COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Progressive Pessimist]

People are done listening to the "Lockdown! Lockdown! Lockdown!" types.

We wouldn’t have as big of a problem if people listened to them in the first place.

In fairness the bigger problem was state and local governments getting impatient and lifting the lock-downs themselves even in spite of the risks.

You can more accurately blame ordinary people for not abiding by mask-wearing or social distancing protocols though. That was the next fail-safe.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://mobile.twitter.com/AP/status/1291714264554786817

https://mobile.twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1291715108243230721

It’s still going to be over 8 on Election Day. Especially with the stimulus being over.

It's going to be the world's shiniest turd by that point.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Frankly, I think it’s selfish that entire counties have locked down for 0.4% of the population - without any consideration for the other 99.7%. How the fuk does that make any sense to anyone?

Because we're a society with a social contract where we agree to a modicum of concern for the most vulnerable even at mild inconvenience to us?

Okay. I can’t get appropriate care for a severe health issue I’ve been dealing with for several years. And how about all those that can’t support their families now? The half billon who will spiral into poverty around the world. How about increases in suicide, drug addiction, and alcoholism? How about the destruction in major cities? I could go on.

Social contract my ass.

Not to mention screwing Millennials over for a second time (I.e., Great Recession)
 
And now many of you - Generation Z - will be worse off than Millennials, who are the first generation to be worse off than the previous one.  I would be very scared if I were you - not because of the virus, but because you’re on course to being a truly lost generation.

College bubble has popped (which does make my degree much more valuable)
And if you think closing down schools is a good idea, then you’re really screwed.
Plus the economy, which will eventually burst too.
The trillions added to the debt in just the last few months.
Bankrupt social security.

Again, I could go on.

I actually, surprisingly, think you're largely correct on this in terms of how the pandemic has exacerbated the problems of different generations and people who were already marginalized. However I think you're misattributing it to the lockdowns.

That .4% that you are decrying being protected would have, and still could have, significantly ballooned out of proportion without the measures that were taken in some states. Just look at how the virus was considered to be a population density problem at first and is now worsening in rural areas. It's cliche and a bit schmaltzy to say but we really are in this together-everything affects everything in a circumstance like this. An economy and society isn't supposed to function, at least temporarily, as it normally would during a pandemic of this proportion.

 The real issue has been a  lack of a plan for states to uniformly follow, and a robust social safety net to blunt whatever long-term impacts a slowing down of society would have for the sake of peoples' health. With this disease being as contagious as it is the "social contract" that was brought up really can't be thrown by the wayside. We need to face the facts that this public health crisis is maybe the biggest test our society has ever faced. We are now reckoning with the consequences of our lack of preparation for it and the status quo that led to it compounding and overlapping with other major societal ills and inequities.

[Progressive Pessimist]

MyPillow CEO-turned-scientist Mike Lindell is selling a miracle death cure:
https://twitter.com/DrGJackBrown/status/1295491801126600704?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoog...
For the best night's sleep in the whole wide world.

I am guessing many people would willingly buy poison pills if he found the right market.

"I'll try it because Lindell's story is so inspirational!"

[Progressive Pessimist]

So, my mom visited my grandma today very briefly to bring her some groceries she needed and ended up trapped in a conversation with my grandma's boyfriend. He is your everyday Trump cultist and apparently he was saying that kids should go back to school so that they aren't molested at home because according to him that is a problem that is increasing because of remote learning...yeah. I don't know that it's untrue, but seriously what the f***!? I would love to know here he heard that, because he is incapable of an original thought and gets his information exclusively from Fox News and right wing radio.

[Progressive Pessimist]

An aggressive push by Iowa’s pro-Trump governor to reopen schools amid a worsening coronavirus outbreak has descended into chaos, with some districts and teachers rebelling and experts calling the scientific benchmarks used by the state arbitrary and unsafe.

https://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/iowa-governors-push-to-reopen-schools-descends-into-chaos/5FV6YLL57NHRJA4HD4AK2XHUYM/

This on top of the storms too? You can do something about this on November 3, Iowa!

[Progressive Pessimist]

I am tired of people pulling the, "but my 96 year old grandmother" card.

I am tired of being told I should work from home when I am not able to work from home and a majority of jobs can not be worked from home. And many jobs that can be worked remotely still need in person on site work.

I am tired of being labeled a sociopath just because I oppose draconian lockdowns. I do support rotational regional lockdowns !

Take that up with people who refuse to wear a mask or don't abide by any other social distancing guidelines.

[Progressive Pessimist]

The extent to which this country has collectively just completely given up on actually suppressing the virus is infuriating. Plateauing at 40-45K new cases per day most days is disastrous and inexcusable.

Trump wants to go with a herd immunity approach.

Which is extremely dangerous and extremely deadly (assuming the current rate of infection, that would mean close to 7 million Americans dead before we reach immunity).

