Reply to BA.2 surge hitting US in April/May

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Man lots of deluded people here. Two months ago hospitals around me were collapsing under the weight of "mild" omicron cases.

Lots of people who died were 30 thru 60. LOTS![/quote]

Indeed, insane how quickly memory fades. We pretty much didn't have hospitals available in my area. Military helping out in hospitals. People dying for non-covid related reasons because they couldn't get care.
BA2 is causing a major increase in hospitalization in the elderly and under 5s again in the UK. Record hospitalizations for the elderly since vaccines became available - even though they are much more vaxxed and boosted than we are. If BA2 takes off here, and it looks like it will, we are looking at a more deadly wave than BA1 due to the longer interval since the booster and vaccinations.[/quote]

Where the heck did this happen??[/quote]

My husband works at a DMV hospital, and his group covers a bunch of them. They were not overwhelmed. There was some very, very limited delays of some non emergency cases, out of an abundance of caution and for maybe 2 weeks. There were some some additional covid patients in ICUs, but it was not overwhelming. This was allegedly happening in some places, but not throughout the DMV hospitals-- there is a link between high vaccination rates in adults and lower hospital admissions (bc the vaccines largely prevent severe disease in most cases'). The demographics in Michigan and their hospitals, for example, are different.[/quote]

People kept predicting the wave of hospitalizations, and deaths, to follow the huge wave of positive cases in the region in late December and early January. It never happened. There was an uptick in emergency room activity and ICU bed use, but it was not linked to Covid cases and matches the waves that happen every year around that time (poor road conditions, holiday travel, flu and RSV, domestic violence cycles that sadly increase around holidays and when children are home from school). But we did not see the a Covid-caused crisis, despite the incredible volume of positive cases, which was likely undercounted due to the region doing a great job in making at home rapid tests easily and freely available starting in mid-December.

Unless BA.2 is more dangerous for vaccinated people, or more dangerous overall, I don't see why we'd expect any different this time. Get vaccinated. If you did not get boosted already, now is a great time to do it! My DH and I wound up getting boosted right before the winter surge and he works in person and we have a child in in-person school where there were a ton of positives. And we traveled. My DC and I both came down with a terrible cold around Christmas but none of us ever got Covid. Vaccines still work, even if they aren't 100%.

But beyond vaccination and maybe increased indoor masking (with better quality masks) when the surge hits, I don't see that any other response is needed. Treat it like the flu -- I take steps to avoid getting the flu every year, and succeed. But I don't lock myself or my family members in a bunker or avoid normal social interactions with people who don't have flu symptoms. I get my flu vaccine, wash my hands, and stay home if I notice any symptoms. I'm going to keep doing that.[/quote]

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