Mastodawn

Dr. Damien P. Williams, Magus Feb 3, 2023

Periodic reminder that we are not anything like "post"-pandemic. We are mid-pandemic; Peri-pandemic; Right smack dab in the fucking middle of a goddam pandemic and no amount of squeezing our eyes shut and plugging our ears and going "la la la it's not real" while wishing it were otherwise will make it so.

Gauchohaulic Feb 7, 2023

Dr. Damien P. Williams, Magus

Other periodic reminder that the idea that COVID is "only" killing 500 people a day— like a 9/11 every [six days] is "acceptable" somehow— is generally agreed to be a gross undercount: https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2023/covid-19-deaths-in-the-us-continue-to-be-undercounted-research-shows-despite-claims-of-overcounts/

Did you know people are still misidentifying or even intentionally mislabeling cause of death wgen COVID is concerned? And that the lack of widespread free testing in official centers where results get recorded and tallied only makes that worse? And that doing things like ending the access to free AT-HOME kits will make that EVEN WORSE?

Because that should like… obvious, no?

Putting on heavy rubber gloves and boots and telling everyone the electric fence is perfectly safe; putting on suglasses at high noon and saying it's dark outside.

*Deep breath interlude*

Stuff's not over. And pretending it is and intentionally making it harder to know for sure for the sake of political expedience will only ensure we're stuck in it LONGER.

COVID-19 Deaths in the US Continue to Be Undercounted, Despite Claims of ‘Overcounts’

Following recent claims within the public health community that US COVID death counts are overestimates, Andrew Stokes and Dielle Lundberg present new excess mortality data in a commentary in The Conversation, revealing the opposite.

Doug Bostrom Feb 5, 2023

It's good times for deep breathing exercises.

nmcknight Feb 5, 2023

Badtux the Snarky Penguin Feb 5, 2023

@Wolven Not to mention that the at-home tests are notoriously unreliable. I've suspected I had COVID-19 a couple of times, but the at-home tests never said I did. Without access to free and quick PCR testing, there's no way of knowing whether I had COVID-19 or not.

MudMan Feb 5, 2023

@Wolven Is this a low vaccination US thing?

I mean, I'm still masking in public indoors places because I have immunocompromised people at home, but over here in the land of high 90s full courses of vaccination it's... fine? More flu than Covid cases going around, although Covid still gets more people in hospital. Some deaths, but not that many and largely on the sixty-and-up segment. Excess mortality is back to normal. Long covid is a worry, but it's not stopping the return to normal so far.

MudMan Feb 5, 2023

@Wolven Government called my elderly parents to discuss an additional booster this week on the phone, they exchanged notes with the nice government lady. I forgot to ask if I can just get a booster myself as a walk-in, but I hear through the grapevine that you can either book an appointment in one public hospital or walk in on certain dates on another. The government is about to dismiss the last few mandates to mask up.

I don't know how different this is in the US.

Dr. Damien P. Williams, Magus Feb 5, 2023

@MudMan not just vaccination, but masking, indoor air circulation measures, distancing, the whole of it

MudMan Feb 5, 2023

@Wolven But all those restrictions are lifted here, too. The only mandatory masking remaining (and about to be lifted) here is in hospitals and public transportation, which is probably offset by the US just using it less anyway.

The only real difference I can think of is vaccination rates.

Samhain Night Feb 7, 2023

@MudMan @Wolven Vaccinations help stop you from dying, mostly, but they don’t stop you from catching Covid, spreading Covid and/or getting Long Covid which can potentially kill you.

Grassroots Joe Feb 7, 2023

@samhainnight @MudMan @Wolven
They don't "stop" but they do reduce the risk of contracting COVID, of getting long COVID and reduce the spread.
Our low uptake of the bivalent booster is undoubtedly increasing cases, hospitalizations and fatalities.

MudMan Feb 7, 2023

@joeinwynnewood @samhainnight @Wolven Right. Here it's available widely, but so far they've only actively reached out to schedule it for older people and people at risk, which seems to have been enough when paired with the original three shot course to contain spread. Like I said, we saw higher infection counts from the flu.

There's still increased pressure in hospitals and primary care is in a global crisis right now, but numbers are much lowe than in the heat of the pandemic.

isotope239 🥸💻📚 🇺🇦Feb 5, 2023

@Wolven I've never understood the massive mismanagement of testing throughout the pandemic. It wouldn't be that difficult to set up a database for each state that allowed folks to enter their self-test results, just as an example. The NM DOH has done an excellent job of vaccinating people, but they've done little to track testing results which is baffling. Allowing people to formally submit their self-tests wouldn't be perfect by any means, but it'd give a clearer picture of what's going on.

isotope239 🥸💻📚 🇺🇦Feb 5, 2023

@Wolven And don't get me started on masking, it's easy to do, reduces risk for you and others, and is simply the practical thing to do. In the US, at least, not wearing a mask in public is pure laziness. I went through DFW airport yesterday and while there were quite a few people masking, a great many of them were wearing surgical masks below their chin. Is there some magical thinking that if the mask is just on your face somewhere it wards off the virus like a charmed amulet?

Geoff Wilbourn Feb 7, 2023

toxtethogrady Feb 7, 2023

@Wolven The reason 500 a day became acceptable is because it used to be 4,000. So people think it's safe to crawl out of the bunker, now that it's "low". Thank you, Bill Maher, for downplaying the seriousness of the whole thing. Wish you felt the same way about trans athletes...