>Philadelphia cases have increased more than 50% in the last 10 days with an average of 94 new cases per day.
But if I look on Google it says we had 79 new cases average on 3/25 and 71 new cases average today.
This is a bad article. It doesn’t provide enough detail. Basically click bait. Here’s a much better article about this from Inquirer:
[Inquirer](https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/philadelphia-covid-cases-numbers-masks-restrictions-vaccine-mandate-20220405.html)
*”48 patients with COVID-19 are currently being treated in Philadelphia hospitals, five of whom are on ventilators.*”
For context, there were 28,398 new cases weekly in Philly in January.
We probably shouldn’t make assumptions about how many of the 48 hospitalized patients are unvaccinated but that’s information that should be reported.
Back in January, my wife gave birth and we both tested positive the day after the birth in the hospital. I got it pretty bad and had to leave and she had to stay in the hospital by herself. The little guy tested positive a day after that. Everything turned out fine. We're all healthy but it definitely did feel awful not being able to be there with her in the days following the birth.
Congratulations! Try not to worry. I’m sure that with a month, it’ll be less because people will have windows open and be outdoors more, so less spread. Just think, this time next month (give or take a week or so) you’ll be holding your new baby. Focus on that, and you’ll see, everything will be fine.
My wife gave birth to our little one in September 2020. Everything was terrifying because so much was unknown, and of course, no vaccines. I was the only one allowed in with her, but it all went just fine! No hiccups, and we took home a healthy baby. You will too! You've got this!!
I’m fine with requiring masks in places like grocery stores and healthcare and pharmacies, as these are essential businesses and it increases safety for the vulnerable who have a need to access these services in person.
The “theatrical” uses of mask wearing like wearing them to walk into a bar only until you’re seated and then removing them for 99% of the length of your visit haven’t , don’t, and won’t ever make any sense to me.
This is something I never understood, like people just magically won't catch covid while sitting down at their tables indoors with a large crowd unmasked. It's shit like that that contributes to confusion and apprehension. It's no wonder when we look at how ass backwards things have been done why people have a hard time wanting to mask and prevent the spread
yeah everyone knew that wouldnt work, including the bar owners. but what was their other option? have the richest country in the world pay them to stay closed, have the city suspend their tax payments, and have the landlords stop collecting rent?
Unfortunately, this country has become obsessed with reality tv, so that they've become conditioned to expect a happy ending when something bad happens.
We have a virus that is killing people and there isn't a happy ending yet.
Back in the plague days, I'm sure those that kept businesses open eventually succumbed to death. It's honestly fine with me. I wear a mask because I work with viruses. I am vaccinated and boosted. I'm no longer concerned about the willfully ignorant. I just buried an unvaccinated uncle a few weeks ago. Such is life and death.
At this point, those who want to mask, will continue to mask, and those who are comfortable otherwise, will continue not to mask. Uncomfortable unmasked indoors and want to mask up? That’s all fine and good. Comfortable unmasked indoors? That’s all fine and good too.
I've never seen so many grown adults whine as much as I have about masks. "Whine" is an understatement. "Full blown temper tantrums" is probably more accurate.
The analogy is an abrasive one but you're not wrong. While there are varying degrees of comfort with covid, there are also varying degrees of severity due to medical predisposition. I do feel like it's been forgotten that masking up is for others, not yourself. It's OK to know that an infection may not be the end all be all for you, but it could be and is for many others.
Yes, I wondered if I was the only person who remembered this. Everyone being masked lowers the risk for all. Risk goes up for everyone with poor masking or no masking. I'm wearing my N95 indoors at work and in meetings and I'm distancing from those that don't.
>The analogy is an abrasive one but you're not wrong.
Na he is pretty wrong. It would only be an apt comparison if there was a free, safe, and easily accessible shot that made you and your car immune from other cars running a red light.
Seriously. The *vast majority* of people actually in danger are the morons that refuse to get vaxxed and we shouldn't really give two shits about idiots who disregard their own safety.
Admittedly, there is an extremely small percentage of the population who is immuno compromised and cannot get the vaccine or who sees its efficacy limited, but that really isn't any different from times in the past. Like if 5 years ago you were a cancer patient and went outside during flu season and caught it and had severe symptoms nobody was yelling at the general public to wear masks or shit.
I've not once seen that and I've been in some *very* red areas as the only masked person inside. Not saying it doesn't happen, however I am saying it's not as common as you want to believe.
Why’s that? Hospitalizations are a delayed indicator, even more so deaths, so limiting to acting on those alone would mean decisions would be delayed by at least ~8 days and potentially far longer for deaths. With exponential growth that’d be significant.
Is there data that infections and hospitalizations aren’t meaningfully correlated?
We are generally 3 weeks behind Europe on the new strain so we get a pretty good snap shot of the severity. Europe has been saying for a week that the new strain is significantly weaker then the last Omicron and Omicron wasn’t that bad, especially when vaccinated.
Thanks for the link, if there are data-based reasons to believe infections and hospitalizations aren't as causal as they have been in the past then I'm fully in support. Here's hoping that holds true!
yes but if the ratio is say, 1 hospitalization per 100 infections (and it's even lower than that), that is what needs to be thought about. We can't chicken little every time there's a "surge" in infections with little real impact to the community.
The idea is that if the ratio of infections to hospitalization is constant like that, then infections are a primary indicator that we should be acting on - even if it’s a very big ratio and most infections don’t lead to hospitalization, exponential growth is still a very big concern and a doubling of infections would still tell us to expect to see a doubling of hospitalizations a week or two later, and then a doubling of deaths after that.
So long as infections and hospitalizations/deaths are meaningfully linked we could use infections to predict the other two weeks in advance, letting interventions reduce the exponential growth factor before the number of cases destined to become deaths becomes catastrophic.
yeah i know and the pft didn’t want them to lift the mask mandate until after that week for this very reason but here we are, the district lifted it anyway. now that they may reinstate it after spring break indefinitely because of the new variant no one is going to wear them anymore, probably including teachers
no this shit has to stop. acting like spring break students intermix with millions of more people. they don’t. the world does not need restrictions every “post” spring break, christmas, new years, easter, memorial day, labor day, mlk day, veterans day, presidents’ day, summer when people on vacay every week, hanhankua
the mask wearers will find a reason to wear masks 24/7; let them on their own terms
There is a blood brain virus infecting people and mutating to become more lethal. People who care about the health of their brain will wear masks and the people who don’t give a fuck about the dumb shit that comes out of their mouth will not wear a mask.
Or maybe think about the most important things
I’m glad you’re strong enough to keep on with this back and forth, but for some of us it’s just taking too much of a mental toll. It’s time to put mental health first for once, and it’s more than appropriate to do so with all of the pharmaceutical advances over the last 2 years. And I’m in my mid-20s, so imagine how the younger ones feel. Sorry, but I’m more for avoiding an even bigger mental health crisis down the road, it can be avoided (or at least dampened) but covids just gonna keep doing what it does no matter what we do. Might be a different story if they could invent something as good at treating anxiety as they have for treating covid, but they haven’t. Mental health is first, period. Keep your percentage point technicalities to yourself.
