Of course the virus itself won’t disappear but hopefully all measures limiting our daily lives.
Personally I think Omicron is the last variant of concern and as many countries have agreed on it’s fortunately not dangerous enough for restrictions to make sense anymore.
I don’t think a new more dangerous variant will emerge. If it did, I’d think that to be rather suspicious.
No, and I really do not at all understand how you and so many other people inexplicably believe that Omicron is the last variant of concern when the overwhelming majority of scientists and medical researchers continuously warn of new variants emerging, as they have throughout the last two years.
How can you say Omicron is not dangerous enough for restrictions to make sense anymore when the variant’s high level of infection translated to more people dying?
What on earth are you basing this off of? I’m a research scientist and while my field isn’t related to medical sciences, I know enough to learn from research scientists in the medical field who have been repeatedly saying that new variants will inevitably emerge. This is basic biology and it’s mind blowing how COVID exhaustion has lead people to conveniently downplay how serious COVID is and will continue to be in the future.
At the very least, mask wearing in buildings needs to continue to be normalized. N95 masks clearly offer protection for the wearer and more so for anyone around the wearer, as it significantly limits spread of COVID. Why or how could you possibly think that a new, more dangerous variant of COVID would be "suspicious" when basic biology tells us that this virus, just like any other similar virus, will always have new variants? Do you have any educational background in science or medicine that you’re basing your opinion off of?
Do you still stand by this?
First off, I’d encourage a more friendly tone :)
I think ad hominem attacks like questioning my credibility are unwarranted. Ask me questions and attack my arguments.
Yes, but those variants tend to be milder as a lot of researchers also have been telling us and as we have been able to observe with this pandemic as well as past ones. If this were not the case, we’d still be plagued by the spanish flu. Evidently this is not the case and I do not see why thinking this pandemic may soon be over is such a hot take.
This is not true, even though there are far more infections less people die. For instance check the data from the UK: https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths Also note that the hospitalization rate is down quite a bit compared to previous waves: https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare
Quite some countries are lifting restrictions, in the UK as well as Denmark you don’t even need masks anymore. That’s why I can say that (a lot of the) restrictions don’t make sense anymore.
Regarding variants getting milder: To me it makes sense and quite some researchers have been explaining it as well: While it’s possible that a more dangerous variant may emerge it is unlikely because evolutionary pressure is going to select the variant that spreads best. If you get really sick or die you have less opportunities to transmit the virus and thus spread it. This is also how the Spanish flu ended: with a mild variant.
I think this is based on the assumption that COVID-19 is going to be dangerous for a few more years. If I am right and this is not the case, Denmark and the UK are right.
One more thing I’d like to note is that especially for younger folks COVID-19 never has been that dangerous. In my country there have been more deaths due to traffic accidents for people under 30 only in 2020 than due to COVID-19 from 2019 up to now.
What are you talking about? There’s no linear downward path for COVID variants that assumes each new variant will be milder than the last. Researchers can’t predict the future but have warned of COVID variants that aren’t as contagious but have a higher mortality rate like Delta, versus milder variants like Omicron that spread far easier which results in an overall increase of deaths than variants like Delta. The Spanish Flu ended after people stopped dying in high numbers, and people adhered to quarantine rules which played a huge factor in the Spanish Flu ending. People were willing to take precautionary measures because.
Why are you cherry picking a single country? And what amount of deaths per day in a nation would you find acceptable enough to give up on precautionary restrictions? The USA’s seven day average is 2600 deaths per day. You believe that at that current rate, the USA and other nations equally impacted by COVID should remove restrictions? The UK had over 200 people die of COVID today-- you believe people there should just forget restrictions and let vulnerable people die out of convenience?
Lifting restrictions doesn’t magically mean a country has properly addressed COVID. Eliminating mask mandates doesn’t magically prevent the spread of Omicron, it just makes people like you believe that the danger is no more.
Again, people were willing to take precautionary measures during the Spanish Flu. By your logic, we shouldn’t have worn masks at any point in the pandemic and we should have just let the various COVID variants rip through the population. You’re completely misunderstand what most researchers are saying, and instead you’re reading up what “some” researchers are explaining.
You’re quite plainly wrong and you’ve yet to provide a single valid reason as to why we should stop wearing masks. People like you said the exact same thing during the start of the pandemic and two years later, I’m blown away that people like you just double down with your “we’re right around the corner, it’s almost over” mindset.
