Pirate's Cove

It’s still a really good idea to get the vaccine. And, if it’s been 6 months since you had your last one, get a booster. Because, really, the vaccines aren’t like the vaccines which keep your from getting a disease. You get the smallpox vaccine, you will not get smallpox. You won’t carry it, you won’t transmit it. The COVID vaccines are more like flu shots: they can hopefully reduce the chance you get it, and, if you do, it will be light. I already know of multiple people in the workplace who have it in the past few days

(CNN) An unprecedented spike in Covid-19 cases fueled by the fast-moving Omicron variant is crushing hospitals across the United States, with doctors describing packed emergency rooms as health experts implore New Year’s Eve revelers to keep parties small and outdoors to help avert an even worse surge.

“It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen, even at the peak of the prior surges of Covid,” Dr. James Phillips, who works in Washington, DC, said Wednesday, when the nation hit a new pandemic high of 300,886 average new daily cases over the prior week, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Remember when Biden said he he’d shut down the virus, not the country? Interestingly, the national media is focusing on Florida breaking infection records. But, I can only find one lonely local story about New York shattering records. And surging heavily in California. Weren’t we told those states were the models? Also, Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. Poor Brandon

Omicron puts pinch on Biden vaccine mandate efforts

The rapidly spreading omicron variant poses a problem for the White House as officials try to convince a skeptical public that vaccine mandates are necessary.

Opponents of mandates are seizing on early evidence that shows vaccines are not as effective at stopping transmission of the new strain, which they say undermines the administration’s key arguments for championing them.

This week, airlines were forced to cancel thousands of flights as COVID-19 swept through its flight crews and other employees. (snip)

Administration officials have cast vaccine mandates for health workers, and mandate-or-test requirements for large employers, as essential tools to get more people vaccinated.

While vaccines don’t necessarily keep someone from getting COVID-19, they greatly reduce the chances of hospitalization or death. If the mandates result in more people getting vaccinated, it could also reduce stress on the nation’s healthcare system if waves of people do get infected.

Well, true. But, they don’t seem to be stopping it from hitting the vaccinated.

Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health at Georgetown University, said there’s been too much fatalistic messaging from the administration. If people are under the impression that they’re going to get COVID-19 no matter what, that will make selling mandates much more politically difficult, he said.

Gostin acknowledged that vaccines don’t totally prevent transmission of the omicron variant, but he said that doesn’t reduce the ethical justification for requiring somebody to be vaccinated.

“But I still think vaccine mandates are warranted,” he said. “If you can do something for somebody that is safe and keeps them healthy, when they otherwise might get very sick or die, that’s a good thing. And it’s also justified by the fact that we need to preserve health system capacities.”

Again, I’d agree if it was like so many vaccines, where you don’t get it. Period. It is more like the flu shots. How many people get them and still get the flu? Raising my hand. But, the flu does tend to be lighter. I’d say position it like the flu shots, but, people blow those off, too. People are going to have to really get a booster like every 6 months. And we need to learn to live with it. And if people want to not get it, that’s on them. I don’t want to hear them complain. But, what most news outlets are refusing to publish

(Deseret News) The omicron variant is “not the same disease” compared to previous COVID-19 strains, according to John Bell, a professor of medicine at the University of Oxford.

Bell, the U.K. government’s life sciences adviser, told BBC Radio 4 Tuesday that the omicron variant has led to fewer hospitalizations and severe disease so far, which shows the vaccines are still working, according to Bloomberg.

“The incidence of severe disease and death from this disease (Covid-19) has basically not changed since we all got vaccinated and that’s really important to remember,” he told the BBC.

“The horrific scenes that we saw a year ago — intensive care units being full, lots of people dying prematurely — that is now history in my view and I think we should be reassured that that’s likely to continue.” (snip)

This aligns with some early data and research suggested that the omicron COVID-19 variant leads to less severe symptoms and hospitalizations, as I wrote for the Deseret News. So far, data from South Africa has shown fewer hospitalizations tied to the variant, even though it has shown the power to evade COVID-19 vaccines and antibodies.

Yes, the major media is still trying to scare The People by not telling us this. And it barely helps Biden’s case by requiring vaccination.