Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston: health insurance, school, pharmacy)

[rach5]

Originally Posted by Jacconn

Yeah, that will happen, but hopefully just sporadically. My town’s school closed in 2019 for 2 days when the stomach virus whipped through and over 200 kids were out sick. I’d bet that no one in the Concord outbreak gets very sick - with vax rates over 80% there, it really might just a a cold or asymptomatic in the vast majority. I’d take a random day off for spread once a year to wearing masks all the time.

We aren’t pursuing Covid zero, folks. People will continue to test positive and spread it. That’s not news. When healthy, vaccinated people start getting hospitalized then that’s news and something to take seriously. Not this.

Well - just a couple of weeks with masks off and the first school having to close in MA is not good news (probably an early BA2 outbreak?). The UK, in a major BA2 wave, after also experiencing a major BA1 wave, is already experiencing major issues with schools and school staff again, with "unprecedented levels of staff absence due to Covid", moving to remote learning etc. (also the largest wave of infections in the elderly as their boosters wear off; I read elsewhere that there are now major hospitalization issues for the 85+ age group): https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...e-vaccinations
And according to the BBC: "Public health expert Prof Linda Bauld told the BBC: "Let's hope we are heading towards the peak or we are already at it in terms of infection because the problems in our hospitals are, once again, pretty acute." She said Scotland might soon be reaching a new high for Covid hospital admissions."
Austria will reimpose a mask mandate next week, just after dropping almost all precautions in early March. Hospitals in terrible shape.
For how long are we going to be able to have anyone willing to work in hospitals, with one surge after another? Or, alternatively, how much are we going to have to pay to still have hospitals?
Also, when you say "When healthy, vaccinated people start getting hospitalized then that’s news and something to take seriously" - I guess you don't have vaccinated loved ones with pre-existing conditions, or elderly, or kids under 5 (for whom Omicron is much worse than the prior variants; they don't die at the same rate as the elderly, but kids shouldn't die, period. https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-omicron-surge )
Perhaps BA2 won't be quite as bad in the US as in Europe, as weather will be on our side. Perhaps it will be worse, due to our booster being further in the past, and fewer people being vaxxed and boosted. Certainly stupid for our government to have dropped all public health precautions, and now refusing to fund treatment, vaccines and testing just days later. Just so that we all become at high risk of covid again.

That story about the meteorologist is awful. There must be more to the story and suicide that we don't know, as certainly finding a different job or moving to a different part of the country more receptive to her ideas should have been easy enough.

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by timberline742

It's horrible. The lack of quality mental health care in this country is borderline criminal.

She was someone that people looked up to for sure. Maybe she never got help and snapped. Who knows. She has a 9 year old daughter.

[porterhouse]

The Concord cases were likely not acquired in school. They are believed to be the result of a town sponsored dance.

[Jacconn]

Originally Posted by rach5

Also, when you say "When healthy, vaccinated people start getting hospitalized then that’s news and something to take seriously" - I guess you don't have vaccinated loved ones with pre-existing conditions, or elderly, or kids under 5 (for whom Omicron is much worse than the prior variants.

Healthy, vaccinated people who test positive but don’t get very sick is not news - that’s my point. An asymptomatic 11 year old and their peers test positive but are all fine and can return to school on Monday is not a health crisis. Now, If 42 middle schoolers are hospitalized at once, then yes that’s newsworthy. But that’s not what is happening.

Amd I do have an elderly mother who is immunocompromised (and thus got a 2nd booster shot last month) and I have an under 5 who isn’t eligible for vaccine yet. I’m vaxxed and boostered myself. Not that it matters or affects my opinion.

