Shanghai Disneyland will close in effort to contain coronavirus

extremecoasterdad said:

BrettV said:

This one breaks it down in a way that makes me feel pretty okay about continuing to live as "normal" as an about to be boosted blue county dweller

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/17/briefing/omicron-spread-red-america.html

One telling detail is that Covid deaths in both swing counties and heavily Biden counties have not risen over the past two months, even as nationwide case numbers have surged.

And for Gonch:

In heavily vaccinated communities, rising caseloads don’t automatically lead to rising death tolls

If you're getting your info from the NY Times, you're already handicapped.

Anyone who walks into a hospital and tests positive for Covid, whether hospitalized or not, is counted as a hospitalization. This is the reason those numbers cannot be trusted.

There's a balance to be had between risk assessment and everyday life. The media and many in government that keep promulgating there will never be such a balance. As if Covid-19 will ever come to an end. It will not. It's an endemic, not a pandemic any longer. It will ALWAYS be with us.

While you may want to give all of your constitutionally protected freedoms away to your government, I and many others, will never submit to such a thing. I don't really care if YOU have a problem with that. The Constitution was never meant to be suspended, even if momentarily.

That’s a lot of crap with absolutely zero facts to back up your feelings. And facts don’t care about your feelings. But since you’re not providing facts, no one cares about what you say.

“Cases aren't scary. Deaths are.”

Exactly. Unless and until we get a strain that seems to be dominant and dangerous, my pandemic is over personally. I still mask up when needed or asked. I’ve had my booster. The 5G I’m getting is great and the magnetization from the vax means I never drop my fork or spoons. I do keep dropping my chopsticks tho.

I'm interested in hearing what constitutionally protected freedoms have been taken away and when the constitution was suspended.

Bigboy - that was going to be my exact question. I am so sick of the My Rights! My Freedoms! The Constitution! crowd.... do a little bit of history and research into different era's of our country's history if you (WWII) if you think the federal government right now is oppressive. By the way, vaccine mandates have been a part of our country's public health and simply way of life for decades and decades - for everything from education to employment to travel. This "I know better than my doctor or infectious disease experts or scientists or public health experts" from 30 or so percent of this country gives me tremendous concern about the future of public health in the US.

The US has lost over 800,000 of our fellow citizens to Covid in the past 22 months. Every 3 days is a September 11 attack in terms of deaths - just instead of foreign terrorists, it's a pandemic.

A bunch of Broadway shows took a few days off, and apparently Mulin Rouge cancelled minutes before curtain, mostly because of cast positive tests. The Met Opera now requires boosters for guests. I worry that Music Man will again be stopped before it starts (starting Wolverine and Sutton Foster).

Here's the weird thing... most of the caution at this point is really protecting mostly the unvaccinated (and likely some immunocompromised folks, though I suspect they're relatively small in number). Those folks aren't really being cautious, so it seems strange. I think the real outcome we're after is to spare healthcare workers and keep the doors open for when one of us has a bursting appendix or heart attack.

extremecoasterdad said:

The Constitution was never meant to be suspended, even if momentarily.

Tell that to my pocket constitution that I take with me every time I ride Iron Dragon. Secured in a zipped cargo pocket for safety of course.

bigboy said:

I'm interested in hearing what constitutionally protected freedoms have been taken away and when the constitution was suspended.

1918 with the passage of the Sedition Act of 1918. The act made it a crime to be critical of the government in speech or writing. But I don't think he was referring to that.

Yeah and I was referring to the present day events.

BrettV said:

extremecoasterdad said:

The Constitution was never meant to be suspended, even if momentarily.

Tell that to my pocket constitution that I take with me every time I ride Iron Dragon. Secured in a zipped cargo pocket for safety of course.

At Six Flags you'll be locking up that constitution of yours and paying $2 for the privilege.

