Non-Political Coronavirus Thread

[EatLeadCommie]

Hospitalization and death both significantly alter the course of daily lives for more than those immediately affected.

Absolutely. But they also can't be avoided-- only minimized through vaccination at larger and protecting said olds and fatties through vaccination.

But again, this has always been about what amount of death/hospitalization is tolerable to people (and trying to be a responsible adult by not straining the HC system). Zero deaths or hospitalizations is not an option, and never was.

 

[BeachBumDeac]

Absolutely. But they also can't be avoided-- only minimized through vaccination at larger and protecting said olds and fatties through vaccination.

But again, this has always been about what amount of death/hospitalization is tolerable to people (and trying to be a responsible adult by not straining the HC system). Zero deaths or hospitalizations is not an option, and never was.

If a bunch of people set a building on fire, and there were some people in the building who were too old, sick, or obese to move quickly enough to get outside and they burned to death, would you blame those people for dying? Or would you blame the people that started the fire?

The virus continued to circulate in the community far more than it should have because people were being irresponsible selfish twats, and with high community spread it puts old and sick people at higher risk. Zero deaths was not an option, but it should’ve been a lot lower than what it is.

 

[JuiceCrewAllStar]

Immunology question: is a partially-vaxxed population more likely to create vax-resistant mutations than a zero-vaxxed population?

 

[BigTreeDeac]

Immunology question: is a partially-vaxxed population more likely to create vax-resistant mutations than a zero-vaxxed population?

This question is a little complicated because mutation rate and variant rise is dependent on circulation/infection rates. Thus, those numbers are higher in a zero vaccinated population so it may be more likely that mutations which would confer resistance would arise in such a population.

However there would be no selective pressure promoting the persistence of these mutations (assuming they provide no competitive advantage other than resistance to vaccine mediated immunity) in the unvaccinated population. So if a vaccine resistant strain arises in a partially vaccinated population; it will spread more rapidly and become a more dominant variant (compared to it arising in a population with no vaccines) because even the partial vaccination provides a big selective pressure it can overcome that other variants do not.

 

[2&2 Slider To Leyritz]

If a bunch of people set a building on fire, and there were some people in the building who were too old, sick, or obese to move quickly enough to get outside and they burned to death, would you blame those people for dying? Or would you blame the people that started the fire?

The virus continued to circulate in the community far more than it should have because people were being irresponsible selfish twats, and with high community spread it puts old and sick people at higher risk. Zero deaths was not an option, but it should’ve been a lot lower than what it is.

So your solution is to nuke China? Bombs away.

 

[DeacsPop]

At this point in the pandemic, this Country (and the World) should focus on getting people vaccinated rather than testing which is, more often than not, neither necessary or accurate. The scenes of thousands of sniffling, vaccinated individuals waiting on line to get tested is absurd. Don’t feel well; stay home. This too shall pass.

 

[PhDeac]

What adults are going to get vaccinated for the first time now? We’ve already lost that battle. 25% of adults absolutely refuse to get vaccinated.

 

[EatLeadCommie]

If a bunch of people set a building on fire, and there were some people in the building who were too old, sick, or obese to move quickly enough to get outside and they burned to death, would you blame those people for dying? Or would you blame the people that started the fire?

The virus continued to circulate in the community far more than it should have because people were being irresponsible selfish twats, and with high community spread it puts old and sick people at higher risk. Zero deaths was not an option, but it should’ve been a lot lower than what it is.

A rather inept and melodramatic analogy. If you set a building on fire, you're an arsonist and the deaths that result make you a murdering arsonist. If somebody gets Covid and dies and their case can 100% be traced to an anti-vax/anti-mask dude, then is that anti-vax/anti-mask guy to blame, or the person who gave it to him, or the person who gave it to the person that gave it to him, etc, or China if we really want to get down to it? And did anti-vax/anti-mask dude get it from farting around in Target without a mask, or because he was lounging around in his house and somebody else brought it home? And did the person who got it and died from the anti-vax/anti-mask dude vaccinated? Why did they die? Because they weren't vaxed? Because they were fat? Because they were old? Because they were just unlucky?

There are no easy answers during this, nor are there easy scapegoats (outside of China). There never have been and never will be. But everybody needs, or at least wants, somebody to blame.

 

[EatLeadCommie]

What adults are going to get vaccinated for the first time now? We’ve already lost that battle. 25% of adults absolutely refuse to get vaccinated.

Yep. They have made their choice to take their chances. We have a good coverage rate on the vaccines even with the anti-vax crowd. Time to move on.

 

[DeacsPop]

My point is we are way too focused on testing.
There are also many areas in the World where vaccinations are still not available.

 

[Deaconblue]

My point is we are way too focused on testing.
There are also many areas in the World where vaccinations are still not available.

This last statement is part of the world wide problem of new mutations. The large reservoir of unvaxed people around the world allows multiple infections and hence opportunities for the virus to mutate.

