5 ms·

Does COVID still exist meaningfully in your part of the world? In my country the first few waves were very strong, but after a successful vaccination campaign

by jannes 3y ago

Does COVID still exist meaningfully in your part of the world? In my country the first few waves were very strong, but after a successful vaccination campaign (among other things) COVID has completely disappeared in everybody’s daily lives.

BHSPitMonkey 3y ago
I think they are referring less to the actual virus and more to the rapid deterioration of our discourse and politics that accompanied it. Or at least this is what I might mean when using "COVID" as an epoch.
- TerrifiedMouse 3y ago
  > rapid deterioration of our discourse and politics that accompanied it That has been happening way before Covid. IMHO it started with the internet. Pre-internet the flow of information is gatekept by traditional media - newspapers, radio, TV, … etc. Everyone watched, listened to, read more or less the same things. This resulted in a more uniform set of opinions and more common ground between people. The internet broke all that. People could choose what they watch/listen/read and different people picked different things, coming to very different conclusions. In the past you could ask someone if they watched X last night and there is a decent probability they did. Today it’s much harder to find common ground - you could both be on YouTube but watching completely different things. Edit: Don’t just downvote. You got a problem with this post, say something.
  - 2devnull 3y ago
    I agree it was happening before COVID. I think the internet could be part of the problem. But it wasn’t freedom of choice that caused the problem, which is what you claim. There’s much less freedom on the internet now, and if anything it’s much worse. If we’re going to blame internet then blame ads and big tech. Don’t blame people for watching cat videos, that’s absurd.
    - TerrifiedMouse 3y ago
      I’m not blaming anything. But it’s my theory that whatever consensus we enjoyed in the past was due to the information landscape of the time - where information was controlled and curated by a dozen or so centralized entities and their affiliates. The internet though is mostly chaos. There are gatekeepers, e.g. Google, but they don’t curate much - using a blacklist approach rather than whitelist - and instead just organize the information making it findable. Niche ideas get air time and now compete in the market place of ideas.
berdario 3y ago
A teammate caught Covid this week, and they're now isolating. Another teammate's family caught Covid last week. Me and my wife caught Covid in August. We're all vaccinated afaik (myself with 5 jabs), and thankfully we only got mild symptoms, but the problem with Covid is how easy it is for it to spread. Do people in your life do a rapid test when they get sick? The only explanation I see for thinking that Covid has "disappeared", is that barely anyone still tests.
- tyiz 3y ago
  Perhaps you need a solid booster shot? And if it is for the Pfizer smile.
- Ntrails 3y ago
  > The only explanation I see for thinking that Covid has "disappeared", is that barely anyone still tests. That and barely anyone still dies (excess of eg the flu which kills a bunch of people each year)
  - chx 3y ago
    Dying is no longer that much of a concern indeed thanks for the jabs (got my 6th this week) but long covid very much is.
    - NoGravitas 3y ago
      And long COVID significantly increases your risk of death from other causes, including heart attack and stroke. I did read recently that a long course of acyclovir may be a working treatment, possibly even cure, for long COVID. But in order to get that out to people, we'd have to start taking long COVID seriously.
    - all2 3y ago
      I'm on 0 jabs (apparently they don't slow transmission or virality, so I figured I wouldn't bother) and long covid is still really rough. A few things helped me get through long covid: surprisingly, nicotine and a lot of natural carbs from fresh ripe fruits. And by an excess, I mean 200+ grams a day by macro. It took me a month or two of nicotine gum, about 100lbs of fruit (12.5lbs a week) and so much sleep, but I'm starting to do better. It sucks, but you can make it through.
flir 3y ago
What does the data look like in your country? England had 273 deaths and 3000 hospital admissions in the past week. It's still there, bubbling along in the background, it's just not getting media attention.
- 2devnull 3y ago
  Data?!
  - jdhzzz 3y ago
    Here is some for the US: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklyhospitaladmissions_select_00 https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklyhospi...
lk251 3y ago
the main risk is long covid, not dying. exact risk of LC per infection is unclear but the order of magnitude of the figures i'm seeing for it are too high. i'm wearing ffp3 indoors in public places

by jannes 3y ago

BHSPitMonkey 3y ago

I think they are referring less to the actual virus and more to the rapid deterioration of our discourse and politics that accompanied it. Or at least this is what I might mean when using "COVID" as an epoch.

