US to drop Covid testing requirement for return flights

[sillygoosegirl]

Jun 12, 2022 13:18:06 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

Jun 11, 2022 10:49:18 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

I’ve been very vocal that I think that humans pretty much don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves and we have blown this both as institutions and as individuals.

We had our chance to keep this pandemic under control, and we blew it on every level. This is just one more domino that they have knocked down and I’m so over it.

COVID will NEVER be endemic because humanity sucks.

How are you defining endemic? From what I understand, an endemic virus can still circulate pretty widely, but it doesn’t cause the same level of disruption to daily life. And that has much to do with vaccine coverage and treatments as anything else. Covid will definitely be endemic in higher income countries before long. We’re already seeing new variants having more modest impacts on hospitalizations, especially in areas of the country with high vaccination rates.

FWIW, we’re actually a few months behind the European Union and Canada with this policy change. I’m surprised we held on as long as we did. You generally need to be vaccinated to travel internationally anyway, so you could think of it as waiving the test for vaccinated individuals.

I thought endemic meant basically ubiquitous, and said nothing about level of harmfulness/harmlessness. Anyway, that's the definition Google pulls up for me from the Oxford dictionary. When we refer to places where, say, malaria is endemic, we don't mean it isn't harmful or disruptive to the people living there, we just mean lots of people get it and people are regularly exposed to it. Seems to me that COVID is already endemic in the USA, and unless we get a more effective vaccine AND more people to take that vaccine, it's going to remain so. Which scares the crap out of me, because it's a lot nastier than other illnesses we regularly deal with in this country.

[wanderingback]

Jun 12, 2022 15:13:43 GMT -5 sillygoosegirl said:

Jun 12, 2022 13:18:06 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

How are you defining endemic? From what I understand, an endemic virus can still circulate pretty widely, but it doesn’t cause the same level of disruption to daily life. And that has much to do with vaccine coverage and treatments as anything else. Covid will definitely be endemic in higher income countries before long. We’re already seeing new variants having more modest impacts on hospitalizations, especially in areas of the country with high vaccination rates.

FWIW, we’re actually a few months behind the European Union and Canada with this policy change. I’m surprised we held on as long as we did. You generally need to be vaccinated to travel internationally anyway, so you could think of it as waiving the test for vaccinated individuals.

I thought endemic meant basically ubiquitous, and said nothing about level of harmfulness/harmlessness. Anyway, that's the definition Google pulls up for me from the Oxford dictionary. When we refer to places where, say, malaria is endemic, we don't mean it isn't harmful or disruptive to the people living there, we just mean lots of people get it and people are regularly exposed to it. Seems to me that COVID is already endemic in the USA, and unless we get a more effective vaccine AND more people to take that vaccine, it's going to remain so. Which scares the crap out of me, because it's a lot nastier than other illnesses we regularly deal with in this country.

Covid is not endemic because it’s still being spread globally. That is the definition of a pandemic. Covid isn’t just affecting 1 community or region. So no, covid is not an endemic.

[underwaterrhymes]

Jun 12, 2022 13:18:06 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

Jun 11, 2022 10:49:18 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

I’ve been very vocal that I think that humans pretty much don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves and we have blown this both as institutions and as individuals.

We had our chance to keep this pandemic under control, and we blew it on every level. This is just one more domino that they have knocked down and I’m so over it.

COVID will NEVER be endemic because humanity sucks.

How are you defining endemic? From what I understand, an endemic virus can still circulate pretty widely, but it doesn’t cause the same level of disruption to daily life. And that has much to do with vaccine coverage and treatments as anything else. Covid will definitely be endemic in higher income countries before long. We’re already seeing new variants having more modest impacts on hospitalizations, especially in areas of the country with high vaccination rates.

FWIW, we’re actually a few months behind the European Union and Canada with this policy change. I’m surprised we held on as long as we did. You generally need to be vaccinated to travel internationally anyway, so you could think of it as waiving the test for vaccinated individuals.

I’m defining endemic as this:

A disease outbreak is endemic when it is consistently present but limited to a particular region. This makes the disease spread and rates predictable. Malaria, for example, is considered endemic in certain countries and regions.

Source: www.publichealth.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/epidemic-endemic-pandemic-what-are-differences


COVID is not limited to a particular region, nor is it predictable. Just because we have decided to stop using the same metrics we did originally, does not mean it magically becomes endemic.

Over 1 million people died in the US in the past two years (and 6.5 million people worldwide) and those are conservative numbers. It’s actually likely millions higher.

And many have estimated that we will lose more people to COVID in 2022 than we did in 2021 because mask use has gone way down and protection from vaccination is waning.

