Coronavirus

[mikechamp]

This is still wrecking havoc on campuses:

Entire Liberty University Campus Is Locked Down

Effective Monday, the entire Liberty University campus is under a temporary quarantine due to a COVID-19 outbreak. The private evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Va ... reported 159 active coronavirus cases among students and staff as of Saturday, surpassing the previous high of 141 cases last fall, NBC News reports. The fall semester started last week, and initially the school had no building capacity restrictions, distancing, or masking requirements. Now, classes have been switched to virtual, campus dining has been switched to takeout-only, and large indoor gatherings have been prohibited until September 10, when the quarantine is scheduled to end. The university does not have a vaccine requirement. Nearly 1,200 have signed an online petition calling for an end to the lockdown, with commenters pointing out the university had promised "no restrictions."

But others wished the school had taken more precautions. "To me, it's just been a very unsafe environment," one student tells Yahoo Finance, describing thousands of students from all over the country gathering in close quarters without masks: "You're on the bus with 50 other people packed together, you're in the cafeteria with hundreds of other people, you're passing in the hallways." Others express similar frustration to WSLS: "If we had just taken some really simple steps, we could’ve avoided this whole issue," says one.

https://www.newser.com/story/310478/ent ... -down.html

[G. Keenan]

God loves a good plague.

[heyzeus]

I'll never understand how masks during a pandemic became a social political issue. But I'll also never understand how we're 18 months into this thing and we still don't have federal guidelines for mask quality/efficacy or any program whatsoever to provide masks in schools, community centers, etc for people that lack access to high quality masks.

[Arthur Dent]

?Sure, get vaxxed to protect yourself. Sure, wear masks to protect others. But, for how long? And, more importantly, is there a way this virus ever goes away? I'm not getting the warm and fuzzies given all that he said.

Certainly now preventative measures are needed to reduce demand on the hospitals. Is it going to be the same every year?

I really feel like the talk about pandemic mitigation measures have obscured in most people’s minds the basic dynamics of infectious disease outbreaks, namely that they end. This happens by them either being wiped out or becoming an endemic low level problem. With COVID, it seems almost certain at this point us that endemic is going to be the ultimate end.

But this does not mean that we’ll see hundreds of thousands of people dying from it every year in perpetuity. The deadliness comes from the novel part of the novel coronavirus. Once the virus is no longer novel to your immune system, either through vaccination or infection, repeat exposure is much less dangerous. There are several coronaviruses already in permanent endemic circulation. It’s pretty likely that these are the residue of past pandemics. For example, there’s recently been talk about the 1889 “Russian flu” pandemic actually being the entry point for one of these.

At this point, while these viruses can still be deadly for people with compromised immune response, for most, they are largely a nuisance or non-issue minor infection that you don’t spend much time worrying about.

What about variants? That’s certainly a concern, but variant evolution is not an unlimited process that churns out totally new and ever deadlier versions. In fact, the virus evolves to some kind of “best fit” form that maximizes its replication under the present immune conditions. Unclear how far that will go, but again the primary threat is to those without prior exposure. To generate a new threat the immune system can’t put up a good fight against, the virus needs to evolve in a separate population without circulating among humans. This is precisely the reason the big source for new deadly infections is crossover from other animal species.

Good article on this:
Novelty Means Severity: The Key To the Pandemic

Perhaps inhaled vaccination would be a route to truly wipe out COVID, but that would be a long term project. Development seems too late to be of much use in the acute phase. I would like to believe that this experience will be the motivation to pursue these sorts of long term projects even without an active ongoing catastrophe, but I guess we’ll see.

[cardsfantx]

I'll never understand how masks during a pandemic became a social political issue. But I'll also never understand how we're 18 months into this thing and we still don't have federal guidelines for mask quality/efficacy or any program whatsoever to provide masks in schools, community centers, etc for people that lack access to high quality masks.

I don't either..but we've got it from both sides.

of course we have some of the vaccinated who never wanted masks...and you now also have vaccinated folks (on this board even), who have said they're vaccinated so they're not going back to wearing masks again.

so when you have 2 large groups (unvaccinated and unvaccinated alike) who refuse to wear masks, then it's never really going to end, as more unvaccinated folks catch it and vaccinated folks get breakthrough infections as both groups can spread it.

taking away mask mandates IMO is the dumbest thing we've done. you're never going to convince everyone to get a vaccine. but masks? people [expletive] and fight about it, but if they want to go to the store, out to eat, whatever, they were forced to wear one ([expletive] and moaning) but almost everyone complied so they could go about a somewhat normal life again. it's not injecting a foreign substance. it's putting a cloth over you mouth for short periods of time.

we saw the flu rate go to like zero last year, so they obv work.

and don't get me started on school. we have 3 kids and got approx 15ish notices combined ALL of last year with mask mandates about cases in their schools. this year with no mandates, we've gotten double that amount at least, and we're a few weeks in. and none of their friends have masks on and the schools and teachers can't mandate it, so no kid wears them as they'd literally be the only one with one on.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

I'm one of those who wasn't going to wear a mask again. Then work mandated it, hospitals have filled up, and the state has mandated it everywhere. So I'm wearing it.

[Jocephus]

you're a sheep if you take the vaccine. if you are a patriot, you take livestock medicine. ironic.

[cardinalkarp]

you're a sheep if you take the vaccine. if you are a patriot, you take livestock medicine. ironic.

Just [expletive] stop w/ that “livestock medicine” [expletive] narrative. Like many medications, it can and is used in both humans and animals.

[Jocephus]

you're a sheep if you take the vaccine. if you are a patriot, you take livestock medicine. ironic.

Just [expletive] stop w/ that “livestock medicine” [expletive] narrative. Like many medications, it can and is used in both humans and animals.

i probably should report you over that. relax.

[cardinalkarp]

you're a sheep if you take the vaccine. if you are a patriot, you take livestock medicine. ironic.

Just [expletive] stop w/ that “livestock medicine” [expletive] narrative. Like many medications, it can and is used in both humans and animals.

i probably should report you over that. relax.

Lol….go right ahead. It’s not as if this place is all that enjoyable anymore anyway.

I try to come here to give an alternate view point from the echo chamber this place has become (minus a few voices) and get blasted everyday.