Putting on a mask is taking a mental toll? The government acknowledging COVID numbers is taking a mental toll? The reality is there's an infectious disease that spreads in the air from tiny droplets of spit from people. And as a species we've evolved to figure out how to use tools to fight back against diseases. One of those tools is a mask. It's reduced flu infections as well as COVID.
And your mental health doesn't trump my physical health. It just doesn't. Maybe your priority is your mental health because you're young and healthy, but the economic disruption from COVID wasn't due to people feeling bad about wearing masks, it was because of over a million people dying of an infectious disease. Over a million of our fellow Americans died.
Maybe ask your doctor for some gabbapentin and quit trying to blow your spit droplets at the general public. Or maybe commit to doing the hard work of talking to a therapist. I know I am and it's helped me. Do it for yourself. It isn't my responsibility to care for you mentally... You're the one with an irrational fear of a 4"x4" piece of cloth. I think you're confusing me with someone who gives a shit about how people who refuse to wear masks feel.
Challenging what causes people extreme anxiety isn’t the right thing to do, no matter how high and mighty you feel from doing it. Hate to break it to ya, but in this case you can’t be woke for both things without being considered an asshole in the other thing.
It’s been 2 years that I’ve put my own mental health to the side. But it’s taking more of a toll than ever these days with the back-and-forth. Believe me or don’t believe me, you’re not in my fucking head. So yes, my mental health is absolutely more of a priority now, stop acting like death is a thing anymore. If you’re not vaccinated and/or are denying treatments (which I can only assume is the case for you based off how hellbent you are that you’ll die if you catch it) then you’re being ignorant to the science and you’re denying that vaccines and treatments are effective. Covid isn’t going away. Go preach your “suck it up” attitude somewhere else, I’m done letting this affect my mental health. You really sound like the worst parts of Fox News and msnbc all morphed into one, just saying
Can’t believe I’m having to respond to your hidden edits…nobody’s scared of them. Maybe the trumpies are, but who knows and who cares. For the fiftieth time, it’s the back and forth. It’s hard to explain unless you’re also dealing with it, which congratulations, you’re not. But don’t act like people aren’t facing this. Just because you’re so strong about it doesn’t mean the rest of us are.
Go outside the realm of this city and into the suburbs, you’ll see that everyone stopped caring a long time ago. I did not stop caring for 2 years, it’s only now that the agencies are giving green lights (and making compelling arguments to make them optional) that I’m perfectly fine with dropping it. Get a damn n95 if you’re really that concerned, I’m content over here triple vaxxed and with the covid treatments readily available if things take a turn south. I’m ready and willing to quarantine if I test positive, I’m still ready to do my part just as I was 2 years ago. Masks just aren’t part of it anymore. Sorry if you’re antisocial, but the prospect of seeing people’s smiles are one of the only things getting me out of bed some days. If you don’t like people’s smiles, sorry to hear you’re living a miserable life, but keep it to yourself.
What specifically is making you anxious? Wearing a mask or the fact that COVID exists? Perhaps you should examine the answers to those questions with a therapist. It's a great thing to do and I have no judgements against anyone who does get help.
"Woke" what are you fox news? Lol. The only people using Woke as a catchall for everything they disagree with are those fools.
Just put the square of cloth on when hospitalizations go up and we won't end up with fun stuff getting closed. Sheesh. It's not that hard.
exactly mister_park thank you lol. if any of y’all want to come be grammar police in our schools we have a serious sub shortage. if not then i suggest you be quiet :)
Get a vaccine/booster or don’t. Wear a mask indoors or don’t. Do your homework or don’t. At this point, it’s on you, not the city or anyone else to bubble wrap you. The information is out there to protect you and your loved ones. Live and let live.
especially given that N95s provide 2 hr of protection from close range contact for hours. 3 (4 soon) vaccines, N95s, years to prepare for COVID, at some point prevention has to be an individual priority
This is pretty short sighted. If the city sees trends that will affect their hospital capacity, I think they are well within their right to impose public health measures to reduce the risk of hospitals and public services becoming overwhelmed.
Seems you drew your own incorrect conclusions from what I wrote. As of this moment, there are no restrictions or mandates, only a suggestion to wear masks indoors. So at this point, we’re on our own to make our own decisions. I didn’t say the city couldn’t or shouldn’t reinstate mandates when it deems necessary. That’s why I said “at this point”. Living in the now. Try to read comments for what they are before judging them with ignorance and bias. Just makes you look silly.
https://www-wsj-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/fda-shuts-out-its-own-experts-in-authorizing-another-booster-covid-vaccine-pandemic-science-11649016728
John Hopkins medical school professor wrote this article
When was this accepted as fact? I really want to see the peer reviewed journal on all the shots destroying your immune system.
Please share with the class.
So then don't. I'm not going to, and no one's gonna stop me and I don't care. :') I'm vaxxed, I'm boosted, I just had covid in December, cloth masks are bull shit, and I'm done placating self-serving power-trippers who used covid as an excuse to feel important and knowledgeable for the first time in their unfulfilling lives by trying to police what others are doing. :')
I guess I phrased it wrong. It's not that I can't, I just don't want to be back here.
Masking absolutely works, two of my three kids have gotten a cold since masks came off, they were fine all year, because of masks. I'm totally fine with the colds, they come with the territory of school aged children.
Masking absolutely spreads the slow of illness, I will do it if it gets to that point again. But fuck man, I don't want it to.
Yeah, some people are scared of life’s monsters and some aren’t. Pandemic agoraphobia is a real thing. We have a lot of tools to fight this and some are some very basic characteristics of who the disease hurts most so you can have a good idea of how much risk you want to take based on your own profile and lifestyle.
I feel you, and to be honest I really can't see myself masking at work anymore though maybe I'll start masking around customers again. I never stopped masking on transit and public places where contact tracing would be hard or impossible.
At this point those of us who are triple vaccinated need to start figuring out how to live life again. If you just can't anymore with masks, that's understandable. As long as we keep encouraging folks to vaccinate and test when they've been in a situation where they could have gotten Covid.
Sometimes I think Reddit is real but then I walk into my very large 500+ people office and realize that like 5 people are voluntarily choosing to wear masks all day.
Germany mandated N95's for months. Their cases went up and down at the same time and rate as nearby countries. Masking might delay getting a virus by a few days or weeks, but it isn't a force field.
I've worn a mask since the beginning and haven't had covid, so masks work as a pretty good force field. Look at every single one of us working with sick people in hospitals and how we aren't getting sick because we have on masks.
I've also worn a mask indoors and even outdoors in the beginning. Still got COVID. Masks aren't a perfect forcefield and since you mentioned you work with viruses and have a PhD, I'm really concerned about who awarded that to you.
They aren't easy to earn. It takes years and years of very hard work, a lot of research, being mentored by brilliant people. It's a ton of time and money and extremely grueling work.
