Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

You get larger drops when you have a greater amount of cases. That's far from the best metric to use as far as determining whether we should keep lockdowns or mandates because of the scenario both of us just agreed on.

The moving average today is 5,000 cases larger than delta's (which was more contagious than the original variant) peak.

There is no logically consistent reason to end this now other than the changing political tides. That's it. COVID is still here, COVID will remain here, and COVID will continue to take lives. Some people have been saying this since the vaccines have released. We've been noting that the COVID nazis are going to have to pick an arbitrary time to end this without any logical consistency, or live like this until COVID is completely gone (which was never going to happen). It looks like we're at the point of picking an arbitrary time to end this. Great... it only lasted about 1.5 to two full years.

 

Why do you get to define a raging pandemic? COVID as a public health crisis has been waning since the vaccines have been widely available.

What if they're screaming about government tyranny as COVID wanes and deaths are dropping? You know, like when the vaccines became widely available?

 

I just wrote in the first sentence that moving average was 5k more today than delta at its peak.

Why are you repeating it back to me as if I didn't write it?

You don't necessarily get far larger drops in half the amount of time, which is almost certain to be one of the reasons for the changes. It's the size and speed of the decline, which experts were anticipating from the outset of omicron based on what happened elsewhwere. It's also only one of likely many metrics used. And for lockdowns, please provide one place in the country that is under lockdown?

There is a logically consistent reason, the situation is changing rapidly and following what has happened in the past around the country with loosening things up, it's happening again. But it's not only about what is happening now, but what is anticipated to happen in the future, and on this count, given that omicron's much milder effects, it seems that experts are anticipating (some of it hoping) for what would look like endemic status, which is to say, yet another shift on how we address the existence of this virus in the human pop.

 

This is an incredibly arbitrary and subjective standard, which is a convenient way of letting policy-makers off the hook, all while justifying all the crap given to dissenters of these policies over the last year and a half. Incredibly convenient all the way around.

The situation has been getting milder with each variant, and there's been the possibility of a new variant with each variant. "Experts" just licked their finger, held it in the air, and felt which way the political winds were blowing, then adjusted their opinions accordingly.

 

Your own response has been arbitrary and subjective, heck referring back to DeSantis's handling as if his decidsions weren't arbitrary and subjective (or political). But lLet's be clear about something you seem to miss, there isn't some objective scientific standard in which public health experts can refer to. And although outside my field, I actually have some training in this. For public health experts of different stripes, it's based on their understanding of virus behavior, and what is constantly emerging scientifically within the context of what is known from a long history. And to that end, it's occurring despite enormous pressure from a lot of ignorant people who haven't the first clue about virology/epidemiology/public health science, but get their info from s***hole sites like gatewaypundit.

Yeah, but your favorite DeSantis hasn't done that, right?

Your problem like so many on the right is that you misuse and minconstrue science and have since the beginning simply adopted a defiant stance. That's why you must impugn those who study this stuff since you have no other good argument

 

Fauci is sounding now like Desantis has sounded this entire time. One has been hailed as a media darling representing science, the other has been ostracized by the media and by ilk like you as being anti-science.

If I gave you this quote without context or notice as to who said it, reasonable minds would've thought it came form Desantis. "The US is moving out of 'the full-blown pandemic phase' and that safety measures to limit the spread will be increasingly local. 'There will also be more people making their own decisions on how they want to deal with the virus.'" This quote is from Fauci.

So no... sorry... you and the "experts" have to do better now than just say "the circumstances have changed, we're making this decision on a wide variety of factors, trust us." No, show us your work. Give us a reason to trust you, because frankly it's ridiculous that you can just repeat Desantis talking points today after calling him anti-science for the last two years and uncaring of people who die up until last week.

You want to know why people trust non-experts like Rogan? It's because of crap like that. They don't trust experts because a lot of these experts are power-hungry, attention-seeking political hacks.

 

The changing rules governing our pandemic response around the country is evidence to the contrary that it's about being power hungry. It never was. The claim is more @ a paranoid & reactionary politics. From the gitgo, all manner of bullshit was spewed from the right, e.g. covid was nothing more than the flu or common cold, the reaction to covid was a democratic hoax, that covid would all just disappear soon. The right protested against measures to protect public health. They quickly turned Fauci into their enemy. And they abused & misused science trying to muddy the waters on everything covid related, especially vaccines. This maladapted attitude is of their own making.

 

The pivot is happening. They will try to claim victory for something that will not end. They know they screwed this thing up. They have people scared senseless. Still.

 

You know, you really can’t debate with someone that keeps saying things that are demonstrably untrue. At this point, you are just flinging spaghetti at the wall.

“COVID as a public health crisis has been waning since the vaccines have been widely available”. Umm… no. Obviously this is not a true statement.

 

And the mask and new drugs have done nothing to cause this drop. It is called this was a highly transmissible virus that ran its course regardless of coercion or mandates. There was no flattening the curve. But let’s push to give 1-5 year olds a new drug designed for a completely different variant was the lead along with the mixed messaging on masks this morning on gma.

When will people see reality?

 

It may have anti inflammatory properties that help control immune system overreactions, which were a cause of death in early patients too. Bit so do other medications more specifically geared to that. All we can rely on are the data where parasites are not an issue. I suspect that they use the drug in India because so many people have parasites there that they start to treat right away to eliminate the second risk factor. It is really sad that people are so stupid that they think the Government is intentionally withholding treatments that work from people. But you can see why snake oil spokesmen have always been successful. Even on a forum of college educated people.

 

Anyone arguing that the "science" has changed is full of crap. They realize it will be a blood bath in November and are trying to reverse course asap. It's too late to stop the freight train but it is funny watching the maskers all of a sudden do a 180. Just own up to being wrong about masks and move on. It will all be better that way, I promise.

 

You need to understand exponential curves. The Omicron wave is following the predicted curve. One week changes are showing extremely rapid decline. Exposure to the virus is reducing cases in a big way. And, exposure is creating convalescent immunity among the unvaccinated. We are getting there the hard way, but someone who was infected and recovered now has a level of immunity that was not there before.

 

Omicron is on its way down, that is what changed from literally a week ago today.

Fauci said in a few weeks we can probably start going back to normal. If Omicron continues to decline and no other variant starts rising, we can probably start going back to normal in a few weeks.

I'm a little gun shy because this is what I was expecting to happen right before Delta. We were looking at the numbers in June and celebrating that the school year was going to be pretty normal. And then it wasn't. Hopefully this will be the last big wave. We'll know more in a month.

 

Have you not been looking at the numbers? Daily new cases are half what they were a week ago. A quarter of what they were at the peak three weeks ago.

 

This must be the poster's first post on this topic since there is so little science background information evidenced.

 

Lol It’s not arbitrary. At all. We are on the backside now of a huge wave of a variant that is proving to be far less fatal than the previous variants. Seems like the perfect time to begin the move back to normalcy.

 

Rest assured there is another variant coming before November.

 

The idea anyone thinks a new/worse variant is politically expedient is laughable… except in the deep dark fringes of internet lalaland. Someone or something has sadly robbed you of your sanity.

 

I actually think it is sort of arbitrary, in terms of the specific lines that are drawn. How far from “normal” is acceptable. The trade offs that might exist. There is no single answer for that, more of just a consensus that needs to be arrived at from multiple points of view. But only a mental case is going to look at the peak surges we experienced and proclaim “everything is fine”.