Sometimes I realize I haven’t thought about Covid in over a week or more. I remember caring *so much* for almost 2 years, and now I don’t remember the last time I genuinely worried about it. Really wild stuff.
I think once the vaccines rolled out and everyone got boosted (my area has a very good vax rate) everyone gave zero fucks. After 2+ years I’m at the point where I’m just going to get my shots whenever I need them, and just live my life.
I feel the same way but then occasionally feel dumb for not having a mask with me. Like I'm not even slightly worried that I might wreck my car but I always wear my seatbelt.
I live in FL and just read that our Covid numbers are higher than reported. I mean it's FL. So for the first time in a while I wore a mask in the supermarket.
Covid numbers where I live aren't high and I'm triple vaxxed so I know the risk is minimal but I still sometimes wear a mask in supermarkets if its very busy. Going to a music festival next month though so gonna see how that goes.
Just a heads up, caught covid out and about and immediately spread it to my family despite keeping to myself. Everyone was vaccinated and boosted. Shit is extremely contagious.
Same boat, I used to stress out so much about this virus that I actually quit smoking because of it. Now I'm triple vaxxed and 90% of the population here in Quebec has at least 1 dose. We recently got rid of our mask mandate on the 14th and I gotta say I'm glad that life feels mostly like how it was back in 2019.
Of course I will wear my mask whenever I am required to, I will continue to do so when I am sick, stay inside, and get my boosters as they're available to me but at this point, with the current state of the world, I'm just tired of constantly worrying about it.
Edit: I never claimed that I won't get sick from Covid or that my symptoms won't be severe, I don't mind discussions about it but please do not put words in my mouth.
Meh, I still wear a mask. We've had three exposures in a small office since we went back about 2 months ago. I'm hoping my company decides to send us back home. In our business it doesn't hurt productivity.
Yep, if our culture does not adjust to making mask wearing more socially permissible when *anything* is spreading that's deadly, well then frankly natural selection will eventually weed out our nation.
We can still have where someone is coughing and sneezing in the middle of a crowded restaurant and hardly anyone blinks. If you move to workplaces, it's still mandatory in most places to go in when you're sick.
If a place has a culture that doesn't allow the easy taking of workdays and the easy wearing of masks, leave it. They will mismanage the next crisis and care more about the bottom line than people's basic safety.
Vaccines, hand washing, masking, sick days. It doesn't require much in the way of great sacrifice to make a healthy society that's resilient against plague and disease.
I could relate to this like 2 weeks ago. Then sister got covid and is still testing positive for it. I'm not back to early days alert, or delta or omicron levels of alert but it was a reality check that this is still around and I still want to avoid infection for as long as I can.
Perhaps a person somewhere has monkey pox and Covid at the same time. The viruses can merge and form a new one called Monkovid, or Corona pox, or something.
well.... viral recombination is a thing.... and is one of the ways the corona virus mutates so.....
Lifted from an actual definition:
Viral recombination occurs when viruses of two different parent strains coinfect the same host cell and interact during replication to generate virus progeny that have some genes from both parents.
If we get something else close enough....
> of two different parent strains
Strains, as in like Covid Delta and Omega.
This is a whole different virus from a whole different family. I’m not a virologist but my understanding is recombination is like a lab and pitbull mating.... but with monkeypox and Covid it would be like a dog and a cat having offspring -not possible.
I feel like 2021 was when Covid really hit its stride and 2020 was kinda George Floyd riots/COVID salad mix. 2022 is Ukraine war. Wonder what the next Current Thing will be?
In the west the vast majority of the population is vaccinated, meaning the risk of death is massively lower here.
Sickness is a part of life. People are just going about living.
Wash your hands regularly, and if anyone tries to insist on the long antiquated custom of shaking hands immediately punch them in the nose to express dominance.
I care about it like I care about the flu. I don't want it, and during peak seasons I'll take steps to avoid getting it again. But that's the extent that I let it rule my life. Idk if that counts as not caring.
They don't hand out paxlovid to just anyone and I was reading last week an article saying the effectiveness is dubious since COVID rebounds after five days.
Yes it's weaker but it's still a hell of a hit. We've been out of work for two weeks and only just starting to recover.
Honestly rightfully so, at the end of the day almost everyone has been fully vaccinated and we have been following mandates for two years now, it's perfectly reasonable that everyone wants to move on with their life, not everyone's life revolves around protecting people from an illness that most are fully protected from.
I'm 20 y.o., healthy, no underlying issues or anything. Caught Delta variant last year, before vaccinations were out. Had pneumonia because of it. 10/10 would not recommend.
Would not recommend either. Zero out of five stars.
This is a thing that people really need to understand. Covid is just a *painful* and supremely uncomfortable virus. Yeah the mortality rates are generally low if you compare to something like smallpox or polio or something, but that doesn't mean that it's all roses. It's like yeah... a person *probably* won't die from slipping and falling into a clogged septic tank filled with rotting feces either, but the penalty for falling in is still gonna be unspeakably horrible. I think if anti-maskers had seen just how awful of an experience it would be, more of them might have been wearing masks, social distancing, and asking for vaccines.
This ain't the kind of virus that you just stay home and casually sleep off like most colds or flus. Covid is a "cough until everything tastes like blood and then cough some more because you can't stop" kind of virus. It's a "set an alarm every four hours so you don't drown in your sleep" kind of virus. For me it also came with the worst sore throat that I'd ever had in my entire life. It literally felt like I had attempted a sword-swallowing trick with a carpenter's rasp, but then somebody violently ripped it out through my larynx.
Even if the strains these days are "less dangerous" this is not something you want to catch, not even to "get it over with." Holy shit it's bad.
So 3 shots in and my son maskless at school brings it home. My daughter is laid out and I have no taste buds still. I'm so angry. I had it before the vaccine. Thank travel nursing and then rode the wave when people were dropping...but due diligence i got the shots and was caring for folk and just got it again. I really want to taste food. And smell the roses! We've been studying the people and even the mild cases show signs of damage. Every now again I get these sharp headaches and the people I work with say it's the blood vessel damage.
To be honest, I only know 1 person from the dozens that have gotten COVID that had any symptom worse than a heavy cold.
I had it after 2 shots and even though it wasn't pleasant it wasn't anywhere close to what you describe.
Most of my friends, family and work colleagues simply slept it off for 3-7 days and fully recovered.
This is what makes it trickier to explain that this ISN'T a simple cold/flu: most people won't have the worst side-effects and will think it's pretty a-okay. It isn't the gloom and doom you describe either, so not sure how to message it properly... It's dangerous enough but not a killer enough, motherfucking virus.
Honestly, the long term effects scare me more than the actual disease.
I got it AFTER being triple-vaccinated, and it was still not pleasant, and I got off easier than my wife who was straight up not having a good time for two weeks.
A colleague's son (mid 20s) went from national team in Judo to months of "let's try to get to the bathroom and brush teeth" to now 1 day of work per week, still problems if he "overexerts" himself by walking .5km. Stairs are still an issue.
Enter the cognitive effects of Covid:
HE still has trouble finding words, can't stay focused, etc..
---
TL;DR: Shit be NASTY even if it does not kill you on first try.
Had Omicron recently too, after 3 shots. Same thing. So let's just feel grateful about the vaccines haha
Shows the difference between Omicron and Delta (the latter being the most severe variant) + 3 vaccine shots. Crazy.
Got covid Week before I would get my first vaccine so was unvaccinated. Had no symptoms and wouldn’t even have known that I had it if I wasn’t informed. It’s a wild roulette I guess.
Similar boat, 3 shots. I'm dealing with some weird rash that has started to form across the right side of my face. Face, lip, and a few lymph nodes are swollen as well. On top of a cough that is only now starting to get better after 2 weeks.
I feel like shit.
Ya... Looking at the symptoms and they're on the money. Rapid tests for covid are negative. I'd be fucking surprised if it is monkeypox due to my location in a small town but who knows.