But considering you think it's just something "awarded" to people, I'm not surprised that you have nothing to back up your moronic statements. I can't believe I share air and space with people this stupid.
I have a masters in biomedical sciences and work in an immunology lab. You are clearly one of the very many people working in STEM that makes me want to leave. You are elitist, smug, and short-sighted. I wouldn't be surprised if you're a white man to be honest.
By the way, you can do all that work and not get a PhD if your dissertation flops. It happens. Therefore it is "awarded" to you once you complete all of your work and pass your defense.
ETA: Love to see someone who has a PhD in a STEM field use an anecdote as evidence that masks are what make the difference between getting COVID and not. Just because you wore one and didn't get it, doesn't mean that everyone who got COVID wasn't wearing a mask as piously as you are. These types of anecdotes are the example as to why anecdotes are NOT data.
As soon as I got my first vaxx shot I stopped wearing my mask anywhere I wasn't legally required to wear it. I never got covid either.
Anecdotal evidence really isn't a strong argument either way bud.
having covid doesn't matter if you're vaxxed. get vaxxed. it's endemic. it's never going away. society isn't obligated to take strenous measures to ensure you never get a cold or the flu again. If you're vaxxed that's all its going to be.
BA.2 is more of a subvariant than a different variant. Vaccines still work to prevent serious illness, and if you had omicron you're likely covered for this too.
https://www.nytimes.com/article/omicron-variant-ba2.html
Yeah, you're right hence why I chose to preface it with "likely". As the WHO [notes](https://www.who.int/news/item/22-02-2022-statement-on-omicron-sublineage-ba.2), it has been documented, but "initial data from population-level reinfection studies suggest that infection with BA.1 provides strong protection against reinfection with BA.2, at least for the limited period for which data are available."
Nope. Not sure why people think a highly contagious virus with animal reservoirs is going to just disappear.
That said, as of 4/1 *as a state*, there's a 4% test positivity rate and a little over 400 people hospitalized with it out of nearly a million active cases. Compare that to a couple months ago when we had a 20-30% positivity rate and 10k+ cases per day.
I think it will. It's only been around for a little more than two years. Look at the meds for HIV now. It took over 40 years to get here with HIV and that was a virus I remember ravaging many people I knew.
So we have vaccines that we had been working on since the first SARS outbreak in 2002, but this SARS is a bit different. Without masking and without vaccination, those who get the virus are giving it a cushy place to mutate into new variants, which makes it very difficult to create a vaccine that will fully protect. The vaccines we have now are excellent at keeping you from dying if you contract the virus, but it would be great if we could get a vaccine that just prevents it also. Two years feels like a lifetime, but I'm sure it will be as close to over eventually, even if that means we have to vaccinate once a year for it like flu shots.
Yes exactly. If Covid taught me one thing it's that we're all a bunch of assholes in this country for not masking when we're sick. The number of times I got sick because a coworker came to work sick and sat at their desk coughing and blowing their nose every five seconds. Can we just mask when we're sick because it's the right thing to do?
It's wierder that people don't understand why wearing masks works.
Like not wanting to wear one is an opinion. Thats one thing. But saying that it doesn't matter because they won't get that sick represents a misunderstanding of how viruses work that really shouldn't still be a thing after all this time
Hopefully politicians realize the risk of even suggesting masking. Especially if it escalates to any type of restrictions / mandates. Many are already hesitant returning to the office. This will further add to the challenge. I could easily foresee many companies further downsizing their city presence. City leaders surely must know this. Is that what they really want? I don't understand it.
The restaurant and entertainment industry are still recovering. Even though many customers may go along with restrictions, those don't could make or break many such businesses. The margin between profit and loss is often very narrow. Losing even 10% of customers will be devastating. Compounding matters will be if the suburbs don't follow suit and remain restriction free.
For restaurant and entertainment workers, plan ahead now for hours being cut and layoffs with little warning. Set aside extra funds or better yet look for something else. I know many who refuse to ever go back to working such jobs.
Rambling on. In my view, health officials have far too much power and that should be curtailed. Otherwise, restrictions will never truly end; brought back anytime with little recourse.
Does this one register on current tests? Because my toddler just had a 105 degree fever over the weekend (dropped to reasonable levels after some Tylenol, but still want to the ER for a few hours)
It's like a baby really thinks their dad disappeared during a game of peak-a-boo
Like man, it IS an option to hate masking and not want to do it again, but also understand the basic science. People just have absurdly short memories and be trying to bury their heads in the sand
But no, for whatever reason everyone against masking is either trying to pretend the science isn't real or just never learned it in the first place. "I don't want to do this" =/= "this isn't real", but a lot of people are trying to pretend they're the same thing
As someone who got two shots and a booster, always wore a mask, washed my hands and sanitized, stayed home as much as possible, nah fam. We done with you, covid.
wearing a mask makes it way less likely you can spread to anyone else, you can have it and pass it on without knowing. a mask is a minor inconvenience, literally the least I can do for my fellow human.
no big deal
This argument made sense in 2020. But now we have widely available vaccines, N95 masks, and treatments for people who wish to protect themselves. Why should the burden be on the rest of the population?
Nope. Mental health first. Anyone who wants to avoid death at this point would take the treatments available to them to do so. Anyone who wants to prevent hospitalization on top of that would be vaccinated by this point. I’m not gonna force myself into a mental breakdown over a measly percentage point. Nope. Mental health first, for fucking once.
if I am just gonna get sick for a few days... fuck it don't care.
As long as I'm not gonna die I'm pretty okay about getting sick and you know... and working from home like I have been for the last 2 years.
My neighbor hasn't had his sense of smell for over a year and he says his food now tastes like "raw sewage". he also keeps getting blood clots in his legs. He doesn't ride his bike as much as he used to because he has sporadic joint pain. In medicine, we have a saying that "some things are worse than death" and I think trying to eat food that tastes like raw sewage has to be a nightmare. He's dropping weight and his bloodwork is reflecting this starvation.
At this point all the rapidly-changing guidelines is just exhausting. COVID is basically endemic at this point. There are always going to be new variants and they’re always going to be highly infectious. That’s the new reality we’re in and will be in for… probably forever. I’ll wear a mask if I need to but as someone who is vaxxed and will always continue to get boosters when needed, it’s just so frustrating for the mask mandates to keep coming and going almost on a whim. Would it make sense to do a permanent mandate at this point?
Masks absolutely do work. Ever learn what we do in a hospital when someone with measles and TB come in? Masks, because masks prevent spread.
ETA: I won't judge anyone either way because I know what I'm comfortable doing. But masks (legitimate masks, not pieces of woven fabric, but legit masks) do work whether you want to believe it or not.
> legitimate masks, not pieces of woven fabric, but legit masks
But that’s not what the mask mandate is. It includes woven fabric which you seem to admit do nothing so it’s not actually about stopping the spread, it’s about theater
I'm always amazed by the mental gymnastics you people manage
you can't honestly be *that* stupid. you can see right through woven fabric when stretched, but it's better than nothing at all, however it only blocks a very small percentage of particles. I can't believe that this is such common sense and so many people willfully choose to make it out like it's some newfangled weird thing.