TerrifiedMouse 3y ago
> rapid deterioration of our discourse and politics that accompanied it That has been happening way before Covid. IMHO it started with the internet. Pre-internet the flow of information is gatekept by traditional media - newspapers, radio, TV, … etc. Everyone watched, listened to, read more or less the same things. This resulted in a more uniform set of opinions and more common ground between people. The internet broke all that. People could choose what they watch/listen/read and different people picked different things, coming to very different conclusions. In the past you could ask someone if they watched X last night and there is a decent probability they did. Today it’s much harder to find common ground - you could both be on YouTube but watching completely different things. Edit: Don’t just downvote. You got a problem with this post, say something.
- 2devnull 3y ago
  I agree it was happening before COVID. I think the internet could be part of the problem. But it wasn’t freedom of choice that caused the problem, which is what you claim. There’s much less freedom on the internet now, and if anything it’s much worse. If we’re going to blame internet then blame ads and big tech. Don’t blame people for watching cat videos, that’s absurd.
  - TerrifiedMouse 3y ago
    I’m not blaming anything. But it’s my theory that whatever consensus we enjoyed in the past was due to the information landscape of the time - where information was controlled and curated by a dozen or so centralized entities and their affiliates. The internet though is mostly chaos. There are gatekeepers, e.g. Google, but they don’t curate much - using a blacklist approach rather than whitelist - and instead just organize the information making it findable. Niche ideas get air time and now compete in the market place of ideas.

berdario 3y ago

A teammate caught Covid this week, and they're now isolating. Another teammate's family caught Covid last week. Me and my wife caught Covid in August. We're all vaccinated afaik (myself with 5 jabs), and thankfully we only got mild symptoms, but the problem with Covid is how easy it is for it to spread. Do people in your life do a rapid test when they get sick? The only explanation I see for thinking that Covid has "disappeared", is that barely anyone still tests.

tyiz 3y ago
Perhaps you need a solid booster shot? And if it is for the Pfizer smile.
Ntrails 3y ago
> The only explanation I see for thinking that Covid has "disappeared", is that barely anyone still tests. That and barely anyone still dies (excess of eg the flu which kills a bunch of people each year)
- chx 3y ago
  Dying is no longer that much of a concern indeed thanks for the jabs (got my 6th this week) but long covid very much is.
  - NoGravitas 3y ago
    And long COVID significantly increases your risk of death from other causes, including heart attack and stroke. I did read recently that a long course of acyclovir may be a working treatment, possibly even cure, for long COVID. But in order to get that out to people, we'd have to start taking long COVID seriously.
  - all2 3y ago
    I'm on 0 jabs (apparently they don't slow transmission or virality, so I figured I wouldn't bother) and long covid is still really rough. A few things helped me get through long covid: surprisingly, nicotine and a lot of natural carbs from fresh ripe fruits. And by an excess, I mean 200+ grams a day by macro. It took me a month or two of nicotine gum, about 100lbs of fruit (12.5lbs a week) and so much sleep, but I'm starting to do better. It sucks, but you can make it through.

flir 3y ago

What does the data look like in your country? England had 273 deaths and 3000 hospital admissions in the past week. It's still there, bubbling along in the background, it's just not getting media attention.

2devnull 3y ago
Data?!
- jdhzzz 3y ago
  Here is some for the US: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklyhospitaladmissions_select_00 https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_weeklyhospi...

lk251 3y ago

the main risk is long covid, not dying. exact risk of LC per infection is unclear but the order of magnitude of the figures i'm seeing for it are too high. i'm wearing ffp3 indoors in public places