New Covid wave has begun and masks should be worn again, scientists warn
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/new-covid-variant-eris-masks-rules-b2394433.htmlOpen linkView original on lemm.ee847
Comments319https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/new-covid-variant-eris-masks-rules-b2394433.htmlOpen linkView original on lemm.ee
I still wear a mask when going out to stores because I'm immunocompromised due to a kidney transplant. It's ultimately up to me to protect myself from others but what bothers me most lately are people who either laugh or think I'm stupid for still wearing a mask. Some even go as far as to call me out and shame me for it. Can people just mind their own business? I'm not trying to get them to wear a mask so why are they so fixated on me taking mine off?
I still wear a mask because I stand in soldiartiy with folks like you.
Not only do I want to prevent the spread of the disease that could kill immune compromised folks like yourself, but it also helps normalize mask wearing.
Same. I never stopped wearing a mask because I'm immunocompromised from my lung transplant. People call me names all the time. Even here on Lemmy.
Who are calling you names? Show them to us!!!
Lemmy Protectors assemble!!
Protect yourself first, never apologize.
People that call you names are also telling you they don't have your back and do not care if they give you covid or if you die from it.
I find this hard to believe. Especially considering that your post history shows you calling others names like 'simp'.
Wonder why these comments replying to me were removed..
Genuinely, I think it's probably because they feel a little guilty when they see you wearing one, and that's uncomfortable for people, so they respond by taking it out on you.
To distract themselves from their own problems.
This is why I started exclusively wearing kn95s because it became clear after a time that people simply don't give a shit about anyone except themselves, they don't care if you or I get covid and die.
So I stopped pretending like I'm doing my part since we all know surgicals and cloth masks are only truly effective if everyone else is wearing them. They know too but choose to fuck us anyway. So fuck them too and protect yourself first. Wear your p100 respirator with the exhaust vents that filter nothing for extra vindictive points
P100 is the best. Ain't no fart going around that filter.
Claims submitted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
You got a source on that? No of course you don’t
So you have nothing to back up your claim and you're instead going with the 'trust me bro' defense.
Another genius trump voter here folks
Probably the same kind of people complaining about their religion being “under attack”, yet they’re the only ones actively pushing their religion on everyone else and trying to criminalize anything that goes against what they think it stands for.
I work in the med/surg floor of a busy hospital, even though management has taken down mask requirements for patients and staff, I still keep mine on when I go into patients room. I'm not immunocomprised, I just don't trust other people to tell me or the admitting staff the truth of their problems.
Honestly, I am not immunocompromised and I still wear a mask because I haven’t gotten sick since the pandemic started, and it even helps my sinus’ when I’m cleaning the house. I’ve never been one to worry about what someone thinks of me, so I’m sorry if this comes off as tone deaf, but fuck ‘em. Why should you care about what they think about you? When was the last time you thought about that person who was doing something you thought was strange in the local mart? I will assume not until I just made you think about them. Live your life as safely as you want. For every moron out there trying to make fun of you (they can try, but ultimately they themselves just look foolish and stupid) there are more like me and the others who wear masks alongside you. Stay safe and have a good rest of your day!
This is the same issue the LGBT community suffers from, as well as people of color, people with accents, etc. People always find ways to make themselves feel superior to others by pointing out something different. You choosing to wear a mask just makes those kinds of people laugh because they either 1. Feel better than you for not wearing masks or 2. They are uneducated/ignorant and follow others' opinions without question.
I suppose the only way to turn it back around on them would be to try scaring them by saying you have something contagious like strep throat, or worse, so they'll shut up and leave you alone. Otherwise my only other advice would be to just do your best to not engage with these types of people.
Alternatively: "I'm hiding my face from the HillarySorosObama facial recognition cameras, if YOU want Joe Biden knowing how many zits you have that's on you"
Im sorry you have to deal with that. They are just assholes.
I really hoped that the mask stigma would change, but it's sad to see it go this way. I might just start wearing a mask again to do my part to normalize it.
If people are sick, they should feel like it's the right thing to do to wear a mask. It needs to be a normal thing and people that make fun of it are pieces of shit .
No one should shame anyone for wearing a mask. However no one should shame anyone for not wearing a mask.
I don't begrudge anyone for wearing a mask in solidarity or to do what they think they can to save lives, but I'm on the side of feeling like I'm taking a personal bag to the store, or recycling plastic bottles like it's actually doing something. I personally don't like wearing a mask, and I feel like in most cases it's just theater to do so.
Someone called me a libtard under his breath, but loudly enough to make sure I heard...in a CANCER center, where many of us were having our immune systems weakened by chemo.
You can't fix stupid so I don't even try. I've been in remission for almost two years, I'm healthy and he's out there sucking in viruses. We both have ticking clocks, but mine is ticking much more slowly than his is.
The lesson I'm learning is that we should have worn masks during "flu season" all along. In crowded and poorly ventilated spaces at least. It's a cheap and easy measure and I don't know what the BFD is with masks.
But fuck it, let's all just return to the office anyways. Amirite? SMH
Well yeah. If we don't the landowners will lose money on all their ugly and useless office buildings and that would be sooo awful :(
But if they lose money they can't invest it and create jobs.
Oh, I forgot, the wonderful trickle-down-economics. /s
Give the rich more and we will all benefit from it some day instead of creating social security and subsidizing education by fairly taxing everyone equally and without exceptions and loopholes.
