NON_POLITICAL China Coronavirus THREAD

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dullard

Elite Member
May 21, 2001
24,964
3,299
126
How many Americans still don't have any immunity (via infection and/or vaccine)? I've seen estimates that ~60% of Americans have natural immunity, but I can't find anything showing how that overlays with vaccinations.
The answer is a moving target. More people get sick, more people get vaccinations, and possibly people's immunity wanes over time. But, one snapshot in time was 83%: https://www.aabb.org/news-resources...that-83-of-americans-have-covid-19-antibodies
 
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MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
20,928
19,361
136
Maybe this NYC mandate means my trip in a couple of weeks will have less crowds. Hopefully, though, it doesn't mean places start to shut down.
It's possible the mandate for kids may reduce daytime restaurant customers a bit, mostly in touristy areas.

Not so much at night. But NYC has been pretty busy lately with the mandates for adults already in place, so not much is changing. Restaurants, bars, I've been every week - my friend went to see the tree this past weekend, another went the week before. All very busy.

Late night nightlife downtown Manhattan is quite busy again too. The one thing that new yorkers tell me is not back as much yet is the late night food scene. You get out drunk but the food is slim pickings compared to pre COVID.
 

Geekbabe

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Oct 16, 1999
32,166
2,399
126
www.theshoppinqueen.com
MGH sent an email advising all cancer patients in active treatment to get 2 shots, 28 days apart, get a third shot 28 days later and to get boosted 6 months later.

I had my first 2 shots last December and In mid January, had my third on August 30, & plan on going for the 4th at the end of February…or early March if the booster contains some protection from the new variants.

I continue to stay at home, avoiding store, restaurants, travel is out of the question. I mask when going out for medical care. Close to two years of this ….please get your shots
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,135
2,445
126
It's possible the mandate for kids may reduce daytime restaurant customers a bit, mostly in touristy areas.

Not so much at night. But NYC has been pretty busy lately with the mandates for adults already in place, so not much is changing. Restaurants, bars, I've been every week - my friend went to see the tree this past weekend, another went the week before. All very busy.

Late night nightlife downtown Manhattan is quite busy again too. The one thing that new yorkers tell me is not back as much yet is the late night food scene. You get out drunk but the food is slim pickings compared to pre COVID.

That mandate was already suspended. That didn't take long:

 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
45,793
32,491
136
That mandate was already suspended. That didn't take long:


Newsweek isn't a good outlet anymore and has not been for a while.

There was no TRO issued, mandate for city workers still in force. The city has to appear at the hearing on the 14th.
 
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Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,348
3,426
126
Dang

Yep - GJ Michigan. Here is my super fun Michigan story: Wife is a teacher and was a close contact with a positive COVID person at school. But not really for official purposes because the school notes they have a mask mandate so its cool. But not really as the mask mandate is not enforced and this person wasn't wearing a mask although they still didn't report it as a close contact or make her test. She is not a moron so when she found out she left work and then stayed home the next day (and already had the following Friday off). Before arriving home she found on CVS' website they were doing drive up PCR testing at a specific location. So she heads there only to be told they are not doing drive up PCR testing. Tries another CVS - same thing. Goes to an urgent care clinic and was told it would be a 2-3 hour wait. Decides to make an appt at a Walgreens the next morning instead. Gets there and Walgreens informs her that test results are running behind so it will be up to 24 hours. Of course, this was the day I was scheduled for my booster. So no results for her = a canceled booster apt for me. 24 hours later nothing from Walgreens or Abbott labs. She calls. They have no record of her coming in for a test. Finally finds a place for testing and turns up negative.

Giant goddamn mess. To make matters worse - HS wrestling is still a thing. Buncha schools bent to pressure to allow all sports again and - shocking - wrestlers and their friends are coming down with COVID. WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED?

I can't help but think of our testing in Copenhagen this summer. Needed a test for our flight home. Testing centers everywhere with up to date queue times and clear information about turn around time on an easy to use website. Headed to the local goddamn mall they took over a store location to do this and we walked in with no appointment. They took a look at our non-Danish passports and explained - in English - the fast, simple and free process for us. 10min later we had an official (and formally stamped) test results which looked way better than our US Hospital produced forms for entering Europe - which looked like my mom printed off a spam email she had copy and pasted into Word before printing.

