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Where do you live that still has restrictions? I guess China still has some and that majorly affects the supply chain, though a lot of the inflation seems due

Where do you live that still has restrictions? I guess China still has some and that majorly affects the supply chain, though a lot of the inflation seems due to the war in Ukraine which is unrelated to COVID or restrictions. But I also think COVID itself is affecting the economy, because of the increase in sick time.

rob_c 4y ago
International travel for one, not to mention lots of places keeping bad policy/rules which are going to take years to be removed again in a lot of cases. > But I also think COVID itself is affecting the economy, because of the increase in sick time. Yes bob being off for 2 weeks is comparable to bob not being able to go to the office to do his job and ask questions for 2 years....
- didibus 4y ago
  I mean that it's a variable in the equation. Sick leave happens a lot more often as people get COVID once every 6 months and need a few days off. This is an additional strain that continues even as restrictions lift. During the lockdown, the economy boomed, the War in Ukraine from my vantage point seems like a much bigger catalyst. Lockdowns did put a strain on production, but that should catch up again. And what I find is the most difficult to know, is what if we hadn't lockdown, the original COVID and Delta were quite deadly and problematic for unvaccinated, had we all continued as normal we don't know the effect it would have had, could have been better, maybe worse. If another pandemic happens, I hope we don't think what we did for COVID was too much, we lucked out a bit with Covid and it not being as deadly as it could have been, I think the initial lockdowns when people didn't know the virulence yet in some sense were a justifiable decision. You have to make a trade off, and a gamble. People rarely like to gamble with sickness and death. Now I'm with you on lifting restrictions, doesn't seem needed anymore, people self-regulate now based on their own comfort levels. Though I'm a bit still surprised how many deaths are still occuring due to Covid, but finding good information on it has become so hard.
origin_path 4y ago
Remember that the USA still bans entry for any reason, no exceptions, for unvaccinated people. Soon they will bump that to anyone without a booster, at which point, most of the population of Switzerland will be banned from entering the USA. All this is utterly pointless of course. Omicron is not exactly absent from the US. Restrictions have very much not gone away.
- didibus 4y ago
  That's true, it's interesting that they keep that requirement. To be precise, this only applies to non-us residents/citizens. I haven't seen renewed analysis about vaccine efficacy at limiting spread and mutations, it's almost impossible to find unbiased non-politically charged information around it. The US gov website seem to mention it's due to CDC advice to contain spread and mutations, but my initial assumption was that it could be because they want to avoid having to provide medical care to severely ill people.
  - origin_path 4y ago
    You're looking for medical reasons where there aren't any. Other countries have removed such restrictions and nothing happened, because Omicron doesn't make unvaccinated people seriously ill - it has the same severity as a common cold - and people need health insurance anyway. The CDC doesn't provide medical care to anyone in any case, that's not their job. The real reason they keep the mandates is because they can, and because it is ideologically pleasing to them to punish people who reject the intellectual authority of the state.
    - didibus 4y ago
      We're talking about non-residents/citizens, I'm not sure I buy your argument because of that, it doesn't seem to make sense to want to uphold the intellectual authority of the state against non-residents. Also restrictions have endured both Republican and Democrats, so it also doesn't seem ideological. Hospitals in the US I believe will always treat you, but then send you a bill, they don't refuse emergency care. You cannot become a US resident without showing good health because they don't want you to freeload, and you also are forced to take all vaccines and prove immunity. Also, Covid is still killing people, it's definitely not like the cold, it's the third leading cause of death in the US now. I'm not saying this restriction helps in any way, but seems misguided to compare it to the common cold, at the very least it's closer to the influenza flu.

rob_c 4y ago

International travel for one, not to mention lots of places keeping bad policy/rules which are going to take years to be removed again in a lot of cases. > But I also think COVID itself is affecting the economy, because of the increase in sick time. Yes bob being off for 2 weeks is comparable to bob not being able to go to the office to do his job and ask questions for 2 years....

didibus 4y ago
I mean that it's a variable in the equation. Sick leave happens a lot more often as people get COVID once every 6 months and need a few days off. This is an additional strain that continues even as restrictions lift. During the lockdown, the economy boomed, the War in Ukraine from my vantage point seems like a much bigger catalyst. Lockdowns did put a strain on production, but that should catch up again. And what I find is the most difficult to know, is what if we hadn't lockdown, the original COVID and Delta were quite deadly and problematic for unvaccinated, had we all continued as normal we don't know the effect it would have had, could have been better, maybe worse. If another pandemic happens, I hope we don't think what we did for COVID was too much, we lucked out a bit with Covid and it not being as deadly as it could have been, I think the initial lockdowns when people didn't know the virulence yet in some sense were a justifiable decision. You have to make a trade off, and a gamble. People rarely like to gamble with sickness and death. Now I'm with you on lifting restrictions, doesn't seem needed anymore, people self-regulate now based on their own comfort levels. Though I'm a bit still surprised how many deaths are still occuring due to Covid, but finding good information on it has become so hard.

origin_path 4y ago

Remember that the USA still bans entry for any reason, no exceptions, for unvaccinated people. Soon they will bump that to anyone without a booster, at which point, most of the population of Switzerland will be banned from entering the USA. All this is utterly pointless of course. Omicron is not exactly absent from the US. Restrictions have very much not gone away.

didibus 4y ago
That's true, it's interesting that they keep that requirement. To be precise, this only applies to non-us residents/citizens. I haven't seen renewed analysis about vaccine efficacy at limiting spread and mutations, it's almost impossible to find unbiased non-politically charged information around it. The US gov website seem to mention it's due to CDC advice to contain spread and mutations, but my initial assumption was that it could be because they want to avoid having to provide medical care to severely ill people.
- origin_path 4y ago
  You're looking for medical reasons where there aren't any. Other countries have removed such restrictions and nothing happened, because Omicron doesn't make unvaccinated people seriously ill - it has the same severity as a common cold - and people need health insurance anyway. The CDC doesn't provide medical care to anyone in any case, that's not their job. The real reason they keep the mandates is because they can, and because it is ideologically pleasing to them to punish people who reject the intellectual authority of the state.
  - didibus 4y ago
    We're talking about non-residents/citizens, I'm not sure I buy your argument because of that, it doesn't seem to make sense to want to uphold the intellectual authority of the state against non-residents. Also restrictions have endured both Republican and Democrats, so it also doesn't seem ideological. Hospitals in the US I believe will always treat you, but then send you a bill, they don't refuse emergency care. You cannot become a US resident without showing good health because they don't want you to freeload, and you also are forced to take all vaccines and prove immunity. Also, Covid is still killing people, it's definitely not like the cold, it's the third leading cause of death in the US now. I'm not saying this restriction helps in any way, but seems misguided to compare it to the common cold, at the very least it's closer to the influenza flu.