APS mask policy

[Anonymous]

Sure, there are healthy strapping 50 year old guys dying of heart disease a year after they get covid (someone from Australia just today, stories like this over and over), but sure reading about the science and following the most cautious approach is completely irrational. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can keep saying covid is never going away as much as you want. It may be true, but it also doesn’t negate the results of these studies suggesting that repeated infections can cause serious long term consequences. You can choose to ignore these cautions being issues by scientists, and that’s fine. But saying “covid will be here forever” doesn’t matter one way or another wrt whether these effects exist.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure, there are healthy strapping 50 year old guys dying of heart disease a year after they get covid (someone from Australia just today, stories like this over and over), but sure reading about the science and following the most cautious approach is completely irrational. YMMV.

People die of the vaccine too. Both extremely, extremely rare. "There's just so much we don't know!"

It's funny how the anti-vaxxers' and the COVIDians' arguments are getting increasingly similar.

[Anonymous]

8 cases today in Arlington County. But just wait 2 weeks...they'll be 2 cases per day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:8 cases today in Arlington County. But just wait 2 weeks...they'll be 2 cases per day.

Won't that be great!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That paper also explains that the reason that covid has generally had mainly had mild short term effects in kids, due to the fact that kids have much greater supplies of naive T cells which are used to fight off the effects of the disease. Not much has been done to study the effects of these diminished naive T cell reserves on kids going forward however, and whether their bodies eventually replace the naive T cells that were converted to fight off covid. It’s another reason we are trying to avoid infection to start with.

It’s also labeled as an opinion article and is just a theoretical model attempting to explain the lower severity in children vs elderly. If more serious subsequent infections were common we would have seen more hospitalization with the omicron wave, not less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can keep saying covid is never going away as much as you want. It may be true, but it also doesn’t negate the results of these studies suggesting that repeated infections can cause serious long term consequences. You can choose to ignore these cautions being issues by scientists, and that’s fine. But saying “covid will be here forever” doesn’t matter one way or another wrt whether these effects exist.

The key word here being "suggesting." There's no hard evidence of Covid's impact on long term health available, because how could there be? Most people only got infected in the past 12-18 months. And don't use the term "scientists" like it applies to everyone with a medical or research background. There's disagreement among that group too, especially when you get into things like predicting what it'll do to someone's body 5, 10, 20 years from now.

[Anonymous]

Something else to consider here is that people who are disinclined to wear masks indoors and who have already gotten covid, maybe a few times, may have poorer executive functioning skills and ability to reason as a result of having had covid. A study coming out over the last few days says that people who have had covid, even MILD cases of covid, see a larger reduction in brain size than the general population (brain size reductions from up to 0.2 to 2%). While most of these reductions appear to be from the olfactory centers of people's brains, they have nevertheless still resulted in poorer performance on general executive functioning and cognition tests. These results indicate that even a mild case of covid appears to generally impair a person's cognitive functioning in comparison to those who have not had covid. https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/07/health/covid-brain-changes-study-wellness/index.html

The article notes that it's possible that one's cognition recovers, but no studies have been performed yet to show this.

Book idea: People over time get multiple covid infections and slowly lose their ability to reason altogether, arguing against masks and any type of restrictions from preventing the further spread of the disease in the name of personal freedoms. People who don't get infected keep their ability to reason but are in the minority and are ignored. Kind of like a zombie movie but with covid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Something else to consider here is that people who are disinclined to wear masks indoors and who have already gotten covid, maybe a few times, may have poorer executive functioning skills and ability to reason as a result of having had covid. A study coming out over the last few days says that people who have had covid, even MILD cases of covid, see a larger reduction in brain size than the general population (brain size reductions from up to 0.2 to 2%). While most of these reductions appear to be from the olfactory centers of people's brains, they have nevertheless still resulted in poorer performance on general executive functioning and cognition tests. These results indicate that even a mild case of covid appears to generally impair a person's cognitive functioning in comparison to those who have not had covid. https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/07/health/covid-brain-changes-study-wellness/index.html

The article notes that it's possible that one's cognition recovers, but no studies have been performed yet to show this.

