Coronavirus (schools, health, teachers)

[goodheathen]

Absolutely not the common cold. Why do people think lying is okay here?

I compare this situation to driving. Many are operating unsafe cars or driving in unsafe conditions. But few so dangerously that they're crashing. Add some sleet (an obviously bad variant) or darkness (cold weather where almost all socializing is indoors), and bad things will happen much more often. Unless Omicron-targeting vaccines arrive soon and are popular and quite effective. There's a weird amnesia about what Omicron did last winter.

[njbiodude]

Originally Posted by goodheathen

Absolutely not the common cold. Why do people think lying is okay here?

I compare this situation to driving. Many are operating unsafe cars or driving in unsafe conditions. But few so dangerously that they're crashing. Add some sleet (an obviously bad variant) or darkness (cold weather where almost all socializing is indoors), and bad things will happen much more often. Unless Omicron-targeting vaccines arrive soon and are popular and quite effective. There's a weird amnesia about what Omicron did last winter.

Frequent exercise, a good diet and vaccination are more effective than masks and all most people can do. The extreme majority are getting cold symptoms at this point. Maybe not in April 2020, but in July 2022 this is the case.

The problem is you insinuate that people should lockdown, follow mask mandates, not go to the gym, travel, go to school etc. People just don't care anymore, the LAPD and virtually all other CA departments made it clear they will not under any circumstances play mask police and there's nothing anyone can do.

Just look at LAX airport. Theres a stupid recording going telling people it's the law and they need to wear masks on public transportation as LA county requires masks in airports and on public transportation. Most of the people in the airport (at least 75%) are straight up ignoring it including many TSA, customs and security employees that should be theoretically enforcing it. If supposed mandates don't even work in an airport are they really going to be effective anywhere else?

For the really concerned there are ways to be fit tested for N95s and order them custom fit. Theres tons of those things around now, and they actually filter out viruses and work as a one way solution unlike most masks despite making people light headed, it impossible to do vigorous exercise and being horribly uncomfortable. So the true hypochondriacs are free to wear fit tested N95s to go to Trader Joe's and avoid all travel, gyms, indoor dining, movies, sporting events, concerts or fly on a plane. Theres tons of work from home jobs now too. Why worry about what others do when these options remain?

[MechAndy]

This last few months a large portion of the people I know have been infected with Covid.
The number is over a dozen.
Oddly about the only person in my close group that didn’t get infected was my mom who is in her mid 80’s and very healthy if that means anything.

Our group that got infected all had a cold/flu like symptoms.
I say cold/flu because there was about a 36 hour fever involved and when the fever broke we required doses of expectorant to clear the top of our lungs and sinuses where as colds normally don’t give a fever that needs to break.
Start to finish it’s about a 5-day ordeal to feel better.

The biggest problem with the current Covid virus is the inconvenience.
There is nothing fun about getting sick but the inconvenience has been worse for my group of people.
International travel was a big inconvenience for some of us.
Missing obligations like work took its toll.
There has also been countless parties and celebrations that had to be cancelled.
Tomorrow my niece will cancel her baby shower.
Yesterday my anniversary party had missing people.

Nobody I know is scared of getting sick for the normal health reasons they don’t want to mess up their schedules by missing work, appointments, travel and events or whatever you might call these social obligations.

Other than scheduling issues nobody I knows really cares anymore.
They don’t like getting sick but aren’t worried about getting sick.
People that like to cry “wolf” can only do it so long before the truth comes out.

[goodheathen]

Originally Posted by MechAndy

This last few months a large portion of the people I know have been infected with Covid.
The number is over a dozen.
Oddly about the only person in my close group that didn’t get infected was my mom who is in her mid 80’s and very healthy if that means anything.

Our group that got infected all had a cold/flu like symptoms.
I say cold/flu because there was about a 36 hour fever involved and when the fever broke we required doses of expectorant to clear the top of our lungs and sinuses where as colds normally don’t give a fever that needs to break.
Start to finish it’s about a 5-day ordeal to feel better.

The biggest problem with the current Covid virus is the inconvenience.
There is nothing fun about getting sick but the inconvenience has been worse for my group of people.
International travel was a big inconvenience for some of us.
Missing obligations like work took its toll.
There has also been countless parties and celebrations that had to be cancelled.
Tomorrow my niece will cancel her baby shower.
Yesterday my anniversary party had missing people.

Nobody I know is scared of getting sick for the normal health reasons they don’t want to mess up their schedules by missing work, appointments, travel and events or whatever you might call these social obligations.

Other than scheduling issues nobody I knows really cares anymore.
They don’t like getting sick but aren’t worried about getting sick.
People that like to cry “wolf” can only do it so long before the truth comes out.

Goes into insane territory at the end.

Probably all non-trivial viruses cause in at least a small percentage of infected people complications that last several months and up to the rest of their lives. (If many people feel terrible for several days, of course that suggests there's underlying damage being done, a hint that in some it won't soon or ever heal.) Great idea to ignore that lesson from science/history and likely sideline 2% or more of the population by letting the virus infect most people Besides the risk of a mutation that instead kills a few percent of the population.

