... in addition to the wave of BA.2 that's likely on the way, we now have XE:

[www.independent.co.uk]
[deadline.com]

... a recombinant strain (between BA.1 and BA.2), apparently more contagious than BA.2, jury is still out on how dangerous.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

Don't you LOVE living in a time when we are all test animals.

I just keep on living as if it was March 2021. So it's all the same to me.

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No different than last month when another new variant was detected. This will repeat ad nauseam with most being a minor blip, and maybe another biggie, but hopefully not.

Like the common cold. Like the flu. Like flu-like illness.

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Lew Zealand
No different than last month when another new variant was detected. This will repeat ad nauseam with most being a minor blip, and maybe another biggie, but hopefully not.

Like the common cold. Like the flu. Like flu-like illness.

I think you're assuming that all other factors remain the same. That's not necessarily the case, as human behavior has a significant impact on the virus' ability to infect and cause illness.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

It’s the new normal. Planning on getting my 4th Pfizer (booster 2) this month.

Expect an immunization every 6 months from here on.

The good news is my 5G bandwidth will improve.

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cbelt3
It’s the new normal. Planning on getting my 4th Pfizer (booster 2) this month.

Expect an immunization every 6 months from here on.

The good news is my 5G bandwidth will improve.

Plus, it’s so nice that I can stick magnets on myself.

I haven’t really changed from spring 2021 myself. It’s working for me.

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$tevie
I just keep on living as if it was March 2021. So it's all the same to me.

Sounds like a plan.

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I haven’t really changed from spring 2021 myself. It’s working for me.

+1

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“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in."

.....at this point, 99.9% of people are acting like 'this is over' and doing everything 'back to normal'.....if another more dangerous variant arrives....we are sunk again.....

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_____________________________________

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

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NewtonMP2100
.....at this point, 99.9% of people are acting like 'this is over' and doing everything 'back to normal'.....if another more dangerous variant arrives....we are sunk again.....

I think we'll be worse than sunk again. Being an election year I don't think anyone in a political leadership role will do what is right and re-institute mask mandates, testing, social distancing, lockdowns, etc. Just look at Britian, cases are spiking, people are dying, yet the country's leadership is acting as if this is now endemic; It's "learn to live with Covid-19".

UK hits record COVID-19 levels; nearly 5 million infected

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The arts are not luxuries but assets that give way more than they cost.
--Ronald Tucker on YouTube

A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open.
--Frank Zappa

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Sam3

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NewtonMP2100
.....at this point, 99.9% of people are acting like 'this is over' and doing everything 'back to normal'.....if another more dangerous variant arrives....we are sunk again.....

I think we'll be worse than sunk again. Being an election year I don't think anyone in a political leadership role will do what is right and re-institute mask mandates, testing, social distancing, lockdowns, etc. Just look at Britian, cases are spiking, people are dying, yet the country's leadership is acting as if this is now endemic; It's "learn to live with Covid-19".

UK hits record COVID-19 levels; nearly 5 million infected

I completely agree. At the very least, there will be an enormous number of people with long COVID if we let everyone get infected.

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Sam3

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NewtonMP2100
.....at this point, 99.9% of people are acting like 'this is over' and doing everything 'back to normal'.....if another more dangerous variant arrives....we are sunk again.....

I think we'll be worse than sunk again. Being an election year I don't think anyone in a political leadership role will do what is right and re-institute mask mandates, testing, social distancing, lockdowns, etc. Just look at Britian, cases are spiking, people are dying, yet the country's leadership is acting as if this is now endemic; It's "learn to live with Covid-19".

UK hits record COVID-19 levels; nearly 5 million infected

We're apparently now living in the era of "acceptable losses". It's fine to allow a goodly-sized segment of the population to die, so long as your and my "freedoms" are kept intact and the politicians get to keep their positions.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

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PeterB
We're apparently now living in the era of "acceptable losses". It's fine to allow a goodly-sized segment of the population to die, so long as your and my "freedoms" are kept intact and the politicians get to keep their positions.

I don't disagree, but I want to better understand your perspective.

How is "going back to normal" any different now for immunocompromised and other similarly vulnerable populations than it was before the "great sars-cov-2 pandemic of 2020-202?" began? Before this pandemic, no one wore masks to protect them, they were always on their own.

Yes, I get that a highly monitored, tracked, documented, virulent illness is sensationalized but were previous flu seasons really that much less potentially threatening?

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g=

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gabester

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PeterB
We're apparently now living in the era of "acceptable losses". It's fine to allow a goodly-sized segment of the population to die, so long as your and my "freedoms" are kept intact and the politicians get to keep their positions.

