Shanghai Disneyland will close in effort to contain coronavirus

https://vimeo.com/127007297

This was a separate point in a bigger 538 article, bit here's a graph showing the prevalence of Omicron in the poop in an area of Massachusetts:

Not sure it's the kind of sample that commands the respect of the CB crowd, but if 538 referenced it, I feel ok doing the same.

Obviously, the point is that it's dropping off as quickly as it ramped up, just as expected.

EDIT - Just wanted to add that this data is from the greater Boston area. I wasn't sure what part of the state it was from earlier when I posted.

He called the sh!t, POOP!

If any of you wonder how they collect that data...

(some people will get this)

Looks like we're a week or two behind here in OC. We've still managed to avoid it, but we're also only six weeks removed from boosters, and Simon had it and is fully vaccinated. We're in the well-protected cohort for now.

One of my department members passed away today from Covid. This is the first person I have directly known to have died from Covid. She was diligent in mask wearing, distancing from her students, and was vaccinated. Unfortunately she had a condition that likely contributed to her passing. I'm still in shock.

That's awful. I'm so sorry to hear that.

England is about to drop virtually all anti-COVID restrictions

More math about vaccines vs. omicron: Unvaccinated 5X more likely to get omicron than those boosted

Amid delta, the effectiveness of two doses against emergency room and urgent care visits started out at around 86 percent, fell to about 76 percent as people reached beyond six months after their second vaccination, and was pushed back up to 94 percent after a booster dose. With omicron, two-dose effectiveness against emergency room and urgent care visits started out at a dismal 52 percent, fell to 38 percent with waning protection, and was boosted back to 82 percent after a booster.

For hospitalizations caused by the delta variant, the effectiveness of two doses started at around 90 percent, fell to 81 percent amid waning protection, and rose to 94 percent after a booster. Against hospitalizations caused by omicron, two-dose effectiveness started at 81 percent, fell to 57 percent with waning, and rose to 90 percent after a booster.

So as it turns out, when the experts were arguing about boosters in the fall, pre-omicron, it looks like Israel made a good bet, even if it wasn't particularly data-driven at the time. I know some of the argument was about vaccinating poor countries, but even at that point, that was a matter of will and money, not availability. Hopefully the next variants continue to be weaker.

So, now apparently hamsters aren't safe...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/one-surrendered-hong-kong-hamster-074843794.html

Because the furry little guy cruising his habitrail poses such a huge threat to everyone….

This elitist attitude present in the human race is precisely why I have no concerns about the massive Covid losses.

That lots of animals other than the original bats believed to have spread it are now being found to carry it is part of why I can't subscribe to the "if only everyone would get vaccinated we wouldn't have mutations" mindset. As long as species other than us are carrying it the virus will continue to mutate and eventually hop back to humans possibly over and over even if they kill everyone's hamster.

You don’t have to subscribe to that mindset because no reasonable person thinks that we won’t have mutations if more people are vaccinated.

There are a lot of unreasonable people out there.

Which is why we are still dealing with this when the vaccine has been out for over a year.

You think the vaccine was changing anything…. All it was ever going to do was stop people from getting so sick, it never had a chance to stop the actual spread. Even if this country was 100% vaccinated you would see mask mandates and nonsense measures in this place.

I had to have multiple cleanings done on work locations in the past couple weeks because of Covid, you know, the virus which doesn’t live on surfaces for very long, yet we are cleaning, keep in mind a day or two after people go out infected. Glad we are following the science. 🙄

Also, happy birthday to the Shanghai thread. 2 years and going strong.

Stopping it was never the goal. No reasonable person ever expected 100% efficacy. But the math is pretty conclusive that had more people been vaccinated sooner, the less likely we would be messing with it now.

Omicron’s Radical Evolution

Thirteen of Omicron’s mutations should have hurt the variant’s chances of survival. Instead, they worked together to make it thrive.

Fantastic. So Omicron sounds like a Transformer, but it's really more like Voltron.

I'm 94% sure that Bill Maher's guests are covert Coasterbuzz members. Prove me wrong.

If you have 6 minutes...

More to say about this, but I'll just let it ride for now.