Global Pandemic Part V: Enjoy a Corona while flying Delta

[Irvine511]

https://twitter.com/dabeard/status/1504525629441536008?s=21

The GOP wants more covid madness so they can regain power in November 2022 and 2024

It’s insane that we are scaling down when it looks like another surge is on its way. Probably won’t be as bad as the December - January wave, but other countries are seeing numbers jump across the board and they’re much more protected from vaccines.

The one good thing is that *a lot* of people got Omicron here, so maybe that helps.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Of course cases are going to go up again. But everything points to this new omicron variant being just as mild as the last one (provided you are vaccinated or young). It has minimal impact on kids beyond a head cold.

We do need to learn to live with this thing. We can't shutter society over the sniffles. This isn't March 2020.

If you want to wear a mask - wear it. Nobody is preventing anyone from doing so.

 

[Irvine511]

Of course cases are going to go up again. But everything points to this new omicron variant being just as mild as the last one (provided you are vaccinated or young). It has minimal impact on kids beyond a head cold.

We do need to learn to live with this thing. We can't shutter society over the sniffles. This isn't March 2020.

If you want to wear a mask - wear it. Nobody is preventing anyone from doing so.

When you wear a mask, I feel less free.

 

[DeVaul]

when you wear a mask, i feel less free.

 

[Irvine511]

Im a singing bird, in an open cage

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

When you wear a mask, I feel less free.

What are you going to do about it, drive around in your big rig and honk at people?

 

[BEAL]

Who knew that bird would turn out to be such a horrible person once set free….

Back to the plandemic (get it, i still hear that phrase from time to time).

I don’t think lockdowns or severe restrictions are necessary and would basically cause even the most liberal non MAGA / Q person to buy a truck and start a convoy

I do think it’s absolutely horrible that the GQP has blocked funding for the pandemic when we clearly are not finished with it yet. Allowing another surge to rip through us when Asia abs Europe are showing BA2 is more transmissible and Omicron immunity or Boosters (for the olds) wanes fairly quickly. Long covid is something none of us understand, and from the sounds of it none of us want. We still have no clue what the long term effects are from covid. We’ve seen some data about higher risk of clotting, heart disease, and cognitive functionality. People probably thought HPV wasn’t a big deal until it was linked to cancer. Omnicron is milder compared to Delta, yet it’s still more severe than the original strain. Who knows what the next variant produces ?

We need government $$$ - assistance for rapid testing, more vaccines, and additional treatments, not the opposite. More surveillance, and tracking.

And thanks to American exceptionalism we are not as highly vaccinated as these Euro countries who are seeing higher cases AND higher hospitalizations. UK’s 65+ are like 80% boosted, the US is 60%

I’m not sure a single country has gotten this response right. But throwing our arms up and saying fuck it doesn’t seem like the best choice, both ethically and politically

 

[Irvine511]

What are you going to do about it, drive around in your big rig and honk at people?

If you thought northbound 395 traffic was bad before …

 

[prbiker15]

Our governor removed the majority of mask, vaccine and testing mandates a little more than a week ago. You still have to wear a mask in pharmacies, hospitals and doctors offices, which is perfectly fine.

To go to large events with 1,000 people or more, you still need your 2 doses for the time being and a negative test if you’re unvaccinated. But masks are optional.

It’s been nice going to work and moving around without a mask. But they’re still not leaving my car’s glove compartment.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

the BA.2 "surge" in europe is already headed in the opposite direction in the countries where it first began. while some countries are still climbing, overall the case numbers across the continent are once again in decline.

https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/regions/europe/

Scientists say a possible explanation for the recent rise in BA.2 could be that the global uptick happened at the same time that many countries lifted public health interventions.

"In some ways, it could just be that BA.2 was the variant that was circulating when all these people stopped wearing masks," said Dr Andrew Pekosz, a virologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

so one vote for "yes, masks actually work" but a bigger vote for "no, this isn't march 2020 anymore, get your shots, and let's move on"

 

[Irvine511]

With every cell in my body, I want this to be right.

I was legit pressured by a barber shop last weekend to remove my mask because “COVID’s over.”

