Perhaps then we should stop ignoring the potential effects of the ongoing airborne pandemic. But no, keep f*king around with COVID, and we keep finding out.
There is no ongoing pandemic. There is now an endemic virus that's part of the regular rotation of pathogens that cause colds and flu, and covid doesn't seem particularly more dangerous than the rest (NB: influenza can be very nasty too! I'm not minimizing the harm of covid).
The pandemic was a unique situation because the entire world population was immuno-naive to covid. This is no longer the case; we all get exposed dozens of times per year and keep our natural immunity up.
the distinction between pandemic and endemic is political and typically related to “we don’t care to contain it”. It’s not related to immunity levels. The interesting thing is that it used to be citizens of poorer countries who would be fodder, now it’s also the richer ones which I think says something about the state of those countries and progress in general
I wouldn't say so much that we don't care to contain it, but that pandemic means it's sweeping over a population, endemic means it's simply always present in the population without major swings in prevalence. Impossible to contain because it's already everywhere.
So it's possible, but not a single country in the world managed to do it, even with wide range of different political parties in power, alignment, economic systems, etc? Like if literally every single combination that we have of those things couldn't manage effective containment....Well I guess your claim is a bit unfalsifiable don't you think?
And the "chart goes" up is such a strawman, I'm sure there's no real life downside or long term risk to just shut down everything for (2) more weeks... but whatever. That's such a western mentality, that only comes with the privilege of not living in an economically ruined part of the world.
There's a reason why doomers and "zero COVID" proponents are usually in the vast majority white, privileged, urban residents. I'm sure some vague, very broad "long term risks" that we still haven't seen concretely outside of a tiny minority (even if hundreds of millions were infected) are more important than the actual, proven, repeated risks of "charts going down".
In a way there's an odd parallel with antivaxxers who love to claim that in just a little bit more we will see the long term risks that came with the vaccine lol
Human compliance isn't perfect. Without China-level enforcement all lockdowns were leaky. There's a point of can't.
Furthermore, Covid has animal hosts. Even if the would could cooperate on completely stamping it out it would soon jump back from some animal. We simply have to live with it, take what precautions you want in your personal life but there's no point in society at large doing so.
(I do, however, think that medical facilities should be mask-required. But I think they should have been pre-pandemic, also.)
Covid causes a lot more deaths and a lot more damage than the flu. The flu is simply unpleasant for the vast majority of those who are otherwise reasonably healthy. Covid is still doing lasting damage to such people.
The difference between a pandemic and an endemic is that we don't want to stop an endemic. The virus is the same; the effects are the same but more averaged out with fewer peaks and troughs; they are just as bad.
In my opinion, there's no significant levers left to push to affect infection rates much.
Of course, we should be doing everything reasonable we can to tamp down COVID (and the flu). But short of permanent quarantine or forcing anti-vaxxers to get vaccinated, I'm not sure what there's left to do.
(It would be nice if we could socially normalize and encourage wearing a mask when one feels slightly sick, too).
No, I'm saying that they also have a comparable rate of post-viral syndrome, and a comparable rate of severe cases. It is not clear at all at this point if covid will be able to do this much damage to the next generation (whose first exposure was as babies). Maybe this blood brain barrier thing is something that all viruses do if the immune system doesn't respond appropriately. I genuinely don't know.
If you don't want to take the vaccine for the betterment of all then fine, lots of other things you can do to help. Stay home. Mask up. Do more to help stop the spread.
COVID isn't over. And it's because people wouldn't do what was needed to make spaces safe again from such a contagious thing. That is still spreading, disabling, and killing.
I think we’re a little past taking the vaccine being for the betterment of all. Almost everyone I know has had COVID, vaccinated and unvaccinated alike. It may help you get through it easier but the vaccine doesn’t do much to stop the spread. I’ve known two separate families that were all vaccinated and one person brought it home and the rest all got it.
People need to continue their lives. You can’t honestly expect people to “stay home” for 3 years. They need to work, and live. It’s not going away, and nearly everyone has had it by now.
