CR: COVID-19 --Political Talk

[Brisketexan 105119]

Damned Canadians.

Yeah, they’re having a shitty season.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19101]

As weather gets colder, we will see more infections.  But the key is keeping people out of the hospitals.  In New York State, the hospitals upstate are experiencing a surge.  Some in NYC are as well, but that is probably upstate hospitals sending their folks here.  So far, NYC is keeping its rates really low.  

I know this will probably be grabbed at by our COVID denier posters, but mask wearing in most places in NYC is back.  I would say I see probably 90% of people wearing masks.  Most stores have required them even if you are vaccinated as have Broadway theaters and a lot of museums. Movie theaters are one that does not, but I see a lot of people wearing their masks in the movies as well.  

Masks work. It also helps that NYC is much more highly vaccinated than the people in the burbs and in the sticks.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

7 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Masks work. It also helps that NYC is much more heavily populated by people with an IQ higher than their shoe size than the people in the burbs and in the sticks.

Fixed.

[wildcat09 29353]

On 12/4/2021 at 9:44 PM, Incredulity said:

You fuckwits are obviously completely holed up in your pandemic bunkers.

most of the world has moved on.  Have you been anywhere besides your aunts thanksgiving in the last 6 months.

I know the fe fe’s are going to be hurt and the negs will rage.  Take off your fucking pajamas lemming and get out of the basement 

You posting this on a Saturday night is just so perfect.

[Horn Under a Bad Sign 20397]

In other really surprising news ...

 

 

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19101]

Ole Bill going out with a bang.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/06/nyregion/nyc-vaccine-mandate-deblasio.html

Quote

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a sweeping coronavirus vaccine mandate for all private employers in New York City on Monday morning to combat the spread of the Omicron variant.

Mr. de Blasio said the aggressive measure, which takes effect Dec. 27 and which he described as the first of its kind in the nation, was needed as a “pre-emptive strike” to stall another wave of coronavirus cases and help reduce transmission during the winter months and holiday gatherings.

“Omicron is here, and it looks like it’s very transmissible,” he said in an interview on MSNBC. “The timing is horrible with the winter months.”

New York City has already put vaccine mandates in place for city workers and for indoor dining, entertainment and gyms. Nearly 90 percent of adults in the city now have at least one dose of the vaccine.

But Mr. de Blasio said the city must go further to combat another wave of the virus in New York City, once the center of the pandemic. Some private employers have required employees to get vaccinated, but many others have not. Mr. de Blasio said the new measure would apply to about 184,000 businesses.

The mayor also announced that the rules for dining and entertainment would apply to children ages 5 to 11, who must have one dose to enter restaurants and theaters starting on Dec. 14, and that the requirement for adults would increase from one dose of a vaccine to two starting on Dec. 27, except for those who initially received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Mr. de Blasio and Gov. Kathy Hochul held a news conference last Thursday to announce New York State’s first five cases of the Omicron variant, and several more have been announced in New York City since then. The number of coronavirus cases in the city has increased rapidly in recent weeks; daily case counts have increased more than 75 percent since Nov. 1.

Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat with less than a month left in office, said he was confident the new mandate would survive any legal challenges and he noted that past city mandates had been upheld.

“They have won in court — state court, federal court — every single time,” the mayor said on MSNBC. “And it’s because they’re universal and consistent.”

Eric Adams, the mayor-elect who takes office on Jan. 1, is on vacation in Ghana this week. His spokesman, Evan Thies, said in a statement that Mr. Adams would evaluate the measure once he is mayor.

 

“The mayor-elect will evaluate this mandate and other Covid strategies when he is in office and make determinations based on science, efficacy and the advice of health professionals,” he said.

The Biden administration tried to set a federal mandate that all large employers must require workers to get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing starting in January, but that measure is stalled in court.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, issued an “emergency” rule earlier this month requiring vaccinations for employees of companies with at least 100 workers, although it exempts those who work at home or exclusively outdoors.

