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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It makes perfect sense to still avoid Covid. You idiots are trying to normalize the belief that Covid is like the flu.[b] It isn't.[/b] I'll wear a mask as long as I want to.[/quote]

You're right. Covid wasn't nearly as bad as the flu when I had it in December as it did not prevent me from working working or doing vigorous exercise. Last time I had the flu I was asleep for a day.[/quote]

Your anecdote is not data but you are too ignorant to understand this. [/quote]

Actually, this anecdote mirrors the data we have for omicron-- and in fact, even the original variant caused flu-like illness or less in many. (Its potential to be mild or asymptomatic is what helped it spread so easily.)

The anecdotes are actually what helped obscure sensible risk assessment when it came to covid. The stories about healthy, young, fit people hospitalized and struggling for their lives sold papers and made a huge impression on all of us. It's not that these anecdotes aren't tragic and important, but perhaps many of us are too ignorant to understand that they were stand-out stories and that covid is not an equal-opportunity killer. In some cases it is not well understood why a particular individual was vulnerable, but there are very obvious trends that tell us who is vulnerable.

There are a bunch of conspiracy theories floating around about why the CDC hasn't been transparent about the raw numbers of people in the U.S. hospitalized for covid who are vaccinated vs. unvaccinated, but the ultimate reason why is likely because the vaccines were not able to change the "vulnerable" cohort as much as we would have wanted-- and this group still weighs down the others enough to make vaccines appear substantially less effective, since these were the populations at greatest risk of hospitalization and death in the first place. If you are above 80, your risk of being hospitalized for covid is many times the risk of a 40 year old, even if you're boosted and the 40 year old is unvaccinated. The CDC likely doesn't trust us with that data, but I think they likely could have made it clearer-- it might have helped us focus our restrictions on those who need it most and even saved some lives.

So, if you look at the covid data by age it is clear that, in part, anecdotes-- not data-- have shaped our attitudes and policies when it comes to this virus. But don't just trust me, look at it and make your decisions from a place of empowered information, not fearfulness OR reactive imprudence:[url] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2918-0[/url]

[/quote]

When there is high community spread, everyone, regardless of their personal risk level, should wear a mask because asymptomatic people can spread the virus.

In addition, your "empowered information" does not take into account the long-term effects of Covid, which for a not-insignificant percentage of people of ALL AGES, are a real thing. We don't understand the mechanism behind "Long Covid" but it seems to indicate that the virus, like many other viruses, hides out somewhere in your body even after the acute symptoms have passed. What will that mean for your future health? [/quote]

How many years until we have a definitive answer on long Covid and do we need to keep wearing high quality masks until then?  The chicken pox-shingles connection is one that springs to mind.  What if we don't know the ultimate long-term effects of a Covid infection in kids until decades from now?[/quote]

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