Only ~14% Of U.S. Adults Have Gotten Latest Covid-19 Vaccine Update

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are things still surging?

According to wastewater and hospital admissions, yes.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance

According to DCUM, no. It's just a cold.

Choose wisely!

Wastewater data suggests there's an increase, but it doesn't speak to the magnitude of the increase.

Hospitalizations suggests there's an increase, but not a surge. Hospitalizations of patients with COVID are up 14% from last week. But both the overall number of hospitalized patients and the sustained rate of increase are far below previous surges.

+1. Wastewater may reflect infections, but that doesn't equate to disease.

The last two winters (2022 and 2023) the peak of infections came around Jan. 15. No reason to think it won’t be the same this winter as Covid seasonality grows more predictable.

Right. Everybody saying "it's not as high as it has been" doesn't seem to understand there's a warning phase as things ramp up. People aren't taking it seriously, nobody masks anymore, the wastewater is already showing the levels, but it's not bad yet. And then some idiot trolls want to talk about people pointing that out and claim they're "mentally ill". No, they're just aware, in as much as anyone can be in a country that decided not to care about the impact to people so that we could prioritize corporate wants. It's hard to stay reliably informed because that would make people want things we don't want to give them (meaningful sick leave policies, funding for vaccine studies, continued coverage for Paxlovid and other treatments...)

It's not tragically awful right now. And no, trolls, nobody wants it to be. That's why people are trying to point out what's going on. Stick your head in the sand (or somewhere else) if that's what you're into, but the numbers are ramping up. The next few weeks are going to show higher numbers, hopefully not exponentially.

Some people are vaxxed, which will hopefully keep the hospitals from being overcrowded. Some people mask, which can keep the virus from finding a new host. But an awful lot of people have simply chosen to not do either anymore, because it's "too uncomfortable", or not trendy, or painful, or doesn't fit their schedule... Smart people realize this is a setup for a mess.

How messy you're content to let it be seems to depend on your perception of health/health care. The current strains seem to have a more mild effect for healthy people, but even if that's true, long covid seems to impact otherwise healthy people just fine. Disabled people sounded the alarms before Thanksgiving. Able-bodied (and for those using "mentally ill" as an insult, ableist) people are probably used to getting care when they need it and not really needing much.

Some of y'all are about to get a rude awakening.

Even if you project two or four weeks out from current conditions, assuming current trends continue, we'll still be fine. More likely, we're probably very close to whatever local peak this winter will have.

Please measure "fine" in lives lost, assuming current trends continue. You do-nothing types are a trip.

A very small fraction of total deaths. Or are you forgetting that people die of things other than covid, too?

How many lives? You're "fine" with how many lives?

Well, about 52,000 people died of the flu during the 2017-2018 season without most people batting an eye, so that gives us a lower bound on what's broadly considered acceptable. And small changes in risk generally don't have a significant impact on behavior or perception of risk, so I wouldn't expect views to start to change until an order of magnitude increase (10x) in deaths above that number.

Wrong place to focus the behavioral economic lens being used here. In 2018 no one had ever heard of COVID-19. The magnitude of the shock factors into how long it will take for sensitivity to repeats to fade.

Influenza gives us a moderately close example of an endemic public health risk that predates covid. If we accept risks of a certain magnitude and severity with the flu, why wouldn't we also accept them with covid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are things still surging?

According to wastewater and hospital admissions, yes.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance

According to DCUM, no. It's just a cold.

Choose wisely!

Wastewater data suggests there's an increase, but it doesn't speak to the magnitude of the increase.

Hospitalizations suggests there's an increase, but not a surge. Hospitalizations of patients with COVID are up 14% from last week. But both the overall number of hospitalized patients and the sustained rate of increase are far below previous surges.

+1. Wastewater may reflect infections, but that doesn't equate to disease.

The last two winters (2022 and 2023) the peak of infections came around Jan. 15. No reason to think it won’t be the same this winter as Covid seasonality grows more predictable.

Right. Everybody saying "it's not as high as it has been" doesn't seem to understand there's a warning phase as things ramp up. People aren't taking it seriously, nobody masks anymore, the wastewater is already showing the levels, but it's not bad yet. And then some idiot trolls want to talk about people pointing that out and claim they're "mentally ill". No, they're just aware, in as much as anyone can be in a country that decided not to care about the impact to people so that we could prioritize corporate wants. It's hard to stay reliably informed because that would make people want things we don't want to give them (meaningful sick leave policies, funding for vaccine studies, continued coverage for Paxlovid and other treatments...)

It's not tragically awful right now. And no, trolls, nobody wants it to be. That's why people are trying to point out what's going on. Stick your head in the sand (or somewhere else) if that's what you're into, but the numbers are ramping up. The next few weeks are going to show higher numbers, hopefully not exponentially.

Some people are vaxxed, which will hopefully keep the hospitals from being overcrowded. Some people mask, which can keep the virus from finding a new host. But an awful lot of people have simply chosen to not do either anymore, because it's "too uncomfortable", or not trendy, or painful, or doesn't fit their schedule... Smart people realize this is a setup for a mess.

How messy you're content to let it be seems to depend on your perception of health/health care. The current strains seem to have a more mild effect for healthy people, but even if that's true, long covid seems to impact otherwise healthy people just fine. Disabled people sounded the alarms before Thanksgiving. Able-bodied (and for those using "mentally ill" as an insult, ableist) people are probably used to getting care when they need it and not really needing much.

Some of y'all are about to get a rude awakening.

You're going to have to accept that this is just how it's going to be as covid settles into a regular seasonal pattern, like other respiratory viruses such as flu, colds, RSV, etc. It is going to rise in the winter (and will have smaller spikes in the south in the summer as people move indoors because of the heat) and will be with us for the rest of our lifetime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are things still surging?

According to wastewater and hospital admissions, yes.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance

According to DCUM, no. It's just a cold.

Choose wisely!

Wastewater data suggests there's an increase, but it doesn't speak to the magnitude of the increase.

Hospitalizations suggests there's an increase, but not a surge. Hospitalizations of patients with COVID are up 14% from last week. But both the overall number of hospitalized patients and the sustained rate of increase are far below previous surges.

