COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Hammy]

https://www.complex.com/life/2020/08/georgia-students-suspended-for-sharing-viral-pictures-of-packed-school-hallway

Apparently it's a crime to show that Kemp is lying about it being safe to return to school.

[Hammy]

White House warns of ‘widespread and expanding’ COVID-19 spread in Georgia

President Trump’s coronavirus task force warns that Georgia continues to see “widespread and expanding community viral spread” and that the state’s current policies aren’t enough to curtail COVID-19.

The task force “strongly recommends” Georgia adopt a statewide mandate that citizens wear masks, joining a chorus of public health officials, Democrats and others who have warned that Gov. Brian Kemp’s refusal to order face coverings has plunged the state into deeper crisis and will prolong recovery.

You've really screwed this up when Trump's admin is calling you out on it.

[Hammy]

During the Ebola pandemic, Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie enacted quarantines that applied only to people who had been exposed to Ebola patients. This meant very few people were even quarantined. Yet a lot of people back then said this was much too strict. Dr. Fauci even said this was much too strict and urged only monitoring, not a quarantine. When Florida implemented monitoring, some people even said that was too strict.

So why do we now have these much stricter measures that have lasted 5 whole months, and nobody dares to publicly oppose them?

First, ebola is not airborne, thus the restrictions on that would not need to be the same as something that is spread literally by breathing.

Second, where do you get nobody is opposing them? Did you completely ignore all the idiots going out, with no masks, whining because they couldn't get a haircut or golf?

Third, Fauci is a politician and at this point appears that he's doing whatever he can to keep his job after Trump threatened to fire him for speaking the truth on how strict of measures we actually need earlier in the pandemic.

[Hammy]

Good grief! I just don't get it.

Of course I think schools should offer online instruction, but I don't understand the fetish for moving everything online when some families want in-person classes. Online schooling is only good as a short-term solution, but it's been going on since March.

Sooner or later - like very soon - we've got to get our schools back open just like normal. When I first voted when I was 18, one of my priorities was education. There's no way an all-online system would have been tolerated back then, even if it had been invented.

I know there's some people who still have some fear, but this is something we as a community and nation are going to overcome.

What some idiots want without regard of how many people will die when the hospitals get overwhelmed should not dictate medical policy.

I'll say it here again, since some people just don't get it:

If we reopen everything because of some idiots whining, we are going to see a massive spike in cases, more hospitals getting overwhelmed, more people will die who might've otherwise been able to receive treatment because of this, and people who need medical attention for relatively minor to potentially life-threatening things that aren't covid, are thus more likely to die as well--not to mention permanent heart and lung damage for survivors

Anybody who continues to think this isn't the case or that the risk is worth it should be the first in line to volunteer to contract the virus, and sign a waiver stating they will not receive treatment.  If you are not willing to do this, then quit whining about online schooling or mask rules.

[Hammy]

Welp, my school has been designated as an outbreak, although my cohort is still in person. Thanks people who said it doesn’t spread through kids without good proof (Del Taco).
 If I get sick, I challenge you truthers to pay my medical bills since it’s “no worse than the flu.”

Wait, the Govt. does not fully cover Covid 19 treatment?

They don't cover any. If you can't afford insurance you're pretty screwed.

[Hammy]

There is none of the shocking and powerful imagery of suffering and destruction you get from a war or a natural disaster.  Almost all of the coverage is statistics and interviews with scientists and maybe nurses providing second hand accounts.  I've seen almost no interviews with victims or coverage of people in the throes of illness.  

Back in April, there was some vivid imagery of hospitals being overrun in NY and Europe, but that has been almost entirely absent for several months.

It's out there, I've seen probably hundreds of such articles. The problem is television media isn't covering it because, to them, paying adequate attention to something for more than two weeks is bad for ratings.

And really they're complicit in this 'lets make it look like things are back to normal' mentality that the Trump admin and several states are pushing.

[Hammy]

there's fans at sports games again - the nation has moved on, whatever the case/death numbers may be, ppl are fatigued by the virus and are resuming their lives as much as they can.

