My wife had a coworker test positive for Covid on Friday. He has minor symptoms and is taking care of himself at home. My fully vaccinated wife has not been asked to take a test and hasn't been asked to stay at home. These are good signs and is how we should move forward. Test when you're sick and stay at home if you're sick. Otherwise, live life how we all used to do it in 2019.

^ Shame on you for suggesting something reasonable

The omicron wave in NYC is just about over. The Buffalo area is the state's hotspot with Erie County having almost as many cases per day as NYC now while having only 1/10 the number of people.

Not sure where exactly you live but I think you'll find that in most major cities, mask wearing will be more prevalent versus smaller towns or rural areas. I guarantee however, that California overall is more 'virtuous' than Texas. Compliance for example, in the Bay Area is far higher than Houston. Where as shit kicker towns in CA and TX (and from my experience, NY too) are all probably about the same.

How dare they?
 

UCSF Doctors Say It’s Time to End ‘Mindless’ Covid Rules in Open Letter to Gov. Newsom

https://sfstandard.com/public-health...to-gov-newsom/

I wore a mask all the way on the walk to drop my kids off at school this morning.

Not to virtue signal, but because it was 4 fucking degrees with a wind-chill of -10.

Maybe this outdoor masking thing ain't such a stupid idea after all. ;)

As someone who is against masking outdoors, the only logical solution for me is to fly to Miami so I have no need to mask outdoors.

Even if it is to prevent my face from freezing off outside in Hoth.....

I do find myself keeping the mask on more in the winter. Acts as a mini ski mask, but doesn't mess up your hair if you're going on a quick walk from the office. In the summer it's miserable to try and walk around on a hot day with it on though.

Yes, I actually do find the masks helpful with the cold winds outdoors, and I often do the same

Yeah, below 40F I find it pretty comfortable to walk around with it on. Especially cloth masks. In general, people around here seem to wear them outside more when it's colder. I haven't worn a scarf since pre-pandemic partly because the mask has eliminated the need for it.

Just wear a Buff. Much more comfortable than a mask that hooks over your ears.

Companies in the scarf business are getting screwed.

Maybe now is the time to pour money into the stock of companies that make scarves? :hmmm:

You guys don't have this cylindrical scarf-replacement thingy that's super useful and that everyone (in Quebec at least) has as standard winter equipment?

Not sure how it's called in English. ("Neck-hider" in French.)

Lately, every time I've walked to a store, I keep my "hat" (that's the right word for a tuque?) and I just keep that cylindrical-scarf thing as a "mask", and so far all employees everywhere have accepted to consider it a mask.

(Too annoying to get the mask's handles behind the ears when you're already dressed with tuque and neck-hider over it!)

We may be talking about the same thing :)

I'm the opposite. i hate things that go around my neck.

That would be accepted as a mask everywhere down here. I guess it doesn't get as cold down here, so the mask is useful for performing the function of a scarf or face/neck warmer.

My partner and I caught this on the local TV news last night. We were laughing, the guy obviously has issues.
• Video Link

^ That guy is a belligerent moron.

However, people standing around outdoors with masks on (when its warm outside) are pretty much idiots as well.

Same here so far, with the exception of hospitals, health clinics, etc. where they insist on giving you a brand new mask every time and you have to take theirs (surgical blue ones).

These things:
https://www.buff.com/

They’re Spanish apparently, but I’ve got a couple from Austria where everyone wears them skiing. But the point is they’re good in hot and cold, as a neck warmer, headband, sun protection, etc.

In the Southeast United States, we call these gaiters. Some places won't accept them as meeting their masking requirements. It's not really an issue in most of the southeast, where masking isn't required or enforced, unless you enter a city. Here in suburban Atlanta, it's rare to need a mask, but you will need one if you go into the city of Atlanta.

I guess there is no covid in suburban areas.

I'm familiar with the name, but these are also a specific type that's really useful for this sort of thing because they're comfortable and not too warm. Totally different than the fleece ones you get at Patagonia or North Face or wherever.

It's what I used as a "mask" in Jackson Hole last winter (Teton County went crazy over Covid) and it was accepted.

wrong thread

the covid death rate discussion has been moved to the covid thread in the CE toilet.

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=241619

COVID numbers are falling here, as they are across the U.S. now. We're back to averages from about December 28, so we're a little behind some other parts of the Northeast. Still a little over twice the number of cases as prior to the Omicron wave, though I would expect within another three weeks or so the local wave will be over.

Looking at national numbers, it seems the first metros to have a full recovery are Cleveland and Baltimore, with DC not far behind. Cuyahoga County is down to only 35 cases per 100,000, and still dropping! The actual case total there is much, much lower than the rolling average because of how quickly the numbers are going down (only 91 cases across a county of 1.3 million yesterday!). Cleveland was an early metro for Omicron, with the spike before Christmas. I'm going to continue watching the area, because I'm interested to see how low post-Omicron case counts can get.

"Omicron 2: Electric Boogaloo."

I'm really sick of this movie franchise. :P

Watch, But Don't Worry Yet, About New Omicron Subvariant

That's really interesting. Cuyahoga County peaked before NYC.

Denmark is lifting all restrictions on February 2.