My comment was 10,000% sarcasm. Of course they don't add jobs, trickledown economics is a complete crock of shit lol
Bahahaha I felt that I didn't have to add /s to the end of that, I was obviously wrong..
it got me, too tbh. There's too many people who actually think this :/
I wonder how much of the wave is due to return to office
How many people haven't returned? My company, and nearly everyone I know has been back for 2 years.
My company only started cracking down on it a couple months ago. Nominally the majority of employees were supposed to be working in the office three days a week as of April 2022, but most of the roles don't require physical presence so people just kept working from home. Now the company has shifted to tracking badge data to make sure people are actually coming into the office, despite three years of data demonstrating we're just as productive as home...
It's not totally clear yet. My role is fully remote, so the info I have is second-hand from memos and word of mouth. The company has apparently been using an automated system to send scary emails to people not badging in (with their manager CCed), but I don't know what happens if you just ignore those. Memos have made vague threats of implications for performance reviews, but those haven't happened yet since they announced they would be tracking badge data.
Here in Norway there was a marked shift to acceptance for more home office post-Corona. We did have stricter and longer restrictions than you guys though, and basically things didn't go back to normal until winter 2022. At my work I'd say 80% do home office at least 1 day per week, and 30% do home office 4/5 days in the week (we have one mandatory office day per week). I'd also say that a few percent have taken that opportunity to do "quiet quitting" and essentially do nothing (joining meetings from the car in the middle of the day on their way to IKEA and stuff like that, never engaging in or starting initiatives by themselves etc.), but that's on management for not getting rid of them.
Personally I still go 5/5 days by own choice, because I live right next by, prefer the ritual of switching into job/focus mode that it is to walk to the office, and like sitting in a separate place that has no distractions (compared to home, where I would take 5 minutes to do the dishes, take an extended trip to the grocery at lunch, etc) and that my brain only associates with working.
In the UK at least, most people I know who work in an office can choose to WFH or do hybrid working. I do hybrid by choice, I don't want to WFH full time.
Just in time with school starting back up too for kids. A lot have already gone back, hence where I think the spike patterns originate.
Not sure about other countries, but at least in Europe we had quite a few comments, including by health officials, that the school closures should not have been done and upheld to the extent that they were.
And I agree, the impact on learning and children's mental health was not justified by the real or potential dangers of the pandemic imho
Edit: One comment from the German Health Minister here, describing prolonged school closures as a mistake
Meanwhile in Asia we moved lessons to zoom for a few weeks and that was it. But Germans think giving kids a tablet or notebook is exposing them to the devil
In many places schools weren't even really 'closed'. The number of failures stacked on top of failures is staggering. Nobody who matters will be held to account. Most westerners won't want to accept it but China's response was near flawless in comparison. And their economy continued to grow throughout. Albeit at a lesser rate. The west plunged itself into recession which it then reframed it's way out of and still hasn't recovered properly.
They don't say that. They said the extent of closures was inappropriate for the severity of the pandemic and the role of schools.
And Germany did quite well during COVID, per capita deaths are far lower than, for example, in the US, UK, Italy, or France.
I mean, comparing countries with it's peers is what you should do. I could also have taken Argentina, Bulgaria, or Russia, but at the end you'll see that Germany did fairly well.
I think the question is somewhere how much death we accept against the impact of avoiding it. In this case, as I said before, there seems increasingly the opinion that school closures as a measure did not have the impact that justified its extent of use.
Get over it. COVID is a lot more minor than anyone made out to be. Have you not had it yet? You will if you haven’t. And then you will get over it like a cold. COVID is over for good.
Don't be so dense. Maybe for you it was fine but my dad has never been the same since, and he had covid 18 months ago.
I'm young(ish), fit and healthy and I was ill for 6 weeks. I don't know how you could be unaware of its effects after all this time.
Except for the million that died.
Nonsense, it is a novel virus, effects can vary widely. I got it for the first time last Christmas and my heart still hasn't recovered, dizzy spells after climbing stairs or bending over.
it’s interesting to see how common it is for people in NYC to still wear them sometimes, especially when on the subway (the air is shitty, so it makes sense).
I doubt it will be much of a problem here, except for those who always refused. yeah, it sucks, but it’s a lot better than getting sick— or dying.
I wear one on the subway and it also helps a lot with smells. That "car that smells like shit" is often not noticeable at all.
In the borroughs I never see it.
really? I do. Brooklyn and queens, anyway.
The only thing that sticks out to me is scooters running red lights and stop signs all day, but no masks in sight in both Brooklyn and Bronx.
I guess Sunnyside to be specific and Morris Park.
This post made me realize how completely ignorant to covid I’ve become lately… I had to check the date to see if it was current or years old.
covid or no covid, its not the worse thing to wear masks and stay safe!
Wear a Mask. Get vaccinated. Stop spreading misinformation
Since the anti-mask/vax comments seem to be flooding in, figured I'd make my opinion known too... as obnoxiously as I can, because apparently that's how it's done
Unless the strain is killing a sizable amount of people getting it it'll be hard to get people to wear masks en masse again.
Even if it kills (which it likely will), our track record shows that didn't care enough about that, and in a decreasing manner. So it'll only be worse.
Pretty sure every virus has killed people, from the cold, to flu, and of course covid. It feels like now the death rate for the latest variants of covid are pretty comparable to the flu, the virus has lost a lot of its killing power over time.
