Pandemic to Endemic

[Weezy1973]

It’s looking more and more likely that we are transitioning from COVID being a pandemic to endemic. With vaccination rates rising and Omicron being relatively mild (although still twice as deadly as the flu apparently), countries are starting to loosen restrictions or eliminate them altogether. What are your initial reactions to this transition? Relief? Apprehension? 
 

Where I am in Canada, public health officials are in a no win situation. Some people think restrictions should have been rescinded already (currently exemplified by the Trucker Convoy / rally). But many are still worried about future variants, and protecting vulnerable people so think restrictions should continue or even be stricter. Wondering how this is playing out elsewhere.

[Wiseman2]

Wearing a mask is no big deal. Getting vaccinated is a hassle and worth it 

People are tired of it and want to feel normal again. However ripping off the masks too soon was foolhearty. 

Some restrictions such as curfews never made scientific sense to me.

Delta airlines recently created a no-fly database for passengers who refused to wear masks.

Edited February 7, 2022 by Wiseman2

[ASG]

I'm all for easing restrictions, though I think the masks should stay in place until the end of winter. 

But we must get on with life. 

What beeds to happen to prevent new variants is vaccinating the rest of the world. 

Only 10% of people in low income countries have been vaccinated. That is not ok. 

That number needs to increase massively, so that we don't have the threat of a new variant showing up. 

[Woggle]

At the end of the day society has to get back to normal or things will completely fall apart. I don't think we can take another year of this without societal collapse. We can't go on like this forever.

[mark clemson]

There was an article out recently that Fauci stated we are nearing the end of the full on pandemic stage. (A link to the article was posted on Reddit, which is how I saw it.) So he apparently feels we are nearing that. However, he's backtracked before and may do so on this as well, particularly IF a much more dangerous variant comes along.

Given that the virus still around and being transmitted in a milder form, it feels like we are starting to reach one "version" of endemic. However some important realities present themselves:

- The virus isn't going anywhere in areas like NA where it's circulating widely.

- Some people are going to continue to resist vaccination (and some people are unable to vaccinate).

Since the virus is more dangerous the older you get, and all these unvaccinated people will continue aging, I suspect we are going to have higher mortality rates for the foreseeable future as these folks slowly die off. I believe that at some point "society as a whole" essentially accepts this (it may be unavoidable) and people take fewer precautions unless they are in a particularly vulnerable group. I think hospitals and insurance companies at least will be dealing with whatever the increased death rates will be for a few decades, minimally.

This assumes no highly dangerous variant comes along that spreads around a lot AND THEN is highly lethal (e.g. a 40% death rate/black plague type scenario). I'm not living my life assuming that something like that will happen, but it certainly COULD. Presumably in a situation like that vaccination offers SOME protection and the worst effects hit those who didn't vaccinate.

I think for it to be "truly endemic" there is a sort of long term "dance" between the virus' genetics and our genetics where essentially genes that result in high susceptibility to the virus are eliminated or minimized in the population, with occasional more dangerous variants (just like the flu). There's no saying how long that may take - could be a few decades, could be 100's, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of years.

[SingFish]

[ ] 

I wash my hands, wear a mask, stay out of crowds, socialize outdoors, have had three shots and will get boosters as they come out...what more can I do?

Stay positive and healthy as possible maybe 🙂

Edited February 9, 2022 by a LoveShack.org Moderator
off topic

[mark clemson]

^^ I agree there is only so much one can reasonably do, and it's even questionable how necessary some of the things you mention are (for example masks might help prevent spread, but might not do all that much to protect YOU specifically unless they're N95s).

Being prepared to isolate as much as possible in the event of a worst-case-scenario strain might be wise. However the chances of that actually occurring are of course not known and MAY be quite low. A best-case scenario (which would be that we've already been through the worst of what the virus will do health-wise for the next several generations) is certainly also a possibility.

With things as they currently stand, I fear that even with best-case the dying off of folks who are vulnerable and/or can't or won't take precautions as they age will continue. It's possible medical advances may change that at some point.

Edited February 10, 2022 by mark clemson

[Popeye_Jones]

Surprisingly (or not surprisingly) there is STILL a contingent out there that longs for a return to the earliest days of the pandemic. Total shutdown, can't leave your house unless it's an extreme emergency, deserted looking cities, anything and everything closed except for supermarkets and even those were on extremely limited hours. I can't for the life of me figure out why ANY half way functioning human being not only enjoyed that, but would want to go back to it. Of course, the obligatory response is "well...nobody actually enjoyed that. Some just feel it's necessary to return to that". I would not be so quick to say that absolutely nobody enjoyed it. I'm sure some did. And if nobody did enjoy it, why such a push to go back to it? Petitions keep getting sent to state and local governments to "shut it all back down, start over, get it right this time". That is just a waste of time and energy, IMO. First off, if all of that really accomplished anything two years ago, then it could have fooled me right out of my shoes. Secondly, NONE of that is coming back. If it was going to, it would just happen. There wouldn't be non stop talk about it. It would just happen. That cat is long since out of the bag and can't be herded. And on top of that, don't these people (who actually think that returning to an early day style shutdown is the be all end all answer) realize that the world is in a much different place now? The early days were just that. It was back before we had a vaccine or any idea of what to expect or any real understanding of this virus. Of course, not going back to a complete shutdown akin to March 2020 is NOT the same thing as the pandemic being over. It's just that we are in a different place, on the whole. I am no doctor by any means, but I THINK what we are seeing now is the slow transition to endemic. How long that transition is, is another matter entirely. 

[SingFish]

55 minutes ago, Popeye_Jones said:

Total shutdown, can't leave your house unless it's an extreme emergency, deserted looking cities, anything and everything closed except for supermarkets and even those were on extremely limited hours.

Most places never had that I don't think, we didn't. 

I believe the restrictions such as hand washing, social distance and face masks are just common sense. I will do all those for as long as I have to. My doctor commented yesterday on the very low 'flu season this winter so I think there's been an  positive impact on other infections. I have to stay infection free if possible for work anyway. 

If everyone gets their vaccines then we'd be on the way to herd immunity and endemic but this latest Covid wave still had a lot of infections and deaths. 

 

 

[Els]

I support enforcing masks and vaccinations, but not lockdowns. Lockdowns were only ever meant as a temporary stopgap measure to allow the population to get sufficiently vaccinated.

I will only ever support lockdowns if there is a new variant with a mortality/hospitalization rate for triple-vaccinated people that is as high as Delta was to unvaccinated people. Hopefully, that will never happen.

[SingFish]

Actually @Elswyth the deaths from Omicron variant have been higher than the previous Delta variant. But we did not need lock down this time I agree. 

It's not either/or, on/off, infection control...we can just do what is necessary. 

It's all become emotional for a lot of people I think. 

 

 

[Popeye_Jones]

26 minutes ago, Elswyth said:

I support enforcing masks and vaccinations, but not lockdowns. Lockdowns were only ever meant as a temporary stopgap measure to allow the population to get sufficiently vaccinated.

I will only ever support lockdowns if there is a new variant with a mortality/hospitalization rate for triple-vaccinated people that is as high as Delta was to unvaccinated people. Hopefully, that will never happen.

Attempting lockdowns again would fail miserably. I don't think people would stand for it as easily again. 

[SingFish]

1 minute ago, Popeye_Jones said:

Attempting lockdowns again would fail miserably. I don't think people would stand for it as easily again. 

I think people have to do what they have to do- 'greater good' and all that. But lockdowns are not currently necessary, who is suggesting they are? Nobody in the US that I've heard, I know other countries are still having their first waves.