Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Josquius]

Either the world stays in lockdown for all eternity, or Dorsey was right all along since Day 1.

I mean, it's not like we suddenly just said "oh. It's not working.".
The lockdowns bought time for the vaccines to be developed and reduce covid to a minor concern.

[crazy canuck]

I mean, it's not like you carefully evaluated Denmark's policy, carefully compared all the data that went into it, cross referenced it with that same data from Canada, and soberly concluded that Denmark is right to allow some travel and Canada wrong.

Nope...Canada doesn't allow travel, so they are wrong. Denmark does allow travel, so they are right. 100% outcome driven evaluation.

I certainly didn't do an extensive evaluation. What I did is recognize that Canada won't let in vaccinated travelers without an essential reason, and I think that is stupid. If you want to point to the vaccinated travelers that presented a negative covid test and that have spread covid, I'll reevaluate that opinion.

Pulling this in from another thread...i was critical of canada's policy just over a year ago to not allow travel for vaccinated travelers without an essential reason...basically no one agreed with me...well now we are a year later, and Canada is not only letting in vaccinated passengers without an essential reason, and they are also not requiring a covid test to enter. Covid continues to be spread so I guess canada decided its policy was wrong?

Canada removed its policy when the medical evidence indicated that doing so would not overwelm our health care services.  The correctness of that decision is an interesting point of debate here.  Our medical system is still under a great deal of stress and the extra COVID cases are a large part of that problem.  But the other side of the debate also has some strength - ie at some point the loss of economic activity creates more harm to the medical system because of the inability to properly fund it.

But I have not heard anyone argue (except you and the extreme right wing here in Canada) that the policy was always wrong.

[viper37]

Hard to believe someone who smoked cigarettes while working in public health could be sanctimonious about someone wanting to pursue outdoor recreation during the early stages of the pandemic. Maybe someday covid will surpass the deaths caused by smoking, but we are a long long way from that.

smoking has a had a few centuries head start.

[viper37]

I mean, it's not like you carefully evaluated Denmark's policy, carefully compared all the data that went into it, cross referenced it with that same data from Canada, and soberly concluded that Denmark is right to allow some travel and Canada wrong.

Nope...Canada doesn't allow travel, so they are wrong. Denmark does allow travel, so they are right. 100% outcome driven evaluation.

I certainly didn't do an extensive evaluation. What I did is recognize that Canada won't let in vaccinated travelers without an essential reason, and I think that is stupid. If you want to point to the vaccinated travelers that presented a negative covid test and that have spread covid, I'll reevaluate that opinion.

Pulling this in from another thread...i was critical of canada's policy just over a year ago to not allow travel for vaccinated travelers without an essential reason...basically no one agreed with me...well now we are a year later, and Canada is not only letting in vaccinated passengers without an essential reason, and they are also not requiring a covid test to enter. Covid continues to be spread so I guess canada decided its policy was wrong?

Canada removed its policy when the medical evidence indicated that doing so would not overwelm our health care services.  The correctness of that decision is an interesting point of debate here.  Our medical system is still under a great deal of stress and the extra COVID cases are a large part of that problem.  But the other side of the debate also has some strength - ie at some point the loss of economic activity creates more harm to the medical system because of the inability to properly fund it.

But I have not heard anyone argue (except you and the extreme right wing here in Canada) that the policy was always wrong.

it's more that the vaccine has a more limited effect in preventing the spread of the disease now than it did before.

[alfred russel]

Do you not recognise the passage of time?

The discussion was for fully vaccinated passengers that were prohibited from entry. A year or so ago there was overwhelming evidence already how effective the vaccines were.

[alfred russel]

Either the world stays in lockdown for all eternity, or Dorsey was right all along since Day 1.

I mean, it's not like we suddenly just said "oh. It's not working.".
The lockdowns bought time for the vaccines to be developed and reduce covid to a minor concern.

The point in question that I just brought up was a policy after vaccine rollout and for travelers that were fully vaccinated.

[Josquius]

Oh. I do disagree with those policies being removed. They should merely have been tweaked to get rid of the stupid need to renew every time.
As it is we are rewarding antivaxers for being freeloaders.

[alfred russel]

What caused me to revisit this, is I'm leaving in a couple weeks for a business trip to India, and the airline has a policy that masks are required. However, that only applies to coach passengers while premium passengers don't need to mask up in the nicer cabin space. Luckily since its a business trip that applies to me, but wondering if this is based on science (they say because premium seating has more room between passengers) or just another perk to add for premium customers.

I recently went to Ecuador on holiday, and they require masks on planes. The flight originated from the US which does not, so we did not wear masks while boarding or on the flight until we crossed into Ecaudorian airspace, but at that point we had to mask up. Science is amazing!

[Josquius]

It need not be an either /or.
Scientifically then yes. It's best if 100% of people wear a mask. But it's not like the purpose of wearing a mask totally vanishes if only 90% are doing so.

Though as a policy that sounds quite fucked up. "The dirty poors" and all that.

I've flown a few times in recent months and found a few airlines still saying on their website masks are required but it just never comes up in reality.

[Sheilbh]

I've flown a few times in recent months and found a few airlines still saying on their website masks are required but it just never comes up in reality.

I've only flown once but basically didn't see anyone in a mask at either airport or on the plane. I don't think it was required by either country or the airline so...

[alfred russel]

I took a long weekend for a climbing trip in BC, stopping by Vancouver on the drive from seattle for lunch and on the way back for another lunch. Despite the perspective one might get on languish, behavior seemed the same as in Atlanta and basically any other US city. Lots of people out, there seemed to be a festival going on, few masks, crowded restaurants.

[crazy canuck]

You understand that BC removed all restrictions a number of weeks ago right?

[Jacob]

Where'd you go for lunch?

[alfred russel]

Where'd you go for lunch?

The trip in we went to a dimsum place that i don't know the name of but was awesome.

The trip out we went to a random noodle place that my credit card says was called kokoro tokyo mazesoba. We also went into some mall to get a smoothie at a a jugo juice which i assume is a chain (I have a personal rule that i can only drink a smoothie or anything with calories if i manage to climb 10 pitches in a day, and i got through 11 on Sunday ).   

[alfred russel]

You understand that BC removed all restrictions a number of weeks ago right?

I don't have any idea, but once everyone was vaccinated (or had the chance to be vaccinated) what was the point of all the restrictions previously?

I mean places like Japan are still not allowing routine international visitors. Covid isn't going away anytime soon, so is this it? Is Japan now closed and if we don't send the ghost of Commodore Matthew Perry it is back in isolation from the rest of the world?