Do you have any studies or research to suggest covid hasn't gotten weaker?
Thanks for the links!
To summarize the NPR one, and correct me if I am wrong, but they are confirming that the current variants are weaker, but that we shouldn't take that to mean the next variants will follow the same trend?
Viruses tend to mutate to be more contagious and less lethal, it's just how natural selection/evolution works. The strains most likely to survive will be the ones that don't kill their hosts before they can do so.
Alright, here you go.
Death rates aren't a feeling. I want some hard numbers.
I feel like we just don't care if we live or die anymore.
I know I've read reports about the latest variants being much less deadly. I did see one study recently which for patients presenting to hospital covid was a few percentage points more likely to result in death compared to hospitalized flu patients. There were a lot more covid patients though.
Found it:
So there is some data backing up the feelings I've gotten from everything I've been hearing and seeing.
So that's almost twice as bad as the flu.
I mean, that's one way to look at it. I looked at it as only a couple percent higher death rate than the flu. Either way, a little less than 2x is way better than like 5x worse.
Obviously it's better than before, but it's also worth keeping in mind these deaths are in addition to the flu.
Also, there are good and bad flu seasons. I see no reason for COVID to not be the same.
That's fair, but I think you can still compare it to the flu, which is not that far off from covid percentage wise. At this point both the flu and covid should be at an equal level of people having vaccines and natural antibodies, right? Even if you go with covid being about twice as deadly as the flu, twice as deadly as almost nothing is still almost nothing.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans will die this year from COVID. Sure, almost nothing. Just a 9/11 every two weeks or so.
I keep wearing N95s. Haven't gotten COVID yet and not feeling like playing the Long COVID roulette. I don't work 9-5 in an office so I don't even have to wear a mask for very long periods of time. Buses, stores require it, but there's plenty to do outside anyway. Patios are fine. Need to take a leak? Put the mask on. No one from my circle has caught it yet. Honestly this protocol isn't that bad.
Yes friend, I'm with you
Name checks out
It's like once "their guy" gave them the ok, everyone started licking doorknobs again. Why couldn't we keep this "social distancing" thing going? I liked my personal space.
I've been doing this and still somehow managed to catch it about a year ago. One of the few people at that event that was wearing a mask and somehow I'm the one that gets it...
Don't know if I'm ever going to stop wearing a mask.
Cause masks prevent others from getting your diseases.
If everyone else wasn't wearing a mask, then you were prone to getting their diseases.
It happens. Since the beginning of the pandemic I've caught something exactly once, a couple of months ago. I did a PCR test however while symptomatic and it came out negative. So did my wife when she got it a couple of days later. My point is that something got through the defense protocol and could easily have been SARS-CoV-2. I only know it wasn't because I tested for it.
Everyone in my immediate circles either masks up like I do or hasn't seen me in a few years lol. I didn't quarantine and mask all this time to get COVID now goddammit I refuse. Funny thing is my life hasn't been any worse without those people now that I think about it... Huh.
Our track record dealing with covid shows us that our approach was largely unsuccessful. Masking must be enforced, not suggested. This is the only effective solution.
I tend to agree, but realistically who is going to enforce it? You've got to take into consideration the impact the constant stream of conflict has on low level employees who end up responsible for this enforcement. For those who want to protect themselves, N95 masks are highly effective when used properly.
Right, it's not going to be accepted by the public or broadly enforced by anyone. The only thing we can do is wear effective masks to protect ourselves. That's basically been the reality of it the whole time.
You also need to wear eye protection. Even just regular, prescription glasses showed a 30% reduction in infection rates. Masks don't protect if other people wont also wear them.
I'm struggling to understand how glasses work wear a mask wouldn't. I'm not saying glasses won't help prevent people spitting Covid into your eyes. But how can you believe that and think wearing a mask won't help at all?
In an ideal world, the community. In our current world, the government must require businesses to require customers to wear masks and social distance, and threaten them with suspending their business if they do not comply.
It will not be constant. Places where this was enforced strictly did not have that trouble. It is the wishy-washy enforcement that empowered people to do this. It will be a short lived protest that dies out quickly, and the suffering will be far easier than that of covid deaths.
From my understanding, it is not enough. A person sharing a public space with you and not wearing a mask poses a threat, and this threat is massive if they are carrying the virus (even if non-symptomatic).
People must not have the freedom to cause the death or others by spreading respiratory viruses due to childish irresponsibility because their favorite youtuber said so.
You people throw tantrums, but when you have to face consequences, you chicken out very quickly.
https://www.cochrane.org/CD006207/ARI_do-physical-measures-such-hand-washing-or-wearing-masks-stop-or-slow-down-spread-respiratory-viruses
Read it. Then read it again.
People were such dimwits about it though. Even if you had a security guard at the entrance to every shop challenging people to wear properly fitted n95s, I'm certain heaps of people would remove it after they walked past just on principle.
Yeah it was a shitshow, all because of how politicized it became. No one in 2018 would have thought that asking people to wear a face mask would become such an embarrassing ordeal.
But trust me, it's easy to catch a mask less person in a store. It shouldn't take more than a couple incidents before they learn their lesson and make an example for others.
"Police are bad unless it is to arrest people over a mask"
Thanks for coming over from reddit
Police are bad because they don't serve the interests of the community
Curbing the spread of a lethal viral infection is in the interest of the community
And we can concentrate those who refuse in special camps!