Agreed. People are tiring of the virus-which may be explaining why I've seen more and more customers at my job going about maskless (which I find to be an alarming development, but it's still notable enough). Unfortunately, a return to normalcy won't be fully possible until we have a vaccine, but to think that we can continue with lockdowns and social distancing restrictions indefinitely would be an unwise gesture. And the harsh reality at this point is that the pandemic has only exacerbated polarization, not loosened it. People are more fixed to their political ideologies and ways of viewing the world than ever before.

The messaging from the government was dreadful, and I truly do mean both parties here. Two weeks to flatten the curve is turning into half a year now. Perhaps if it was made clear that this would be a year long slog, the public would be more engaged

If we actually had a mask mandate and people weren't allowed to ignore it without penalty, or if people would just quit pretending the pandemic is a hoax, it wouldn't have gotten this far in the first place.

[Hammy]

https://twitter.com/BryanLowry3/status/1308876205400166410

Parson is now the second Governor to have contracted coronavirus, following Governor Stitt of Oklahoma, who got it about two months ago (if I'm recalling correctly). And like Stitt, Parson has mishandled his state's response to the pandemic. I'm still waiting to see if other Governors like Kristi Noem, Kim Reynolds, Pete Ricketts, Brian Kemp, and Ron DeSantis, to give a few names, will end up contracting the virus as well.

Isn't Parsons the guy that told parents to expect their kids to bring covid home?

[Hammy]

https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/1309529806145490945

Florida reported 2,851 new cases yesterday.

Good. The more overwhelmed hospitals, the better for Biden.

This is going to disproportionately affect lower income people who have to choose between going to work and getting infected, or living on the street. But yes, do cheer on the deaths of tens of thousands for short term political gain to show how much better you are than Trump.

[Hammy]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1320690788628598784

He's going to use this to challenge the election validity, I guarantee it.

[Hammy]

I think outdoor dining should be allowed. Transmission is low outside.

I wish more people understood this--as long as you're far enough apart and not in any sort of enclosed area, and masked, there's significantly less risk posed than these politicians are posing by flouting their own guidelines or giving special exceptions--and outdoors you don't have to worry about it spreading through the HVAC duct work.

[Hammy]

Biden will release all available vaccine doses in break from Trump administration policy of holding back stock for second dose

Two doses are absolutely needed for there to be any real effectiveness. Hopefully somebody who actually knows what they're doing will convince Biden to backtrack on this.

[Hammy]

Biden will release all available vaccine doses in break from Trump administration policy of holding back stock for second dose

Two doses are absolutely needed for there to be any real effectiveness. Hopefully somebody who actually knows what they're doing will convince Biden to backtrack on this.

What is your evidence of this?

https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4826

52% isn't enough to make a difference as far as spread, and 50/50 chance of getting it for general population means that higher risk patients will likely not have any real benefit.

[Hammy]

Biden will release all available vaccine doses in break from Trump administration policy of holding back stock for second dose

Two doses are absolutely needed for there to be any real effectiveness. Hopefully somebody who actually knows what they're doing will convince Biden to backtrack on this.

They can manufacture more vaccines for a 2nd dose.  A booster is probably more effective if you wait a while anyway.   The priority right now should be getting a first dose to as many people as possible.

June, at minimum, is the earliest point this would occur. Any immunity from the first dose would likely have weakened without that boost occurring when it's supposed to, putting us right back where we are presently.

[Hammy]

I really had thought that things were plateauing in the new case numbers in December. Obvious now that that isn't the case.

We're starting to get the people who were infected during Christmas now.

[Hammy]

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

It's really hard to claim this considering we have no idea what other problems would've come up without it. An entire year was lost, this wasn't something that came up a month or two before the election.

[Hammy]

https://twitter.com/politicalmath/status/1353821818449129473?s=20

Further proof Cuomo is complete garbage and belongs behind bars rather than behind the governor's desk.

[Hammy]

Nate makes a good point here.  The goal is not to eradicate COVID completely, which is probably impossible, but to control it to a level that the world can handle with a minimal amount of disruption, much like we do with the flu.

Yet the United States seems to have adopted a "zero covid" approach. Most states haven't lifted restrictions since the vaccine began being issued.

It's more to keep hospitalizations as low as possible (which can only be done by limiting spread) since 20% of cases require hospitalization.

Even if the death rate was brought to zero for people who could be hospitalized, it's still straining the healthcare system, and having a constantly full ICU means other non-covid things (injuries, car accidents, other illnesses) can't be addressed and thus more people would die from those that would've otherwise survived

[Hammy]

Has it been discussed why this virus is mutating to become worse than it was before, when most viruses generally mutate to be less severe?

