COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

It is also utterly outrageous that we still have a mask mandate to travel on airplanes (for 2-year olds!) but no vaccine mandate.  A vaccine mandate for air travel would have no constitutional issues and be relatively easy to implement, and as a bonus airlines wouldn’t have to deal with all these aggressive passengers anymore.  How is this not complete no-brainer?

I’m also a little surprised that no blue states have passed a vaccine mandate for driving.  I’d think this would be very effective and unlike other vaccine mandates, wouldn’t need to be enforced by private individuals.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

I’m also a little surprised that no blue states have passed a vaccine mandate for driving.  I’d think this would be very effective and unlike other vaccine mandates, wouldn’t need to be enforced by private individuals.

More police selecting which vehicles to stop for whatever reason they like to have hostile interactions with non-compliant people. Sounds like a recipe for success. How many people would have to be shot until it got repealed?

[emailking]

It is also utterly outrageous that we still have a mask mandate to travel on airplanes (for 2-year olds!) but no vaccine mandate.  A vaccine mandate for air travel would have no constitutional issues and be relatively easy to implement, and as a bonus airlines wouldn’t have to deal with all these aggressive passengers anymore.  How is this not complete no-brainer?

This would probably need legislation, and I doubt it has 60 in the Senate. A mask mandate for air travel even with everyone vaccinated makes sense if the goal is to hinder a novel variant.

[Hammy]

Thoughts on NY's mask mandate being ruled unconstitutional?

We spent the 2010s fighting against the school-to-prison pipeline.

But the 2020s have been spent turning schools into prisons.

Masks in schools must go, and there must be accountability for those who enforced it.

It's people like you, making these braindead arguments, that are making the permanent mandate crazies look credible in comparison.

84% approve of the government supply free test kits and masks, but this forum hates the move. Finally there is proof that this forum is totally out of touch with the public on this issue and quite honestly out of touch with reality. You really should reconsider whether you want to fight to support a position with 16% support. You can add the usual 5-10% for the Republican position and it would still be deep in the minority.

Biden administration providing free COVID-19 tests, masks overwhelmingly popular: poll

The Biden administration’s efforts to provide free COVID-19 tests and masks to Americans across the country are overwhelmingly popular, according to a new poll.

The survey, conducted by Axios and Ipsos, found that 84 percent of adults in the U.S. strongly or somewhat support the federal government mailing free at-home COVID-19 tests to anyone who requests them.

Additionally, 84 percent of respondents said they strongly or somewhat support the federal government providing N95 masks to anyone who wants one through pharmacies and health clinics.

Why would anyone hate free tests and masks?  Seems like a no-brainer to me, that necessary items in a post-covid world should be free.

Go back through this thread, multiple posters attacked the move because it promotes the hated masks, exaggerates the threat of COVID, and impedes the "return to normalcy". In reality, people who still take the virus seriously (like me) strongly support the move, while people who don't have a strong opinion think, "Hey free stuff from the government, awesome!". The people who are opposed are the loudest here but finally it's revealed that they are actually deep in the minority.

The only complaints over this were your own strawman arguments of people "being triggered over masks arriving in their mailboxes" which isn't even how this is being implemented in the first place.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

It is also utterly outrageous that we still have a mask mandate to travel on airplanes (for 2-year olds!) but no vaccine mandate.  A vaccine mandate for air travel would have no constitutional issues and be relatively easy to implement, and as a bonus airlines wouldn’t have to deal with all these aggressive passengers anymore.  How is this not complete no-brainer?

This would probably need legislation, and I doubt it has 60 in the Senate. A mask mandate for air travel even with everyone vaccinated makes sense if the goal is to hinder a novel variant.

Why would a vaccine mandate for air travel require legislation but not a mask mandate? 

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

I’m also a little surprised that no blue states have passed a vaccine mandate for driving.  I’d think this would be very effective and unlike other vaccine mandates, wouldn’t need to be enforced by private individuals.

More police selecting which vehicles to stop for whatever reason they like to have hostile interactions with non-compliant people. Sounds like a recipe for success. How many people would have to be shot until it got repealed?

If they started shooting antivax white Republicans, this might actually lead to real police reform.

[Horus]

It is also utterly outrageous that we still have a mask mandate to travel on airplanes (for 2-year olds!) but no vaccine mandate.  A vaccine mandate for air travel would have no constitutional issues and be relatively easy to implement, and as a bonus airlines wouldn’t have to deal with all these aggressive passengers anymore.  How is this not complete no-brainer?

This would probably need legislation, and I doubt it has 60 in the Senate. A mask mandate for air travel even with everyone vaccinated makes sense if the goal is to hinder a novel variant.

