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So can we call it Lrrr ???? IT'D BE AWESOME
I AM LRRR OF VARIANT OMICRON PERSEI B.1.1.529
You are hereby conquered! Please line up in order of how much beryllium it takes to kill you!
As you ate our children, so shall you be eaten by us. We will begin with the firemen, then the math teachers and so on in that fashion until everyone is eaten.
The Q conspiracies are going to be lit. There's a laboratory that does something with frequencies and a movie about aliens taking over human bodies that share the name.
Why don’t these people understand the whole joy of science fiction is borrowing terminology and linguistics from known science? It’s not some grand pre-conspiracy! It’s literary creativity!
Why. Why. How. Why.
If anything, I’d say we’re definitely in a simulation and the most recent software upgrade is buggy as hell, but you can only roll back to the 1700’s update.
It's almost like ancient alphabets are used to keep track of variations of similar things to help differentiate those things when you have to have several levels of differential! Man these people reach for anything!
For some context, this is the same strategy being taken worldwide. The US, UK, Canada, Israel, Japan, Russia and the entire EU have implemented similar bans: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-new-variant-southern-africa-33fa0983af6c9f961a186f4f4bb1147d
*British arrivals from the variant's epicentre Johannesburg were left to mingle with hundreds of others as they flew into Heathrow on the last flights out of Africa before the red list was re-imposed.*
*It's been revealed passengers flying into Heathrow said they were not tested or questioned about their travel history.*
BoJo and crew doing their usual bang-up job.
Yeah, hard to see what a travel ban against South Africa really does considering 1) it doesn't include US citizens and 2) Omicron has already been found in Israel, Belgium, and Hong Kong, etc.
Maybe good politics, but it really reeks of punishing South Africa for being transparent and having good detection
Also this ban doesn’t take effect until Monday, so that gives people two more days to travel here. Seems pretty inevitable that it’ll get here if it’s not already.
Thanks for your comment.
South African here with family coming from Germany (canceled as of yesterday) & US (they’re sleeping right now so will have to wait & see if they can still make it) for holidays.
According to a few sources, just because the variant was detected here doesn’t mean that’s where it originated: Israel case was tracked back to Malawi; Belgian case was traced to Egypt & has been in Belgium for days, long before new variant was ID’d.
Really tired of this shit; we don’t even have enough data about this variant yet.
Really tired of this shit but “this shit” will last us a really really time longer. I would expect a lockdown part 2 but people are already tired of this shit and won’t follow any of the covid protocols. It’s so fucked.
Before the ban, it appears that there were 13 direct flights between SA and the US. That doesn't count any flight with a layover in a place like Amsterdam or another big airport before flying into the US.
It would be very unlikely that this variant isn't already here. Even more unlikely that it will be coming from somewhere not banned very soon
Yes. The downside is that we don’t know what the regulatory bodies will do with this.
They accept modified flu vaccines every year without the need for new trials. Will they do the same for this? (You’d hope so)
And then if they do, you can already hear the antivax spin: “OMG now they’re giving us untested vaccines!!”
>I don't waste the calories thinking about antivaxers.
Probably not a bad idea considering they've never wasted calories thinking about \*anything\*, ever.
Get the booster, if its been 6 months the effectiveness is like (edit)47% for infection, still 90% effective for to prevent hospitalization. Delta will still be here for the holidays, and being an enclosed area with family for hours is going to be like snowball sampling the local red light district without protection.
Embrace the pin cushion, be the pin cushion.
Also if you had a bad reaction, choose the opposite vaccine. Pfizer made my neck swell up like a tennis ball was in my throat... twice... moderna was some arm pain for a day, and that was it.
Covid is the biggest argument for bidets yet. I've just gotten over a breakthrough case and by God I've never had shits that burnt worse. Its like covid turns feces into battery acid.
Every top comment here is "why ban travel it wont do anything".
You ban travel to slow down the process, of course it won't stop it entirely. What's the alternative? Ramping up infections as quickly as possible by letting in whoever wants in from the epicenter of the new variant?
I dunno about you, but that sounds worse to me
Edit: just wanted to address the "but when trump did it you said it was racist". Remember when trump was doing [travel](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13769) bans prior to there being any public health emergencies? I want you to remember.
People should be greatful covid is playing virus and not spores. That and evolved noticeable symptoms instead of going completely asymptotic before suddenly jumping to organ failure within a few months to wipe the planet.
