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You are not describing planet earth. You can check hospital capacity for most US states. Never did any state reach full capacity. Some hospitals lacked appropriate PPE in the first few months but that hasn’t been the case for a long time. If you work in an ICU you see hundreds of people die every year.

Also for the 1000000th time: masks and other behaviors are weak mitigation strategies that simply slow the virus (to give time for vaccine). They do not prevent the virus completely. There is no world in which the US,after it got to a huge diverse cosmopolitan nation, where we “follow the rules” and it just disappears. That’s never been done for a virus of this type and it never will be. It’s just wishing and trying to find someone to blame. It makes as much sense as blaming people for earthquakes. This didn’t happen in any other countries outside of homogeneous island nations.
Stop with all the logic!!!! The Karen's will explode.
 
At this point, the people still catching Covid and sometimes dying from it are those are going out into the world, meeting people etc with full knowledge of the risk. It seems people think that if a 22 year old goes out for a drink then automatically some 65 year old he’s never met automatically catches it. If the older person catches it, that was because they were both at the same bar.

We still need mitigation strategies, but in some areas an increase in infections no longer correlates to increased hospitalizations.
 
At this point, the people still catching Covid and sometimes dying from it are those are going out into the world, meeting people etc with full knowledge of the risk. It seems people think that if a 22 year old goes out for a drink then automatically some 65 year old he’s never met automatically catches it. If the older person catches it, that was because they were both at the same bar.

We still need mitigation strategies, but in some areas an increase in infections no longer correlates to increased hospitalizations.
The 65 year old gets it from the 22 year old delivery driver dropping off her pizza.

Edited to say, B.1.1.7, P.1 and B.1.351 all show cause worse outcomes than the variants that are currently common in the United States. They also tend to kill younger and healthier people. The big race right now is to see if we can get enough people vaccinated before B.1.1.7 becomes the dominant variant in the United States. I would call that a coin flip at the moment.
 
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Macron has been too busy Peacocking with Britain to get a handle on his countries situation. Same with Germany.
It's the B.1.1.7 variant. The individual virons are four times as likely to infect a cell. This does not automatically make it four times as contagious on the macro level. It does make it far more transmissible. It also causes people to become more sick when they get the virus.
 
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Macron has been too busy Peacocking with Britain to get a handle on his countries situation. Same with Germany.
Britain happily markets their vaccination campaign as a success of brexit while 2/3 of their injected doses actually come from EU. EU is now drastically reducing vaccine delivery to UK (at least it is what is said).
 
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The EU is such a flop when it comes to the whole mess that was and is the distribution of vaccines. It’s embarrassing.
The distribution of vaccine inside the EU seems OK. The 2 main problems are :
  • vaccine production. EU started late to finance the production facilities. We are about one quarter late on this.
  • vaccine exportation to countries with no reciprocity (UK) or no urgent need (Japan).
Situation is improving on both sides hopefully.
 
False. Like all viruses it will burn out over time.

Viruses don't just "burn out." You have to vaccinate people to stop its spread. If viruses will burn out over time, then why do we still vaccine people for these?



I suppose you could say all viruses will burn out when everyone they can infect is dead. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
At this point, the people still catching Covid and sometimes dying from it are those are going out into the world, meeting people etc with full knowledge of the risk. It seems people think that if a 22 year old goes out for a drink then automatically some 65 year old he’s never met automatically catches it. If the older person catches it, that was because they were both at the same bar.

We still need mitigation strategies, but in some areas an increase in infections no longer correlates to increased hospitalizations.
Just saw a new story two days ago that said the current people getting the virus now are under 60, most under 50 because the older people have mostly gotten at least one shot. Also only 10% of those now that are getting are even going to the hospital. Every person I have know that has gotten it, from 20-65 says its like a mild cold.

I give it two months and the flood gates are going to be open. 80% of people are going to stop wearing masks and do what they want.
 
At this point, the people still catching Covid and sometimes dying from it are those are going out into the world, meeting people etc with full knowledge of the risk. It seems people think that if a 22 year old goes out for a drink then automatically some 65 year old he’s never met automatically catches it. If the older person catches it, that was because they were both at the same bar.
Or the 65 year old caught it from one of their children because their kid decided to go out to that bar because "Hey, I'm young and healthy. I have nothing to worry about."



 
Or the 65 year old caught it from one of their children because their kid decided to go out to that bar because "Hey, I'm young and healthy. I have nothing to worry about."



