Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

This is what a UF projection reported yesterday showed about the peak. UF report: Majority of Floridians will catch COVID by end of omicron wave

 

The good news being Omicron will be over by February rather than peaking in February.

 

This is pretty insightful. Everyone can decide that we are done with at home classes but if the teachers are sick and absent the school can't function.

I'm beginning to wonder if we should move to a model that more resembles home school technology. From what I hear there are good models out there, and such a model would not be dependent on any particular teacher being present.

 

It's a tough situation all around. Hopefully, Omicron will allow us to finally move forward towards normalcy. But that's still a ways off.

 

Each time we think we are making progress covid throws a different punch. This time not as severe but so virulent everybody gets it and nothing functions.

 

I might be a little lazy about how I comment--i.e can afford to soften my comments up a bit--but I'm not trying to score political points.

I get your question. It's not unreasonable. I didn't think it was earlier either.

The best I can put it is that there is greater ability to ensure that healthcare workers (including anyone working hospitals or other healthcare settings) get vaccinated, with vaccination remaining the best first way to fight covid. Seems the policy stems from this thinking.

BTW, I have to say it still kind of blows my mind how knowing we have this wonderful weapon, there would be any healthcare worker refusing to get vaccinated. I kind of liken it to street cops refusing to wear a bullet proof vest.

 

Meant no offense. It was a general statement for what I've seen posted a lot on here, and was not singling you out per se with that statement, even though sometimes it seems that way.

Why would healthcare workers smoke? Drink? Be obese? Decline the flu shot? Because they're human. They can make decisions.

You have a Covid vaccine that while very helpful, does NOT stop you from getting Covid nor infecting others. Just like the flu shot. For the flu shot it's either the shot or PPE in some places. This is a SHOT, make no mistake. It won't protect you or anyone else from getting it, just from getting extremely sick.

I'm well aware for someone like me if I happen to get it, shot or no shot I'll likely end up in the hospital. Whether the person treating me has the vax or not, if they're contagious it's game over for me. So, again, if the goal of this whole mess has been to flatten the curve, protect the vulnerable, etc, what exactly is the point here?

Does it make any kind of sense that it's a global pandemic, there are staffing shortages everywhere, so it's the perfect time to fire unvaccinated staff and...have the infected staff come in? And someone had mentioned weeks later. No they're having staff come in symptomatic DAYS after when they would've been in quarantine still. So likely at peak. Why? Because they say PPE is plenty.

Example of how ridiculous this is: One of my coworkers works the front desk. She's a retired RN. They keep calling her to come back- they'll handle her license later. She hasn't been an active nurse in over 20 years. She's 73. They want her in ICU. So yeah let's get someone like THAT in - retired, older, no license, and BTW no ICU experience (she was an ortho nurse mostly) versus someone experienced in ICU who was fired for wanting testing versus vaccine.

 

. I didn’t post in Qs thread about the field trip because the thread was too long to read through by the time I saw it and just got longer. But, there is no doubt this is having a heavy toll on school kids. The shut downs and on line learning affect kids in many ways. It is inferior learning. It hurts development today socialization schools. And it is really taking a toll on very young children. Especially those who are developing language skills. Missing okay fated etc. I have seen it with kids who were isolated somewhat. My ex is a child psychologist who is involved in testing at ages 2-4, so I hear about it. It is an unfortunate side effect of the mitigation measures for the virus. And in all those posts, we saw that the kids’ infections were mild. Colds that would have stopped no one before the pandemic. But, this is not a binary choice. It is another example why we need to vaccinate to prevent or mitigate the disease to avoid serious illness. Those who point to the effect in kids of the social distancing measures and object to vaccines have it backwards. We need to mitigate to avoid the spread of the virus, including from kids to adults and older adults, to mitigate the effect on society. Whether kids are vaccinated, adults need to be. You can get insight into these posters by their constant focus on the risk to the vaccinated person of an infection after the vaccine, but never the effect in others of not being vaccinated. Instead, the discussion of the effect on others minimizes the disease by arguing that it is older or vulnerable people who are at greater risk and that, therefore, vaccines are not as important for those who are relatively young and healthy. As if the lives of older and vulnerable people don’t matter. The greed and selfishness is so apparent in those views. It is really appalling.

 

Saw a doctor I know last Shabbat in the way to synagogue. Out for a walk with his wife. He wasn’t coming to synagogue because he was positive. He had operated on someone who was positive. Heart surgeon so fairly long procedure and exposure even in masks. He looked tired. Back healthy this week. Saw him last night. The vaccine minimized his illness. The idea of the vaccines is to reduce the risk of spread to patients who are in the hospital and more vulnerable and to other staff etc. To reduce time out. Let’s go to the next step Of your reasoning: what would the hospitals be like without vaccines now? Sorry, by vaccines and PPE are the answer

 

Not sure if this was posted. Citigroup allowing some exceptions and have offered cash incentives and education sessions, not now they take the next step.

Citigroup to Staff: Follow Our Vaccine Mandate Or We Really Will Fire You

 

Justice Sotomayor Falsely Claims 100,000 Children in ‘Serious Condition’ from Covid

Good grief. The lady is so terrified of covid she's fabricating numbers to support her fear.

 

Yup. This omicron wave sounds crazy in terms of the volume of spread. Still optimistically it’s not as deadly. The key appears to be that it sticks to your nasal passages and doesn’t go deep down into your lungs like prior variants did, so there are less cases causing viral pneumonia in the lungs.

My sister has been practicing telemedicine for months, but has to do an actual shift at the hospital ER this weekend. So I guess ill ask her to find out how things are where she is. I’ve heard from a few people there is an uptick of remdesivir patients, but I have no idea of anyone on vents or a surge in deaths. Haven’t heard reports of that yet (locally or in the news). Doesn’t mean it’s zero, just that it’s not surging. PJust sounds like a crap ton of people getting sick overall, maybe some freaking out because they caught “the covid”. That being said, this thing spreads 5x worse than any we’ve seen before. So the break even for hospitalizations is 1/5th. If it’s 1/5th as deadly it brings you to the same place as Delta wave, the same strain on hospitalizations. Optimistically maybe it is far less than 1/5th as deadly. Either way, this wave will pass quickly. The question is what does this damn thing throw at us next.

 

All of that very true until Omicron. Omicron is so different that vaccines are not really stopping it from spread or infection. It’s other big mutation is picking up more of a common cold type structure. It’s a big reason why it’s far less deadly than any other variant.

https://www.drugtopics.com/view/sar...-displays-genetic-similarities-to-common-cold

 

We will see a spike in hospitalizations but it doesn’t appear we will see the same spike in ICU care. We already have plenty of reports that up to 50% of COVID hospitalizations are people there for something other than COVID.

 

The children’s hospitalizations did actually hit a peak *per 100,000*. So since she referenced 100,000 I’m guessing she misspoke or misunderstood what that meant.

It was pretty dumb mistake, but it’s not like the justices don’t ever ask stupid (or seemingly obvious) questions.

 

Agreed with the first half. Disagreed with the second half.

The good news is omicron looks to be omicold. These new drugs are not slowing its spread. So focusing on them is the wrong thing to do. At this point we need the next generation of drug to come out. Unfortunately it will not matter for omicron as it will have run its course long before an effective vaccine gets out.

 

Delta is not gone either. It is likely still the main driver of icu for Covid based on the difference in how it and omicron attack.

 

Omicron Is Trending Toward Becoming Less Fatal Than The Seasonal Flu, According To Study

Glad I have my flu shot.

 

A justice blinded by fear shouldn't be making decisions affecting our country. She should recuse herself from this ruling. She needs counseling.