Moderator notice: Please do not ask for medical advice in this forum!
- If you are interested in Crafting, maybe try ordering a craft kit online (something substantial that would take time would be best, like a Latch hook kit
(and crochet hook if you don’t have one), a potholder loom and cotton loops, or cross stitch kit), to work on.
- learn something physical, like an instrument, how to sew or knit, etc
- a lot of museums and zoos and the like are doing virtual tours or free online classes, so keep an eye out for that as well.
- do a giant puzzle
- Join an online bookclub
- Take an online class
While the outbreak started around New Year's Day (12/31), it's picking up steam around the Asia-Pacific region especially since Mainland Chinese people tend to travel a lot.
For reference, the BNO Newsroom twitter has a special feed for any info on the coronavirus:
https://twitter.com/bnodesk?lang=en
The WHO has page about COVID-19 and any other concerns people may have. I suggest peeps go to the Q&A page to check for official details.
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
Edited by nombretomado on Jun 3rd 2020 at 3:21:48 AM
The good news is that boosters are looking to still be effective against Omicron.
Redmess
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Because they have been vaccinated, and governments all over the world have been promising people that they could do things like this again once they got vaccinated, and people expect governments to keep their word on that promise.
I mean, really, what do you expect when politicians tell us we can return to normal once we're vaccinated?
Optimism is a duty.
That's why you never make promises when you can't be sure you can keep.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Redmess
Well, that's liberals (libertarians) for you. Rutte is doing it all the time, but it somehow never hurts him.
Optimism is a duty.
Following what happened in New York, Anime Expo over in California has announced that they'll be having the convention in-person for the first time in two years, and everyone has to be vaccinated and masked.
Redmess
So basically the same as in New York?
Optimism is a duty.
Pitiable and Illegally Dumped Object
With much longer lines going by the stories.
Burning love!
Oh, that will be business as usual. AX lines are always stupidly long. ![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
Would it be reasonable to say that the kinds of people who would pay for, dress up for, and travel for anime convention are also generally more inclined to be vaccinated? Most of the anime fans I've seen in California strongly skew liberal and Democratic, the most obvious indicator of vaccination status nowadays.
A firearms convention in Nevada would be the exact opposite scenario.
Redmess
I'm a bit leery of equating antivaxing with conservatism. This may be incidentally the case in the US because of hyperpartisanship, but that does not mean that antivaxers are automatically conservative.
Optimism is a duty.
That's a really pointless nit to pick when people are explicitly talking about the US, and thus US conservatives, who are party to the hyperpartisanship you yourself acknowledge.
Edited by Perseus on Dec 9th 2021 at 6:24:00 AM
Trans rights are human rights.
Oh, bother.
Besides, we already know that the rightwing is more likely to be against COVID-19 restrictions around the world. At least in countries with advanced economies.
Pew Research 7/30/2021: Those on ideological right favor fewer COVID-19 restrictions in most advanced economies
Greece was the only one surveyed where this was reversed.
This may be, in part, due to opinions among supporters of Greece’s left-leaning populist party Syriza, who are significantly more likely than Syriza detractors to say there should have been fewer restrictions (55% compared with 39%, respectively). Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras has accused the center-right government of using the pandemic as a pretext to restrict democratic rights and freedoms.
Edited by M84 on Dec 9th 2021 at 3:27:34 AM
Disgusted, but not surprised
Redmess
We're still an international community here. We are not obliged to see everything through an American lens.
I agree that antivaxers seem to skew to the right, but that example of Greece shows that it is hardly a hard rule.
Edited by Redmess on Dec 9th 2021 at 9:45:21 PM
Optimism is a duty.
Speaking as an Australian, there's "not seeing everything through an American lens" and then there's wilfully ignoring the context of a conversation being about America.
Dude. Please. You don't have to #NotAllConservatives us every time someone says the c word.
Edited by Perseus on Dec 9th 2021 at 8:02:54 PM
Trans rights are human rights.
Redmess
I wasn't willfully ignoring it. I think I just got lost on a tangent. I'm sorry I upset you.
Optimism is a duty.
Redmess
Some good news about Omicron:
That's great. That means we can still vaccinate against this with current vaccines.
Optimism is a duty.
Shin Megami Tensei IV
I really will need psychological help after this.
I can't comprehend the concept of someone coughing without thinking that its covid. I went to a mom and pop store to buy and the owner coughed. Then they shown me their vaccination cards and told me that it was simply old age and the stational flu, which makes sense, but I still feel...unease.
I haven't bathed as its my usual attitude when someone actually coughs near me, but I feel...worried.
I have vulnerable parents and this is why I am deeply afraid of everything, even after they got their Third Dosis (meanwhile, I'm on the second).
Yeah, I'm still afraid after the vaccine...this is psychological. There is any thread to discuss this anxiety or its fine here?
Edited by KazuyaProta on Dec 9th 2021 at 12:42:29 PM
Watch me destroying my country
As long you keep it from reaching "THE NEXT COVID WILL BE LIKE CAPTAIN TRIPS!!!!"-levels of doomsaying, then it is fine to share anxiety here and ask for advice on how to deal with it.
I think.
I am not sure.
