Covid week of 8/16

[Velar Fricative]

Not sure if this was posted in last week's thread since it's a few days old, but it's Ed Yong's latest. I'd call it a must-read. There are a few passing @ mentions, but the bulk of the piece isn't related to that specifically.

www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/08/delta-has-changed-pandemic-endgame/619726/

So many good sections, but I'll pick just a few key quotes:

The U.S. now faces a dispiriting dilemma. Last year, many people were content to buy time for vaccines to be developed and deployed. But vaccines are now here, uptake has plateaued, and the first surge of the vaccine era is ongoing. What, now, is the point of masking, distancing, and other precautions?

The answer, as before, is to buy time—for protecting hospitals, keeping schools open, reaching unvaccinated people, and more. Most people will meet the virus eventually; we want to ensure that as many people as possible do so with two doses of vaccine in them, and that everyone else does so over as much time as possible. The pandemic isn’t over, but it will be: The goal is still to reach the endgame with as little damage, death, and disability as possible. COVID-19 sent the world into freefall, and although vaccines have slowed our descent, we’d still be wise to steer around the trees standing between us and solid ground. “Everyone’s got pandemic fatigue—I get it,” Rivera told me. “But victory is not you as an individual getting a vaccine. It’s making sure that SARS-CoV-2 doesn’t bring us to our knees again.”

Here, then, is the current pandemic dilemma: Vaccines remain the best way for individuals to protect themselves, but societies cannot treat vaccines as their only defense. And for now, unvaccinated pockets are still large enough to sustain Delta surges, which can overwhelm hospitals, shut down schools, and create more chances for even worse variants to emerge. To prevent those outcomes, “we need to take advantage of every single tool we have at our disposal,” Bansal said. These should include better ventilation to reduce the spread of the virus, rapid tests to catch early infections, and forms of social support such as paid sick leave, eviction moratoriums, and free isolation sites that allow infected people to stay away from others. In states where cases are lower, such as Maine or Massachusetts, masks—the simplest, cheapest, and least disruptive of all the anti-COVID measures—might be enough.

...


If SARS-CoV-2 is here to stay, then most people will encounter it at some point in their life, as my colleague James Hamblin predicted last February. That can be hard to accept, because many people spent the past year trying very hard to avoid the virus entirely. But “it’s not really the virus on its own that is terrifying,” Jennie Lavine, an infectious-disease researcher at Emory University, told me. “It’s the combination of the virus and a naive immune system. Once you don’t have the latter, the virus doesn’t have to be so scary.”

Think of it this way: SARS-CoV-2, the virus, causes COVID-19, the disease—and it doesn’t have to. Vaccination can disconnect the two. Vaccinated people will eventually inhale the virus but need not become severely ill as a result. Some will have nasty symptoms but recover. Many will be blissfully unaware of their encounters. “There will be a time in the future when life is like it was two years ago: You run up to someone, give them a hug, get an infection, go through half a box of tissues, and move on with your life,” Lavine said. “That’s where we’re headed, but we’re not there yet.”

If endemicity is the future, then masks, distancing, and other precautions merely delay exposure to the virus—and to what end? “There’s still so much for us to buy time for,” Bansal told me. Suppressing the virus gives schools the best chance of staying open. It reduces the risk that even worse variants will evolve. It gives researchers time to better understand the long-term consequences of breakthrough infections. And much like last year, it protects the health-care system. Louisiana, Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Missouri all show that Delta is easily capable of inundating hospitals, especially in largely unvaccinated communities. This cannot keep happening, especially because health-care workers are already burning out and facing a mammoth backlog of sick patients whose care was deferred during previous surges. These workers need time to recover, as does the U.S. more generally. Its mental-health systems are already insufficient to address the coming waves of trauma and grief. COVID-19 long-haulers are already struggling to access medical support and disability benefits. The pandemic’s toll is cumulative, and the U.S. can ill-afford to accumulate more. Punting new infections as far into the future as possible will offer a chance to regroup.

[pixy0stix]

It's bad enough now that my unvaxxed/unmasked coworker at least put on a mask to wander the building.

[Vespasia]

We're finally watching a show we taped on our DVR last May. The commercials are all peak "we'll get through this together" happy feel good crap. It's actually upsetting to see them knowing how badly some people were going to botch this for everyone else. 

[tiramisu]

COVID is going around my workplace again. I was exposed last week, by two different people. I think the worst part is that I had to dig for that information. I was exposed three days in a row and my PCR test from yesterday came back negative, thankfully. Have to get a negative rapid antigen test today to be able to go back to work. Luckily I'm having no symptoms at this point, but I will absolutely not be shutting up about the vaccine going forward.