We can tell them to make a real argument or expect no acknowledgement
You people need to be stopped, you are insane autoritarians. The crisis is over, we are but fin to wear mask forever. You had your time in the lime light, now it's back to normal. Continue to abuse this position and you will not get the population to mobilise again to alleviate the situation.
Once again we see the abled throwing tantrums over the idea of having to suffer a mild discomfort so as to protect the lives of the disabled, especially the immunocompromised.
I have an aunt whose immune system has to be medicated into nonexistence at all times so it doesn't wreck her body, and she is still fucked up from covid, months after "getting over" it and with multiple vaccine shots beforehand. How many people have you killed or left permanently ill, and never realised, in your selfish ignorance?
If there were any divine justice in this world, idiots like you would be smote with horrible autoimmune diseases or total organ failure, forced to go on anti-rejection drugs for the rest of your lives, and live with the same fear you force on others, the fear that any "harmless" disease could be the death of you.
Your aunt would have to protect herself covid or no covid. Do you think microorganisms only appeared in the last 5 years?
Your last paragraph shows your true self and how "caring" you truly are.
Stop bringing up imaginary malingerers to make your point, it's as ridiculous as your magical man in the sky delivering justice
A shot of what? It's not vodka.
Otherwise known as…?
How authoritative. Personal responsibility is the answer. Not forcing others to your level. If your threat level is that high, ok that is your choice. However everyones threat level to this thing should take into account that not everyone in your community will be on the same page as you.
Unless you want another trucker convoy emerging, I suggest not forcing any mandates. Enforce any mandate on yourself, but only yourself.
No one must have the freedom to cause the death of other people by spreading lethal respiratory viruses, only because they failed to comply with every one of the million warnings about covid-19 and masks. Just because your favorite youtuber told you masks are bad does not give you the right to murder people. This behavior must be stopped at all costs, and I do not care what you think of it.
The CCP has entered the chat
Based
You are an absolute virus factory, you should never be allowed outside again. You stay home forever, we'll bring your food don't worry. We can't take the chance of your germs getting out again.
Hehe fun story. Anyways where's the argument? A
By going outside and interacting in the world will always have the risk of danger, injury, illness and death. The modern world is the most safest envoriment that have ever existed.
If restrictions do return, it will only cause more division and more protests. The trucker convoy that started in Canada was a response to the government overreach in Canada and across the west since politicians and the media were treating the population at large like children.
We are adults (And I assume you are also an adult), and therefore we can make our own decisions. You can wear a mask. Your kids if you got any can wear a mask. You can refuse to spend time with others who do not wear masks, you can refuse to work at a job that makes masking optional, you can refuse to shop at places that refuse to enforce a mask policy.
Alright, but many people do not care what you think and will disregard your strict stance on the matter. Not because they are "murderers" which is quite a claim to make, but because everyone has their own threat level. My advice is, include the fact many other people do not care about your threat model and not force your threat model onto every one else. The world does not revolve around anybody.
Personal responsibility is the answer if the question is, 'Would you like to contribute to millions of unnecessary deaths and further countless suffering?' It clearly doesn't work as a public health strategy.
Covid spreads pre-symptomatically and asymptomatically, and spreading it does harm people, so good luck with that logic
There is no need for a public health strategy. This idea that we all must bubble wrap the world is insane. Germs and viruses will always exist. Do what is best for you stop getting mad at others who have different threat models than you.
I wish everyone used Linux, but I know that will never happen. I use Linux and will help anyone that wants to use linux and thats were it ends. I move on and am happy being a Linux user. I do not expect the government to force the population to use Linux to make a more digitial secure and private society, that will be insane and will piss off most of the population. Mandates are no different.
If we took this approach to those other germs and viruses that you mention, quality of life and life expectancy would plummet as fast as infant mortality shot up. There's nothing special about Covid in that regard except that it needs more respect than many other issues.
Edit: I edited my comment because I was a bit rude. I apologise for that.
The world will always have a hint of danger, and germs and viruses are included in this mix. Life expectancy did not increase due to public compliants to health measures, it increased due to things like soap, showering/bathing every day or two instead of every few months and the standard for hygeine in factories like meat plants. And medicine has come a long way to cure old nasty diseases.
Don't know what you said but I do appreciate the apology.
I know what you're saying. But basic hygeine, etc, work against some illnesses while other health scares require different strategies (as well as good hygeine). I think we may be talking at cross purposes, working with very different models of the world and of what's possible.
If COVID was as bad as it was advertised. We would of seen the results in the world, and therefore people would voluntarily take the appropate percautions. No need for state intervention. If the pandemic was bad and the state did nothing about it, except maybe advise some caution which is how Japan mostly handled the pandemic, people will do what is nesissary.
Why does politics have to get involved? Because the government got so involved in the pandemic, that why it became politicial. Sometimes ignoring a problem like a virus you cannot really control is the best course of action and it will take care of itself in a grassroots sort of a way.
oh no! not another truck convey. the absolute horror.
You are very, very wrong.
Read this review. https://www.cochrane.org/CD006207/ARI_do-physical-measures-such-hand-washing-or-wearing-masks-stop-or-slow-down-spread-respiratory-viruses
People like you shouldn’t live in the west. Fuck forcing people to wear a face rag when the science is far from clear on its effectiveness.