+1. Wastewater may reflect infections, but that doesn't equate to disease.

The last two winters (2022 and 2023) the peak of infections came around Jan. 15. No reason to think it won’t be the same this winter as Covid seasonality grows more predictable.

Right. Everybody saying "it's not as high as it has been" doesn't seem to understand there's a warning phase as things ramp up. People aren't taking it seriously, nobody masks anymore, the wastewater is already showing the levels, but it's not bad yet. And then some idiot trolls want to talk about people pointing that out and claim they're "mentally ill". No, they're just aware, in as much as anyone can be in a country that decided not to care about the impact to people so that we could prioritize corporate wants. It's hard to stay reliably informed because that would make people want things we don't want to give them (meaningful sick leave policies, funding for vaccine studies, continued coverage for Paxlovid and other treatments...)

It's not tragically awful right now. And no, trolls, nobody wants it to be. That's why people are trying to point out what's going on. Stick your head in the sand (or somewhere else) if that's what you're into, but the numbers are ramping up. The next few weeks are going to show higher numbers, hopefully not exponentially.

Some people are vaxxed, which will hopefully keep the hospitals from being overcrowded. Some people mask, which can keep the virus from finding a new host. But an awful lot of people have simply chosen to not do either anymore, because it's "too uncomfortable", or not trendy, or painful, or doesn't fit their schedule... Smart people realize this is a setup for a mess.

How messy you're content to let it be seems to depend on your perception of health/health care. The current strains seem to have a more mild effect for healthy people, but even if that's true, long covid seems to impact otherwise healthy people just fine. Disabled people sounded the alarms before Thanksgiving. Able-bodied (and for those using "mentally ill" as an insult, ableist) people are probably used to getting care when they need it and not really needing much.

Some of y'all are about to get a rude awakening.

You're going to have to accept that this is just how it's going to be as covid settles into a regular seasonal pattern, like other respiratory viruses such as flu, colds, RSV, etc. It is going to rise in the winter (and will have smaller spikes in the south in the summer as people move indoors because of the heat) and will be with us for the rest of our lifetime.

Are you saying that we will never get to Covid zero?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are things still surging?

According to wastewater and hospital admissions, yes.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance

According to DCUM, no. It's just a cold.

Choose wisely!

Wastewater data suggests there's an increase, but it doesn't speak to the magnitude of the increase.

Hospitalizations suggests there's an increase, but not a surge. Hospitalizations of patients with COVID are up 14% from last week. But both the overall number of hospitalized patients and the sustained rate of increase are far below previous surges.

+1. Wastewater may reflect infections, but that doesn't equate to disease.

The last two winters (2022 and 2023) the peak of infections came around Jan. 15. No reason to think it won’t be the same this winter as Covid seasonality grows more predictable.

Right. Everybody saying "it's not as high as it has been" doesn't seem to understand there's a warning phase as things ramp up. People aren't taking it seriously, nobody masks anymore, the wastewater is already showing the levels, but it's not bad yet. And then some idiot trolls want to talk about people pointing that out and claim they're "mentally ill". No, they're just aware, in as much as anyone can be in a country that decided not to care about the impact to people so that we could prioritize corporate wants. It's hard to stay reliably informed because that would make people want things we don't want to give them (meaningful sick leave policies, funding for vaccine studies, continued coverage for Paxlovid and other treatments...)

It's not tragically awful right now. And no, trolls, nobody wants it to be. That's why people are trying to point out what's going on. Stick your head in the sand (or somewhere else) if that's what you're into, but the numbers are ramping up. The next few weeks are going to show higher numbers, hopefully not exponentially.

Some people are vaxxed, which will hopefully keep the hospitals from being overcrowded. Some people mask, which can keep the virus from finding a new host. But an awful lot of people have simply chosen to not do either anymore, because it's "too uncomfortable", or not trendy, or painful, or doesn't fit their schedule... Smart people realize this is a setup for a mess.

How messy you're content to let it be seems to depend on your perception of health/health care. The current strains seem to have a more mild effect for healthy people, but even if that's true, long covid seems to impact otherwise healthy people just fine. Disabled people sounded the alarms before Thanksgiving. Able-bodied (and for those using "mentally ill" as an insult, ableist) people are probably used to getting care when they need it and not really needing much.

Some of y'all are about to get a rude awakening.

You're going to have to accept that this is just how it's going to be as covid settles into a regular seasonal pattern, like other respiratory viruses such as flu, colds, RSV, etc. It is going to rise in the winter (and will have smaller spikes in the south in the summer as people move indoors because of the heat) and will be with us for the rest of our lifetime.

Are you saying that we will never get to Covid zero?

Can’t tell if you’re trying to be sarcastic or are actually stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are things still surging?

According to wastewater and hospital admissions, yes.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance

According to DCUM, no. It's just a cold.

Choose wisely!

Wastewater data suggests there's an increase, but it doesn't speak to the magnitude of the increase.

Hospitalizations suggests there's an increase, but not a surge. Hospitalizations of patients with COVID are up 14% from last week. But both the overall number of hospitalized patients and the sustained rate of increase are far below previous surges.

+1. Wastewater may reflect infections, but that doesn't equate to disease.

The last two winters (2022 and 2023) the peak of infections came around Jan. 15. No reason to think it won’t be the same this winter as Covid seasonality grows more predictable.

Right. Everybody saying "it's not as high as it has been" doesn't seem to understand there's a warning phase as things ramp up. People aren't taking it seriously, nobody masks anymore, the wastewater is already showing the levels, but it's not bad yet. And then some idiot trolls want to talk about people pointing that out and claim they're "mentally ill". No, they're just aware, in as much as anyone can be in a country that decided not to care about the impact to people so that we could prioritize corporate wants. It's hard to stay reliably informed because that would make people want things we don't want to give them (meaningful sick leave policies, funding for vaccine studies, continued coverage for Paxlovid and other treatments...)

It's not tragically awful right now. And no, trolls, nobody wants it to be. That's why people are trying to point out what's going on. Stick your head in the sand (or somewhere else) if that's what you're into, but the numbers are ramping up. The next few weeks are going to show higher numbers, hopefully not exponentially.