Wrong again. The long-term implications of contracting COVID, even for young, healthy adults, can be devastating. Combine that with repeatedly catching COVID because people like you can’t be bothered to wear a mask, and time will tell just how bad the cumulative effects of repeatedly catching COVID are. Your comparison is ridiculous and I cannot believe I have to explain that car crashes aren’t contagious-- if you drive by a car crash, that has no impact on the likelihood of you getting into a car crash.
Again, let me repeat the one point that you conveniently failed to answer. Do you have any educational background in science or medicine that you’re basing your opinion off of?
I think your skepticism is unwarranted and that you have no credibility, which is why you dodged my question about your educational background. Do qualifications not impact credibility, in your mind? I don’t particularly care about sugar coating my words on this because millions of people have already died from COVID, millions more will die of COVID, and devil’s advocate skeptics like you are a contributing factor to these peoples’ deaths.
Don’t reply unless you’re willing to disclose your educational background. I’m sick and tired of people like you acting like you want to get into these discussions, and then cherry picking what points you do and don’t respond to, and drone on about “civility”. If there was a forest fire around us and I told you to open your fucking eyes, and you were concerned about me cursing at you, that’s your problem-- not mine. Frankly, I don’t think a person even has to have a formal educational background in science/medicine to understand the basics of COVID, how it spreads, and why it’s worth using PPE and exercising caution.
You’re inconvenienced by COVID and are responding like a privileged person who takes the health and well-being of yourself and others for granted. This is basic stuff that even kids can understand, and it makes me angry because adults like you are too prideful to understand that perhaps if you’re not an expert, you should listen to what the majority of experts are saying-- not cherry pick “some” researchers’ explanations to support your blatant confirmation bias.
It’s sickening to me that you’d “encourage a more friendly tone” in this discussion, but you can’t be bothered to wear a mask and exercise caution to potentially save a person’s life. I really don’t understand your priorities. Fuck a friendly tone-- you’ll live if I word things a little harshly. How about you wear a mask focus on what really matters in a society instead of this fake ass prioritization of faux civility?
Well, most of our top virologists/epidemiologist (Klaus Stöhr, Christian Drosten, Hendrik Streeck, Alexander Kekule) expect COVID-19 will soon be endemic. Drosten thinks it will still take a little longer and more vaccinations but Stöhr says that the pandemic will end in summer.
Let me cite Wikipedia about the Spanish Flu for you:
I am not. Check for yourself and tell me how there are more countries with Omicron having a higher death toll than previous variants: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html I picked the UK because they already went through the Omicron wave and I thought their visualization was good, that’s the only thing you could consider cherry picking.
Please do check your facts before claiming I am wrong.
If the healthcare system can handle the number of patients admitted I am fine with lifting pretty much all restrictions. I really do not like how the goalpost has been moving (at least in my country) during the pandemic. A lot of people seem to be unable to understand that we can not save everyone, as sad as it is. Before COVID-19 happened a lot of vulnerable people died because we didn’t do lockdowns during flu waves. I ask you: How could you accept so many people dying, while we could have locked down the whole world for each flu wave?
Lol, no of course that’s not what I am saying! The Spanish Flu has been a lot more dangerous than the Omicron variant is now. What I am saying is that there probably is going to be a point in time where COVID-19 is mild enough that no restrictions are needed anymore. I personally think we will reach this situation pretty soon / have reached it with Omicron.
Are you telling me you can see into the future and know that a more dangerous variant is just around the corner which would make wearing masks necessary? Also note that this is the first time I said that I expect the pandemic to be over soon.
Please give me numbers. I do not believe this is very common and have yet to see a study that confirms that those devastating effects are causing deaths in high numbers.
Thanks for that… I do wear a mask but comments like this only provoke me to throw shit back at you. This is exactly what I meant with being more friendly and refraining from ad hominem attacks. This only weakens your point and makes me angry.
Lol, how does this affect my comparison of death rates. Oh, right it doesn’t! I am merely comparing death rates of car crashes and COVID-19 for people under 30. Like that I can roughly assess how dangerous COVID-19 is. Also note that the situation is the same with severe injuries due to car crashes and severe cases of COVID-19. Car crashes are more common and thus more dangerous for people under 30.
Oh, nice more ad hominem attacks. As you insist: I have studied physics and now study mathematics.
As I already said, I have been wearing masks and done social distancing throughout the whole pandemic.
You do realize, that you haven’t provided a single source for your claims and that your claims are also biased (and even wrong)?