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
I wonder if they feel the same way about lice.
Because they're morons and don't recognize that some people actually can't be protected even if they do want to be.
Trans rights are human rights.
There's also that the vaccines are very good but not perfect by any means, especially against new variants, and over time. But you're still far better protected being vaccinated and boosted than not. So not vaccinating still entails a higher risk to those around you, even if the other people around you are vaccinated.
But that's, y'know, complicated.
It’s also worth pointing out that generally speaking conservatives badly underestimate the risks posed by covid, so when they make that determination they’re not operating with complete information. Of course, the risk assessment on both sides is way off base, which unfortunately only emboldens conservatives. From the NYT:
Democrats, on the other hand, are more likely to exaggerate the severity of Covid. When asked how often Covid patients had to be hospitalized, a very large share of Democratic voters said that at least 20 percent did. The actual hospitalization rate is between 1 percent and 5 percent. Democrats are also more likely to exaggerate Covid’s toll on young people and to believe that children account for a meaningful share of deaths. In reality, Americans under 18 account for only 0.04 percent of Covid deaths.
It’s also worth pointing out that generally speaking conservatives badly underestimate the risks posed by covid, so when they make that determination they’re not operating with complete information.
When they refuse to be educated this is true but irrelevant.
"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn
"I wonder if they feel the same way about lice."
Do you need to ask?
Verbalizing my disdain by framing it in rhetorical questions helps keeps me sane.
Just signed up to get my booster shot this Friday. Gotta get it done before the Lunar New Year holidays.
In the name of being honest
Nature op-ed by evolutionary virologist Aris Katzourakis: COVID-19: endemic doesn’t mean harmless.
To an epidemiologist, an endemic infection is one in which overall rates are static — not rising, not falling. More precisely, it means that the proportion of people who can get sick balances out the ‘basic reproduction number’ of the virus, the number of individuals that an infected individual would infect, assuming a population in which everyone could get sick. Yes, common colds are endemic. So are Lassa fever, malaria and polio. So was smallpox, until vaccines stamped it out.
In other words, a disease can be endemic and both widespread and deadly. Malaria killed more than 600,000 people in 2020. Ten million fell ill with tuberculosis that same year and 1.5 million died. Endemic certainly does not mean that evolution has somehow tamed a pathogen so that life simply returns to ‘normal’.
As an evolutionary virologist, it frustrates me when policymakers invoke the word endemic as an excuse to do little or nothing. There’s more to global health policy than learning to live with endemic rotavirus, hepatitis C or measles.
Stating that an infection will become endemic says nothing about how long it might take to reach stasis, what the case rates, morbidity levels or death rates will be or, crucially, how much of a population — and which sectors — will be susceptible. Nor does it suggest guaranteed stability: there can still be disruptive waves from endemic infections, as seen with the US measles outbreak in 2019. Health policies and individual behaviour will determine what form — out of many possibilities — endemic COVID-19 takes.
Soon after the Alpha variant emerged and spread in late 2020, I argued that, unless infections were suppressed, viral evolution would be fast and unpredictable, with the emergence of more variants with different and potentially more-dangerous biological characteristics. Since then, public-health systems have struggled under the highly transmissible and more-virulent Delta variant, and now there is Omicron, with its substantial ability to evade the immune system, causing reinfections and breakthroughs. Beta and Gamma were also highly dangerous, but did not spread to the same extent.
The same virus can cause endemic, epidemic or pandemic infections: it depends on the interplay of a population’s behaviour, demographic structure, susceptibility and immunity, plus whether viral variants emerge. Different conditions across the world can allow more-successful variants to evolve, and these can seed new waves of epidemics. These seeds are tied to a region’s policy decisions and capacity to respond to infections. Even if one region reaches an equilibrium — be that of low or high disease and death — that might be disturbed when a new variant with new characteristics arrives.
COVID-19 is, of course, not the world’s first pandemic. The fact that immune systems have evolved to cope with constant infections, and the traces of viral genetic material embedded in our own genomes from ancient viral infections, are testament to such evolutionary battles. It is likely that some viruses went ‘extinct’ on their own and still caused high rates of mortality on the way out.
