Democracy provides the perfect conditions for pandemics. Covid-19 can be used as an index/indicator of how much freedom people (if democracy means freedom) have in their respective countries (re how China tackled Covid "so well" & compare that to Europe's & America's "failure" to do so).

Also, don't forget the Covid conspiracy theories - they're big in democracies, further undermining attempts to check the pandemic. Anyhow, Covid conspiracy theorists have managed to connect the dots: (more) pandemics $\rightarrow$ (more) freedom. Diseases (especially those that can cause pandemics) are an enemy of freedom as measures against them tend to be authoritarian in character.

Of course, one might say Covid originated in communist China. Firstly, is China really communist and secondly, I'm talking about dissemination/spread and not source.

Who here has had a 'booster' dose of the vaccine? How was it?

Go drinking with your buddies. — Agent Smith

Daughter visited this weekend and mentioned that the alcoholics in the hospital where she works routinely steal and drink the hand sanitiser. Now that's dedication.

Daughter visited this weekend and mentioned that the alcoholics in the hospital where she works routinely steal and drink the hand sanitiser. Now that's dedication. — unenlightened

:smile: I'm a chain-smoker. I know the feeling.

This is anecdotal but a colleague of mine told me (today) that his friend tested negative for Covid for the whole month he (the friend) was drinking and when he underwent another test, at the end of this Dionysian month, his result came out positive i.e. he had Covid. Go figure!

I got the Moderna booster, and I had the J&J single dose as my initial vaccine. I can remember that night after the J&J being hell, and was expecting something like that for the booster. To my surprise though, I was completely fine. I think the strategy to avoiding side effects is to drink a lot of water the day before your vaccine, and continue to do so even after you've been given the shot.

I'm not sure if I even need to get a booster. I had both doses of AstraZeneca last year, and omicron doesn't seem to be severe...

I had covid back when there was only one version, then 2 astra jabs and a pfizer boost and a few weeks earlier, the flu jab. And when I get offered another booster, I'll be there for it, because my mild covid was no fun at all.

And at the moment I have an ordinary cold - sore throat runny nose temperature, and that's not very much fun... but that's sod's law.

Well I am not too familiar with that particular vaccine, and it's effectiveness, but I will say that there are more daily Covid cases than ever. I think ultimately though, if you get vaccinated (and maybe a booster here or there, depending on your stance, state mandates, and its workability with your main vaccine), eat healthy, and maintain a... stable mental wellbeing, then you'll be fine.

@Zolenskify OK I will get a booster

CO₂ emission reduction due to Covid (1 year)= $2.3 \times 10^9$ tons.

1 person emits 2 tons of CO₂ per year.

Death toll from Covid (humans as individuals): 5,000,000 and counting.

Actual death toll from Covid (humans in terms of CO₂ emission): $\frac{2.3 \times 10^9}{2} = 1.15 \times 10^9$ = 1 billion!

StyleGAN (This Person does not Exist)

:D

Here they are disbanding the corona restrictions and even the local health officials don't see worth in continuing to have corona passports. Cases are multitude far higher than ever before, hospitalizations have stayed low and deaths as sporadic as they been all the time. The obvious fact that even the officials have admitted is that omicron isn't at all so lethal as variants before.

I would assume this pandemic will end as T.S. Elliot wrote "not with a bang, but with a wimper":

First it was about the leaders of countries holding press conferences and issuing dramatic restrictions. Then the presidents and prime ministers have other more important things to do and the press conferences are held by a health minister or the sort. Then it's just some official. Then even the media doesn't participate. Then it becomes an issue that you can read at a government web page just like about the new flu variants and new seasonal flu shots. They do recommend people to get seasonal flu shots, you know.

That's where the covid-19 will be buried and will stay for perhaps decades if not longer.

And of course, this long thread will be buried somewhere in the backpages.

Snow shovels are needed here. Actually have to go and do some shoveling after this...

as usual politicians are late to the party. https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/627691

Better to be late than never to come to the party.

But yes, again good points from you earlier.

Here's a non-technical overview of the possibilities for the further evolution of covid. That it becomes rapidly insignificant to humans does not seem the most likely scenario.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03619-8

I'm not sure the measure should be how it continues to affect people but how it affects society and particularly the health care system. It might be we permanently need to increase health care capacity to manage both Covid and influenza seasonality.

Not that our newly formed government is thinking about that. They're actually planning on saving 6 billion in 4 years. How's that for a stab in the back after all the work doctors and nurses did in the past 2 years?