Even better - just learned that a cousin of my wife was pregnant and caught COVID (also in MI). Baby had to be delivered early and weighs 2lbs. Mom (mother of 6) is now on a ventilator and not expected to make it. Facebook says the mom is sick with pneumonia (Yeah - sure). The GoFundMe sure says COVID though. Rabid anti-vax family. If ONLY there was something that could have prevented this entire situation. Damn you science for not giving us the tools to prevent this!
 

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
20,928
19,361
136
Yep - GJ Michigan. Here is my super fun Michigan story: Wife is a teacher and was a close contact with a positive COVID person at school. But not really for official purposes because the school notes they have a mask mandate so its cool. But not really as the mask mandate is not enforced and this person wasn't wearing a mask although they still didn't report it as a close contact or make her test. She is not a moron so when she found out she left work and then stayed home the next day (and already had the following Friday off). Before arriving home she found on CVS' website they were doing drive up PCR testing at a specific location. So she heads there only to be told they are not doing drive up PCR testing. Tries another CVS - same thing. Goes to an urgent care clinic and was told it would be a 2-3 hour wait. Decides to make an appt at a Walgreens the next morning instead. Gets there and Walgreens informs her that test results are running behind so it will be up to 24 hours. Of course, this was the day I was scheduled for my booster. So no results for her = a canceled booster apt for me. 24 hours later nothing from Walgreens or Abbott labs. She calls. They have no record of her coming in for a test. Finally finds a place for testing and turns up negative.

Giant goddamn mess. To make matters worse - HS wrestling is still a thing. Buncha schools bent to pressure to allow all sports again and - shocking - wrestlers and their friends are coming down with COVID. WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED?

I can't help but think of our testing in Copenhagen this summer. Needed a test for our flight home. Testing centers everywhere with up to date queue times and clear information about turn around time on an easy to use website. Headed to the local goddamn mall they took over a store location to do this and we walked in with no appointment. They took a look at our non-Danish passports and explained - in English - the fast, simple and free process for us. 10min later we had an official (and formally stamped) test results which looked way better than our US Hospital produced forms for entering Europe - which looked like my mom printed off a spam email she had copy and pasted into Word before printing.

Even better - just learned that a cousin of my wife was pregnant and caught COVID (also in MI). Baby had to be delivered early and weighs 2lbs. Mom (mother of 6) is now on a ventilator and not expected to make it. Facebook says the mom is sick with pneumonia (Yeah - sure). The GoFundMe sure says COVID though. Rabid anti-vax family. If ONLY there was something that could have prevented this entire situation. Damn you science for not giving us the tools to prevent this!

That's crazy. That poor baby now suffering because of wackadoo conspiracy theorist lovers.

We did good in the US with the vaccine rollout, but have failed miserably in other ways. Some countries in Europe are quite good at things because overall they believe government can truly benefit people, whereas here that is heresy for a huge amount of people and politicians so they are always fighting it, but also they just generally a less corrupt political system overall. Things here are way more run by corporations and lobbyists than some well run nations in Europe.
 

manly

Lifer
Jan 25, 2000
10,852
2,005
126
everything is still pointing to that omicron is not bad.

All systems go for the holidays up here in mostly vaccinated people land!
This conclusion seems wildly optimistic. On one hand, I concur that COVID is mainly a "pandemic of the unvaccinated." OTOH what we're seeing in western Europe (in some places with better vax coverage than U.S.) is a preview of things to come in 3 weeks. Look at the mortality in Germany and they have a world-class health system with more ICU beds than the U.S. does per capita. It's gonna be a shit show with hospitalizations rising sharply in many parts of the country. Even New England is seeing it ramping up now and it has some of the best vax rates in the country.

If the deep South somehow avoids the worst of it, it's because they acquired a lot of natural immunity during the delta surge.
 

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
13,969
12,012
146
If the deep South somehow avoids the worst of it, it's because they acquired a lot of natural immunity during the delta surge.
With the number of reinfections we're seeing, there's no reason to believe that delta antibodies even confer an immunity to omicron. In fact, as far as I can tell, omicron pretty well just walks over the top of an immune system. Sure, the immune system eventually fights it off, but it seems totally happy infecting someone, multiplying, and spreading, despite the person being 'immune'.

