How Is Covid-19 Impacting Life in Your City?

[10023]

^ I knew Canadians were kind of pansies (no offence), but that’s ridiculous.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by 10023

^ they are more brainwashed by (social) media perhaps, or more inclined to engage in virtue signalling

Regardless the reasons, it doesn't seem generational matter. You also associate young people with an outgoing behaviour when we know the number of introverts in Y and Z generations are massive as well.

Social media, for instance, is not a generation issue either. Middle-aged people are also quite addicted on it and that's where they get their denialism and other conspiracy theories from.

You seem to be very anti-old people and you attribute everything is bothering you to them. But that's very simplistic.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by someone123

We have a mask mandate too which requires that we put on our masks to go check the mail or go to the garbage room or to the car. Generally with 0 other people around. Outdoor masking is probably 50/50. The other day I was outside for a jog and a woman who was maybe 8 feet away from me walked into a bush and faced away as I went by (there used to be a guy who would warily eye people on a giant wooded path about ~50 feet away and hold a cloth mask up to his face as others walked by but I haven't seen him lately; RIP mask guy, you should have held up a stack of 10 N95s). I have older relatives living in houses and for them there are no masks required to do a lot of their day to day stuff. It is much less annoying to visit them than to be home.

My friends are still having covid "scares" at work (they had to work in person through the pandemic including when vaccinated, so did my partner.. actually they were lower down the vaccination list than older work from home/retired people). I try to explain to them that there is a 99.999999...9% chance of people coming into their busy public workplace with omicron but I'm not sure they really understand the implications.

The covid fatality rate in my province last week was 0.7 per million per day and cases already peaked here (omicron was here in early December for sure and probably November). The week before was 0.3 per million per day.

So retarded. I have no words....

[chris08876]

Just make the unvaccinated wear one of these.




The Darwin Mandate. Maybe add small speakers to the hard hat that makes an audible Alabama accent tone so that when people hear "dumb ass present" in the distance, they know an unvaccinated person is near by.

Might even encourage people to cough on them, to speed up the process to herd immunity.

This hat is also designed for folks that wear masks and a face shield inside a car, with no one present.

[someone123]

One thing I find pretty interesting is the variation between commentary in different places like between Canadian provinces vs. the US vs. UK.

We had a lower bar for implementing vaccine "passports" and nobody's really asking what the point is given that there's little impact of 2 doses on transmission right now. The reality is that it was a "stick" to encourage more people to be vaccinated. Testing and prior acquired immunity were never accepted here as an alternative to vaccination.

Our overall fully vaccinated rate is around 80% (including ineligible) which is a target that people in some other places say will bring them back to normal. Eligible adults are around 93% vaccinated. We still have people here arguing that "the unvaccinated" are driving our problems (most of the unvaccinated are 0-11 year olds).

For NS (another province) I still see news articles about say a party of 11 young people getting thousands of dollars in fines for assembling. If there is a single covid death usually there will be some kind of official comment. The population there is 1 million. They have had 117 covid deaths during the whole pandemic, with most being in old age homes.

I certainly think it's possible for people to be on the "not taking it seriously end" end of the spectrum but by and large that's not where we are in Canada.

PS our federal debt to GDP when up by 20 percentage points during the pandemic so far.

[chris08876]

^^^

That's the nice thing with Omicron is that its speeding this whole process up.

It's unfortunate that some kids can't get the vaccine, yet... but... the way Omicron is going, the parents will get it, and bring it home to them. So either way, they will get it.

It's just a right-of-passage that everyone will face or if they have already, gotten it out of the way.

The old will get it too.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by chris08876

^^^

That's the nice thing with Omicron is that its speeding this whole process up.

It's unfortunate that some kids can't get the vaccine, yet... but... the way Omicron is going, the parents will get it, and bring it home to them. So either way, they will get it.

It's just a right-of-passage that everyone will face or if they have already, gotten it out of the way.

The old will get it too.

I haven't caught Covid during the whole pandemic, even though I was carrying on my activities normally (with masks, sanitizers, those stuff). However, Omicron got us on the first week of January.