 

[EatLeadCommie]

This last statement is part of the world wide problem of new mutations. The large reservoir of unvaxed people around the world allows multiple infections and hence opportunities for the virus to mutate.

Yep, and that would exist whether the western world was supposedly being selfish with its vaccines or not.

What that part of the world does provide is insight into what common treatments or medicines are effective for the unvaxxed or immunocompromised.

 

[deactherunner]

The fatty has had 2 years to get off his ass and not be a fatty. If, in the face of a global health crisis specifically targeting people in poor health, he can't be bothered to give enough shits to help himself avoid the situation, why the fuck should I be worried about him?

Just tell fat people not to be fat. Should definitely work-it's not like we've tried that continuously for decades.

 

[plama]

This next month is going to be super interesting with things just closed down because entire workforces call out sick. Subway operators, firefighters, EMT's, Urgent Care Staff, etc.

 

[myDeaconmyhand]

At this point in the pandemic, this Country (and the World) should focus on getting people vaccinated rather than testing which is, more often than not, neither necessary or accurate. The scenes of thousands of sniffling, vaccinated individuals waiting on line to get tested is absurd. Don’t feel well; stay home. This too shall pass.

What reality are you living in where everyone who has the sniffles can afford to stay home? If everyone who had a cold or a kid with a runny nose stayed home the entire world would shut the fuck down. I also hate to break it to you, but my rent and bills don’t come at your convenience, so *no* I’m actually not going to stay home unless I absolutely have to, and if you have a problem with that then take it up with the government, who aren’t providing the resources to citizens to stay home when they are sick.

P.S. if you have ever in your entire life eaten at a restaurant I can near guarantee you that there was someone in the kitchen that day who had to come to work with flu symptoms.

 

[plama]

What reality are you living in where everyone who has the sniffles can afford to stay home? If everyone who had a cold or a kid with a runny nose stayed home the entire world would shut the fuck down. I also hate to break it to you, but my rent and bills don’t come at your convenience, so *no* I’m actually not going to stay home unless I absolutely have to, and if you have a problem with that then take it up with the government, who aren’t providing the resources to citizens to stay home when they are sick.

P.S. if you have ever in your entire life eaten at a restaurant I can near guarantee you that there was someone in the kitchen that day who had to come to work with flu symptoms.

I empathized with this take until the revelation that ya did go to wake. Da fuq ya doing not having a job that has sick time and/or the ability to take 2-3 days off of work when you're sick?

 

[2&2 Slider To Leyritz]

What reality are you living in where everyone who has the sniffles can afford to stay home? If everyone who had a cold or a kid with a runny nose stayed home the entire world would shut the fuck down. I also hate to break it to you, but my rent and bills don’t come at your convenience, so *no* I’m actually not going to stay home unless I absolutely have to, and if you have a problem with that then take it up with the government, who aren’t providing the resources to citizens to stay home when they are sick.

P.S. if you have ever in your entire life eaten at a restaurant I can near guarantee you that there was someone in the kitchen that day who had to come to work with flu symptoms.

The government actually did just provide you with rent, an eviction moratorium, and uncontested unemployment for over a year. So you got to stay home for a year whether actually sick or not (most likely you were not sick but stayed home anyway). What you chose to spend that free money and rent on was up to you. If you have none of it left at this point with a year's worth of runway while taking it but not actually needing it then, well that is nobody's fault but your own.

 

[06deacon]

You did public accounting for a hot minute right palma? When I was there in my early/mid 20s we weren’t calling out sick for colds this time of year.

Super toxic culture in that industry for sure but it’s hardly unique

 

[Biff Tannen]

I’ve worked in large and small bars and restaurants and people did not have flu symptoms every night.

 

[Rafi]

- The idea that another public health initiative focused on weight loss during the pandemic would have been helpful is not based in reality. First, there have been innumerous such initiatives over the past 30 years, yet the average BMI in the US continues to rise. It rises for a variety of reasons, but mainly because we have access to large amounts of highly processed foods. Second, countries with the highest COVID death rates in the world, like Peru and Bulgaria, are on average much thinner than the US, so this fantasy weight loss approach likely would have had little effect in regards to COVID. I think we should continue efforts to curb obesity in the US, especially with a focus on childhood obesity (like Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" initiative), but that's not going to change COVID death rates.

- I saw a previous post equating obesity and immunosuppression. These are two unrelated conditions. Most immunosuppressed people either have an inherited condition, or, more likely, are on immune suppressing medications to treat autoimmune disease or other underlying medical issues (like prednisone, Humira, etc.) I think I posted it earlier on this thread, but remember that Evusheld is now available if you or someone you know is immunosuppressed.

- Testing is really important to aid in effective isolation and quarantines, which help reduce spread, but ideally that should mainly be home rapid antigen tests. Going to ERs and urgent cares to get tested is far from ideal. It's a major problem that there is such a shortage of at-home test kits.

- The next few weeks are going to be rough. We went from 100 to 146 (132 are unvaccinated) hospitalized patients with COVID over just the past few days. Our peak was last January, at 200 hospitalized COVID patients.