Biden's Economy?

[Res Ipsa]

Compared to the last two recessions, the economy's recovery from the pandemic has been relatively quick. That's good news, but fighting over which President is responsible is silly.

What exactly happened to the pandemic? Did people all the sudden quit dying from COVID or did we just quit talking about it?

We’re in a trough, down to about 650 deaths a day. It looks like many states, including mine, are starting the climb to the Omicron B.2.a variant peak. Same severity as vanilla Omicron, but even more contagious.

And, people aren’t talking about it.

[ajax18]

What exactly happened to the pandemic? Did people all the sudden quit dying from COVID or did we just quit talking about it?

We’re in a trough, down to about 650 deaths a day. It looks like many states, including mine, are starting the climb to the Omicron B.2.a variant peak. Same severity as vanilla Omicron, but even more contagious.

And, people aren’t talking about it.

And how did we get into a trough? Did all the antivaxers get vaccinated?

[Res Ipsa]

We’re in a trough, down to about 650 deaths a day. It looks like many states, including mine, are starting the climb to the Omicron B.2.a variant peak. Same severity as vanilla Omicron, but even more contagious.

And, people aren’t talking about it.

And how did we get into a trough? Did all the antivaxers get vaccinated?

No. People adjust their behavior to slow down the rate of transmission. Unfortunately, because the initial increase is often exponential, people don’t make the adjustment in time to avoid overrunning hospitals. In my area, a number of small businesses had to close, not because we locked down, but because the owners/employees got sick.

Every time a wave passes through the population, millions are infected. And because the variants don’t seem to confer much immunity against each other, people, especially the unvaccinated, are becoming infected multiple times. As scientists study the effects of the disease, it’s become clear that COVID Is not just a respiratory disease like a cold of flu. It damages the heart, kidneys, brain and other organs. People who develop long COVID are out of commission for up to two years.

In advance of this wave, all of the restrictions that were in place have been removed and many people have reverted to normal behavior. The federal government has stopped funding PCR tests, so if you are uninsured, a test will cost you around $100. So, less testing leading to underreporting. No mechanism for reporting the results of home tests was ever created, so the official numbers of infected people will undercount the actual number of cases. With increases in the rate of infection becoming much more difficult to stop, the benchmark will simply be increases in hospitalization rates. But, because spikes in hospitalization trail spikes in cases by a couple weeks, it will be impossible to avoid hospital overruns.

Because the CDC simply decided to let more COVID infect the population before recommending that people do anything, I don’t use their recommendations anymore. I still wear masks in public indoor spaces. When my county or the county where I work pass a certain threshold and cases are increasing, I resume working from home and avoid going to public indoor spaces. I also read epi Twitter every couple of days to stay informed of new studies, reports from other countries, and reports of any new variants of interest or concern. I’d stopped listening to the WHO press conferences for a while, as there were good US sources I could rely on. Now I’m resuming that, as the US has decided to pretend that the pandemic is over. It’s every person for themselves, and so this person has figured out how to do that.

[ajax18]

No. People adjust their behavior to slow down the rate of transmission. Unfortunately, because the initial increase is often exponential, people don’t make the adjustment in time to avoid overrunning hospitals. In my area, a number of small businesses had to close, not because we locked down, but because the owners/employees got sick.

Every time a wave passes through the population, millions are infected. And because the variants don’t seem to confer much immunity against each other, people, especially the unvaccinated, are becoming infected multiple times. As scientists study the effects of the disease, it’s become clear that COVID Is not just a respiratory disease like a cold of flu. It damages the heart, kidneys, brain and other organs. People who develop long COVID are out of commission for up to two years.

In advance of this wave, all of the restrictions that were in place have been removed and many people have reverted to normal behavior. The federal government has stopped funding PCR tests, so if you are uninsured, a test will cost you around $100. So, less testing leading to underreporting. No mechanism for reporting the results of home tests was ever created, so the official numbers of infected people will undercount the actual number of cases. With increases in the rate of infection becoming much more difficult to stop, the benchmark will simply be increases in hospitalization rates. But, because spikes in hospitalization trail spikes in cases by a couple weeks, it will be impossible to avoid hospital overruns.

Because the CDC simply decided to let more COVID infect the population before recommending that people do anything, I don’t use their recommendations anymore. I still wear masks in public indoor spaces. When my county or the county where I work pass a certain threshold and cases are increasing, I resume working from home and avoid going to public indoor spaces. I also read epi Twitter every couple of days to stay informed of new studies, reports from other countries, and reports of any new variants of interest or concern. I’d stopped listening to the WHO press conferences for a while, as there were good US sources I could rely on. Now I’m resuming that, as the US has decided to pretend that the pandemic is over. It’s every person for themselves, and so this person has figured out how to do that.

It's odd. Everything you said makes perfect sense to me and I agree with you. At least I think I do. It seems like you're a true believer and you're practicing what you preach. I respect that.

[K Graham]

True believer? As if Res said anything that was controversial or dogmatic.

[ajax18]

True believer? As if Res said anything that was controversial or dogmatic.

Are you still double masking Kevin?

[K Graham]

True believer? As if Res said anything that was controversial or dogmatic.

Are you still double masking Kevin?

I've never double masked [deleted, FR 2, RI]. Are you still beating your wife?

[Kishkumen]

I’ve double masked before. What is wrong with that?

[K Graham]

I’ve double masked before. What is wrong with that?

Ajax likes to mock people for being smart.

[ajax18]

I’ve double masked before. What is wrong with that?

Are you still double masking now?