Curb your pseudo science. Use a real source.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33347937/
Look at the date you dumb fuck. Then recognize that the Cochrane review is highly respected when it comes to public health science.
You people are ridiculous.
I know you're being combative so it's unlikely, but did you actually read both sources? One is a review of around 70 studies, before and during the pandemic, sonme unpublished. The other is a review of 5000 articles which found statistically significant results..
The responded article says this:
They literally typed some shit into the journal search database that had that many articles. They didn’t study all of those articles. Their study is founded exclusively from 6 studies. The Cochrane review’s approach is far more comprehensive and goes into considerably more depth in many more studies.
So, maybe you didn’t read the articles? Or maybe you don’t understand population level, public health study methods.
Fair point, I did misread that. But it seems you're acting in bad faith with just one source again. Any search amongst published articles provide evidence for the efficacy and cost effectiveness of masks as a adjunct preventative measure. It seems rather like cherry picking to trust the one place that goes against the grain, no?
Haven't left my house without wearing a mask ever since the ride started. Also never caught the virus. At the rate we're going, I'm going to wear them for the rest of my life. I don't mind.
For what it's worth, it's entirely possible (and probably likely) that you simply had an asymptomatic case.
Probable, but just reaffirms the logic behind wearing a mask even now.
I want one built into my nostrils and throat.
I tested this with bread as the 'mask' it works except if you use rye bread.
Fascinating
Please post visual aids to assist with disseminating your findings.
So glad it's not just me. People in the real world act like I'm crazy and it's exhausting.
How often are you changing masks? N95s aren't cheap, I imagine this would get a bit pricy.
In the US they're a lot cheaper now than they used to be. You can pick up 3M Aurora N95 masks for about $1/ea in store in many areas. Still not nearly as cheap as surgical masks, but also clearly better than surgical masks.
Once you have to start importing them, the price seems to rapidly increase.
I'm mostly using Moldex 2600. I'd use them for a week or two, but I don't go out every day and I don't wear them for hours on end. If I were going to the office 9-5 I'd probably change them weekly. They're very robust and have structural protection in front.
You don't need to change masks after one wear, unless you work in a medical setting.
When the strap breaks
You'll only be getting symbolic protection long before the strap breaks.
It's not symbolic. It's less than 95 percent of particles at the threshold size, but dont pretend like it's the same as nothing.
I mean to say that a second-, third-, or fourth-day N95, snapped strap or no, will no longer be filtering 95% of the particles, giving a false sense of confidence.
Did not mean to say that N95s are just symbolic, but I understand how it could be read that way.
It doesn't stop working because you wear it. Why should it? Have some masks on rotation and leave the ones you aren't wearing in the sun or in a UV-C decontamination box.
Yep, got it again this week and presently in isolation. On the upside, we know how to treat it way better than when I had it last time.
I had it in June. Doc gave me medicine that made my mouth taste like burning rubber for a week. Not sure if I was getting better or worse.
When I took paxlovid the world tasted like malort for a week. It was awful.
But it gets rid of Covid within 8 hours. I've never had a cure that worked so fast. It gives you a different set of problems (joint pain, tiredness, some weird tastes) but it doesn't give you heart, lung, or brain damage like Covid. I'll take it.
Yeah, Paxlovid didn't exist the last time I had COVID. The mouth taste off of it is indeed weird, but the fact that I already stopped feeling the brain fog is a huge plus. I was feeling the brain fog for a good month or so after my last infection.
I got it in late July and STILL have it. Both testing positive and with symptoms. Isolating this long has been hell. And I have no idea when it's going to end.
Talk to your doctor, there is rarely any point in isolating after two weeks even if you still test positive.
BuT wHaT aBoUt the ecoNoMy??!!
I mean, we didn't handle any of this well the first time. That goes for most places on the planet. I'm sure we won't handle it well if it really does go south again.
Time to buy some shares, I guess.
I saw on the CBC last night a story of a restaurant worker who was fired because she wore a mask. That's how bonkers we in Canada have become lately.
Wear a mask! This round of covid still sucks. Ask me how I know
I hate scepticism over vaccines, but when it has just been announced that vaccines can be sold to the public for around £100 each, and then this comes along. They say ignore how many are being admitted to hospital as other consequences are more dangerous.
I have followed the hospital rates as a metric for over a year now. I don't see any other metric as valid. The death rate is reduced as the most vulnerable have been seen off. The reporting rate is non-existent because people are not interested anymore. People are under pressure to attend work with covid now, so why would they bother with the testing kits. Patients in hospital is the most sensible data point to me.
Why are we not being told of which areas are showing the most cases? Covid cases are drastically reduced now. Which hospitals are taking in large amounts of cases?
It would be stupid to take unnecessary risks, but this has a bad smell of fear mongering to sell vaccines around it for me.
Welp, time for me to buy a new mask cause I accidentally tossed my old one out when I replaced my old purse. :|
Disposable KF94's are the way to go. I re-use them as safely as I can, because I'm not rich, but then discard them when they become compromised
Cloth masks don’t do shit anyway. Neither do N95s apparently. You are out of date on the literature.
https://www.cochrane.org/CD006207/ARI_do-physical-measures-such-hand-washing-or-wearing-masks-stop-or-slow-down-spread-respiratory-viruses
There is uncertainty about the effects of face masks. The low to moderate certainty of evidence means our confidence in the effect estimate is limited, and that the true effect may be different from the observed estimate of the effect. The pooled results of RCTs did not show a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks. There were no clear differences between the use of medical/surgical masks compared with N95/P2 respirators in healthcare workers when used in routine care to reduce respiratory viral infection. Hand hygiene is likely to modestly reduce the burden of respiratory illness, and although this effect was also present when ILI and laboratory-confirmed influenza were analysed separately, it was not found to be a significant difference for the latter two outcomes. Harms associated with physical interventions were under-investigated.