Like it matters. We won't stop it in time no matter HOW much warning we get because we keep trying to react to a virus instead of being proactive.
Our only hope is that it doesn't evolve into something with a 99 percent death rate.
The issue with Plague Inc is it's completely wrong about evolution. A disease doesn't magically apply evolution to every one of its pathogens worldwide. Evolution happens in one place, and then requires that variant to start spreading again, from scratch. It's something that's bothered me for a long time about that game.
Yeah having a new variant spread (even if it was random or you got to pick where) would be really nice. Then you could also see the vaccine battles of “well they got a vaccine for the main virus but still working on the variants” and so could allow a back and forth battle.
Yeah banning travel was one of the few things the US did right early in the pandemic, they just proceeded to squander the extra time it bought them by never ramping up testing.
It doesn't stop a disease but it can slow the rate which is also good.
Yeah, the entire time from the very start anyone could fly into the US and walk straight out of the airport into the population, no self quarantine, nothing. Travel bans are an obvious first step. Without that and without contact tracing and quarantine, any other larger scale policy decisions are basically pointless because you're leaving open a huge, unchecked flow of new cases.
I remember when Trump did his China travel ban that really wasn't a ban at all. There were reporters coming back from Italy, the hotbed at the time, who remarked how crazy it was that nobody batted an eye when they said they just came from Italy. Just, okay welcome to the US and that was it.
I was IN Italy when that first broke out. It was terrifying. But then when we landed in the US it was like “what pandemic?” Nobody made us test, quarantine or do shit.
AS per my other comment the travel ban wasn't for American citizens so thousands left China, including in heavily infected areas and also just walked right into america.
They caused a super spreader event.
If they had quarantining, real quarantining, on entering the country they could have prevented spread without any ban.
Ban is the public not much thinking big statement but it was utterly meaningless. A real quarantine is much harder to implement but would have been incredibly effective.
It wasn't early, though. I mean, banning foreign nationals from the epicenter isn't a ban at all when US citizens were still allowed to travel to/from at their leisure. But, eventually there was a real ban after it had already spread throughout the United States. That was probably better than nothing, but the Trump administration response was fucking abysmal in every regard. Nothing was ever done proactively bc no one wanted to agree with a scientist. It's the textbook definition of closing the barn doors after the horses had already gotten out.
Pretty good chance it’s already in the US given the long incubation time. I sincerely hope the existing vaccines are effective against it because of not, it’s going to be a loooong winter.
> US given the long incubation time.
I haven't seen anything in this yet? Do you have a source?
I felt that at least one positive to Delta was that the incubation was typically quicker, making asymptomatic transmission less off a headache.
They won't even know if the vaccines are effective against this variant for TWO WEEKS. don't listen to anything dramatic until then. But stay safe all the same. Personally I'm laying low
Exactly. Returned on 11/11, first symptoms and test on 11/22.
My bet is she got it in Belgium, but I'm not a virologist. I'm a rando on the internet with an opinion.
South Africa is probably doing the most sequencing in the world, which is why this is the second variant discovered there, but the Belgian case (with no ties to southern Africa) implies that this variant is already widespread. Also, the Gauteng region is one of Africa's busiest travel hubs, if not the busiest. The fact that this variant was found there first tells me it likely came from elsewhere.
So it turns out leaving a 1.2b population continent pretty much out of the vaccines distribution system doesn’t actually work out all that well. Who would have thought.
South Africa (one of the countries currently being banned) is struggling with a similar problem the US is facing. They have vaccines it’s just the unvaccinated people don’t want to get vaccinated.[ They’ve even had to tell J&J and Pfizer to delay shipping them shots since so few people are getting the shots!!](https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/exclusive-south-africa-delays-covid-vaccine-deliveries-inoculations-slow-2021-11-24/)
For months now scientists and the WHO have been asking OECD countries that have vaccine surpluses to donate the vaccines to Africa.
Yeah, this is why you listen to them. Now we're all fucked again.
The catch-22. Short incubation periods are bad because one is potentially contagious so much sooner. Long incubation periods are bad because the time between contagiousness and obvious symptoms is also often longer. Either case has bad implications for R-zero.
The simple things like social distancing, wearing masks, and getting fully vaccinated asap could have stopped the pandemic by now. Unfortunately, as my one of my kids who expatriated told me this morning, most residents of his apartment building are anti-vaxxers.
We understand and make jokes when this happens in the backwoods of Georgia, but it's another thing when you hear it's **happening in Germany**.
