Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion Thread

[Torillian]

RolStoppable said:

super_etecoon said:

Normally you have pretty astute takes on just about everything, but this post seems to omit the reality that as the unvaccinated continue to incubate and spread new variants the vaccines we make will have to continue to alter and may in fact not be able to keep up with the superbug being created.  It's fine if you want to stop observing safety measures, but as some point those safety measures might be all that keeps you safe from the omicron variant, or whatever has surfaced.  And your analogy of a construction worker wearing a helmet doesn't at all fit with this situation.  It would be more like the construction worker increasingly leaving things (in increasing size) to accidentally fall on people's heads, and then exclaiming that the people wearing a helmet never have anything to worry about since they are protected from just such an incident. 

You are right, we will never be corona free and I don't think anyone thinks that that is the end game at this point, but we have a long hard road ahead of us to fight this thing and it happens through multiple measures and they aren't nonsense, as much as they are annoying for many individuals.  

2. Of the people who died of COVID-19, it's important to point out that in almost all cases they didn't die of COVID-19 alone. Rather it is more probable that they died because of a combination of multiple things, including previous known problems with their heart or lungs, or obesity. These previous diseases and illnesses are usually caused by unhealthy lifestyles, such as smoking, too much alcohol and/or intake of processed foods. So if there was actual concern about people, then the solution to COVID-19 and its variants would not be vaccination, but preventive measures to keep people healthier overall. This means that governments should have clamped down on holes in the laws concerning food processing, but I am not aware of any country taking any steps like that.

What information do you have that "almost all cases they didn't die of COVID-19 alone"? Looking at the comorbidity data I don't see a lot of things that would independently cause death but are rather related to having COVID-19 such as respiratory failure or pneumonia. Hell only 26,000 of the 620,000 deaths in the US had obesity listed as a comorbidity so the idea that one should focus on healthy eating over vaccination seems pretty ludicrous on its face. 

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#Comorbidities