Counterpoint: Wearing and maintaining a clean mask takes nearly zero effort and provides peace of mind for a lot of people.
Please no...
I got a mess of boosters. I'm done with masks.
From the charts in the article, it looks like levels of infection are up to where they were in May/June 2023. Were you wearing a mask then? It really begs the question: What is the threshold level of infection in which the wearing of masks is critically important?
Eh.... Nah. I don't think you're going to see a lot of mask wearing in the US again. If they want to roll out another vaccine I'll take it, but the masks are a pain in the ass and no one likes them.
nah ill do all the covid shots i need, but i'm done masking
i think everyone is pretty universally over masks
I bet you, that people arent using masks correctly
You have to use it only once. You cant touch it with your hand, etc etc
Everyone is gonna wear the same mask over and over
Its dumb and pointless. But the media mentions it like its the only solution.
This isn't true. Full 100% mask proper usage is not the only way to wear a mask that helps.
it's been a long time since I took biology but my gut keeps telling me that this isn't some binary thing.. like, all these suggestions we follow to me seem to be about minimizing exposure.. like if I get 100 individual covid viruses in me through a cheap, cloth mask, my body can fight it off. And that may be a different outcome if I didn't have a mask at all and got 1,000 individual viruses in me.
I don't know, I'm not a biologist, I just don't get how everything is constantly framed as all or nothing. it doesn't make sense to me.
MoSt CuRsEd GeNeRaTiOn Ever
Masks barely do anything for these flu germs. Wtf this community is on another planet. Stop watching cnn and go outside.
They keep using that word. I do not think it means what they think it means.
What so they mean by "surveillance" here
Monitoring the transmission of the new variant.
Surveillance is an incredibly important tool in monitoring virus incidence and disease spread. Here is a summary of an article published in the National Library of Medicine that explains it in detail:
“Surveillance is a fundamental tool for public health, producing information to guide actions. Modern surveillance tends to follow health measures such as the incidence of a disease or syndrome or even the occurrence of health-related behaviors. There are many reasons for conducting surveillance, and the data collected and the approach taken to analyzing those data are both influenced by the overall goal of a surveillance system. Surveillance systems aims mainly at detection also provide information that may be useful for other purposes. The goal of detecting an outbreak of a newly emerging virus, places specific demands on the type of data collected and the types of analysis performed. All approaches to surveillance share some common principles. While some of the underlying methods used in public health surveillance have evolved considerably in recent years, the general approach to surveillance has remained relatively constant. At a fundamental level, surveillance aims to (1) identify individual cases, (2) detect population patterns in identified cases, and then (3) convey information to decision-makers about population health patterns.”
Link for those that want a further read: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7114643/
Who knew there were still so many mask supporters. It’s a weird world with a lot of people that cannot use critical thinking. They would make good bee workers in a hive. I guess we need those people, but let’s hope politicians don’t bend to their idiotic masking demands.
I didn’t realize Lemmy was such a cesspool when it came to a love for dystopian Covid shit. There are some strange people here.
Yeah, no. No one is buying into this crap anymore. We got fleeced once. Not again.
Fear
Fear the invisible bugs.
Fear people.
Fear people who don't wear the mask
Love the mask.
Love the scientists
Fear.
Chronic anxiety is common now. A mental disease that is sweeping the population.
Some have it mild, some have it bad.
This propaganda exploits it. Plays your anxiety like a piano.
You provide the gasoline, they provide the spark.
Cloth masks were always supposed to be a stopgap measure until vaccines or increased N95 production was available.
People will not mask up again, and quite frankly, shouldn't have to, especially if they're not going to use ones that are actually effective.
The pharma companies jacked up the price of the vaccines knowing future waves were coming and yearly boosters would be necessary.
My point is: whether you think people should mask up again or not, it's just not going to happen, but the actual paths forward, either mandatory vaccinations or at least cheap and readily accessed shots for the willing won't happen either without government intervention.
But let's be bluntly honest, people's behaviour has nothing to do with the efficacy of masks. They won't wear a mask, regardless of efficacy, because they simply do not want to. And they do not care if they spread disease.
This is obvious by all the folks with their nose sticking out
There are many, many people who gladly masked up until the vaccines were out and then stopped when they got their shots, like all reasonable medical professionals suggested, and now won't go back because they've kept up their boosters and it's unreasonable to insist on it.
But, you're right, the other kind, who aren't vaxxed and never masked, won't do their part out of spite, and the only solution for them is mandatory vaccinations or complete social pariahhood, and only one of those is realistically possible.
I did not live in the timeline where medical professionals advised people to stop masking after recieving the vaccine. Because that didn't actually happen. Masks were recommended long after the vaccines rolled out. And really, were never advised against.
Vaccines protect you, masks protect others from you. And the two operate on entirely different mechanisms and can be layered for greater efficacy at combating the virus.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7510705/
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/faq.html#:~:text=Generally%2C%20if%20you%20are%20up,protect%20yourself%20from%20COVID%2D19.
