D&D and the rising pandemic

[Ryujin]

Those workers were some of the first to be included in vaccine mandate.

Not in the Province of Ontario, in Canada. Here they passed a mandate that health care workers had to be vaccinated or would be fired, however, when they say how many health care workers were refusing, the government blinked and dropped the mandate.

 

[RangerWickett]

Better to be safe than sorry. It's already out there can always open the borders later.

The 1918 Flu was commonly called the Spanish Flu because all the other countries that got it were at war and so they censored reporting on the pandemic. Spain was neutral, and so it was the only country openly talking about the disease, and so everyone assumed it started there.

If the US in 1918 had implemented a travel ban against Spain to try to stop the disease from 'arriving,' it would have done nothing, since the epidemic had one of its earliest (perhaps FIRST) outbreaks in a military base in Kansas.

There wasn't a travel ban back then, but if the US had wanted a travel ban, it could have banned folks from its own country leaving and spreading the flu. Or, more justly, it could have implemented restrictions on all foreign travel, recognizing that by the time you detect a pattern of an epidemic, it's probably already spreading all over the place, and it's naive to pretend otherwise.

Today, we could fund ubiquitous testing at both ends of international journeys, maybe with an added one day isolation for visitors from places with known community spread of a variant of concern.

 

[Maxperson]

So say we all.

This is the way.

 

[Maxperson]

Omicron is cutting through the vaccinated like a hot knife through butter.

For the life of me I cannot understand why you would willingly attend conferences, dinners, parties or go shopping in person.

This pandemic has truly shattered my belief in humans as a reasonably logical and intellectual species.

People are stupid. Monstrously stupid. Dangerously and selfishly unthinking.

We're not even talking animal level of intelligence here. More like smart as a zombie.

People are saying that Omicron's obscene infection rate coupled with it's mild symptoms(no deaths yet), might reduce the severity of the pandemic as it takes over.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Just saw in the UK, that they are requiring PCR tests within 48 hours AFTER arriving in the UK by flight, and you need to self-quarantine until the results are known.

WTF? You can travel to your countries without a PCR test before getting on the plane? The more I keep reading about the lack of restrictions in other countries the more horrified I get. We haven't been able to enter the country without a PCR test in two years. And that's everyone, citizen or not. No PCR test, they don't even let you on the plane if that plane is going to Japan.

What the hell is wrong with other countries. This should have been standard practice a year ago.

The UK's handling of COVID is, on the whole, not appreciably better than the U.S. during the first year. Maybe worse.

 

[Eltab]

Something a podcast mentioned today that I hadn't considered: the Omicron variant didn't originate in a South Africa, so the reactions to have travel bans to there are kinda perverse.

If I were in a southern Africa government, I would have announced an inbound travel ban except for medical personnel, and shut off outbound travel until I can figure out who has what.
Nobody else is going to have the resources to help me out if they get inundated with their own problems at home.

 

[Zardnaar]

The 1918 Flu was commonly called the Spanish Flu because all the other countries that got it were at war and so they censored reporting on the pandemic. Spain was neutral, and so it was the only country openly talking about the disease, and so everyone assumed it started there.

If the US in 1918 had implemented a travel ban against Spain to try to stop the disease from 'arriving,' it would have done nothing, since the epidemic had one of its earliest (perhaps FIRST) outbreaks in a military base in Kansas.

There wasn't a travel ban back then, but if the US had wanted a travel ban, it could have banned folks from its own country leaving and spreading the flu. Or, more justly, it could have implemented restrictions on all foreign travel, recognizing that by the time you detect a pattern of an epidemic, it's probably already spreading all over the place, and it's naive to pretend otherwise.

Today, we could fund ubiquitous testing at both ends of international journeys, maybe with an added one day isolation for visitors from places with known community spread of a variant of concern.

I'm aware just saying rapid closing of borders can help until things become clearer.

It may be to late but it might not be.

Worked for multiple countries with reasonably small death tolls.

 

[Zardnaar]

People are saying that Omicron's obscene infection rate coupled with it's mild symptoms(no deaths yet), might reduce the severity of the pandemic as it takes over.

Omnicron might be the solution.

Generally these things last around 3 years and the virus mutates into something less deadly.

See every plague ever.

 

[Umbran]

Generally these things last around 3 years and the virus mutates into something less deadly.

See every plague ever.

That is deeply and seriously incorrect.

Measles, rabies, polio, malaria, actual plague (which has three forms - bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic - all caused by the same organism), and smallpox - none of these has mutated into something less deadly. Malaria still kills 400,000 people a year. The rest have been beaten back by improved hygiene and/or vaccination. We can AIDS to this list, and ebola as well, come to think of it.

It is floated that covid-19 might go this route, because it looks like others cornonaviruses have in the past. And yes, this seems to happen to influenza strains. But is it NOT a general, predictable behavior that we can depend on.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That is deeply and seriously incorrect.

Measles, rabies, polio, malaria, actual plague (which has three forms - bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic - all caused by the same organism), and smallpox - none of these has mutated into something less deadly. Malaria still kills 400,000 people a year. The rest have been beaten back by improved hygiene and/or vaccination. We can AIDS to this list, and ebola as well, come to think of it.

It is floated that covid-19 might go this route, because it looks like others cornonaviruses have in the past. And yes, this seems to happen to influenza strains. But is it NOT a general, predictable behavior that we can depend on.

The only reason Ebola’s death rate droped from 90%+ to something around 50% is due to the worlds first Rw deployment of an mRNA vaccine.