Comment by dragonwriter | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dragonwriter | Hacker News Reader

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> Are people going to insist that you keep wearing your mask, take booster shots and live in fear

I get a flu shot every year and wear a seatbelt when I drive. Not living in fear of either. Taking reasonable precautions doesn't involve living in fear.

> or are we going to collectively change our mindset from "Zero COVID" to accepting that COVID is just another risk factor in the world and move on?

Look at the places (e.g., much of the US South) with high resistance to protective measures and the current status of the healthcare systems. Are we going to accept that being a permanent or at least frequently recurrent state worldwide and accept the COVID and non-COVID deaths from exhausting ICU space, and the high burnout we’ve seen in the healthcare field? Are we going to radically expand healthcare expenditures to expand capacity and attract/retain people in the field with that as the normal condition?

Florida has a higher age 65+ vaccination rate than California or New York: https://www.mayoclinic.org/coronavirus-covid-19/vaccine-trac...

Respiratory viruses peak earlier before Winter in the tropics (ie. the South USA) whereas they peak during the Winter in the North.

Southern USA will peak and fall, and then this Winter you'll see the same thing in the Northern USA. Its just the seasonality of colds/flus which has been known for decades.

Be prepared because this Winter seasonal peak will be blamed on a new 'variant', and used to push either new lockdowns/restrictions, or booster shots.

> Florida has a higher age 65+ vaccination rate than California or New York

No, California has 97% and Florida has 93%; California also has higher age 18-64 and 12-17 vaccination rates [0], has a number of local jurisdictions that have resumed indoor masking mandates (including many school districts for in-person education, with many of those that haven’t adopted mandates having parent-option virtual academies available) rather than a state government attempting to prohibit mask mandates. Countermeasures are more than just vaccines.

But, in any case, you didn’t answer the question: Are you willing to accept the degree of healthcare overload and the effects it is having on healthcare workers as a permanent or at least frequently recurrent state and accept the COVID and non-COVID deaths from exhausting ICU space, and the high burnout we’ve seen in the healthcare field? Is your plan to radically expand healthcare expenditures to expand capacity and attract/retain people in the field with that as the normal condition? Or are you willing to see the same load with dwindling capacity?

EDIT: forgot the link.

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-19-vaccine...

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