Covfefe-19 The 12th Part: The Only Thing Worse Than This New Board Is TrumpVirus2020

[MichVandal]

74%.*

So 26% of the population is contributing 55% of cases, 69% of hospitalizations, and 62% of the deaths.

And that's over the last 4 weeks. The spike has been the last few days.

A Dumpy says what?

* Whoops, sorry, that's MN. MN's vaccination percentage is 72%. So, 28% of the population has 55% of cases, 69% of hospitalizations, and 62% of the deaths.

Doing some rough math- if the vax rate doubled, the distribution of hospitalizations would suddenly become about 50/50 for vaccinated and unvaxxord.

And I'm sure that 50% of hospitalizations would be what all of the anti would focus on.

But the real news would be an almost 30% reduction in patients. Which would probably reduce the strain on hospitals. Deaths would drop 25%.

[Swansong]

That data has been pretty consistent- but, as Stauber leaned his post to, there is now data that does show boosted vs. unboosted. But if the unvaccinated want to use that as evidence to not get vaccinated- well, it's their lonely death.

I keep seeing info that Omicron isn't as bad- but at the same time, there's a surge in hospitals. So how bad is this new variant to the antivaxxors?

Studies are still ongoing, but initial ones have shown that omicron has is less severe than Delta for the immune naive, but by how much? I saw one study suggesting maybe 10-15% less severe, and another earlier one suggesting it was up to 50% less severe but that one admitted they struggled to separate vaccination status. For the vaccinated and boosted, it seems to be - and again there's a large amount of anecdotal info on this but precious little actual data - that suggests omicron is substantially less severe than previous variants.

The current insane surge in cases and hospitalizations (and soon, death) is simply a math problem because it might go down as one of the most infectious diseases ever recorded.

[Kepler]

Studies are still ongoing, but initial ones have shown that omicron has is less severe than Delta for the immune naive, but by how much? I saw one study suggesting maybe 10-15% less severe, and another earlier one suggesting it was up to 50% less severe but that one admitted they struggled to separate vaccination status. For the vaccinated and boosted, it seems to be - and again there's a large amount of anecdotal info on this but precious little actual data - that suggests omicron is substantially less severe than previous variants.

The current insane surge in cases and hospitalizations (and soon, death) is simply a math problem because it might go down as one of the most infectious diseases ever recorded.

I did see a piece from a doctor who maintained that the decrease in lethality was swamped by the increase in transmissibility. If the choice is between x which few get but many of them die, and y which many get but few of them die, y is usually a much higher body count just because it has so many opportunities.

[Swansong]

To piggyback off that MN data, in Miami-Dade right now, 29% unvaccinated population make up 70% of hospital admissions.


But yeah, vaccines totes don't work.

[RaceBoarder]

Just look at the 100% that North Carolina scored with the Unvaxxed on ventilators.

[dxmnkd316]

So, seeing some anecdata on twitter among the MPH crowd that Omicron may be not detected by the rapid tests using a nasal-only swab. Some tests in EU instruct you to swab your throat then nose. There's a pre-print floating around that seems to indicate rapids are catching less than half of those on day 1 of symptoms. Much less pre-symptomatic. Several are showing negative nasal swabs even 3 days after symptoms. Which, in my mind, kind of renders them as a lot less useful. The working theory is that omicron doesn't appear in the nose immediately even though I thought it stayed in the URI as opposed to the lungs like prior variants. It is, however, appearing in the saliva and throat swabs early on in the course of the infection.

We should be ramping up rapid and PCR capacity. If rapids are catching less than 50%, that's a massive, massive problem. The worst thing is a false negative when contagious. If rapids are going to be used as a key to open the door back to school and the workplace, yikes.

So, I think I'll be swabbing the throat and nose if we need to break out our rapids.

[Slap Shot]

Got my Pfizer boost earlier today - technically a month before I was supposed to.

When I got to the site around noon I thought I was screwed first of of all because of how many people were already in line in various sections. There was easily 300+ people there in total. Sadly right now boosters are only available here once per week unless you want to travel.

Secondly I saw the sign that said you're not eligible unless your 2nd does was previous to July 4th and mine was August 3rd, but I said **** it I'll try. I handed my vaccine card to one of the ladies checking people in and said I wasn't sure I'm eligible. She must have taken one look at my baby blues and only did she allow me to proceed, she told me to, "Go see that woman up there in the green shirt" and I was able to bypass more people than I could count. Was in and out in less than hour and no I don't feel guilty about it. Well maybe a little.

[Kepler]

Got my Pfizer boost earlier today - technically a month before I was supposed to.

When I got to the site around noon I thought I was screwed first of of all because of how many people were already in line in various sections. There was easily 300+ people there in total. Sadly right now boosters are only available here once per week unless you want to travel.

Secondly I saw the sign that said you're not eligible unless your 2nd does was previous to July 4th and mine was August 3rd, but I said **** it I'll try. I handed my vaccine card to one of the ladies checking people in and said I wasn't sure I'm eligible. She must have taken one look at my baby blues and only did she allow me to proceed, she told me to, "Go see that woman up there in the green shirt" and I was able to bypass more people than I could count. Was in and out in less than hour and no I don't feel guilty about it. Well maybe a little.

