Depends who you are and what you do. It’s also not been good for long stretches.
Yeah those in the hospitality industry have not had any easy ride. Nor have people (forumosans among them) who need to travel regularly.
Guy
1 Like
Check your music collection, any Fall out boy report for de-EMOization.
4 Likes
If the skin and lips are turning blue, they probably don’t have much time on earth left no matter the treatment. That treatment pill Pfizer has as I remember needs to be taken a few days after symptoms appear.
1 Like
Yep, I know there are some people who still travel regularly and put up with the quarantine but I haven’t travelled at all for two years.
It wouldn’t work for me anyway as most of my trips were just a few days or a week at most. What, I’m going to quarantine for two weeks after a 3 day trip ?
This is not a small deal, it makes Taiwan unfeasible as a place to be based regionally when other countries start opening up. Singapore they know where their bread is buttered so have basically dropped most restrictions. Hopefully Japan and Korea do soon…I don’t know the story there.
Japan - still bad even though their cases are high. What is the point of a ban then ?
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20220129_09/
It’s an Asia thing …HK and China even worse
Philippines opening
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/philippines-reopen-vaccinated-foreign-tourists-2465691
4 Likes
9 Likes
Nothing about pets?
A few months ago I said something similar, except I characterized covid as something like a bad flu for most people and you reacted…um…strongly.
Because Omicron is not the same. And I know for the history of coronosaivrus epidemics they eventually a less virulent strain should emerge. All the other four coronovirus end of strains very likely had the same Genesis.
I’m not somebody who has a fixed mindset, I look at the data.
Yes…a “cold” rather than a “bad flu” for most people…and much more transmissible, which was the focus of your…um…criticisms of me.
Me too.
Because Delta and others are not the flu for a few reasons…One their lethality is about 10-50x the worst flu in recent memory. Two there was no immunity out there so covid spreads like wildfire, infecting millions at the same time .
Even now with omicron it’s not an harmless virus, it’s like , monitor actually IS a bad cold (because endemic coronaviruses are cold viruses) on steroids in terms of its transmission rate , but it’s not something that deserves quarantining in my opinion. High vaccination rates is the best thing that we can do and then manage the care of elderly and those with chronic diseases effectively.
1 Like
Higher infection rates, higher hospitalization choking the system.
Omicron actually hasn’t choked the system anywhere that has high vaccination rates. Or if they did it was temporary, literally with a peak of a week or two !
You can check country after country , state after state, it’s the same thing. How many deaths…Very very few.
Even in normal years you will get influenza outbreaks that cause backups in hospitals in January.
Omicron is a different disease and it’s frustrating that governments don’t react to that appropriately. RBE wrote a good post about it.
There’s even a strong possibility that omicron spread is a good thing for the population, building up something close to herd immunity (not to transmission but to serious disease ) and out competing other nasty strains !
1 Like
I made my comments in September, I believe, and was focusing on children and the US, where anyone who wanted to be vaccinated already was. But whatever, I’m glad to have you on the side of reason.
Omicron hadn’t started yet. Omicron emerged in December explosively upon the world with.thr first cases in Europe only detected at the end of November. Which is pretty crazy when considering my relatives and my colleagues got it within a month of a half of its emergence in another part of the world !!
In my opinion, Alpha Delta and Omicron are completely different diseases. Of course this takes some time to figure out. It was predicted that a less virulent strain would emerge within two years bit that is not guaranteed
Do you have a source for this. I had always read it was less lethal in children, and more lethal in adults and elderly (with increased risk (as opposed to overall risk) peaking around 40-60 years) (but never as much as 10 times). I did a quick google, and the first hit that compared lethality put it at 3.5 times, but that was presumably alpha. https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=252335
A couple more studies putting at more than 3 times. Coronavirus & COVID-19 Overview: Symptoms, Risks, Prevention, Treatment & More
I don’t want to dig into all my posts again. But I recall a really bad flu year would kill off 0.1% of confirmed cases. Whereas covid at worst kills 2%-5% of confirmed cases .
The worst influenza epidemic in recent history, up to 0.5% death rate.
However there was some immunity to it out there and it didn’t infect the majority of folks.
The last reason I would say it’s not similar to flu is that flu has been easily controlled by health measures, almost disappearing in many countries while covid was spreading.
3 Likes
Yeah, but I was talking about the effects on people who got it, not controllability or transmissibility. Regardless, water under the bridge.
1 Like
Indeed. And I wouldn’t be against calling omicron the flu either in terms of its effects. From what I heard though it is not even flu level in terms of symptoms for most. YMMV.
1 Like