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[COVID-19] Its impact on you. Yes, you.
jungleroomx
It's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered User regular
It's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered User regular
As of this OP the Omicron variant is the new up and comer. Hows this being handled where you are? How do you feel?
Copied from Bogart's OP:
As the title states, this thread is for discussion surrounding covid and how it has affected us, our communities, others, and the world, while the updates thread is for information/updates about the virus itself.
Cite your sources and don't post bad or wrong or dishonestly-framed information; mod patience for this kind of thing is especially thin right now.
We've all had a terrible time of the past year, so try not to be jerks to each other.
Tl;dr: Be kind, be truthful and cite things, and if you're going to post in the updates thread with something that is not an update, post it here instead.
My message to all: Get Vaxxed, Get Boosted
Copied from Bogart's OP:
As the title states, this thread is for discussion surrounding covid and how it has affected us, our communities, others, and the world, while the updates thread is for information/updates about the virus itself.
Cite your sources and don't post bad or wrong or dishonestly-framed information; mod patience for this kind of thing is especially thin right now.
We've all had a terrible time of the past year, so try not to be jerks to each other.
Tl;dr: Be kind, be truthful and cite things, and if you're going to post in the updates thread with something that is not an update, post it here instead.
My message to all: Get Vaxxed, Get Boosted
Bogart on
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Speaking of which, apparently my province (Ontario) has recently announced that booster eligibility has been accelerated, with anyone 18 or older eligible to book one as of Monday
- Second dose to Booster timeline has been decreased from 6 months to 3 months.
- Pharmacies may provide boosters for walkins as of Dec 17th.
- Free rapid tests available at pop up locations in high traffic public areas, as well as LCBO retail (liquor stores), effective immediately.
- Capacity limits are in place again for large indoor gathering places like concert and sporting venues: 50% for those with a capacity greater than 1,000 people.
- It might impact other businesses as well.
Crossposted from the last thread, as I know there are a few other fellow forumers here in Ontario (and I imagine other provinces may follow suit, or not, I dunno).
CEOs from American Airlines and Southwest Airlines testified in Congress today their opinions mask mandates for travel should be removed because “most of our planes have HEPA filters.”
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/15/business/airline-ceos-question-masks-on-plane-rule/index.html
As a medical professional working the frontlines of this pandemic, I’d like to remind you that a HEPA filter helps you 0% from a direct exposure. The child or immunocompromized person or stupid anti-vax moron who sits next to an asymptomatic infected person can still catch the disease just as easily in a plane as anywhere else, perhaps even moreso due to extreme proximity thanks to tight seating.
Imagine how happy Delta Burke will be if/when Omicron takes over.
The weekly interactions I have with the other scientists complaining about the smell of my fermentation work while not understanding the differences between Biological Safety Cabinets and chemical Fume Hoods is eye opening.
Non-science folks never stood a chance
We call those masks.
Arm has an owie.
That is all. I went to work today.
Last point is relevant because:
To put that on context, vaccines were only open to most of the population in Peru on the second half of the year.
I mean, this isn't great:
We were warned:
90% of those over 12 have been double dosed.
Still no idea on when we're getting 5-12 eligible.
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
Yep, that's bad, and right on schedule for the slower non-Delta variants. I will keep the masks on.
I posted a thing in the parties thread how the reason we got the vaccine was because COVID threatened to fuck with the money for a lot of folks, so a fire got lit under a lot of rich asses to get a vaccine out in record time to get people jabbed and, in their thinking, back to work as normal as quick as possible.
Incidentally, it turns out every other step we need to eradicate COVID like we did for Smallpox and Polio also fucks with the money, so they would very much like to not do these things, despite the necessity.
[mask mandates mean you have unruly, anti-mask, anti-vax people either flipping out once boarded and prompted to mask up, or even worse, refusing to fly at all; as a result, they fear that mask mandates fucks with the money, so they’ll fight it tooth and nail rather than risk alienating a revenue source, public health needs re: masking to reduce spread of SARS-CoV-2 out of your spew holes be damned]
We haven't eradicated Polio yet. Though at this point it's mostly just in the Khyber Pass. Hopefully the infrastructure to combat COVID will help get those last inches.