Some people are vaxxed, which will hopefully keep the hospitals from being overcrowded. Some people mask, which can keep the virus from finding a new host. But an awful lot of people have simply chosen to not do either anymore, because it's "too uncomfortable", or not trendy, or painful, or doesn't fit their schedule... Smart people realize this is a setup for a mess.

How messy you're content to let it be seems to depend on your perception of health/health care. The current strains seem to have a more mild effect for healthy people, but even if that's true, long covid seems to impact otherwise healthy people just fine. Disabled people sounded the alarms before Thanksgiving. Able-bodied (and for those using "mentally ill" as an insult, ableist) people are probably used to getting care when they need it and not really needing much.

Some of y'all are about to get a rude awakening.

Even if you project two or four weeks out from current conditions, assuming current trends continue, we'll still be fine. More likely, we're probably very close to whatever local peak this winter will have.

Please measure "fine" in lives lost, assuming current trends continue. You do-nothing types are a trip.

A very small fraction of total deaths. Or are you forgetting that people die of things other than covid, too?

How many lives? You're "fine" with how many lives?

Are you this accusatory at people accepting the risk of automobile deaths? Should we all stop driving until we eradicate car-related deaths? What about flu deaths? Are you tracking these numbers or is COVID your special cause that you have adopted as a basis to judge anyone who is realistic enough to accept human mortality?

If you are using that, then we should all be masking and distancing. In cars, we have seat belts, air bags and all sorts of other safety features.

+1 And there are penalties for not using your seat belt in a lot of places, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only ~14% Of U.S. Adults Have Gotten Latest Covid-19 Vaccine Update
What are we in for???

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2023/11/18/only-14-of-us-adults-have-gotten-latest-updated-covid-19-vaccine/

I'll be honest, this is the first one my family hasn't gotten. And the reason is simple. Every one of these vaccinations have made me (and some of the other family members) really sick for about 24-48 hours. I seem to get it the worst. I can't take a day or two off work every time I"m vaccinated. (I don't get that way with flu shot, fwiw. But these COVID vaccinations really cause me grief).

Get it on a Friday. Find a 3-day weekend (there have been a few since the new shot came out, and there's one coming up soon).

I get crappy vax reactions, too. But I still get my shot. If the vax is that rough, how awful is the disease without it gonna be?

DP, but for me, every shot except for the first one has been far worse than my two cases of COVID. It's pretty hard to justify getting it with that track record.

People continue to have this rationalisation that if the shot is this bad, imagine if they had COVID and that just isn't statistically true for most people. Anecdotal sure, but I know people unvaccinated who had no idea they were infected and people vaccinated out the wazoo who were on death's door and lots in-between on both sides of the vaccination status. I guess it's one of those things people tell themselves to convince themselves they should continue to get vaccinated? I don't know. Its impossible to prove or disapprove because every individual is different and you can't prove a what-if scenario in this case but its just a weird argument that isn't really routed in anything other than someone's belief or feelings.

I"m the "I'll be honest poster . . . " i have no problem getting a vaccination, no problems with vaccinations in general, and my family gets all the recommended ones. But we are super busy right now and we just can't be sidelined for 1-2 days.

So if you get sidelined with covid for 5 days of isolation and 5 days of masking you just... won't, right? Because you're so busy? And then you and yours will pass it all around, and everyone else will just go to work/school sick because you're all just so busy? Too busy to test?

👏No👏One👏Is👏Doing👏This👏Any👏More👏

Except maybe you.

You wish, because it would justify your lazy-ass approach to not giving a fsck about anyone/anything but your stupid self, but plenty of people can read and follow simple instructions, and also care about others. You're not alone in your clownass approach to life, but you're far from the majority, dipshit.

Actually, this ignorant type is the majority. Most smarter people are getting the vaccines, much like the yearly flu vaccine, and masking in crowded places or when there is a surge. The people I know who want to pretend everything is "normal"...well, they are getting Covid right about now..

Okay and … ?

Has the world stopped turning? Are they dropping dead left and right?

Have you considered that some of us don’t think it’s some huge deal to catch COVID? And I guarantee the people living life as normal are event testing so they probably don’t even know they have it if they do.

So, if you don't care that you get covid, why bully others into the vaccine?

DP, I don't care if you get the vaccine. That's your choice. But don't expect others to change their behavior for you to make up for that choice.

How would my getting the vaccine help me? It made me sick for months. It is not stopping transmission so regardless of if I take the shot, I’ll still get Covid from you. Stop hiding behind the vaccine.

You got Novavax and got sick for months? Has it even been available for months?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are things still surging?

According to wastewater and hospital admissions, yes.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance

According to DCUM, no. It's just a cold.

Choose wisely!

Wastewater data suggests there's an increase, but it doesn't speak to the magnitude of the increase.

Hospitalizations suggests there's an increase, but not a surge. Hospitalizations of patients with COVID are up 14% from last week. But both the overall number of hospitalized patients and the sustained rate of increase are far below previous surges.

+1. Wastewater may reflect infections, but that doesn't equate to disease.

The last two winters (2022 and 2023) the peak of infections came around Jan. 15. No reason to think it won’t be the same this winter as Covid seasonality grows more predictable.

Right. Everybody saying "it's not as high as it has been" doesn't seem to understand there's a warning phase as things ramp up. People aren't taking it seriously, nobody masks anymore, the wastewater is already showing the levels, but it's not bad yet. And then some idiot trolls want to talk about people pointing that out and claim they're "mentally ill". No, they're just aware, in as much as anyone can be in a country that decided not to care about the impact to people so that we could prioritize corporate wants. It's hard to stay reliably informed because that would make people want things we don't want to give them (meaningful sick leave policies, funding for vaccine studies, continued coverage for Paxlovid and other treatments...)

It's not tragically awful right now. And no, trolls, nobody wants it to be. That's why people are trying to point out what's going on. Stick your head in the sand (or somewhere else) if that's what you're into, but the numbers are ramping up. The next few weeks are going to show higher numbers, hopefully not exponentially.