I don't disagree, but I want to better understand your perspective.

How is "going back to normal" any different now for immunocompromised and other similarly vulnerable populations than it was before the "great sars-cov-2 pandemic of 2020-202?" began? Before this pandemic, no one wore masks to protect them, they were always on their own.

Yes, I get that a highly monitored, tracked, documented, virulent illness is sensationalized but were previous flu seasons really that much less potentially threatening?

Speaking as someone who is in one of the categories you mentioned -- I will continue to mask and monitor my immune status/get vaccinated, but unfortunately not everything is within my control. If folks refuse to wear masks and/or get vaccinated, rates of infection will climb again, leading to the possibility of development of an even worse variant for which the vaccines are mostly or totally ineffective. (And even if what I've described doesn't precisely come to pass, there's the fact that increased rates of infection will continue to put a huge strain on the hospital system, which will adversely affect anyone who needs any sort of routine or emergency procedure.)

Simply put, we are NOT living in the same environment that we were back in 2018. This virus isn't the same as the flu, for which we already had decent vaccines and most people were getting them.

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

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PeterB
Simply put, we are NOT living in the same environment that we were back in 2018. This virus isn't the same as the flu, for which we already had decent vaccines and most people were getting them.

In the US, about 50% of people get vaccinated for flu in an average year. About 75% have been vaccinated for covid, with 65% having 2 doses or more.

More people are taking covid seriously than the flu, as it should be since it's deadlier. But we'll see if people get complacent, which will happen until another variant of actual concern starts spreading.

If you have a look at the infection rates in the US, there are many states which had a big infection spike for Omicron, which then brought those numbers down very nicely. But now in some states, infection rates are slowly climbing. Because of reduced distancing/mask mandates? Makes sense. Because of new unidentified variants? Can't rule that out.

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Lew Zealand

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PeterB
Simply put, we are NOT living in the same environment that we were back in 2018. This virus isn't the same as the flu, for which we already had decent vaccines and most people were getting them.

In the US, about 50% of people get vaccinated for flu in an average year. About 75% have been vaccinated for covid, with 65% having 2 doses or more.

More people are taking covid seriously than the flu, as it should be since it's deadlier. But we'll see if people get complacent, which will happen until another variant of actual concern starts spreading.

If you have a look at the infection rates in the US, there are many states which had a big infection spike for Omicron, which then brought those numbers down very nicely. But now in some states, infection rates are slowly climbing. Because of reduced distancing/mask mandates? Makes sense. Because of new unidentified variants? Can't rule that out.

Your numbers for vaccination for corona seem off -- my own state is still hovering only around 50% vaccination. And we've eliminated our mask mandates... so yes, we are complacent (those of us who took it seriously to begin with, which obviously includes everyone).

The infection rates slowly climbing, probably another big factor in that is folks not getting boosters and waning immunity, especially amongst groups which didn't have the best immunity to begin with (elderly, comorbid conditions, people who only got a single shot).

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Freya says, 'Hello from NOLA, baby!' (Laissez bon temps rouler!)

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PeterB

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Lew Zealand

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PeterB
Simply put, we are NOT living in the same environment that we were back in 2018. This virus isn't the same as the flu, for which we already had decent vaccines and most people were getting them.

In the US, about 50% of people get vaccinated for flu in an average year. About 75% have been vaccinated for covid, with 65% having 2 doses or more.

More people are taking covid seriously than the flu, as it should be since it's deadlier. But we'll see if people get complacent, which will happen until another variant of actual concern starts spreading.

If you have a look at the infection rates in the US, there are many states which had a big infection spike for Omicron, which then brought those numbers down very nicely. But now in some states, infection rates are slowly climbing. Because of reduced distancing/mask mandates? Makes sense. Because of new unidentified variants? Can't rule that out.

Your numbers for vaccination for corona seem off -- my own state is still hovering only around 50% vaccination. And we've eliminated our mask mandates... so yes, we are complacent (those of us who took it seriously to begin with, which obviously includes everyone).

The infection rates slowly climbing, probably another big factor in that is folks not getting boosters and waning immunity, especially amongst groups which didn't have the best immunity to begin with (elderly, comorbid conditions, people who only got a single shot).

Numbers are from CDC's website, if there are better sources then I'd like to get data from them, too.

And yes I've been watching the small but steady uptick in infection rates over the past week or so, especially in bigger states (lots of data) which got their infections low early after Omicron. My assumption is lax distancing and masking due to dropped mandates but it could also, or instead, be a new variant yet to be identified.

I've been checking numbers pretty much every day since April 2020. The more information, the better.