Coronavirus pandemic - how are you affected?

[marurun]

Hey Benderx, sorry to hear you're on tough times. I know China still has outbreaks, they just are relatively quiet about it. China's big into controlling information these days, so it's harder to hear about what they don't want you to hear about.

Otherwise, let's steer clear of the social politics stuff, as that just kicks off a mess.

[RCBH928]

You probably wouldn't call 5.5M deaths negligible if it was caused by a war.
.

You are right, but this is because its a man caused problem. So a man(humans) initiated a war that killed 5.5M people which could have been avoidable. Meanwhile COVID is not man made problem, like cancer that kills 10M people a year and people just go on with their lives.

The after effects of COVID is worrying though, permanent damage is disturbing.

[marurun]

You probably wouldn't call 5.5M deaths negligible if it was caused by a war.
.

You are right, but this is because its a man caused problem. So a man(humans) initiated a war that killed 5.5M people which could have been avoidable. Meanwhile COVID is not man made problem, like cancer that kills 10M people a year and people just go on with their lives..

What do you mean we go on with our lives? We spend a lot of money on research into cancer and into cancer treatment. Are you suggesting when massive death is the result of naturally-linked causes or events we should just throw up our hands and move on? No, of course not! Failing to prevent preventable deaths (cancer deaths are in many cases not preventable, but many COVID deaths are preventable thanks to vaccines and masking and such). is absolutely a human-created problem.

[Limewater]

Another notable difference between cancer and Covid is that cancer tends to be occurring at a relatively stable, manageable rate. Covid, however, fills up hospitals.

During the summer Covid peak this year, ambulances in the city where my in-laws live weren't even taking people to the hospital because the hospital was over-capacity with Covid patients.

[RCBH928]

What do you mean we go on with our lives? We spend a lot of money on research into cancer and into cancer treatment. Are you suggesting when massive death is the result of naturally-linked causes or events we should just throw up our hands and move on? No, of course not! Failing to prevent preventable deaths (cancer deaths are in many cases not preventable, but many COVID deaths are preventable thanks to vaccines and masking and such). is absolutely a human-created problem.

we go on our lives, living our every day life not thinking about it meanwhile scientists do their thing. Meanwhile COVID has been the topic of discussion for the past 2 years and no signs an end on the horizon. Just as we thought the double shot vaccine was going to lead us into heard immunity, we hear of a 3rd shot and Omikron and we are back to square one as closing shops are starting to come back.

Another notable difference between cancer and Covid is that cancer tends to be occurring at a relatively stable, manageable rate. Covid, however, fills up hospitals.

During the summer Covid peak this year, ambulances in the city where my in-laws live weren't even taking people to the hospital because the hospital was over-capacity with Covid patients.

You are right, but COVID is no where near deadly or expensive to cure. According to scientist taking the vaccine should give you a high protection of COVID, meanwhile cancer is expensive to cure with people fighting it for many years with many surgeries.

[marurun]

OK, in looking at my own response, I've realized that this thread had clearly moved into political territory. We're done talking about COVID and the pandemic at large in this way. It may seem like I'm just "trying to get the last word", but this is really about my own response finally helping me see where this discussion has gone. Stick to talking personally about how COVID is affecting you and your family. Let's avoid these larger discussions and issues simply because there's no way to keep things civil. I can already see how my own words are going into the danger zone, here.

What do you mean we go on with our lives? We spend a lot of money on research into cancer and into cancer treatment. Are you suggesting when massive death is the result of naturally-linked causes or events we should just throw up our hands and move on? No, of course not! Failing to prevent preventable deaths (cancer deaths are in many cases not preventable, but many COVID deaths are preventable thanks to vaccines and masking and such). is absolutely a human-created problem.

we go on our lives, living our every day life not thinking about it meanwhile scientists do their thing. Meanwhile COVID has been the topic of discussion for the past 2 years and no signs an end on the horizon. Just as we thought the double shot vaccine was going to lead us into heard immunity, we hear of a 3rd shot and Omikron and we are back to square one as closing shops are starting to come back.

There is no "move on with our lives". Herd immunity has largely been acknowledged to be impossible as of about a year ago. Closings aren't just happening as a result of policy decisions, they're also happening as a result of supply chains being impacted by virus outbreaks around the world. You can't run your store as normal when your suppliers in China or elsewhere have to keep closing manufacturing facilities due to outbreaks. The US is one of the more vaccinated nations (despite a strong internal anti-vaccine contingent) and we're still having outbreak spikes that are causing businesses major problems because their workers are getting sick. People don't want to work for peanuts serving a public that often refuses to take this pandemic seriously and mask-up. On the other side, a small number of workers don't want to work because of being required to practice preventive measures like wearing masks and getting vaccinated. It is impossible to imagine going back to normal right now simply because it would mean completely ignoring a massive elephant in the room. People need to acknowledge that pandemics cause disruptions. The disease itself is the major disruptive force. Sure, politics and policies can also cause disruptions, but the disease itself is the primary disruptor. Pretending it doesn't exist doesn't make it go away.

Another notable difference between cancer and Covid is that cancer tends to be occurring at a relatively stable, manageable rate. Covid, however, fills up hospitals.

During the summer Covid peak this year, ambulances in the city where my in-laws live weren't even taking people to the hospital because the hospital was over-capacity with Covid patients.

You are right, but COVID is no where near deadly or expensive to cure. According to scientist taking the vaccine should give you a high protection of COVID, meanwhile cancer is expensive to cure with people fighting it for many years with many surgeries.

We already addressed how the current numbers are likely severe undercounts. Further, COVID hospitalizations are proving quite expensive. They fill up ICU beds and tie up staff and facility resources for sometimes weeks at a time. American ICU facilities in many areas are at capacity, meaning there's no room for emergency patients. That's all very expensive. Cancer sure isn't cheap, that's for sure, but those costs are amortized over years in many cases, as are their hospital stays. COVID is dumping a crap-ton of people into medical systems all at once and straining capacities in ways cancer doesn't. Besides, cancer and COVID are just so different all around. It's foolhardy to try to compare them in this way and I think it smacks of either bad faith or flawed logic.

[marurun]

To steer things back into safer territory...

We've had a couple folks out at my workplace for COVID but fortunately my own tests have come back negative, and those who fell ill seem to be doing OK. My wife's workplace (a hospital) is also having a minor outbreak in her department but she's come through in the clear as well. And at my child's day care a classroom recently closed due to an infected child, but it hasn't touched his group or classroom, yet. We're kind of just skating through due to careful masking and safe behaviors. Wife and I are both boosted and my son gets his second shot tomorrow, so he'll be as protected as he can be. We're traveling to see family in January and we're hoping they stay safe as well so we can see them.

[PretentiousHipster]

It seems like the wave in South Africa is already going down. If that continues, then this might have been an aggressive, but short-lived wave. Hopefully that will be the case.

[benderx]

My friends came to visit for a wedding, past week ago. I had running noise, it affected me when I was outside in the cold air, no coughing or anything else. I have all 3 shots and my friends do as well. Somehow both of my friends girlfriends got covid not sure which variant. I got tested negative twice. 2 days later my friend got it too. Right now they have sniffles. At least they don’t have to visit the hospital at the moment yet.

Good news for student loans paused for everyone.

[SamuraiMegas]

I've been got. Quarantined for the next few days.