5 ms·

The question now is for how long we will need to keep prevent weakimmune people. Didn't they have this exact problem before covid with 1000 other diseases? At

The question now is for how long we will need to keep prevent weakimmune people. Didn't they have this exact problem before covid with 1000 other diseases? At this point, it seems weak immune people are weaponized.

brandon272 5y ago
> The question now is for how long we will need to keep prevent weakimmune people. Why must a timeline be put on it? The people asking "how long do we need to do this" kind of remind me of the kids in the back seat on a long trip asking every 10 minutes "are we there yet?" It's a global pandemic the likes the which no living generation has witnessed before. No one can tell you the future. Anyone putting a timeline on it is giving you their best guess, not a guarantee. I understand that is mentally and emotionally tough to deal with for a lot of people, but that's the sober reality of our current situation. We have vaccines (miraculously) but only a partially vaccinated planet. We have promising therapeutics on the horizon (see last week's news about Pfizer's new drug), but we are many months or years away from them being available as ubiquitously as we need them to be. > Didn't they have this exact problem before covid with 1000 other diseases? That were as 1) widespread, 2) severe and 3) as contagious as COVID-19? I can't think of any.
- convolvatron 5y ago
  of all the disruption the world has gone through - death, idleness, economic dysfunction, loss of international travel, schools cancelled for more than a year.. wearing a goddamn mask in public is what really got to us
- StanislavPetrov 5y ago
  >Why must a timeline be put on it? Because it has completely disrupted our society, and widespread vaccinations have reduced the <1% chance of non-elderly people dying to much lower than that. Many kids have lost more than a year of education. Suicide and depression rates are skyrocketing among people of all age groups. "15 days to flatten the curve" has morphed into, "we must wear masks and stay locked down forever even if it only saves 1 life". Many of us reject this safetyism. Life is inherently risky. The vast majority of non-elderly people face far more of a risk of injury and death from their daily commute than they do dying of covid. Everyone is free to make their own personal risk assessment and wear a mask and/or hide in their homes forever. The rest of us are going to accept covid as another one of the many risks we all face in life and move on and start living again.
  - Spivak 5y ago
    Huh? The current situation in most places is be vaccinated or have a negative covid test to go to events with large crowds and wear a mask when indoors. Other than wearing a mask sometimes and showing my vaccine card at concerts life has gone completely back to normal. The problem with the "personal risk assessment" argument is that you wear masks to protect other people, not yourself. This is a decision that must be made collectively for or against.
    - StanislavPetrov 5y ago
      >Huh? The current situation in most places is be vaccinated or have a negative covid test to go to events with large crowds and wear a mask when indoors. Other than wearing a mask sometimes and showing my vaccine card at concerts life has gone completely back to normal. Tell that to the tens of millions of children - including pre-schoolers - who are forced to wear masks all day, every day, which greatly inhibits their learning and social development. Further, the fact is that places with "mask" (gauze masks and face covers - not actual N95 masks) mandates have not shown to have lower covid transmission rates than places without such mandates. That's the reality of the situation no matter what the so-called experts say.
  - brandon272 5y ago
    While this assessment focuses on the “personal risk” side of things (yes, we are all aware that most of us who have been vaccinated should expect nothing more than a bad cold if we end up getting infected with covid), where your assessment falls apart is that it doesn’t take into account public health. COVID continues to overwhelm healthcare system ICU capacity. It continues to result in an unsustainable level of death and disability among the massive portion of the population that remains unvaccinated. Where I live, and in other jurisdictions, public health authorities are telling citizens, “Hey, try to avoid getting into a car accident or having a heart attack because our ICU capacity is extremely limited” So long as these systems are not operating normally, society cannot function as it usually would. And we certainly can’t pretend covid is over because we have lost patience and exacerbate those problems further. Lastly, your assertion that suicides have increased due to COVID is false. [0][1] Why are you telling people that? [0] https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n834 https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n834 [1] https://sunnybrook.ca/media/item.asp?c=1&i=2306&f=covid-19-suicide-study https://sunnybrook.ca/media/item.asp?c=1&i=2306&f=covid-19-s...
Spivak 5y ago
That’s kinda the thing, no. I had no idea my friend had a compromised immune system until Covid and they stopped being able to go outside, had to go full time remote, got groceries delivered. We had to bring them some emergency cat food at one point. They’re planning on benefiting from herd immunity at some point once the virus has been beaten back but while it’s still spreading like crazy they’re stuck. It’s the fact that Covid is so contagious that makes it such a PITA. So to answer the question of how long, how ever long it takes for there to stop being so many new cases. It’s not forever.
- Jtype 5y ago
  Covid-19 will never go away though. It will circulate forever and spike whenever peoples immunity starts to fade. I take the timeline question to be "When do we accept Covid as endemic and get on with our lives?"
- keneda7 5y ago
  I have a close friend that is immune compromised and can't take a lot of vaccines due to allergies. It has been a life long struggle for them. It was a struggle long before covid and I imagine it will be a struggle long after. To say its not forever may be the case for some but not all. Many people will continue to have issues long after new cases die down.

