Non-Political Coronavirus Thread

[06deacon]

Nearly everybody I know who is fully vaccinated and boosted got the bug in this latest wave. And all of them had mild cases-- fever for 24-48 hours, fatigue, lingering cough. The vaccine is effective against hospitalizations. There is no evidence that it is stopping the spread right now, and with roughly 40% of cases asymptomatic, it isn't particularly realistic to think that any measures apart from a complete lockdown or a lifetime of social distancing are going to slow the spread. That obviously isn't feasible.

Best thing at this point is to resume normal life and issue advisories when there are peaks and there will be a reasonable amount of people who voluntarily stay in or socially distance themselves to hopefully contain the surge, which as we know by now is usually a 2 week thing. Do that until there are no more peaks. It is endemic and has been for a while. Policy needs to be adjusted accordingly. People have reached their limits. There is going to be a point very, very soon when people realize that the stability of governments requires a return to normal life. It's best to be proactive rather than reactive.

How much is different about how you’re living your life now and a “return to normal life?” The mask part? I’m currently working from home but that’s per request of my company, not a govt policy.

I was told by a noted expert that focusing on proactive measures was a huge failure and we should have gone all in on reactive treatments.

 

[myDeaconmyhand]

How much is different about how you’re living your life now and a “return to normal life?” The mask part? I’m currently working from home but that’s per request of my company, not a govt policy.

I was told by a noted expert that focusing on proactive measures was a huge failure and we should have gone all in on reactive treatments.

“Return to normal” just means “force businesses and government employees to lift quarantine rules so that I am not inconvenienced anymore by people trying to avoid getting sick. That’s it. I don’t care about getting sick and I want the government to announce that COVID is over with.

 

[Kory]

the read on democratic (little d) governance and social norms returning to "normal" as if that's a switch you flip feels weird

 

[JuiceCrewAllStar]

“Return to normal” just means “force businesses and government employees to lift quarantine rules so that I am not inconvenienced anymore by people trying to avoid getting sick. That’s it. I don’t care about getting sick and I want the government to announce that COVID is over with.

I don't know, man

I think there are some tradeoffs and policies worth discussing but it all turns into positions of extremes pretty fast here (and most places)

 

[Kory]

“Return to normal” just means “force businesses and government employees to lift quarantine rules so that I am not inconvenienced anymore by people trying to avoid getting sick. That’s it. I don’t care about getting sick and I want the government to announce that COVID is over with.

i think there's more to the "return to normal" discourse than just this.

 

[ConnorEl]

the read on democratic (little d) governance and social norms returning to "normal" as if that's a switch you flip feels weird

For good reason.

 

[Louis Gossett Jr]

The people that complain about returning to normal returned to normal circa March 2020. They aren’t doing anything different except everyone else doing the responsible societal thing constantly reminds them of what fucking assholes they are and they don’t like that.

 

[Donkey Deac Doug]

Nearly everybody I know who is fully vaccinated and boosted got the bug in this latest wave. And all of them had mild cases-- fever for 24-48 hours, fatigue, lingering cough. The vaccine is effective against hospitalizations. There is no evidence that it is stopping the spread right now, and with roughly 40% of cases asymptomatic, it isn't particularly realistic to think that any measures apart from a complete lockdown or a lifetime of social distancing are going to slow the spread. That obviously isn't feasible.

Best thing at this point is to resume normal life and issue advisories when there are peaks and there will be a reasonable amount of people who voluntarily stay in or socially distance themselves to hopefully contain the surge, which as we know by now is usually a 2 week thing. Do that until there are no more peaks. It is endemic and has been for a while. Policy needs to be adjusted accordingly. People have reached their limits. There is going to be a point very, very soon when people realize that the stability of governments requires a return to normal life. It's best to be proactive rather than reactive.

A lot of this speaks to me.

 

[WFcatamount22]

Nearly everybody I know who is fully vaccinated and boosted got the bug in this latest wave. And all of them had mild cases-- fever for 24-48 hours, fatigue, lingering cough. The vaccine is effective against hospitalizations. There is no evidence that it is stopping the spread right now, and with roughly 40% of cases asymptomatic, it isn't particularly realistic to think that any measures apart from a complete lockdown or a lifetime of social distancing are going to slow the spread. That obviously isn't feasible.