If the new goal is to hinder a novel variant, it logically follows that mask mandates should be permanent, right?

[emailking]

Why would a vaccine mandate for air travel require legislation but not a mask mandate? 

I don't know, maybe it's doesn't. I'm just guessing it would need legislation to survive SCOTUS since they allowed the mask mandates for air travel but also ruled that the executive branch can't order randoms to take the vaccine.

[emailking]

If the new goal is to hinder a novel variant, it logically follows that mask mandates should be permanent, right?

I'm not trying to advocate for it.

[Horus]

If the new goal is to hinder a novel variant, it logically follows that mask mandates should be permanent, right?

I'm not trying to advocate for it.

I know. But the forever maskers are numerous and loud minority, far more empowered than anti vaxxers. This is one argument they will be using to push for a perpetually masked society.

[emailking]

Well I think there's at least a much better argument for keeping masks for air travel for the next several months, vs. forever.

[GregTheGreat657]

Thoughts on NY's mask mandate being ruled unconstitutional?

We spent the 2010s fighting against the school-to-prison pipeline.

But the 2020s have been spent turning schools into prisons.

Masks in schools must go, and there must be accountability for those who enforced it.

Agreed. Where I live, masks were mandated in schools, but there was one really one teacher who ever says anything about people not having a mask over their nose

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

This is why 39 percent polls should be ignored with Biden, because COVID isn't a large part of our daily lives as it used to be and it's an annual flu virus now because we are going out to bars, stadiums and resuming our daily lives

They try to push down his Approvals to make it look like Biden isn't succeeding watch in November the polls that are too conservative gonna be wrong if this remains until Nov, low APPROVALS

I get sick but it's not nearly as it once was

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

Thoughts on NY's mask mandate being ruled unconstitutional?

We spent the 2010s fighting against the school-to-prison pipeline.

But the 2020s have been spent turning schools into prisons.

Masks in schools must go, and there must be accountability for those who enforced it.

What?

[roxas11]

https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1485958788851064839

Great to see another country achieving freedom from the pandemic. We owe vaccines and our dear friend omicron a massive debt. Hopefully only weeks until Biden too can declare this thing over.

Biden won't do it. The Democratic Party has completely embraced COVID restrictions as part of its political platform and its identity. It certainly doesn't help that almost all of the party's strategists are suburban snoots that think a midterm strategy devoted to "Stay Home, Save Lives" and agonizing over Marjorie Taylor Greene will be effective.

80 percent of people in Denmark have been fully vaccinated and 60 percent have gotten a booster shot

Our numbers don't even come close to that and we still have a sizable part of our population that has not even gotten 1 shot let alone be fully vaccinated. Biden simply can't ignore those huge differences and just make the call to open up everything just because Denmark decided to especially at a time when deaths from omicron are currently on the rise

now to be clear, I do not oppose the idea of lifting all covid restrictions, but the decision should be based on what is currently going on in our county and not on what other countries around the world may or may not be doing

[Calthrina950]

The relevant difference is federalism and separation of powers, not our vaccination rates. Plenty of US states have broken even more dramatically from policies meant to contain the spread of the virus and others will follow along sooner or later.

If we take mask mandates as a barometer, here is the state of play as far as I can ascertain:



Keep in mind that the efforts to remove local mask mandates have been aspirational for most of the states in that category.

There's a strong political correlation at play as well. Every state which has a statewide mask mandate in force, or a statewide school mask mandate (except for Massachusetts and Maryland), has a Democratic Governor, and all but Louisiana possess a Democratic-controlled state legislature. Every state where an effort has been made to ban mask mandates, or where such bans have actually been implemented, has a Republican Governor, and all bar Virginia possess a Republican trifecta. Mask mandates are clearly tied to each party's identity at this point.

[MATTROSE94]

Thoughts on NY's mask mandate being ruled unconstitutional?

We spent the 2010s fighting against the school-to-prison pipeline.

But the 2020s have been spent turning schools into prisons.

Masks in schools must go, and there must be accountability for those who enforced it.

I agree, but probably not for another 2 or 3 months, as a lot of children are still at risk for COVID. In 2 or 3 months, more children should be vaccinated, so school mask mandates should ideally end then.

[GregTheGreat657]

Thoughts on NY's mask mandate being ruled unconstitutional?

We spent the 2010s fighting against the school-to-prison pipeline.

But the 2020s have been spent turning schools into prisons.

Masks in schools must go, and there must be accountability for those who enforced it.

I agree, but probably not for another 2 or 3 months, as a lot of children are still at risk for COVID. In 2 or 3 months, more children should be vaccinated, so school mask mandates should ideally end then.

