COVID-19: Chapter 9 - OMGicron

A realistic exit plan from this pandemic is probably some form of just incredible production of the pfizer pill, and incredible production of the at home tests such that someone who wakes up not feeling well takes an at home test and if they test positive they call their doctor and get a prescription for the pfizer pill. I’m sure that’s still a year or two away though unfortunately.

Modern corporations are pretty addicted to the idea of just-in-time delivery. Someone better acquainted with logistics may correct me on this, but my understanding is that companies will pull out all the stops to avoid accumulating inventory in anticipation of some future demand. They’d rather just dump it all in the ocean than pay to maintain excess supply.

We’re sorry, your [life saving pill] has been delayed. Would you like to request a refund, or continue to wait?

Did oreilly have a stroke at some point? Real question.

Which the pandemic taught is us a fucking terrible long term business strategy. It’s just amazing to me that none of these corporations are willing to adjust.

The scariest thing about that clip is that if Trump is that lucid and reasonable sounding in 2024 the Rs win that election in a landslide. Regular people that don’t follow this stuff daily are going to forget how insane he was in office when he gives a couple of bland speeches and/or bland answers during debates.

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Trump on national TV: I take credit for the vaccine. Everyone should get one.

Trump at rallies: Don’t listen to what I say on TV, that’s just for the normies.

Normies: Trump seems to have matured. Oh I don’t pay attention to his rallies.

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Source:

Very preliminary, but could explain the reports of less severe illness generally in omicron patients versus delta.

This is pretty much the good standard these days. All shipping is just in time through the entire supply chain.

Warehouses cost money. Sitting products are wasted money.

This is why Tim Cook became head of apple. He was extraordinarily good at managing the supply chsin.

I don’t get the part about destroying inventory though. Seems dumb to me. But what do I know.

Re: just-in-time delivery and supply chains.

Yeah, in 2021 just-in-time supply chains has meant store shelves look like cold war propaganda video of the Soviet Union.

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You say they look like cold war propaganda video of the Soviet Union, I say they look like Glorious Free Market Efficiency.

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Was having this thought last night.

Early indications seem to be pointing to Omicron being a more mild strain, especially in vaccinated people. This is going to end with a lot of conservatives crowing that “See! I told you it wasn’t that bad and it was going to be fine!” They will say this regardless of whether or not Omicron is less dangerous in people who are unvaccinated.

I think political leanings might lead liberals to dig their heels in, refuse to admit this point, and argue that it’s really more dangerous, or that we need more lockdowns, even if the evidence doesn’t support this as fact. Ultimately I think this is the wrong approach, and the right approach is to argue that even though we eventually got to a less dangerous strain as the dominant one, the human toll even with lockdowns and vaccines was immense, and likely would have been even worse without those in place.

It could still be a problem for hospitals if the number of people infected is high enough, even if the % that need an ICU is less.

This is exactly the math that is being done by public health officials. 1% of 500 = 5% of 100 is an important Bayesian lesson that still eludes many otherwise intelligent people.

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I don’t think this is likely, most of the “liberals” I know are so sick of lock downs and restrictions that they are desperately hoping for scientific evidence that these things are not necessary. No one on the left is so consumed with Owning The Deplorables that they’re going to advocate for lockdowns just to prove a point.

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Yeah, this, and we are seeing it play out. The good news is, I feel personally more safe from potential bad outcomes from Omicron than I did when we first learned about it, although Im far from convinced this is milder in the unvaxxed.

The bad news is, even if it is less severe, 2x more mild 2x faster doubling time is going to be very very bad for healthcare, especially when starting from an elevated level. So we arent hearing about boosted Omicron patients in the hospital en masse, but we are seeing even high vaxxed states like MA cancelling all elective surgeries and calling in the national guard to support hospitals.

Agreed that the lower death rate is going to be a problem for activation in the future if we run into a real nasty higher CFR variant. Lockdowns are sort of a distraction right now anyways, the US isnt locking down. There are a lot of less disruptive measures that are worth advocating for that would be helpful short of lockdown.

Yeah…let’s not confuse us with the fact-denying party. If it turns out that Omicron is less serious than it first appeared, that’s great. Just because the hurricane is coming at us, doesn’t mean we’re disappointed when it curves away just in time.

What I hope is that certain habits like staying home when sick (even if you have work from there) and wearing a mask when ill becomes more common outside of a pandemic situation.

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I don’t even think you will need to be sick. Our recent corporate internal poll on future work preferences indicated that 74% want to remain fully virtual and 25% want to be in the office 2 or 3 days as week. That leaves 1% (!) of the workforce that wants it to go back to the way it was before March 2020, and they are overwhelmingly managers.

Now, in practice I think that the company will find a way to strong arm the behavior they want, not the behavior employees want, but even so that is a striking survey result. Pre Covid so many people were undertaking health destroying commutes to arrive at a toxic workplace where they would spend 8 hours and then back to another health destroying commute. Day after day after day. White collar workers see an exit ramp and they want to take it, and the corporations are showing some weakness in terms of enforcing unpopular return to the office mandates.