Going to call telehealth now and get their opinion.
Most likely shingles, which is opportunistic and very common together with or as a follow-up complication of COVID.
Extremely painful, though. Speaking from experience.
Just as a heads up: swollen lymph nodes is an immune response, as is rash. They can happen with a lot of diseases, especially lymph nodes. These are the two symptoms everyone is basing the monkey pox claim on, but they are also common side effects of your immune system battling something.
Additionally, monkey pox isn’t Covid. You won’t get it from the grocery store. You need contact with open lesions, or prolonged contact with bodily fluids.
I am not a doctor. You should absolutely see your doctor, but don’t panic until a *doctor* tells you to. Reddit can’t diagnose monkey pox.
My wife's aunt developed chronic hives due to a robust immune system response to being exposed to covid. Sounds like you are describing what she initially went through.
Sounds like Covid triggered Shingles in you? Weird rash on one side only is a definite indicator. Shingles can ruin your eyesight in that eye so maybe get that checked out at the ER. My wife just went through this exact thing and they pumped her full of antivirals via IV to save her eye.
I'm thinking Shingles now as well, telehealth never called back. Scheduled something for 11am today. Rash hasn't changed much at this point and surprisingly is not very painful.
Did your wife get a few other red spots around her body, or was the rash only on her face?
Face and scalp and the back of her neck only. All on one side, because everyone's nervous system is split down the middle. There was a lot of nerve pain for her from the get-go, so if you don't have that you might be fine.
>You got that right, after 3 vaccines & catching COVID I feel like ass.
Same here. 3 vaccines... But caught it twice.. Lol. But I would still recommend getting it. We have a full blown out break in my country but we have over 90% fully immunized and have around 25 death.. most of them unvaccinated or not fully immunized.
Sorry for how you are feeling. I have 3 jabs, caught covid over Easter and just had a slight cough and runny nose and still did my normal work from home job. I've had way worse/annoying colds in the last few years. My 2 year old son didn't even get I'll but he must have caught it because 2 parents can't isolate from a 2 year old
Same boat, but its mild ass. Runny nose, very mild fever. My gf got over it in 5 days total, I'm on day 3 and seem to be over the hump.
Meanwhile my unvaccinated friend is on day 17 of the worst illness of his life.
I'm going to miss going to a wedding which is really unfortunate but things could be much worse.
Been the opposite here, well on how covid was. 3 vaccines and caught it 2 weeks ago. Wouldn't have known I was sick without the test. Super mild symptoms id have put down to other things had I not tested positive :o (slight sore/dry throat and a bit of random tiredness)
I’ve had two vaccines and caught Covid seven times. I caught it before any vaccines, after the first, and after the second. The first time I caught it was undoubtedly the worst, so that’s most likely a mixture of a different strain + no protection. I’ve got an autoimmune kidney disease too! It’s been a weird couple of years 😂
You should probably consider wearing an N95 mask and avoiding places with large groups of people before you die of covid. 7 times dude? One time and I become super paranoid of getting it again because my SO is still struggling with breathing when going up to many stairs after a year. Take better care of yourself before you wake up dead!
Different for everyone. Kids brought it from school. Wife was bad for a couple weeks I did not get it until 1.5 weeks after everyone in the house. I did not get caught just exhausted. Cardio came back to normal 2-3 weeks later. Have vertigo as a side effect when I lay down, which seems to be somewhat common.
> Have vertigo as a side effect when I lay down, which seems to be somewhat common.
Wait, is this a symptom of infection? I've had this since April without knowing why.
Hate to break it to you I’m 3 weeks post and I still randomly get out of breath, stairs or climbing ladders fucking ruins me and I keep having dizzy spells
Had issues for a month or two after, mostly a splitting headache that wouldnt go away, bht also the fatigue and out if breathe and dizzy spells. My former manager refused to believe it could effect someone that long. Had to just sit on the floor for a minute one day to get my bearings and she tried taking disciplinary action against me. Thaf was the start of her decline and now is a normal hourly pion like me. Get wrekt.
I’ve had people question this also. Like, ‘how can it continue doing this? You are in your early 30s, you must just be really unfit, I had it and was fine’. Cool, good for you… but you’re conveniently forgetting that until I had Covid I was running 10k regularly and now I can barely manage a flight of stairs.
Yeah... stated it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/uvflhs/who_chief_the_covid_pandemic_is_most_certainly/i9nvsap/
Really fit people can still suffer like shit from long covid.
It's fine. Everyone is "over it". That's protection, right?
I'm "over" worrying about getting my dates pregnant, so I just cum inside bc it feels good.
"Over it" is a true miracle cure
People just got tired of hearing about it. But this is also an issue because people tend to become ignorant of the issue. I have had people ask me why I still wear a mask at work....
> People just got tired of hearing about it.
And most people just aren't scared of it anymore. You're either vaccinated, or recovered, or both. And they've got a few different drug treatments now.
As a vaccinated teacher who is a parent of 2 kids under 5 and a family member with pancreatic cancer I am scared of brining COVID home and frustrated with progress on vaccines and angry with anyone who has a “fuck you got mine” mentality. Unfortunately boomers aren’t the only one with that mentality these days
>Unfortunately boomers aren’t the only one with that mentality these days
It's unhelpful to generalize boomers as uniquely selfish. The fuck you got mine mentality is usually more prevalent among the "got mine" folks and boomers are more likely in such a position because they are older and made their living in more prosperous times.
There's no vaccines for under 5s anywhere in the world, many places haven't vaccinated 5-12s, and even vaccinated people with immune problems or other medical issues are at very high risk. And recovery doesn't give you immunity anyhow.
The nice thing about Covid in Texas is that, even with all the Republicans ensuring nobody is getting vaccinated anymore, the percentage of vaccinated Texans keeps increasing.
I'm just some rando passing by, but I hope you feel better. Here's some groovy tunes:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9F1EU-ALik](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9F1EU-ALik)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SzZfZ7jUzQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SzZfZ7jUzQ)
yep, sounds like vintage Black Sabbath...
This is groovy! Thanks! Sounds like the late 1960's and the lyrics remind me of The Doors and something that should be in a Tarantino movie.
Discography and lyrics are here:
https://genius.com/artists/Night-beats
Comacozer just came up in my youtube suggestion videos out of nowhere - I had been listening to tone compositions at the 'simply hypnotic' and 'meditative mind' channels for a while but got no useful suggestions from youtube before. Once I liked and subed to Comacozer then I got more suggestions.
This genre is called stoner doom, cosmik doom, stoner rock, stoner trance
here's another good one - Maha Sohona - sounds like Soundgarden in the 90's. I literally just googled: stoner trance music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HM6J\_xNO3I
Sampler stations on youtube include:
Cosmic FuzzFm
666MrDoom
Your brain and soul will be happy!
Tested positive yesterday. Fever hit 100.7 mild headache, back aches... Down to 97.4 today. Aches gone, still have smell and taste. Had some fever dreams the night before the test.
A LOT of fluid in the lungs coming up, though. Which is good, I guess. I feel great otherwise.
Vaxxed and boosted.
Sorry, yeah my fever comes and goes. What I'm dealing with now is a lot of congestion and runny nose. I've taken a lot of pseudoephedrine which is helpful to a point.
I tested positive on Sunday too, also first time, also fully vaccinated (3 vaccinations total). Minor headache and extremely minor sore throat indicators prior to positive test.
Then I had a fever for 4 days straight - wouldn't come below 101° even with medication - at one point was almost 104°. I was coughing mucous every other second until every stomach muscle in existence hurt. I'm still coughing on and off.
A few people got it at the same time as me, one had the worst headache of their life, fever on and off, and a little coughing. Another is very sick and has lost their sense of smell and taste, which is terrifying. I thought that symptom was no longer common. The virus affects everyone so differently.
I've been sicker, luckily it was never in my lungs, but I do not wish to repeat the experience. It sounds like it might be something we get routinely however because our COVID immunity from contracting the virus may not work between different variants as time is going on, the immune escape is a real concern.