What about high schools? HS students have been eligible for vaccination since last May

[Meclazine for Israel]

New variant deserves a new thread.

The "Son of Omicron" has arrived in Denmark and can only be detected by lab analysis.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10445209/Expert-stuns-Karl-Stefanovic-warns-contagious-Covid-variant-BA-2.html

University of Melbourne epidemiologist Professor Nancy Baxter was on morning TV saying it's more contagious than Omicron.

[Horus]

New variant deserves a new thread.

The "Son of Omicron" has arrived in Denmark and can only be detected by lab analysis.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10445209/Expert-stuns-Karl-Stefanovic-warns-contagious-Covid-variant-BA-2.html

University of Melbourne epidemiologist Professor Nancy Baxter was on morning TV saying it's more contagious than Omicron.

Looks like masks are about to be even more useless than they already are.

[Calthrina950]

New variant deserves a new thread.

The "Son of Omicron" has arrived in Denmark and can only be detected by lab analysis.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10445209/Expert-stuns-Karl-Stefanovic-warns-contagious-Covid-variant-BA-2.html

University of Melbourne epidemiologist Professor Nancy Baxter was on morning TV saying it's more contagious than Omicron.

Looks like masks are about to be even more useless than they already are.

But we should expect for public health officials to reiterate the importance of wearing them, for Democratic jurisdictions to reinforce or perhaps extend their mask mandates, and for N95 mask mandates to become more commonplace. Such mandates have already been introduced on many college campuses, and several school districts have tightened their masking requirements as well.

[compucomp]

New variant deserves a new thread.

The "Son of Omicron" has arrived in Denmark and can only be detected by lab analysis.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10445209/Expert-stuns-Karl-Stefanovic-warns-contagious-Covid-variant-BA-2.html

University of Melbourne epidemiologist Professor Nancy Baxter was on morning TV saying it's more contagious than Omicron.

Looks like masks are about to be even more useless than they already are.

What an illogical comment, the virus got stronger so we weaken our defenses? If the weather is 15 degrees colder tomorrow than it is today, will you put on an extra layer of clothes or strip naked in the subfreezing weather instead?

[Horus]

New variant deserves a new thread.

The "Son of Omicron" has arrived in Denmark and can only be detected by lab analysis.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10445209/Expert-stuns-Karl-Stefanovic-warns-contagious-Covid-variant-BA-2.html

University of Melbourne epidemiologist Professor Nancy Baxter was on morning TV saying it's more contagious than Omicron.

Looks like masks are about to be even more useless than they already are.

What an illogical comment, the virus got stronger so we weaken our defenses? If the weather is 10 degrees colder tomorrow than it is today, will you put on an extra layer of clothes or strip naked in the subfreezing weather instead?

More transmissible doesn't mean stronger. Omicron is very mild, especially for the vaccinated. I'd bet "Son of Omicron" is even weaker.

[Hammy]

An island of sanity in the ocean of hysteria. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/01/25/omicron-new-variant-ba-2-covid/9214980002/

The reality, Lemieux said, is that while BA.2 is likely to keep spreading at least for a few weeks in places around the world, "we have an ability to combat the virus that is orders of magnitudes different from where we were two years ago."

"Yes, we have some hard decisions. We have some evidence to collect. We can't predict the future," said Lemieux, noting that vaccines and drugs like monoclonal antibodies and antivirals have reduced the risk tenfold of becoming severely ill or dying from COVID-19.  "But I think we are in a tremendously optimistic place, despite all the transmission, despite all the challenges ahead."

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

Democrat has successfully fearmongered a lot of poor people (esp. its own base) to keep their kids from the school, because Covid is "dangerous" for the kids.


Here is the data from UK, who (as the most of Western World) contrary to disgusting racist Democrats tried to keep schools open throughout the pandemic.

https://www.ft.com/content/28be9d3f-0b12-4c33-bda9-fbff375c0b7e

Countries with high exposure to the Omicron variant are recording record numbers of child coronavirus hospitalisations, adding to the pressures on healthcare systems, although health experts have stressed that the vast majority of cases were mild.

Data from Europe and the US show more child admissions in recent days than at any time during the pandemic, but severe cases are rare in the youngest age groups and Omicron infections generally looked similar to other common respiratory illnesses.

England is on course for 2,000 to 3,000 paediatric Covid-19 admissions in January, comparable with typical winter admissions for pneumonia and well short of the usual winter peak of 12,500 monthly admissions for bronchiolitis.

Even without vaccines, a typical wave of bronchiolitis dwarfs Covid-19 and even admissions for pneumonia usually are larger (and more severe).

This was more or less known from ~summer 2020. Democrats knew it, but politicized it to win some sits or something.