Kathryn Wylde, the president of a prominent business group, the Partnership for New York City, said she was surprised by the announcement by Mr. de Blasio.

“We were blindsided,” she said. “There’s no forewarning, no discussion, no idea about whether it’s legal or who he expects to enforce it.”

Roughly half of Manhattan office employers have enacted vaccine mandates, she said, though some policies include testing options and medical and religious exemptions.

Will be interesting to see if Adams keeps all this going.  Like that Bill has this being effective BEFORE he leaves office.  Adams has so far said he plans to keep all the mandates going.  We know they work.  And so far, NYC has avoided hospitals being overrun ever since that first wave.  Even the wave back last winter which was WORSE than the first wave based on numbers of cases never had near as many hospitalizations and deaths as that first wave.  

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19101]

1 hour ago, Walden Ponderer said:

Fixed.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19101]

On 12/4/2021 at 10:44 PM, Incredulity said:

You fuckwits are obviously completely holed up in your pandemic bunkers.

most of the world has moved on.  Have you been anywhere besides your aunts thanksgiving in the last 6 months.

I know the fe fe’s are going to be hurt and the negs will rage.  Take off your fucking pajamas lemming and get out of the basement 

Holy shit! I missed this post.  You are one stupid motherfucker.  

*Aunt's

**Take off your fucking pajamas, lemmings, and get out of the basement.  

There is never an excuse for bad grammar or punctuation.  

[jimmyjazz 45914]

23 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Holy shit! I missed this post.  You are one stupid motherfucker.  

*Aunt's

**Take off your fucking pajamas, lemmings, and get out of the basement.  

There is never an excuse for bad grammar or punctuation.  

It's a sliding scale based on blood alcohol content.

[tx 3 putt 76932]

1 hour ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

In other really surprising news ...

 

 

keep pumping out the misinformation Fox News / newsmax / oan 

[RDCanecutter 26426]

1 hour ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Holy shit! I missed this post.  You are one stupid motherfucker.  

*Aunt's

**Take off your fucking pajamas, lemmings, and get out of the basement.  

There is never an excuse for bad grammar or punctuation.  

Ain't that the truth.

Though I would love to know who makes lemming pajamas, and why the creatures reside in basements. I always pictured them roaming the fjord-side hills, smoking little lemming-pipes all hunkered in bulky lemming sweaters.

 

[RDCanecutter 26426]

2 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Fred may be on to something...

 

I notice that Fred sent in the GrossTexlandDivision to seize Alsace-Coonasse from Louisiana.

[jimmyjazz 45914]

31 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

Though I would love to know who makes lemming pajamas, and why the creatures reside in basements. I always pictured them roaming the fjord-side hills, smoking little lemming-pipes all hunkered in bulky lemming sweaters.

Well, they are conformists.  Once one rogue lemming starts wearing pajamas, they all start wearing pajamas.

[RDCanecutter 26426]

1 minute ago, jimmyjazz said:

Well, they are conformists.  Once one rogue lemming starts wearing pajamas, they all start wearing pajamas.

But what if the lemmings deny the will of Incredulity, and continue to do as they see fit?

[jimmyjazz 45914]

8 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

But what if the lemmings deny the will of Incredulity, and continue to do as they see fit?

Rapture.

[DDD Dad 14338]

Well, they are conformists.  Once one rogue lemming starts wearing pajamas, they all start wearing pajamas.

I’m wearing pajamas (post surgery) so this hits close to home.

[Horn Under a Bad Sign 20397]

1 hour ago, tx 3 putt said:

keep pumping out the misinformation Fox News / newsmax / oan 

Wouldn't it be ironic if the Republican plan to count on the stupidity of their voters was undone by the stupidity of those very same voters dying? Or if we go another 10 months with this disease and it ends up impacting a few very close house races ---- all in the Democrats favor?  Yes, yes it would. 

