I think we need to walk back a little and manage the expectations as to what "the pandemic is over" means and always meant. It doesn't mean "Covid will go away". It won't. It will never go away. The pandemic is over because it entered into the endemic stage. All the things we did during the pandemic phase of Covid was to save as many people as possible until
A) a vaccine was found (check) and
B) an endemic variant emerged. (Check) an endemic variant is a mutation that's harmless enough so people don't become too sick and spread the bastard around. That's what Omicron is.Yes, people die of Covid. People die of many pathogens, bow we have one more. But we cannot make it go away. We could mask up, keep distance forever, but that would cost us dearly, if not economically, at least mentally. There will always be Covid deaths from now on and nothing can change that as far as we know. Yet, that was clear from almost day 1 of the pandemic.
Besides: look at who dies of Covid. It's those with weakened immune systems mostly. I want everyone to live as long and as happily as possible, but we need to acknowledge that some are sicker than others and all of us will die. Those who die of Covid are compromised on a way that would have them die from the flu or any number of other pathogens around (for the most part).
Like it or not, that's what the world is like and always has been like. Until we find a way to eradicate viruses, people will die from Covid. End of story.
That's funny, wearing a mask never cost me anything mentally, but I'm not surrounded by Dunning Krueger rednecks who make fun of masks so I got that going for me.
Endemic illnesses get spread around and kill people all the time. Endemic actually just means "statistically naturally occurring within a given population". It shouldn't have been allowed to get to endemic levels, but half of America thought the pandemic wasn't real and didn't wear masks or isolate.
First of all, there is more than the US. So let's not get into US centrism. I'm from Germany and we had issues with those ppl as well. The US alone would not have been able to stop this at all. Secondly, the endemic stage was guaranteed to happen in the very moment Covid left Wuhan province. That was the last time it was stoppable. Given it's incubation time, there was no way we could have caught all infected in time as soon as it left the very distinct borders it first occurred in.
They might die of the flu anyway is a horrific justification. If someone isn't getting vaccinated and masking up they're really just saying they don't care if other people die as long as they don't have to be inconvenienced.
The most dangerous thing when COVID emerged was it's novelty. Since no one's immune system had seen anything like it before, it had free reign to do widespread damage to it's victims often without any immune response and spread like wildfire.
Most of the planet is has either caught COVID, been immunized, or both at this point. Even though the variant changes it's not a completely novel disease. As such the damage it can do is limited.
At this point enacting controls other than immunization will be counterproductive. Remember that any control you place on a pathogen is a selection pressure for it to evolve to overcome it. So masks, distancing etc. that we half-assed at the heat of the pandemic will make the pathogen evolve to overcome them.
The best and most effective control is immunization. We need to hold the other controls in reserve for if/when that fails.
Yet another comment that sounds rational at face value, but is actually insane when considering the high rates of long covid and how much about it is unknown.
The idea that we should just let immunocompromised people die is horrific and disgusting holy shit.
Justifying it based on “that’s what the world is and always will be like” is just as shitty, because it is essentially saying “I don’t think we should strive to change this because of the fact it happened in the past, and it is still happening now when we haven’t done much to change it.”
Source on it being endemic? Because I don't think WHO or CDC declared it endemic. It's expected to become endemic -- that's pretty much common sense -- but the only thing that's happened is the rescinding of public health emergencies, which is not the same as the pandemic being over or it becoming endemic.
The WHO ended it's public health emergency of international concern in 2023.
"Endemic" means that we can predict infection rates. This can happen one year after it has become stable at the earliest, so the fact that it's not called "endemic" yet isn't because we have have left emergency territory, it's because we need at least one year's worth of "stable" data to call it endemic.So authorities declaring something to be endemic isnt exactly the same as a pandemic being over. They declared the latter, will declare the former with enough data.
So how many new viruses does it take before we panic? What if every five years a new world changing virus like Covid comes out? What if we all get sick so often our bodies can no longer supply enough Tcells? Compare this to tech. Would you surf the Internet without a firewall?
Yeah each and every Covid death is a tragedy but how many people committed suicide during lockdown? How much did our society and culture suffer from shutting everything down except the bare essentials? How many people went broke because they couldn't work from home?
I think the lockdown was worth it back in 2020-2021. But at some point you just need to accept that people are going to die no matter what, and there's nothing we can do to eradicate Covid forever.
