Dr. Jha on Omicron in the northeast:

[Tomconroy]

Link to tweet

[3Hotdogs]

1. I don't have time to follow a thread.

What is the most important sentence?

[secondwind]

3. Tried to send you the thread, but it jumped back to what you see above...

[Tomconroy]

4. Get boosted.

[Tomconroy]

5. Most important points

Link to tweet

CFR is case fatality rate.

[Celerity]

8. The Case Fatality Rate has always been vastly overstated throughout the pandemic, as

so many cases are never reported, never tested for, and often never even known by the victims themselves (especially if asymptomatic).

The true impact number is the actual Infection Fatality Rate (meaning what are the actual chances you die once infected), which is vastly lower. Nowhere near (even when measuring the entire population) 1%, let alone some if the absurd claims made in the past (3, 4, even 5%).

[3Hotdogs]

13. Thank you. I have 2 boosters.

[Johnny2X2X]

6. Get boosted

"Which worries me for the weeks/months ahead as BA.2.12.1 spreads to other, less boosted places."

The overwhelming majority of people getting hospitalized and dying from Covid still are unvaccinated idiots. So I'm not worried one bit about them, not even a little. Daily deaths are close to their lowest levels since the pandemic began in Spring of 2020.

CFR is .3%, but that doesn't take into account all the cases not tested for or tested at home. CFR is certainly much lower now. Maybe half that at the very most. We can better treat it now, and the people who have been boosted are protected from it. If the CFR overall is something like 0.15%, you can bet that the unvaccinated idiots dying out number the boosted 97-1 still according the the CDC. So what would that put the CFR for boosted people at? Less than 0.005%? About 1/10th as fatal as the regular flu, only for boosted people.

But that's the problem, BOOSTED people are almost totally safe, and only 30% of the population got boosted. That means many here on DU are likely not boosted. 1 or 2 shots though does make a huge difference too, but get boosted, if you are, at least for now Covid is a tiny tiny threat. Boosted people are also 20 times less likely to experience long term symptoms from Covid. Boosters are going to keep being pushed out every 6 months or so, the more that get them the better off the country will be. I feel like the country is dropping the ball on boosters, 30% is not enough.

I feel like it's each person's own deal now, everyone has the information they needed, some chose the wrong thing, if they get sick and die, they die. Fuck em.

But there is still a group we do need to protect, the immune compromised. There is no easy answer here, just like too many of them die in bad flu seasons, they're going to be at risk when Covid takes off again.

And I believe this Summer will see the same thing we've seen the previous 2, it will ebb in Northern climates, but spike in states where people stay inside to beat the heat. Then the reverse will happen in the Winter.

[flamingdem]

7. Dr. Jha has been criticized for not emphasizing the use of N95 or KN95 masks

Not sure why he doesn't do this. They're available for free at many pharmacies.

A surgical or cotton mask will not protect from the highly infectious new Omicron variants.

Why haven't they pushed back harder for masking requirements? Especially on planes.

I'm hearing from multiple sources that is where one catches the latest version of Omicron.

[Blues Heron]

9. masks have been succesfully demonized such that no public figures dare use the M word

None of the high level people that get this have said they wish they had masked. They all just say they are glad they vaxxed.

[Johnny2X2X]

10. +100

Masks have always been effective, and what's working against them now is messaging. People read, "less effective" against some new variant and they read "0% effective". People read cotton or surgical are less effective and they read "0%." Even a 10% effectiveness is better than nothing. And N95 are much more effective than 10%.

I think we're mostly past Covid and we have new ways to treat it and a lot of vaccine and natural immunity out there. I think there will be surges, but they're not going to fill our hospitals to capacity again. But that's not a sure thing, it could mutate somewhere in the world and we'll be back to almost square 1, only now the Republicans have successfully gotten rid of the governments power to do much to protect the public. If a crazy Omicron like wave with several hundred thousand new cases a day hits us this Winter, there would be no mask or vaccine mandates to do anything to slow it now.

[flamingdem]

11. The GOP has cowed us into hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths

That plus CEOs of airlines, etc. etc.

It's depressing. We need to win in November, then maybe humanity has a chance against future variants etc.!

[Johnny2X2X]

12. And yet

The GOP is going to pretend that they were "right" on Covid during the upcoming election. The were dead wrong and several hundred thousand Americans are dead because of them, but because our country is so screwed up right now, their message will resonate. "See, I'm alive, all those shutdowns, mask and vaccine mandates, and testing were not necessary." That's where the country is at.