Some people are vaxxed, which will hopefully keep the hospitals from being overcrowded. Some people mask, which can keep the virus from finding a new host. But an awful lot of people have simply chosen to not do either anymore, because it's "too uncomfortable", or not trendy, or painful, or doesn't fit their schedule... Smart people realize this is a setup for a mess.

How messy you're content to let it be seems to depend on your perception of health/health care. The current strains seem to have a more mild effect for healthy people, but even if that's true, long covid seems to impact otherwise healthy people just fine. Disabled people sounded the alarms before Thanksgiving. Able-bodied (and for those using "mentally ill" as an insult, ableist) people are probably used to getting care when they need it and not really needing much.

Some of y'all are about to get a rude awakening.

What do you think is going to happen to us all in the next few months that constitutes a rude awakening?

You'll die with your head up your ass, so nothing, really.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are things still surging?

According to wastewater and hospital admissions, yes.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance

According to DCUM, no. It's just a cold.

Choose wisely!

Wastewater data suggests there's an increase, but it doesn't speak to the magnitude of the increase.

Hospitalizations suggests there's an increase, but not a surge. Hospitalizations of patients with COVID are up 14% from last week. But both the overall number of hospitalized patients and the sustained rate of increase are far below previous surges.

+1. Wastewater may reflect infections, but that doesn't equate to disease.

The last two winters (2022 and 2023) the peak of infections came around Jan. 15. No reason to think it won’t be the same this winter as Covid seasonality grows more predictable.

Right. Everybody saying "it's not as high as it has been" doesn't seem to understand there's a warning phase as things ramp up. People aren't taking it seriously, nobody masks anymore, the wastewater is already showing the levels, but it's not bad yet. And then some idiot trolls want to talk about people pointing that out and claim they're "mentally ill". No, they're just aware, in as much as anyone can be in a country that decided not to care about the impact to people so that we could prioritize corporate wants. It's hard to stay reliably informed because that would make people want things we don't want to give them (meaningful sick leave policies, funding for vaccine studies, continued coverage for Paxlovid and other treatments...)

It's not tragically awful right now. And no, trolls, nobody wants it to be. That's why people are trying to point out what's going on. Stick your head in the sand (or somewhere else) if that's what you're into, but the numbers are ramping up. The next few weeks are going to show higher numbers, hopefully not exponentially.

Some people are vaxxed, which will hopefully keep the hospitals from being overcrowded. Some people mask, which can keep the virus from finding a new host. But an awful lot of people have simply chosen to not do either anymore, because it's "too uncomfortable", or not trendy, or painful, or doesn't fit their schedule... Smart people realize this is a setup for a mess.

How messy you're content to let it be seems to depend on your perception of health/health care. The current strains seem to have a more mild effect for healthy people, but even if that's true, long covid seems to impact otherwise healthy people just fine. Disabled people sounded the alarms before Thanksgiving. Able-bodied (and for those using "mentally ill" as an insult, ableist) people are probably used to getting care when they need it and not really needing much.

Some of y'all are about to get a rude awakening.

Even if you project two or four weeks out from current conditions, assuming current trends continue, we'll still be fine. More likely, we're probably very close to whatever local peak this winter will have.

Please measure "fine" in lives lost, assuming current trends continue. You do-nothing types are a trip.

DP, but I’d actually like to know what your personal measure is for “fine.” Is it zero deaths? Is it eradicating COVID? Do you track any other viruses (like flu, norovirus, RSV) as closely as you seem to monitor COVID levels and did you have this same level of concern about communicable diseases prior to 2020?

Also I’ll add my anecdote to this mix for every person talking about how their extreme measures are working: we are a family of 5 and despite no longer masking or even taking meaningful measures to avoid it, we have 1 family member who has still never tested positive. And the 2 times we know someone in the house was positive, only 3/5 and then 2/5 of us ended up catching it at a time. My kids do all sorts of indoor activities all winter, play dates, travel, etc. so I’m sure they’re exposed a ton and this virus has barely registered as a blip in our lives. I think some people are massively overestimating how much their precautions are working and don’t appreciate that the majority of us not bothering with all those precautions are also not catching it or becoming symptomatic.

At this point I’d feel more guilty generating a bunch of medical trash from N95s and test swabs than I do just living my life like it’s 2019.

Some of us KNOW how terrible people like you are and don't care if you make someone else sick, which is why we still mask and take precautions.

Oh boy. You can’t actually answer the question about what level of spread/deaths are acceptable (because you are too far gone to la la land to even accept that humans have always and will continue to die of disease). Because first it was just 2 weeks to slow the spread and now we’re to the point of accusing someone of being “terrible” if they don’t share some unrealistic goal of not wanting anyone ever to die of COVID.

I’ll be over here in reality living my life while you keep fighting the fight against an endemic virus.

No deaths, no spread. If we have this wonderful vaccine, it should stop it all. My parent died in the fall thanks to someone like you not caring and giving it to them. So, yes, I’ll keep taking precautions as multiple family members have died of Covid or post Covid issues. Not all of us are as blessed as you.

No spread? Sounds like we need a worldwide lockdown. Shut everything down. If everyone stays home, 3 or 4 months ought to do it.

You keep trotting this out like it's cute, without realizing how it actually did work, and for a lot of the other diseases people keep trying to drag into this (did you care so much about flu/rsv/etc. before covid/do you now)? If we actually pushed for this, and sensible leave policies, and decent health care, maybe we'd get them. But you're content to use the very idea as a punchline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are things still surging?

According to wastewater and hospital admissions, yes.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance

According to DCUM, no. It's just a cold.

Choose wisely!

Wastewater data suggests there's an increase, but it doesn't speak to the magnitude of the increase.

Hospitalizations suggests there's an increase, but not a surge. Hospitalizations of patients with COVID are up 14% from last week. But both the overall number of hospitalized patients and the sustained rate of increase are far below previous surges.

+1. Wastewater may reflect infections, but that doesn't equate to disease.

The last two winters (2022 and 2023) the peak of infections came around Jan. 15. No reason to think it won’t be the same this winter as Covid seasonality grows more predictable.