[lemoncupcake]

Aug 16, 2021 9:33:47 GMT -5 Vespasia said:

We're finally watching a show we taped on our DVR last May. The commercials are all peak "we'll get through this together" happy feel good crap. It's actually upsetting to see them knowing how badly some people were going to botch this for everyone else. 

During the Olympic coverage I kept seeing the Uber commercial about how “things are different but we can finally go out again!” and it made me so sad. It was such a hopeful message that ended up being pretty short lived.

[Velar Fricative]

Aug 16, 2021 10:15:07 GMT -5 tiramisu said:

COVID is going around my workplace again. I was exposed last week, by two different people. I think the worst part is that I had to dig for that information. I was exposed three days in a row and my PCR test from yesterday came back negative, thankfully. Have to get a negative rapid antigen test today to be able to go back to work. Luckily I'm having no symptoms at this point, but I will absolutely not be shutting up about the vaccine going forward.

Ugh, and if I'm remembering your line of work correctly, that is really shitty that you had to dig for that information.

[Velar Fricative]

NYC will require staff and visitors at museums, concert halls, aquariums and zoos to be vaccinated (if 12 and older).

www.nytimes.com/2021/08/16/arts/design/nyc-museums-vaccine-required.html

[tiramisu]

Aug 16, 2021 10:23:35 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Aug 16, 2021 10:15:07 GMT -5 tiramisu said:

COVID is going around my workplace again. I was exposed last week, by two different people. I think the worst part is that I had to dig for that information. I was exposed three days in a row and my PCR test from yesterday came back negative, thankfully. Have to get a negative rapid antigen test today to be able to go back to work. Luckily I'm having no symptoms at this point, but I will absolutely not be shutting up about the vaccine going forward.

Ugh, and if I'm remembering your line of work correctly, that is really shitty that you had to dig for that information.

Yes it is. They could've called to notify me on a day off. I had to ask if anyone else was out with COVID, then who, then remind them I see all 4 teams there so I need to know everyone who tested positive. That's how I found out about the first one, then once I was already home I got a call telling me about the second one. I guess since I'm kind of like a consultant, they don't think to tell us? But they're probably not telling their actual employees, either. And most of the people at work are neither fans of vaccinations or masks. I really hope more starts to be done about that.

[audette]

I flew up to Canada for work yesterday. Have to track my close contacts here for two weeks, per arrival info sheets.

I crashed at an airport hotel this morning, and they have signs everywhere to mask up in public spaces. I think the only people wearing masks are me and the hotel staff.

No clue if my coworker (who should be picking me up momentarily) will be masked. Probably not. Company rules say we should mask, but... folks aren't very compliant about that at the office while under management's eyes...


I was reasonably impressed at how well folks stayed masked yesterday at the airports and planes. I was expecting worse.

Unsurprisingly, the flight in to Canada was no more than 2/3rds full, although the domestic flight within the US was so packed they were offering vouchers to take a later flight.

[pixy0stix]

I'm a month and some change into a hybrid work schedule, and I'm still fixing the weird shit people did while there was no supervision in the office.

[fumbalina]

The management at my office have started wearing masks all day so I believe we have had multiple COVID cases that they are not telling us about. Before they were not even wearing them in Tbe close contact areas.

I happen top work next to no people but the HVAC system is old so that does not mean much.

[rubytue]

Well, our in-office date was pushed from September to October. Ostensibly to implement a testing program for the non-vaxed.

[Patsy Baloney]

Just a personal anecdote - I'm going to miss wearing stretch shorts to work, lol. Our offices came back with many opting to keep some form of work-from-home schedule, but most everyone is on hybrid schedules. I've been back almost full-time for well over a year now just slumming it up in my office where no one saw me. The dream is over!

Granted, I got to start my hybrid schedule this week and will now enjoy work-from-home two days per week, but my waist is still really sad about pants coming back.

We are fully masked and testing once or twice weekly depending on vaccination status and the CDC rating of our county's transmission rate, so I'm feeling ok about the increase in office population thus far.

[formerlyak]

I have been work from home for the past 4 years with a few days per month out on our campus. The pandemic made our larger department realize that many people in our big team are actually quite effective from home, and now everyone has the option of creating a flexible work arrangement with their supervisor that can include flex hours or telecommuting. While it doesn't change anything for me, I love that it gives my colleagues this option, and I love that it normalizes working from home in our organization so I am not one of three people who telecommute. I feel like the process gives validity to my work from home arrangement.