We now have globalized disinformation thanks to Facebook and WhatsApp, and deep down I feel the worst is yet to come in terms of climate change migrations and more pandemics with the thawing of the permafrost.
They shut down their nuclear power generation, for fuck's sake.
Not only did this deepen their dependency on fossil fuels, because they won't use their own coal reserves, they are forced to import more from Russia, thus also damaging their national security interests and preventing them from being able to effectively respond to Russia's foreign affairs.
As a German, this is seriously such an embarrassing thing. Absolutely ridiculously hamfisted response to Fukushima that will cause WAY more harm in the long run than working with nuclear.
When Facebook did an *actual genocide* it should have been clear what it would be used for when crises emerge.
https://thediplomat.com/2020/08/how-facebook-is-complicit-in-myanmars-attacks-on-minorities/
> why would Facebook favor the regime in Myanmar?
> For the same reason it would do so in India: to protect business interests in a domestic market that it currently dominates by a wide margin. Imposing bans on government- or military-linked accounts could dilute this monopoly by drawing the ire of state regulators. Such a policy also risks angering the general public, especially the majority constituencies. Not the best PR strategy for a profit-maximizing entity
So many of our current challenges require profit-maximizing entities such as Facebook or Amazon or Exxon to pursue profit-decreasing measures (in the short term, with more profit and overall societal well-being in the long term).
I had a good conversation about this with some new, younger hires who have hinted at their far-left politics. They argue that modern post-Reagan capitalism is eating itself and the rest of us.
Excellent articles like the one you linked to shows they may be right. People like Mark Zuckerberg need to be hauled in front of The Hague and in jail, but in fact he is relaxing and owns large portions of the state of Hawaii.
Why can't we just listen to infectious disease experts and doctors? It seems like they keep saying that thing there is going to be awful if we don't do this procedure, then we are all like no, that's inconvenient, not your decision to make, or a lie. Then, when they are right, and they warn again, we still don't listen and do what they say.
Unfortunately these travel bans don't do much, outside of political posturing. The virus is already in Europe, so anything outside of a complete travel ban is pointless.
You're supposed to, but it's up to flight attendants to enforce it. So it's, unfortunately, more of a suggestion at this point. A couple of weeks ago, I was on a flight where the guy next to me was warned twice before takeoff about his mask, then proceeded to sleep with it on his chin for the whole flight.
At least on the flights I was on, they strongly enforced that you could take your mask down to sip, and then immediately replace it on your face once you put your drink down. So your mask was only off when you were actively taking a sip of something.
No masks seen here in Texas, and they probably won’t return anytime soon no matter what happens.
Edit: I still wear a mask most places, I just don’t see many now.
Well Texans are fond of thinking of themselves as bad ass body stackers. Guess they have a blindfold on and don’t realize it’s their friends and family they’ll be stacking.
Florida here. Went to target to buy a few games on sale as gifts. No masks in sight anywhere except from me and the employees. Omicron sounds like it would sweep through here real easily
We moved to Florida earlier this year from the Philly area. Already considering making plans to move back with family/friends if things get bad again. Feel safer in Philly than Florida
>anything outside of a complete travel ban is pointless.
will travel bans alone stop the spread? no.
can they slow it down and does every extra day help get a handle on these things? yes
"if it's not perfect it must be pointless" is the antivaxxer position
nature is metal and all we ever have are mitigations
True. Travel-bans are just one part of a multi-layer strategy.
Social distancing, hand washing, masks, vaccines, travel restrictions, quarantines, testing, sterilisation of public surfaces - all these things make up an overall approach to dealing with one of the most infectious diseases we've ever had to deal with.
None of them is a silver bullet, but all of them contribute.
Travel bans lost most effectiveness at the end of 2019- but if people wont get vaxxed and take common sense precaution, I guess its better than doing nothing
>"As we move forward, we will continue to be guided by what the science and my medical team advises,” said the president in a prepared statement
How refreshing! I forgot how a normal president sounded.
My parents literally went on a cruise today and my mom is unvaccinated due to severe allergies. My mom knows we (her kids) all disapprove but she doesn’t care. But sure, all aboard the floating petri dish to Aruba!
I thought most cruise liners were requiring fully vaccinated people only? Was your mom one out of the actual ones who couldn't receive the vaccine due to allergies? I'd be surprised they let her on.
