• Norgur@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    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.

    • iterable@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      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?

    • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 months ago

      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.

      • Norgur@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        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.

        • Nythos@sh.itjust.works
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          9 months ago

          Fucking Boris Johnson thought the UK could get through the pandemic through herd immunity and cost the lives of thousands.

    • VR20X6@slrpnk.net
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      9 months ago

      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.

      • Norgur@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        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.

    • Reddfugee42@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      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.

      • cottonmon@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I really don’t understand why there’s so much hostility towards masks. I’ve always worn masks when I was sick and it was never a big deal for me. Wearing a mask all the time during 2020-2023 wasn’t a bother either.

        • QTpi@sh.itjust.works
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          9 months ago

          I don’t get it either. I was working in a hospital lab in TX for H1N1 (swine flu) in 2009. The hospital lined up all staff members to get the brand new H1N1 vaccine and you either got it or signed a declination. Declining meant you got a sticker on your badge requiring you to wear a mask for the entire flu season while at work. No fits, no protests, and everyone cooperated. My mind is blown by how toxic the rhetoric became.

  • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.cafe
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    9 months ago

    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.

    • Lemonparty@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      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.

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      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.

  • WashedOver@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    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…

    • Spuddlesv2@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      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.

      • Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        9 months ago

        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.

      • WashedOver@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        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.

      • VR20X6@slrpnk.net
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        9 months ago

        If only there were some sort of rapid covid test you could take to check instead of just headcanoning whether or not you have covid.

  • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    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) not are vaccinated yet, get off your ass and do it. It’s not that difficult.

  • Null User Object@programming.dev
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    9 months ago

    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.

    • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 months ago

      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.

      • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        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.