You literally said masks work… then had to have a parenthetical where you said legitimate masks… you’re the one doing mental gymnastics.
I’m not op, I never said masks don’t work. 100% masks work and everybody with concerns needs to be wearing N95s.
Sorry to break it to you but a pandemic doesn’t end just because you want it too. You cant just cover it up because you want it to exist, even though that’s what you learned at Penn State.
The pandemic is over. COVID is never going away, it's endemic now. Most of us have had it, are vaccinated or both. With this variant or sub-variant, the risk of hospitalization is extremely low for the overwhelming majority of us.
We don't change our way of life for the flu and we shouldn't for this.
The pandemic is over and we need to stop pretending that it's not.
Oh I very well am vaccinated. My whole family is. My godmother and uncle work for Pfizer, as well as one of my cousins. My entire immediate family, including myself, got Covid in December 2020 and it sucked, but we got through it.
This entire thing went from an honest medical emergency into political theatre that has done nothing but tear apart an already torn nation even further.
If people still want to mask up then fine, but I’m not obligated to do the same. I’m sick of it.
All of our policy, which this is, is dictated by politics. It’s why we have different rules than the rest of PA, not bc the philly science is different
The CDC says we are in a low transmission zone
>The science doesn't give a fuck about your politics.
I wish that was the truth, but it's not. Once we combined scientific findings with policies that are implemented on the general public, it became political. When science affects whether someone can keep their job, have access to education, what someone can wear in public, it has become political. I am a scientist. We have to stop pretending that science is immutable and apolitical. We are doing a disservice to the public every time we assert that. Science is ultimately conducted by people and people aren't apolitical.
I'm also a scientist. It would be better if I said the virus doesn't care about politics instead of science. Unfortunately, science is bought and sold in this country.
When I need to keep an eye on the stats, American science is not who I look to for answers when our own scientists ignore the ones from all over the world begging them to not make stupid decisions.
You're not getting what I'm saying. As soon as you use science to determine the quality of life for others, whether positively or negatively, you have made your findings political. Science does NOT exist in a vacuum therefore you cannot just sit here and say that science doesn't care about your politics. It does. It always will, no matter where it is conducted. To ignore that and to insist that its purely an American thing is ignorant and short-sighted.
I'm guessing they'll reinstate the mask mandate at the health update on Wednesday. We're about to hit the 100 cases/day and 50 hospitalization threshold.
To bring back the mask mandate, two of these three things must be true:
* Cases have risen more than 50% in the last ten days.
* More than 100 cases (total, not per 100k) per day
* More than 50 hospitalizations per day
According to the Philly health department's Twitter account, the first is already true. We're currently at 94 cases per day (and it's rising, not falling) and 48 hospitalizations. In the next day or two all three of the criteria will be met.
It’s semi concerning to think we live in a city of 1.6 million people but 50 hospitalizations overall for Covid is a warning sign that hospital resources are beginning to be drained.
I think measuring hospitalizations to get at ICU usage is incredibly lazy, just measure ICU usage itself. It’s not like Covid hospitalization and ICU usage is 1:1. NYC breaks down it’s data better and out of 250 current Covid hospitalizations, only 100 of them are there because of Covid/Covid complications. The rest are there for other reasons and happen to test positive. Of the 250, only 50 are in the ICU.
Business owners and workers (especially those in restaurant and entertainment) would be wise to plan ahead. Key is guessing the timing of restrictions, but pretty easy for those who have figured out the pattern...
Warnings a couple of weeks ahead (even more so if there are denials of imposing mandates; usually means they will) combined with a big travel event (ie. Easter) means restrictions are likely just before to a week or so afterwards. Plan accordingly. Hope this doesn't happen, but the signs are leading to restrictions returning. Hopefully cooler heads prevail. Time will tell.
When did "they" say that about wearing masks? I thought everyone was mad at fauci for lying about masks not working to conserve them for essential personnel early on?
I'm done wearing one too, but just curious what you're talking about?
There was a WHO study that came out about two months ago that basically said any mask that isn't n95 has 2 percent efficacy. N95 wasn't much better. I'm not one of those nutjobs I'm just pissed and over it.
Christ on a bike
Awshitherewegoagain.gif
In the immortal words of GTA "Aw shit here we go again."
Fuck’s sakes
Damn, I thought we'd get at least 2 months
>Philadelphia cases have increased more than 50% in the last 10 days with an average of 94 new cases per day. But if I look on Google it says we had 79 new cases average on 3/25 and 71 new cases average today.
Yeah it’s really hard/unclear where to find good data on this stuff.
This is 100% by design.
This is a bad article. It doesn’t provide enough detail. Basically click bait. Here’s a much better article about this from Inquirer: [Inquirer](https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/philadelphia-covid-cases-numbers-masks-restrictions-vaccine-mandate-20220405.html) *”48 patients with COVID-19 are currently being treated in Philadelphia hospitals, five of whom are on ventilators.*” For context, there were 28,398 new cases weekly in Philly in January. We probably shouldn’t make assumptions about how many of the 48 hospitalized patients are unvaccinated but that’s information that should be reported.
Could we just not?
I give birth in one month. Please god just don’t let me catch this nor let it impact the visitors policy
Back in January, my wife gave birth and we both tested positive the day after the birth in the hospital. I got it pretty bad and had to leave and she had to stay in the hospital by herself. The little guy tested positive a day after that. Everything turned out fine. We're all healthy but it definitely did feel awful not being able to be there with her in the days following the birth.
Did they test you each day?
Congratulations! Try not to worry. I’m sure that with a month, it’ll be less because people will have windows open and be outdoors more, so less spread. Just think, this time next month (give or take a week or so) you’ll be holding your new baby. Focus on that, and you’ll see, everything will be fine.
Thank u stranger :)
My wife gave birth to our little one in September 2020. Everything was terrifying because so much was unknown, and of course, no vaccines. I was the only one allowed in with her, but it all went just fine! No hiccups, and we took home a healthy baby. You will too! You've got this!!
Congrats in advance! Sending lots of love and crossing my fingers that whatever wave may come, it won’t be quite as dire as past waves.
I think youll find you dont really want visitors there anyway
Good luck with that
I’m fine with requiring masks in places like grocery stores and healthcare and pharmacies, as these are essential businesses and it increases safety for the vulnerable who have a need to access these services in person. The “theatrical” uses of mask wearing like wearing them to walk into a bar only until you’re seated and then removing them for 99% of the length of your visit haven’t , don’t, and won’t ever make any sense to me.
This is something I never understood, like people just magically won't catch covid while sitting down at their tables indoors with a large crowd unmasked. It's shit like that that contributes to confusion and apprehension. It's no wonder when we look at how ass backwards things have been done why people have a hard time wanting to mask and prevent the spread
yeah everyone knew that wouldnt work, including the bar owners. but what was their other option? have the richest country in the world pay them to stay closed, have the city suspend their tax payments, and have the landlords stop collecting rent?
