COVID-19: Chapter 9 - OMGicron

I don’t think we are going to see a huge wave of direct deaths here, but man the knock on effects of maybe 25 percent of the US population being sick all at the same time are going to be wild.

Yeah it’s not gonna be great because even if it’s a fraction as deadly, it might be almost as big a multiple of actual cases. Basically a rip-the-bandaid-off wave that’s gonna crush hospitals, but has the potential to actually sorta kinda end the pandemic as we know it, assuming omicron is successful enough to remain the dominant strain.

It’ll never stop mutating so there’ll be another strain after this. That’s not necessarily bad though because it could mutate to be even less virulent. The other three human coronaviruses also never stop mutating but no one gaf about them.

So damn embarrassing that I’m in the richest country in the world and there aren’t enough at-home tests and appointments for everyone.

Fucking Czech Republic has an abundance of test vacancies. Infinitely more than what is demanded and in comparison it’s poor as fuck.

2 Likes

Yeah but you see we have a lot more people. /s

2 Likes

you can thank this guy:

1 Like

holy shit

1 Like

So pissed off at myself. Last night around 11pm, I saw that Walmart had rapid tests available for purchase and local in-store pickup. “Spidercrab,” I said, “it’s late Christmas Eve. What are you doing on the computer. Just go to bed and buy them tomorrow.”

Every single one of these locations had stock last night:

2 Likes

Yeah, that was a rookie mistake.

Walmart was open til 11pm last night where you are? It closed at 8pm here. Regardless, I think you’d have struck out had you gone to one.

1 Like

You purchase online (regardless of whether the store is open) and have like 4 days to pick up at the store.

1 Like

Drove by a Walgreens today and it was open which shocked me

1 Like

This suggests that 1 in 10 people in London have Covid right now. Insane.

Philippines still low, but with the speed this grows, could be taking off below the radar.

Seems like the new narrative out there is that “we need to stop testing healthy people”. It really sounds like the right has coopted the word “healthy” to include people infected with (and probably spreading) a deadly virus.

1 Like

the narrative is we give up

1 Like

But I mean, isn’t that the correct move? There’s obviously no way Omicron can be contained, so you have to mitigate the spread as best you can. NSW have asked people without symptoms and who are not close contacts to please stop getting tested, as it’s putting strain on testing infrastructure. When you’re just trying to mitigate spread, there’s a level at which the probability of people having the virus is low enough that it doesn’t justify using resources to PCR test them.

Edit: As I post this, South Australia is scrapping the requirement of a PCR test for incoming interstate travellers, asking them to please use a rapid antigen test instead.

1 Like

Eh, don’t kick yourself. 9 times out of ten recently when I’ve ordered online from Walmart for instore pickup (covid tests), when they actually process the order they cancel it and indicate that they were actually out of stock. You probably wouldn’t have ended up with a test even if you had ordered it.

2 Likes

Just found out my nephew tested positive for Covid upon returning from a semester abroad in Europe.

Fully vaxxed and no symptoms, but it caused a cancellation of family Christmas gathering back home.

1 Like

Massive case spike in Puerto Rico is from a super spreader event at a vax required outdoor concert. 2000+ infected, all breakthrough cases by definition and spread from vaxxed outside by definition. N95 time if outside in crowds.

1 Like

https://twitter.com/daveanthony/status/1474976265585115138

2 Likes