Give Rotarians some money to help with it.
https://polioeradication.org/who-we-are/
The thing with exponential growth is that even if Omicron has a lethality a tenth of Delta just a r-value twice as high would completely wipe out any benefits from being less lethal within weeks.
Not to be a downer. But we won’t eradicate Covid. It’s a highly contagious respiratory virus with a long incubation period, and there are animal reservoirs. Best case scenario is likely that we get the virus under control with vaccines, masks, and antivirals until eventually it becomes a seasonal illness.
Maybe they can charge more for “no mask” flights.
For SA as a whole you can see weekly hospitalisation data here:
https://www.nicd.ac.za/diseases-a-z-index/disease-index-covid-19/surveillance-reports/daily-hospital-surveillance-datcov-report/
(You can also slice it by province but you can't do it for historical data so less useful to analyse)
The week on week increase in hospitalisations over the last few weeks has been
Week 46: +24%
Week 47: +98%
Week 48: +178%!!
Week 49: +83%
Week 50 (My projection based on incomplete data): +25%
This suggests it has peaked in Gauteng but we still have to see it fully take hold in the rest of the country. Given how fast this takes hold we could well see separate waves as it moves around the country. The question, upon which hinges how fucked we are) is how quickly it now subisdes in Gauteng. Does it fall as fast as it came or does it hang around at very high levels?
I made a game, it has penguins in it. It's pay what you like on Gumroad.
Currently Ebaying Nothing at all but I might do in the future.
We had tested ourselves because my birthday is coming up and we were going to have a small get together with other vaccinated friends. That is now canceled, and we will be quarantining at home for 10 days. Honestly, the most annoying part is that we were looking forward to the week where he was in school, but we had off work, so we could relax a few days just by ourselves. But also, fuck the anti-Vax, anti-any reasonable disease control measure folks (that venn diagram is always a circle) who have prolonged this to the point where it finally got to my kid.
Omicron seems to be spreading faster than anticipated. I'm still trying to find a solid report that includes an accurate R0 number, but I'm seeing anything from 3-5.
It's somewhat unusual for a virus to solely target humans rather than just anything. Smallpox could be eradicated because it doesn't infect bats and deer and all the rest, like a coronavirus does. Polio is similar and will hopefully be eradicated this decade. There are some others that might be able to manage, but most diseases are ones we will be stuck living and dying with.
And my wife’s parents have now also tested positive. Fuck. We saw them in-person on Saturday. So it’s possible they got it from him or he got it from them. They’re currently asymptomatic and we’re hoping it stays that way because they’re both in their 70s.
I swear Facebook has been shoving misinformation at her. In February she lined up to get the vaccine and was super optimistic about getting it. Now I had to fight her to get the kids vaccinated and now her. Note that she is an Office Manager at a dermatologists office with a degree in Biomedical Engineering.
But logically, it would be best to get the jab now so she can be recovered by Christmas. There's like, one day of feeling lousy, at worst.
I'm really trying. I promise. And the side effects of the booster are at worst 24 hours. Which is exactly why I said she should do it sometime this weekend. Perfect time to not have to worry about dealing with the kiddos.
Gotta have 2 hearts for all those gainz.
Boy oh boy, I’m tired of these chucklefucks. Kind of amusing that eating at a Cheesecake Factory was this particular group’s hill to die on, though.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
Yay!
Still subject to Cabinet approval, and since they've all gone home for the holiday break, might not happen until early January.
So hoping I can get the kid hey shots in January, before she starts school in February.
And then before I get on a plane to head to the US in March......
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
Pretty salty about it but I’m doing fine. Moderate fever for two days and then about two weeks of lingering cough which is mostly gone.
You can't give someone a pirate ship in one game, and then take it back in the next game. It's rude.
Just as a follow up on this, because I remembered it from the before time, but here in NZ , there was actually low enough spread that this (transmission on a plane) was specifically studied - admittedly, pre vaccination being widely available, but it was interesting how they were able to establish that Case A infected Case C, and so on - news article was here:
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/how-covid-19-spread-on-a-flight-to-nz
I was going to go to my parents’ house this weekend and stay through Christmas. Now I’m wondering if I should wait until mid-next week, require a negative test, or forego going completely.
This is the closest it has hit to home for me, which is kinda amazing this far into the pandemic I suppose. Fuck COViD and fuck anyone who isn’t vaccinated that is able.