Edited by TitanJump on Dec 9th 2021 at 6:47:51 PM
You have my deepest sympathies, Kaz, but I don't think this thread (or really any of the threads on this forum) is an appropriate spot for anything beyond basic medical help, both physical and mental. Certainly I don't mean to say "keep this bottled up and don't tell anyone", but none of us are trained professionals (unless someone here actually is?). The best I can think of is whether there's a trained psychiatrist you can get in contact with if the anxiety is starting to interfere with your life.
Redmess
You can tell us and we will commiserate, but #Not A Therapist very much applies to this forum. If you feel you need actual help with this, visit a psychologist.
Man, it must be a great time to be a therapist right now. No shortage of clients these days.
Optimism is a duty.
Eh, I wouldn't be so sure. Therapists can burn out too like others in medical care.
Anka Aquila
I'm afraid we can only suffer together in this thread Kazuya, but at least you can admit that you will need psychological help, that's more than I can say when one considers how badly seen is the mental health profession by a good deal of people.
Instead of focusing on relatives that divide us, we should find the absolutes that tie us.
Don't want to leave but cannot pretend
Burnout is a thing.
Edit: ![[nja]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/user_ninja_2074.png "[nja]"){kind=small}
'd.
Edited by fredhot16 on Dec 9th 2021 at 11:57:51 AM
Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.
Redmess
Oh really? Thanks for pointing it out...
Optimism is a duty.
Why do we have 53,000 people going to an anime convention mid-pandemic, though? Or really, any kind of public event in an indoor venue?
Washington Post: First lab results show omicron has ‘much more extensive escape’ from antibodies than previous variants.
In a preprint paper not yet peer-reviewed, scientists in South Africa reported a large, 41-fold drop in antibodies’ virus-blocking ability — “much more extensive escape” than seen against previous variants using similar experiments. But the scientists stressed the positive element of their research: Omicron did not escape antibodies completely, and people who had been previously infected and fully vaccinated with two shots of the vaccine retained “relatively high” levels of antibodies protective against omicron.
“Previous infection, followed by vaccination or booster is likely to increase the neutralization level and likely confer protection from severe disease in Omicron infection,” the study said.
The study is one of the first clues that will help inform pharmaceutical companies and policymakers trying to decide whether the global vaccination strategy needs to be updated with an omicron-specific shot. The data reinforces the need for people to get booster shots when eligible. But the lab experiment is just one piece of the puzzle, which will also depend on how the virus spreads in the general population and whether it is more likely to cause severe disease, something not easily determined in the first weeks of a new variant’s identification.
“Omicron evades most of the vaccine response,” said Michel C. Nussenzweig, a Rockefeller University investigator who was not part of the South Africa research team but whose experiments predicted a similar drop in antibodies’ neutralizing ability. He stopped short of saying that vaccines will have to be rebooted to match omicron’s highly mutated spike protein.
“We don’t know what will happen with hospitalization or severe disease. If vaccines are keeping people out of the hospital and are making what could be a bad disease into something like a common cold, or something a bit more severe but not life-threatening in any way, then we’re good,” Nussenzweig said.
Multiple scientists said the results are not a reason to panic. This is the latest sign that vaccines are key to fighting off coronavirus infections, and even slippery, evasive omicron is not able to escape the protections afforded by robust immunity. “Thank goodness we have some concrete data now,” Benjamin Neuman, a virologist at Texas A&M University, said in an email. He said scientists had worried that omicron would be able to elude entirely the first line of defense, the neutralizing antibodies. Not so. The lab research supports the need for boosters, he added.
“It looks like quantity of antibodies will overcome the natural resistance of omicron, and that is a very good thing,” he said. “Boosters not only let the body make more diverse antibodies, they also raise antibody levels. In other words, Omicron may be vaccine-resistant, but it is not booster-proof.”
William Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said of the new laboratory finding, “In terms of keeping a cool head about it, I think it’s not great, but it’s considerably better than it might be.”
Hanage noted that people with previous infections and vaccinations showed protection, which supports the argument from public health officials that people should not rely solely on the immunity conferred by recovery from an infection.
Scientists had previously shown, through experiments, the immune-evading abilities of some of the dozens of mutations that have made omicron a “variant of concern.” Most of the mutations are clustered in three areas along the virus’s spike protein, the primary target of antibodies produced through vaccination. Some of those mutations impair the ability of antibodies to bind with the virus and potentially prevent it from infecting a cell.
Initial data indicate that omicron may be more transmissible even than delta, the variant that became dominant throughout the world this summer. There is no solid evidence omicron is more or less likely to cause severe disease. Most scientists caution it is premature to reach conclusions given that the most severe cases of covid-19, including those that are fatal, typically take many weeks to play out and omicron has only recently been identified.
David R. Martinez, a viral immunologist at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, said it is important to realize that other parts of the immune system protect people against severe disease.
“If you’re a healthy person, you’re probably going to be largely protected because your immune system is so much more than neutralizing antibodies,” Martinez said. “We’re certainly, by no means of the imagination, back to square one in March of 2020.”
What happens next will depend in large part on the real-world data. “Extrapolating from … lab assays to what happens clinically is uncertain. What remains the most important indicator [of] how serious a threat Omicron poses to fully vaccinated people will come from hospitalization data in the coming weeks,” said John P. Moore, an immunologist at Weill Cornell Medicine.