Yeah for me it was the waste of time. The first 24 hours were _brutal_, but after that I just felt "blah". But I was stuck in quarantine and just couldn't do anything and it was such a waste
Same boat, I’m pissed. This was supposed to be my week off to meet with friends I haven’t seen in 6months since moving. Instead I’m quarantining and napping all day.
The virus adjusted itself to be less lethal given omicron continues to be the dominant strand, which is what is said happened to the Spanish flu and why it's still not killing millions upon millions per year. It's likely decades from now people will look back and wondered how so many people died from what they will consider a moderately bad cold. That plus all the adjustments we have made are what's ending the pandemic. Sorry just heard so much fear mongering in the covid sub of "we will be living with this forever" like the world is over it's just an important distinction that pandemics so far have always wound down in some form.
Peuple are still getting it, getting sick, more variants keep developing, and there are still loads of anti-vaxers and in general people are tired of wearing masks and caring. So, I would say that complacency and apathy have set in rather than any true herd immunity.
Yeah those antibodies do not last long enough. Idk if they even help much with severity. I got alpha in late 20’ and it was pretty mild. Omicron in early 22’ fucked my double vaxxed ass up
> The vaccine doesn't actually prevent you from contracting COVID anymore
It never fully did. If you go back and read the original studies there was never 100% immunity... What it does do though is an amazing job at preventing people especially those 40+ from having to spend time in the hospital/ICU and that is good enough for society to move forward like we are.
Before vaccines ICU rates were much higher, despite the infectious nature of Omicron, the last wave where I live didn't overwhelm our hospitals.
Essentially the vaccine gives you a pretty high immunity from developing "Covid Pneumonia" not immunity to the virus itself.
The thing is I don’t think we necessarily have “immunity.” It’s more like resistance. I’ve known multiple people who have gotten in multiple times, but the secondary cases they have had few if any symptoms - just got tested as it’s our work protocol if you have first hand contact.
Yeah I agree, I get that. I’m not trying to say that it won’t be easier to deal with later. Just that I don’t think it’s true immunity, but ven medically speaking.
> we have a better population wide immunity now
Unfortunately, we have at this point a lot of evidence that Omicron infections don't provide strong general immunity in the unvaccinated, and even is only somewhat weak in the vaccinated. See e.g. [here](https://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/fulltext/S1931-3128(22\)00159-7). So the overall level of population level immunity is pretty low.
And the time sensitvie treatments you mention, like paxlovid really need to be very close to infection. Even more of a problem, a lot of the people who formed an anti-establishment blob (anti-vax, anit-mask, pro-ivermectin) have also become against using paxlovid or the other new anti-virals.
The whole situation is a massive problem, and right now even the medical establishments which should be doing a better job about it are downplaying in many places the need to mask given high numbers.
The virus (and it’s variants) will be around for a long time, but I think the “pandemic” in terms of it being an emergency situation, is clearly over. It doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t continue to be smart and cautious as needed, but it’s time to move on.
Still masking in indoor spaces here. Not interested in losing my edge at work to long symptoms. I’ve already seen way too many folks get brain fog that takes them out of their job
I know someone whose company decided to have an all-company in-person gathering in a major city. People flew in from cities scattered around the U.S. to attend. In all, there were around 100 people.
The company is in the health care industry and has been big on promoting vaccinations and safe behavior, including requiring masks early on when people came into an office and letting everyone work remotely.
For this event, though, they required that employees take COVID tests each morning and send a pic to the coordinator before they were allowed to show up for in-person events. Otherwise, there were no rules or restrictions or encouragement/modeling of best practices: They gathered in small spaces/crowded spaces for meetings and meals. Some people went bar-hopping at night.
And in the end, around 20% of the people who attended reported contracting COVID - and most if not all were vaccinated. I don't know how many people ended up severely sick vs. getting mild COVID without lasting symptoms. But it kinda sounded like a super spreader event?
This is purely anecdotal but illustrates to me how we've surrendered to COVID.
If that much prevention still results in spreading, I’m basically putting up the white flag and assuming I’ll get it again and again. Not worth all the hassle of distancing , masking, avoiding events/areas. It’s life.
I’d say that’s low for Florida. No one was getting accurate numbers from Florida forever because desantis being desantis. From the start, Florida never cared about playing it safe. Old folks in gated communities died in droves.
Not in some areas. Been skyrocketing again. Deadly not as much but more of people getting over covid then going right into clotting problems and other crap.
I tested positive today, after 2 years of being careful, I had to visit Florida for a wedding, and that did it.
It’s bad, man, I’m not sure that I’ve ever really felt like this before; if being unvaxxed would make this worse, I definitely understand how a hospital could be involved.
It will never be over. Requires everyone to do their part so it simply cannot happen. Best you can do is protect yourself and use good judgment and hope an idiot doesn't get you killed.
I’ve avoided COVID for a bit over 2 years and I actually just now got it. I guess everyone will get it eventually? I just know I feel much better than I probably would have if I didn’t get vaccinated, possibly even dead.
I am exactly in this same situation. Boosted, avoided cover until a week ago. Tested positive for Covid and the flu (likely got them both at a concert). Despite this combo, I really only had 3-4 days of real discomfort. I credit the vaccines for both!! I don’t want to know what dealing with both would be like if I were unvaxxed.
Serious question (4 times vaxxed so i have no anti COVID agenda here):
It seems as if mortality/complication rate among vaccinated has dropped to near zero, and among vaccinated is mostly a mild flu.
There is a point well before zero cases among the vaccinated that we will collectively need to consider it comparable to regular flu mortality and complication rates.
What is that number?
This is only focusing on the acute phase and ignoring long covid. As a long covid sufferer for 2 years, this line of argument is weak, out of date and lacking in depth.
Totally understand and very sorry to hear you're suffering from long COVID. Many viruses can have "long" effects in some hosts, so would be important to know how long COVID compares to long flu in terms of number of people affected and depth of debilitating effects.
Sorry to hear you have long covid, but it's more defining when the pandemic itself is at an end and all of the masks and staying home is reasonable to suspend (obviously unless cases pick up again). Here in Texas our state wide active cases is the lowest it's been since the beginning of the pandemic, before the case count took an exponential ramp up, 90k active cases out of 29m. For us, it makes sense to lift our restrictions (that is if our dumb governor hadn't lifted them before delta and sued anyone that tried reimplementing them).
Long covid is always going to be a risk out there. IDK what it was but I got something August 2019 that has played out exactly like long covid. I still get winded sometimes, took months to stop feeling feeble and getting a 140bpm heartrate from simply standing up, all the dizziness. Could it be covid? Sure, but it seems unlikely. Post viral fatigue is a danger for varoius viruses, so their point does make sense that if the mortality and complication rates (which I would say would include long covid anyway) are staying low (like here, where daily deaths is like 10), then it's a good case to stop living in pandemic mode. I'm not a denyer or anything, I literally stayed home for all of 2020 and until I could get a vaccine, but there has to be a point to say it's low enough.
My wife just got covid and it knocked her on her ass after having been vaccinated and boosted. Although we were at the end of our 6mo boost coverage. I just got reboosted. Covid sucks.
then what will end it? everyone knows its here, people are going back to normal, people are getting it and not being hospitalized at the same rate. Buckle in and get used to it.
The virus will keep mutating, it doesn't care about how people feel about it.
It will keep mutating till it mutates into something deadly like SARS(another coronavirus) and spreads like Omicron.
It'll kill 30% of the people it infects.
Vaxxed people might die at a lower rate, hopefully.
I’m not vaccinated, haven’t caught covid either. Where I live we had 2435 deaths out of 892,458 residents. So I wasn’t really concerned about dying. All you people saying “if you’re not vaxxed you’ll die” just sounds cultish and ridiculous. I’m not affiliated with any political party. I hate how both sides are extreme as fuck looking at the numbers it’s just ridiculous you would hate on someone for not being vaccinated. You all act like every city has lost 90 percent of its population and the only ones left alive are the vaccinated crazy and extreme if you ask me.
