going to the hospital at all, since virtually no one ever needs the ICU for influenza.

I know people who have had necessary surgeries and procedures delayed because the COVID people are overcrowding the hospitals. So if they'll just stop going there, they'll free up the space for the rest of us.

While I agree with your sentiment, the bolded part is completely, 100% false. A bad flu can very well put you in the ICU. I vividly remember an old teacher of mine who got the flu, developed pneumonia and was completely absent for a full month, including a stay at the hospital. She did recover to full health thankfully, though she was quite wean and short of breath for a month after coming back

You know what he meant. It wasn’t to trivialize flu was to trivialize  the pandemic.

This isn’t the worst pandemic in a century, it’s the worst pandemic in this country’s history. Period. If it’s not under control by the end of the year it will probably have killed more people than AIDS has.

It almost certainly already has. When you add excess deaths to known COVID deaths, the total US death toll over the course of the pandemic has passed 1.4 million. That's one in 250 Americans. (Source: The Economist "Tracking covid-19 excess deaths across countries", Sept 10, 2021)

Edited: I misread the data - as Russian Bear points out below, the United States has had less than 200,000 excess deaths not already attributable to COVID, the total number is still well under a million.

[pbrower2a]

The government doesn't need to implant any chips into anyone. It can follow cell phone use or use of credit or debit cards. One would need to do a very good job of deflection to avoid getting tracked. I heard of one large-scale drug trafficker who gave credit cards to friends and told them to go on vacations to distract the Feds from him while he was on the run (Doing so makes one an accessory in aiding a fugitive evade law enforcement, so I would not encourage anyone to do that). The fellow got caught some time ago, so even that probably would not work.  Someone facing twenty years of federal time if not exposing one's "friend" and a year if telling the truth will betray his supposed benefactor.  

If the feds wanted to track me (I do not do crime, so I am a non-target) they could follow my cell-phone calls and debit card use in recent weeks in the northern and central parts of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Indeed if they ever got my camera's data card they would recognize that I took photos of the Mackinac Bridge, Sleeping Bear Dunes, and the Meijer Gardens (Grand Rapids). Because I am on disability I get food aid... and my purchases of stuff that I ate or drank on that food aid (sodas, sandwiches, some chicken, and pre-made salads) could also track me.

Then again, my computer has no child porn or beheading videos on them either.    

[Meclazine for Israel]

If it’s not under control by the end of the year it will probably have killed more people than AIDS has.

Interesting point.

At the moment in the USA, there are

HIV+ = 1.2M active cases
COVID-19 = 9.8M active cases

Your prediction is almost certain.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Anti-Vaxx movement in Australia is led by Scotty Tape.

The Barefoot Denier

https://youtu.be/aHZxOpKJ85I

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

It almost certainly already has. When you add excess deaths to known COVID deaths, the total US death toll over the course of the pandemic has passed 1.4 million. That's one in 250 Americans. (Source: The Economist "Tracking covid-19 excess deaths across countries", Sept 10, 2021)

No, mate, that's not, how it works. Excess deaths already "includes" lion's share of known COVID deaths.

[emailking]

I assume he meant when you take into account excess deaths, not adding all excess deaths to known Covid deaths.

[pbrower2a]

Excess deaths include any deaths attributed to COVID-19 and excess deaths not attributed to causes obviously unconnected to COVID-19 such as homicides, industrial calamities, fires,  and vehicle crashes. Some people have died of COVID-19 without being treated for it.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

I assume he meant when you take into account excess deaths, not adding all excess deaths to known Covid deaths.

What is his 1.4 mln number then? It looks like added known Covid and excess deaths.

When you add excess deaths to known COVID deaths, the total US death toll over the course of the pandemic has passed 1.4 million.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

It almost certainly already has. When you add excess deaths to known COVID deaths, the total US death toll over the course of the pandemic has passed 1.4 million. That's one in 250 Americans. (Source: The Economist "Tracking covid-19 excess deaths across countries", Sept 10, 2021)

No, mate, that's not, how it works. Excess deaths already "includes" lion's share of known COVID deaths.

You are correct. I've edited my post to reflect the much lower total death toll.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I assume he meant when you take into account excess deaths, not adding all excess deaths to known Covid deaths.

What is his 1.4 mln number then? It looks like added known Covid and excess deaths.

When you add excess deaths to known COVID deaths, the total US death toll over the course of the pandemic has passed 1.4 million.

Russian Bear is correct here - I fouled up my math and reasoning quite thoroughly. The excess deaths in the US, during the pandemic are <200,000. Some of those are near-certainly from unrecorded COVID and co-morbidities, others indirectly related (delayed treatment due to full hospitals, diseases resulting from changing circumstances due to COVID, mixed with others that likely cannot be attributed to the pandemic at all. And in any case, the US death toll is not anywhere close to 1.4 million in the United States at this time, nor is there any evidence to believe it is.

[pbrower2a]

Is it right that COVID-19 is easily identified in an autopsy?