Right. Everybody saying "it's not as high as it has been" doesn't seem to understand there's a warning phase as things ramp up. People aren't taking it seriously, nobody masks anymore, the wastewater is already showing the levels, but it's not bad yet. And then some idiot trolls want to talk about people pointing that out and claim they're "mentally ill". No, they're just aware, in as much as anyone can be in a country that decided not to care about the impact to people so that we could prioritize corporate wants. It's hard to stay reliably informed because that would make people want things we don't want to give them (meaningful sick leave policies, funding for vaccine studies, continued coverage for Paxlovid and other treatments...)

It's not tragically awful right now. And no, trolls, nobody wants it to be. That's why people are trying to point out what's going on. Stick your head in the sand (or somewhere else) if that's what you're into, but the numbers are ramping up. The next few weeks are going to show higher numbers, hopefully not exponentially.

Some people are vaxxed, which will hopefully keep the hospitals from being overcrowded. Some people mask, which can keep the virus from finding a new host. But an awful lot of people have simply chosen to not do either anymore, because it's "too uncomfortable", or not trendy, or painful, or doesn't fit their schedule... Smart people realize this is a setup for a mess.

How messy you're content to let it be seems to depend on your perception of health/health care. The current strains seem to have a more mild effect for healthy people, but even if that's true, long covid seems to impact otherwise healthy people just fine. Disabled people sounded the alarms before Thanksgiving. Able-bodied (and for those using "mentally ill" as an insult, ableist) people are probably used to getting care when they need it and not really needing much.

Some of y'all are about to get a rude awakening.

Even if you project two or four weeks out from current conditions, assuming current trends continue, we'll still be fine. More likely, we're probably very close to whatever local peak this winter will have.

Please measure "fine" in lives lost, assuming current trends continue. You do-nothing types are a trip.

DP, but I’d actually like to know what your personal measure is for “fine.” Is it zero deaths? Is it eradicating COVID? Do you track any other viruses (like flu, norovirus, RSV) as closely as you seem to monitor COVID levels and did you have this same level of concern about communicable diseases prior to 2020?

Also I’ll add my anecdote to this mix for every person talking about how their extreme measures are working: we are a family of 5 and despite no longer masking or even taking meaningful measures to avoid it, we have 1 family member who has still never tested positive. And the 2 times we know someone in the house was positive, only 3/5 and then 2/5 of us ended up catching it at a time. My kids do all sorts of indoor activities all winter, play dates, travel, etc. so I’m sure they’re exposed a ton and this virus has barely registered as a blip in our lives. I think some people are massively overestimating how much their precautions are working and don’t appreciate that the majority of us not bothering with all those precautions are also not catching it or becoming symptomatic.

At this point I’d feel more guilty generating a bunch of medical trash from N95s and test swabs than I do just living my life like it’s 2019.

Some of us KNOW how terrible people like you are and don't care if you make someone else sick, which is why we still mask and take precautions.

Oh boy. You can’t actually answer the question about what level of spread/deaths are acceptable (because you are too far gone to la la land to even accept that humans have always and will continue to die of disease). Because first it was just 2 weeks to slow the spread and now we’re to the point of accusing someone of being “terrible” if they don’t share some unrealistic goal of not wanting anyone ever to die of COVID.

I’ll be over here in reality living my life while you keep fighting the fight against an endemic virus.

No deaths, no spread. If we have this wonderful vaccine, it should stop it all. My parent died in the fall thanks to someone like you not caring and giving it to them. So, yes, I’ll keep taking precautions as multiple family members have died of Covid or post Covid issues. Not all of us are as blessed as you.

I’m sorry for your losses and I appreciate your honesty in sharing that your expectation is no spread or deaths whatsoever. I hope you can find a way to come to a place where you understand the reality of that ever happening, but I get you’re operating through a lens of trauma.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are things still surging?

According to wastewater and hospital admissions, yes.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance

According to DCUM, no. It's just a cold.

Choose wisely!

Wastewater data suggests there's an increase, but it doesn't speak to the magnitude of the increase.

Hospitalizations suggests there's an increase, but not a surge. Hospitalizations of patients with COVID are up 14% from last week. But both the overall number of hospitalized patients and the sustained rate of increase are far below previous surges.

+1. Wastewater may reflect infections, but that doesn't equate to disease.

The last two winters (2022 and 2023) the peak of infections came around Jan. 15. No reason to think it won’t be the same this winter as Covid seasonality grows more predictable.

Right. Everybody saying "it's not as high as it has been" doesn't seem to understand there's a warning phase as things ramp up. People aren't taking it seriously, nobody masks anymore, the wastewater is already showing the levels, but it's not bad yet. And then some idiot trolls want to talk about people pointing that out and claim they're "mentally ill". No, they're just aware, in as much as anyone can be in a country that decided not to care about the impact to people so that we could prioritize corporate wants. It's hard to stay reliably informed because that would make people want things we don't want to give them (meaningful sick leave policies, funding for vaccine studies, continued coverage for Paxlovid and other treatments...)

It's not tragically awful right now. And no, trolls, nobody wants it to be. That's why people are trying to point out what's going on. Stick your head in the sand (or somewhere else) if that's what you're into, but the numbers are ramping up. The next few weeks are going to show higher numbers, hopefully not exponentially.

Some people are vaxxed, which will hopefully keep the hospitals from being overcrowded. Some people mask, which can keep the virus from finding a new host. But an awful lot of people have simply chosen to not do either anymore, because it's "too uncomfortable", or not trendy, or painful, or doesn't fit their schedule... Smart people realize this is a setup for a mess.

How messy you're content to let it be seems to depend on your perception of health/health care. The current strains seem to have a more mild effect for healthy people, but even if that's true, long covid seems to impact otherwise healthy people just fine. Disabled people sounded the alarms before Thanksgiving. Able-bodied (and for those using "mentally ill" as an insult, ableist) people are probably used to getting care when they need it and not really needing much.

Some of y'all are about to get a rude awakening.

Even if you project two or four weeks out from current conditions, assuming current trends continue, we'll still be fine. More likely, we're probably very close to whatever local peak this winter will have.