He doesn't have an approach. He is literally just hoping for it to go away as he's wrongly predicted every month since February.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://twitter.com/NYGovCuomo/status/1318294439685705736

Trump himself is a POS.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://twitter.com/brianklaas/status/1334459364455952385

That #DiaperDon is being coddled and humored as he tries to steal another term, rather than hiding from enraged politically diverse mobs is damning.

I'm going to wait until Biden has a chance to get something done, but my gut says the United States is done. Maybe we'll go out like the Roman Empire, or maybe it'll be more like the Soviet Union, but I'm having a hard time seeing or believing that we can pull out of the downward path we're on.

Yeah...I think I'm with you here. The fact that Trump was able to convince so many Americans that he warranted no responsibility for the virus, or that not as many as should have cared, was already an indication of this.

Really Biden's presidency is probably just going to be a means of keeping the country on life support for at least four more years. I hope to be wrong, but it's hard not still feel crestfallen about the state of our nation.

[Progressive Pessimist]

DeSantis sabotaged Florida's coronavirus response for political ends.

Secrecy and spin: How Florida’s governor misled the public on the COVID-19 pandemic

DeSantis, who owes his job to early support from President Donald Trump, imposed an approach in line with the views of the president and his powerful base of supporters. The administration suppressed unfavorable facts, dispensed dangerous misinformation, dismissed public health professionals, and promoted the views of scientific dissenters who supported the governor’s approach to the disease.

The DeSantis administration’s approach to managing COVID-19 information carries costs. It supports a climate in which people proudly disdain masks, engage in dangerous group activities that could spread the disease, and brush aside information that conflicts with their political views. With partygoers packing Florida bars and holiday travelers filling hotels and guest rooms, the state faces a few difficult months before the possible relief of vaccines.

These findings are based on interviews with more than 50 people, including scientists, doctors, political leaders, employees of the state health department, and other state officials, as well as more than 4,000 pages of documents:

The Florida Department of Health’s county-level spokespeople were ordered in September to stop issuing public statements about COVID-19 until after the Nov. 3 election.

There's more, but in a functioning society, that one alone should see him on a swift path from governor's office to prison.

DeSantis is a piece of s__t, to put it mildly.

DeSuckass.

Watch him inevitably win re-election in a landslide though because Florida is the microcosm of how little our nation gives a s*** about taking this pandemic seriously.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1335679426516881409

Giuliani is the mascot of the  of this year. He encompasses almost everything that was terrible about it. The only thing that he hasn't had happen to him is get stung by a murder hornet.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Congratulations rural Trump America. You have done the near impossible. Cause a virus to spread out of control in rural communities nation wide.

In rural communities simple common sense would have prevented this.

It was all worth it to spite us freedom-hating coastal elitists.

[Progressive Pessimist]

This dude basically spent a year of his presidential term at the golf course, what a clown show.

But Obama!

[Progressive Pessimist]

Does anyone know if the vaccine is supposed to give lasting immunity, or if we’ll have to get a vaccine every year like the flu?

My gut feeling is that the COVID vaccine will be ineffective against the new strains of the disease, which might mean that we will have to deal with permanent lockdowns and millions of deaths per year until 2034 or 2035.

Not if President DeSantis has anything to not do about it!

[Progressive Pessimist]

COVID helped Biden, not Trump. Trump would have won if not for COVID.

COVID could have been a gift to Trump if he and his administration acted competently and smart though. Just look at how his approval rating spiked when the pandemic first started. That was a sign that Americans, regardless of their personal feelings towards him, were looking to him to finally prove himself as a leader and he failed miserably in turn by getting overconfident and shooting himself in the foot (as always) by prioritizing shallow concepts like the stock market over transparency and public health. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Additionally when that was finally evident (probably beginning with the infamous "inject disinfect" press conference) Biden was then able to be that leader Americans looked to, especially Democrats. Trump handed him a real opportunity to have a coherent, unifying message and major contrast. As I saw it, the pandemic was what really caused Biden skeptics from the primary, among others like anti-Trump Republicans some of whom turned Independents or Democrats as well, to embrace him and unite behind him against Trump's failed leadership.

[Progressive Pessimist]

COVID helped Biden, not Trump. Trump would have won if not for COVID.

COVID could have been a gift to Trump if he and his administration acted competently and smart though. Just look at how his approval rating spiked when the pandemic first started. That was a sign that Americans, regardless of their personal feelings towards him, were looking to him to finally prove himself as a leader and he failed miserably in turn by getting overconfident and shooting himself in the foot (as always) by prioritizing shallow concepts like the stock market over transparency and public health. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Additionally when that was finally evident (probably beginning with the infamous "inject disinfect" press conference) Biden was then able to be that leader Americans looked to, especially Democrats. Trump handed him a real opportunity to have a coherent, unifying message and major contrast. As I saw it, the pandemic was what really caused Biden skeptics from the primary, among others like anti-Trump Republicans some of whom turned Independents or Democrats as well, to embrace him and unite behind him against Trump's failed leadership.

Honestly, given the final closeness in crucial states like GA, AZ, & WI, a Trump win wouldn't have even required him finally proving himself as a leader as you describe so much as literally just going so far as to maybe wear a mask every now & then, & maybe giving an extra sh*t or 2 about a Sept. stimulus check. That he couldn't just further proves what a complete dumbass he is, always has been, & always will be.