From what I understand, one of the factors in severe COVID is viral load. The more contagious strains are increasing the viral load that's being expelled, which means the virus is not necessarily worse in itself, but being exposed to a higher load is simply more likely with more virus in the air.

[Hammy]

To be honest, I’d be OK opening up if we are consistently below 10k new cases nationally. I mean, we’ve done all we can at this point.

Most of the measures aren't even being enforced. Masks required in stores, but don't bother turning people away. Places with mask mandates in public, half the people ignore them and nothing happens.

That's pretty far from "doing all we can do".

[Hammy]

Something to consider with the schools reopening, especially with more contagious forms of COVID springing up, is the children taking it home to their parents, or in some cases grandparents, and possibly ending up homeless, along with the problems with HVAC spreading it from room to room.

[Hammy]

Something to consider with the schools reopening, especially with more contagious forms of COVID springing up, is the children taking it home to their parents, or in some cases grandparents, and possibly ending up homeless, along with the problems with HVAC spreading it from room to room.

Schools have been open in communities across the country for months. There is no epidemic of children being made into orphans because they brought covid home to their parents, and the most rigorous examinations of their role in spreading the virus have turned up little indication that schools have increased risk.

Read what Emily Oster and other actual experts have been writing about reopening schools instead of subjecting the forum to your ridiculous fear-mongering. People have enough fear in their lives without you layering on speculation in the most ridiculous, melodramatic fashion possible.

There's a difference in stating this is a possibility with schools reopening, as I did, and your claim that I said there's an epidemic of it going around.

The pandemic deniers here are getting desperate to twist people's words rather than face reality.

[Hammy]

Who is denying the pandemic?

The complete avoidance of the suggestion is no different than the climate deniers who turned "winters might be warmer" into claiming they said it would never snow again, and then using any instance of snow to demonstrate climate change isn't real. If people need to argue with things never said, then clearly they don't want to believe the possibility exists in the first place.

The new CDC Director was on Meet the Press yesterday, and she reiterated what all the research shows about covid within schools: transmission to or by children is very uncommon, and most transmission is staff-to-staff.  Once school employees are vaccinated, keeping schools closed any longer in unconsionable.

If these are validated peer-reviewed studies that say that transmission between children is rare, then I completely agree with the bold, though I wouldn't call it unconscionable.

The problem I have is that too many people seem like they're pushing to reopen now and vaccinate later, which doesn't seem too much different than Trump's push to reopen purely for the sake of the appearance of normal or boredom with an ongoing problem, cost to life be damned.

[Hammy]

https://twitter.com/nycjim/status/1361344667405680646

The only good Republican is a Republican powerless to abuse anyone else.

I fail to see a problem with this. Why should they get special treatment without doing work that requires it?

The problem is, at least implied by the headline, they won't be vaccinated until after schools have reopened when they should be vaccinated before, in order to give enough time for immunities to build.

Not to mention, as is always the case, they're specifically targeting largely minority-populated urban centers with this policy.

[Hammy]

Give the government control to totally shut down your social life, keep you indoors, etc and good luck ever putting that back into its box.  Our freedoms are a lot more important than a virus with a 2% fataility rate.  Sorry, I said it.  I mean it.

A little under 1 year ago... and the only problem with this quote is that I WAY overestimated the IFR.

Hope ya'll don't take another year to wake up.  Won't wait up for you though.

Do you understand what 20% hospitalization rate means? Are you incapable of grasping what happens when you have entire hospitals filled up with covid patients (many of which would die without hospital treatment)?

COVID isn't the only disease out there, but the fact that hospitals are overwhelmed means people who are suffering from those other diseases that can easily be treated in a medical setting, or people who suffer injuries or accidents, aren't able to get that treatment as easily, if at all.

And all this because people put "but the government!" symbolic virtue signaling over basic common sense and refuse to do things as simple as wearing masks in public, or avoiding having at-home gatherings.  There's a reason why we've had 72x the number of deaths here than Japan, a country which we only have slightly over double the population.

All I can say is I genuinely hope it doesn't take a personal tragedy to wake you up from your ignorantly misguided outlook