[tx 3 putt 76932]

8 minutes ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

Wouldn't it be ironic if the Republican plan to count on the stupidity of their voters was undone by the stupidity of those very same voters dying? Or if we go another 10 months with this disease and it ends up impacting a few very close house races ---- all in the Democrats favor?  Yes, yes it would. 

dumbest people alive - I’m going to listen to vaxxed false messengers praise my freedom for staying unvaxxed and spread lies daily about the vaccine 

[Horn Under a Bad Sign 20397]

I think this is interesting: Omnicron might be the end of the pandemic.

 

 

[ROFL BOX 6649]

9 hours ago, Anastasis said:

 

CILANTRO MODE sounds a very legit al pastor taco situation. like my new band name.

.

[ROFL BOX 6649]

4 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Rapture.

Wait.... is "JimmyJazz" your nom de plume & you're REALLY Deborah Harry?

[bolverk 29671]

7 hours ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

In other really surprising news ...

 

 

Incredible. Keep in mind, these data are only since May 1. 

Here's my home county:

Now, compare it to Travis:

120 per 100k vs 36 

This doesn't even include the high death rate my hometown suffered last fall/winter when half of them were still in the "it's a hoax" mode and refused to mask up.

[Longhorn_Fan68 33869]

8 minutes ago, bolverk said:

Incredible. Keep in mind, these data are only since May 1. 

Here's my home county:

Now, compare it to Travis:

120 per 100k vs 36 

This doesn't even include the high death rate my hometown suffered last fall/winter when half of them were still in the "it's a hoax" mode and refused to mask up.

that doesn't even tell the story. They're more than twice the average death rate. That's impressive.

remind me to stay the fuck away from Howard County, wherever the fuck that is

Edited December 6, 2021 by Longhorn_Fan68

[bolverk 29671]

1 minute ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

fuck that doesn't even tell the story. They're more than twice the average rate. That's impressive.

remind me to stay the fuck away from Howard County, wherever the fuck that is

Unless you're in the uhl bidness or driving out to Roswell NM, I can't see how you'd have a reason to ever go.

[cactusflinthead 27598]

6 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

that doesn't even tell the story. They're more than twice the average death rate. That's impressive.

remind me to stay the fuck away from Howard County, wherever the fuck that is

Big Spring

[bolverk 29671]

1 minute ago, cactusflinthead said:

Big Spring

Go Steers!!!

*cough* *cough*

[Longhorn_Fan68 33869]

3 minutes ago, bolverk said:

Go Steers!!!

*cough* *cough*

"Anyone else been getting this tasteless meth of late?"

[Telegraph_it 3357]

Personally I am partial to Dawson county but Howard isn’t too bad. 

[cactusflinthead 27598]

This one got to me. Another from r/nursing

Lost a Healthy 30yo to Covid

I know the last thing any of us need is another covid horror story but this group has always been so supportive of venting that I just can't put on my friends and family anymore.

He was healthy, active, and didn't even fucking smoke. A young beautiful wife my age, two adorable kids, and a business he did with his dad. A whole family that was loving and involved.

He wasn't vaccinated and when he got covid he just tanked so hard and fast we had to put him on ECMO. When he'd cough through the paralytics it would take him 3 days to recover his O2. He had a MASSIVE clot in his heart that kept breaking down and reforming, clogging the ECMO and causing a panic multiple times a day.

I played his pandora playlist for him and jammed out to his rock and metal songs. I trimmed his mustache and beard so it wouldnt get tickled on the ventilator. Early on when trialing him off paralytics was an option he would begin to wake up, biting on the vent and opening his eyes. He would look so scared, tears in his eyes. His panic would be so bad it would chatter out ecmo and tank his pressure. But I would cup his face with my hand and rub my thumb on his cheek and tell him he was safe, he was getting better everyday, and that I was right here with him. Whenever I did this he would relax in my arms and let his eyes close. I've never had children but I imagine the feeling is similar, I just wanted to protect him.

I wanted him to beat the statistics and the facts. I wanted him to be one of the miracle cases so bad that I fully heartedly and aggressively wanted to do everything possible. Because if we can't even save a healthy 30yo then who is all this for?