The data certainly leans more towards your experience, but I find that shocking from my own experience. Of the people that I know whether or not they have had it (and obviously knowing positive is easier than negative), only about 50% have had it (and so far I am on the 50% that has not yet tested positive).
> the vaccine doesn’t do much to stop the spread
In fact, studies have shown that vaccines (as well as prior infection) does reduce, but not eliminate, the likelihood of infecting others.
> Vaccinated residents with breakthrough infections were significantly less likely to transmit them: 28% versus 36% for those who were unvaccinated. But the likelihood of transmission grew by 6% for every five weeks that passed since someone’s last vaccine shot.
Excuse me if I'm not wowed. As annoying as anti-vaxers as a whole are, the other side where the vaccines are viewed as an absolute panacea might've actually made us even worse off. I feel like there wasn't much of a political push to get better vaccines made because that would be admitting what we have isn't that great.
Not quite sure what you mean, humans have lives with plenty of viruses that circulate regularly and people don't choose to get infected.
The term pandemic is also pretty specifically defined as the time period where an infection is spreading rapidly through a population. Once it has spread everywhere you can't accurately keep calling it a pandemic, the period of rapid spread is over.
How about do something to help it now instead of claiming it's endemic which it definitely is not. Clean air great. Doing something now to stop the damn spread, better.
I am literally advocating for preventing, or at least reducing, spread in schools in this very comment, and as a parent, have skin in the game. Endemic doesn't mean harmless.
cOvId is AiRbOrNe, isn't over, and never went away.
It doesn't matter how fast its spreading, it continues to spread, be highly contagious, with unknown long term effects. It makes all spaces unsafe and we need to work to live without it.
Take measures to stop the spread and protect yourself and others. Stop getting infected. 3.5+ years into this if you're not helping, you just choosing to prolong the pandemic.
There is no living with it. None. There's no immunity. Only continued sickness and damage. Masking is a protection to help stop the spread and if you are not helping, you're in the way of us trying to live without it.
Our ancestors apparently lived with HCoV-OC43 after it killed a lot of people in the initial pandemic. That virus is quite similar to SARS-CoV-2 in terms of genetics and symptoms. And it's still around infecting people today. So relax, we'll (mostly) be fine.
There is immunity in the sense of "the body is able to mount an immune response due to previous exposure." Early claims of immunity to infection didn't pan out, especially post-Delta. There are benefits to having immunity, but I believe they are often overstated. (I say this as someone who is currently wearing an N95 respirator around others 100% of the time, including around my partner and family).
Stop getting infected. Stop choosing to prolong the pandemic.
All you seflish, entitled people that haven't helped or have "moved on" while serious illness continues to pervade society and unknown risks of repeated infection remain, have really shown your colours.
Your comment is so full of emotion and offers zero insight into how to actually achieve it - therefore, it’s pretty safe to say your advice isnt helpful here.
Masks and vaccinations dont prevent infections in a meaningful way. This is backed by real data and anecdotal data.
Here's my anecdotal data: I'm sitting on a bus writing this wearing a respirator, as I have every bus trip for the lady few years. I've had several vaccinations. I've changed a few behaviours, but not many (e.g. I avoid packed indoor environments where possible).
I am yet to get COVID.
Saying "masks" without qualifiers is mostly pointless. Most people still associate masks with basically useless blue surgical masks.
Maybe I'm just lucky but the science of respirators is compelling and I find it hard to believe we wouldn't see a dramatic reduction in infection rates if everyone wore them.
If anything and everything you're doing isn't stopping spread and encouraging/normalizing behaviours that promote it in any way, that's where to start. The pandemic never ended.
Not even talking about vaccinations (we can't vax our way out of this, was always only part of it). Masking goes a long way but is also only part of it. Stop moving around. Stop gathering. Take precautions like distancing and avoiding indoor spaces. Stop the spread. COVID never ended and as it's airborne all spaces are unsafe.