Please measure "fine" in lives lost, assuming current trends continue. You do-nothing types are a trip.

DP, but I’d actually like to know what your personal measure is for “fine.” Is it zero deaths? Is it eradicating COVID? Do you track any other viruses (like flu, norovirus, RSV) as closely as you seem to monitor COVID levels and did you have this same level of concern about communicable diseases prior to 2020?

Also I’ll add my anecdote to this mix for every person talking about how their extreme measures are working: we are a family of 5 and despite no longer masking or even taking meaningful measures to avoid it, we have 1 family member who has still never tested positive. And the 2 times we know someone in the house was positive, only 3/5 and then 2/5 of us ended up catching it at a time. My kids do all sorts of indoor activities all winter, play dates, travel, etc. so I’m sure they’re exposed a ton and this virus has barely registered as a blip in our lives. I think some people are massively overestimating how much their precautions are working and don’t appreciate that the majority of us not bothering with all those precautions are also not catching it or becoming symptomatic.

At this point I’d feel more guilty generating a bunch of medical trash from N95s and test swabs than I do just living my life like it’s 2019.

Some of us KNOW how terrible people like you are and don't care if you make someone else sick, which is why we still mask and take precautions.

Oh boy. You can’t actually answer the question about what level of spread/deaths are acceptable (because you are too far gone to la la land to even accept that humans have always and will continue to die of disease). Because first it was just 2 weeks to slow the spread and now we’re to the point of accusing someone of being “terrible” if they don’t share some unrealistic goal of not wanting anyone ever to die of COVID.

I’ll be over here in reality living my life while you keep fighting the fight against an endemic virus.

No deaths, no spread. If we have this wonderful vaccine, it should stop it all. My parent died in the fall thanks to someone like you not caring and giving it to them. So, yes, I’ll keep taking precautions as multiple family members have died of Covid or post Covid issues. Not all of us are as blessed as you.

No spread? Sounds like we need a worldwide lockdown. Shut everything down. If everyone stays home, 3 or 4 months ought to do it.

You keep trotting this out like it's cute, without realizing how it actually did work, and for a lot of the other diseases people keep trying to drag into this (did you care so much about flu/rsv/etc. before covid/do you now)? If we actually pushed for this, and sensible leave policies, and decent health care, maybe we'd get them. But you're content to use the very idea as a punchline.

How did lockdowns work for China?

And are we going to keep pretending there weren’t negative second order effects from shutting down/isolating or is COVID the only potential harm that counts?

More learning loss, economic messes, increase in crime and mental health issues is totally worth it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are things still surging?

According to wastewater and hospital admissions, yes.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance

According to DCUM, no. It's just a cold.

Choose wisely!

Wastewater data suggests there's an increase, but it doesn't speak to the magnitude of the increase.

Hospitalizations suggests there's an increase, but not a surge. Hospitalizations of patients with COVID are up 14% from last week. But both the overall number of hospitalized patients and the sustained rate of increase are far below previous surges.

+1. Wastewater may reflect infections, but that doesn't equate to disease.

The last two winters (2022 and 2023) the peak of infections came around Jan. 15. No reason to think it won’t be the same this winter as Covid seasonality grows more predictable.

Right. Everybody saying "it's not as high as it has been" doesn't seem to understand there's a warning phase as things ramp up. People aren't taking it seriously, nobody masks anymore, the wastewater is already showing the levels, but it's not bad yet. And then some idiot trolls want to talk about people pointing that out and claim they're "mentally ill". No, they're just aware, in as much as anyone can be in a country that decided not to care about the impact to people so that we could prioritize corporate wants. It's hard to stay reliably informed because that would make people want things we don't want to give them (meaningful sick leave policies, funding for vaccine studies, continued coverage for Paxlovid and other treatments...)

It's not tragically awful right now. And no, trolls, nobody wants it to be. That's why people are trying to point out what's going on. Stick your head in the sand (or somewhere else) if that's what you're into, but the numbers are ramping up. The next few weeks are going to show higher numbers, hopefully not exponentially.

Some people are vaxxed, which will hopefully keep the hospitals from being overcrowded. Some people mask, which can keep the virus from finding a new host. But an awful lot of people have simply chosen to not do either anymore, because it's "too uncomfortable", or not trendy, or painful, or doesn't fit their schedule... Smart people realize this is a setup for a mess.

How messy you're content to let it be seems to depend on your perception of health/health care. The current strains seem to have a more mild effect for healthy people, but even if that's true, long covid seems to impact otherwise healthy people just fine. Disabled people sounded the alarms before Thanksgiving. Able-bodied (and for those using "mentally ill" as an insult, ableist) people are probably used to getting care when they need it and not really needing much.

Some of y'all are about to get a rude awakening.

Even if you project two or four weeks out from current conditions, assuming current trends continue, we'll still be fine. More likely, we're probably very close to whatever local peak this winter will have.

Please measure "fine" in lives lost, assuming current trends continue. You do-nothing types are a trip.

A very small fraction of total deaths. Or are you forgetting that people die of things other than covid, too?

How many lives? You're "fine" with how many lives?

Are you this accusatory at people accepting the risk of automobile deaths? Should we all stop driving until we eradicate car-related deaths? What about flu deaths? Are you tracking these numbers or is COVID your special cause that you have adopted as a basis to judge anyone who is realistic enough to accept human mortality?

Regarding driving: The car I drive has seatbelts and airbags and multitude of other safety features. We use the seatbelts and our kids use their car seats. Why? Because it helps reduce the risk of automobile deaths and it would be stupid to not use the seatbelt given the high risk of injury in an accident. We have technology to help prevent auto deaths and we use it. Realize it will never be Zero, but we do our part to stay safe.

Same can be applied to covid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are things still surging?

According to wastewater and hospital admissions, yes.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance

According to DCUM, no. It's just a cold.

Choose wisely!

Wastewater data suggests there's an increase, but it doesn't speak to the magnitude of the increase.

Hospitalizations suggests there's an increase, but not a surge. Hospitalizations of patients with COVID are up 14% from last week. But both the overall number of hospitalized patients and the sustained rate of increase are far below previous surges.