Best thing at this point is to resume normal life and issue advisories when there are peaks and there will be a reasonable amount of people who voluntarily stay in or socially distance themselves to hopefully contain the surge, which as we know by now is usually a 2 week thing. Do that until there are no more peaks. It is endemic and has been for a while. Policy needs to be adjusted accordingly. People have reached their limits. There is going to be a point very, very soon when people realize that the stability of governments requires a return to normal life. It's best to be proactive rather than reactive.

This is the only thing that makes sense to me.

 

[thatguy2016]

The people that complain about returning to normal returned to normal circa March 2020. They aren’t doing anything different except everyone else doing the responsible societal thing constantly reminds them of what fucking assholes they are and they don’t like that.

nah

 

[Louis Gossett Jr]

I see we have one of the assholes. Like what about your individual life that you control isn’t normal, the only difference for me is wearing a mask on a plane, and showing proof of vaccination at a sporting event, oh the fucking humanity!

 

[JuiceCrewAllStar]

I mean, schools are still going remote in places, lots of businesses are closed

it's not helpful to act like it's 2019 but with masks

 

[thatguy2016]

I see we have one of the assholes. Like what about your individual life that you control isn’t normal, the only difference for me is wearing a mask on a plane, and showing proof of vaccination at a sporting event, oh the fucking humanity!

you calling me an asshole?

 

[ConnorEl]

I mean, schools are still going remote in places, lots of businesses are closed

it's not helpful to act like it's 2019 but with masks

Waving a finger or nose, clicking your heels three times and saying “normal” just isn’t going to make it so.


If we just abandon all efforts to control somewhat the spread of the virus we’ll still have staffing problems, possibly worse ones.

 

[Louis Gossett Jr]

I mean, schools are still going remote in places, lots of businesses are closed

it's not helpful to act like it's 2019 but with masks

I mean thats not actual policies now though, for the most part the only reasons why things are closed is because of the virus directly not indirect policy measures. Workers are sick and can’t come to work so things close or service is slow, diminished etc…

 

[2&2 Slider To Leyritz]

I mean thats not actual policies now though, for the most part the only reasons why things are closed is because of the virus directly not indirect policy measures. Workers are sick and can’t come to work so things close or service is slow, diminished etc…

Uhhh. You don't think the massive amount of inflation and worker shortage is in any way due to the policy decisions that continue to pump unprecedented amounts of federal dollars through the economic system in various "unnatural" ways?

I've been saying this shit for months. Like everything else (uselessness of cloth masks, misguided school policies, benefits of underlying health, etc.), I am being proven right and you poor bastards are finally catching up.

 

[06deacon]

Yeah but you died though

 

[myDeaconmyhand]

Uhhh. You don't think the massive amount of inflation and worker shortage is in any way due to the policy decisions that continue to pump unprecedented amounts of federal dollars through the economic system in various "unnatural" ways?

Sorry bud, you can’t force people to come to work sick, and you can’t force people to take shitty low paying retail and food service jobs. Suck it up, buttercup.

 

[ConnorEl]

If you can access (NYT) here’s a link to a hosted conversation involving a public health physician and an economist.

I think it offers a generally fairly balanced perspective…you can listen or read the transcript.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/24/opinion/sway-kara-swisher-emily-oster-ashish-jha.html?


One excerpt…

… But I think what Emily describes is exactly right, which is, much of the country wants to live in either zero or one, right?

And there’s a chunk of people who still think this is the only issue we should be thinking about. It’s all Covid all the time. And so any time I want to pivot to saying, like, Covid is a real problem, but it is one problem of many things we need to be thinking about. Kids missing school is also a really big problem — people do not want to discuss any of that. And then they immediately trot out, but 850,000 Americans have died, which is true and horrible.

On the other hand, you have a group of people who just — as Emily said, they’re in the zero column. They’re ready to move on. Covid is in the rearview mirror. And the problem is, you need something in between. And you need something where we can live with Covid, even now. And once the surge is over, even easier and better. But at the same time, we’ve still got to do certain things a little bit differently for a while longer. And that’s not a lockdown, but that’s also not being done with Covid...

 

[thatguy2016]

If you can access (NYT) here’s a link to a hosted conversation involving a public health physician and an economist.

I think it offers a generally fairly balanced perspective…you can listen or read the transcript.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/24/opinion/sway-kara-swisher-emily-oster-ashish-jha.html?


One excerpt…

absolutely no need for any balanced perspective on this thread - anyone concerned about the generational impact of two years of impacted education is clearly an asshole who wanted to be done with Covid in March 2020