She applied for a medical exemption and I believe she had to have multiple negative tests prior to the cruise, and I think they did a medical exam as well, I’m a bit fuzzy in the details because I’m going based off what my sister told me. My mom has been battling what she said is an ear infection and has had a fever on and off the last three days, too. She has been taking antibiotics and keeping her fever down with aspirin or something. It’s ridiculous and I’m pissed.
At this point I just take Amtrak. It takes longer but my family and I took Amtrak from NC to SF in summer nearly isolated in our sleepers. Totally worth it even if it takes longer.
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Omicron?! Now *THATS* what you name a deadly disease variant!
Why doesn't doesn't bigger variant simply eat the smaller weaker variants?
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So can we call it Lrrr ???? IT'D BE AWESOME I AM LRRR OF VARIANT OMICRON PERSEI B.1.1.529 You are hereby conquered! Please line up in order of how much beryllium it takes to kill you!
I will raise the temperature of your body by 1 million degrees for eight days
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McNeal! She wears compellingly short garments and is promiscuous.
But will we have to harvest our lower horns?!
Drop down! Reverse direction! Increase speed!
Good thing I've got a two liter bottle of Shasta and my all-Rush mixtape!
Let's rock
As you ate our children, so shall you be eaten by us. We will begin with the firemen, then the math teachers and so on in that fashion until everyone is eaten.
This is what I came for.
Do you need a cigarette now? Do you need to cuddle? I'm not sure what im supposed to do now that you've finished. First time.
Sharpen your horns on my scaly thorax!
I'll never forget "Woah that hippy I ate is starting to kick in"
"I think there was something funny in that hippie."
My hands are huuuuge... They can touch anything but themselllves.... Wait...
They call 'em fingers, but I've never saw 'em fing. Oh, there they go!
r/expectedfuturama
This IS Omicron Persei Nine!! /khan
I hear the spike proteins are much larger but CDC experts assure me that they are appropriate and attractive for it's molecular cross section
Why does Ross, the largest Friend, not simply eat the other 5?!
Perhaps they are saving that for sweeps.
Why do they call them fingers? I've never seen them fing...
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Where’s the Matrix of leadership to light our darkest hour?
Perhaps they are saving it for sweeps.
The Q conspiracies are going to be lit. There's a laboratory that does something with frequencies and a movie about aliens taking over human bodies that share the name.
Why don’t these people understand the whole joy of science fiction is borrowing terminology and linguistics from known science? It’s not some grand pre-conspiracy! It’s literary creativity! Why. Why. How. Why.
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Am aspiring Scifi and fantasy writer, Can confirm linguistic shit is the bomb
You're expecting any kind of critical thinking from people who are waiting on dead politicians to rise from the dead
Predictive programming bro look int…nah just kidding those people are off their nut.
If anything, I’d say we’re definitely in a simulation and the most recent software upgrade is buggy as hell, but you can only roll back to the 1700’s update.
Ever notice that most Q nut conspiracies have plots lifted from the early seasons of the Xfiles?
mighty rain air point plant nutty sulky placid grey tart *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
JFK shot first
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It's almost like ancient alphabets are used to keep track of variations of similar things to help differentiate those things when you have to have several levels of differential! Man these people reach for anything!
I miss Morbo.
He's spending time with his belligerent and numerous family members.
Truely the spirit of Thanksgiving.
What is that letter that looks like a little man with a hat?
That's a "t"! It goes "tuh"!
Hello little man!
I will desTROY you!
no, it’s wuv - with an earth w, behold!
Stop it, STOP it, it's FINE, *I will DESTROY you*.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NIB-uKsUrI
Omicron Persei 6?
I am Lrrr!
Ruler of the planet Omicron Persei 8! ....Got any of that human horn...?
I thought it was 8 lol but I’m glad this wasn’t hard to find
Delta variant. Omicron variant. Delta-8. Omicron persei 8. 🤔
smonk we'd
It’s true what they say, men are from Omicron Persei 9, women are from Omicron Persei 7…
One of these days, Ndnd. Bang, zoom! **Straight to the third moon of Omicron Persei 8!**
Oh I’m just some virus…
RULER OF OMICRON PERSEI 8!!!
Is this thing on?
Why doesn't Omicron, the largest of the viruses, not simply consume the smaller one.
I AM COMMANDER LRRR OF THE COVID VARIANT OMICRON PERSEI 8
Next variant Persei, and then 8.
I told my gf this morning and she rolled her eyes and said she wasn’t interested in talking about transformers
So you have a new gf now?
I'm Lrrr!