It's indeed seems to be a blessing: most people vaccinated and a less lethal variety that spreads incredibly fast is the best thing on this moment. Covid must be buried for good.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by chris08876

It's unfortunate that some kids can't get the vaccine, yet... but... the way Omicron is going, the parents will get it, and bring it home to them. So either way, they will get it.

In Canada we have had 24 deaths of people under age 20 during the whole pandemic.

There was an uproar a while back when they removed a 14 year old from the covid death count in Alberta. He had stage 4 brain cancer, tested positive for covid, and died 2 days later. The bulk of children who truly died of covid in Canada were likely profoundly ill and it may have been secondary in many cases (it wasn't even ruled secondary for the 14 year old). The average rate by age obscures what is going on, exaggerating the (still super small) risk of death in normal children and underestimating it in those with serious health conditions.

Recently in BC they did a chart review of people hospitalized with covid in December in one region and found a little under half were incidental.

Discussion of this topic was regarded as borderline right wing conspiracy material by a lot of people here up until recently, and that may still be the case.

Another meme going around here I notice is that huge percentages of people say they are immune compromised so the vaccine statistics don't apply to them. But that doesn't show up in the data. There's no big cohort of immune compromised 25 year olds dying of covid.

[chris08876]

@yuri

And that's how we have to look at it. I'm not trying to have a Dr.Mengele vibe but at this point with vaccines and the incredible rate of survival, its feasible. That and a combination of the immune system, work incredibly, for most. And by most, probally 99 percent of the global population. But not all will make it. Just like not all make it with the flu or TB or Malaria and so on. It's what nature does. Cancers, things like that. Will go on for ages. Just the dynamic, the ecosystem.

And its nothing new. Before the invention of inoculation, using cowpox, vaccination, vacca.... vacca = cow... things like smallpox, was a right-of-passage.

But the world lived on. Moved on. Humanity did not regress. And Covid will not be that.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Does any industry require a booster now? I don't think I've heard that come up anywhere. Anyway that's a different discussion from whether the vaccines are dangerous.

Healthcare.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by chris08876

@yuri

And that's how we have to look at it. I'm not trying to have a Dr.Mengele vibe but at this point with vaccines and the incredible rate of survival, its feasible. That and a combination of the immune system, work incredibly, for most. And by most, probally 99 percent of the global population. But not all will make it. Just like not all make it with the flu or TB or Malaria and so on. It's what nature does. Cancers, things like that. Will go on for ages. Just the dynamic, the ecosystem.

And its nothing new. Before the invention of inoculation, using cowpox, vaccination, vacca.... vacca = cow... things like smallpox, was a right-of-passage.

But the world lived on. Moved on. Humanity did not regress. And Covid will not be that.

And at this point, I'm not sure if we should waste our time arguing with people that won't want to vaccinate. I see that's a bigger problem in the US than it's in Brazil, but it's not worth. Those people won't change their mind, so be it. If they get sick and die, there's nothing we can do about it.

[chris08876]

Originally Posted by someone123

In Canada we have had 24 deaths of people under age 20 during the whole pandemic.

There was an uproar a while back when they removed a 14 year old from the covid death count in Alberta. He had stage 4 brain cancer, tested positive for covid, and died 2 days later. The bulk of children who truly died of covid in Canada were likely profoundly ill and it may have been secondary in many cases (it wasn't even ruled secondary for the 14 year old). The average rate by age obscures what is going on, exaggerating the (still super small) risk of death in normal children and underestimating it in those with serious health conditions.

Recently in BC they did a chart review of people hospitalized with covid in December in one region and found a little under half were incidental.

Discussion of this topic was regarded as borderline right wing conspiracy material by a lot of people here up until recently, and that may still be the case.

Another meme going around here I notice is that huge percentages of people say they are immune compromised so the vaccine statistics don't apply to them. But that doesn't show up in the data. There's no big cohort of immune compromised 25 year olds dying of covid.

Yeah some of it probally political... or used to scare... and maybe to look good.

Its unfortunate with cover ups or fabricating true information, that there is such an attempt at masking the reality. Such as the BS that's going down in China.

I think part of the problem is that people have just forgotten or maybe are not use to the idea that folks die. This fear of death is not good.

Might be the side effects of being in a Western Bubble.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Does any industry require a booster now? I don't think I've heard that come up anywhere. Anyway that's a different discussion from whether the vaccines are dangerous.

