DougB
Senior Member
The crazies support the Europeans! See how that argument plays with the progressive crowd
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- Thread starter Mountain Man
- Start date
Silence&Motion
Senior Member
Omicron definitely changed the calculus of the vaccines and public health restrictions. Pre-omicron, there was hopes that COVID might follow measles and be vaccinated almost out of existence. Putting restrictions on the unvaccinated wasn't just a way of encouraging them to get the jab, it was also a way to protect people from getting COVID in the first place.
With omicron, COVID spread rapidly among the vaccinated as well, becoming more like influenza than measles. Getting infected with COVID now seems less scary and more inevitable. When almost everyone you know has gotten mild cases of COVID at this point, you're not really worried about getting it yourself or spreading it to others. In this sense, it doesn't really matter if there are unvaccinated people in the restaurant you're eating at. Therefore, there is a case to be made for reducing public health restrictions and beginning to treat COVID more like the flu.
One issue remains, however. Unvaccinated people are still more likely to get severe illness and take up spots in the hospital. There are still 160,000 Albertans above the age of 40 who have not had a single dose. If hospitalization rates are somewhere between 1% to 5% for this group, we're still talking about thousands of potential hospitalizations and hundreds of potential ICU cases. So it may still be quite a while before our health care system gets back to anything looking like normal. And there is a distinct possibility that Kenney will once again have to crawl back to the podium announcing new restrictions that he promised were gone for good, because a new wave has pushed us back to the brink.
With omicron, COVID spread rapidly among the vaccinated as well, becoming more like influenza than measles. Getting infected with COVID now seems less scary and more inevitable. When almost everyone you know has gotten mild cases of COVID at this point, you're not really worried about getting it yourself or spreading it to others. In this sense, it doesn't really matter if there are unvaccinated people in the restaurant you're eating at. Therefore, there is a case to be made for reducing public health restrictions and beginning to treat COVID more like the flu.
One issue remains, however. Unvaccinated people are still more likely to get severe illness and take up spots in the hospital. There are still 160,000 Albertans above the age of 40 who have not had a single dose. If hospitalization rates are somewhere between 1% to 5% for this group, we're still talking about thousands of potential hospitalizations and hundreds of potential ICU cases. So it may still be quite a while before our health care system gets back to anything looking like normal. And there is a distinct possibility that Kenney will once again have to crawl back to the podium announcing new restrictions that he promised were gone for good, because a new wave has pushed us back to the brink.
darwink
Senior Member
An omicron specific vaccine may be able to push us back to push us back to the verge of seasonal extirpation (elimination within Alberta/Canada/the rich world). Now we just wait: wait to see if we have another omicron wave in 3-4 months. A second variant omicron wave.
What worries me most is that the relatively minor restrictions we had in October, November were working, and were a sustainable strategy to medium-long term manage except for a small minority of people. Annoying sure, but entirely sustainable set of tradeoffs.
This virus will continue to evolve. We're in a long fight and we've seen that for many, solutions that don't solve things near instantaneously and perfectly means measures failed to a large group. It is like a war, and we can manage, but the enemy is not some fixed target-its strategies are random and will take advantage of any drop in defence. We need to continually adapt to an enemy which adapts to us.
Drop the REP now? When we know it was a useful tool to push vaccination rates up? Heck I would trade giving up ALL and I mean ALL other society wide public health tools to maintain the REP/vaccine passport and continue to use it to keep doses up to date. We need 3rd dose up. We need vaccination in children and teens up. We will need everyone to re-up when omicron specific vaccines are ready.
What worries me most is that the relatively minor restrictions we had in October, November were working, and were a sustainable strategy to medium-long term manage except for a small minority of people. Annoying sure, but entirely sustainable set of tradeoffs.
This virus will continue to evolve. We're in a long fight and we've seen that for many, solutions that don't solve things near instantaneously and perfectly means measures failed to a large group. It is like a war, and we can manage, but the enemy is not some fixed target-its strategies are random and will take advantage of any drop in defence. We need to continually adapt to an enemy which adapts to us.
Drop the REP now? When we know it was a useful tool to push vaccination rates up? Heck I would trade giving up ALL and I mean ALL other society wide public health tools to maintain the REP/vaccine passport and continue to use it to keep doses up to date. We need 3rd dose up. We need vaccination in children and teens up. We will need everyone to re-up when omicron specific vaccines are ready.
This is something that doesn't get mentioned often. With how easily Omicron spreads, the hospitals would have crashed, cost the health care system millions, and affected the health care of non-covid patients. It most likely would have led to strict lockdown measures and cost the economy even more money. It's a good thing 90% of Calgarians got the vaccine.
Mountain Man
Senior Member
Guess Covid is over again. Best spring ever!
artvandelay
Active Member
They're still being fairly cautious with lifting the restrictions on large gatherings, but at least I can have a pocket dog with my dome beer now!
Mountain Man
Senior Member
I turned down tickets to many games lately specifically because I couldn't have a beer or food haha.
Alberta county passes policy that stops businesses with vaccine mandates from winning contracts
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Mountain Man
Senior Member
SMRT
Beltline_B
Senior Member
What a bunch of jerk-wads. Thankfully McKenzie county is small butthole county that counts for almost nothing in the grand picture of things. Though I'm sure it'll end up in the national news and Alberta's reputation as a bunch of redneck peasants will live on.
Alberta county passes policy that stops businesses with vaccine mandates from winning contracts
Roaring Flames
Senior Member
Once again proving how maddeningly conservative and uneducated rural Alberta is
Sounds like there aren't very many companies in the area that have vaccine mandates, except for Atco who does their power and gas. I'd love to see them stop doing business with Atco lol.
Mountain Man
Senior Member
Vaccine mandates are on their way out anyway. Atco should just turn everything off for 2 weeks and walk away haha. Then business as usual with no mandates as planned.
Court grants immediate injunction on Beltline protests in Calgary against public health measures
Mountain Man
Senior Member
What are they even protesting now? It almost seems like they are so excited to be a part of something that they just can't let it go.