I wonder if it's possible to manufacture a genetically modified variant that is almost non-lethal but has a transmission level hundreds of times that of Omicron?

In order to bypass human stupidity, lower slow and costly distribution and build up herd immunity fast, wouldn't a genetically modified virus be a better way towards that since it will distribute itself? It would bypass anyone who's stupid and doesn't understand how vaccines work, it would bypass slow and bureaucratic distribution chains, bypass corporate profits and be equal between poor and rich nations.

If there was a way to remove lethality and increase transmission rates, that would be a much more effective distribution towards herd immunity than any kind of vaccine. So modifying the virus towards that and intentionally setting it loose could be a very controversial but more efficient way of ending a pandemic.

how it affects society and particularly the health care system. — Benkei

I think we need to adapt our society as fast as the virus adapts its DNA. In particular, there are intersections with climate change measures that seem like obviously sensible precautions. Big reduction in international travel, a big move to level up access to basic hygiene, food, and medicine worldwide, routine hand washing and mask wearing when in close contact. A lot more care over domestic animal hygiene, and more protection for wilderness. There's probably more...

But at the moment, the priorities are saving travel and tourism, levelling down, profiting from vaccine sales, and 'getting back to normal'. :death:

But at the moment, the priorities are saving travel and tourism, levelling down, profiting from vaccine sales, and 'getting back to normal' — unenlightened

Perhaps there are reasons also for that.



The economic recession due to the pandemic was just papered over by the central banks, which made the statistics simply not make sense. And now thanks to that we have inflation. (Which I estimate will not be as transitory as they say).

Back when it all began we talked about why people of color seemed to be at a higher risk. Now we know at least one factor is the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among POC.

Vitamin D deficiency is associated with more severe disease. Here.

Thanks for that, useful info.

Perhaps there are reasons also for that. — ssu

Reasons for being unreasonable:

https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/10/15/five-zombie-economic-ideas-that-refuse-to-die/

There are people profiteering from crisis, and from increasing disasters, and unfortunately they are dominating the world. Here in the UK, the government trumpets economic growth while presiding on a huge decline in living standards.

The alternative is central planning. That would also be full of woe and dastardly deeds. It's just how we are. Pick your poison.

It's just how we are. — frank

Let's change!

Let's change! — unenlightened

Gotta let them play out their story.

Sweden just announced that it's lifting all pandemic restrictions.

The Public Health Agency of Sweden has evaluated that the Omicron variant does not lead to serious illness as previous variants did. For this reason, the requirement to present a vaccination certificate and other measures will be lifted.

“The phasing out of measures in response to COVID-19 will begin on February 9, 2022. As of that date, measures such as the participant limit for public gatherings and events and the possibility to demand vaccination certificates upon entry will be removed,” the statement of the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs reads.

People might remember that Sweden chose a different path from other EU or Western countries. Now it's signalling basically the end of restrictions due to the pandemic.

The Czech Republic is on a similar path:

People in the Czech Republic no longer have to show COVID passes from Thursday to gain access to bars, restaurants, cafes and hairdressers, as well sports and cultural events.

It comes after the Czech government moved forward on Wednesday with easing coronavirus restrictions.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala said his government will lift measures further during February, depending on the development of the pandemic. The majority of coronavirus restrictions should be lifted by March 1, Fiala said.

I'm hoping my country follows the similar path. They have already basically abandoned the corona passport requirement.

May as well. Sooner or later everyone is going to get the Omicron vaccine.

The pandemic is still going. Groan.

I remember the bad old days when there were "no spitting" notices on public transport and other public spaces. What an outrageous curtailment of freedom that was in the name of public health! Almost as bad as the obligation to list the ingredients on food packaging, that still prevents us from selling ground glass enriched bread and so on. Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!

“Haha! No spitting in public! That’s all we did to you, honest!”

Canada’s panty-waisted despot just invoked the Emergencies Act to quell the so-called Freedom Convoy protests. The act gives the federal government sweeping powers, such as to regulate and freeze an individual’s bank account or call in the military. Whatever piddling rights Canada offers its citizens are effectively gone, for now.

The protesters have blocked some important border-crossings, impeding the government’s bottom dollar, and stewing more fear in the ruling class than any Molotov-throwing rioter ever could. All they demand was an end to public health mandates, but Canada’s state-run television likens them to insurrectionists, as is fashionable these days. The worrying part is that none of this is surprising.