4 ms·

I think a lot of the panic can effectively be ignored if you're a bit savvy technically and follow some benchmarks. I have a little SVG "badge" that gets rende

I think a lot of the panic can effectively be ignored if you're a bit savvy technically and follow some benchmarks. I have a little SVG "badge" that gets rendered each day. It's green, unless any of the following four benchmarks are exceeded for my local area, in which case it's red: - RT > 1 - Cases/100k > 10 - Test Positivity > 5% - ICU Usage > 85% If any of them are over, it's red. For me, red has meant I limit my social activities. This seemed about right to me for Delta. For Omicron, I'm holding steady with that strategy for now, but if it turns out that Omicron isn't as severe for unvaccinated people, I might relax the strategy to only look at ICU usage. What's been interesting over the past six months is that it has tended to turn red when everyone was partying, and it'd turn green again when people were still freaked out. At any rate, it means I can ignore a lot of the rhetoric, because if Omicron subsides quickly, it just means my benchmark will turn green sooner.

clairity 5y ago
lots of people following that advice would create a bullwhip effect actually. instead, the better factors to consider are age, weight[0], comorbidities, household size, job duties (e.g., public-facing or not), and sociability. these also tend to be more stable and consistent, meaning you don't need to reconsider your personal mitigations very often. that'd indicate who generally needs personal mitigations and who doesn't (exceptions like a holiday family gathering would still need to be handled exceptionally). [0]: i'd suggest 'overall health' is the more accurate (if more vague) factor, but weight tends to inversely correlate with general health (overweight ==> weaker immune system, less efficient pulmonary/cardiovascular system, lower muscle tone, more visceral fat, higher diabetes risk, etc.).
- tunesmith 5y ago
  My own personal health is such that I wouldn't have to be so conservative if I were thinking only of myself. But Covid isn't just symptomatic, it's also contagious, as in, I can pass it to others who may not be able to handle it as well as I can, including those that aren't merely antivax. So the idea is more that if Covid is doubling at some rate, I limit my social activity so as not to contribute to the spread.
  - clairity 5y ago
    that's factored in as 'sociability'. rather than limiting social activity, the exceptional mitigation could be to distance or wear a mask in indoor social situations (but no need to do so otherwise in most public spaces). you could also test beforehand if that was warranted (like visiting with elderly relatives).

clairity 5y ago

lots of people following that advice would create a bullwhip effect actually. instead, the better factors to consider are age, weight[0], comorbidities, household size, job duties (e.g., public-facing or not), and sociability. these also tend to be more stable and consistent, meaning you don't need to reconsider your personal mitigations very often. that'd indicate who generally needs personal mitigations and who doesn't (exceptions like a holiday family gathering would still need to be handled exceptionally). [0]: i'd suggest 'overall health' is the more accurate (if more vague) factor, but weight tends to inversely correlate with general health (overweight ==> weaker immune system, less efficient pulmonary/cardiovascular system, lower muscle tone, more visceral fat, higher diabetes risk, etc.).

tunesmith 5y ago
My own personal health is such that I wouldn't have to be so conservative if I were thinking only of myself. But Covid isn't just symptomatic, it's also contagious, as in, I can pass it to others who may not be able to handle it as well as I can, including those that aren't merely antivax. So the idea is more that if Covid is doubling at some rate, I limit my social activity so as not to contribute to the spread.
- clairity 5y ago
  that's factored in as 'sociability'. rather than limiting social activity, the exceptional mitigation could be to distance or wear a mask in indoor social situations (but no need to do so otherwise in most public spaces). you could also test beforehand if that was warranted (like visiting with elderly relatives).