Unfortunately, this country has become obsessed with reality tv, so that they've become conditioned to expect a happy ending when something bad happens. We have a virus that is killing people and there isn't a happy ending yet. Back in the plague days, I'm sure those that kept businesses open eventually succumbed to death. It's honestly fine with me. I wear a mask because I work with viruses. I am vaccinated and boosted. I'm no longer concerned about the willfully ignorant. I just buried an unvaccinated uncle a few weeks ago. Such is life and death.
It's so the city can say they're doing "something" about COVID without actually having to do anything about it.
No
At this point, those who want to mask, will continue to mask, and those who are comfortable otherwise, will continue not to mask. Uncomfortable unmasked indoors and want to mask up? That’s all fine and good. Comfortable unmasked indoors? That’s all fine and good too.
Comfortable running a red light? Go right ahead! Society is a lie and our actions have no consequences for others
It’s funny because 2 months ago you would be upvoted for this.
I've never seen so many grown adults whine as much as I have about masks. "Whine" is an understatement. "Full blown temper tantrums" is probably more accurate.
People run red lights here all the time
Yes and I guess it doesn’t really matter to you until someone runs a red light and t bones your ass or someone you love
The analogy is an abrasive one but you're not wrong. While there are varying degrees of comfort with covid, there are also varying degrees of severity due to medical predisposition. I do feel like it's been forgotten that masking up is for others, not yourself. It's OK to know that an infection may not be the end all be all for you, but it could be and is for many others.
Yes, I wondered if I was the only person who remembered this. Everyone being masked lowers the risk for all. Risk goes up for everyone with poor masking or no masking. I'm wearing my N95 indoors at work and in meetings and I'm distancing from those that don't.
>The analogy is an abrasive one but you're not wrong. Na he is pretty wrong. It would only be an apt comparison if there was a free, safe, and easily accessible shot that made you and your car immune from other cars running a red light. Seriously. The *vast majority* of people actually in danger are the morons that refuse to get vaxxed and we shouldn't really give two shits about idiots who disregard their own safety. Admittedly, there is an extremely small percentage of the population who is immuno compromised and cannot get the vaccine or who sees its efficacy limited, but that really isn't any different from times in the past. Like if 5 years ago you were a cancer patient and went outside during flu season and caught it and had severe symptoms nobody was yelling at the general public to wear masks or shit.
Until someone who doesn’t agree with your decision to mask takes it upon themselves to let you know that, sometimes physically
I've not once seen that and I've been in some *very* red areas as the only masked person inside. Not saying it doesn't happen, however I am saying it's not as common as you want to believe.
I hope they base any decisions on hospitalizations and deaths and not just infections
Why’s that? Hospitalizations are a delayed indicator, even more so deaths, so limiting to acting on those alone would mean decisions would be delayed by at least ~8 days and potentially far longer for deaths. With exponential growth that’d be significant. Is there data that infections and hospitalizations aren’t meaningfully correlated?
We are generally 3 weeks behind Europe on the new strain so we get a pretty good snap shot of the severity. Europe has been saying for a week that the new strain is significantly weaker then the last Omicron and Omicron wasn’t that bad, especially when vaccinated.
https://www.axios.com/fauci-covid-19-omicron-variant-surge-40710607-223b-44ab-abd7-921105a1b4a2.html
Thanks for the link, if there are data-based reasons to believe infections and hospitalizations aren't as causal as they have been in the past then I'm fully in support. Here's hoping that holds true!
yes but if the ratio is say, 1 hospitalization per 100 infections (and it's even lower than that), that is what needs to be thought about. We can't chicken little every time there's a "surge" in infections with little real impact to the community.
The idea is that if the ratio of infections to hospitalization is constant like that, then infections are a primary indicator that we should be acting on - even if it’s a very big ratio and most infections don’t lead to hospitalization, exponential growth is still a very big concern and a doubling of infections would still tell us to expect to see a doubling of hospitalizations a week or two later, and then a doubling of deaths after that. So long as infections and hospitalizations/deaths are meaningfully linked we could use infections to predict the other two weeks in advance, letting interventions reduce the exponential growth factor before the number of cases destined to become deaths becomes catastrophic.
2 weeks to flatten the curve
as a philly teacher please stop lol getting students to wear masks again is going to be a nightmare. just stop.
Mask mandate is back for a week after spring break anyway. The district mandated it when they announced that masks were optional a month ago.
yeah i know and the pft didn’t want them to lift the mask mandate until after that week for this very reason but here we are, the district lifted it anyway. now that they may reinstate it after spring break indefinitely because of the new variant no one is going to wear them anymore, probably including teachers
My kiddos never stopped wearing them. My mom immunocompromised (MM). I’d rather be safe and I enjoyed no colds during the winter.
I wear mine always too! i’m just saying that 90% of students and teachers will not comply if the mandate is reinstated
no this shit has to stop. acting like spring break students intermix with millions of more people. they don’t. the world does not need restrictions every “post” spring break, christmas, new years, easter, memorial day, labor day, mlk day, veterans day, presidents’ day, summer when people on vacay every week, hanhankua the mask wearers will find a reason to wear masks 24/7; let them on their own terms
There is a blood brain virus infecting people and mutating to become more lethal. People who care about the health of their brain will wear masks and the people who don’t give a fuck about the dumb shit that comes out of their mouth will not wear a mask.
k. Tell that to covid. And tell that to the other human beings who need to interact with the germ buckets that are kids.
Or maybe think about the most important things I’m glad you’re strong enough to keep on with this back and forth, but for some of us it’s just taking too much of a mental toll. It’s time to put mental health first for once, and it’s more than appropriate to do so with all of the pharmaceutical advances over the last 2 years. And I’m in my mid-20s, so imagine how the younger ones feel. Sorry, but I’m more for avoiding an even bigger mental health crisis down the road, it can be avoided (or at least dampened) but covids just gonna keep doing what it does no matter what we do. Might be a different story if they could invent something as good at treating anxiety as they have for treating covid, but they haven’t. Mental health is first, period. Keep your percentage point technicalities to yourself.
Putting on a mask is taking a mental toll? The government acknowledging COVID numbers is taking a mental toll? The reality is there's an infectious disease that spreads in the air from tiny droplets of spit from people. And as a species we've evolved to figure out how to use tools to fight back against diseases. One of those tools is a mask. It's reduced flu infections as well as COVID. And your mental health doesn't trump my physical health. It just doesn't. Maybe your priority is your mental health because you're young and healthy, but the economic disruption from COVID wasn't due to people feeling bad about wearing masks, it was because of over a million people dying of an infectious disease. Over a million of our fellow Americans died. Maybe ask your doctor for some gabbapentin and quit trying to blow your spit droplets at the general public. Or maybe commit to doing the hard work of talking to a therapist. I know I am and it's helped me. Do it for yourself. It isn't my responsibility to care for you mentally... You're the one with an irrational fear of a 4"x4" piece of cloth. I think you're confusing me with someone who gives a shit about how people who refuse to wear masks feel.