We had to switch him to V/A ECMO to get him ready to fly to another state for a lung transplant. The Catheter punctured through his heart and he went over an hour hypoxic till they fixed it. I watched them in tears, covered in blood and debating desperately with angry eyes behind masks and shields. They decided to compassionately withdraw care. Within the hour the wife and family was at his side and I had to hear one more spouse screaming from behind the sliding doors.

We let him die and I helped undress the family while the nurse bagged and tagged. A family member asked the wife if she was going to get vaccinated now and she said "no, I have faith."

I just really wanted this one to live.

[bolverk 29671]

1 hour ago, Telegraph_it said:

Personally I am partial to Dawson county but Howard isn’t too bad. 

The Golden Tors can eat shit! /jk

[brakeman 28362]

3 hours ago, bolverk said:

Incredible. Keep in mind, these data are only since May 1. 

Here's my home county:

Now, compare it to Travis:

120 per 100k vs 36 

This doesn't even include the high death rate my hometown suffered last fall/winter when half of them were still in the "it's a hoax" mode and refused to mask up.

zillow.com

[brakeman 28362]

 

 

 

 

The god damn cartoonist gets it.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19101]

 

 

[Guest]

11 hours ago, cactusflinthead said:

This one got to me. Another from r/nursing

Lost a Healthy 30yo to Covid

I know the last thing any of us need is another covid horror story but this group has always been so supportive of venting that I just can't put on my friends and family anymore.

He was healthy, active, and didn't even fucking smoke. A young beautiful wife my age, two adorable kids, and a business he did with his dad. A whole family that was loving and involved.

He wasn't vaccinated and when he got covid he just tanked so hard and fast we had to put him on ECMO. When he'd cough through the paralytics it would take him 3 days to recover his O2. He had a MASSIVE clot in his heart that kept breaking down and reforming, clogging the ECMO and causing a panic multiple times a day.

I played his pandora playlist for him and jammed out to his rock and metal songs. I trimmed his mustache and beard so it wouldnt get tickled on the ventilator. Early on when trialing him off paralytics was an option he would begin to wake up, biting on the vent and opening his eyes. He would look so scared, tears in his eyes. His panic would be so bad it would chatter out ecmo and tank his pressure. But I would cup his face with my hand and rub my thumb on his cheek and tell him he was safe, he was getting better everyday, and that I was right here with him. Whenever I did this he would relax in my arms and let his eyes close. I've never had children but I imagine the feeling is similar, I just wanted to protect him.

I wanted him to beat the statistics and the facts. I wanted him to be one of the miracle cases so bad that I fully heartedly and aggressively wanted to do everything possible. Because if we can't even save a healthy 30yo then who is all this for?

We had to switch him to V/A ECMO to get him ready to fly to another state for a lung transplant. The Catheter punctured through his heart and he went over an hour hypoxic till they fixed it. I watched them in tears, covered in blood and debating desperately with angry eyes behind masks and shields. They decided to compassionately withdraw care. Within the hour the wife and family was at his side and I had to hear one more spouse screaming from behind the sliding doors.

We let him die and I helped undress the family while the nurse bagged and tagged. A family member asked the wife if she was going to get vaccinated now and she said "no, I have faith."

I just really wanted this one to live.

Not saying it is, but this reads as very fake.

Has real "And these big strong Navy Seals, they come to me with tears in their eyes, and they say 'Mr. President, thank you for saving America. You're the greatest thing to happen to this country'" vibes.

[Walden Ponderer 12639]

11 hours ago, cactusflinthead said:

We let him die and I helped undress the family while the nurse bagged and tagged. A family member asked the wife if she was going to get vaccinated now and she said "no, I have faith."

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

[Guest]

So what's the consensus among everyone regarding Omicron thus far? Seems... optimistic at the moment? 

[jimmyjazz 45914]

6 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

So what's the consensus among everyone regarding Omicron thus far? Seems... optimistic at the moment? 