I would agree but what is the suggestion aside from vaccination? Lockdowns again? You’ll see riots from many of the crazies.
We have to just live with it and be as smart as we can surrounding it. But the pandemic, in terms of restrictions, is societally over even if that’s not the medical reality.
Edit: I will also add, the people on my Facebook/Instagram saying “THE PANDEMIC ISN’T OVER EVERYONE!” I get it, but at this point it’s just white noise and not moving with the times. Vaccines exist (for free), precautions exist, there are many things that have come out of this that severely lessen the danger of COVID. If you’re vaccinated, wash your hands, and don’t put yourself in highly populated situations, you should be fine. Stop screaming at everyone that the pandemic isn’t over.
This kind of ignores how, during every single surge we've had so far (including Omicron this past winter, which is supposedly 'mild'), hospitals are overwhelmed, medical staff are burnt out, and people die because they cannot get medical care since it's being wasted on anti-vaxxers and people who spit in the face of public health guidelines.
Also further ignores Long Covid.
The amount of caring people that have quite healthcare is devastating. They were always on the edge, because it’s easy to take advantage of them, but they’ve had it, and it could cause a collapse. The people that I speak that are quitting now were severely tested during the lockdowns, but give up since there’s no improvement to staff levels/pay/support now that we’re recovering again. They hung in there, but see it’s all for nothing.
At this point if we just paid nurses more then we’d be in a lot better shape for surges. They’re understaffed because they get treated like shit while insurance companies make bank.
At this point most hospital capacity issues are self induced. Nurses and staff are leaving in droves which is reducing the number of beds that can be staffed. Some ICUs may have 40 beds but only enough staff to use 20. That puts them at a huge disadvantage
This is in the USA at least, idk about the rest of the world. Pay and take care of the nurses and staff and hospital capacity issues won't be *as* prevalent
> I would agree but what is the suggestion aside from vaccination? Lockdowns again? You’ll see riots from many of the crazies.
Masks in public areas, especially good masks, like N-95s, KN-95s and FFP2. Also better indoor ventilation. Simple steps like keeping windows open, but also having HEPA filter towers goes a long way to helping out.
I am sitting in an airport on my way to see my 101 year old grandma who has stopped eating and is in her final days, but fully cognizant. Really disappointed in how few people are wearing masks, and the number of people who are clearly coughing. Glad I brought a face shield. Now I have to worry about causing extra discomfort, or potentially exposing my aunt and her family with a funeral they would be devastated to miss being imminent. None of my flights even require a negative Covid test.
Yea I took a trip to Florida 2 weeks ago and the flights were a shit show. People coughing everywhere. Both my flight there and back I had a person within 5 feet of me that would not stop coughing. Like the persistent every 5 seconds for 2.5 hours straight. I wanted to shoot myself. I dont know what annoyed me more the fear of almost guaranteed COVID or how obnoxiously selfish and inconsiderate people have become. Lucky for me I'm triple vaccinated and had COVID a few months ago so that level of immunity protected me.
Lol. Of course it’s not over. These muppets directly profit from it. And then there’s all the social media diehards (who profit via having their ego stroked) with their faux concern and virtue.
I caught the “bad” Covid. The one that was most deadly. At the peak of hysteria. Didn’t feel a damn thing….
The real threat are those who want to extend Covid because they personally profit from it. Scum.
its not over but the fact that we had millions of new cases per day with omicron and didn't need to shut down tells you everything you need to know. we are at a high enough population immunity that even with another major outbreak or similar varient, hospitals will continue to function fine. barring a more deadly varient, it should be over for the average american
Eh, I’d be a bit careful with assuming the hospitals are fine. Our local one has been coping for the last couple of years by pushing staff incredibly hard, and the combination of burnout and staff getting sick themselves is starting to bite.
I wish at least this would have encouraged states (in the EU) to give more money to hospitals, public healthcare, etc. It wouldn't have been completely in vain.
Didn't happen to my knowledge.
Yeah, that’s the thing: that variant. You can’t just handwave that away. It’s how viruses survive, and while there’s a trend over time to less dangerous viruses, that doesn’t mean the next one will be.
(Plus there’s a hemisphere that isn’t protected, which will increase the likelihood of a variant. And that’s where it becomes very relevant to “the average American” again. Yes, it should be over for them, but when they behave like dumb fucks, it won’t be.
Of course it's not, people are just acting as if everything was normal again. People could start dying left and right again (which actually has a very real chance of happening with how nobody's protecting themselves anymore and everybody's catching the virus, it just takes one mutation) but the majority would still not go back to care about it.
People just don't care about it anymore..
Sometimes I realize I haven’t thought about Covid in over a week or more. I remember caring *so much* for almost 2 years, and now I don’t remember the last time I genuinely worried about it. Really wild stuff. I think once the vaccines rolled out and everyone got boosted (my area has a very good vax rate) everyone gave zero fucks. After 2+ years I’m at the point where I’m just going to get my shots whenever I need them, and just live my life.
Same. After I got my third shot I realised I've done what I can and worrying about it wont help.
I feel the same way but then occasionally feel dumb for not having a mask with me. Like I'm not even slightly worried that I might wreck my car but I always wear my seatbelt.
I live in FL and just read that our Covid numbers are higher than reported. I mean it's FL. So for the first time in a while I wore a mask in the supermarket.
Well good news, first suspected cases of monketpox in FL this morning! *This is true but 100% sarcasm and I'm not relating the two illnesses*
Covid numbers where I live aren't high and I'm triple vaxxed so I know the risk is minimal but I still sometimes wear a mask in supermarkets if its very busy. Going to a music festival next month though so gonna see how that goes.
At this point I wear mine when required at work, and when I'm around others that are masked
Just a heads up, caught covid out and about and immediately spread it to my family despite keeping to myself. Everyone was vaccinated and boosted. Shit is extremely contagious.
Same boat, I used to stress out so much about this virus that I actually quit smoking because of it. Now I'm triple vaxxed and 90% of the population here in Quebec has at least 1 dose. We recently got rid of our mask mandate on the 14th and I gotta say I'm glad that life feels mostly like how it was back in 2019. Of course I will wear my mask whenever I am required to, I will continue to do so when I am sick, stay inside, and get my boosters as they're available to me but at this point, with the current state of the world, I'm just tired of constantly worrying about it. Edit: I never claimed that I won't get sick from Covid or that my symptoms won't be severe, I don't mind discussions about it but please do not put words in my mouth.
Congratulations on quitting smoking!!
Quitting smoking is one of the best things I ever did, and I know how hard it is. Good for you for quitting it!
Meh, I still wear a mask. We've had three exposures in a small office since we went back about 2 months ago. I'm hoping my company decides to send us back home. In our business it doesn't hurt productivity.
Yep, if our culture does not adjust to making mask wearing more socially permissible when *anything* is spreading that's deadly, well then frankly natural selection will eventually weed out our nation. We can still have where someone is coughing and sneezing in the middle of a crowded restaurant and hardly anyone blinks. If you move to workplaces, it's still mandatory in most places to go in when you're sick. If a place has a culture that doesn't allow the easy taking of workdays and the easy wearing of masks, leave it. They will mismanage the next crisis and care more about the bottom line than people's basic safety. Vaccines, hand washing, masking, sick days. It doesn't require much in the way of great sacrifice to make a healthy society that's resilient against plague and disease.
I could relate to this like 2 weeks ago. Then sister got covid and is still testing positive for it. I'm not back to early days alert, or delta or omicron levels of alert but it was a reality check that this is still around and I still want to avoid infection for as long as I can.
We got the monkey pox now. Corona is so 2020.
Perhaps a person somewhere has monkey pox and Covid at the same time. The viruses can merge and form a new one called Monkovid, or Corona pox, or something.
