COVID 49 - Are We Done Yet?

[Luzifer's right hand]

They don't know how many people are currently infected with COVID in Austria but they have released sick leave numbers and in that case they still test.

Last week there were 29164 people on sick leave with COVID. The number for the same week last year was 19802.

[Zorral]

 

2 hours ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

Last week there were 29164 people on sick leave with COVID. The number for the same week last year was 19802.

That's rather significantly higher. (If it is like that in this country I know why, which is people not bothering to vax, or take other precautions, and, of course, so much travel from everywhere to everywhere.)                                                                             

[Fragile Bird]

I had a lousy Saturday filled with things going wrong, including getting a flat tire, but while I waited for the garage to fix the tire I walked over to the local drug store and got my Pfizer booster. No wait list this time! I’ve been meaning to get that done because my friends’ daughter-in-law was expecting her baby on Dec 5 and darned if little Elise Margaret didn’t decide to show up Saturday morning. So I’ll stay away until the two weeks have passed.

[Luzifer's right hand]

30 minutes ago, Zorral said:

 

That's rather significantly higher. (If it is like that in this country I know why, which is people not bothering to vax, or take other precautions, and, of course, so much travel from everywhere to everywhere.)                                                                             

Probably a combination of that and that you can't stay home without sick leave anymore as there are no more quarantine rules. 

I have heard the some care homes(elderly or disabled people) encourage sick leave even with very mild symptoms to keep the inhabitants safe now that the option of quarantine is gone.

Other respiratory infections are also at an all time high except the proper flu which is about the same as last year around this time(about 400 active cases).

Edited November 27, 2023 by Luzifer's right hand

[Zorral]

43 minutes ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

Other respiratory infections are also at an all time high except the proper flu

Here too (though the numbers for this, like covid, are hard to find here) -- and also flu is ballooning very rapidly almost everywhere.

[Fragile Bird]

Hey, did you see a story pop up about a new strain of swine flu showing up in the UK? Only one case so far, and it was mild, but authorities are monitoring the situation. 

That’s all we need, swine flu.

[Fragile Bird]

I was looking for this thread and realized the title is “are we done yet”. No, doesn’t look like it.

Sewage water monitoring in Toronto shows a rate twice as high as this time last year, the highest in more than two years. But I continued reading the article about Toronto and it mentions that the area outside the city, in southwest Ontario, has readings five times higher than last year. And only 40% of seniors have gotten the latest Covid booster shot in the province. Meanwhile there are 1500 people over the age of 70 (800 over 70 and 700 over 80) in hospital with Covid, 100 in the ICU.

It ain’t over, guys.

[The Anti-Targ]

On 11/28/2023 at 6:28 AM, Luzifer's right hand said:

Probably a combination of that and that you can't stay home without sick leave anymore as there are no more quarantine rules. 

I have heard the some care homes(elderly or disabled people) encourage sick leave even with very mild symptoms to keep the inhabitants safe now that the option of quarantine is gone.

Other respiratory infections are also at an all time high except the proper flu which is about the same as last year around this time(about 400 active cases).

All health care facilities should have unlimited paid sick leave in the very least for staff that come into contact with patients / residents. I know our fire and emergency service has unlimited paid sick leave as do air traffic controllers I believe (at least my cousin did when he worked as an air traffic controller 20 years ago). We don't want these people performing below par in those jobs, so it's better to have the occasional person take advantage of unlimited leave rather than have people die because someone was off their game because they came in sick for lack of leave days available.

We'll never be done with COVID. We've eradicated two infection diseases in human history, and only one of them was a human disease. COVID vaccine does not provide full immunity from infection and there is no long term immunity. Those are not the sorts of characteristics of a virus that's readily eradicable. But the posting rate in this thread possibly means we'll be done with COVID threads after this one, or maybe the next.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

On 12/10/2023 at 5:56 PM, Fragile Bird said:

I was looking for this thread and realized the title is “are we done yet”. No, doesn’t look like it.