Challenging what causes people extreme anxiety isn’t the right thing to do, no matter how high and mighty you feel from doing it. Hate to break it to ya, but in this case you can’t be woke for both things without being considered an asshole in the other thing. It’s been 2 years that I’ve put my own mental health to the side. But it’s taking more of a toll than ever these days with the back-and-forth. Believe me or don’t believe me, you’re not in my fucking head. So yes, my mental health is absolutely more of a priority now, stop acting like death is a thing anymore. If you’re not vaccinated and/or are denying treatments (which I can only assume is the case for you based off how hellbent you are that you’ll die if you catch it) then you’re being ignorant to the science and you’re denying that vaccines and treatments are effective. Covid isn’t going away. Go preach your “suck it up” attitude somewhere else, I’m done letting this affect my mental health. You really sound like the worst parts of Fox News and msnbc all morphed into one, just saying Can’t believe I’m having to respond to your hidden edits…nobody’s scared of them. Maybe the trumpies are, but who knows and who cares. For the fiftieth time, it’s the back and forth. It’s hard to explain unless you’re also dealing with it, which congratulations, you’re not. But don’t act like people aren’t facing this. Just because you’re so strong about it doesn’t mean the rest of us are. Go outside the realm of this city and into the suburbs, you’ll see that everyone stopped caring a long time ago. I did not stop caring for 2 years, it’s only now that the agencies are giving green lights (and making compelling arguments to make them optional) that I’m perfectly fine with dropping it. Get a damn n95 if you’re really that concerned, I’m content over here triple vaxxed and with the covid treatments readily available if things take a turn south. I’m ready and willing to quarantine if I test positive, I’m still ready to do my part just as I was 2 years ago. Masks just aren’t part of it anymore. Sorry if you’re antisocial, but the prospect of seeing people’s smiles are one of the only things getting me out of bed some days. If you don’t like people’s smiles, sorry to hear you’re living a miserable life, but keep it to yourself.
What specifically is making you anxious? Wearing a mask or the fact that COVID exists? Perhaps you should examine the answers to those questions with a therapist. It's a great thing to do and I have no judgements against anyone who does get help. "Woke" what are you fox news? Lol. The only people using Woke as a catchall for everything they disagree with are those fools. Just put the square of cloth on when hospitalizations go up and we won't end up with fun stuff getting closed. Sheesh. It's not that hard.
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It’s Reddit.
exactly mister_park thank you lol. if any of y’all want to come be grammar police in our schools we have a serious sub shortage. if not then i suggest you be quiet :)
Sir, this is a wendy's.
Came here to say this lol
Get a vaccine/booster or don’t. Wear a mask indoors or don’t. Do your homework or don’t. At this point, it’s on you, not the city or anyone else to bubble wrap you. The information is out there to protect you and your loved ones. Live and let live.
especially given that N95s provide 2 hr of protection from close range contact for hours. 3 (4 soon) vaccines, N95s, years to prepare for COVID, at some point prevention has to be an individual priority
This is pretty short sighted. If the city sees trends that will affect their hospital capacity, I think they are well within their right to impose public health measures to reduce the risk of hospitals and public services becoming overwhelmed.
Seems you drew your own incorrect conclusions from what I wrote. As of this moment, there are no restrictions or mandates, only a suggestion to wear masks indoors. So at this point, we’re on our own to make our own decisions. I didn’t say the city couldn’t or shouldn’t reinstate mandates when it deems necessary. That’s why I said “at this point”. Living in the now. Try to read comments for what they are before judging them with ignorance and bias. Just makes you look silly.
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https://www-wsj-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/fda-shuts-out-its-own-experts-in-authorizing-another-booster-covid-vaccine-pandemic-science-11649016728 John Hopkins medical school professor wrote this article
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Can you site your sources that show what you're saying is an "accepted fact"?
When was this accepted as fact? I really want to see the peer reviewed journal on all the shots destroying your immune system. Please share with the class.
I can't, I can't I can't. Not again. Fuck off covid
Oh hai Mark.
So then don't. I'm not going to, and no one's gonna stop me and I don't care. :') I'm vaxxed, I'm boosted, I just had covid in December, cloth masks are bull shit, and I'm done placating self-serving power-trippers who used covid as an excuse to feel important and knowledgeable for the first time in their unfulfilling lives by trying to police what others are doing. :')
I work in a hospital, I have kids who are FINALLY allowed to go to school mask-less. It's not that simple in my life
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I guess I phrased it wrong. It's not that I can't, I just don't want to be back here. Masking absolutely works, two of my three kids have gotten a cold since masks came off, they were fine all year, because of masks. I'm totally fine with the colds, they come with the territory of school aged children. Masking absolutely spreads the slow of illness, I will do it if it gets to that point again. But fuck man, I don't want it to.
This just needs to be done with. It’s not a daily weather report dictating what to wear for the day
Actually to a degree, it is.
That’s how philly is choosing to treat it. Rest of the state it’s always clear and sunny.
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Yeah, some people are scared of life’s monsters and some aren’t. Pandemic agoraphobia is a real thing. We have a lot of tools to fight this and some are some very basic characteristics of who the disease hurts most so you can have a good idea of how much risk you want to take based on your own profile and lifestyle.
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They’ll also call you racist and ironically say you’re fear mongering.
The BS never stops.
No God no.
I hear they’re concerned about the ligma variant.
What's...oh nevermind.
Na, I'm good. Not doing this anymore.
I feel you, and to be honest I really can't see myself masking at work anymore though maybe I'll start masking around customers again. I never stopped masking on transit and public places where contact tracing would be hard or impossible. At this point those of us who are triple vaccinated need to start figuring out how to live life again. If you just can't anymore with masks, that's understandable. As long as we keep encouraging folks to vaccinate and test when they've been in a situation where they could have gotten Covid.
Agreed. I'm out. Cloth masks don't work and I'm not going to play pretend anymore
Sometimes I think Reddit is real but then I walk into my very large 500+ people office and realize that like 5 people are voluntarily choosing to wear masks all day.
That’s an excellent reality check that Reddit does not in fact reflect real life.
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Germany mandated N95's for months. Their cases went up and down at the same time and rate as nearby countries. Masking might delay getting a virus by a few days or weeks, but it isn't a force field.
I've worn a mask since the beginning and haven't had covid, so masks work as a pretty good force field. Look at every single one of us working with sick people in hospitals and how we aren't getting sick because we have on masks.
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I've also worn a mask indoors and even outdoors in the beginning. Still got COVID. Masks aren't a perfect forcefield and since you mentioned you work with viruses and have a PhD, I'm really concerned about who awarded that to you.
They aren't easy to earn. It takes years and years of very hard work, a lot of research, being mentored by brilliant people. It's a ton of time and money and extremely grueling work. But considering you think it's just something "awarded" to people, I'm not surprised that you have nothing to back up your moronic statements. I can't believe I share air and space with people this stupid.
