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:

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.

If your plan for getting rid of covid requires everyone in the world to stay at home for 3-4 months, I'm honestly concerned about your grip on reality.

[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.

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.

And you'd end up a road splash, getting scraped into a bucket. Vanity over safety, the DCUM way.
The metaphor holds.

[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:

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.

And you'd end up a road splash, getting scraped into a bucket. Vanity over safety, the DCUM way.
The metaphor holds.

But do go on about how you're the fittest in this little survival game. Whiny brat.

[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.

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.

The current strain isn't particularly "nasty". Even the CDC says as much: https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/whats-new/JN.1-update-2024-01-05.html

Despite infection levels being 17-27% higher than the year before, hospitalizations and deaths are 22% and 38% lower, respectively.

[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:

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.

If your plan for getting rid of covid requires everyone in the world to stay at home for 3-4 months, I'm honestly concerned about your grip on reality.

Standard mental illness quip. You're not honestly concerned about me at all (or you'd mask and vax).

[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.

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.

I'd like to think so, but I've been described more as cute.

[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:

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.

If your plan for getting rid of covid requires everyone in the world to stay at home for 3-4 months, I'm honestly concerned about your grip on reality.

Standard mental illness quip. You're not honestly concerned about me at all (or you'd mask and vax).

No, that's true. I'm not concerned about you at all. As long as people like you don't get the power to impose crazy restrictions, I'm happy to let you live in your delusional world.

[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:

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.

If your plan for getting rid of covid requires everyone in the world to stay at home for 3-4 months, I'm honestly concerned about your grip on reality.

Standard mental illness quip. You're not honestly concerned about me at all (or you'd mask and vax).

No, that's true. I'm not concerned about you at all. As long as people like you don't get the power to impose crazy restrictions, I'm happy to let you live in your delusional world.

You'll want to apologize for this comment someday. You won't have the chance.

[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:

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.

If your plan for getting rid of covid requires everyone in the world to stay at home for 3-4 months, I'm honestly concerned about your grip on reality.

Standard mental illness quip. You're not honestly concerned about me at all (or you'd mask and vax).

No, that's true. I'm not concerned about you at all. As long as people like you don't get the power to impose crazy restrictions, I'm happy to let you live in your delusional world.

And when that happens, you'll know exactly why. Good luck!

[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:

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.

If your plan for getting rid of covid requires everyone in the world to stay at home for 3-4 months, I'm honestly concerned about your grip on reality.

Standard mental illness quip. You're not honestly concerned about me at all (or you'd mask and vax).

No, that's true. I'm not concerned about you at all. As long as people like you don't get the power to impose crazy restrictions, I'm happy to let you live in your delusional world.

You'll want to apologize for this comment someday. You won't have the chance.

No, I won't.

I make my own risk assessments, for good or bad, and live with the consequences. I don't expect others to cater to my choices. Certainly, I would never demand the rest of society lock themselves into their homes for an extended period in some misguided attempt to stamp out a virus.

[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?

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?

A. We’re still nowhere near flu death levels from COVID

B. See above.

[Anonymous]

I see this thread has taken on a life of its own. But my little anecdote is that I procrastinated and didn't get around to the newest vaccine. I now have Covid and it's markedly worse than it was when I was vaccinated with Covid.

I suggest just get the vaccine. It won't keep you from getting Covid but it might help you feel better when you're sick.

[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:

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.

If your plan for getting rid of covid requires everyone in the world to stay at home for 3-4 months, I'm honestly concerned about your grip on reality.

Standard mental illness quip. You're not honestly concerned about me at all (or you'd mask and vax).

No, that's true. I'm not concerned about you at all. As long as people like you don't get the power to impose crazy restrictions, I'm happy to let you live in your delusional world.

You'll want to apologize for this comment someday. You won't have the chance.

No, I won't.

I make my own risk assessments, for good or bad, and live with the consequences. I don't expect others to cater to my choices. Certainly, I would never demand the rest of society lock themselves into their homes for an extended period in some misguided attempt to stamp out a virus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see this thread has taken on a life of its own. But my little anecdote is that I procrastinated and didn't get around to the newest vaccine. I now have Covid and it's markedly worse than it was when I was vaccinated with Covid.

I suggest just get the vaccine. It won't keep you from getting Covid but it might help you feel better when you're sick.

That's what it's designed to do. Sorry you learned the hard way, and I hope you feel better soon!

You can get free paxlovid via mail here: https://www.test2treat.org/s/?language=en_US

Please wear a mask.

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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?

A. We’re still nowhere near flu death levels from COVID

B. See above.

When it comes to deaths we absolutely are. In fact, if you just look at current death rates, we're very likely *below* that of the flu during a bad flu season.