Seems like some nice testable hypotheses you've laid out here: Omicron infections won't overwhelm hospitals, etc. Do you mind scheduling a follow-up post in late January that looks back and determines whether you were correct? Right now, the uncertainty seems to be around the question of whether Omicron's transmissibility will overwhelm its (relative) mildness and we see hospital capacity dwindle as the larger growth in Omicron infections overwhelms its lower severity or the opposite where the lower severity leads to fewer hospitalizations, despite the increased transmissibility.
I can see Team Biden erring on the side of being too cautious and deploy messaging to reflect that. We had most of 2020 with Team Trump erring on the other side, and we had hundreds of thousands of excess American deaths when compared to similar peer nations like Canada (on a per-capita basis).
In terms of persuasive messaging, I'm curious what you think Biden COULD say at this point that would convince the unvaxxed to get the shot. We've tried letting the numbers speak, paying people to get the shot, making the shots free, etc. If none of those worked, what's the arrow in Biden's rhetorical quiver that you think he's not using?
You do realize that deaths during the Trump presidency numbered 406 thousand while the Biden Presidency with all of the cautions, mandates, vaccines and boosters is at about 402 thousand as of yesterday. I liked the confidence that this pandemic would end one day that i saw from the Trump Presidency not the fear mongering hope killing effort of this administration. If we had not had the Fauci directives and had listened to the other scientific experts we would have done considerably better. The documentation that is coming out now showing how Fauci stifled the science community that did not agree with his approach is alarming and I wish we had know it before. He may find himself in serious trouble when the entire story is reviewed.
Sure this came from a wet market 10 miles from the lab that has documented experimental work with this particular type of corona virus. How dare anyone question that coincidence.
Billy Beer might have been worse than the messaging. I bought a six pack, drank about half of one can, used an ice pick to punch an inconspicuous hole in the bottom of the other five and set them in the sink to drain. I added them to my beer can collection which today decorates a small corner of my son's man cave.
I have watched several Fauci interviews in the past week. I have not felt he is peddling fear. On the contrary he is urging people to get vaccinated and continue to mask and social distance. Delta is still out there and it can lead to hospitalizations and death, especially in the unvaccinated or those with preexisting conditions. I didn’t watch Biden or hear Ron Klain. I live in Miami where the fear is rampant, testing lines are hours long waits and monoclonal antibody treatments are no longer available. The biggest threat we face is DeSantis and misinformation from multiple sources.
Get vaccinated by all means. But don’t fear omicron like it was delta. Delta is burning out and replaced with omicron. Omicron is like a bad cold or the flu. It generally won’t lead to the hospital. Therefore hospitals won’t be overwhelmed. Get the shot but don’t fear infection like it was a death sentence.
I am vaccinated and had my booster last Friday. My neighbors all boosted but still got what we believe is Omicron. They are younger and no preexisting conditions, had the Regeneron treatments and are recovering but feel like pooh. Not great the week before Christmas. We aren’t afraid. We are cautious and prepared.
"I live in Miami where the fear is rampant, testing lines are hours long waits and monoclonal antibody treatments are no longer available. The biggest threat we face is DeSantis and misinformation from multiple sources."
Death cults celebrate death and see death as something to be embraced. I don't think Biden and Fauci fall into this category. At worst they are like the boy who cried wolf. I don't think it's a big deal unless they needlessly bring back restrictions. Then they should be fired.
To tell unvaccinated people, essentially "die!" is the stuff of death cults. It's bad evangelism, being charitable to them. They are frustrated why "the people" won't get in line and just do what they say. And the more they pull into that bunker attitude, the more people won't listen. Their best play is for massive numbers of unvaccinated to die of omicron and jam the hospitals, then they can say "I told you so." I'm not saying they (some ghouls are) are hoping for this outcome, but the outcome they're likely to get, a massive wave with little effect on the healthcare system, but long lines at testing centers and SNAFUs galore with home tests, procuring them, using them, etc., is not helping. Their best play is the death cult, whether they mean it or not, and that's pretty sad.
I wondered why the testing lines were so long considering at least 60% (probably quite a bit more) of the population where I live have been vaccinated. Maybe the reason is the answer I heard one young interviewee give on Atlanta Channel 2. She said she was worried about the elderly relatives she would be around at Christmas. That's admirable and probably explains why I have never thought of getting tested. I'm the oldest person left in my family and have had three vaccinations.
