Coronavirus (welfare, spring break, weddings)

[jbgusa]

Originally Posted by stablegenius

Heh,Just around the same times as me

For the shots, the booster, or other dates?

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by jbgusa

viruses do tend to get milder over time

Debunking the idea viruses always evolve to become less virulent:
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/debunk...ry?id=82052581

[CA4Now]

Most Californians still favor COVID-19 restrictions, including requirements to show proof of vaccination at large outdoor gatherings or to enter places like indoor restaurants and bars, a new survey suggests.

The findings from the Public Policy Institute of California, based on a poll conducted March 6-17 of almost 1,700 adults statewide, indicate continued overall support for the sort of health interventions that have been widely relaxed amid dwindling coronavirus cases and COVID-19 hospitalizations.

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...e-requirements

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by roadwarrior101

Using this logic, can you not say the same thing about those who claim that COVID is over, masks don't work, etc?

We can actually measure cases with testing. Even though we already know more are getting infected than tested because most don't get tested. What we cannot do is measure those that "might" have been infected, might have been saved by measures like masking. We do know that people with both vaccines and a booster, wearing a mask are still getting covid.


Which means that method isn't working. Not sure why a few, very few, are still hanging on to a measure we know does not help. Maybe or might. Just does not work.

[jbgusa]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Debunking the idea viruses always evolve to become less virulent:
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/debunk...ry?id=82052581

The article considers only antibodies, not T-Cells. Further I agree that I should not have used "always" but the general trend is to lower virulence. Most circulating variants of influenza are mild descendants of the Spanish Flu, an 1879-80 pandemic, the Hong Kong Flu (1969) and others. It is a zig-zag line towards mildness but still a line or trend.

[goodheathen]

A not-so-proven long-term trend that might not apply to coronaviruses or specific viruses that were never particularly fatal. I doubt there's a corresponding trend for contagiousness. I've said before that even the common cold would cause some social disruption if it spread like Omicron.

Also, to the most extreme anti-masker who wastes time arguing that masks can't possibly help and throwing in dubious assertions, I can at least provide one factual correction: there are tests that can detect antibodies specifically from infection.

[stablegenius]

Originally Posted by jbgusa

For the shots, the booster, or other dates?

Yep, pretty damn close if I recall. My first shots were beginning and end of march and I got the booster in October sometime.

[njbiodude]

Originally Posted by goodheathen

A not-so-proven long-term trend that might not apply to coronaviruses or specific viruses that were never particularly fatal. I doubt there's a corresponding trend for contagiousness. I've said before that even the common cold would cause some social disruption if it spread like Omicron.

The common cold is actually quite a bit more contagious than Omicron. There are roughly a billion colds in the US annually. Ultimately, 4 different viruses cause the common cold but if you only use coronaviruses you're looking at 200-300 million colds from coronaviruses annually in the US alone. This is way more than covid. There have been only around 500 million documented covid infections on the entire globe in over 2 years which is way less than with colds.

When the "common" cold was first introduced to Native Americans from the Europeans it basically behaved like SARS/MERS and wiped out a substantial portion of the population. After immunity developed in the survivors it also became like the "common cold" to them too after a while. It's likely the "Russian Flu" in 1890 was a pandemic strain of a coronavirus as well and milder variants of that still circulate today.

[goodheathen]

Originally Posted by njbiodude

The common cold is actually quite a bit more contagious than Omicron. There are roughly a billion colds in the US annually. Ultimately, 4 different viruses cause the common cold but if you only use coronaviruses you're looking at 200-300 million colds from coronaviruses annually in the US alone. This is way more than covid. There have been only around 500 million documented covid infections on the entire globe in over 2 years which is way less than with colds.

When the "common" cold was first introduced to Native Americans from the Europeans it basically behaved like SARS/MERS and wiped out a substantial portion of the population. After immunity developed in the survivors it also became like the "common cold" to them too after a while. It's likely the "Russian Flu" in 1890 was a pandemic strain of a coronavirus as well and milder variants of that still circulate today.

We don't have the 'option' of wiping out people at high risk of COVID-19 to select for natural resistance. It's more likely that happened than much immunity developed. And I think it was smallpox - intentionally via blankets - more so than other diseases Native Americans hadn't been exposed to.

Furthermore, no, I don't believe that "the common cold is actually quite a bit more contagious than Omicron." I've found mixed statements about whether it is very contagious and none supporting that direct comparison, plus no stories of infecting for example almost entire nursing homes. Moreover, there is no vaccine for the common cold and most people don't limit their activities much for more than a few days due to the common cold (let alone die and dead-end their copies of the virus) - hence, of course so far its activity has been higher than Omicron's.

I've said multiple times that immunity to infection developed post-Omicron almost definitely is short-lived, plus it's far from certain it trains T-cells to easily spot and limit the severity of future COVID infections.

In effect, much of the population is now stupidly daring Omicron to prove its strength.

[Radical_Thinker]

Originally Posted by goodheathen

I've said multiple times that immunity to infection developed post-Omicron almost definitely is short-lived, plus it's far from certain it trains T-cells to easily spot and limit the severity of future COVID infections.

In effect, much of the population is now stupidly daring Omicron to prove its strength.

If what you're saying is true, why are cases scraping the bottom at less than 30k cases a day? Hospitalization is at its lowest in the entire pandemic.

With 35% of the country not yet vaccinated, you gotta chalk this up to natural immunity - if it waned as fast as some think, we'd be in a never-ending wave from here to eternity. Diseases simply don't work that way - otherwise, humanity would have gone extinct just as soon as we emerged from the African savannah.

My take on this is to let nature run its course - vaccines might help in the short run, but we all have to shake hands with the virus going forward, whether we want to or not.

Me, I've flouted the CDC protocol since mid-April of 2020 (when I realized that the virus is the Borg - resistance is futile) and have I gotten covid? Not that I know of...lol. I chose to take on the virus on my onw terms, and so far, the score is Me - 1, Virus - 0.