[rubytue]

Patsy Baloney, I hear you! I had gotten really lazy in dressing the past few years anyway, once I gave up the “dress for the job you want” delusion (5 non-promotion attempts). But I feel like my days in the office with either be all super casual (not even business) or dresses, because I haven’t been in them forever. There will be no in between. 😂

My office building is half cube farm, half testing labs, so has a very casual vibe anyway. But I do miss looking cute. Or, what I feel is cute for overweight middle age

[Velar Fricative]

We are seeing an exodus right now of central admin staff - I'm going to assume for more money (we're a nonprofit) and especially for WFH flexibility. The tricky thing with our organization is that much of our workforce is customer-facing, and now that our sites are open, we obviously need people onsite. For equity reasons (because our front-facing staff are among the lowest-paid in the organization), they've mandated that everyone return even if they could work from home 100%. So, it seems like people who can WFH are looking elsewhere. But a remote administration would do absolutely nothing for overall staff morale here, especially when our whole mission is to serve all communities here and you can't basically have people at the top who aren't on the ground here and have no idea what things are like here. So, it's probably going to be really difficult to recruit new staff (especially when our recruiters are among those leaving lol) given the onsite requirements. This may be good news for internal staff looking for new opportunities but otherwise, I'm guessing this will cause us to have to put a lot of activities and stuff on the backburner for a while. Just when we're trying to re-promote our services, ugh.

[thelurkylulu]

Aug 16, 2021 13:44:06 GMT -5 rubytue said:

Well, our in-office date was pushed from September to October. Ostensibly to implement a testing program for the non-vaxed.

Ours was pushed from September to October today as well. Im annoyed by the month push. Nothing is going to change in a month and it’s so hard to plan anything. We have been home since March 2020. Just put it to January at this point. 🙄

[bears]

Aug 16, 2021 10:27:57 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

NYC will require staff and visitors at museums, concert halls, aquariums and zoos to be vaccinated (if 12 and older).

www.nytimes.com/2021/08/16/arts/design/nyc-museums-vaccine-required.html

I'm crossing my fingers that this pushes my anti-vax family members into getting the vaccine.

My job just delayed our back to the office due to Delta.

I'm so sad for my grandma. She doesn't have many friends left at her age and one of her closest friends died of covid this morning. He had been vaccinated. I feel so terrible that he had such a rough time, he was a very sweet guy.

[SusanBAnthony]

Aug 16, 2021 15:01:22 GMT -5 thelurkylulu said:

Aug 16, 2021 13:44:06 GMT -5 rubytue said:

Well, our in-office date was pushed from September to October. Ostensibly to implement a testing program for the non-vaxed.

Ours was pushed from September to October today as well. Im annoyed by the month push. Nothing is going to change in a month and it’s so hard to plan anything. We have been home since March 2020. Just put it to January at this point. 🙄

I don't know where you both are or how bad it is, but in MN we just pushed out from Sept to oct and I actually feel pretty good about it. We are having a spike bit it is quite small and is pushing more folks to get vaccinated. So I feel like October is actually probably a great time to go back. Now winter might still be a shit show, who knows.

[krystee]

We just moved our fall conference that takes place in Europe to virtual, and while I know it’s the right decision and probably should have been decided even earlier, I am so sad not to get to go. Travel outside the US is the best perk of what I do, and getting to interact with attendees and create content from the event is one of my favorite parts of the job. Hoping hard for 2022!

[turkturkleton]

If anyone is following Australia's outbreak (NSW in particular), our case numbers are still rapidly increasing and the lockdowns have gotten stricter again. Fines have increased 3-5x what they were, our travel radius has been cut in half, and we've been told to stay out of an increasing number of LGAs (local government areas, comparable to a township). My household stopped going out before the full resttrictions, so we're on day 57 at home.

On the plus side, I was finally able to get my first vaccine dose! Overall the state's vaccination rate has risen a lot since they opened the AZ vaccine to the general population, so things are looking up. Moderna was also recently approved by the government, so there should be an influx of those available by the end of the year.

[Velar Fricative]

@turkturkleton, I’ve been following. It’s crazy how the surge has lasted so long despite really strict lockdowns, at least from my perspective. I hope things get better soon and I’m glad you got your first dose.

[tacom]

My hair stylist who I cancelled a couple of weeks ago for not getting vaccinated texted me today to let me know she's halfway through her vaccine series and shared the date she'll be fully vaccinated! I am so excited to see younger people coming around to the vaccine. And selfishly pleased to have my hair person back.

[babsbunny]

Anyone else remember a year or so ago when the covid deniers were all like "I don't actually know anyone that has gotten covid" so they thought it was fake or blown out of proportion?

I bet the fuck they know someone now.