White privilege rocks, man!!! :-)

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

So, seeing some anecdata on twitter among the MPH crowd that Omicron may be not detected by the rapid tests using a nasal-only swab. Some tests in EU instruct you to swab your throat then nose. There's a pre-print floating around that seems to indicate rapids are catching less than half of those on day 1 of symptoms. Much less pre-symptomatic. Several are showing negative nasal swabs even 3 days after symptoms. Which, in my mind, kind of renders them as a lot less useful. The working theory is that omicron doesn't appear in the nose immediately even though I thought it stayed in the URI as opposed to the lungs like prior variants. It is, however, appearing in the saliva and throat swabs early on in the course of the infection.

We should be ramping up rapid and PCR capacity. If rapids are catching less than 50%, that's a massive, massive problem. The worst thing is a false negative when contagious. If rapids are going to be used as a key to open the door back to school and the workplace, yikes.

So, I think I'll be swabbing the throat and nose if we need to break out our rapids.

That’s been out for over a week now. I’d get behind the hypothesis based on the data I’ve seen.

careful on Twitter, you’re just trying to stir up drama without Twitter I’d be missing updates from some good epis

[ericredaxe]

Got my Pfizer boost earlier today - technically a month before I was supposed to.

When I got to the site around noon I thought I was screwed first of of all because of how many people were already in line in various sections. There was easily 300+ people there in total. Sadly right now boosters are only available here once per week unless you want to travel.

Secondly I saw the sign that said you're not eligible unless your 2nd does was previous to July 4th and mine was August 3rd, but I said **** it I'll try. I handed my vaccine card to one of the ladies checking people in and said I wasn't sure I'm eligible. She must have taken one look at my baby blues and only did she allow me to proceed, she told me to, "Go see that woman up there in the green shirt" and I was able to bypass more people than I could count. Was in and out in less than hour and no I don't feel guilty about it. Well maybe a little.

Pretty sure it was changed from 6 months to 5 months - so you were eligible I believe.

Too bad about the availability where you are. Here in my area of Mass, it seems pretty easy. My wife and I were able to schedule appointments pretty easily only a couple of days out. My son got is yesterday just on a walk in and we were in and out in 15 minutes.

[dxmnkd316]

Not looking good for OSHA mandate. Roberts and Gorsuch seem to be leaning towards OSHA not having broad authority here but the states might. Kavanaugh suggesting Congress has the authority. Breyer is ****ing angry and clearly is coming down on the side of OSHA. The rest of the libs are clearly on OSHA's side. So three for sure. Thomas and Alito are acting like their typical chud selves. Oddly, ACB seems to be leaning towards OSHA has the authority, but only in more narrow cases (healthcare workers, meatpackers, etc.)

Le sigh. I guess the rights do extend past the nose...

[Swansong]

So, seeing some anecdata on twitter among the MPH crowd that Omicron may be not detected by the rapid tests using a nasal-only swab. Some tests in EU instruct you to swab your throat then nose. There's a pre-print floating around that seems to indicate rapids are catching less than half of those on day 1 of symptoms. Much less pre-symptomatic. Several are showing negative nasal swabs even 3 days after symptoms. Which, in my mind, kind of renders them as a lot less useful. The working theory is that omicron doesn't appear in the nose immediately even though I thought it stayed in the URI as opposed to the lungs like prior variants. It is, however, appearing in the saliva and throat swabs early on in the course of the infection.

We should be ramping up rapid and PCR capacity. If rapids are catching less than 50%, that's a massive, massive problem. The worst thing is a false negative when contagious. If rapids are going to be used as a key to open the door back to school and the workplace, yikes.

So, I think I'll be swabbing the throat and nose if we need to break out our rapids.

I've read this too. Not sure what to think about it. The issue is that it takes so little viral load of omicron to infect someone, that the rapid tests may not be sensitive enough to detect it those first day or two.

Honestly, I think for many of us, Omicron will burn out before this is properly vetted and acted upon. But Omicron is going to surge in various regions the same way Delta and other variants have - just much, much more quickly.

[MichVandal]

Not looking good for OSHA mandate. Roberts and Gorsuch seem to be leaning towards OSHA not having broad authority here but the states might. Kavanaugh suggesting Congress has the authority. Breyer is ****ing angry and clearly is coming down on the side of OSHA. The rest of the libs are clearly on OSHA's side. So three for sure. Thomas and Alito are acting like their typical chud selves. Oddly, ACB seems to be leaning towards OSHA has the authority, but only in more narrow cases (healthcare workers, meatpackers, etc.)

Le sigh. I guess the rights do extend past the nose...

Drew- isn't your Senator going to fix this?

This is a direct fight against policy that will save lives, and we wonder why we can't do anything to lower the numbers. Duh.

[Swansong]

What a weak punt. They know full well that the senate will filibuster anything that comes to them.

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

I like that Alito asks why they can’t stay this while it’s figured out but he certainly didn’t have that energy for the Texas bounty law