The COVID-19 Thread and Hypothetical Boxing Predictions

@M

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We do mandatory on-site (paid) testing, and have for over a year now, but the vaccinations aren't mandatory. For a while, when things were going better, the testing was discontinued for vaccinated employees, like myself, and only unvaccinated employees had to have it done (unpaid), but, cases are up, so, now we all get paid for mandatory testing twice a week again.
 

@M

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They chose not to get vaccinated, so, not getting paid for coming in on their days off to get mandatory testing was kind of their "punishment" I guess, at least that's how I look at it. Is that legal? I don't know. They're not allowed to work unless they pass their Covid tests and nurses have to take time out of their busy schedules to test people who wouldn't have needed testing if they'd been vaccinated (EVERY employee at my workplace who has gotten Covid since the majority of us were vaccinated has been one of the group that refused vaccination, big surprise). Any employee testing positive results in a 2 week heightened vigilance period which costs money & productivity (for example, all the residents then have to be tested to make sure none of them caught it) and makes everyone's, residents and coworkers, lives more unpleasant.
 

Lagduf

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I would guess It’s probably legal if they’re able to get the testing elsewhere too.
 

fake

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My evidence is this:
In the UK there are no plans for any changes in managing flu outbreaks.
My hope is that wearing a mask when sick becomes nearly as normal as it is in Asia. I think that would drastically cut down of flu cases.
 

StevenK

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My hope is that wearing a mask when sick becomes nearly as normal as it is in Asia. I think that would drastically cut down of flu cases.
I don't know this and haven't looked it up - but is there any evidence of lower cases of flu in Asia?
 

neo_mao

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So my company is still looking to have everyone return to the office starting 10/4....with one small caveat. Individuals who cannot provide proof of vaccination are asked to continue to work from home. At this point, 90% of employees have provided proof of vaccination.

Its kind of mental to look at things this way....but one could argue that this new policy is actually incentivizing that remaining 10% not to get vaccinated because they can continue to work from home - indefinitely.
 

wyo

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If you are concerned about the flu, you get the flu vaccine. If you are concerned about covid, you get the covid vaccine. There are alternative treatments to consider as well as positive lifestyle choices that can help lessen the chance of a severe case.

Thankfully it's pretty much back to business as usual around here. I've never been more glad to live in Florida. Most people are still wearing masks, which is totally fine, and courteous if you have symptoms. Sports, concerts and events are back. School policies seem reasonable. I haven't seen any covid-related drama in over a year.

Keep the vulnerable safe and let everyone else live their lives. Covid is here to stay and we've wasted enough time hiding from this inevitability.
 

Lagduf

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So my company is still looking to have everyone return to the office starting 10/4....with one small caveat. Individuals who cannot provide proof of vaccination are asked to continue to work from home. At this point, 90% of employees have provided proof of vaccination.

Its kind of mental to look at things this way....but one could argue that this new policy is actually incentivizing that remaining 10% not to get vaccinated because they can continue to work from home - indefinitely.

I heard in NY if you aren’t vaccinated you aren’t eligible for jury duty.

👀
 

fake

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All I'm saying is if you're sick, have some fuckin' manners and wear a mask.
 
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Xavier

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Everybody here is sick and in the hospital.
They've closed down the BMV's, guess they can't even scrape together enough employees to keep one branch open out of five.
Hospital ICU's have been at 90% capacity for over a month now.
They'll probably need to start rationing care soon.
My ex thought she was having a stroke and went to the emergency room, it took 12 hours to see a doctor.

I got the Moderna vaccine in March.
On around April / May both my sisters, my ex and my cousin tested positive.
They all had to quarantine. My cousin ended up hospitalized for over four months and just somewhat recently got out.

Everybody around here started wearing masks when (around May ?) they said you didn't need to anymore if your vaccinated. HUH? But then stopped wearing them a few weeks later.

I've been wearing them again for the last few months since I've read reports vaccinated can still spread the virus, nobody else is and looks at me weird. OH well. At least I got a couple months to run around pretending everything was awesome.

Kids school started up fine. They have to wear masks. 2019/2020 year ended early after spring break and went to home schooling. 2020/2021 started normally but they had to wear masks. School shut down several times due to outbreaks and same with daycare. Other local public schools went to a hybrid for 2020/2021. I've read some parts of the country schools have been closed this whole time and just recently re-opened, that would've sucked.

