Shanghai Disneyland will close in effort to contain coronavirus

If it presents as a head cold…is a test really needed? I’m not trying to be obtuse here. I just do not see the necessity to get a test. Once they confirm the “head cold” is Omicron/Covid…does treatment protocol change in any way?

Seems it would be prudent to just hang low until symptoms pass…which was always the polite thing to do for a head cold anyhow.

There's a new Klepper video out just in time for Christmas

Jeff said:

I'm on a boat right now that requires all adults be vaccinated, and every human is tested before entering the terminal building. They went from the most risky thing to do to probably the safest. Let's stop pretending there's no positive outcome possible.

Maybe not: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2021/12/19/cruise-shi...960209002/

Taking a chance on being part of the 0.78% infected on a cruise > RRR...

For reference it takes more than 2% of the passengers to be infected with Norovirus for before they have to report and outbreak to the CDC.

I feel like we've cycled back to the beginning of this thread.

All we need is a quarantined cruise, some talk about log scale graphs, people not understanding exponents, Jeff having a 180 change of heart, and talk of gains in the stock market.

We are like high rise jeans, or Sputnik lamps, but with a shorter half life. Anyone got a predicta lying around we can fire up for nostalgia?

My biggest concern with Omicron right now is the hospitals getting overwhelmed. In Michigan we look like we might be finally coming off the most recent Delta peak. However, during the most recent delta peak, several hospital systems in the state had to call in for staffing help from the National Guard. Like almost everyone else, the hospitals are experiencing a staffing shortage, and the staff that is there is there is experiencing burnout. Even if Omicron is less severe, the increased transmissibility could still overwhelm the hospitals.

Though I did manage to finally get my 3rd booster shot on Sunday. I will say: Feeling too sick to get out of bed > Rip Ride Rocket.

I think that's a valid concern. Yesterday, I had a family member redirected from a closer (and, frankly, better) hospital to another, because the closer one was slammed. Thankfully (luckily?) their issue was not particularly complicated, so the outlying hospital was more than sufficient and took great care of them.

Are they slammed or short staffed? I read somewhere (can’t remember where now) that the United States has 40,000 less staffed beds than we had when the pandemic began. How many more might we lose when the hospital staff get infected?

Anyhow…that has been my short term concern for Omicron. The rate it spreads, even among the vaccinated, will inevitably (?) take out hospital staff all at once…if we panic at the word “positive.”

The next couple weeks could be hairy…if we don’t pivot to allowing asymptomatic (but technically positive) hospital staff to continue working…or better yet…pull a NFL and quit testing those without symptoms.

I’m not necessarily supporting a particular response. I’m just opining that “asymptomatic Omicron positive doctors and nurses” working in hospitals might be better to society than “asymptomatic Omicron positive doctors and nurses” being sent home.

The evidence in South Africa is showing that Omicron burns out pretty fast. Cases are already dropping. Let us hope the same holds true here. Either way the next few weeks could get interesting…

I see what you're saying, but that's a very risky proposition to be messing with. We haven't mentioned exponential growth in a while, and unless you can guarantee that the virulence of omicron is very close to zero, you're telling people who knowingly have it and can transmit it to lean into the exponential transmission, an exponential transmission that, if virulence is non-zero, will devastate unvaccinated people and still harm many vaccinated people. That doesn't seem like a risk that's worthwhile. (Though I'm not sure what another end game would be since getting most people vaccinated and boostered seems to be off the table for some ungodly reason).

Edit: If you take medical care off the table for the unvaccinated (which obviously would never, ever happen) then I think I'd be on board with just letting things go where they're going to go. Mitigation in the form of quarantines doesn't really work if less than huge majority of people do it so it's basically just hurting everyone without much benefit. Even though not getting a vaccine is demonstrably wrong (wink), hoping that people will just wake up and get one or setting policies as if people are going to wake up and do it is obviously not realistic. Incredibly frustrating, but also reality.

US health officials looking at reducing isolation period for those infected with Covid.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/us-mulls-reducing-covid...021-12-21/

CreditWh0re said:
American Seasonal parks start opening in less than 90 days. Look at the curve of the corona virus in the last 14. Mock me all you want (I’ll eat those tots and pears thank you), but my point remains valid. This thing is going to have a major effect on the Chinese economy, and like it or not our economy is Intricately linked to theirs. Entertainment stock, especially could be majorly exposed (pardon the pun) if the News gloms on to a suspected case having done the L.A. or Las Vegas tourist circuit.

Interesting how two years later, one could almost write the same thing and other than removing the word China here and there, it would be pretty accurate for right now.

Side note: This thread is now 267 with ages long. What’s the longest CoasterBuzz thread of all time?

This one, I think by a factor of 2.

Yeah but it's more like 200 pages though if you take out Brett and Jeff jerking each other off over their hatred of Trump.

Wow. You joined just to post that?

For the record, those of you claiming to be atheist can no longer make that claim. Science is your god and Dr. Fauci is your lord and savior.

Freaking out is exactly what the federal government and Democrats want you to do and you're taking the bait hook, line and sinker.

lol