I saw a video on the CNN website where a South African epidemiologist said prior infection does not seem to provide any significant protection against reinfection.  He also said the jury is out on the efficacy of current vaccines against omicron.

An accompanying article pointed out that just because early cases seem to be more mild than with delta, etc., it's probably too early to tell.  It typically takes more severe disease longer to reach high levels of severity, and they haven't known about this variant long enough to be sure that optimism is truly warranted.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I saw a video on the CNN website where a South African epidemiologist said prior infection does not seem to provide any significant protection against reinfection.  He also said the jury is out on the efficacy of current vaccines against omicron.

An accompanying article pointed out that just because early cases seem to be more mild than with delta, etc., it's probably too early to tell.  It typically takes more severe disease longer to reach high levels of severity, and they haven't known about this variant long enough to be sure that optimism is truly warranted.

I've seen similar things regarding reinfection, but that it seems like it may still help against severe disease. Reports of people showing up to the hospital with other ailments and then testing positive for COVID while there without realizing it. Also early reports that instead of an average of 8-9 days in the hospital, it's been about 3. Again, the caveat is that it's so early.

As someone that's boosted and had a Delta breakthrough (before the boost), if Omicron turns out to be just as dangerous and prior infection/vaccination do nothing, then what the hell?

Also, if prior infection doesn't do anything, then is this really the same virus and pandemic? Or has it morphed into a second pandemic with a new virus? 

[brakeman 28362]

 

Texas has recorded it's first omicron case in Harris County on Monday.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/12/06/world/omicron-variant-covid#texas-becomes-the-19th-state-to-detect-the-omicron-variant

Edited December 7, 2021 by brakeman
19th state, what the fuck Abbott!

[MC Fresh Breath 4074]

Welp.

Quote

 

South Africa Hospitals Jammed with Omicron Patients 

JOHANNESBURG — 
Some South Africa hospital wards are jammed with patients infected with the omicron coronavirus variant as President Cyril Ramaphosa urged South Africans on Monday to get vaccinated.

In the past week, cases have reached more than 16,000, up dramatically from 2,300 last Monday, according to South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

The NICD says the increase in cases in such a short period of time is “unprecedented” in the trajectory of the pandemic, now in its fourth phase in the country.

“Unfortunately, we’re seeing a more than doubling of hospital admissions each day,” said Ian Sanne, an infectious diseases specialist who serves on South Africa’s COVID-19 presidential advisory committee.

Sanne is advising hospitals to prepare for “significant surges” of patients in the coming weeks and months, and to make sure they have plenty of oxygen.

Dr. Fareed Abdullah, who heads the South African Medical Research Council, says the surges are already happening in Johannesburg and Tshwane.

Hospitals in South Africa’s Gauteng province, which contains two of the country’s biggest cities, are packed with people infected with the omicron variant. Doctors say most of the patients haven’t been vaccinated, and an alarming number of them are children under the age of five-years-old.

“There’s been a rather rapid rise in hospital admissions with patients who have COVID, whether they’re presenting with COVID pneumonia or severe COVID disease," Dr. Abdullah said.

"All of the hospitals in Tshwane are seeing an upsurge, and the COVID bed occupancy is increasing 30% to 40% per day, over the last few days,” he said.

Some 36% of South Africans are fully vaccinated and President Ramaphosa on Monday urged citizens to get the shots.

"South Africa now has sufficient supplies of vaccines, … vaccination is essential for our economic recovery because as more people are vaccinated more areas of economic activity will be opened up," he said.

The president also announced that that the National Coronavirus Command Council would soon meet to discuss further measures. Authorities are considering making vaccines mandatory in some parts of society.

Unvaccinated people are particularly susceptible to omicron, as are individuals who have not been exposed to COVID-19 before, disease specialist Sanne said.

