Thanks, I had actually missed that (had to use search to find it). I was quite sure it was yet another user. Might still be the same person...
My wife and daughter have covid barely just now. Booster shot wears off in 6 months it loos like. I had it in December along with my sons while those 2 didn't. We're not quarantining at home against each other, will see how that pans out.
No, @IBTL - had previous user names and has been around here almost from the start. Sent me many strange messages over the years, made some similar posts about me like this poster just did, several months ago, then flamed out from the BBS. Seemed mentally unstable. I think he was also active on that discord thing under whatever name and had some problem with Clutch.
White House to resume free public tours July 19 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/3538489-white-house-to-resume-free-public-tours-july-19/ excerpt: The White House will resume a full operating schedule of free public tours of the complex on July 19, the Biden administration announced on Monday. The tours will take place Tuesdays through Saturdays and be available from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The news of a full operating schedule follows the White House resuming free public tours on Fridays and Saturdays on April 15. Before that, White House tours had largely been suspended since March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. more at the link
Looks like Fauci has tested positive again. At his age, he shouldn't be playing with this virus. I hope he gets well soon.
Unfortunate that new variants are shattering old assumptions. This wave being ~1/5 less lethal than peak Covid makes me wonder if we'd still have lockdowns at current fatality levels. How does anyone begin to draw that line. Stunning spread of BA.5 creates dangerous California COVID wave - Los Angeles Times With California suffering through another intense coronavirus wave, the stunning proliferation of the BA.5 subvariant is becoming a growing focus of scientific scrutiny, with experts saying it may replicate itself far more effectively than earlier versions of Omicron. Compared to its ancestors, the latest Omicron subvariant, BA.5, may have an enhanced ability to create a large number of copies of the coronavirus once it gets into human cells, a possible contributing factor for why this summer’s Omicron wave has been problematic. Far and away the dominant version of the coronavirus circulating nationwide — making up an estimated 65% of new cases over the weeklong period that ended Saturday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — BA.5 is arguably combining aspects of last summer’s Delta variant with older versions of the highly contagious Omicron family, said Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla. In many ways, this wave of the pandemic has felt different from other Omicron waves earlier this year. Health experts say the behavior of the ultra-contagious strain shows the need for prudent precautions. Citing a preprint report out of Australia, Topol referred to data in a lab study that suggested BA.5 was found to produce far more copies of the coronavirus when compared with an earlier Omicron subvariant, BA.2. “There are more copies of the virus because BA.5 has far better ability to get into cells … which may help explain why this version of the virus has caused a lot of trouble, more than other Omicron subvariants,” Topol wrote in his post. If BA.5 retains its position as the main dominant variant for a while, that could eventually stabilize the situation in California and eventually point to a situation where there will finally be a downturn in cases, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious-diseases expert at UC San Francisco. But a possible wrench in that scenario is the emergence of yet another Omicron subvariant, BA.2.75, which has raised concerns in India. “And I know, it’s super discouraging,” Chin-Hong said. Still, he said, there are ways to live life while taking steps to reduce risk. Common steps public health officials recommend include staying up to date on vaccinations and boosters, testing before attending gatherings or events, and wearing masks when in indoor or crowded public settings. Separately, BA.5 seems to be doubling down on earlier Omicron traits of “immune escape,” the ability of the virus to escape the human body’s immune response induced by vaccinations or previous infection. From early March through early May, California reported about 2,300 weekly reinfections. By mid-May to mid-June, the state reported about 10,400 weekly reinfections — around the time BA.5 and another closely related subvariant, BA.4, started to circulate widely. The first Omicron subvariant, BA.1, which spread quickly in the U.S. after Thanksgiving, already had dozens of mutations that made it harder for our immune systems to recognize it. “So what’s now happened is that, with BA.5, it has superimposed mutations on top of BA.1 that make it even more difficult for our immune system to recognize,” Topol said. Also troublesome were initial data in the Australian study suggesting a reduction in effectiveness of Evusheld, a monoclonal antibody, against BA.5. “So that’s another feature of immune escape, is that our monoclonal antibodies don’t work as well,” Topol said. The question of whether BA.5 leads to more severe illness in humans has not been settled. Data out of South Africa suggest that BA.5 hasn’t changed the risk of hospitalization compared with earlier versions of Omicron, Chin-Hong said. Coronavirus case rates have remained at persistently high levels statewide for months, infecting significant numbers of people and snarling business operations. Increasingly, more coronavirus-positive patients are being seen in the hospital. Over the weeklong period ending Thursday, California reported an average of more than 15,500 new coronavirus cases per day. On a per capita basis, that’s about 278 cases a week for every 100,000 residents. That’s down about 12% compared with the previous week, but officials and experts say the apparent