Book idea: People over time get multiple covid infections and slowly lose their ability to reason altogether, arguing against masks and any type of restrictions from preventing the further spread of the disease in the name of personal freedoms. People who don't get infected keep their ability to reason but are in the minority and are ignored. Kind of like a zombie movie but with covid.

Honestly? You've probably already had Covid and didn't even know it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Something else to consider here is that people who are disinclined to wear masks indoors and who have already gotten covid, maybe a few times, may have poorer executive functioning skills and ability to reason as a result of having had covid. A study coming out over the last few days says that people who have had covid, even MILD cases of covid, see a larger reduction in brain size than the general population (brain size reductions from up to 0.2 to 2%). While most of these reductions appear to be from the olfactory centers of people's brains, they have nevertheless still resulted in poorer performance on general executive functioning and cognition tests. These results indicate that even a mild case of covid appears to generally impair a person's cognitive functioning in comparison to those who have not had covid. https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/07/health/covid-brain-changes-study-wellness/index.html

The article notes that it's possible that one's cognition recovers, but no studies have been performed yet to show this.

Book idea: People over time get multiple covid infections and slowly lose their ability to reason altogether, arguing against masks and any type of restrictions from preventing the further spread of the disease in the name of personal freedoms. People who don't get infected keep their ability to reason but are in the minority and are ignored. Kind of like a zombie movie but with covid.

OMG this explains so much.

I had Covid once very early and yes it's had long term impacts but thankfully I kept my ability to reason about the need for masks and other precautions. Getting Covid so early made me realize how serious it is and the Covid minimizers drive me crazy. I don't want it again, I don't want family members to get it, and I don't want anyone else to get it either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:8 cases today in Arlington County. But just wait 2 weeks...they'll be 2 cases per day.

This is simply a Datapoint. Before mask came off in schools we were down to two or three cases per day total in APS. Yesterday there were 25 reported. It will be interesting to watch what happens over the next few weeks. Hopefully numbers will stay low, but something to keep an eye on for those who are on the fence.

[Anonymous]

The Omicron BA2 variant cases have been doubling every 2 weeks in NY, whose experiences with Delta and Omicron were a harbinger for the DMV generally. New Omicron subvariant spreads 30% more quickly than original Omicron and is not responsive to treatment from most monoclonal antibody drugs. Most infections seem mild, but even mild infections in vaccinated and seemingly healthy people run the risk of long term complications like long covid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 cases today in Arlington County. But just wait 2 weeks...they'll be 2 cases per day.

This is simply a Datapoint. Before mask came off in schools we were down to two or three cases per day total in APS. Yesterday there were 25 reported. It will be interesting to watch what happens over the next few weeks. Hopefully numbers will stay low, but something to keep an eye on for those who are on the fence.

Any school spread yet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 cases today in Arlington County. But just wait 2 weeks...they'll be 2 cases per day.

This is simply a Datapoint. Before mask came off in schools we were down to two or three cases per day total in APS. Yesterday there were 25 reported. It will be interesting to watch what happens over the next few weeks. Hopefully numbers will stay low, but something to keep an eye on for those who are on the fence.

Also another data point, as soon as mask mandate lifted by youngkin our religious private went optional. There were some cases during omicron but none since mandate lifted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8 cases today in Arlington County. But just wait 2 weeks...they'll be 2 cases per day.

This is simply a Datapoint. Before mask came off in schools we were down to two or three cases per day total in APS. Yesterday there were 25 reported. It will be interesting to watch what happens over the next few weeks. Hopefully numbers will stay low, but something to keep an eye on for those who are on the fence.

Also another data point, as soon as mask mandate lifted by youngkin our religious private went optional. There were some cases during omicron but none since mandate lifted.

That’s great to hear.