All of these stories are unfortunate and I certainly don't want to imply that the virus shouldn't be taken seriously. However, in each case it appears that a younger person living with older parents was the source of the infection. Of course, if you have to live with older relatives you should be extremely careful.

A lot of people in their 20's and 30's do not live with older relatives.

Also, all of these examples are from July long before vaccines started rolling out which are gradually protecting the vulnerable in the U.S. In other countries where the rollout is disastrous like EU member states then more caution is needed.
 
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False. Like all viruses it will burn out over time. The vaccine is the only way we have to impact when it ends. I am pro-vaccine for those at risk (I got it very early because I work with high risk people), it’s just important to remember this thing ends no matter what eventually with relatively small mortality relative to other causes. The vaccine helps up save some of the at risk population but young people getting the disease has the same effect. As more elderly get vaccine deaths are going on to drop so low no one will care anymore. That’s already happening in some heavily vaccinated US states like Texas. It’s just going to get better. The end is in sight.
Until vaccines what virus in history has ever just burned out? None.
 
So in other words, the same level of risk as at any point during the pandemic.
Not quite. The B.1.17 version of the virus was killing more young people than old before the vaccines came out. That variant is why Europe's numbers are starting to explode. Now that it is starting to hit the United States, it will be a race to see if people get vaccinated faster than people get infected. It comes down to a coin flip.
Just saw a new story two days ago that said the current people getting the virus now are under 60, most under 50 because the older people have mostly gotten at least one shot. Also only 10% of those now that are getting are even going to the hospital. Every person I have know that has gotten it, from 20-65 says its like a mild cold.

I give it two months and the flood gates are going to be open. 80% of people are going to stop wearing masks and do what they want.
As I said in the above part of the response, the new variants of the virus are quite a bit nastier than the older ones we have been facing. Just be glad that we are getting B.1.1.7, not P.1 or B.1.351. Quite a few cases with those variants have a mutation that lets it bypass the older COVID-19 antibodies and use the ACE2 pathway to infect cells. The vaccines do work to some degree with these versions of the virus, they are just not as effective.

If everyone would hold off for another two months, perhaps a bit shorter, and this will be over forever. If people keep spreading it and giving the virus more chances to mutate, this will never be over. I for one don't want to see how nasty this virus can get.
 
Britain happily markets their vaccination campaign as a success of brexit while 2/3 of their injected doses actually come from EU. EU is now drastically reducing vaccine delivery to UK (at least it is what is said).
The EU does not produce any vaccines and therefore cannot reduce delivery to the UK. Individual members can place an export ban but run the risk of infuriating both AZ and Pfizer. Remember Pfizer closed its plant in the UK to consolidate operations within Belgium. If it finds itself in the midst of a vaccine tug-of-war, it will reconsider where it will invest in future. Threatening bans or demanding "reciprocity" is a stupid gambit.

You also need to consider the supply chain. For the Pfizer vaccine, there are something like 85 components coming from 14 countries, some outside of the EU and affected by the receint goings on. One of the key suppliers is the UK.
A lot of people in their 20's and 30's do not live with older relatives.
A lot of people in their 20s and 30s breeze into supermarkets and post offices unmasked and uncaring while talking loudly and spraying everywhere. I encounter this all the time. They really do not care as we can see from some of the behaviour in Wales today, where lockdown restrictions were relaxed for the first time this year. Having said that, in the four weeks from February 6th over a million Britons had been registered with long Covid. That primarily affects younger people. Don't Care was made to care as the old folks used to say

Just be glad that we are getting B.1.1.7, not P.1 or B.1.351.
Both the SA and Brazil variants have been detected in Europe just about everywhere. They are making up a suitable portion of infections in parts of France. France really is in trouble right now and there doesn't seem to be the appetite for a lockdown until vaccination really can get going. The warmer weather coming in now is very welcome.

I have also seen mention of a second Brazilian variant, which seems even nastier than the first. Let's hope that the belated controls on air travel keeps that one well away from Europe.
 
Not quite. The B.1.17 version of the virus was killing more young people than old before the vaccines came out. That variant is why Europe's numbers are starting to explode. Now that it is starting to hit the United States, it will be a race to see if people get vaccinated faster than people get infected. It comes down to a coin flip.
This is the age pf people in ICU in Paris area. Mostly well aged people. Average age is decreasing, but only by 2 to 3 years. People were youger during the first wave (partly because the olders did not have access to ICU due to overcharge and unoptimized care protocol at the time)
F0EC6AE0-00D9-46EC-AE73-B0F43AC09A0F.jpeg

(by the way, graph done on iPad with numbers)
 
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