If you're vaccinated and asymptomatic, and your grandparents are vaccinated and asymptomatic, getting tested is superfluous. Yes, you can be positive and asymptomatic as a breakthrough case, but you're more a danger to the unvaccinated in that case. And if the vaccines are really 90%+ effective, and two fully vaccinated and boosted individuals can contract and infect each other resulting in sickness, then the vaccines have failed. I don't think they failed. I think people are acting out of fear, period. Massive testing is the completely wrong play for America, unless you're not vaccinated or have symptoms.
The unvaccinated aren't going to get it until they are forced. Stop with the nonsense we are suppose to react rationally to their stupidity. The numbers are already in. Unvaccinated have counted for like 17x the number of deaths than vaccinated. Do you really like watching people die? The death cult is the people who don't mind watching 800k people die and downplay it because they don't want to wear a mask. Fauci is a freaking hero for doing this job when faced with the vengeful idiots of the right. And people are already being affected by the Omicron wave, not that it matters to you.
We don't force them. That's not America. If they accept the risk of COVID death, then it's their life and their risk to accept. Their lives matter, but their freedom matters more to me.
Sure, as long as we can ban them from society I am all for that. But sometime tells me you think they have the freedom to walk around killing people. Who is in a death cult again?
You may be a special case. In general, the unvaccinated do not walk around killing the vaccinated. If you cannot take the vaccine or if it is ineffective in your case, you better take precautions to isolate yourself from the rest of humanity. Covid is not the only seriously contagious disease that might be harmful to those with compromised immune systems.
That's exactly what they do. Their stupidity and selfishness is a danger to every single person they come into contact with. Typhoid Mary was locked up when she was unwilling to do what was best for society and they should be as well.
I do not believe every unvaccinated person is out to get you. It's possible that the vaccinated may become infected and transmit the virus. They are not intentionally trying to infect you. I know I'm not. Just wear a sandwich board sign to warn the rest of us that you are highly susceptible to infection. I will cross the street to avoid getting anywhere close to you. I intend to avoid Michigan entirely so if you get south of Chattanooga, just let us know in advance. Seriously, although I might adjust to help protect your health, the rest of the world will not.
Seems like some nice testable hypotheses you've laid out here: Omicron infections won't overwhelm hospitals, etc. Do you mind scheduling a follow-up post in late January that looks back and determines whether you were correct? Right now, the uncertainty seems to be around the question of whether Omicron's transmissibility will overwhelm its (relative) mildness and we see hospital capacity dwindle as the larger growth in Omicron infections overwhelms its lower severity or the opposite where the lower severity leads to fewer hospitalizations, despite the increased transmissibility.
I can see Team Biden erring on the side of being too cautious and deploy messaging to reflect that. We had most of 2020 with Team Trump erring on the other side, and we had hundreds of thousands of excess American deaths when compared to similar peer nations like Canada (on a per-capita basis).
In terms of persuasive messaging, I'm curious what you think Biden COULD say at this point that would convince the unvaxxed to get the shot. We've tried letting the numbers speak, paying people to get the shot, making the shots free, etc. If none of those worked, what's the arrow in Biden's rhetorical quiver that you think he's not using?
You do realize that deaths during the Trump presidency numbered 406 thousand while the Biden Presidency with all of the cautions, mandates, vaccines and boosters is at about 402 thousand as of yesterday. I liked the confidence that this pandemic would end one day that i saw from the Trump Presidency not the fear mongering hope killing effort of this administration. If we had not had the Fauci directives and had listened to the other scientific experts we would have done considerably better. The documentation that is coming out now showing how Fauci stifled the science community that did not agree with his approach is alarming and I wish we had know it before. He may find himself in serious trouble when the entire story is reviewed.
Sure this came from a wet market 10 miles from the lab that has documented experimental work with this particular type of corona virus. How dare anyone question that coincidence.
Billy Beer might have been worse than the messaging. I bought a six pack, drank about half of one can, used an ice pick to punch an inconspicuous hole in the bottom of the other five and set them in the sink to drain. I added them to my beer can collection which today decorates a small corner of my son's man cave.
Nasty stuff :-)
I have watched several Fauci interviews in the past week. I have not felt he is peddling fear. On the contrary he is urging people to get vaccinated and continue to mask and social distance. Delta is still out there and it can lead to hospitalizations and death, especially in the unvaccinated or those with preexisting conditions. I didn’t watch Biden or hear Ron Klain. I live in Miami where the fear is rampant, testing lines are hours long waits and monoclonal antibody treatments are no longer available. The biggest threat we face is DeSantis and misinformation from multiple sources.