There is a widespread, rosy misconception that viruses evolve over time to become more benign. This is not the case: there is no predestined evolutionary outcome for a virus to become more benign, especially ones, such as SARS-CoV-2, in which most transmission happens before the virus causes severe disease. Consider that Alpha and Delta are more virulent than the strain first found in Wuhan, China. The second wave of the 1918 influenza pandemic was far more deadly than the first.
Much can be done to shift the evolutionary arms race in humanity’s favour. First, we must set aside lazy optimism. Second, we must be realistic about the likely levels of death, disability and sickness. Targets set for reduction should consider that circulating virus risks giving rise to new variants. Third, we must use — globally — the formidable weapons available: effective vaccines, antiviral medications, diagnostic tests and a better understanding of how to stop an airborne virus through mask wearing, distancing, and air ventilation and filtration. Fourth, we must invest in vaccines that protect against a broader range of variants.
The best way to prevent more, more-dangerous or more-transmissible variants from emerging is to stop unconstrained spread, and that requires many integrated public-health interventions, including, crucially, vaccine equity. The more a virus replicates, the greater the chance that problematic variants will arise, most probably where spread is highest. The Alpha variant was first identified in the United Kingdom, Delta was first found in India and Omicron in southern Africa — all places where spread was rampant.
Thinking that endemicity is both mild and inevitable is more than wrong, it is dangerous: it sets humanity up for many more years of disease, including unpredictable waves of outbreaks. It is more productive to consider how bad things could get if we keep giving the virus opportunities to outwit us. Then we might do more to ensure that this does not happen.
Oh, bother.
Yeah, I'm kind of annoyed too whenever I hear this. It's wishful thinking that's not really based on hard evidence.
As for people thinking "endemic" means "harmless"...yeah, no. If there was a static number of bear attacks that resulted in campers being mauled and eaten in a national park every year, it would be asinine to conclude that the bears aren't a problem.
Edited by M84 on Jan 24th 2022 at 11:22:22 PM
Disgusted, but not surprised
The problem with such posibility is, how much time the ordinary people would tolerate such a thing?
Oh, bother.
And pretending the house isn't on fire is a better option?
Disgusted, but not surprised
The "ordinary people" have already been told what they had to do to stop this. They refused. No amount of protesting is going to make the virus go away now.
It's been fun.
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
The hashtag #I Have A Preexisting Condition is currently trending on Twitter, people who can't get the COVID vaccine telling anti-vaxxers to get it for their sake. Hopefully, it manages to change a few minds.
Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Jan 24th 2022 at 10:57:01 AM
Just got my booster yesterday. Once again, just a very sore shoulder.
In other news, and on topic for what was being discussed, my boyfriend is pretty despairing because he just learned one of his best friends online isn't protected from COVID in any way. Doesn't wear a mask because he "can't breathe in it", isn't vaccinated because a) his family has a history of reacting badly to medicines and vaccines b) he's heard the vaccines don't offer enough protection for him to risk that c) he thinks he had COVID at the start of the pandemic so he's built up an immunity and d) his family has a very strong natural immunity. He works from home, so rarely has to go out, but on the other hand he lives in Virginia, where Youngkin just removed the mandates. So that probably means less masked and vaccinated people around to protect him. And he lives with his older mother who has several health problems (just had surgery last year, if I recall what my boyfriend said correctly) and is also unvaccinated. He tried to get through to him, and just got given the more polite version of FU ("I know you're just concerned and worried about me, it's appreciated, but it's my choice, the decision is made, so please respect it as I do yours").
So basically the guy's a ticking time-bomb, and whether the guy gets it, whether he survives or not, and whether he passes it to his old mother (and survives while she dies, which has happened in a lot of these news stories) is really all down to luck at this point. :(
Edited by Ingonyama on Jan 25th 2022 at 2:37:35 AM
Redmess
Did he have symptoms that suggest he may have already had it? And yeah, that sounds very familiar. People just more or less convince themselves they're doing the right thing with suppositions and not-quite-wrong facts, and it can be really hard to get through to them.
I think the best thing at that point is just to keep showing concern for their health and try to be supportive despite it all. What more can you do?
Optimism is a duty.
Even if he did have it, recent evidence shows that won't matter with omicron.