+1. Wastewater may reflect infections, but that doesn't equate to disease.

The last two winters (2022 and 2023) the peak of infections came around Jan. 15. No reason to think it won’t be the same this winter as Covid seasonality grows more predictable.

Right. Everybody saying "it's not as high as it has been" doesn't seem to understand there's a warning phase as things ramp up. People aren't taking it seriously, nobody masks anymore, the wastewater is already showing the levels, but it's not bad yet. And then some idiot trolls want to talk about people pointing that out and claim they're "mentally ill". No, they're just aware, in as much as anyone can be in a country that decided not to care about the impact to people so that we could prioritize corporate wants. It's hard to stay reliably informed because that would make people want things we don't want to give them (meaningful sick leave policies, funding for vaccine studies, continued coverage for Paxlovid and other treatments...)

It's not tragically awful right now. And no, trolls, nobody wants it to be. That's why people are trying to point out what's going on. Stick your head in the sand (or somewhere else) if that's what you're into, but the numbers are ramping up. The next few weeks are going to show higher numbers, hopefully not exponentially.

Some people are vaxxed, which will hopefully keep the hospitals from being overcrowded. Some people mask, which can keep the virus from finding a new host. But an awful lot of people have simply chosen to not do either anymore, because it's "too uncomfortable", or not trendy, or painful, or doesn't fit their schedule... Smart people realize this is a setup for a mess.

How messy you're content to let it be seems to depend on your perception of health/health care. The current strains seem to have a more mild effect for healthy people, but even if that's true, long covid seems to impact otherwise healthy people just fine. Disabled people sounded the alarms before Thanksgiving. Able-bodied (and for those using "mentally ill" as an insult, ableist) people are probably used to getting care when they need it and not really needing much.

Some of y'all are about to get a rude awakening.

What do you think is going to happen to us all in the next few months that constitutes a rude awakening?

You'll die with your head up your ass, so nothing, really.

As I suspected, you don’t really have a serious answer for that question. Go on and keeping waiting for that sweet, sweet comeuppance, I guess. I, and most of the rest of the world, am moving on, risks accepted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are things still surging?

According to wastewater and hospital admissions, yes.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance

According to DCUM, no. It's just a cold.

Choose wisely!

Wastewater data suggests there's an increase, but it doesn't speak to the magnitude of the increase.

Hospitalizations suggests there's an increase, but not a surge. Hospitalizations of patients with COVID are up 14% from last week. But both the overall number of hospitalized patients and the sustained rate of increase are far below previous surges.

+1. Wastewater may reflect infections, but that doesn't equate to disease.

The last two winters (2022 and 2023) the peak of infections came around Jan. 15. No reason to think it won’t be the same this winter as Covid seasonality grows more predictable.

Right. Everybody saying "it's not as high as it has been" doesn't seem to understand there's a warning phase as things ramp up. People aren't taking it seriously, nobody masks anymore, the wastewater is already showing the levels, but it's not bad yet. And then some idiot trolls want to talk about people pointing that out and claim they're "mentally ill". No, they're just aware, in as much as anyone can be in a country that decided not to care about the impact to people so that we could prioritize corporate wants. It's hard to stay reliably informed because that would make people want things we don't want to give them (meaningful sick leave policies, funding for vaccine studies, continued coverage for Paxlovid and other treatments...)

It's not tragically awful right now. And no, trolls, nobody wants it to be. That's why people are trying to point out what's going on. Stick your head in the sand (or somewhere else) if that's what you're into, but the numbers are ramping up. The next few weeks are going to show higher numbers, hopefully not exponentially.

Some people are vaxxed, which will hopefully keep the hospitals from being overcrowded. Some people mask, which can keep the virus from finding a new host. But an awful lot of people have simply chosen to not do either anymore, because it's "too uncomfortable", or not trendy, or painful, or doesn't fit their schedule... Smart people realize this is a setup for a mess.

How messy you're content to let it be seems to depend on your perception of health/health care. The current strains seem to have a more mild effect for healthy people, but even if that's true, long covid seems to impact otherwise healthy people just fine. Disabled people sounded the alarms before Thanksgiving. Able-bodied (and for those using "mentally ill" as an insult, ableist) people are probably used to getting care when they need it and not really needing much.

Some of y'all are about to get a rude awakening.

What do you think is going to happen to us all in the next few months that constitutes a rude awakening?

You'll die with your head up your ass, so nothing, really.

As I suspected, you don’t really have a serious answer for that question. Go on and keeping waiting for that sweet, sweet comeuppance, I guess. I, and most of the rest of the world, am moving on, risks accepted.

People who have actually moved on, move on, you know? They don't sit around debating their position on an anon board. The comeuppance would be that all the no vax/no mask people get impacted by covid (or something else) in a way that helps them better understand what the "mentally ill" cautious people were on about. Nobody sane wishes people ill just because they're stupid, and anyone framing pro vax/mask arguments as hoping anti vax/mask people get their "sweet sweet comeuppance" is an idiot or a troll. Some people don't think covid is a cold. Maybe someday it will be. As it stands now, people seem to have gotten burned out on trying to understand it, given up, and decided to just take their chances.

This puts people who don't have that sort of medical privilege/ableism on their side in a terrible position. But you don't want to hear that, so you call them "mentally ill" for urging greater caution with a virus that is barely 4 years old. It's not well-understood, it's still evolving, and if it stops being the milder version of itself and decides to get ugly, a lot of people are truly screwed. Long Covid is also a new phenomenon we have very little ability to process. You can deny that all you want, but it does exist, and we can't say definitively who will/won't get that. I get being overwhelmed by all the unknowns, but "let's all just go back to normal and pretend it's all fine" is going to lead to preventable infections.

That's not "sweet" for anyone but sociopaths, which the people still arguing here may be

The other PP's head is safely secured in their nethers; they have nothing to worry about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are things still surging?

According to wastewater and hospital admissions, yes.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance

According to DCUM, no. It's just a cold.

Choose wisely!

Wastewater data suggests there's an increase, but it doesn't speak to the magnitude of the increase.