I'm sorry, what is it that you think those links say? Neither of them advise against masking.
The first says that cloth masks are advised against for healthcare workers, because they are not up to medical requirements. They still have value in community use, because any cut in rate of transmission is valuable.
The second says that masks are not needed in outdoor settings, because the risk of transmission is lowered already. Masks would make the risk even lower still, but there is an amount of risk most people are willing to accept. Still not advising against masking.
They both say it's unnecessary for vaccinated people, and the first one directly calls cloth masks a last resort when nothing better is available.
You can wear your security blanket if you want though, it's a free country.
I am so tired of you people.
Can you at least come up with better insults than security blanket?
I think the worse part of the pandemic was realizing that anti-maskers and the like have 0 creativity or humor and just how tiresome hearing the same 4 insults over and over was. It was like having an item not scan at the register and the customer say "it must be free" for the 30th time that day... But on a national scale.
Like you could call masks face huggers and make fun of people about to get a chest burster. You could call them stale air enthusiasts. You can call them breath checkers, mint reminders, mobile napkins. Possibilities are endless!
But no, we gotta put up with the whole anti-mask crowd and the like not only spreading misinformation and germs. But also being so un-creative and such sheep that they can only parrot the same 4 insults on rotation. Like at least make me chuckle or smirk instead of just boring me.
Is it really too much to ask for the anti-mask crowd and similar movements to just bring their game up a little bit above facebook mom minion level humor? I really don't think I'm asking for much here considering crazy conspiracy people in the early 2000's had some pretty funny zingers they'd dish out, and nearly every insult I got was unique. I miss that
That's weird. My girlfriend got another booster yesterday in Canada for free.
Rub it in, why don't ya.
(You won't see the outrageous profiteering of their new pricing directly, but don't worry, you're still impacted, even if your tax rates are a bit more sensible)
That's your take from what I said?
That's what your comment implies, yes, that the costs don't matter because you don't see them.
What do you think your comment implies?
I just said that that's weird, because just yesterday we went and didn't have to pay. Just giving insight to the fact it's not a paid thing everywhere.
Seems like Americans still haven't learned that the internet is GLOBAL. Saying:
without any context of where you live, means I can take it anyway I want. So maybe this person lives in Canada, and I commented that it's weird because my shot was free in Canada yesterday. Stop treating the internet as if it's a US only thing. State where you're from. State the currency you're using (news flash, $ is not American).
Stop being [email protected]
I'm happy to see "fuck you, I got mine" is alive and well internationally, but why that was your first response to a plague vaccine being inaccessible to the masses should be up for question.
Glad to see you took my comment and turned it into something to hate me for.
I just said that that's weird, because just yesterday we went and didn't have to pay. Just giving insight to the fact it's not a paid thing everywhere.
Seems like Americans still haven't learned that the internet is GLOBAL. Saying:
without any context of where you live, means I can take it anyway I want. So maybe this person lives in Canada, and I commented that it's weird because my shot was free in Canada yesterday. Stop treating the internet as if it's a US only thing. State where you're from. State the currency you're using (news flash, $ is not American).
Stop being [email protected]
Someone is paying for it. The manufacturer is not just giving it away for free. That means your taxes are going towards it.
Oh no my taxes are being spent to save lives?! The horror!!
That isn't contradictory with what that person said.
Things have costs, even things that are free at point-of-service. Often, those costs are worth it. It's not as if they said that any use of tax money for any purpose is a horror.
Oh shit, blast from the past. Haven't heard this libertarian talking point in a while.
Every time someone gets a free beer, the libertarians point out that there is no such thing as free beer. Except that's not true: They don't mind free beer usually, it's almost always some social program that's "not free". Hey guess what: Everybody already knows that vaccines do not grow on trees. No need to explain this. Libertarians just hate social programs because they are
selfish pricksrugged individuals.This might be a wild take, but your taxes shouldn't be subject to profiteering just because it's to save lives. They should instead, at a minimum, be subject to reasonable price caps to combat racketeering.
Edit: Especially when Canada is only vulnerable to it in the first place thanks to neoliberal policies privatizing Connaught Labs, gutting their research and quality, yet still somehow increasing prices.
How's that boot taste?
Americans pay the same taxes.
Nooooo !
I know several crazy people. Literally crazy. Diagnosed by doctors and such.
They are the most enthusiastic maskers.
Says a lot.
I came here because I was tired of seeing this garbage on reddit all the time. How long are you going to let yourself be scared?
lol what a stupid fucking take.
The government could announce a volcano evacuation and you stupid fucks would be like “how long are you babies gonna be scared?” as you walk into the burning hot lava.
Fucking ridiculous.
the irony of saying that and having a comment history filled with anti-covid misinformation is just a chef's kiss amount of projection
Oh? Please point out the information I posted for reference. I’m not sure what you mean.
So who do you think is behind this? Big mask?
Masking is not an effective solution. Anyone that propagates this shit is just doing it for clicks at this point.
Have you read the highly respected Cochrane Review? https://www.cochrane.org/CD006207/ARI_do-physical-measures-such-hand-washing-or-wearing-masks-stop-or-slow-down-spread-respiratory-viruses
Read the review. It’s the most comprehensive post pandemic study from a highly respected journal. They clearly state the following:
If we can’t settle the issue after a 2 year pandemic, I highly doubt it will ever be settled by science.
