Global Pandemic Part V: Enjoy a Corona while flying Delta

[Headache in a Suitcase]

This truly could be the start of the endgame for this thing, at least in pandemic status vs. endemic like the flu.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...tm_term=121621

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Originally Posted by LemonMelon

Conservative rags are really pushing hard for omicron to be a glorified cold. Saw a Daily Mail article (lol) that claimed the hospitalization rate for omicron would be 90-95% lower than delta. Daily Wire, based on their medical sources, argued that 90%(!!!) who contract the variant won't even experience symptoms.

I certainly hope they're right. Not changing a damn thing about how I live my life, but I hope they're right. The next few months are our best chance of ending the pandemic as antibodies will be skyrocketing everywhere regardless of vaccination status.

The politicization of COVID-19, thanks to the fucking numb nuts 45th president, impacts all sides.

The evidence truly is continuing to point towards this variant being super mild, not causing hospitalizations on a large scale (especially for those who are vaccinated), and is actively pushing the more deadly Delta variant into extinction.

We're also seeing solid data that the risk of spread in vaccinated asymptomatic persons is very very low. People who test positive are testing negative 2-3-4 days later.

Everything is pointing to this variant not being a death sentence but the beginning of the end.

Alas - there are still those on the left who are over exaggerating the risk and those on the right who are under playing COVID in general. This is impacting our ability to make sane and rational decisions here.

[LuckyNumber7]

Originally Posted by Headache in a Suitcase

We're also seeing solid data that the risk of spread in vaccinated asymptomatic persons is very very low. People who test positive are testing negative 2-3-4 days later.

Any word on whether Travis Kelce is symptomatic?

[Bluer White]

[Headache in a Suitcase]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CX4GnUfP...dium=copy_link

Welp

[DaveC]

Originally Posted by Headache in a Suitcase

https://www.instagram.com/p/CX4GnUfP...dium=copy_link

Welp

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comment...19_to/hpufwje/

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Originally Posted by DaveC

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comment...19_to/hpufwje/

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Everyone has the rona.

[LemonMelon]

I have it, as does Ashley and her whole family that we've been staying with. Pretty sure I gave omicron to everyone when I traveled out here on Sunday. I'm surprised I'm still testing positive because I felt worst on Monday and Tuesday and even then I couldn't tell if it was one of my usual sinus infections or a really mild cold. Didn't quite feel like either.

[LuckyNumber7]

Somehow I tested negative at the start of the week but I had a direct exposure last week and it sure as hell seems like others around me have it currently.

[Irvine511]

I keep testing negative.

[Bluer White]

One of my brothers tested positive on Wednesday, he went to a wedding reception about two weeks ago. And folks who were there to party had to pass a rapid test to get in, too

Seems like everyone's gonna carry some version of the bug real soon. Hopefully the mild or untraceable version.

[LuckyNumber7]

Hopefully it’s mild if untraceable and not or haha.

Let’s just hope the whole Covid vs cold thing ends up truer than the Covid vs flu thing.

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Everyone has omicron.

Which will ultimately be a good thing.

[LuckyNumber7]

Until it mutates into the deadly Xi and we launch nukes at China in response.

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Los Angeles County’s COVID-19 hospitalizations have also increased significantly since Dec. 1, from 569 to 904 on Christmas, an increase of 59%. But the latest number is far less than it was a year ago, when vaccinations had just been introduced and were in sharply limited supply; in L.A. County on Dec. 25, 2020, there were 6,815 people with COVID-19 in L.A. County’s hospitals; up from 2,572 on Dec. 1, 2020. At its peak, L.A. County observed 8,098 COVID-19 hospitalizations on Jan. 5, a time that coincided with overwhelmed hospitals and*overflowing morgues.

Like - come on folks. 904 hospitalizations with a crazy contagious strain.

6,000 fewer than alpha year over year, which wasn't nearly this contagious.

6,000.

[LuckyNumber7]

Hath thou considered the outbreak/wave just began

[LemonMelon]

Originally Posted by LuckyNumber7

Hath thou considered the outbreak/wave just began

From South Africa, where the variant was discovered a month ago:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ith-6-7-in-icu

"South African hospitals have 8,435 Covid-19 patients, of which 6.7% are in intensive-care units, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases said...

The number of people in the hospital due to Covid-19 is, so far, a fraction of the total at the height of earlier infection waves. Covid-19 hospitalizations peaked at nearly 20,000 in January and July, the crest of the country’s second and third waves respectively."

The 7 day moving average for cases in South Africa peaked at 23,284 on December 18. The July peak was 19,886 and the January peak was 18,498. So let's say a 21% increase in cases with a 56% drop in hospitalizations, assuming the peak for cases has been reached. You can do the math on the infection hospitalization rate for the respective waves.

[LuckyNumber7]

but also consider everyone has been vaccinated since then.

[LemonMelon]

South Africa's vaccination rate is 26.6% right now, which is terrible. That probably varies enormously by region though, so it might be easier to gauge the severity of omicron by looking at the hospitalization rate in areas outside of more highly-vaccinated metropolitan centers.

We will be able to make broader statements about omicron's impact on the US health care system in 1-2 weeks because hospitalizations and deaths are a lagging indicator. Anecdotally, it does seem like vaccination status is a big deal as far as keeping the hospitals from collapsing. I've read so many unvaccinated horror stories from doctors and nurses, even during this wave.