dip could partly be the result of data interruptions over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Los Angeles County’s coronavirus case rate has been relatively stable for the last week but remains high, at about 5,400 cases a day. On a per capita basis, that’s 373 coronavirus cases a week for every 100,000 residents. The official tallies are almost assuredly a major undercount due to the widespread use of at-home tests — the results of which are not reliably reported. Statewide, 4,227 coronavirus-positive patients were hospitalized as of Monday, the highest single-day total since late February. In Los Angeles County, the latest patient census was 1,153, a 54% increase from two weeks before. Though a significant share of those patients are not hospitalized due to complications from COVID-19, and may have incidentally tested positive after seeking care for some other reason, officials say they nevertheless present a particular strain on resources because of the additional services needed to keep them from spreading the virus. And so long as transmission remains elevated, healthcare systems are unlikely to see major relief. “With more cases, we’re obviously seeing more people needing medical attention — and not just at our hospitals, but also at our emergency departments and urgent care centers that are filled with many folks needing care for their COVID-related illness,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said during a recent briefing. COVID-19 deaths are beginning to increase in L.A. County as well, from about 50 a week in early June to nearly 100 deaths a week now. At the peak of the winter Omicron wave, L.A. County reported more than 500 deaths a week. In previous surges, dominant strains like Delta last summer or Alpha previously stuck around for relatively long periods and weren’t displaced by their successors quickly, meaning someone who was infected could enjoy a high degree of protection for perhaps several months. That timeline has shortened considerably in the Omicron area. Just since April, three different subvariants — BA.2, BA.2.12.1 and now BA.5 — have been estimated to be the dominant strain nationwide. This rapid succession means it’s possible for someone to get infected with an earlier edition of Omicron and then get re-infected with a later version several weeks later. “A lot of people were recently infected can probably get the virus, again, in three or four weeks, versus the old days, where they have a three-month window period” when reinfection is less likely, Chin-Hong said. Chin-Hong said he’s aware of people who, after their infection, thought it gave them a pass to “go out even more and not worry as much,” only to be stuck with a repeat infection. “That line of thinking is not great when you have the changing of the guard” of the Omicron subvariants, he added. While some people remain asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, others report intense discomfort, including high fever, a raging sore throat and brain fog and fatigue that can last weeks — or possibly be the start of long COVID, in which symptoms of illness can persist for months or years. It’s also likely that some who have thus far avoided getting infected are no longer employing certain protective measures they did before, or are exposed to family members and friends who have loosened up on protective practices. People are “taking more risks; they’re moving around; they’re traveling,” Chin-Hong said. Even in San Francisco, a number of people aren’t wearing masks at places where it was once ubiquitous, meaning there’s less peer pressure to wear a mask in areas where it was once commonplace, Chin-Hong said.
surprised this thread is still going strong…like 99% of the people I know have been done with Covid for a very long time now I went to this restaurant for the 1st time in about 2 years the other day, and they still had a mask requirement I was like I don’t keep masks on me anymore
Covid has been over in my household since we received our boosters in October. I still keep the masks on deck when I go and visit the old paranoid family members...gotta respect them not wanting to die and whatnot.
BA5 is def super contagious. About 50% of my friends in LA have or have gotten covid in the past few weeks, and some of them previously had omicron so the reinfection thing is totally legit. So far we're lucky that if you're vaxxed, it's just a cold or flu but I do have some concern if the virus mutates to be more contagious AND more deadly cuz then we'll be absolutely screwed in the US.
I THINK our church in Florida just had a big outbreak after the July 4th weekend. The new Priest was out with COVID... the choir wasn't there... they made a point to mention the new variants during the announcements and the church, which had been pretty full, was relatively empty. So perhaps the restaurant is particularly wary for whatever reason.
Yeah my parents/friends have had it after being vaxxed and were mostly fine. Keep in mind, how contagious and how deadly a disease is usually don't correlate. It doesn't help the virus to kill the host...it wants the host alive for as long as possible so it can further spread. I'm also optimistic in part because we've been dealing with this now for two years. We've learned from trial and error plus two years of research on how to treat people. Similar to how AIDS was a death sentence in the late 1980s but isn't now if you have access to treatment. My concerns are: 1) the amount of people that are left disabled from the initial infections or from catching it unvaccinated. 2) People will dismiss precaution even more the next time there's a pandemic, especially because COVID-19 likely will never be eradicated. People who aren't even born now will one day be adults and some will even be decision-makers. It's likely during the next pandemic they'll say "well, COVID is harmless now so we shouldn't mitigate risks"; much in the same way we have people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who don't get their kids vaxxed for measles because they "never heard of anyone getting it".