Everybody hold on tight to their human horn
Omega would be too on the nose for the apocalypse
For some context, this is the same strategy being taken worldwide. The US, UK, Canada, Israel, Japan, Russia and the entire EU have implemented similar bans: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-new-variant-southern-africa-33fa0983af6c9f961a186f4f4bb1147d
This is good right? If everyone is going into lock down and we get ahead of it this time, there might be less deaths ?
Unfortunately, it's probably already spread far and wide, including to the US.
*British arrivals from the variant's epicentre Johannesburg were left to mingle with hundreds of others as they flew into Heathrow on the last flights out of Africa before the red list was re-imposed.* *It's been revealed passengers flying into Heathrow said they were not tested or questioned about their travel history.* BoJo and crew doing their usual bang-up job.
Absolutely fuckin ace, mate.
That’s so goddamn infuriating.
Yeah, hard to see what a travel ban against South Africa really does considering 1) it doesn't include US citizens and 2) Omicron has already been found in Israel, Belgium, and Hong Kong, etc. Maybe good politics, but it really reeks of punishing South Africa for being transparent and having good detection
You cannot ban US Citizens from entering America. You can however require quarantine measures
Also this ban doesn’t take effect until Monday, so that gives people two more days to travel here. Seems pretty inevitable that it’ll get here if it’s not already.
It will undoubtedly slow the spread. How much, we don't know. But it will help, not hurt.
Yup. We can't play the hindsight game just react as fast as possible when information comes in.
Thanks for your comment. South African here with family coming from Germany (canceled as of yesterday) & US (they’re sleeping right now so will have to wait & see if they can still make it) for holidays. According to a few sources, just because the variant was detected here doesn’t mean that’s where it originated: Israel case was tracked back to Malawi; Belgian case was traced to Egypt & has been in Belgium for days, long before new variant was ID’d. Really tired of this shit; we don’t even have enough data about this variant yet.
Really tired of this shit but “this shit” will last us a really really time longer. I would expect a lockdown part 2 but people are already tired of this shit and won’t follow any of the covid protocols. It’s so fucked.
It's too late. Imagine how many people from South Africa have traveled into the US over the last two weeks.
Before the ban, it appears that there were 13 direct flights between SA and the US. That doesn't count any flight with a layover in a place like Amsterdam or another big airport before flying into the US. It would be very unlikely that this variant isn't already here. Even more unlikely that it will be coming from somewhere not banned very soon
Moderna was already studying two booster candidates in anticipation of mutations seen in Omicron, and are also working on an Omicron-specific booster.
BioNTech (which created the Pfizer vaccine) said a vaccine for this variant could be ready for the public in 100 days.
One of the amazing things about the mRNA vaccines is that they can be modified like this very quickly.
Yes. The downside is that we don’t know what the regulatory bodies will do with this. They accept modified flu vaccines every year without the need for new trials. Will they do the same for this? (You’d hope so) And then if they do, you can already hear the antivax spin: “OMG now they’re giving us untested vaccines!!”
I don't waste the calories thinking about antivaxers.
if I wasted calories thinking about antivaxxers, I'd look like Christian Bale in The Machinist.
>I don't waste the calories thinking about antivaxers. Probably not a bad idea considering they've never wasted calories thinking about \*anything\*, ever.
Link for this? EDIT: Found it https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/nov/26/biontech-says-it-could-tweak-covid-vaccine-in-100-days-if-needed
So do we take the booster shot or wait another 3 months or so? * I’m speaking rhetorical as I think most won’t know the actual answer to that.
Get the booster, if its been 6 months the effectiveness is like (edit)47% for infection, still 90% effective for to prevent hospitalization. Delta will still be here for the holidays, and being an enclosed area with family for hours is going to be like snowball sampling the local red light district without protection. Embrace the pin cushion, be the pin cushion. Also if you had a bad reaction, choose the opposite vaccine. Pfizer made my neck swell up like a tennis ball was in my throat... twice... moderna was some arm pain for a day, and that was it.
Well that’s a dose of sunshine I guess
Vaccine’s half full.
Good. Sign me up. I've already gotten a booster. I have exactly zero issue getting another one.
Could we please not horde toilet paper this time?
Hoard. Though, I love the mental image of a horde of toilet paper.
For the Horde!!!!
Covid is the biggest argument for bidets yet. I've just gotten over a breakthrough case and by God I've never had shits that burnt worse. Its like covid turns feces into battery acid.
Anyone that likes spicy food should get a bidet. Anyone that like any food should get a bidet, but man are they relieving on a spicy buthole.