Pocket Constitution > Rip Ride Rocket

Rip Ride Rocket > Suspended Pocket Constitution

Rockettes cancelled the rest of their Christmas season. New York is obviously very nervous about the new spike. Their positive test count is higher than it was early in the pandemic, in part because of better testing availability. What will be telling is how their hospitals hold up compared to the Midwest which is getting hit hard right now. Vaccinations rates are much higher in the city.

Sitting in the holding cell at Publix after giving up all of my God given freedom, renouncing my love of country and flag, and getting my Pfizer mark of the beast.

Between this and the Disney price hike, the founding fathers are rolling in their graves.

I’d guess a serious temporary problem (concern) with Omicron’s spread rate among EVERYONE (vaccinated and unvaccinated) is what is about to happen to hospital staff. The Cleveland Browns are a nice little control group on what happens among the vaccinated/boosted with this strain. Thank goodness none of them actually appear to have gotten sick.

If they are going to continue to treat Omicron like the variants before…it is easy to contemplate a scenario where the vast majority of hospital staff are out on quarantine at the same time…even though the vast majority of medical staff would be symptomless.

It will be interesting see if protocols can change fast enough to keep up with how Omicron is presenting. Applying the old (as in 3 weeks ago) protocols to the new virus may be more damaging than the virus itself.

Edit: To add that hospital staff shortages might not present if hospitals aren’t testing their asymptomatic vaccinated staff…which appears to be the case in many places. The staff wouldn’t even know they had Omicron…

Rockettes > RRR

Three shots is the new two, which sucks because our two numbers aren't high enough, and threes are like 1 in 6. But the math is different because the twos may get infected and not be too sick, or not at all sick and likely spread it around. The unvaccinated were at risk before, but now they're crazy at risk and their attitudes have not changed. It's already playing out in the upper Midwest.

And for the skeptics, they're saying things like this (from the NYT this morning):

“If you came out with three shots and can still get it, it’s like, what’s the point?” Mr. Wyatt said. ‘Are we going to reach the fourth, fifth, sixth? You wasted your time.”

The information counter to this is readily available, that you aren't just mitigating infection, you're preventing serious disease. At this point, you're making a choice to be willfully ignorant, and frankly selfish.

I think the day will come when your booster-of-the-month will be administered along with your annual flu shot.
When I had my Welcome to Medicare wellness check I was made to feel like it was pretty much a requirement to get pneumonia, shingles, and flu vaccines. I was ok with that as I’m not in the slightest way opposed to vaccination, but I’ll confess it was my first ever flu shot. It rightly occurred to me that those are the diseases that plague seniors, often with poor outcomes, so I said sure, ok. Which made my doctor very happy.
Back to the top, I wonder if someday everything we need will be provided in some sort of cocktail. Btw, those three shots set me on my ass by about 7 pm that night. Which would’ve been manageable except we and another couple had driven to Cincinnati for party time and a concert. I’ll know not to schedule like that in the future.

Regarding three shots is the new two: our campus is requiring faculty, staff, and students to have a booster on-board before Feb 4. But, there is also some cautious optimism among some of the epidemiologists that Omicron's severity will play out to be significantly lower than the previous dominant strains.

Speaking of the Browns as being a test case, it is interesting how the league has pivoted on their protocols. A vaccinated player who tests positive can now return if their viral load is under a certain threshold (a score of 35 or lower on a PCR test). In other words, you don't have to wait until you produce a negative test, you just have to show you aren't contagious.

I have to admit I didn't know that the ability to define one's status as contagious (or not) was a thing.

SNL is ditching its live audience tonight. If no one is there to laugh, is Paul Rudd still sexiest man alive?

Harvard classes remote during January:

https://www.wbur.org/news/2021/12/18/harvard-will-move-to-remote-cl...cases-rise

Netherlands into lockdown:

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/netherl...021-12-18/

All non-essential shops and services, including restaurants, hairdressers, museums and gyms will be closed from Sunday until Jan. 14. All schools will be shut until at least Jan. 9.

Other measures include a recommendation that households receive no more than two visitors and that gatherings outside are also limited to a maximum of two people.