Get vaccinated by all means. But don’t fear omicron like it was delta. Delta is burning out and replaced with omicron. Omicron is like a bad cold or the flu. It generally won’t lead to the hospital. Therefore hospitals won’t be overwhelmed. Get the shot but don’t fear infection like it was a death sentence.
I am vaccinated and had my booster last Friday. My neighbors all boosted but still got what we believe is Omicron. They are younger and no preexisting conditions, had the Regeneron treatments and are recovering but feel like pooh. Not great the week before Christmas. We aren’t afraid. We are cautious and prepared.
What, exactly, has Desantis done to be a threat?
"I live in Miami where the fear is rampant, testing lines are hours long waits and monoclonal antibody treatments are no longer available. The biggest threat we face is DeSantis and misinformation from multiple sources."
I mean the answer is right in the post.
What? Why? Maybe Kim knows. You do not.
Death cults celebrate death and see death as something to be embraced. I don't think Biden and Fauci fall into this category. At worst they are like the boy who cried wolf. I don't think it's a big deal unless they needlessly bring back restrictions. Then they should be fired.
To tell unvaccinated people, essentially "die!" is the stuff of death cults. It's bad evangelism, being charitable to them. They are frustrated why "the people" won't get in line and just do what they say. And the more they pull into that bunker attitude, the more people won't listen. Their best play is for massive numbers of unvaccinated to die of omicron and jam the hospitals, then they can say "I told you so." I'm not saying they (some ghouls are) are hoping for this outcome, but the outcome they're likely to get, a massive wave with little effect on the healthcare system, but long lines at testing centers and SNAFUs galore with home tests, procuring them, using them, etc., is not helping. Their best play is the death cult, whether they mean it or not, and that's pretty sad.
I wondered why the testing lines were so long considering at least 60% (probably quite a bit more) of the population where I live have been vaccinated. Maybe the reason is the answer I heard one young interviewee give on Atlanta Channel 2. She said she was worried about the elderly relatives she would be around at Christmas. That's admirable and probably explains why I have never thought of getting tested. I'm the oldest person left in my family and have had three vaccinations.
If you're vaccinated and asymptomatic, and your grandparents are vaccinated and asymptomatic, getting tested is superfluous. Yes, you can be positive and asymptomatic as a breakthrough case, but you're more a danger to the unvaccinated in that case. And if the vaccines are really 90%+ effective, and two fully vaccinated and boosted individuals can contract and infect each other resulting in sickness, then the vaccines have failed. I don't think they failed. I think people are acting out of fear, period. Massive testing is the completely wrong play for America, unless you're not vaccinated or have symptoms.
The unvaccinated aren't going to get it until they are forced. Stop with the nonsense we are suppose to react rationally to their stupidity. The numbers are already in. Unvaccinated have counted for like 17x the number of deaths than vaccinated. Do you really like watching people die? The death cult is the people who don't mind watching 800k people die and downplay it because they don't want to wear a mask. Fauci is a freaking hero for doing this job when faced with the vengeful idiots of the right. And people are already being affected by the Omicron wave, not that it matters to you.
We don't force them. That's not America. If they accept the risk of COVID death, then it's their life and their risk to accept. Their lives matter, but their freedom matters more to me.
Sure, as long as we can ban them from society I am all for that. But sometime tells me you think they have the freedom to walk around killing people. Who is in a death cult again?
You may be a special case. In general, the unvaccinated do not walk around killing the vaccinated. If you cannot take the vaccine or if it is ineffective in your case, you better take precautions to isolate yourself from the rest of humanity. Covid is not the only seriously contagious disease that might be harmful to those with compromised immune systems.
That's exactly what they do. Their stupidity and selfishness is a danger to every single person they come into contact with. Typhoid Mary was locked up when she was unwilling to do what was best for society and they should be as well.
I do not believe every unvaccinated person is out to get you. It's possible that the vaccinated may become infected and transmit the virus. They are not intentionally trying to infect you. I know I'm not. Just wear a sandwich board sign to warn the rest of us that you are highly susceptible to infection. I will cross the street to avoid getting anywhere close to you. I intend to avoid Michigan entirely so if you get south of Chattanooga, just let us know in advance. Seriously, although I might adjust to help protect your health, the rest of the world will not.