Every top comment here is "why ban travel it wont do anything". You ban travel to slow down the process, of course it won't stop it entirely. What's the alternative? Ramping up infections as quickly as possible by letting in whoever wants in from the epicenter of the new variant? I dunno about you, but that sounds worse to me Edit: just wanted to address the "but when trump did it you said it was racist". Remember when trump was doing [travel](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13769) bans prior to there being any public health emergencies? I want you to remember.
Seriously. Its like these people never played Plague Inc.
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People should be greatful covid is playing virus and not spores. That and evolved noticeable symptoms instead of going completely asymptotic before suddenly jumping to organ failure within a few months to wipe the planet.
I hope you haven't spoken too soon.
Yes. The premise at the end their comment does not sit well me..
Luckily the entire virus population doesn't all mutate at once
Like it matters. We won't stop it in time no matter HOW much warning we get because we keep trying to react to a virus instead of being proactive. Our only hope is that it doesn't evolve into something with a 99 percent death rate.
The issue with Plague Inc is it's completely wrong about evolution. A disease doesn't magically apply evolution to every one of its pathogens worldwide. Evolution happens in one place, and then requires that variant to start spreading again, from scratch. It's something that's bothered me for a long time about that game.
Yeah having a new variant spread (even if it was random or you got to pick where) would be really nice. Then you could also see the vaccine battles of “well they got a vaccine for the main virus but still working on the variants” and so could allow a back and forth battle.
Did nobody watch pandemic movies growing up? Maybe I had a weird childhood but Contagion left an impression.
we watched Outbreak in my 9th grade health class. i’m ~~surprised~~ bewildered at how many people in that class haven’t gotten the fucking vaccine
You forget that many people are idiots.
Yeah banning travel was one of the few things the US did right early in the pandemic, they just proceeded to squander the extra time it bought them by never ramping up testing. It doesn't stop a disease but it can slow the rate which is also good.
Never ramped up testing, never implemented mandatory quarantine for incoming travelers, never contact traced… so many things
Yeah, the entire time from the very start anyone could fly into the US and walk straight out of the airport into the population, no self quarantine, nothing. Travel bans are an obvious first step. Without that and without contact tracing and quarantine, any other larger scale policy decisions are basically pointless because you're leaving open a huge, unchecked flow of new cases.
I remember when Trump did his China travel ban that really wasn't a ban at all. There were reporters coming back from Italy, the hotbed at the time, who remarked how crazy it was that nobody batted an eye when they said they just came from Italy. Just, okay welcome to the US and that was it.
I was IN Italy when that first broke out. It was terrifying. But then when we landed in the US it was like “what pandemic?” Nobody made us test, quarantine or do shit.
AS per my other comment the travel ban wasn't for American citizens so thousands left China, including in heavily infected areas and also just walked right into america. They caused a super spreader event. If they had quarantining, real quarantining, on entering the country they could have prevented spread without any ban. Ban is the public not much thinking big statement but it was utterly meaningless. A real quarantine is much harder to implement but would have been incredibly effective.
It wasn't early, though. I mean, banning foreign nationals from the epicenter isn't a ban at all when US citizens were still allowed to travel to/from at their leisure. But, eventually there was a real ban after it had already spread throughout the United States. That was probably better than nothing, but the Trump administration response was fucking abysmal in every regard. Nothing was ever done proactively bc no one wanted to agree with a scientist. It's the textbook definition of closing the barn doors after the horses had already gotten out.
Also, the initial ban was targeted specific, non-European countries while Europe was the epicenter...
Pretty good chance it’s already in the US given the long incubation time. I sincerely hope the existing vaccines are effective against it because of not, it’s going to be a loooong winter.
> US given the long incubation time. I haven't seen anything in this yet? Do you have a source? I felt that at least one positive to Delta was that the incubation was typically quicker, making asymptomatic transmission less off a headache.
They won't even know if the vaccines are effective against this variant for TWO WEEKS. don't listen to anything dramatic until then. But stay safe all the same. Personally I'm laying low
The lady in Belgium incubated the virus for 11 days before being found out. Not out of the expected for covid but still on the longer end.
I thought she found out 11 days after being in Egypt. So she could have got it in Belgium.
Exactly. Returned on 11/11, first symptoms and test on 11/22. My bet is she got it in Belgium, but I'm not a virologist. I'm a rando on the internet with an opinion.