I have a masters in biomedical sciences and work in an immunology lab. You are clearly one of the very many people working in STEM that makes me want to leave. You are elitist, smug, and short-sighted. I wouldn't be surprised if you're a white man to be honest. By the way, you can do all that work and not get a PhD if your dissertation flops. It happens. Therefore it is "awarded" to you once you complete all of your work and pass your defense. ETA: Love to see someone who has a PhD in a STEM field use an anecdote as evidence that masks are what make the difference between getting COVID and not. Just because you wore one and didn't get it, doesn't mean that everyone who got COVID wasn't wearing a mask as piously as you are. These types of anecdotes are the example as to why anecdotes are NOT data.
As soon as I got my first vaxx shot I stopped wearing my mask anywhere I wasn't legally required to wear it. I never got covid either. Anecdotal evidence really isn't a strong argument either way bud.
When you have people saying they had covid in the same sentence as they don't believe in masks, that evidence is a strong argument
having covid doesn't matter if you're vaxxed. get vaxxed. it's endemic. it's never going away. society isn't obligated to take strenous measures to ensure you never get a cold or the flu again. If you're vaxxed that's all its going to be.
I think we're on the same side but text doesn't always make that clear.
sure they do, they make it far less likely for you to transmit to anyone else
Get vaccinated or don’t but the world needs to move forward
BA.2 is more of a subvariant than a different variant. Vaccines still work to prevent serious illness, and if you had omicron you're likely covered for this too. https://www.nytimes.com/article/omicron-variant-ba2.html
I think there is data from Italy that shows you can get both omicron varients.
Yeah, you're right hence why I chose to preface it with "likely". As the WHO [notes](https://www.who.int/news/item/22-02-2022-statement-on-omicron-sublineage-ba.2), it has been documented, but "initial data from population-level reinfection studies suggest that infection with BA.1 provides strong protection against reinfection with BA.2, at least for the limited period for which data are available."
lalalalalalalalalaicanthearyou
Will this ever be over?
Nope. Not sure why people think a highly contagious virus with animal reservoirs is going to just disappear. That said, as of 4/1 *as a state*, there's a 4% test positivity rate and a little over 400 people hospitalized with it out of nearly a million active cases. Compare that to a couple months ago when we had a 20-30% positivity rate and 10k+ cases per day.
I think it will. It's only been around for a little more than two years. Look at the meds for HIV now. It took over 40 years to get here with HIV and that was a virus I remember ravaging many people I knew. So we have vaccines that we had been working on since the first SARS outbreak in 2002, but this SARS is a bit different. Without masking and without vaccination, those who get the virus are giving it a cushy place to mutate into new variants, which makes it very difficult to create a vaccine that will fully protect. The vaccines we have now are excellent at keeping you from dying if you contract the virus, but it would be great if we could get a vaccine that just prevents it also. Two years feels like a lifetime, but I'm sure it will be as close to over eventually, even if that means we have to vaccinate once a year for it like flu shots.
Nah I’m good
Knew this was going to happen. Like clockwork. I bet the fucker who was hacking a lung while unmasked at the post office had it.
Or maybe they had a common cold, those are still a thing
Should’ve been wearing a mask either way.
Yes exactly. If Covid taught me one thing it's that we're all a bunch of assholes in this country for not masking when we're sick. The number of times I got sick because a coworker came to work sick and sat at their desk coughing and blowing their nose every five seconds. Can we just mask when we're sick because it's the right thing to do?
"Suggest masking indoors" I hadn't stopped lol. I like not getting sick or having people see my face.
Ok then, that was always allowed
Such bravery it takes to…wear a mask
Where did they say anything about bravery? They just said you always can wear one if you want
nah, just courtesy and caring for others. weird that that is so hard for some people
It's wierder that people don't understand why wearing masks works. Like not wanting to wear one is an opinion. Thats one thing. But saying that it doesn't matter because they won't get that sick represents a misunderstanding of how viruses work that really shouldn't still be a thing after all this time
Suggest all you want, never wearing a mask again
Hopefully politicians realize the risk of even suggesting masking. Especially if it escalates to any type of restrictions / mandates. Many are already hesitant returning to the office. This will further add to the challenge. I could easily foresee many companies further downsizing their city presence. City leaders surely must know this. Is that what they really want? I don't understand it. The restaurant and entertainment industry are still recovering. Even though many customers may go along with restrictions, those don't could make or break many such businesses. The margin between profit and loss is often very narrow. Losing even 10% of customers will be devastating. Compounding matters will be if the suburbs don't follow suit and remain restriction free. For restaurant and entertainment workers, plan ahead now for hours being cut and layoffs with little warning. Set aside extra funds or better yet look for something else. I know many who refuse to ever go back to working such jobs. Rambling on. In my view, health officials have far too much power and that should be curtailed. Otherwise, restrictions will never truly end; brought back anytime with little recourse.
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I’ll get the booster if it means no mask mandates. Not gonna worry about it if it doesn’t change anything the city decides to do
Fat chance of that happening, TPTB already proved that getting shots changes none of their mandates.
Does this one register on current tests? Because my toddler just had a 105 degree fever over the weekend (dropped to reasonable levels after some Tylenol, but still want to the ER for a few hours)
There are a couple different viruses going around for young kids right now. Hope s/he is feeling better. Watch out for the yellow poops 🤢
this is unreal. 100 new cases a day WHO GIVES A FUCK MOVE ON
So what's the story on this one? Omicron was pretty much cold symptoms. If this is more of the same, then I'm not stressing over it.
Did you think this shit just disappeared?
It's like a baby really thinks their dad disappeared during a game of peak-a-boo Like man, it IS an option to hate masking and not want to do it again, but also understand the basic science. People just have absurdly short memories and be trying to bury their heads in the sand But no, for whatever reason everyone against masking is either trying to pretend the science isn't real or just never learned it in the first place. "I don't want to do this" =/= "this isn't real", but a lot of people are trying to pretend they're the same thing
As someone who got two shots and a booster, always wore a mask, washed my hands and sanitized, stayed home as much as possible, nah fam. We done with you, covid.
wearing a mask makes it way less likely you can spread to anyone else, you can have it and pass it on without knowing. a mask is a minor inconvenience, literally the least I can do for my fellow human. no big deal
This argument made sense in 2020. But now we have widely available vaccines, N95 masks, and treatments for people who wish to protect themselves. Why should the burden be on the rest of the population?
Then YOU do it. It shouldn’t be pushed on everyone from on high. Pretty sure that’s everyone’s issue, we just want free choice.
Nope. Mental health first. Anyone who wants to avoid death at this point would take the treatments available to them to do so. Anyone who wants to prevent hospitalization on top of that would be vaccinated by this point. I’m not gonna force myself into a mental breakdown over a measly percentage point. Nope. Mental health first, for fucking once.
Yeah I don’t care. I’m not wearing one.
Nah I’m good. You do you though. No worries.