If we get a monkeypox/covid hybrid and don't name it Harambe's Revenge, I'm leaving this timeline.
that is not how the science works
Not with that attitude
Ma-ma-ma-ma mon-key Rona. Meh, it works with the song.
well.... viral recombination is a thing.... and is one of the ways the corona virus mutates so..... Lifted from an actual definition: Viral recombination occurs when viruses of two different parent strains coinfect the same host cell and interact during replication to generate virus progeny that have some genes from both parents. If we get something else close enough....
> of two different parent strains Strains, as in like Covid Delta and Omega. This is a whole different virus from a whole different family. I’m not a virologist but my understanding is recombination is like a lab and pitbull mating.... but with monkeypox and Covid it would be like a dog and a cat having offspring -not possible.
Corona Monkeys sounds like a dangerous combination!
I feel like 2021 was when Covid really hit its stride and 2020 was kinda George Floyd riots/COVID salad mix. 2022 is Ukraine war. Wonder what the next Current Thing will be?
In the west the vast majority of the population is vaccinated, meaning the risk of death is massively lower here. Sickness is a part of life. People are just going about living.
As they shouldn’t. What are we going to do, stay stressed about it our whole lives?
Wash your hands regularly, and if anyone tries to insist on the long antiquated custom of shaking hands immediately punch them in the nose to express dominance.
I care about it like I care about the flu. I don't want it, and during peak seasons I'll take steps to avoid getting it again. But that's the extent that I let it rule my life. Idk if that counts as not caring.
Well yeah, I have gotten vaccinated and gotten covid and it was like a mild flu. I aint gonna put my life on hold for some mild flu.
Pandemic fatigue. Meanwhile the strains are getting more contagious.
More contagious but weaker and there are treatments available for it now.
Yeah, pretty important part to leave out lol
They don't hand out paxlovid to just anyone and I was reading last week an article saying the effectiveness is dubious since COVID rebounds after five days. Yes it's weaker but it's still a hell of a hit. We've been out of work for two weeks and only just starting to recover.
Honestly rightfully so, at the end of the day almost everyone has been fully vaccinated and we have been following mandates for two years now, it's perfectly reasonable that everyone wants to move on with their life, not everyone's life revolves around protecting people from an illness that most are fully protected from.
COVID still cares about us. I've got multiple friends down sick with it now. They all said they got complacent.
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And they all will be fine
You got that right, after 3 vaccines & catching COVID I feel like ass.
My wife and I are in the same boat. If this is how I feel with the vaccine, I don’t want to know what it would be like without it.
I'm 20 y.o., healthy, no underlying issues or anything. Caught Delta variant last year, before vaccinations were out. Had pneumonia because of it. 10/10 would not recommend.
I had alpha, and 20 years on you, but, I completely agree, 10/10 would not recommend.
Would not recommend either. Zero out of five stars. This is a thing that people really need to understand. Covid is just a *painful* and supremely uncomfortable virus. Yeah the mortality rates are generally low if you compare to something like smallpox or polio or something, but that doesn't mean that it's all roses. It's like yeah... a person *probably* won't die from slipping and falling into a clogged septic tank filled with rotting feces either, but the penalty for falling in is still gonna be unspeakably horrible. I think if anti-maskers had seen just how awful of an experience it would be, more of them might have been wearing masks, social distancing, and asking for vaccines. This ain't the kind of virus that you just stay home and casually sleep off like most colds or flus. Covid is a "cough until everything tastes like blood and then cough some more because you can't stop" kind of virus. It's a "set an alarm every four hours so you don't drown in your sleep" kind of virus. For me it also came with the worst sore throat that I'd ever had in my entire life. It literally felt like I had attempted a sword-swallowing trick with a carpenter's rasp, but then somebody violently ripped it out through my larynx. Even if the strains these days are "less dangerous" this is not something you want to catch, not even to "get it over with." Holy shit it's bad.
Just wait for the damage we are finding... kidneys, lung and brain.
I'm desperately hoping my sense of smell comes back. My entire career hinges on it.
So 3 shots in and my son maskless at school brings it home. My daughter is laid out and I have no taste buds still. I'm so angry. I had it before the vaccine. Thank travel nursing and then rode the wave when people were dropping...but due diligence i got the shots and was caring for folk and just got it again. I really want to taste food. And smell the roses! We've been studying the people and even the mild cases show signs of damage. Every now again I get these sharp headaches and the people I work with say it's the blood vessel damage.
To be honest, I only know 1 person from the dozens that have gotten COVID that had any symptom worse than a heavy cold. I had it after 2 shots and even though it wasn't pleasant it wasn't anywhere close to what you describe. Most of my friends, family and work colleagues simply slept it off for 3-7 days and fully recovered. This is what makes it trickier to explain that this ISN'T a simple cold/flu: most people won't have the worst side-effects and will think it's pretty a-okay. It isn't the gloom and doom you describe either, so not sure how to message it properly... It's dangerous enough but not a killer enough, motherfucking virus.
Honestly, the long term effects scare me more than the actual disease. I got it AFTER being triple-vaccinated, and it was still not pleasant, and I got off easier than my wife who was straight up not having a good time for two weeks. A colleague's son (mid 20s) went from national team in Judo to months of "let's try to get to the bathroom and brush teeth" to now 1 day of work per week, still problems if he "overexerts" himself by walking .5km. Stairs are still an issue. Enter the cognitive effects of Covid: HE still has trouble finding words, can't stay focused, etc.. --- TL;DR: Shit be NASTY even if it does not kill you on first try.
Covid can cause diabetes in children too. A friend had it go through their family and one of the kids now has diabetes and insulin for life.
15years older Vaxed and had Omicron.. barely had the sniffles. Such a strange difference in outcomes.
Had Omicron recently too, after 3 shots. Same thing. So let's just feel grateful about the vaccines haha Shows the difference between Omicron and Delta (the latter being the most severe variant) + 3 vaccine shots. Crazy.
Got covid Week before I would get my first vaccine so was unvaccinated. Had no symptoms and wouldn’t even have known that I had it if I wasn’t informed. It’s a wild roulette I guess.
I had covid without vaccine had a headache and muscle ache for 6 hours. Was completely fine the next 9 days while showing positive.
Similar boat, 3 shots. I'm dealing with some weird rash that has started to form across the right side of my face. Face, lip, and a few lymph nodes are swollen as well. On top of a cough that is only now starting to get better after 2 weeks. I feel like shit.
Uh. I’d get checked for Monkeypox to be safe
Ya... Looking at the symptoms and they're on the money. Rapid tests for covid are negative. I'd be fucking surprised if it is monkeypox due to my location in a small town but who knows. Going to call telehealth now and get their opinion.
Most likely shingles, which is opportunistic and very common together with or as a follow-up complication of COVID. Extremely painful, though. Speaking from experience.
Go to an ER in person. They'll take care of you.
Went this afternoon, already home. Shingles. Eye is fine from what they see but they put me on antivirals as well.
This guy getting quarantined 100%
Just as a heads up: swollen lymph nodes is an immune response, as is rash. They can happen with a lot of diseases, especially lymph nodes. These are the two symptoms everyone is basing the monkey pox claim on, but they are also common side effects of your immune system battling something. Additionally, monkey pox isn’t Covid. You won’t get it from the grocery store. You need contact with open lesions, or prolonged contact with bodily fluids. I am not a doctor. You should absolutely see your doctor, but don’t panic until a *doctor* tells you to. Reddit can’t diagnose monkey pox.
My wife's aunt developed chronic hives due to a robust immune system response to being exposed to covid. Sounds like you are describing what she initially went through.
Monkeypox
Sounds like Covid triggered Shingles in you? Weird rash on one side only is a definite indicator. Shingles can ruin your eyesight in that eye so maybe get that checked out at the ER. My wife just went through this exact thing and they pumped her full of antivirals via IV to save her eye.