It was obviously closer than expected and I largely credit that to Trump having more of an incumbency advantage than it seemed, especially with the nation's polarization and some of its apathy in the face of the pandemic. That did a lot to blunt the impact the dystopia he created should have had. We lucked out that enough Americans actually gave a s*** after all.

[Progressive Pessimist]

This virus comes in waves here, as it gets worse people tighten up and then it gets better but that makes people complacent and the cycle continues.

This is true but we do have a vaccine now. I think the worst may finally be behind us.

If the competency of the distribution improves and if enough people actually choose to get it, that is. We're still not close to being out of the woods.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Oklahoma trying to return its $2m stockpile of hydroxychloroquine

Oklahoma is a microcosm of the modern Republican Party.

[Progressive Pessimist]

The number of new cases is going down.

Great news! The farmers are getting the blizzards that their crops need in Michigan, driving conditions are getting hazardous, and people won't be out and about spreading COVID-19.

Deaths from COVID-19 are a lagging indicator, although they remain a tragedy. The Grim Reaper has taken more lives in America now than the population of Miami (42nd-largest city in the USA) from COVID-19 alone.

Wear the d@mn mask if you do go out!  

Maybe the vaccines are starting to help, though I think we are going to experience a very potent wave in a few weeks due to the variants (which are vaccine-resistant, can reinfect people, and have a much higher mortality rate).

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are 95% effective. Even with a loss of effectiveness due to new strains, it should still at least be 80% effective. The idea that new variants are going to make the vaccines useless is fear mongering.

Some of the data I have read mentions that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are only 66-72% effective against the UK strain and only 49-57% effective against the South African and Brazilian strains. With how much COVID has spread worldwide over the past year, there are likely thousands of other variants as well, which could be a problem for the vaccines.

Pfizer is just as good against the UK strain as it is the orginal strain.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-pfizer-vaccine-effective-covid-u-k-strain-1.9507594

Even if you look at the SA strain, people that have been vaccinated my get Covid but are not dying and are not even being hospitlized. They are limiting severe disease very well.

The UK strain has been in the US for well over a month now....Where is the uncontrolled spread? In states like CO where it was first found, Covid is trending down which to me seems kind of odd of it is as contagious as they say.

Thanks for the clarification! I am definitely a COVID doomer and fear the spread of the disease. It seems that media sources such as CNN, MSNBC, and online blogs are giving into hysteria by always mentioning the COVID strains.

Sadly the media loves to senastionalize things, especially with Covid. This is one of my favorite tweets as of late, show how effective the vaccines are when it comes to preventing severe disease.

https://twitter.com/ashishkjha/status/1356079020878786561

I would love to show this to my anti-vax sister but she won't believe it.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I hope the Biden admin keeps turning the tide against Covid-19 and its variants.

Are we actually finally "turning the corner" for real?

[Progressive Pessimist]

I know nobody really knows, but are we likely coming down from the worst of the pandemic?

Or do we expect to see cases skyrocket again to November-December-January levels or worse at some point in the future?

Don't quote me on this but I am under the impression that if we can through Easter without a spike this time I think we may be in good shape. It's always the holidays that mark an increase in cases and deaths.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I'm not sure if this article by Dr. Julia Marcus has been posted here yet, but it crystalizes a lot of the feelings I've had about how the messaging re: vaccines has been totally mishandled. I hope in the next few weeks we'll have better guidance from the CDC, because telling people "do nothing differently" is not a way to drive vaccination rates up, even if it is the only 100% sure way of risk mitigation. (As Marcus points out, "trying to eliminate even the lowest-risk changes in behavior both underestimates people’s need to be close to one another and discourages the very thing that will get everyone out of this mess: vaccine uptake.")

Thoughts from anyone smarter than I? Am I misreading the whole situation?

It hasn't been a serious problem yet, demand for vaccine still outstrips supply but it was extremely stupid to discourage the vaccine so much.

I get that being overly pessimistic isn't helpful but what?

They might be referring to the sensationalistic way the media trumpets every single side effect or post-vaccination infection in dark tones, without emphasizing just how rare these are.

Yeah, that was enough to help my sister go down the anti-vax rabbit-hole. Now that my 88 year old grandma got it without any sort of reaction, hopefully she'll change her mind now and get the vaccine when it's available.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Swings and roundabouts.

https://twitter.com/seattletimes/status/1364973604442697732

Good news! But I am not convinced that Americans will continue doing the bare minimum of something as simple as washing hands regularly when the pandemic is over. I get not wanting to wear masks or social distancing anymore when that time comes, but I still think much of the populace is going to become overconfident again and think everything will be fine from now on and go back to shaking hands, sharing food and drink, etc.

[Progressive Pessimist]

If wearing masks in public didn't work why is this one of the least potent flu seasons ever?

https://twitter.com/seattletimes/status/1364973604442697732

Just a reminder.