COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

How did Israel get access to so much vaccine?  They’ve already vaccinated 20% of their population; not other major country is over 2%.  Even if we had actually used all our supply, we’d only be at 6%.

Prime Minister Netanyahu?

Pfizer has agreed to speed distribution to Israel in exchange for records of adverse reactions. Israel keeps more records of their citizens, uses paper ballots, requires ID to vote, and has walls to keep out illegal immigrants.

Ah, so build the wall so we can all get vaccinated. Ok.

All the MAGA cultist anti vaxxers in the US are dragging down the numbers.

It's shocking what a disingenuous, belligerent nutcase jimrtex is when discussing the actual issues. He should really stick to the redistricting app.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

https://twitter.com/NYGovCuomo/status/1348673192609591296?s=20

America's Governor!!! 😍😍

Cuomo has no values or beliefs and never has.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Cuomo's status as the Good COVID Governor last spring looks quainter and quainter the more time passes. What a feckless monster.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I am seeing a lot of left wing attacks on the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.....

that is not the messaging we need

Don't worry about it.....

Yes I am going to worry about it because the last thing we need are lefties refusing to take Johnson and Johnson vaccines when about 1/3 of Republicans and 1/3 of minorities will refuse to take vaccines at all.

Where?  And what are the attacks?

I've seen some left politicians get upset that minority communities might not have Moderna or Pfizer as options when they get the vaccine since they have a higher effective rate. But I haven't seen anyone directly attack the J&J vaccine.

There have been religious criticisms of the J&J vaccine because its development had a closer causal relationship with aborted cell lines than Moderna and Pfizer, but I haven't seen anything from the left either.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I am seeing a lot of left wing attacks on the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.....

that is not the messaging we need

Don't worry about it.....

Yes I am going to worry about it because the last thing we need are lefties refusing to take Johnson and Johnson vaccines when about 1/3 of Republicans and 1/3 of minorities will refuse to take vaccines at all.

Where?  And what are the attacks?

I've seen some left politicians get upset that minority communities might not have Moderna or Pfizer as options when they get the vaccine since they have a higher effective rate. But I haven't seen anyone directly attack the J&J vaccine.

There have been religious criticisms of the J&J vaccine because its development had a closer causal relationship with aborted cell line than Moderna and Pfizer, but I haven't seen anything from the left either.

Wasn’t there a right wing conspiracy that food companies were using “baby parts”? But yes. Some of these treatments, including the one that Trump received, are using embryonic stem cell lines in their development.

To me, we can talk about heartbeat laws, abortion bans, or whatever but these sort of arguments are slippery slopes to chilling novel medical research and contraception in general.

While as a Catholic I do think that the actions that initially produced these cell lines were morally wrong, taking medicines that are developed from them now is so far removed from those initial actions that focusing obsessively on specific abortions that occurred almost fifty years ago starts to feel disingenuous. The vaccines being morally acceptable because of the remoteness of the causal relationship is the position of the Vatican, but some ultraconservative bishops and lots of Online Catholic influencers have unfortunately staked out more anti-vaxxer-adjacent positions.

I believe there are Orthodox Jewish criticisms of the vaccines that work somewhat differently, but I'm not as familiar with them and I doubt I'd agree with them any more.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Speaking of the vaccines, I have a two-shot appointment for March 27 and April 24. I'm pretty sure it's the Pfizer one.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

https://twitter.com/charles_gaba/status/1459565881214836743

Epically pwning the deplorables over their reactions to the pandemic is old news at this point. We all know they're killing themselves and one another to own the libs and there's not much to say about it that hasn't been said already.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I will say that I’m of the mindset that cloth masks *don’t* do much against Omicron, and that expecting every American to wear an N95 in an indoor setting is untenable. There’s a lot of theater involved here.

That said, fine, sure, send every American a better mask than most have. It’s not going to solve the problem in the way mandatory COVID sick leave would, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don't understand the recent push for N95 and KN95 masks. They are uncomfortable to wear, and I'm not sure if the benefits which they may confer outweigh the disadvantages inherent to them.