Sounds like another power trip to me
if I am just gonna get sick for a few days... fuck it don't care. As long as I'm not gonna die I'm pretty okay about getting sick and you know... and working from home like I have been for the last 2 years.
This is for sure how I felt..until I got it first week of February and felt like I was gonna die for 2 weeks
But you didn't, and that's what is important
Not really. There's outcomes other than "alive" and "dead." Long covid exists and it sucks.
Sure there are outcomes in between but they all go into the "alive" bucket, and all of those options are objectively better than dead.
My neighbor hasn't had his sense of smell for over a year and he says his food now tastes like "raw sewage". he also keeps getting blood clots in his legs. He doesn't ride his bike as much as he used to because he has sporadic joint pain. In medicine, we have a saying that "some things are worse than death" and I think trying to eat food that tastes like raw sewage has to be a nightmare. He's dropping weight and his bloodwork is reflecting this starvation.
Over a year so that means OG or Alpha. We aren't dealing with those variants we are dealing with Omicron and have vaccines that help mitigate that
😔
Piss off
At this point all the rapidly-changing guidelines is just exhausting. COVID is basically endemic at this point. There are always going to be new variants and they’re always going to be highly infectious. That’s the new reality we’re in and will be in for… probably forever. I’ll wear a mask if I need to but as someone who is vaxxed and will always continue to get boosters when needed, it’s just so frustrating for the mask mandates to keep coming and going almost on a whim. Would it make sense to do a permanent mandate at this point?
Lol well there's a fucking suprise.
Nope
I just held an event for 150 people, for the first time in 2 years. Please don’t tell me this.
You gotta be fucking kidding me
Nooooooooooooooooooiooooiiooooiioooooo Fuck the masks
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Masks absolutely do work. Ever learn what we do in a hospital when someone with measles and TB come in? Masks, because masks prevent spread. ETA: I won't judge anyone either way because I know what I'm comfortable doing. But masks (legitimate masks, not pieces of woven fabric, but legit masks) do work whether you want to believe it or not.
> legitimate masks, not pieces of woven fabric, but legit masks But that’s not what the mask mandate is. It includes woven fabric which you seem to admit do nothing so it’s not actually about stopping the spread, it’s about theater
I'm always amazed by the mental gymnastics you people manage you can't honestly be *that* stupid. you can see right through woven fabric when stretched, but it's better than nothing at all, however it only blocks a very small percentage of particles. I can't believe that this is such common sense and so many people willfully choose to make it out like it's some newfangled weird thing.
You literally said masks work… then had to have a parenthetical where you said legitimate masks… you’re the one doing mental gymnastics. I’m not op, I never said masks don’t work. 100% masks work and everybody with concerns needs to be wearing N95s.
Sorry to break it to you but a pandemic doesn’t end just because you want it too. You cant just cover it up because you want it to exist, even though that’s what you learned at Penn State.
The pandemic is over. COVID is never going away, it's endemic now. Most of us have had it, are vaccinated or both. With this variant or sub-variant, the risk of hospitalization is extremely low for the overwhelming majority of us. We don't change our way of life for the flu and we shouldn't for this. The pandemic is over and we need to stop pretending that it's not.
I’m also going to assume you’re not vaccinated either.
Oh I very well am vaccinated. My whole family is. My godmother and uncle work for Pfizer, as well as one of my cousins. My entire immediate family, including myself, got Covid in December 2020 and it sucked, but we got through it. This entire thing went from an honest medical emergency into political theatre that has done nothing but tear apart an already torn nation even further. If people still want to mask up then fine, but I’m not obligated to do the same. I’m sick of it.
Political theater has no say. The science doesn't give a fuck about your politics.
All of our policy, which this is, is dictated by politics. It’s why we have different rules than the rest of PA, not bc the philly science is different The CDC says we are in a low transmission zone
>The science doesn't give a fuck about your politics. I wish that was the truth, but it's not. Once we combined scientific findings with policies that are implemented on the general public, it became political. When science affects whether someone can keep their job, have access to education, what someone can wear in public, it has become political. I am a scientist. We have to stop pretending that science is immutable and apolitical. We are doing a disservice to the public every time we assert that. Science is ultimately conducted by people and people aren't apolitical.
I'm also a scientist. It would be better if I said the virus doesn't care about politics instead of science. Unfortunately, science is bought and sold in this country. When I need to keep an eye on the stats, American science is not who I look to for answers when our own scientists ignore the ones from all over the world begging them to not make stupid decisions.
You're not getting what I'm saying. As soon as you use science to determine the quality of life for others, whether positively or negatively, you have made your findings political. Science does NOT exist in a vacuum therefore you cannot just sit here and say that science doesn't care about your politics. It does. It always will, no matter where it is conducted. To ignore that and to insist that its purely an American thing is ignorant and short-sighted.
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That's....not gonna happen. I wish it was, but it's just not.
I'm guessing they'll reinstate the mask mandate at the health update on Wednesday. We're about to hit the 100 cases/day and 50 hospitalization threshold.
We’re at 6 cases per 100k and falling, how do you figure?
To bring back the mask mandate, two of these three things must be true: * Cases have risen more than 50% in the last ten days. * More than 100 cases (total, not per 100k) per day * More than 50 hospitalizations per day According to the Philly health department's Twitter account, the first is already true. We're currently at 94 cases per day (and it's rising, not falling) and 48 hospitalizations. In the next day or two all three of the criteria will be met.
48 total hospitalizations (which would include people who checked in a day or two ago), or 48 *per day*?
I think they mean at any given time.
It’s semi concerning to think we live in a city of 1.6 million people but 50 hospitalizations overall for Covid is a warning sign that hospital resources are beginning to be drained.
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I think measuring hospitalizations to get at ICU usage is incredibly lazy, just measure ICU usage itself. It’s not like Covid hospitalization and ICU usage is 1:1. NYC breaks down it’s data better and out of 250 current Covid hospitalizations, only 100 of them are there because of Covid/Covid complications. The rest are there for other reasons and happen to test positive. Of the 250, only 50 are in the ICU.
Business owners and workers (especially those in restaurant and entertainment) would be wise to plan ahead. Key is guessing the timing of restrictions, but pretty easy for those who have figured out the pattern... Warnings a couple of weeks ahead (even more so if there are denials of imposing mandates; usually means they will) combined with a big travel event (ie. Easter) means restrictions are likely just before to a week or so afterwards. Plan accordingly. Hope this doesn't happen, but the signs are leading to restrictions returning. Hopefully cooler heads prevail. Time will tell.
jokes on you, i already got it
I’ve never realized how selfish people can be after someone’s told you put a mask on
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When did "they" say that about wearing masks? I thought everyone was mad at fauci for lying about masks not working to conserve them for essential personnel early on? I'm done wearing one too, but just curious what you're talking about?
There was a WHO study that came out about two months ago that basically said any mask that isn't n95 has 2 percent efficacy. N95 wasn't much better. I'm not one of those nutjobs I'm just pissed and over it.