Time to Declare Endemic

[Zeitgeist]

Yesterday there was over a million Covid cases in the US, that we know of.  Each day the provinces test new record numbers of Covid cases and we hunker down waiting for the other shoe to fall: a rapid rise in admissions to the ICU’s.  Only it hasn’t quite worked out that way.

Hospitalizations have risen but the stays are shorter and almost everyone who gets Omicron, representing about 95% of Covid cases, recovers within a week.  The ICU’s have lost some capacity but aren’t anywhere near full on average (Ontario with 1100 ICU beds has about 270 in use).

The bigger issue causing us to “slow the spread” by putting students back online and adding restrictions is the fact that we’re testing so many people who we’d never know were positive without the tests, people who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms.  Stop testing these people and they’d be working.  The health workers administering the useless tests could actually help highly symptomatic patients.

The time is here to focus our health care on treating very sick people, and not just people sick from Covid.  Let people live normal unmasked lives, seeing people, going out, travelling, and taking care of their many other needs.

The vast majority of our vulnerable population is fully vaccinated and has access to boosters.  Those who are more vulnerable can take extra precautions.  Mask up if you want to.  Many people have had Omicron and many more will get it.  Eventually just about everyone will and the consequences for our young and vaccinated population are cold or flu-like.  We’ll be fine.

It’s time to declare Covid-19 endemic and end restrictions.  

Edited January 5, 2022 by Zeitgeist

[eyeball]

5 hours ago, Zeitgeist said:

It’s time to declare Covid-19 endemic and end restrictions.  

It nearing time but maybe not quite yet - if there's anything we've learned from COVID it's how effective it is at exploiting the loopholes our impatience spin for us.   I would have thought more conservatives would get the need for prudence.  That said I can't think of a better example of why conservatives are described as reactionary.

Edited January 6, 2022 by eyeball

[myata]

10 hours ago, eyeball said:

I would have thought more conservatives would get the need for prudence. 

Sure, let's give it another decade and then if cases stay at no higher than 10 for longer than a year we'll see! Out of the abundance of caution (out of your pocket), can it go wrong?

[eyeball]

53 minutes ago, myata said:

Sure, let's give it another decade and then if cases stay at no higher than 10 for longer than a year we'll see! Out of the abundance of caution (out of your pocket), can it go wrong?

See? An abundance of reaction.

[myata]

Who cares about reactions if there's no practical checks and limits? It can only go one way, just by the laws of (bureaucratic) physics and "for as long as necessary".

[eyeball]

You can say the same thing about reacting without limits.

I said the end of this might not quite be here yet and you jump 10 feet in the air and seemingly imagine not quite means 10 years and even longer.

Get a grip.

[OftenWrong]

"Please Sir... can I have some more?"

[OftenWrong]

13 hours ago, eyeball said:

not quite yet

No, but any day now! Just a few more weeks, few more weeks. Wait for it.

[myata]

18 minutes ago, eyeball said:

Get a grip.

Sure you do. It's been two years ("two weeks to flatten the curve") and only a legally blind could not yet figure out that there's no end anywhere in sight.

[Goddess]

21 minutes ago, eyeball said:

You can say the same thing about reacting without limits.

I said the end of this might not quite be here yet and you jump 10 feet in the air and seemingly imagine not quite means 10 years and even longer.

Get a grip.

Well, it's going to be at least 3 more years.  Trudeau's budget includes billions $$ for vaccine passport enforcement for the next 3 years.

I say we've got at least 5 more years of this.

[Aristides]

12 minutes ago, myata said:

Sure you do. It's been two years ("two weeks to flatten the curve") and only a legally blind could not yet figure out that there's no end anywhere in sight.

If there is no end, there is no end. No one guaranteed you an end.

[Goddess]

8 minutes ago, Goddess said:

Well, it's going to be at least 3 more years.  Trudeau's budget includes billions $$ for vaccine passport enforcement for the next 3 years.

I say we've got at least 5 more years of this.

Longer, if Ontario votes him in again.  Since the rest of Canada doesn't get a vote.

I really hope Ontarians aren't the province of idiots they seem to be.......the West was dumbfounded when they voted him in again this last time.

[Zeitgeist]

2 minutes ago, Aristides said:

If there is no end, there is no end. No one guaranteed you an end.

We’re not imprisoning the population indefinitely to satisfy your sadistic hypochondria.  End all restrictions immediately.  Get the totalitarians out of office.  

[myata]

3 minutes ago, Aristides said:

If there is no end, there is no end.