Tech does. Employees have until March to get boosted. At least with the big companies.

[chris08876]

People are making a big deal over vaccine side effects. They are not that bad. Ya take it, and two things happen, you don't feel it or if you do, you get a warm feeling, tired, headache (Tylenol helps) and that's about it. Just put a movie on, lay on the couch or call off of work. If anything, use a sick day. Its a good excuse to take off of work. If anything, you should be thanking the vaccine. And if you don't have any side effects, just lie! Take off anyways, give yourself a nice 2-3 day vacation.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Does any industry require a booster now? I don't think I've heard that come up anywhere. Anyway that's a different discussion from whether the vaccines are dangerous.

Not entire industries, but many Universities (including mine) are requiring boosters for students and staff. .

On another note, after 32.5 hours of labor, and in the end a c-section since her head was rotated the wrong way and wouldn't go through, my daughter was born yesterday morning. We're stuck in the hospital (UChicago) for a while while she recovers.

If I'm going to get COVID, this is probably where I'll get it given the zillions of people entering our room all our time (I had to wait 3 hours to eat my lunch since people kept coming in and it's hard to eat lunch with a mask on). Not to mention I won't be going into work for the next 6 weeks due to being on parental leave, and by then Omicron should be over. If our baby gets sick though, they'll take her straight to the NICU which wouldn't be so fun for us. On the plus side, due to visitor restrictions (1 support person only, no swapping), my in-laws can't come visit us (nor my parents, but they live 2000 miles away rather than 100 miles away)!

Some other COVID-related observations:

- Many nurses are complaining that they barely have had any days off since March 2020 (not sure how true this perception is), and also seems like every other nurse in labor and delivery was a new trainee.

- All the attendings / residents / med students are wearing N95s + eye protection. But most of the nurses and service staff are just wearing surgical masks ( halfway through our stay in Labor and Delivery, those nurses shifted to N95s. But that's not the case in the post-natal unit.)

- Pharmacy / maintenance / etc. is many hours late all the time... I guess they're understaffed for the volume of people in the hospital right now (UChicago hospital is adjacent to some of the most unvaccinated zip codes in the city)

- Due to understaffing in the kitchen, no selectable menu for hospital food. Fortunately there's a 24-hour Panera downstairs. I could also walk to campus eateries but there's too high a chance of awkwardly running into my colleagues .

- My ears are hurting from near constant wearing of a KN95 since Friday evening. I wish I had N95's instead...

- Surveillance testing of UChicago (university, not hospital) students and employees showed a drop in positivity rate this week from 9.6% (!!!) the week before to 6.4%, (though 5 weeks ago it was just 0.4%). Hopefully this means something!

[Steely Dan]

^ congrats, man!

Glad to hear mama and baby girl are both healthy.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Congrats, sir. I think your observations of the hospital reflect my girlfriend's experiences and observations working at a hospital the last two years.

[SIGSEGV]

One slight addendum, on the room next door, I see signs saying "restricted access, gowns and respiratory equipment required." Presumably our neighbors are COVID+. Hopefully the nurses are actually doing that and not going straight from that room to ours .

[the urban politician]

^ Yeah, because of all of those newborn babies we keep hearing about dying of Covid, right?

Congrats on your baby btw. Now please raise him or her to be rational....

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Yeah, because of all of those newborn babies we keep hearing about dying of Covid, right?

Congrats on your baby btw. Now please raise him or her to be rational....

The NICU here is full of newborns with complications from Omicron (to the extent that the resident who did our intake said they're taking any babies that are at all sick directly to the NICU so that they can be monitored for complications) . Sure they probably don't die most of the time, but it doesn't sound fun to not be able to take your baby home (and if you're COVID+, you're not allowed to visit the NICU, or at least that's what our OB said when he urged us not to get COVID before delivery).

But thanks (and if you think I'm cautious about COVID, you should meet my wife... She walked 1.8 miles both ways in below-freezing weather when 38 weeks pregnant to her OB appointments because she didn't want to risk getting COVID in a bus or Uber, then she waited standing up outside the waiting room for 40 mins because another patient wasn't wearing her mask correctly).