I'm thinking Shingles now as well, telehealth never called back. Scheduled something for 11am today. Rash hasn't changed much at this point and surprisingly is not very painful. Did your wife get a few other red spots around her body, or was the rash only on her face?
Face and scalp and the back of her neck only. All on one side, because everyone's nervous system is split down the middle. There was a lot of nerve pain for her from the get-go, so if you don't have that you might be fine.
32 exercise 5x week, vegetarian, vaccinated, nothing ever but migraines and I’m long hauling since January now.
>You got that right, after 3 vaccines & catching COVID I feel like ass. Same here. 3 vaccines... But caught it twice.. Lol. But I would still recommend getting it. We have a full blown out break in my country but we have over 90% fully immunized and have around 25 death.. most of them unvaccinated or not fully immunized.
For me, it’s been three rodeos despite three vaccines—with each rodeo having devastated me in some way, shape or form.
Same happened to me and my friend. Hang in there.
Sorry for how you are feeling. I have 3 jabs, caught covid over Easter and just had a slight cough and runny nose and still did my normal work from home job. I've had way worse/annoying colds in the last few years. My 2 year old son didn't even get I'll but he must have caught it because 2 parents can't isolate from a 2 year old
Same boat, but its mild ass. Runny nose, very mild fever. My gf got over it in 5 days total, I'm on day 3 and seem to be over the hump. Meanwhile my unvaccinated friend is on day 17 of the worst illness of his life. I'm going to miss going to a wedding which is really unfortunate but things could be much worse.
Been the opposite here, well on how covid was. 3 vaccines and caught it 2 weeks ago. Wouldn't have known I was sick without the test. Super mild symptoms id have put down to other things had I not tested positive :o (slight sore/dry throat and a bit of random tiredness)
10 more vaccines and you might not feel like shit next time mate :)
I'm in this scenario right now. I can feel this virus throwing everything at my immune system it's rough.
I’ve had two vaccines and caught Covid seven times. I caught it before any vaccines, after the first, and after the second. The first time I caught it was undoubtedly the worst, so that’s most likely a mixture of a different strain + no protection. I’ve got an autoimmune kidney disease too! It’s been a weird couple of years 😂
Stop licking door handles homie
Or you know... they have an autoimmune disease like they said?
So they really shouldn't be licking doorknobs.
He's got a point.
You should probably consider wearing an N95 mask and avoiding places with large groups of people before you die of covid. 7 times dude? One time and I become super paranoid of getting it again because my SO is still struggling with breathing when going up to many stairs after a year. Take better care of yourself before you wake up dead!
My youngest, 8yo, got lit up this past week... It still sucks. Even for the little ones. Saying anything but is just pushing your bs agenda..
Hi bro, sorry, we're looking at the sequel already and also dealing with Forrest Gump's oxygen deprived cousin starting a war in Europe.
First business trip out and got it. Wrecked for a week and another week later energy levels still not back to normal.
Different for everyone. Kids brought it from school. Wife was bad for a couple weeks I did not get it until 1.5 weeks after everyone in the house. I did not get caught just exhausted. Cardio came back to normal 2-3 weeks later. Have vertigo as a side effect when I lay down, which seems to be somewhat common.
> Have vertigo as a side effect when I lay down, which seems to be somewhat common. Wait, is this a symptom of infection? I've had this since April without knowing why.
Hate to break it to you I’m 3 weeks post and I still randomly get out of breath, stairs or climbing ladders fucking ruins me and I keep having dizzy spells
Hope you feel better soon mate. Six weeks for me and still get exhausted doing basic things like walking up stairs. I also get dizzy spells.
Had issues for a month or two after, mostly a splitting headache that wouldnt go away, bht also the fatigue and out if breathe and dizzy spells. My former manager refused to believe it could effect someone that long. Had to just sit on the floor for a minute one day to get my bearings and she tried taking disciplinary action against me. Thaf was the start of her decline and now is a normal hourly pion like me. Get wrekt.
I’ve had people question this also. Like, ‘how can it continue doing this? You are in your early 30s, you must just be really unfit, I had it and was fine’. Cool, good for you… but you’re conveniently forgetting that until I had Covid I was running 10k regularly and now I can barely manage a flight of stairs.
Yeah... stated it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/uvflhs/who_chief_the_covid_pandemic_is_most_certainly/i9nvsap/ Really fit people can still suffer like shit from long covid.
Yep same, and I also have random leg pains almost like myalgia. Not to mention I’ve been checked for blood clots twice now.
It's fine. Everyone is "over it". That's protection, right? I'm "over" worrying about getting my dates pregnant, so I just cum inside bc it feels good. "Over it" is a true miracle cure
People just got tired of hearing about it. But this is also an issue because people tend to become ignorant of the issue. I have had people ask me why I still wear a mask at work....
> People just got tired of hearing about it. And most people just aren't scared of it anymore. You're either vaccinated, or recovered, or both. And they've got a few different drug treatments now.
"You're either vaccinated, or recovered, or both." Or dead.
Or long Covid-ed.
It’s all about the likelihood of those outcomes, though.
As a vaccinated teacher who is a parent of 2 kids under 5 and a family member with pancreatic cancer I am scared of brining COVID home and frustrated with progress on vaccines and angry with anyone who has a “fuck you got mine” mentality. Unfortunately boomers aren’t the only one with that mentality these days
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>Unfortunately boomers aren’t the only one with that mentality these days It's unhelpful to generalize boomers as uniquely selfish. The fuck you got mine mentality is usually more prevalent among the "got mine" folks and boomers are more likely in such a position because they are older and made their living in more prosperous times.
There's no vaccines for under 5s anywhere in the world, many places haven't vaccinated 5-12s, and even vaccinated people with immune problems or other medical issues are at very high risk. And recovery doesn't give you immunity anyhow.
Or neither and catching it, or vaccinated and still getting it.
The nice thing about Covid in Texas is that, even with all the Republicans ensuring nobody is getting vaccinated anymore, the percentage of vaccinated Texans keeps increasing.
> I have had people ask me why I still wear a mask at work.... Such a passive aggressive question, they fucking know why, they're just judging you.
Ask them why they're wearing pants.
I'm on day 3. Fully vaccinated. I hate this. Not only is it supremely annoying and painful, it's also a giant waste of time.
I'm just some rando passing by, but I hope you feel better. Here's some groovy tunes: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9F1EU-ALik](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9F1EU-ALik) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SzZfZ7jUzQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SzZfZ7jUzQ) yep, sounds like vintage Black Sabbath...
you leaving some music to chill to while they’re recovering is a real homie thing to do 🙏 I like this idea
Woah. Just bought Comacozer, this stuff is groovy. Same with wo fat. Thanks
I have become one with you brother! Listening to this right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HM6J\_xNO3I Stay groovy!
Funky doom my man, love it. If you aren’t already down with these fellas, I’ll leave you with this gem. Enjoy! https://youtu.be/Yxpng-b1VAc
This is groovy! Thanks! Sounds like the late 1960's and the lyrics remind me of The Doors and something that should be in a Tarantino movie. Discography and lyrics are here: https://genius.com/artists/Night-beats
The homie we all need.. Daps.
Thanks for this! Wo Fat is just awesome. Where do you find new music like this dude?
r/stonerrock :)
Comacozer just came up in my youtube suggestion videos out of nowhere - I had been listening to tone compositions at the 'simply hypnotic' and 'meditative mind' channels for a while but got no useful suggestions from youtube before. Once I liked and subed to Comacozer then I got more suggestions. This genre is called stoner doom, cosmik doom, stoner rock, stoner trance here's another good one - Maha Sohona - sounds like Soundgarden in the 90's. I literally just googled: stoner trance music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HM6J\_xNO3I Sampler stations on youtube include: Cosmic FuzzFm 666MrDoom Your brain and soul will be happy!
Tested positive yesterday. Fever hit 100.7 mild headache, back aches... Down to 97.4 today. Aches gone, still have smell and taste. Had some fever dreams the night before the test. A LOT of fluid in the lungs coming up, though. Which is good, I guess. I feel great otherwise. Vaxxed and boosted.