“At this time, we think about 75% to 80% of hospitalizations are unvaccinated," he said. "It could be as large as 40% of the population that has not yet either been vaccinated or had a previous infection with coronavirus up until now,” he noted. “So, we have a large pool of people who can still present with overwhelming infection and severe disease,” he said.

Since detection of the variant was first announced in southern Africa last month, scientists have been hoping that most cases would be mild.

Health authorities say omicron is re-infecting some people who have been vaccinated, but mostly their symptoms are not severe.

One of the country’s top epidemiologists, Salim Abdool Karim, told VOA that current vaccines should provide “good protection” against omicron.

Another disease expert, Shabir Madhi, noted, however, that the longer viruses flourish in populations, the more likely they are to mutate into variants.

“Without any question, if we were to vaccinate more people, we’d be able to dampen the amount of virus that would be circulating," Madhi said. "We’re not going to eliminate this virus, by any stretch of the imagination.

"But we can reduce the amount of virus that’s circulating and most importantly, vaccines are going to be much more foolproof when it comes to protecting against severe diseases, than taking your chances without being vaccinated,” Madhi said.

Disease specialist Sanne said that COVID-19’s going to be around for a “long time” to come, and those who believe the disease will eventually “just fizzle out,” are wrong.

"We don’t have the ability to predict that this virus as a virus becomes weaker, whereas we do in fact see that the immune system will improve with time to in fact deal with the infection,” he said.

 

https://www.voanews.com/a/south-africa-readies-hospitals-as-omicron-variant-drives-new-covid-19-wave-/6340912.html

[wildcat09 29353]

That...seems really bad.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19101]

 

Of course it is going to spread in South Africa.  Only 25% of their population is vaccinated.  There is a significant population there who is immunocompromised due to being HIV positive.  What we really need to see is what happens in the UK, France, and Italy, who have more highly vaccinated populations, who have already begun booster protocols, and where Delta has been swirling.  

[MC Fresh Breath 4074]

12 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

 

Of course it is going to spread in South Africa.  Only 25% of their population is vaccinated.  There is a significant population there who is immunocompromised due to being HIV positive.  What we really need to see is what happens in the UK, France, and Italy, who have more highly vaccinated populations, who have already begun booster protocols, and where Delta has been swirling.  

Agreed, but it isn't just the spread.  There was some press/media/hope/speculation that this variant was somehow more 'mild.'    

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19101]

5 minutes ago, MC Fresh Breath said:

Agreed, but it isn't just the spread.  There was some press/media/hope/speculation that this variant was somehow more 'mild.'    

That is because it was.  That article you posted is at odds with other articles posted in the NY Times and other major media outlets who were also talking to people in South Africa.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/06/world/africa/omicron-coronavirus-research-spread.html

I look at these few sentences, and I am not sure what some of the phrasing means.  It may just be a bad quote, and the reporter didn't follow up to clarify (if so, shame on them).  

Dr. Fareed Abdullah, who heads the South African Medical Research Council, says the surges are already happening in Johannesburg and Tshwane.

Hospitals in South Africa’s Gauteng province, which contains two of the country’s biggest cities, are packed with people infected with the omicron variant. Doctors say most of the patients haven’t been vaccinated, and an alarming number of them are children under the age of five-years-old.

“There’s been a rather rapid rise in hospital admissions with patients who have COVID, whether they’re presenting with COVID pneumonia or severe COVID disease," Dr. Abdullah said.

"All of the hospitals in Tshwane are seeing an upsurge, and the COVID bed occupancy is increasing 30% to 40% per day, over the last few days,” he said.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19101]

Also, to be clear, Omicron has been in the US and Europe for a long while.  I am pretty certain it has been circulating for at least a month if not longer.  It will be interesting to see if it overtakes Delta.

[MC Fresh Breath 4074]

4 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

That is because it was.  That article you posted is at odds with other articles posted in the NY Times and other major media outlets who were also talking to people in South Africa.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/06/world/africa/omicron-coronavirus-research-spread.html

I look at these few sentences, and I am not sure what some of the phrasing means.  It may just be a bad quote, and the reporter didn't follow up to clarify (if so, shame on them).  