I remained the only masked bro in there.

 

[dazzledbylight]

Better safe than... Irving.


At 69 I'm still dbl masking, and distancing.
Am I fed up,m? Yeah, sometimes but I didn't make it through these past 2 yrs by being constantly careless.
A very rare walk out w/o mask to my elevator, or just outside my building. Then I'd realize and back and them.

On a nice sunny day in a park or garden with a low amount of people I'll take my mask off.

Have look up and see if the places I got my shots are setting up again.

 

[Bluer White]

FDNY Unions Want Exemption to NYC Vaccine Mandate, Just Like Athletes and Performers
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/cor...te-just-like-athletes-and-performers/3620024/

"My wife got fired, and now I'm getting fired," said Jairo Sosa, who is set to lose his job this week after refusing to get vaccinated for religious reasons. His wife, a social worker, also lost her job. "I have two little girls, and one on the way. All I ask the mayor is, let us work," he said.

.....Union have demanded a meeting with Adams in days since he doubled down on his controversial decision to lift the city's vaccine mandate for professional athletes and performers, but not city workers.

.....Adams on Monday appeared open to hearing what the firefighters have to say, commenting that "everyone knows me. I'll meet with everyone."

.....The executive order that exempts New York City-based professional athletes and performers from the private sector COVID vaccine mandate meant that Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving, who has been outspoken about his decision to not get vaccinated, was able to take the floor in at the Barclays Center on Sunday.

After the game, Irving told reporters that "now we can move on. Everybody can move on."

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Let me tell you how much I don’t care

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Man Kyrie went from Republican hero to villain real quick

 

[Hewson]

Man Kyrie went from Republican hero to villain real quick

What'd I miss?

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/sc...emic-vaccines-testing-treatment-public-health

Look at how similar omicron waves played out in places like South Korea and Hong Kong, places that have had very high mask use in social settings and public spaces. Both countries just had this tidal wave of cases. It gives me humility in terms of what we can do to really prevent transmission.

But there was a big difference between Hong Kong and South Korea in that South Korea had a surge of cases with very little hospitalization and death. [Hong Kong saw high numbers of deaths among older residents.]

What did Hong Kong not have? High vaccine coverage. Only around 50 percent of their elderly and about 20 percent of their nursing home residents were vaccinated. That is a recipe for an explosion of severe illness — and that’s why they saw overwhelmed hospitals, because the people most likely to wind up hospitalized were not given the full protection they needed to prevent that from happening.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Where'd ba.2 go?

 

[Irvine511]

Where'd ba.2 go?

I’ve taken a ton of flights over the past 10 days (and this year in general).

1. Airports are *mobbed*. Atlanta was like Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

2. Restaurants are understaffed and close early, so you can’t sit and drink and instead are left to wander the airports looking for a place to sit and drink and you won’t find any so you can either wait in a line 30+ people deep for the only open Wendy’s that’s closing soon, or continue to wander until boarding.

3. The masking difference between, say, Texas and Alabama vs Seattle and New York was clear before the mask mandate was removed. It was clearly a political statement for folks, as if they are defiant free thinkers or whatever right wing media tells them. I saw an unmasked woman in Nashville wearing a shirt that said “Think while it’s still legal.” She left me no choice but to assume she is pro-child bride.

4. Immediately after it was removed, mask useage was cut in half.

5. Several days later, it was cut in half again.

6. LGA is still hell.


I’m super vaxxed and wore a K95 mask start to finish, and tested neg yesterday. Will test again before the weekend.

Clearly, cases are going up, but so long as hospitalizations and death are steady or declining, I’m going to continue to mask indoors in places that don’t check vaccine cards, and otherwise not worry about it.

 

[Irvine511]

I spend 4 months flying everywhere, and then I get it from the office.

5 days of quarantine. Minimal symptoms (if this were 2018 I would be going to work and not even thinking about it). I suppose this is an ideal situation.

Be safe out there.

 

[Irvine511]

So, anecdotally, more people I know are getting it now than at any other point.

It’s not severe, I don’t know anyone hospitalized. But we are in another surge.