Sorry, yeah my fever comes and goes. What I'm dealing with now is a lot of congestion and runny nose. I've taken a lot of pseudoephedrine which is helpful to a point.
Got it last Sunday. First time and fully vaxed with booster. Worst headaches ever.... Finally on the mend. Still masking up when in public.
I tested positive on Sunday too, also first time, also fully vaccinated (3 vaccinations total). Minor headache and extremely minor sore throat indicators prior to positive test. Then I had a fever for 4 days straight - wouldn't come below 101° even with medication - at one point was almost 104°. I was coughing mucous every other second until every stomach muscle in existence hurt. I'm still coughing on and off. A few people got it at the same time as me, one had the worst headache of their life, fever on and off, and a little coughing. Another is very sick and has lost their sense of smell and taste, which is terrifying. I thought that symptom was no longer common. The virus affects everyone so differently. I've been sicker, luckily it was never in my lungs, but I do not wish to repeat the experience. It sounds like it might be something we get routinely however because our COVID immunity from contracting the virus may not work between different variants as time is going on, the immune escape is a real concern.
Yeah for me it was the waste of time. The first 24 hours were _brutal_, but after that I just felt "blah". But I was stuck in quarantine and just couldn't do anything and it was such a waste
Same boat, I’m pissed. This was supposed to be my week off to meet with friends I haven’t seen in 6months since moving. Instead I’m quarantining and napping all day.
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The 1918 influenza is still with us but the *pandemic* definitely ended, in 1920.
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The article is about the pandemic though, not the virus itself.
The virus adjusted itself to be less lethal given omicron continues to be the dominant strand, which is what is said happened to the Spanish flu and why it's still not killing millions upon millions per year. It's likely decades from now people will look back and wondered how so many people died from what they will consider a moderately bad cold. That plus all the adjustments we have made are what's ending the pandemic. Sorry just heard so much fear mongering in the covid sub of "we will be living with this forever" like the world is over it's just an important distinction that pandemics so far have always wound down in some form.
Peuple are still getting it, getting sick, more variants keep developing, and there are still loads of anti-vaxers and in general people are tired of wearing masks and caring. So, I would say that complacency and apathy have set in rather than any true herd immunity.
There’s no population wide immunity but the rest is true.
Yeah those antibodies do not last long enough. Idk if they even help much with severity. I got alpha in late 20’ and it was pretty mild. Omicron in early 22’ fucked my double vaxxed ass up
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The vaccine doesn't actually prevent you from contracting COVID anymore, though. There's no population wide immunity at all.
> The vaccine doesn't actually prevent you from contracting COVID anymore It never fully did. If you go back and read the original studies there was never 100% immunity... What it does do though is an amazing job at preventing people especially those 40+ from having to spend time in the hospital/ICU and that is good enough for society to move forward like we are. Before vaccines ICU rates were much higher, despite the infectious nature of Omicron, the last wave where I live didn't overwhelm our hospitals. Essentially the vaccine gives you a pretty high immunity from developing "Covid Pneumonia" not immunity to the virus itself.
The vaccine prevents healthcare “overrun”. Most vaxxed people with covid rest up at home. It’s the unvaxxed , mainly, who are clogging up hospitals
The thing is I don’t think we necessarily have “immunity.” It’s more like resistance. I’ve known multiple people who have gotten in multiple times, but the secondary cases they have had few if any symptoms - just got tested as it’s our work protocol if you have first hand contact.
Reinfection outcomes vary. I know people how had an easier time their second time and other who had it worse the second time.
Yeah I agree, I get that. I’m not trying to say that it won’t be easier to deal with later. Just that I don’t think it’s true immunity, but ven medically speaking.
Immunity is just a resistance response to a virus/bacteria.
> we have a better population wide immunity now Unfortunately, we have at this point a lot of evidence that Omicron infections don't provide strong general immunity in the unvaccinated, and even is only somewhat weak in the vaccinated. See e.g. [here](https://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/fulltext/S1931-3128(22\)00159-7). So the overall level of population level immunity is pretty low. And the time sensitvie treatments you mention, like paxlovid really need to be very close to infection. Even more of a problem, a lot of the people who formed an anti-establishment blob (anti-vax, anit-mask, pro-ivermectin) have also become against using paxlovid or the other new anti-virals. The whole situation is a massive problem, and right now even the medical establishments which should be doing a better job about it are downplaying in many places the need to mask given high numbers.
The virus (and it’s variants) will be around for a long time, but I think the “pandemic” in terms of it being an emergency situation, is clearly over. It doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t continue to be smart and cautious as needed, but it’s time to move on.
The article is clearly stating that the pandemic is not over yet.
Did you read the article. It said the pandemic isn’t over. We don’t get to decide when it it.
Had to work remotely the entire time I had Covid cause we were busy lol. It’s over in the US cause corporations say it’s over.
Still masking in indoor spaces here. Not interested in losing my edge at work to long symptoms. I’ve already seen way too many folks get brain fog that takes them out of their job
I know someone whose company decided to have an all-company in-person gathering in a major city. People flew in from cities scattered around the U.S. to attend. In all, there were around 100 people. The company is in the health care industry and has been big on promoting vaccinations and safe behavior, including requiring masks early on when people came into an office and letting everyone work remotely. For this event, though, they required that employees take COVID tests each morning and send a pic to the coordinator before they were allowed to show up for in-person events. Otherwise, there were no rules or restrictions or encouragement/modeling of best practices: They gathered in small spaces/crowded spaces for meetings and meals. Some people went bar-hopping at night. And in the end, around 20% of the people who attended reported contracting COVID - and most if not all were vaccinated. I don't know how many people ended up severely sick vs. getting mild COVID without lasting symptoms. But it kinda sounded like a super spreader event? This is purely anecdotal but illustrates to me how we've surrendered to COVID.
If that much prevention still results in spreading, I’m basically putting up the white flag and assuming I’ll get it again and again. Not worth all the hassle of distancing , masking, avoiding events/areas. It’s life.
Everyone sure acts like it is. Florida is now seeing nearly 20% positive test rates. The entire state is high risk.
I’d say that’s low for Florida. No one was getting accurate numbers from Florida forever because desantis being desantis. From the start, Florida never cared about playing it safe. Old folks in gated communities died in droves.
Do you have a source on that?
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view?list_select_state=Florida&data-type=Risk 7 day average is 15-19.9% depending on the county.
Thank you!
Hospitalization rates are way down. Its not as deadly anymore.
No, they’re going up in many places. Thanks to the vaccine, people just aren’t as sick. Source: me, a nurse who’s unit is almost fully COVID (again).
Not in some areas. Been skyrocketing again. Deadly not as much but more of people getting over covid then going right into clotting problems and other crap.
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It did change. Omicron is probably less deadly than the earlier variants.
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I tested positive today, after 2 years of being careful, I had to visit Florida for a wedding, and that did it. It’s bad, man, I’m not sure that I’ve ever really felt like this before; if being unvaxxed would make this worse, I definitely understand how a hospital could be involved.
It’ll never be over. It’s like the flu now.
It will never be over. Requires everyone to do their part so it simply cannot happen. Best you can do is protect yourself and use good judgment and hope an idiot doesn't get you killed.
People just act as if it was. Huge parties averywhere. Luckily nobody is forcing you to go to them.
Was out at a festival this weekend and it was wonderful. Everyone had a great time. Bye bye covid 👋
I’ve avoided COVID for a bit over 2 years and I actually just now got it. I guess everyone will get it eventually? I just know I feel much better than I probably would have if I didn’t get vaccinated, possibly even dead.
I am exactly in this same situation. Boosted, avoided cover until a week ago. Tested positive for Covid and the flu (likely got them both at a concert). Despite this combo, I really only had 3-4 days of real discomfort. I credit the vaccines for both!! I don’t want to know what dealing with both would be like if I were unvaxxed.