There are many articles available explaining why attaining endemic status will be challenging, but this is a particularly good one.


www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/02/02/covid-will-never-become-an-endemic-virus-scientist-warns.html

[wanderingback]

Jun 12, 2022 13:18:06 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

Jun 11, 2022 10:49:18 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

I’ve been very vocal that I think that humans pretty much don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves and we have blown this both as institutions and as individuals.

We had our chance to keep this pandemic under control, and we blew it on every level. This is just one more domino that they have knocked down and I’m so over it.

COVID will NEVER be endemic because humanity sucks.

How are you defining endemic? From what I understand, an endemic virus can still circulate pretty widely, but it doesn’t cause the same level of disruption to daily life. And that has much to do with vaccine coverage and treatments as anything else. Covid will definitely be endemic in higher income countries before long. We’re already seeing new variants having more modest impacts on hospitalizations, especially in areas of the country with high vaccination rates.

FWIW, we’re actually a few months behind the European Union and Canada with this policy change. I’m surprised we held on as long as we did. You generally need to be vaccinated to travel internationally anyway, so you could think of it as waiving the test for vaccinated individuals.

Covid will not be endemic if it’s spreading worldwide, that’s the definition of a pandemic. So covid won’t be endemic in "high income countries" only if it’s still spreading a lot through those countries that aren’t in the same region as well as around the rest of the world. Something is endemic when spread is concentrated to 1 region.

[NewOrleans]

Endemic is about predictability, not weakness. (think malaria)

[goldengirlz]

Jun 12, 2022 16:22:00 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

Jun 12, 2022 13:18:06 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

How are you defining endemic? From what I understand, an endemic virus can still circulate pretty widely, but it doesn’t cause the same level of disruption to daily life. And that has much to do with vaccine coverage and treatments as anything else. Covid will definitely be endemic in higher income countries before long. We’re already seeing new variants having more modest impacts on hospitalizations, especially in areas of the country with high vaccination rates.

FWIW, we’re actually a few months behind the European Union and Canada with this policy change. I’m surprised we held on as long as we did. You generally need to be vaccinated to travel internationally anyway, so you could think of it as waiving the test for vaccinated individuals.

Covid will not be endemic if it’s spreading worldwide, that’s the definition of a pandemic. So covid won’t be endemic in "high income countries" only if it’s still spreading a lot through those countries that aren’t in the same region as well as around the rest of the world. Something is endemic when spread is concentrated to 1 region.

I’ll defer to person with the MD on this board. 😀 But I was actually getting my definition from the AMA website.

www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/how-we-will-know-when-covid-19-has-become-endemic

The U.S. has a chance to move COVID-19 from being a pandemic to an endemic, which “means that the disease is still around but that it's at a level that is not causing significant disruption in our daily lives,” said Dr. Parodi, an infectious diseases physician.

[laurack]

Isn’t influenza considered endemic now though? Even though it does occur all over the world?

I guess I figured Covid won’t disappear but eventually it will be like influenza where some years are worse than others, it never goes away fully, and we get an annual vaccination.

[wanderingback]

Jun 12, 2022 18:40:43 GMT -5 laurack said:

Isn’t influenza considered endemic now though? Even though it does occur all over the world?

I guess I figured Covid won’t disappear but eventually it will be like influenza where some years are worse than others, it never goes away fully, and we get an annual vaccination.

Yes, the flu is endemic. It’s not that it’s just that it occurs all over the world, but the spread and the predictability and transmission.

TB for example occurs all over the world, even in the US (in smaller numbers), but it’s not a pandemic either and only endemic in certain areas because it isn’t spreading like a pandemic.

[audry80]

Jun 10, 2022 16:27:32 GMT -5 fortnightlily said:

www.nytimes.com/live/2022/06/10/world/covid-19-mandates-vaccine-cases#us-testing-travel-mandate-covid

Figures, just a week ago I shelled out $$$ for those proctored eMed tests (including forced $21 overnight shipping) for our trip to Europe later this month.

You can submit the receipt to your insurance. Aetna didn’t cover the full cost for the Emed pack but did send me a check for $72.

[picksthemusic]

We're only travelling domestically this year, but DH wore his KN95 for his flight, and I'll be doing the same, and hopefully that's enough. We are going to be testing ourselves prior to flight, and I plan on taking a couple of kits to test just in case when we're at our destination. Hopefully we stay clear. But I agree with those above saying that harm reduction is the best we can do at this point. Would I rather we enforce masking indoors/on planes and require vaccination status checks on airlines and other forms of travel? Yes. But realistically, I know that's not going to happen because 'the economy'.

[lust2hart]

lilac05, will you please edit your @ posts?

[lilac05]

Jun 13, 2022 10:01:58 GMT -5 lust2hart said:

lilac05, will you please edit your @ posts?

Done. Thank you for pointing it out. I’m so sorry I didn’t catch it when I first posted. Unfortunately, I’m not able to change the posts where I was quoted.