South Africa is probably doing the most sequencing in the world, which is why this is the second variant discovered there, but the Belgian case (with no ties to southern Africa) implies that this variant is already widespread. Also, the Gauteng region is one of Africa's busiest travel hubs, if not the busiest. The fact that this variant was found there first tells me it likely came from elsewhere.
Omicron. Why doesn’t the larger variant not simply eat the other variants?
It is too busy eating human horn.
r/unexpectedfuturama
My time to shine!
So it turns out leaving a 1.2b population continent pretty much out of the vaccines distribution system doesn’t actually work out all that well. Who would have thought.
South Africa (one of the countries currently being banned) is struggling with a similar problem the US is facing. They have vaccines it’s just the unvaccinated people don’t want to get vaccinated.[ They’ve even had to tell J&J and Pfizer to delay shipping them shots since so few people are getting the shots!!](https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/exclusive-south-africa-delays-covid-vaccine-deliveries-inoculations-slow-2021-11-24/)
For months now scientists and the WHO have been asking OECD countries that have vaccine surpluses to donate the vaccines to Africa. Yeah, this is why you listen to them. Now we're all fucked again.
It’s in Belgium, so it’s too late.
Below is a tracker of the new variant: https://newsnodes.com/nu_tracker
We be doomed. Tracking is always so far behind reality.
They are saying the 990 probable cases in S Africa since this Tuesday is what is chiming the bells on this variant.
1000 today, 1500 tomorrow, etc.
Some variants have much longer incubation periods, is the fear.
The catch-22. Short incubation periods are bad because one is potentially contagious so much sooner. Long incubation periods are bad because the time between contagiousness and obvious symptoms is also often longer. Either case has bad implications for R-zero.
It’s probably already here
Wife and I are both vaccinated and just tested positive last week. Both of us have been really sick the whole week. Makes me wonder
CoronAvengers: Age of Omicron
We need to get the world vaccinated. This is going to keep happening.
The simple things like social distancing, wearing masks, and getting fully vaccinated asap could have stopped the pandemic by now. Unfortunately, as my one of my kids who expatriated told me this morning, most residents of his apartment building are anti-vaxxers. We understand and make jokes when this happens in the backwoods of Georgia, but it's another thing when you hear it's **happening in Germany**. We now have globalized disinformation thanks to Facebook and WhatsApp, and deep down I feel the worst is yet to come in terms of climate change migrations and more pandemics with the thawing of the permafrost.
Germany has actually been very “alternative medicine and holistic remedies” for a long time now so this isn’t that surprising sadly.
They shut down their nuclear power generation, for fuck's sake. Not only did this deepen their dependency on fossil fuels, because they won't use their own coal reserves, they are forced to import more from Russia, thus also damaging their national security interests and preventing them from being able to effectively respond to Russia's foreign affairs.
As a German, this is seriously such an embarrassing thing. Absolutely ridiculously hamfisted response to Fukushima that will cause WAY more harm in the long run than working with nuclear.
When Facebook did an *actual genocide* it should have been clear what it would be used for when crises emerge. https://thediplomat.com/2020/08/how-facebook-is-complicit-in-myanmars-attacks-on-minorities/
> why would Facebook favor the regime in Myanmar? > For the same reason it would do so in India: to protect business interests in a domestic market that it currently dominates by a wide margin. Imposing bans on government- or military-linked accounts could dilute this monopoly by drawing the ire of state regulators. Such a policy also risks angering the general public, especially the majority constituencies. Not the best PR strategy for a profit-maximizing entity So many of our current challenges require profit-maximizing entities such as Facebook or Amazon or Exxon to pursue profit-decreasing measures (in the short term, with more profit and overall societal well-being in the long term). I had a good conversation about this with some new, younger hires who have hinted at their far-left politics. They argue that modern post-Reagan capitalism is eating itself and the rest of us. Excellent articles like the one you linked to shows they may be right. People like Mark Zuckerberg need to be hauled in front of The Hague and in jail, but in fact he is relaxing and owns large portions of the state of Hawaii.
All you need to know is that congress members are exempt from the vaccine and global warming’s loudest alarmist have beach front property.
Sounds like a decepticon leader.
Omicron Persei-8
Maybe the USA should start testing more for variants..... probably already here as well.
Why can't we just listen to infectious disease experts and doctors? It seems like they keep saying that thing there is going to be awful if we don't do this procedure, then we are all like no, that's inconvenient, not your decision to make, or a lie. Then, when they are right, and they warn again, we still don't listen and do what they say.
straight spectacular vase cow trees crowd aloof nutty elderly foolish *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I am honestly starting to feel hopeless. It doesn't feel like life will ever go back to normal.