Masking is political theater and is ultimately a matter of expressing your tribe at this point. Alternatively, we could think of people who wear masks today as leaning more heavily towards social humanism and hive mentality (society over the individual), where non masks proponents lean towards liberal humanism (in the sense of freedom of the individual, that is, personal liberty).
Given that the science is inconclusive about masks, and even suggests that they are not effective, it’s about time that news outlets drop the topic. If you want to wear a mask, then do it. But don’t force anyone else to or suggest that governments should regulate it.
COVID is over. New shit will come. Masks won’t be the solution.
Edit: downvotes without any proper rebuttal. Classic tribalism at all cost despite the truth.
Wait hold on I've seen this one before
I don't have evidence she actually cheated on me this time, other than the nudes she sent the same dude she fucked. I learned my lesson this time. I'm not letting her have the house.
Bro go see a counselor instead of vomiting this all over us please
oh. well shit
Wat
masks do NOT work. Not unless you are wearing at least an N-95 or better mask. More fear-mongering in an election year, surprise surprise. Do not forget to get your lovely vaccines.
Let's fix your incorrect comment: "Masks prevent the spread of communicable diseases, especially N-95 masks."
The existence of viruses is not fear-mongering. You don't believe in the flu either? Staph? E. Coli? Is your ignorance limited to just one virus, or all of them?
Are you just going to attempt vague untruths or would you care to be a little more specific in your falsities?
Nobody needs more misinformation from you. Thanks for the offer, though.
Good, nobody wants any more from you.
N95 work the best but that doesn't mean other masks do nothing. They still very much reduce risk
this is an article about the UK. Election years aren't really quite a thing in the UK as the UK parelement's elections are called whenever the ruling party/coalition calls it as long as it's within a certain time frame (in this case by 2025) and it's highly unlikely for them to call for sooner than they have to as the Torries aren't exactly polling well
This article is about the UK ... God this shows how much you were ready to just jump at conspiracy theories.
Oh no. Anyway..
Yeah nah
You mean this data? https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
If so, then don't just look at the positive tests but at the graph that shows tests performed. Positive tests goes up but tests performed is relatively the same. That tells you it is a real increase in positivity. It could be the start of another big peak, or not. Time will tell, but you'd think going through the last years one should pay attention to such statistics. Because if you start taking measures only when you are back to 100.000+ cases a day you are a bit too late.
and patients committed
I "admit" committed is funny because that's what COVID and all of the "I did my own research" hoopla has made me feel like. That I've been committed to an insane asylum with all of the loonies spreading their theories justifying their behavior without impunity thereby making COVID more deadly as it lasts longer given such time to continuously mutate......
No, because if hysteria would be an appropriate response it wouldn't be hysteria. The good news is: no one is calling for hysteria, there's just a recommendation to wear masks.
Right back at you. Please show me where I am not "chill" here? There is one person who is not chill and its certainly not me.
You can still choose to wear a mask or not, theres no law yet or is there? So just don't, I guess?
The smaller bumps by the way occur because people kept getting vaccines and boosters. How does that look like where you are? When was the last time you got a shot or a booster? From the sound of it a while ago.
You know you can follow the tweet to learn more about the author, right?
That "random person" is Trisha Greenhalgh - Professor of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford.
Here's an excerpt from her Oxford Uni profile:
Trish is the author of over 400 peer-reviewed publications and 16 textbooks. She was awarded the OBE for Services to Medicine by Her Majesty the Queen in 2001, made a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences in 2014, and elected an International Fellow of the US Academy of Medicine in 2021. She is also a Fellow of the UK Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of General Practitioners, Faculty of Clinical Informatics and Faculty of Public Health.
https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/team/trish-greenhalgh
Her Google Scholar profile shows that her work has been cited almost 95,000 times in other research papers.
https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?sortby=pubdate&hl=en&user=8KQwEGcAAAAJ&view_op=list_works
Definitely a them problem because it's not a problem over here where I am
"Not knowing the details" is part of scientific endeavour. If we already knew the details there would be no need for science in the first place. We should not hold it against her.
Your idiocy is astounding and it's a miracle your bloodline hasn't been wiped out yet by natural selection. This article is a warning against complacency and an effort to prevent a second covid crisis. Idiots like you are for a huge part to blame why the first one was so devestating so shut the fuck up and stick to your esotheric yoga group for middle aged women on facebook.
Its for yor benefit. And NHS actually saves lives.
We dont have immunity, that's the point. read the article.
Did you read the article?
Bruh.
The curse of successful mitigation is skeptics will then say afterwards that 'X was no big deal, look how few people died'
Don't be one of those.
We all knew you had already drawn your conclusion that this was "fearmongering" before seeing any facts.
No one is going to logic you out of a position you didn't use logic to get into in the first place.
Because immunity varies by disease.
Chicken pox? Pretty much one and done. COVID? Falls off rapidly after 3 months, whether you catch it or get the vaccine
Plus, every mutation is a dice roll on how much existing immunity will apply. It could be exactly the same as the last strain, or the old immunity might not help at all
You could try reading the article instead of spouting nonsense.
It isn't as bad as 2020, but it isn't as harmless as the flu. There are still going to be public health concerns.
You seem anti-capitalist. Yet hear you are repeating far-right talking points.
Did you just wake up from a coma?
Exactly. Old media died years ago. Welcome to new media where the news isn't real and the only thing that matters is clicks