[isabel]

My team of 30+ people is supposed to have an in person event at the beginning of November. I’m holding off for another month or so, but if they don’t cancel it, I’m going to have to seriously consider whether I’m willing to go. The air travel doesn’t bother me, but being in conference rooms with dozens of other people, who will likely all be unmasked because that’s how these things are going at my company, is definitely a problem for @ reasons.

Delta is stressing me out.

[turkturkleton]

Aug 16, 2021 20:56:46 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

@turkturkleton, I’ve been following. It’s crazy how the surge has lasted so long despite really strict lockdowns, at least from my perspective. I hope things get better soon and I’m glad you got your first dose.

Delta was really a game changer. Before this, we had virtually zero community cases, and the ones that popped up were swiftly tracked and isolated. Covid was barely a factor for a while--no masks, large indoor venues back open, pretty much everything was life as usual (apart from being unable to leave the country). Then a delta case slipped through and surged through a ton of people before anyone realized it was here, and now we can't seem to shake it. It's too infectious.

Also something to keep in mind is that our vaccination rate at the beginning of our delta outbreak in June was ~5% fully vaxxed nationally. The vaccine still wasn't available to the general public, let alone accessible. It was slow-going even for the people who were eligible. We've made great strides there (now over 20% fully vaxxed, almost 40% with one dose), but it's still a matter of availibility and access for a lot of people. Plus the only shot available to most people is AstraZeneca, which wasn't allowed for anyone under 60 for a long time because of the blood clotting issues. It's hard for people to get past the mindset. Even my doctor recommended against it when we had no cases, because the risk of getting Covid was actually lower than the possibility of a clot. With our rising case counts and the rate of spread, that risk analysis has pretty much flipped, but it's hard for people to suddenly reverse their thinking.

[Velar Fricative]

US to recommend booster shots 8 months after second dose, starting in mid-September.

www.reuters.com/world/us/us-advise-covid-19-booster-shots-8-months-after-vaccination-nyt-2021-08-17/

I’ll get it, but I feel some kind of way about some Americans unable to get their first shot yet, plus the rest of the world still waiting for one shot.

[mskitkat]

Aug 17, 2021 5:37:45 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

US to recommend booster shots 8 months after second dose, starting in mid-September.

www.reuters.com/world/us/us-advise-covid-19-booster-shots-8-months-after-vaccination-nyt-2021-08-17/

I’ll get it, but I feel some kind of way about some Americans unable to get their first shot yet, plus the rest of the world still waiting for one shot.

Admittedly I haven’t looked at the data used to make this particular announcement, but everything I’ve read previously has been saying that booster shots need to wait until after the rest of the world gets vaccinated. I think the exception is immune-compromised people who had a poor response to the first set.

It’s feeling like more of a show of personal responsibility to end the pandemic in lieu of real national policy or mandates. Not that I’m bitter about how red states are being permitted to do everything in their political power to make delta worse or anything.

[Velar Fricative]

Aug 17, 2021 6:13:33 GMT -5 mskitkat said:

Aug 17, 2021 5:37:45 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

US to recommend booster shots 8 months after second dose, starting in mid-September.

www.reuters.com/world/us/us-advise-covid-19-booster-shots-8-months-after-vaccination-nyt-2021-08-17/

I’ll get it, but I feel some kind of way about some Americans unable to get their first shot yet, plus the rest of the world still waiting for one shot.

Admittedly I haven’t looked at the data used to make this particular announcement, but everything I’ve read previously has been saying that booster shots need to wait until after the rest of the world gets vaccinated. I think the exception is immune-compromised people who had a poor response to the first set.

It’s feeling like more of a show of personal responsibility to end the pandemic in lieu of real national policy or mandates. Not that I’m bitter about how red states are being permitted to do everything in their political power to make delta worse or anything.

That’s what the WHO has been recommending, and I don’t think it’s a bad recommendation, but I don’t recall this administration saying they would follow that recommendation?

And it is personal responsibility for sure. But now in NYC we are dealing with a very vocal minority of people citing Hitler and the Nazis for our vaccine mandates. So there’s that. I have little hope they’ll come around.

[abs]

Aug 17, 2021 5:37:45 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

US to recommend booster shots 8 months after second dose, starting in mid-September.

www.reuters.com/world/us/us-advise-covid-19-booster-shots-8-months-after-vaccination-nyt-2021-08-17/

I’ll get it, but I feel some kind of way about some Americans unable to get their first shot yet, plus the rest of the world still waiting for one shot.

Ok.

But no mention of

@@@
kids?

No mention of how we can help other countries get vaccinated?

This is becoming a shitshow.  Truly the science shows a booster is needed and I don't have a problem with that but this rollout has been...something.  I also see very few people actually signing up for the booster shot.  Older Americans sure.  Otherwise?  I don't see it happening.