The WHO never announced that the pandemic is over. People just got bored of it so they decided it was.
Not trying to be argumentative or contrarian but WHO not declaring that a pandemic is over is not really what signals the end of a pandemic (any pandemic, not just COVID). Most literature suggests that pandemics tend to end organically, once the culture(s) impacted return more or less to normal. The pandemic has been over by conventional definitions for a couple years now. That doesn't mean that COVID is less of a threat or shouldn't be taken seriously by any means. It just means that society is no longer adjusting daily life because of the threat.
The pandemic is over because it's now endemic.
Yes, and I'm sorry, but I really was very bored of it.
As long as you’re willing to get vaccinated on occasion then being bored isn’t anything to feel sorry about.
There are so many people I come across now think of this as a cold, perhaps a bad one in the worse case. They have had it at least once to 3 times so there's nothing more that can be done in their minds.
My gf has had it 2 years in a row and I've dodged it there too.
I'm being told I'm a unicorn now as I'm the only one in my circles that hasn't had it yet.
Then I see the numbers above like this and recall almost 3000 died in 9/11 and how many were so moved by those senseless deaths which lead to a million more senseless civilian deaths while domestically these Rona numbers happening weekly, and there's nothing that can be done in a way worse than the lack of action for gun violence against children.
At least there are thoughts and prayers to be applied for gun violence. We won't even think of this minimum for those that have died from Rona..
Food for thought: you may very well have had Covid, multiple times. Plenty of people have no, or extremely minor, symptoms. My son has had Covid twice and both times his ONLY symptom was a bit of a stomach upset. We only found out he had Covid by sheer coincidence.
I've wondered that. Thankfully I've not tested positive at work the first year and neither time the gf was sick. We get plenty of free rest kits still up here so we usually test at the sign of anything. I think that's how I've been able to avoid getting it with the gf as she has been religious about testing right away at the first sign of a tickle.
But still if neither of us are sick or showing symptoms we don't test so it could have come and gone without knowing.
I'm one of those who have extremely mild symptom. Just one. A minor sore throat. No mucus build up, no coughing, no fever, etc etc. In my line of work it's not terribly uncommon to finish a random day with heavy circular saw use and have worse symptoms than covid (for me). I consider myself very lucky but it sure was strange when my job site all got it and I was seemingly unaffected.
I am in no way denying this claim, I just dont find stating that this time of year is the highest since this time of year last year *to be a compelling claim. While perfectly true, it doesnt convey anything mwaningful to me, as it seems that common diseases such as cold and flu are always on seasonal variations, so you would expect the peak seasons to be regular each year. I think communication on an issue like this needs to be both speciic and careful to consider that cultural expectations of diseases could lessen the impact if what is being said here.
edit:spelling and grammar
This seems to be the same Twitter account that said the Palestine marches in DC and London had a million people combined when every article seemed to describe the attendance as "thousands".
I'm sceptical of all their claims now.
Yeah these numbers (and post, by proxy) are meaningless without context, context I don't have. I really don't give a shit that there's 1,000 crusty old geezers dying every day. If they don't take care of their health and wellness I don't need to give a shit about their easily preventable death.
https://www.usbirthcertificates.com/articles/people-born-daily In the United States,
- 445 people are born every hour
- 10,687 people are born every day
- 8 people are born every second
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7117e1.htm
COVID-19, listed as the underlying cause in 415,399 deaths during 2021, ranked as the third leading underlying cause of death after heart disease (693,021 deaths) and cancer (604,553 deaths) (Figure 2). COVID-19 was the underlying cause for 13.3% of all deaths in 2021, increasing from 10.4% (350,831 deaths) in 2020. Unintentional injuries, the fourth leading cause of death in 2020 and 2021, increased from 200,955 in 2020 to 219,487 in 2021. start highlightOther leading causes of death maintained the same ranking from 2020 to 2021, except for chronic liver disease and cirrhosis and influenza and pneumonia. Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, which was not among the 10 leading causes of death in 2020, was the ninth leading cause in 2021 with 56,408 deaths (51,642 deaths in 2020).end highlight Influenza and pneumonia, which was the ninth leading cause of death in 2020 (53,544 deaths), dropped out of the 10 leading causes in 2021 (41,835 deaths).