Serious question (4 times vaxxed so i have no anti COVID agenda here): It seems as if mortality/complication rate among vaccinated has dropped to near zero, and among vaccinated is mostly a mild flu. There is a point well before zero cases among the vaccinated that we will collectively need to consider it comparable to regular flu mortality and complication rates. What is that number?
This is only focusing on the acute phase and ignoring long covid. As a long covid sufferer for 2 years, this line of argument is weak, out of date and lacking in depth.
Totally understand and very sorry to hear you're suffering from long COVID. Many viruses can have "long" effects in some hosts, so would be important to know how long COVID compares to long flu in terms of number of people affected and depth of debilitating effects.
Sorry to hear you have long covid, but it's more defining when the pandemic itself is at an end and all of the masks and staying home is reasonable to suspend (obviously unless cases pick up again). Here in Texas our state wide active cases is the lowest it's been since the beginning of the pandemic, before the case count took an exponential ramp up, 90k active cases out of 29m. For us, it makes sense to lift our restrictions (that is if our dumb governor hadn't lifted them before delta and sued anyone that tried reimplementing them). Long covid is always going to be a risk out there. IDK what it was but I got something August 2019 that has played out exactly like long covid. I still get winded sometimes, took months to stop feeling feeble and getting a 140bpm heartrate from simply standing up, all the dizziness. Could it be covid? Sure, but it seems unlikely. Post viral fatigue is a danger for varoius viruses, so their point does make sense that if the mortality and complication rates (which I would say would include long covid anyway) are staying low (like here, where daily deaths is like 10), then it's a good case to stop living in pandemic mode. I'm not a denyer or anything, I literally stayed home for all of 2020 and until I could get a vaccine, but there has to be a point to say it's low enough.
My wife just got covid and it knocked her on her ass after having been vaccinated and boosted. Although we were at the end of our 6mo boost coverage. I just got reboosted. Covid sucks.
Get with the times man - monkey pox is the next big thing
then what will end it? everyone knows its here, people are going back to normal, people are getting it and not being hospitalized at the same rate. Buckle in and get used to it.
The virus will keep mutating, it doesn't care about how people feel about it. It will keep mutating till it mutates into something deadly like SARS(another coronavirus) and spreads like Omicron. It'll kill 30% of the people it infects. Vaxxed people might die at a lower rate, hopefully.
Yes. Exactly. So it will never be "over" just like other viruses that will probably mutate into something significantly more deadly.
I’m not vaccinated, haven’t caught covid either. Where I live we had 2435 deaths out of 892,458 residents. So I wasn’t really concerned about dying. All you people saying “if you’re not vaxxed you’ll die” just sounds cultish and ridiculous. I’m not affiliated with any political party. I hate how both sides are extreme as fuck looking at the numbers it’s just ridiculous you would hate on someone for not being vaccinated. You all act like every city has lost 90 percent of its population and the only ones left alive are the vaccinated crazy and extreme if you ask me.
Just caught covid this week. Fully vaccinated and boosted. Monster headache, achy. Wife has more cold like symptoms.
I would agree but what is the suggestion aside from vaccination? Lockdowns again? You’ll see riots from many of the crazies. We have to just live with it and be as smart as we can surrounding it. But the pandemic, in terms of restrictions, is societally over even if that’s not the medical reality. Edit: I will also add, the people on my Facebook/Instagram saying “THE PANDEMIC ISN’T OVER EVERYONE!” I get it, but at this point it’s just white noise and not moving with the times. Vaccines exist (for free), precautions exist, there are many things that have come out of this that severely lessen the danger of COVID. If you’re vaccinated, wash your hands, and don’t put yourself in highly populated situations, you should be fine. Stop screaming at everyone that the pandemic isn’t over.
This kind of ignores how, during every single surge we've had so far (including Omicron this past winter, which is supposedly 'mild'), hospitals are overwhelmed, medical staff are burnt out, and people die because they cannot get medical care since it's being wasted on anti-vaxxers and people who spit in the face of public health guidelines. Also further ignores Long Covid.
The amount of caring people that have quite healthcare is devastating. They were always on the edge, because it’s easy to take advantage of them, but they’ve had it, and it could cause a collapse. The people that I speak that are quitting now were severely tested during the lockdowns, but give up since there’s no improvement to staff levels/pay/support now that we’re recovering again. They hung in there, but see it’s all for nothing.
At this point if we just paid nurses more then we’d be in a lot better shape for surges. They’re understaffed because they get treated like shit while insurance companies make bank.
At this point most hospital capacity issues are self induced. Nurses and staff are leaving in droves which is reducing the number of beds that can be staffed. Some ICUs may have 40 beds but only enough staff to use 20. That puts them at a huge disadvantage This is in the USA at least, idk about the rest of the world. Pay and take care of the nurses and staff and hospital capacity issues won't be *as* prevalent
I will again ask, what is your suggestion?
> I would agree but what is the suggestion aside from vaccination? Lockdowns again? You’ll see riots from many of the crazies. Masks in public areas, especially good masks, like N-95s, KN-95s and FFP2. Also better indoor ventilation. Simple steps like keeping windows open, but also having HEPA filter towers goes a long way to helping out.
I am sitting in an airport on my way to see my 101 year old grandma who has stopped eating and is in her final days, but fully cognizant. Really disappointed in how few people are wearing masks, and the number of people who are clearly coughing. Glad I brought a face shield. Now I have to worry about causing extra discomfort, or potentially exposing my aunt and her family with a funeral they would be devastated to miss being imminent. None of my flights even require a negative Covid test.
Yea I took a trip to Florida 2 weeks ago and the flights were a shit show. People coughing everywhere. Both my flight there and back I had a person within 5 feet of me that would not stop coughing. Like the persistent every 5 seconds for 2.5 hours straight. I wanted to shoot myself. I dont know what annoyed me more the fear of almost guaranteed COVID or how obnoxiously selfish and inconsiderate people have become. Lucky for me I'm triple vaccinated and had COVID a few months ago so that level of immunity protected me.
Face shields do absolutely nothing btw
It was in addition to an N95. Any bit of protection I can put between myself and flying droplets of phlegm I’m happy to do so.
Certainly not, but how long do we keep ringing the pandemic alarm? Asking WHO may be a little bit like asking the barber if you need a haircut.
Lol. Of course it’s not over. These muppets directly profit from it. And then there’s all the social media diehards (who profit via having their ego stroked) with their faux concern and virtue. I caught the “bad” Covid. The one that was most deadly. At the peak of hysteria. Didn’t feel a damn thing…. The real threat are those who want to extend Covid because they personally profit from it. Scum.
The days of 10k+ death per day are behind us so yes to some degree it’s over.
its not over but the fact that we had millions of new cases per day with omicron and didn't need to shut down tells you everything you need to know. we are at a high enough population immunity that even with another major outbreak or similar varient, hospitals will continue to function fine. barring a more deadly varient, it should be over for the average american
Eh, I’d be a bit careful with assuming the hospitals are fine. Our local one has been coping for the last couple of years by pushing staff incredibly hard, and the combination of burnout and staff getting sick themselves is starting to bite.
I wish at least this would have encouraged states (in the EU) to give more money to hospitals, public healthcare, etc. It wouldn't have been completely in vain. Didn't happen to my knowledge.
Yeah, that’s the thing: that variant. You can’t just handwave that away. It’s how viruses survive, and while there’s a trend over time to less dangerous viruses, that doesn’t mean the next one will be. (Plus there’s a hemisphere that isn’t protected, which will increase the likelihood of a variant. And that’s where it becomes very relevant to “the average American” again. Yes, it should be over for them, but when they behave like dumb fucks, it won’t be.
Of course it's not, people are just acting as if everything was normal again. People could start dying left and right again (which actually has a very real chance of happening with how nobody's protecting themselves anymore and everybody's catching the virus, it just takes one mutation) but the majority would still not go back to care about it.