[njbiodude]

Originally Posted by goodheathen

Goes into insane territory at the end.

Probably all non-trivial viruses cause in at least a small percentage of infected people complications that last several months and up to the rest of their lives. (If many people feel terrible for several days, of course that suggests there's underlying damage being done, a hint that in some it won't soon or ever heal.) Great idea to ignore that lesson from science/history and likely sideline 2% or more of the population by letting the virus infect most people Besides the risk of a mutation that instead kills a few percent of the population.

Omicron subvariants circulating seem to be a lot less intense than the flu for the dozens of people I know that got it in the last few months which most people get multiple times in their life too (also associated with post viral fatigue, higher risk of heart attack for a year etc). Your 2% risk of "permanent" damage is nonsense; follow ups of mechanically ventilated SARS patients in the early 2000s showed even virtually all of them recovered eventually.

Do you think covid is ever disappearing? There are animal reservoirs it will be around probably forever.

As I said get fit tested and wear your N95 everywhere and stop worrying about others.

[goodheathen]

Originally Posted by njbiodude

Frequent exercise, a good diet and vaccination are more effective than masks and all most people can do. The extreme majority are getting cold symptoms at this point. Maybe not in April 2020, but in July 2022 this is the case.

Mix of lies and statements that no infectious disease expert would agree with - and your own infection admission undermines the first part.

The problem is you insinuate that people should lockdown, follow mask mandates, not go to the gym, travel, go to school etc. People just don't care anymore, the LAPD and virtually all other CA departments made it clear they will not under any circumstances play mask police and there's nothing anyone can do

The problem with you is the lies. Most of that I didn't insinuate. In fact, some of my critics would know one of those activities I've declared much safer than others if done carefully.

For the really concerned there are ways to be fit tested for N95s and order them custom fit. Theres tons of those things around now, and they actually filter out viruses and work as a one way solution unlike most masks despite making people light headed, it impossible to do vigorous exercise and being horribly uncomfortable. So the true hypochondriacs are free to wear fit tested N95s to go to Trader Joe's and avoid all travel, gyms, indoor dining, movies, sporting events, concerts or fly on a plane. Theres tons of work from home jobs now too. Why worry about what others do when these options remain?

People want to live normally, with minimal usage of masks and little actual risk. Some are choosing to lie to themselves about that. Others like me won't lie about that. Besides the wishful thinking about working from home that for many isn't financially doable (career change at middle age, for example), it's a matter of peace of mind and satisfying socializing gone for the foreseeable future. It's time to change course back to throttling COVID-19, with more industries pushed toward work-from-home, ventilation upgrades, more investment in post-infection treatments, routine testing, and international travel significantly restricted.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by njbiodude

. Polio was a disease with a primarily fecal to oral transmission making closing pools useful during outbreaks. If it was a respiratory illness those mitigation measures would've been worthless.

I had polio, I got it from sharing a popsicle with a neighbor kid who was symptomatic but I didn't know it at that time. Most kids got it from other kids - not from feces. I think it was spread through the population by feces indirectly by contaminated water or food, but oral = oral was also a common means of transmission

[joosoon]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

And the greater the spread, the greater the possibility for the virus to mutate.


We can do more to stop COVID variants like BA.5:

Like what though?
This quote is from the thing you posted the other day:
"Given the likelihood that SARS-CoV-2 will remain a threat for years if not decades, we urgently need to develop public health measures that would be embraced by the public and could be sustainably implemented in the long-term to protect people from re-infection."
Define 'sustainable implementation'.

And I don't think the latest variant puts the nail into anything, really. The fact that the vaccines are still effective against all these mutations is a testament to their strength, not weakness. And the virus *has* morphed into something milder as per the CDC's own words. Nobody said anything about it fading away though. In fact, as I quoted from your own post above, research indicates it's here for a long visit.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by joosoon

Like what though?

Topol gives suggestions in the previously linked article, e.g.

"The “leakiness” of current vaccines and boosters for preventing transmission can be patched up by nasal spray vaccines, for which three candidates are in late-stage randomized clinical trials. Such vaccines achieve mucosal immunity, protecting against the entry of the virus into our upper airway, which shots are incapable of achieving for any durable basis, especially as the virus has evolved. Nasal sprays, like a variant-proof vaccine, deserve an Operation Warp Speed-like program to accelerate their success."

[1AngryTaxPayer]

The easiest way is vote these people out. https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/he...7-4c1fbf12b96d

Otherwise they will keep this going for as long as possible.

They have learned zero in over two years.


Barrera said, “When it rains you put an umbrella up and when it stops raining, you put the umbrella down and that is the analogy we are now using

An umbrella....really? Covid strain is here. And it's not going away no matter how many masks you wear. This is beyond anything worthy of logic.