No, that is not a given from the Heavens - only an individual choice.

[DogOnPorch]

The socialists love the idea of a strongman dictating to the masses. It's in their DNA. Hitler...Stalin...Mao...they want a new daddy.

[blackbird]

The restrictions cannot be ended for the simple reason the health care system would completely collapse.  We would have no place to treat people in emergencies which happen constantly everywhere.  So the choice is live with restrictions or face the possibility of total chaos and disaster with no health care system.  Funny how so many people just don't get it.

Edited January 6, 2022 by blackbird

[Shady]

Ontario is at about 50% ICU capacity and we’re probably 7-10 days from the peak of omicold.  

[Goddess]

1 minute ago, blackbird said:

The restrictions cannot be ended for the simple reason the health care system would completely collapse.  We would have no place to treat people in emergencies which happen constantly everywhere.  So the choice is live with restrictions or face the possibility of total chaos and disaster with no health care system.  Funny how so many people just don't get it.

Maybe it's you who doesn't get it.

There is billions of dollars allocated in the budget for the next 3 years to enforce vaccine passports, which are completely useless.

Imagine if, instead, we spent that money on improving our healthcare system.

[blackbird]

1 minute ago, Goddess said:

Maybe it's you who doesn't get it.

There is billions of dollars allocated in the budget for the next 3 years to enforce vaccine passports, which are completely useless.

Imagine if, instead, we spent that money on improving our healthcare system.

A huge amount of the provincial budget already goes to the health care system.  If you think you have a magic answer to letting the hospitals be flooded with Covid patients and still keep the system going, why don't you tell the government.  You must be a genius.  Until then there has to be restrictions to protect the health care system from collapsing.

[Goddess]

1 minute ago, blackbird said:

A huge amount of the provincial budget already goes to the health care system. 

Please educate yourself.  Healthcare has been chopped repeatedly for the last 20 years.

A "huge amount of the provincial budget" allotted for healthcare goes to the CEO's, their salaries are astronomical, they get huge raises every year - all while they run the healthcare system into the ground.

Why do you insist on punishing the citizens for this?

 

[OftenWrong]

13 minutes ago, DogOnPorch said:

The socialists love the idea of a strongman dictating to the masses. It's in their DNA. Hitler...Stalin...Mao...they want a new daddy.

I guess that's why Mr. Trudeau's grin is getting more and more sardonic.

[DogOnPorch]

Just now, OftenWrong said:

I guess that's why Mr. Trudeau's grin is getting more and more sardonic.

 

The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity.

---Yeats

[blackbird]

3 minutes ago, Goddess said:

Please educate yourself.  Healthcare has been chopped repeatedly for the last 20 years.

A "huge amount of the provincial budget" allotted for healthcare goes to the CEO's, their salaries are astronomical, they get huge raises every year - all while they run the healthcare system into the ground.

Why do you insist on punishing the citizens for this?

 

That might be true.  But even if the government suddenly put billions more into the health care system, it takes years to train more nurses and doctors and build hospitals and increase the capacity.  That can't be done right now.  So the government's only choice is to keep the system we have working.  You want to get rid of restrictions and overwhelm the health care system to the point we have a collapsed system.  That is irrational.  Nothing more to say about it.  Carry on with your useless rants against restrictions.

[Goddess]

Just now, blackbird said:

 Carry on with your useless rants against restrictions.

I will.

And you carry on demanding them.

I suspect one of us is going to be on the wrong side of history on this one.  I suspect it's going to be you.  Because historically, the ones clamoring for restrictions and loss of freedoms............... have not been the good guys.

[Zeitgeist]

23 minutes ago, blackbird said:

The restrictions cannot be ended for the simple reason the health care system would completely collapse.  We would have no place to treat people in emergencies which happen constantly everywhere.  So the choice is live with restrictions or face the possibility of total chaos and disaster with no health care system.  Funny how so many people just don't get it.

The only reason we’re having a shortage is because our screening makes mildly sick people and asymptomatic positives stay home.  End the screening and start treating Omicron as the 3-5 day cold/flu that it is, and the “crisis” disappears. This is a crisis of fear rather than reality. Dump the restrictions and mask requirements.  Let people decide how much they think they need to protect themselves.  The vulnerable have boosters, masks, Amazon, etc.  Time to move on and stop throwing money at this.  There’s much more to life than worrying about a disease we can easily manage at this point.  Let people live normal lives.  Free up resources so health care workers can focus on treating sick people.  

Edited January 6, 2022 by Zeitgeist