[LeavingMA]

Originally Posted by rach5

Well - just a couple of weeks with masks off and the first school having to close in MA is not good news (probably an early BA2 outbreak?). The UK, in a major BA2 wave, after also experiencing a major BA1 wave, is already experiencing major issues with schools and school staff again, with "unprecedented levels of staff absence due to Covid", moving to remote learning etc. (also the largest wave of infections in the elderly as their boosters wear off; I read elsewhere that there are now major hospitalization issues for the 85+ age group): https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...e-vaccinations
And according to the BBC: "Public health expert Prof Linda Bauld told the BBC: "Let's hope we are heading towards the peak or we are already at it in terms of infection because the problems in our hospitals are, once again, pretty acute." She said Scotland might soon be reaching a new high for Covid hospital admissions."
Austria will reimpose a mask mandate next week, just after dropping almost all precautions in early March. Hospitals in terrible shape.
For how long are we going to be able to have anyone willing to work in hospitals, with one surge after another? Or, alternatively, how much are we going to have to pay to still have hospitals?
Also, when you say "When healthy, vaccinated people start getting hospitalized then that’s news and something to take seriously" - I guess you don't have vaccinated loved ones with pre-existing conditions, or elderly, or kids under 5 (for whom Omicron is much worse than the prior variants; they don't die at the same rate as the elderly, but kids shouldn't die, period. https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-omicron-surge )
Perhaps BA2 won't be quite as bad in the US as in Europe, as weather will be on our side. Perhaps it will be worse, due to our booster being further in the past, and fewer people being vaxxed and boosted. Certainly stupid for our government to have dropped all public health precautions, and now refusing to fund treatment, vaccines and testing just days later. Just so that we all become at high risk of covid again.

That story about the meteorologist is awful. There must be more to the story and suicide that we don't know, as certainly finding a different job or moving to a different part of the country more receptive to her ideas should have been easy enough.

Sure, we wore masks for almost two years and had this "miracle vaccine" and yet a common cold virus didn't disappear. Can we as humans finally admit we can't control this and just have to deal with it.

If someone wants to take so called "precautions" then let them otherwise let use all live like we used to with a common cold or flu like virus.

[jbgusa]

Originally Posted by Jacconn

Yeah, that will happen, but hopefully just sporadically. My town’s school closed in 2019 for 2 days when the stomach virus whipped through and over 200 kids were out sick. I’d bet that no one in the Concord outbreak gets very sick - with vax rates over 80% there, it really might just a a cold or asymptomatic in the vast majority. I’d take a random day off for spread once a year to wearing masks all the time.

We aren’t pursuing Covid zero, folks. People will continue to test positive and spread it. That’s not news. When healthy, vaccinated people start getting hospitalized then that’s news and something to take seriously. Not this.

Hopefully the lockdown monkeys don't win again.

[rach5]

You don't need a lockdown for covid to cause discruption. Over 9% of teachers in the UK absent right now, at almost peak Omicron BA1 levels https://twitter.com/chrischirp/statu...423819/photo/1
They don't even need to isolate there - so it's unlikely that they are sitting at home asymptomatically. And yes, for those that argue cases don't matter, hospitalizations are up yet again, too, in a country with higher rates of immunity and boosting than the US.
Too bad the US won't be funding treatment and boosters.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by rach5

You don't need a lockdown for covid to cause discruption. Over 9% of teachers in the UK absent right now, at almost peak Omicron BA1 levels https://twitter.com/chrischirp/statu...423819/photo/1
They don't even need to isolate there - so it's unlikely that they are sitting at home asymptomatically. And yes, for those that argue cases don't matter, hospitalizations are up yet again, too, in a country with higher rates of immunity and boosting than the US.
Too bad the US won't be funding treatment and boosters.

Personally, I’d be happier with today’s laissez faire policy if they opened up 4th boosters and fast tracked the tweaked vaccines. My zip code is still 12 per day per 100,000 and that’s with very little testing and reporting.

[msRB311]

I had to pick up my son today at school because he has a fever and a throw up bug. Havent had one of these in years. The nurse told me about 4 kids had to leave with the same issues.

[rach5]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Personally, I’d be happier with today’s laissez faire policy if they opened up 4th boosters and fast tracked the tweaked vaccines. My zip code is still 12 per day per 100,000 and that’s with very little testing and reporting.

Agreed. Has anybody gotten a 4th shot without officially qualifying? Not much talk about the Omicron booster that they had advertised would be available by March...Not it's...maybe by August (Moderna).