Keep your mask on indoors in public. I did when I got my haircut two weeks ago — I was the only one in the shop with a mask, was repeatedly told, “you CAN take off your mask, you know” and I refused — and 36 hours later I tested positive.

Again, it’s fine. More of an inconvenience. But that’s because I’m very vaxxed.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

I was the only one in the shop with a mask, was repeatedly told, “you CAN take off your mask, you know” and I refused

Probably the same people who are calling you a sheep for wearing one [emoji23][emoji23]

 

[Irvine511]

Probably the same people who are calling you a sheep for wearing one [emoji23][emoji23]

Undoubtedly.

 

[the tourist]

Undoubtedly.

There’s a barbershop near me that I stopped going to because the owner moved from the Seattle area to Texas to escape the “libtards”, full blown Trump Q type. Which is really sad, because before Trump became president, he was reasonable and apolitical. And somehow became radicalized.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

Again, it’s fine. More of an inconvenience. But that’s because I’m very vaxxed.

Same. My family and I got COVID early last month, and fortunately, because we're all fully vaccinated, it felt more like a really crappy cold that we all had to deal with for a few days. I still felt like shit, mind, it certainly wasn't fun, but compared to how much worse I could've been had I not been vaccinated, well...

And I still wear my mask when out and about, too. I started a new job at the hospital this week, so I have to when I'm there, but even just going to the store or any other places in town, I'm still masking up. Just want to stay on the safe side.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

There's no doubt that it's going around again, and is incredibly contagious - we had a brush with it a few weeks ago.

There's a big controversy in DC about how the city hasn't been reporting data for a month to the CDC. It's gotten some people who are running against Bowser up in arms. And hey, I'm no fan of Bowser. But...

The numbers are available, they just weren't reported to the CDC. Dumb but not some earth shattering controversy.

Buried in the story is that, yes - COVID cases have increased dramatically. But, like, nobody is going to the hospital. And nobody is dying.

At some point we have to face the fact that the politicization of this virus was not just a Trump thing. We can't go nuts over a head cold - which is what it is to the vaccinated.

Telling people to stay home is not accomplishing anything because so many people have the thing and either don't have any symptoms or their symptoms are so mild that they're just going about their business. So yes - the two people in the office who have symptoms stayed home, but the 3 people who don't came to work everyday and gave it everyone else.

We need to continue to be vaccinated and boosted. But we also need to come to the realization that if you are vaccinated and boosted that you have little to worry about. And also the realization that you're not stopping anything by acting like it's March of 2020. The only thing that will stop the spread is keeping everyone home again. We all know that's not happening, nor should it. So, like, enough with this shit.

Everyone who could be vaxed is by now. If you aren't and you suffer serious health consequences? That's your problem.

There are plenty of masks now. No shortages. No vent shortages. If you have preexisting issues? Wear a damn mask. Or you're young and healthy? Hey, your call.

We have friends who have a child with a speech disability. Dad is a HUGE Democratic lobbyist, so not exactly trump folks here. Kid has suffered tremendously from having to wear mask through K and 1st. She's finally shown progress since the mandate has been lifted.

There is nothing that prevents YOU from wearing a K95 anymore. We have enough of them in my closet to cover an army. I wore one on a flight I took Wednesday - more so because I didn't want what is now a minor inconvenience to fuck up my time off.

But Jesus fucking Christ let's stop acting like it's March 2020.

If you feel sick? Wear a mask. Even if you test negative. If you don't? Go about your damn life. And for fucks sake get vaccinated.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday but is experiencing “mild symptoms,” the National Institutes of Health said.

 

[the tourist]

And there it is. First positive covid test. Early thoughts from my fuzzy brain are that this is slightly worse than the second vaccination shot. Not doing so hot and it really just came on out of nowhere about 4 hours ago.

 

[phanan]

Came back from vacation last week. I was with my wife, her sister, and her husband. All three of them got Covid. I have no idea how I was the only one who didn’t. Just weird.

 

[Hewson]

And there it is. First positive covid test. Early thoughts from my fuzzy brain are that this is slightly worse than the second vaccination shot. Not doing so hot and it really just came on out of nowhere about 4 hours ago.

Hope its mild and you recover quickly.