Breathtakingly infectious virus.
 
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K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
45,793
32,491
136
This conclusion seems wildly optimistic. On one hand, I concur that COVID is mainly a "pandemic of the unvaccinated." OTOH what we're seeing in western Europe (in some places with better vax coverage than U.S.) is a preview of things to come in 3 weeks. Look at the mortality in Germany and they have a world-class health system with more ICU beds than the U.S. does per capita. It's gonna be a shit show with hospitalizations rising sharply in many parts of the country. Even New England is seeing it ramping up now and it has some of the best vax rates in the country.

If the deep South somehow avoids the worst of it, it's because they acquired a lot of natural immunity during the delta surge.

Even places in the US with relatively high vax rates still have substantial naive populations that are vulnerable because they won't get shots or failed to bolster their natural protection with a dose in the face of Delta. Nationally this is millions and millions of people.

Early indications are that a Delta infection won't provide substantial protection from Omicron. If that's true the South's hard won Delta immunity won't be worth diddly unless they go get shots on top of it (which most won't). Many people simply cannot grasp changing circumstances and fail to act on new information.
 

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
13,969
12,012
146
Even places in the US with relatively high vax rates still have substantial naive populations that are vulnerable because they won't get shots or failed to bolster their natural protection with a dose in the face of Delta. Nationally this is millions and millions of people.
Even worse, only 71% of all ages have gotten a single dose, and only 60% has two doses (which at this point isn't really enough). We're talking about ~100M people completely unvaccinated, and another ~30M that are probably close enough to unvaccinated to consider them as such.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
45,793
32,491
136
Even worse, only 71% of all ages have gotten a single dose, and only 60% has two doses (which at this point isn't really enough). We're talking about ~100M people completely unvaccinated, and another ~30M that are probably close enough to unvaccinated to consider them as such.

Given the crawl up to 60% fully vaccinated I think we're nearing the limits of what's possible in the US. Some people just will never get it and they're going to take their chances. 1-2K deaths a day for the foreseeable future seems likely. The same people are angry that normality hasn't returned but blind to the fact that its their fault.
 

[DHT]Osiris

Lifer
Dec 15, 2015
13,969
12,012
146
Given the crawl up to 60% fully vaccinated I think we're nearing the limits of what's possible in the US. Some people just will never get it and they're going to take their chances. 1-2K deaths a day for the foreseeable future seems likely. The same people are angry that normality hasn't returned but blind to the fact that its their fault.
I mean, eventually there won't be any antivaxxers left :p
 
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JM Aggie08

Diamond Member
Jan 3, 2006
8,148
776
136
Given the crawl up to 60% fully vaccinated I think we're nearing the limits of what's possible in the US. Some people just will never get it and they're going to take their chances. 1-2K deaths a day for the foreseeable future seems likely. The same people are angry that normality hasn't returned but blind to the fact that its their fault.

Fine by me -- culling the herd. Few stupid people -> human progress.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
37,358
8,010
136
Even worse, only 71% of all ages have gotten a single dose, and only 60% has two doses (which at this point isn't really enough). We're talking about ~100M people completely unvaccinated, and another ~30M that are probably close enough to unvaccinated to consider them as such.
I'd like to see them denied medical insurance if they don't have a reason to be unvaxxed. That would light a fire under some of their asses. There are over a million covid vax shots going into American arms daily now.
 
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Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,239
10,745
136
Unlikely, we'd just see more people defaulting on debts, or hospitals going under from unpaid bills. I'd prefer them get vaxxed via helicopter like deer.


If this was going to be done with a dart-gun, I would volunteer myself !! :p


Or were you thinking more along the lines of "crop-dusting" ?
 
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nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
58,022
12,185
136
With the number of reinfections we're seeing, there's no reason to believe that delta antibodies even confer an immunity to omicron. In fact, as far as I can tell, omicron pretty well just walks over the top of an immune system. Sure, the immune system eventually fights it off, but it seems totally happy infecting someone, multiplying, and spreading, despite the person being 'immune'.

Breathtakingly infectious virus.
giphy.gif
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
68,788
26,489
136
Things are going splendidly; ICU bed utilization is at 96% statewide in Arizona and there are only 7 open beds in my county with a population of a bit over a million. Regular patient beds are also at 96% utilization but there are a lot more of those.
 
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