I agree they can be uncomfortable to wear, particularly it can be hard to breathe sometimes, but worn properly they address the main complaint about lower grade masks, that they don't protect the wearer. The filter also works in both directions so it will also dramatically cut transmission, assuming the mask doesn't have a valve like many sold in hardware stores. COVID will still spread when people gather in private and take off their masks, but if they are worn in a public space that public space should be safe.

Whatever delusion helps you sleep I guess.

The delusional ones are the people on this forum who are convinced that the pandemic is over and that COVID-19 is not a threat anymore, despite 1m cases a day and new record hospitalizations every day, blocking out the news or convincing themselves it's all fake. Imagine their shock and dismay when they receive N95 masks in the mail from the federal government, doubtless accompanied by a postcard encouraging continued social distancing and masking, a vivid undeniable reminder that in fact the pandemic is still raging and that they should be taking it seriously.

Genuine question: Do you even want the country ever to transition out of pandemic mode?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Your leader has spoken! He asks that you continue to wear masks. Do you want to be a Trumpist numbskull? I know you don't, 90% of this forum opposes Trump. Wear the mask.

President Biden on masks

“I know that for some Americans, a mask is not always affordable or convenient to get. So next week, we’ll announce how we’re making high-quality masks available to American people for free,” he said in remarks about the administration’s COVID-19 surge response.

He touted the work done already to make sure there is a supply of N95 masks for health care workers and first responders.

“We also helped make sure that high quality masks are widely available and an ample supply at affordable prices sold online and in stores,” he said, regarding masks for the public.

Biden on Thursday also addressed the frustration among Americans with continued mask wearing mandates and guidance.

“I know we all wish that we could finally be done with wearing masks. I get it. But there is a really important tool to stop the spread, especially the highly transmissible omicron variant. So please, please wear the mask,” he said.

You are equating opposition to mask mandates for support with Trump? That doesn't seem to be a fair evaluation of where this forum stands on the issue. But at this point, it's obvious that the majority of posters are at odds with you on this, as you are with them. You won't retreat from your viewpoints, and they won't retreat from theirs.

Now that President Biden unambiguously supports masks, if you oppose them you oppose him. Then since we are in a two party FPTP system, if you oppose Biden you support Trump. The anti-maskers here now must decide, do they oppose Biden here and allow Trump to get a win, effectively turning into a Trump supporter? Or do they close ranks behind Biden to form a united front against Trump?

This makes no sense, whatsoever. A Democratic or Republican voter should not be required to support every position that their candidate or their leader holds. If such a requirement were exacted of them, that would be an unfair and undemocratic move. Ironically enough, what you say here sounds very much like what the Trumpists would say. Any Republican who does not wholeheartedly support Trump and who even deviates from one position that he holds is denounced by them as a "RINO" or as "not being a true conservative." Such a viewpoint should not invade the Democratic Party. I'm a Biden voter, and yet I haven't approved of much of the Administration's strategy and messaging with regards to the pandemic in recent months.

You did a good job of describing how politics should be. But that's not how it is. Clearly Trump and the Republicans have taken "in unity lies strength" to heart. Their total unity behind Trump clearly powers them through just about any crisis or bad press and keeps them always a threat to take over. In the face of this, not supporting Biden and showing Democratic disunity is basically unilateral disarmament, like Republican states drawing gerrymanders while Democratic states use independent commissions and draw fair maps. Look at the 2016 and 2020 elections, it's clear that only a unified Democratic party can beat the Trumpist Republicans. So if you want to oppose Trump, you must support Biden on the foremost issue of the day.

Even if we concede your premise that the Democratic Party needs or could use a Führerprinzip, nobody who isn't some sort of maniac thinks that masks in particular are "the foremost issue of the day". A significant proportion of the country doesn't even think COVID is any more.