Coronavirus: Miles away from ordinary.

When pretty much everyone has immunity from either vaccination or infection it should be pretty much the flu in terms of death/illness.

 

Shots fired:

 

Took the kid to get tested this morning. He has symptoms, but they're pretty mild. If he is positive, the timing works out beautifully with a photo his teacher sent me of my masked child surrounded by four other unmasked kids all petting a SAR dog the police department brought to visit the school.

 

lol, the Democrats running as the party of severe illness and death is not a move I saw coming. "We're all in this together. Except for you unvaccinated masses - you gone die."

 

Immunity when it comes to this virus is a bit of a moving target. I also kind of chuckle when the previous administration used the term as if it were the same as legal immunity, ie carte blanche.

I think immunity is a very dangerous concept right now. Folks will happily delude themselves into thinking it's safer than it is, because of vaccines, or previous infections, or less severe strains.

I also think the target is not "as bad as the flu", it's zero. As in, full stop, this fucker is eradicated. The reason for that is simply this is too difficult to control. Omicron might be less severe, but the next one may swing the pendulum back the other direction. I'm glad I'm not in charge of determining how drastic the measures get in order to reach that target.

Early on, the public health guys said "if we're successful, it was because we did too much. If we fail, it's because we didn't do enough. Every counter measure is an over-reach and every death is a ball we dropped. Err on the side of the living being able to lodge complaints where ever possible."

Yeah, that messaging isn't helping a Goddamned thing. Consequences, not vitriol. The Dems and this administration cannot seem to understand the reverse psychology at play here, and it's infuriating.

 

I don't think there's much to understand. The psychology got baked in a long time ago. We just have a segment of the population that's going to be a drag on the rest of us no matter what.

 

I'm way ahead of you on cruise ships for the environmental impact alone. And sometimes the literal impact:

 

Getting on one before the pandemic is a bonifide health hazard. They are a bucket of shit floating on top of salt water.

 

I've been fortunate with cruises in that I've never been on one where illness has occurred. Once all this settles down, my wife and I are going to take our belated 10 year anniversary trip on a cruise up the US east coast.

That being said, I had a co-worker who was on the infamous "poop cruise" in the gulf of mexico on carnival, where the power went out and sewage flooded the cabins. The pictures she sent me of the basically tent city on the top decks, of people trying to escape the stench and poor conditions inside, I forwarded on to CNN where they were eventually used on air.

 

As opposed to the clear, concise messaging this administration is so famous for....?

I think because it's new, and they are trying to buy time for some actual fact-finding to occur. That was the mantra from HHS when Omicron emerged, and that was what...2-3 weeks ago?

Fatigue is a major issue here, as is competing priorities. What took a month in March of 2020 can take longer because of fatigue and ongoing work that hasn't subsided. I would imagine some studies look at incident rates of medical error, and I'd be shocked if it wasn't skyrocketing...same holds true for labs, I'd wager.

There's a few court cases that will impact the ability to enforce some shit and impose consequences, and until that authority is clearly established (and if ran all the way up to the SC, might not ever get there), they have to tread carefully. Some of the messaging can be implicated in the court cases, and that's a risk they shouldn't run.

Also, I think there's muddled messages between Omicron as a variant of the virus, and a sort of weird branding issue of the next phase of the "plandemic hoax". You've got some places that are shutting down because cases are spiking and the difference in severity might be a game changer in terms of the counter measures. Some places are head in the sand about the whole thing, and you don't want to accidentally prove them right and expose folks to unnecessary risk.

Lastly, I think they need to strategize. Early reports of "Omicron spreads like delta, but damages like strep throat" will cause reactions, some of which may do a lot of harm. It's not like they have planned messaging and talking points for the next 3 variants to emerge. Those strategies work best when informed by actual research, and this administration seems keen on not getting ahead of the science. That's technically a good thing, but they also can't be seen doing absolutely nothing, so they roll out a bunch of vague shit in the meantime.

FWIW, I'm only listenign to 1-2 covid calls a day, reading the daily reports for anything eye-popping and weekly forecasts.

 

I guess no one here felt like posting the full statement, either. It's not nearly as hostile as it's made out to be, and the bad faith assholes crying about "think of my 4yr old who can't be vaccinated!", pretending that the intended audience, isn't so. If the shoe don't fit, don't wear it. Unless you're after those precious outrage Likes.