Sewage water monitoring in Toronto shows a rate twice as high as this time last year, the highest in more than two years. But I continued reading the article about Toronto and it mentions that the area outside the city, in southwest Ontario, has readings five times higher than last year. And only 40% of seniors have gotten the latest Covid booster shot in the province. Meanwhile there are 1500 people over the age of 70 (800 over 70 and 700 over 80) in hospital with Covid, 100 in the ICU.

It ain’t over, guys.

Are you still taking the antacids? How is that working for you?

[LongRider]

This article is from June 21, 2023 and discusses issues of the Corona virus droplets in the air.  

"Through manipulating the gaseous content of the air, the team confirmed that the aero-stability of the virus is controlled by the alkaline pH of the aerosol droplets containing the virus. Importantly, they describe how each of the SARS-CoV-2 variants has different stabilities while airborne, and that this stability is correlated with their sensitivities to alkaline pH conditions. 

The high pH of exhaled SARS-CoV-2 virus droplets is likely a major driver of the loss of infectiousness, so the less acid in the air, the more alkaline the droplet, the faster the virus dies.  Opening a window may be more important than originally thought as fresh air with lower carbon dioxide, reduces acid content in the atmosphere and means the virus dies significantly quicker."

June: Airborne viruses | News and features | University of Bristol

[Zorral]

For the first time since 2019 our oldest, closest community, are planning to have our annual Christmas Eve feast.  It will be the first time we've celebrated Christmas in company.  Which says so much about how different things are now, despite the surges and high numbers and hospitals filled up with respiratory illness from covid to flu to etc.

To me this seems to say a lot about how our community - communities have been careful about masking, getting vaccinated, and knowing when to not participate in large enclosed group events. 

I'm still anxious that one or all of us -- who do see each other often, w/o holidays -- will get sick and we will have to cancel.  Nevertheless, planning dishes, purchasing the ingredients and soon will begin making them.  So excited!  Our Christmas feasts have been legendary for multiple joys, including dancing, and getting home long, long after midnight.

[Fragile Bird]

Nice, I hope it works out @Zorral.

I was at the dealership getting work done on my car last week and had a long chat with the service rep. His kid is 4 years old and has spent most of his young life in Covid isolation. They’re finding him wild and hard to control when they go out in public. They went to the zoo, a huge place here, and he took off like a rocket, so they decided, for his own safety, that they should put an electronic tag on his wrist so they know where he is if he decides to take off again when they go out somewhere. They’re not crazy about the idea but they’d rather be safe than sorry.

We had a discussion about the ethics of tracking people - he found out one day that his sister used an Apple app that she downloaded onto their parents cellphones so that she always knows where they are. I think he said it was the usual “friend location” app that you can get but their parents have no clue that she did it. A whole other topic of discussion there…

[mcbigski]

On 12/18/2023 at 3:20 PM, LongRider said:

 

"Through manipulating the gaseous content of the air, the team confirmed that the aero-stability of the virus is controlled by the alkaline pH of the aerosol droplets containing the virus. Importantly, they describe how each of the SARS-CoV-2 variants has different stabilities while airborne, and that this stability is correlated with their sensitivities to alkaline pH conditions. 

The high pH of exhaled SARS-CoV-2 virus droplets is likely a major driver of the loss of infectiousness, so the less acid in the air, the more alkaline the droplet, the faster the virus dies.  Opening a window may be more important than originally thought as fresh air with lower carbon dioxide, reduces acid content in the atmosphere and means the virus dies significantly quicker."

So the virus dies in lower CO2 concentrations?  We should definitely mask more.  For the children.

[Heartofice]

9 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

His kid is 4 years old and has spent most of his young life in Covid isolation

Lockdown did a lot of harm to kids.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

On 12/18/2023 at 1:20 PM, LongRider said:

This article is from June 21, 2023 and discusses issues of the Corona virus droplets in the air.  