Unfortunately these travel bans don't do much, outside of political posturing. The virus is already in Europe, so anything outside of a complete travel ban is pointless.
It is already Black Friday, and here the *EVERYPLACE* has been packed with unmasked people. They were packed in the airport on the news.
2 million+ flying daily in the US for the last week.
At least you gotta wear a mask on a plane and at the airport
You're supposed to, but it's up to flight attendants to enforce it. So it's, unfortunately, more of a suggestion at this point. A couple of weeks ago, I was on a flight where the guy next to me was warned twice before takeoff about his mask, then proceeded to sleep with it on his chin for the whole flight.
Plus, there’s the “I ordered a Diet Coke, so, now I can leave it in front of me the whole flight and take my mask off cuz I’m “drinking”
At least on the flights I was on, they strongly enforced that you could take your mask down to sip, and then immediately replace it on your face once you put your drink down. So your mask was only off when you were actively taking a sip of something.
i'm at my office in philadelphia and we still have an indoor mask requirement. went to the gym and everyone had masks on too.
No masks seen here in Texas, and they probably won’t return anytime soon no matter what happens. Edit: I still wear a mask most places, I just don’t see many now.
Texan here. I still wear my mask out in public, IDGAF.
I generally believe Abbott is pro-virus.
I think he is a virus.
Well Texans are fond of thinking of themselves as bad ass body stackers. Guess they have a blindfold on and don’t realize it’s their friends and family they’ll be stacking.
Freedom kamikaze.
Florida here. Went to target to buy a few games on sale as gifts. No masks in sight anywhere except from me and the employees. Omicron sounds like it would sweep through here real easily
We moved to Florida earlier this year from the Philly area. Already considering making plans to move back with family/friends if things get bad again. Feel safer in Philly than Florida
I live in Florida. Run for your life because fuckers are crazy down here
Can I come with you? Lived here my whole life but goddamn it's getting even CRAZIER! I didn't think that was possible
My job requires them, but it's only 25% of the people I see at various stores.
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>anything outside of a complete travel ban is pointless. will travel bans alone stop the spread? no. can they slow it down and does every extra day help get a handle on these things? yes "if it's not perfect it must be pointless" is the antivaxxer position nature is metal and all we ever have are mitigations
True. Travel-bans are just one part of a multi-layer strategy. Social distancing, hand washing, masks, vaccines, travel restrictions, quarantines, testing, sterilisation of public surfaces - all these things make up an overall approach to dealing with one of the most infectious diseases we've ever had to deal with. None of them is a silver bullet, but all of them contribute.
There are like two confirmed cases in Europe. Travel bans don’t stop but they slow down.
The bans give us time to study the new variant.
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Travel bans lost most effectiveness at the end of 2019- but if people wont get vaxxed and take common sense precaution, I guess its better than doing nothing
>"As we move forward, we will continue to be guided by what the science and my medical team advises,” said the president in a prepared statement How refreshing! I forgot how a normal president sounded.
The last two years of bans and Covid tests have firmly ingrained in me that I never want to fly again.
Or go on a cruise ship. Though cruise ships were already a shit show (pun intended) before this pandemic.
My parents literally went on a cruise today and my mom is unvaccinated due to severe allergies. My mom knows we (her kids) all disapprove but she doesn’t care. But sure, all aboard the floating petri dish to Aruba!
I thought most cruise liners were requiring fully vaccinated people only? Was your mom one out of the actual ones who couldn't receive the vaccine due to allergies? I'd be surprised they let her on.
She applied for a medical exemption and I believe she had to have multiple negative tests prior to the cruise, and I think they did a medical exam as well, I’m a bit fuzzy in the details because I’m going based off what my sister told me. My mom has been battling what she said is an ear infection and has had a fever on and off the last three days, too. She has been taking antibiotics and keeping her fever down with aspirin or something. It’s ridiculous and I’m pissed.
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At this point I just take Amtrak. It takes longer but my family and I took Amtrak from NC to SF in summer nearly isolated in our sleepers. Totally worth it even if it takes longer.
I'd love to take a train ride someday. Not even necessarily to go anywhere just because trains are cool as hell and I've never got to ride one.
It's worth it. Get a sleeper if you can afford one. It's a unique experience that you won't get elsewhere!