Hospitalizations suggests there's an increase, but not a surge. Hospitalizations of patients with COVID are up 14% from last week. But both the overall number of hospitalized patients and the sustained rate of increase are far below previous surges.

+1. Wastewater may reflect infections, but that doesn't equate to disease.

The last two winters (2022 and 2023) the peak of infections came around Jan. 15. No reason to think it won’t be the same this winter as Covid seasonality grows more predictable.

Right. Everybody saying "it's not as high as it has been" doesn't seem to understand there's a warning phase as things ramp up. People aren't taking it seriously, nobody masks anymore, the wastewater is already showing the levels, but it's not bad yet. And then some idiot trolls want to talk about people pointing that out and claim they're "mentally ill". No, they're just aware, in as much as anyone can be in a country that decided not to care about the impact to people so that we could prioritize corporate wants. It's hard to stay reliably informed because that would make people want things we don't want to give them (meaningful sick leave policies, funding for vaccine studies, continued coverage for Paxlovid and other treatments...)

It's not tragically awful right now. And no, trolls, nobody wants it to be. That's why people are trying to point out what's going on. Stick your head in the sand (or somewhere else) if that's what you're into, but the numbers are ramping up. The next few weeks are going to show higher numbers, hopefully not exponentially.

Some people are vaxxed, which will hopefully keep the hospitals from being overcrowded. Some people mask, which can keep the virus from finding a new host. But an awful lot of people have simply chosen to not do either anymore, because it's "too uncomfortable", or not trendy, or painful, or doesn't fit their schedule... Smart people realize this is a setup for a mess.

How messy you're content to let it be seems to depend on your perception of health/health care. The current strains seem to have a more mild effect for healthy people, but even if that's true, long covid seems to impact otherwise healthy people just fine. Disabled people sounded the alarms before Thanksgiving. Able-bodied (and for those using "mentally ill" as an insult, ableist) people are probably used to getting care when they need it and not really needing much.

Some of y'all are about to get a rude awakening.

You're going to have to accept that this is just how it's going to be as covid settles into a regular seasonal pattern, like other respiratory viruses such as flu, colds, RSV, etc. It is going to rise in the winter (and will have smaller spikes in the south in the summer as people move indoors because of the heat) and will be with us for the rest of our lifetime.

Thank you, anon science expert poster, for telling me what scientist don't have figured out yet! You're SO SMART. I bet you're really pretty, too.

You're just going to have to slow your return to "normal" long enough to realize you can't travel backward in time. Yes, eventually, we may see a flu-like endemic Covid. We may also see politicians rush to make declarations science doesn't support, to please business and/or political interests, leading to unnecessary loss of life/livelihood that might've been preventable with better public health policies.

If we get a nasty round of flu, we need people to get shots. If we get a nasty strain of covid, we'll need people to get shots. Given the lack of knowledge of long covid, reasonable people might treat any covid as potentially damaging and take appropriate precautions.

Idiots on DCUM will call them mentally ill, while thinking their own health will be forever safe. May that luck never run out, otherwise the 'rude awakening' seems inevitable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are things still surging?

According to wastewater and hospital admissions, yes.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance

According to DCUM, no. It's just a cold.

Choose wisely!

Wastewater data suggests there's an increase, but it doesn't speak to the magnitude of the increase.

Hospitalizations suggests there's an increase, but not a surge. Hospitalizations of patients with COVID are up 14% from last week. But both the overall number of hospitalized patients and the sustained rate of increase are far below previous surges.

+1. Wastewater may reflect infections, but that doesn't equate to disease.

The last two winters (2022 and 2023) the peak of infections came around Jan. 15. No reason to think it won’t be the same this winter as Covid seasonality grows more predictable.

Right. Everybody saying "it's not as high as it has been" doesn't seem to understand there's a warning phase as things ramp up. People aren't taking it seriously, nobody masks anymore, the wastewater is already showing the levels, but it's not bad yet. And then some idiot trolls want to talk about people pointing that out and claim they're "mentally ill". No, they're just aware, in as much as anyone can be in a country that decided not to care about the impact to people so that we could prioritize corporate wants. It's hard to stay reliably informed because that would make people want things we don't want to give them (meaningful sick leave policies, funding for vaccine studies, continued coverage for Paxlovid and other treatments...)

It's not tragically awful right now. And no, trolls, nobody wants it to be. That's why people are trying to point out what's going on. Stick your head in the sand (or somewhere else) if that's what you're into, but the numbers are ramping up. The next few weeks are going to show higher numbers, hopefully not exponentially.

Some people are vaxxed, which will hopefully keep the hospitals from being overcrowded. Some people mask, which can keep the virus from finding a new host. But an awful lot of people have simply chosen to not do either anymore, because it's "too uncomfortable", or not trendy, or painful, or doesn't fit their schedule... Smart people realize this is a setup for a mess.

How messy you're content to let it be seems to depend on your perception of health/health care. The current strains seem to have a more mild effect for healthy people, but even if that's true, long covid seems to impact otherwise healthy people just fine. Disabled people sounded the alarms before Thanksgiving. Able-bodied (and for those using "mentally ill" as an insult, ableist) people are probably used to getting care when they need it and not really needing much.

Some of y'all are about to get a rude awakening.

Even if you project two or four weeks out from current conditions, assuming current trends continue, we'll still be fine. More likely, we're probably very close to whatever local peak this winter will have.

Please measure "fine" in lives lost, assuming current trends continue. You do-nothing types are a trip.

A very small fraction of total deaths. Or are you forgetting that people die of things other than covid, too?

How many lives? You're "fine" with how many lives?

Are you this accusatory at people accepting the risk of automobile deaths? Should we all stop driving until we eradicate car-related deaths? What about flu deaths? Are you tracking these numbers or is COVID your special cause that you have adopted as a basis to judge anyone who is realistic enough to accept human mortality?

If you are using that, then we should all be masking and distancing. In cars, we have seat belts, air bags and all sorts of other safety features.

+1 And there are penalties for not using your seat belt in a lot of places, too.

If seat belts obstructed my mouth, fogged up my glasses, and were horribly itchy on my face, I probably wouldn't wear them either.