"Through manipulating the gaseous content of the air, the team confirmed that the aero-stability of the virus is controlled by the alkaline pH of the aerosol droplets containing the virus. Importantly, they describe how each of the SARS-CoV-2 variants has different stabilities while airborne, and that this stability is correlated with their sensitivities to alkaline pH conditions. 

The high pH of exhaled SARS-CoV-2 virus droplets is likely a major driver of the loss of infectiousness, so the less acid in the air, the more alkaline the droplet, the faster the virus dies.  Opening a window may be more important than originally thought as fresh air with lower carbon dioxide, reduces acid content in the atmosphere and means the virus dies significantly quicker."

June: Airborne viruses | News and features | University of Bristol

Hang a bar of soap around your neck and you'll be fine. Maybe a bath ball necklace. Maybe get some soap ear muffs; Princess Leia style.

Let the "healthy immune system" fuckers chew on that. It can't be any less effective than smearing your ass with horse paste.

Seriously, a month from now I want to see people walking around with soap pendants hanging from their necks. When it rains we can all laugh at them.

On 12/19/2023 at 6:44 PM, Fragile Bird said:

I was at the dealership getting work done on my car last week and had a long chat with the service rep. His kid is 4 years old and has spent most of his young life in Covid isolation. They’re finding him wild and hard to control when they go out in public.

Or maybe it's because, y'know, he's four. 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Deadlines? What Deadlines?

[Luzifer's right hand]

3 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

 

Or maybe it's because, y'know, he's four. 

Yeah for some reason even people in areas with 6 weeks of unenforced on paper lockdowns blame everything that is wrong with kids on COVID-19 too. Well maybe the brain damage that is known to happen in some cases.

Or maybe a society in which aggressive not following rules was of utmost importance for two or so years was not the best environment either? People think kids did not learn that rules are completely and utterly irrelevant?

Edited December 21, 2023 by Luzifer's right hand

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

7 hours ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

Yeah for some reason even people in areas with 6 weeks of unenforced on paper lockdowns blame everything that is wrong with kids on COVID-19 too. Well maybe the brain damage that is known to happen in some cases.

Or maybe a society in which aggressive not following rules was of utmost importance for two or so years was not the best environment either? People think kids did not learn that rules are completely and utterly irrelevant?

Obviously I don't know these people or their situation so I can only speculate. Maybe the kid is a little freaked out by being in a public place around other people. Or this could be within the spectrum of behaviour for a normal 4 year old boy with some caffeinated sugary soda in him.

But if they took the kid out in public and he was overly withdrawn and terrified and begging to be taken back home; then I'd be concerned. 

[Padraig]

Well, if you find yourself using every fact you hear related to COVID to justify your definitive position on COVID, you are very likely going overboard.

COVID was and is complicated.  While your position may (or may not) have been one of the better ones, some people certainly suffered if it was implemented.

[Luzifer's right hand]

37 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Obviously I don't know these people or their situation so I can only speculate. Maybe the kid is a little freaked out by being in a public place around other people. Or this could be within the spectrum of behaviour for a normal 4 year old boy with some caffeinated sugary soda in him.

But if they took the kid out in public and he was overly withdrawn and terrified and begging to be taken back home; then I'd be concerned. 

I was posting in general I guess not specifically about that 4 year old.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

2 hours ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

I was posting in general I guess not specifically about that 4 year old.

Yeah. For sure. 'Didn't mean it to sound like a criticism. 

3 hours ago, Padraig said:

Well, if you find yourself using every fact you hear related to COVID to justify your definitive position on COVID, you are very likely going overboard.

COVID was and is complicated.  While your position may (or may not) have been one of the better ones, some people certainly suffered if it was implemented.

I just got back from visiting my parents. I took two of my nieces with me. I made sure to ask if they were up to date on their jabs and my father made me take a covid test after I got there.

'Might sound excessive but I have elderly parents. My father was a heavy smoker for half his life and my mother has a heart condition. They're caught up on their jabs but a breakthrough infection is still a risk for them. Erring on the side of caution isn't so crazy.