Dr. Fareed Abdullah, who heads the South African Medical Research Council, says the surges are already happening in Johannesburg and Tshwane.

Hospitals in South Africa’s Gauteng province, which contains two of the country’s biggest cities, are packed with people infected with the omicron variant. Doctors say most of the patients haven’t been vaccinated, and an alarming number of them are children under the age of five-years-old.

“There’s been a rather rapid rise in hospital admissions with patients who have COVID, whether they’re presenting with COVID pneumonia or severe COVID disease," Dr. Abdullah said.

"All of the hospitals in Tshwane are seeing an upsurge, and the COVID bed occupancy is increasing 30% to 40% per day, over the last few days,” he said.

The NYT article is part of those 'early reports' I was mentioning.  The article I linked would appear to have more recent data.

Here's a reddit comment that puts it better:

Quote

 

Check the dates on the reports.

The "most Omicron patients are mild in Tshwane" report covered the period of Nov 14-29. COVID cases started to surge on November 22, presumably because of Omicron.

The original strain took roughly 10 days to go from a reported case to a hospitalization. Thus, virtually everyone in the hospital as of Nov 29 would be a mild case anyway. They were hospitalized patients with COVID, not hospitalized patients because of COVID. This is reflected in the report, which explicitly says that most of the patients are there for reasons other than COVID.

10 days from Nov 22 is Dec 2. Compare hospitalization reports in South Africa from Nov 29, Nov 30, Dec 1, Dec 2, and Dec 3. They stopped reporting on Dec 3, which is odd - they've consistently reported daily for the entire duration of the pandemic. The data from Dec 2 & 3 is very worrying though - hospitalizations went 64, 81, 79, 176, 135 over those 5 days. Worse, the number of patients requiring oxygenation (presumably in for pneumonia, not incidental admissions) went 117, 135, 149, 165, 203, 225. If you take hospitalizations as a percent of cases 10 days ago, it's roughly 10%, which is consistent with the original strain of COVID.

We only have this article to go on since Dec 3. The most likely hypothesis is that Omicron is as dangerous as the original strain was, and has a similar 10-day lag from case to hospitalization, and we were seeing mild cases because we were in the time frame when all cases are mild and so hospitalizations with Omicron were actually hospitalizations for other causes that happened to have Omicron.

 

I'm not sure I get the point of your quote.

 

 

 

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19101]

36 minutes ago, MC Fresh Breath said:

The NYT article is part of those 'early reports' I was mentioning.  The article I linked would appear to have more recent data.

Here's a reddit comment that puts it better:

I'm not sure I get the point of your quote.

 

 

 

I completely understand all that.  But I also think South Africa is a bad place to be looking at this at.  Maybe if you are in certain counties with large unvaccinated numbers, then yes, but they are unique, as is most of Southern Africa.  Again, I think we need to see how this is going to impact Europe.  It is still too early to tell if it is severe.  It is the truth however, that this has most likely been in the US for at least a month, perhaps multiple months (same with Europe).  The upticks in hospitalization numbers are coming from places with low vaccination numbers.  But we are still nowhere near the other surges, so we will have to wait and see.  

I really wish people would stop showing case numbers and look at hospitalizations and deaths.  

[Chad Fuck 17673]

 

The “Don’t Show Me” state.

[jimmyjazz 45914]

4 minutes ago, Chad Fuck said:

The “Don’t Show Me” state.

[elfenix 34238]

2 hours ago, brakeman said:

 

Texas has recorded it's first omicron case in Harris County on Monday.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/12/06/world/omicron-variant-covid#texas-becomes-the-19th-state-to-detect-the-omicron-variant

first recorded individual but it's been in the sewers for over a week:

https://www.khou.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/covid-19-omicron-variant-houston-wastewater/285-71d960dd-5b81-4051-84c9-63b214b1c642

Edited December 7, 2021 by elfenix