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Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Do people really believe that there are only 3 versions of Covid right now (Beta, Delta, Moronic)?

It's estimated that SARS-CoV-2 develops an established mutation every 11 days.

There's probably 1,000 different variants of Covid-19 out there worldwide by now, if not a lot more.

But even though that is probably scarier to think about than only 3, you can't give them all scary names if there are thousands of them.

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Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
Actually without Omicron exploding here, all indications were we would have bounced back quite reasonably, and all without 100,000s of deaths - which for most sane human beings is a good outcome.

Sadly now we are overrun with Omicron, and guess what, businesses have had to shut up, supply chains are disrupted, blah blah blah.

It's the virus that causes the problems, numnuts, responses to it, or lack of response is what impacts on Business (let me genuflect to the god of free enterprise here for the wonderful job he does at looking out for ordinary folk)

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:

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Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
Actually without Omicron exploding here, all indications were we would have bounced back quite reasonably, and all without 100,000s of deaths - which for most sane human beings is a good outcome.

Sadly now we are overrun with Omicron, and guess what, businesses have had to shut up, supply chains are disrupted, blah blah blah.

It's the virus that causes the problems, numnuts, responses to it, or lack of response is what impacts on Business (let me genuflect to the god of free enterprise here for the wonderful job he does at looking out for ordinary folk)

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https://91-divoc.com/pages/covid-visualization/

Hi MG

I've found this ^^^ website to be extremely helpful when it comes to interpreting the 'news'. It charts a wide variety of COVID-19 metrics across the globe.

(Ever since the first Gulf War I've become extremely cynical about how sketchy the 'news' here in the US can be, because there were facts that were OBVIOUSLY erased from our 'news'. If you're interested, I'll give you the long story and specifics later, but that doesn't belong here.)

For what it's worth, I dismiss any internet 'news' story, pronouncement, announcement, claim etc out of hand that doesn't link original sources. If they say, for example, 'a recent study shows', then they have access to that study, and they can also darn well link it too, even if it's on a preprint server like https://www.biorxiv.org/, even if it's behind a paywall like https://www.nature.com/nature/research-articles. If they say 'WHO announced' then they have access to that announcement and/ or video, and they can link to the complete statement, rather than publish a severely edited 5-word snippet. Put out ALL the information, and let people judge for themselves. (BTW lack of evidence is how I screen all information. If the information is there, but made unavailable, I wonder - why are they hiding it?)

Anyway, when it comes to the webpage of graphs https://91-divoc.com/pages/covid-visualization/, the first 2 graphs (1 and 2 out of 4) list cases, deaths, vaccinations etc in 1) countries and 2) US states/ Canadian provinces. But the figures are given in raw numbers, which I find not at all helpful, because a country with 10,000 deaths out of a population of 20T is in a very different situation than a country with 10,000 deaths out of a population of 200M.

So I go to the next 2 graphs (3 and 4 out of 4), which give all figures per 100,000 people.

One must interpret these numbers with some caution. For example, very poor countries probably aren't in a position to widely test for COVID-19, or to document COVID-19 deaths (many people probably die at home), so I estimate their reported numbers are lower than actual numbers.


By the graphs, I see your country has done exceptionally well at keeping COVID-19 deaths down!

IMO that's a benefit of being an island! I know you mentioned the ease of air travel, but airports are as easy to isolate as seaports. If entries at arrival points are restricted, your country is pretty well isolated. (That's compared to say the US where literally tens to hundreds of thousands of people literally walk across the border every year.) AND your country also has the benefit of understanding its geographic advantage, and is in the habit of keeping agricultural pests and animals diseases at bay that way as well! The thought processes and the mechanisms to isolate from global disease are there. So, GOOD FOR YOU! IMO.

You also have a national health system, AND a spirit of concern for your countrymen, unlike the US which has its rapacious healthcare and a Roman-arena ethic (a war of all against all).

Also, you have a high vaccination rate!

So I applaud what you've accomplished!



Now, obviously I'm not an epidemiologist. I'm not even a avid student of this situation, because I have a life to live, and I also have come to understand that many or even most of the (hundred or so original) studies I've looked at are incomplete and provisional ... at best. So I mentally asterisk* my information, with the idea that it'll probably all only shake out years after the fact.

That said, I think that national isolation and 'lockdowns' - if employed - are only a first step ... to buy time ... until ... until at least effective treatments are found and widely deployed, and until vaccinations can get ahead of the outbreak.

Also, fwiw, Omicron may be a blessing in disguise. It's extremely infectious, but not all that deadly.




Now here's my contrarian viewpoint, which is completely my own non-professional one: Omicron could potentially be the thing that helps finally wipe out SARS-CoV-2. Between vaccinations, and Omicron, it's possible the human population will become immune, and SARS-CoV-2 will have nowhere to hide, and no one left to infect.

If you look at influenza, for example, it has a robust animal reservoir in birds worldwide, including and especially wild bird populations that freely migrate between and across entire continents and span the globe; and worldwide in pigs. That's why we'll never get rid of it. It'll always be bubbling and mutating and travelling out there, and ready to infect us humans.

If you look at rhinoviruses (that cause 50% of all human 'common colds'), it's been in the human population so long there are over 150 distinct strains that don't resemble each other, immunologically-speaking, at all. You'd have to be exposed to 2 different rhinoviruses every year for an 80 year lifespan to even have a prayer of being immune. But then, rhinoviruses immunity is short-lived.

SARS-CoV-2 isn't in either condition, yet. It has no animal reservoir besides the great apes, it has a limited number of strains that do still resemble each other, and it has a robust, long-lived T-cell immunity. We still could get ahead of it, if we wanted, and Omicron could help.

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Originally posted by JAYNEZTOWN:
President Biden signs bills tackling COVID-19 relief fraud into law

https://www.wmur.com/article/covid-19-fraud-bills-biden/40821543

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Originally posted by JAYNEZTOWN:
WHO reports 90 per cent drop in world COVID-19 deaths since February

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/who-reports-90-per-cent-drop
-in-world-covid-19-deaths-since-february-1.6145745

COVID-19 impact on mental health - statistics & facts

https://www.statista.com/topics/7106/covid-19-and-mental-health/

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