I thought they were pretty much open?

Or was it like the UK, where technically there were places where you were “required” to wear masks but if you just didn’t nobody said anything?

No, Denmark wasn't open, it had I believe some mask regulations as well as the use of a vaccine pass for certain events and venues.

Which is mind blowing because it’s in Miami, where no one has cared about Covid since May 2020. Source though? I haven’t heard anything about this.

Isn't it all outdoors too? At least it was when I last went in 2015.

Yes, its outdoors. Where do you see that it is cancelled? It was cancelled last year. I was actually wondering where they were going to have it this year since they got evicted from Downtown a couple of years back and had to hold it on Virginia Key which was a disaster in 2020. Its not until late March. I would be surprised if its cancelled.

edit: I see its back in Bayfront Park where it belongs.
I see nothing on it being cancelled. Its twitter feed and website mention nothing

If it’s because of Covid, they are idiots. Dumb people deserve to go out of business.

Thankfully, Chicago Auto Show is back to its full schedule this February and I’m planning to go. Everybody who wants to say home and cower over not catching a bad cold can go ahead and stay home. I love living and doing things :D

CDC estimates that for the 2021-22 flu season there have been at least 2 million flu illnesses, 20,000 hospitalizations, and 1,200 deaths.

Yesterday in the United States there were 2,732 deaths from covid. So in one day there have been over double the amount of deaths from people dying of covid than from the flu for the entire flu season.

Sure most all the people that are dying are not vaccinated like this guy:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rober...b04f9a12bd8084


Washington State Trooper Who Quit Over Vaccine Mandates Reportedly Dies Of COVID
Robert LaMay famously quit his job with a bitter videotaped sign-off directed at Gov. Jay Islee over his strict COVID vaccine mandates.LaMay told Fox that he obtained a religious vaccine exemption, but that he decided that required changes in his job due to his unvaccinated status were unacceptable

I wonder if Fox News who paraded this man on their shows is letting their followers know he just died of covid? Probably not.

Anyway I am not posting any of this to say we shouldn't go on with life as usual, which I have. But to say this is a bad cold is disingenuous and can be deadly to those who believe it and choose not to get vaccinated.

^ It is a bad cold. For the vaccinated. Period, end of discussion.

For the unvaccinated, I could care less. They’ve had plenty of time.

Flu deaths are also unusually low right now because it’s being crowded out by Covid.

A person whose health is compromised is likely to be infected by both (and actually multiple) viruses, and the cause of death recorded will be Covid-19.

Well, now I know why I haven't looked into this thread before. Why is it so hard for simple information to outperform idiocy? Good luck to you.

I challenge anyone to "get" the meaning of your post.

Simple information like the fact that it’s almost impossible for a vaccinated person to become seriously ill from omicron, and we should all stop giving a shit?

In Mexico City most or at least many people are still wearing masks outside. There is, of course, no scientific evidence to support this. Combination of government that wants to demonstrate authority and an effectively frightened population, I suppose.

Almost, but I won't get pulled into this nonsense. No one is convincing anyone else. It's too late for that. I won't try to tell stupid people how to not be what they are. I won't check back so don't waste your time on me.

I was very surprised at the prevalence of mask wearing by the locals in Mexico when I was there in December. Moreso than any other travel destination I've been to in the last year. It all seemed a bit gratuitous though. People would line up to get into the club wearing masks and then rip them off inside on a packed dance floor with hundreds of people.

Yes. It’s all theater.

You may or may not read this, but I assure you that no one cares what you think.

Do you know where people are being stupid about Covid? Canada.

^
Hopefully the truckers et al can help change it by annoying the crap out of the authoritarians in Ottawa.

You obviously don't know how our politics works if you think that will happen. Doug Ford is probably laughing his head off at those truckers.

There was a recent poll out and we're up to 54% who want all restrictions gone. I think things will flip pretty soon, though it might require a more significant drop in hospitalizations. It won't happen due to the truckers and they might make it take longer, though a lot of our restrictions are provincial so it doesn't really matter how many people show up in Ottawa for those.

One cultural quirk in Canada is that public healthcare is considered kind of sacred here (partly due to it being perceived as superior compared to the US; we only have so many things like that so we have to really lean into the ones we've got), and as in the UK we have a chronically struggling system with a lot of heavy bureaucracy and credentialism. You can always say the system's at 90% capacity or 103% and the staff are all burned out and so on. I think it would be good to solve this issue but it's not really new or particular to covid or best solved through pandemic restrictions.

I've also noticed our "Overton window" shifted really quickly in the direction of restrictions. BC is considered one of the more laissez-faire provinces for example but we still have a mask mandate and vaccine passports and for a while gyms were closed during omicron when they already had all of that in place plus I think 50% capacity limits. Before they were closed and the measures were tightened a bit for omicron there was a significant group presenting the status quo in Canada (90% vaccinated etc.) as "let 'er rip". Similarly there are people who act as though 1 death per million per day (weighted heavily toward sick or very old or those who didn't take the vaccine they could have) is an enormous crisis.

^ Interesting. I had assumed that the public health system in Canada was at least better funded, given that it’s a wealthier country than the UK (ex-London). In the UK, the NHS at this point is a liability to the country.