If we are having these kind of rates at the end of summer beginning of fall I'd imagine it's going to be a long winter.
Israel has had tons of breakthrough cases and has started administering boosters in case you didn't read about it.
 

Xavier

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As a stat on its own, this says very little.

You don't build hospitals to be empty.
Ok then, compared to 15%.
Edit: Ok I made that up, a news article from last winter said only 40% of used beds were from covid patients when they were near 90% capacity
This Hill article from a few weeks ago says nationally beds are 75% full with 28% of them from Covid.


I found it weird but healthcare around here used to have billboards advertising how many empty beds they have and how long of a wait there was (pre covid)

Come on in!
15 minute wait to see a doctor!

It had a dot matrix display number that would change.
I wonder if they are still around, I tried using Google for an example, no luck.
 
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lithy

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This is a mid-sized city BTW

The main hospital has near 1,000 beds
#2 has almost 400
#3 170

In total almost 1500
Also pretty sure there wasn't nearly that many beds pre-covid


Yeah that's definitely a possibility, that they converted some of the regular hospital beds into ICU, I don't know if that's the case but it'd be good info to have.

My main point is that any business that runs excess capacity for no (or at least an extraordinary) reason is going to be out of business in short order.
 

GohanX

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.

Thankfully it's pretty much back to business as usual around here. I've never been more glad to live in Florida. Most people are still wearing masks, which is totally fine, and courteous if you have symptoms. Sports, concerts and events are back. School policies seem reasonable. I haven't seen any covid-related drama in over a year.

Keep the vulnerable safe and let everyone else live their lives. Covid is here to stay and we've wasted enough time hiding from this inevitability.

Florida deaths are spiking exponentially and is much, much higher than in January which was the peak in most of the rest of the United States. But as long as it's not your family dying everything is back to normal, right? It's just statistics. And old people, probably. They were gonna die anyway and Florida has too many old people already, amirite?

Unrelated, but Covid is tearing up my extended family right now. Not the old people, but the 20somethings who were unvaccinated and thought they were invincible. The old people are all vaccinated and fine. Outside of the family, friends and acquaintance's family are starting to stack up, far more than in the winter spike, and it's always the same story. No vaccine, going about their regular lives like nothing was happening, then they get sick and die and their loved ones are left wondering "Why?"
 

Xavier

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Florida deaths are spiking exponentially and is much, much higher than in January which was the peak in most of the rest of the United States. But as long as it's not your family dying everything is back to normal, right? It's just statistics. And old people, probably. They were gonna die anyway and Florida has too many old people already, amirite?
Yeah he lives in his own private Idaho.
Idaho being ranked #49 of the percent vaccinated population in the US.
 
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@M

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In response to Xavier's post, my local hospital has a time counter, on their web site, for emergency room wait times, and, while I don't visit said site often, I don't think I've ever seen it go higher than 3-5 minutes.
IMG_20210922_082258.jpgScreenshot_2021-09-22-08-21-47.pngIMG_20210922_082229.jpg
 

lithy

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Florida deaths are spiking exponentially and is much, much higher than in January which was the peak in most of the rest of the United States. But as long as it's not your family dying everything is back to normal, right? It's just statistics. And old people, probably. They were gonna die anyway and Florida has too many old people already, amirite?

And your proposed solutions is? Florida has about average or better than average vaccination rates and prioritized vaccines by age back at the beginning of 2020 with a 65+ approach. At this point, vaccines are widely available and anyone that hasn't gotten a shot has done so of their own volition and whatever their motives now accept the consequences. So why should wyo have to continue to live a life different from what he wants because of a decision made by others? Have any of your extended family gotten vaccinated now that others have gotten sick?

The suggestion that anything he said equates to wishing people dead is quite frankly malicious. People died every day before covid and of course it is a tragedy for the family involved but usually it does not require a day of grieving from the rest of the population. He just said the covid drama is over in Florida. I'm envious of everything except the August heat. Moving outside of Pittsburgh improved things significantly but it isn't perfect. Our day care has zero kids wearing masks despite the state wide mandate. Our school however is having kids wear masks and requiring a doctor's note to gain an exemption while more rural districts have just said parent's permission will suffice to circumvent the mandate.

Lastly, adjusted for population and specifically population by average age, Florida's death rate is middle of the pack at worst.
 

@M

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Work just announced that another employee tested positive for Covid and visitation is suspended until all the residents get tested, again. It never ends...😭
 
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