• harpuajim@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    54
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    Unless the strain is killing a sizable amount of people getting it it’ll be hard to get people to wear masks en masse again.

    • Cyclohexane@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      57
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Even if it kills (which it likely will), our track record shows that didn’t care enough about that, and in a decreasing manner. So it’ll only be worse.

      • Chriskmee@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Pretty sure every virus has killed people, from the cold, to flu, and of course covid. It feels like now the death rate for the latest variants of covid are pretty comparable to the flu, the virus has lost a lot of its killing power over time.

            • eatmyass [he/him]@hexbear.net
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago
              1. the sheer number of Covid infections has made long Covid into a global crisis

              2. amazing that you recognize the existence of not only long Covid, but other post-viral illnesses, and think it gives weight to your “Covid is no big deal” argument

                • silent_water [she/her]@hexbear.net
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  yes, and we should be masking for that as well. even so, covid is far more insidious because so many of the disabilities it leaves behind are invisible.

                • eatmyass [he/him]@hexbear.net
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

                  Yeah, I misspoke in my initial comment. I was under the impression the percentage was lower, but I looked it up and it’s about the same (based on the first thing I read)

                  So to me there’s two conclusions: Covid, which infects people at a much higher rate and for which the vaccine is not really that effective, is a bigger problem since it will end up giving a larger number of people long Covid. The flu is not infecting people twice a year (or more), and it’s possible to go years without catching the flu, even without masks

                  Or, what I think is the correct conclusion, we should be taking flu more seriously. We saw how little flu there was during the years of the highest mask compliance. Very weird to say “oh we’ve always had post-viral illness, let’s just have even more.” How about we actually take public health seriously for once?

        • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          11
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Pretty sure every virus has killed people, from the cold, to flu, and of course covid.

          False equivalency intensifies

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          12
          arrow-down
          6
          ·
          1 year ago

          Death rates aren’t a feeling. I want some hard numbers.

          I feel like we just don’t care if we live or die anymore.

          • AntiOutsideAktion [he/him]@hexbear.net
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            12
            ·
            1 year ago

            Fun fact: the CDC readjusted what the ‘normal’ rate of deaths is to include the years of the pandemic so now it’s harder than ever to find hard numbers because “excess deaths” was one of the last ways to get any information at all!

            • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              Plus a world wide fast aging population would increase the death background number even if nothing else happens.

              Anything that doesn’t make an observable, statistically significant difference, has no cause to further impose restriction on how people live their lives

              • AntiOutsideAktion [he/him]@hexbear.net
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                1 year ago

                Plus a world wide fast aging population would increase the death background number even if nothing else happens.

                Sharp edges don’t happen from demographic trends. This is pure rationalization.

                Further than what?? What restrictions??

                And what are you implying? Covid has no observable affect on public health? Tell that to the millions of people still getting disabled every year.

            • rjs001@lemmygrad.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              For the love of god: everyone should ignores what the CDC says. You can see for yourself how many people died from Covid under their watch. They have no morals and they made it obvious by downplaying Covid

          • Chriskmee@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            I know I’ve read reports about the latest variants being much less deadly. I did see one study recently which for patients presenting to hospital covid was a few percentage points more likely to result in death compared to hospitalized flu patients. There were a lot more covid patients though.

            Found it:

            death rates among people hospitalized for COVID-19 were 17% to 21% in 2020 vs 6% in this study, while death rates for those hospitalized for influenza were 3.8% in 2020 vs 3.7% in this study

            https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2803749

            So there is some data backing up the feelings I’ve gotten from everything I’ve been hearing and seeing.

              • Chriskmee@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                I mean, that’s one way to look at it. I looked at it as only a couple percent higher death rate than the flu. Either way, a little less than 2x is way better than like 5x worse.

                • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  arrow-down
                  5
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Obviously it’s better than before, but it’s also worth keeping in mind these deaths are in addition to the flu.

                  Also, there are good and bad flu seasons. I see no reason for COVID to not be the same.

                  • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    0
                    arrow-down
                    1
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Even if we pedantically accept that ‘almost double’ is really ‘just a few percent higher’ while we’re looking at a single digit likelihood, ‘just a few percent more’ than for the flu is a lot more people in overall numbers with something that spreads far quicker than the flu. We could get the death rate of Covid down to ½ the rate for the flu but if infections are more than double (this is just an example, I don’t know the actual stats on this one), it still means Covid would be more deadly. Unless I’m missing something obvious.

        • SkepticElliptic@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          That’s the same shit that businesses were pushing last time because they didn’t want to close for a few months, ended up making everything worse.

          • Chriskmee@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            I know I am a bit biased here because I didn’t get sick and didn’t really try that hard to avoid it either. I only wore a mask when I had to, I went to bars with friends, really didn’t take any extra precautions, and I washed my hands normally. If I got covid I didn’t notice it.

            Personally I would hate if we went into lockdown again, but again, I didn’t get sick, the worst I felt was when I got the vaccine.

        • Mbourgon everywhere@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          I’ve you’ve been vaxxed, or had a previous infection, or get some paxlovid… yes. If not, no, not really any better. It hasn’t gotten weaker.

    • reverendsteveii@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      get people to wear masks en masse again

      The time when people wore masks en masse must be something that I’m too American and lung-scarred to remember