Redmess
You could try bringing that up, perhaps that will push him over the edge.
I was reading a book about procrastination, and that made me realize that simple procrastination probably accounts for a big part of why people aren't vaccinating, or delaying doing so.
Optimism is a duty.
Similarly: I have a friend whose wife refuses to get the vaccine because "she's young and healthy" (she apparently works out a lot)- as if COVID cares if you're either.
I'll never forget that dramatic image from early in the pandemic where a really buff guy lost, like, 40 pounds after getting COVID.
Edited by speedyboris on Jan 25th 2022 at 6:15:19 AM
Redmess
Being young and healthy certainly helps with resistance against disease in general. Being young and healthy certainly helps protect you against the flu, which disproportionally affects the old and infirm.
The problem is not that this information is false, which it generally isn't, but incomplete, and disregards exceptions.
It is also, incidentally, the same argument for why most people don't take vaccines in general, like the flu shot.
As for losing weight, was that from Covid or from general hospitalization? Because I haven't heard that Covid causes weight loss.
Edited by Redmess on Jan 25th 2022 at 3:19:34 PM
Optimism is a duty.
I mean, of course it matters if you’re young and healthy - the vast majority of COVID deaths have been among the elderly, and preexisting conditions also play a role - but it doesn’t mean COVID is harmless to the young and healthy, esp. when they haven’t been vaccinated.
The US news report above noting both that Republicans underestimated the dangers of COVID and Democrats overestimated them lines up with what I’ve seen on social media - ideas around severity and risk have become ideological markers. I’m seeing widespread claims on the progressive side that public health officers and governments - even progressive ones that have used much more stringent measures in the past - accepting omicron as endemic is tantamount to murder and eugenics. Whereas to me the response of public health officers across so many countries and regions being the same tells me they’re realized they cannot control omicron, so lockdowns would be a lot of pain with no gain.
What comes with it is a strong inclination to downplay the effects of school closures and lockdowns on learning and mental health - which have been severe - and exaggerate the risk of COVID to children. (Total deaths of people under age 20 in Canada from COVID over the course of the entire pandemic: 25. ICU hospitalizations: as little under 200. Far, far lower than for any other agre group.)
Edited by Galadriel on Jan 25th 2022 at 6:35:23 AM
Lost in Space
The problem with COVID-19 in this respect is that severe cases are so severe that, even though rare among healthy individuals, they can be devastating if they happen. Is it really worth the gamble?
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Oh, bother.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Again, "endemic" doesn't mean "harmless". It just means it's static.
That doesn't mean we should just accept it.
And it's hard to exaggerate how harmful Omicron is to kids considering pediatrics wards across the USA are getting filled up with kids coming down with Omicron. And generally speaking, they don't put kids in those wards unless they are really sick.
![[down]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_down.png "[down]"){kind=icon}
"Oh it's endemic guess that means we don't have to do anything anymore" is the opposite extreme.
And as to why the vaccinated are showing up in hospitals more...that's because more of the population in general is vaccinated. Even in the USA. The unvaccinated are still a big part of the problem.
Edited by M84 on Jan 25th 2022 at 10:40:54 PM
Disgusted, but not surprised
It means we have to accept it, because it cannot be controlled. Shutdowns are no longer an effective measure. Vaccine effectiveness is drastically decreased - are vaccine passports useful in an other than punitive sense when three-quarters of the people in hospital are vaccinated (yes, the unvaccinated have significantly higher risk - but they’re no longer main the reason hospital beds are filling up) and vaccination has little impact on the chances of catching omicron?
EDIT: I thonk we shouldn’t do things that don’t work. And most of the measures we’ve used in the past no longer work.
For kids: I gave the numbers.
Edited by Galadriel on Jan 25th 2022 at 6:43:11 AM
I think, if you talk to someone who opposes vaccine mandates, that the underlying belief is that people should be allowed to determine for themselves what risks they wish to expose themselves to. A lot of them believe the vaccines work, and therefore if you want the vaccine you can get one and be protected. Unfortunately they will often then go on to conclude that since anyone who wants to be protected can be, therefore there is no risk to anyone else if they themselves choose to go unvaccinated.
Edited by DeMarquis on Jan 24th 2022 at 2:46:06 PM