brandon272 5y ago

> The question now is for how long we will need to keep prevent weakimmune people. Why must a timeline be put on it? The people asking "how long do we need to do this" kind of remind me of the kids in the back seat on a long trip asking every 10 minutes "are we there yet?" It's a global pandemic the likes the which no living generation has witnessed before. No one can tell you the future. Anyone putting a timeline on it is giving you their best guess, not a guarantee. I understand that is mentally and emotionally tough to deal with for a lot of people, but that's the sober reality of our current situation. We have vaccines (miraculously) but only a partially vaccinated planet. We have promising therapeutics on the horizon (see last week's news about Pfizer's new drug), but we are many months or years away from them being available as ubiquitously as we need them to be. > Didn't they have this exact problem before covid with 1000 other diseases? That were as 1) widespread, 2) severe and 3) as contagious as COVID-19? I can't think of any.

convolvatron 5y ago
of all the disruption the world has gone through - death, idleness, economic dysfunction, loss of international travel, schools cancelled for more than a year.. wearing a goddamn mask in public is what really got to us
StanislavPetrov 5y ago
>Why must a timeline be put on it? Because it has completely disrupted our society, and widespread vaccinations have reduced the <1% chance of non-elderly people dying to much lower than that. Many kids have lost more than a year of education. Suicide and depression rates are skyrocketing among people of all age groups. "15 days to flatten the curve" has morphed into, "we must wear masks and stay locked down forever even if it only saves 1 life". Many of us reject this safetyism. Life is inherently risky. The vast majority of non-elderly people face far more of a risk of injury and death from their daily commute than they do dying of covid. Everyone is free to make their own personal risk assessment and wear a mask and/or hide in their homes forever. The rest of us are going to accept covid as another one of the many risks we all face in life and move on and start living again.
- Spivak 5y ago
  Huh? The current situation in most places is be vaccinated or have a negative covid test to go to events with large crowds and wear a mask when indoors. Other than wearing a mask sometimes and showing my vaccine card at concerts life has gone completely back to normal. The problem with the "personal risk assessment" argument is that you wear masks to protect other people, not yourself. This is a decision that must be made collectively for or against.
  - StanislavPetrov 5y ago
    >Huh? The current situation in most places is be vaccinated or have a negative covid test to go to events with large crowds and wear a mask when indoors. Other than wearing a mask sometimes and showing my vaccine card at concerts life has gone completely back to normal. Tell that to the tens of millions of children - including pre-schoolers - who are forced to wear masks all day, every day, which greatly inhibits their learning and social development. Further, the fact is that places with "mask" (gauze masks and face covers - not actual N95 masks) mandates have not shown to have lower covid transmission rates than places without such mandates. That's the reality of the situation no matter what the so-called experts say.
- brandon272 5y ago
  While this assessment focuses on the “personal risk” side of things (yes, we are all aware that most of us who have been vaccinated should expect nothing more than a bad cold if we end up getting infected with covid), where your assessment falls apart is that it doesn’t take into account public health. COVID continues to overwhelm healthcare system ICU capacity. It continues to result in an unsustainable level of death and disability among the massive portion of the population that remains unvaccinated. Where I live, and in other jurisdictions, public health authorities are telling citizens, “Hey, try to avoid getting into a car accident or having a heart attack because our ICU capacity is extremely limited” So long as these systems are not operating normally, society cannot function as it usually would. And we certainly can’t pretend covid is over because we have lost patience and exacerbate those problems further. Lastly, your assertion that suicides have increased due to COVID is false. [0][1] Why are you telling people that? [0] https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n834 https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n834 [1] https://sunnybrook.ca/media/item.asp?c=1&i=2306&f=covid-19-suicide-study https://sunnybrook.ca/media/item.asp?c=1&i=2306&f=covid-19-s...

Spivak 5y ago

That’s kinda the thing, no. I had no idea my friend had a compromised immune system until Covid and they stopped being able to go outside, had to go full time remote, got groceries delivered. We had to bring them some emergency cat food at one point. They’re planning on benefiting from herd immunity at some point once the virus has been beaten back but while it’s still spreading like crazy they’re stuck. It’s the fact that Covid is so contagious that makes it such a PITA. So to answer the question of how long, how ever long it takes for there to stop being so many new cases. It’s not forever.

Jtype 5y ago
Covid-19 will never go away though. It will circulate forever and spike whenever peoples immunity starts to fade. I take the timeline question to be "When do we accept Covid as endemic and get on with our lives?"
keneda7 5y ago
I have a close friend that is immune compromised and can't take a lot of vaccines due to allergies. It has been a life long struggle for them. It was a struggle long before covid and I imagine it will be a struggle long after. To say its not forever may be the case for some but not all. Many people will continue to have issues long after new cases die down.