It’s never going to be over. It’s endemic now. Instead of Flu Season we will always have COVID and Flu Season.
I was about to make this same comment, but I looked up some statistics and it seems that COVID still has a 10x hospitalization rate and 3-4x death rate among seniors as compared to seasonal flu. While it's fair to say that COVID is probably seasonal now, like the flu, I think it's important to acknowledge that it's much more dangerous. I was never one to get flu shots in the past, but COVID shots seem like a good idea. I'll probably stay home from work longer if I do catch COVID, and I'll probably wear a mask if I have to go out in public before I'm fully recovered. I think we just need to recalibrate our common sense for this new reality.
https://www.ahcancal.org/News-and-Communications/Blog/Pages/Flu-or-COVID-19---Which-is-Worse.aspx
Between new diseases and all the smoke from entire states and provinces burning each spring and summer and the unbearable heat and cold, we're all gonna be walking around looking like sand people in a few years.
Just want to say this is a quality comment. Thanks. Good points made.
Unfortunately there are way too many people who not only refuse to accept that but who will also actively resist any attempts to control this or any future pandemic
Unfortunately there are way too many people.
Yeah but people are over it. No more shutdowns. Covid isn't going away ever.
I wonder, how many of these people were homeless and could easily been prevented just with some human decency, housing them and given them basic medical care.
I only got it when I was put in jail for shit I didn't do. They made me catch COVID when I otherwise wouldn't have because I already self isolate to the extreme.
I am saddened for those that die despite doing everything that they can to prevent it. The vaccine doesn't always work. Some people can't get it for legitimate health reasons (as opposed to the illegitimate excuses some people use). Etc.
Call me cold hearted, but with the exception of the minority of people meeting the above criteria, I can't help but imagine that most of the people dying of COVID at this point are willfully ignorant Trumpets taking one for their team. Good riddance to them. That's one less ballot we need to worry about in November.
The vaccine does work. Vaccines aren't a silver bullet "you'll never catch this disease now" solution. They simply mitigate the harmful effects of the virus and reduce your chances of contracting it.
A lot of vaccines prevent you from becoming sick. With that in mind they work in a way but aren't very good. Better than nothing for sure.
Some of them are a silver bullet. Smallpox and Polio vaccines are so effective they've effectively eliminated the disease wherever they're widely available. Covid vaccine is better than nothing, but it's certainly way less effective than many vaccines.
Yup, the only good thing Trump has ever done was killing off a ton of his cult members.
Get vaccinated, test, mask and social distance.
I was really active about all that befor. But I've since stopped testing. I just don't feel like it matters if I have the flu or covid, it's not like I'm goint anywhere sick anyway.
for the US*
Don't get complacent. COVID has been hitting Europe pretty hard too
Edit: I put bad links, sorry!
I am regularly boosted and test when I am sick as does my family. It ain’t over but I’m living my life. We have the means for most people to walk around without any concern, but some people refuse to take 30 minutes out of their day to get a (generally free) sho every 12mo or so because it’s inconvenient or their politics.
The pandemic is over for me and my family. All the “vaccine skeptics“ out there can get on board or deal with it at this point. It’s been almost 4 years folks, get with the program. Any of you reading this who are able but have not gotten boosted or (god forbid) aren’t vaccinated yet, get off your ass and do it. It’s not that difficult.
Now check to see if the folks in the Hospital and dying were vaccinated.
The vast majority of people hospitalized and intubated and deceased from COVID were not vaccinated.
As expected. Not a thing in the world you can do to stop idiots from getting themselves killed.
Cold/Flu season is in full effect so I’m betting getting Covid with the Flu is rough.
Its people dying with covid not because of covid. Covid is here to stay and people will keep dying with it, or because of it, just like some die of pneumonia or other simple bacteria infections, because they already suffer other health complications
My guy, people die from all sorts of shit all the time. It doesn't mean there's a pandemic for every little thing.
Covid is never going to go away and you need to get over it.
It's okay buddy, you can just say, "But I am le tired" or the classic "I'm good and I only care about me."
Just shoot straight
You can tell people that they have to shut off their lives completely just to convenience you and be just as honest.
Or you can keep getting angry at me because you don't want to hear the truth. Your choice. 🤷
Exactly, the pandemic is over... because it's endemic now.
