A lot of people in the society are LARPing (pretending) that the virus is serious - staying home, testing constantly, "close contact notifications", "running away from a positive student" - yet at the same time, acting as if it's obviously not a dangerous virus - if it were, they'd all be staying away from each other.
Basically new "security theatre" like after 9/11.
Our institutions, like health care and education, have been running so close to the edge for so long that the added pressure is pushing them over the edge. Before the pandemic, teachers would show up to work sick since they knew there may not be a substitute to take their place (and certainly not a substitute who would ensure continuity in teaching). Before the pandemic, nurses would work marathon shifts since there was a staffing shortage even before taking sick days into consideration.
Now we are in a situation where we have to slow the spread of the virus to protect our institutions. I cannot speak to whether the measures are genuinely effective or a manifestation of security theatre, since that is not my domain. What I can say is it is putting more pressure on the limited amount of staff available. This is more than missing work because of a close contact. It is because of people missing work because they are genuinely sick or people being unable to keep up with the added responsibilities (such as teaching when they are supposed to be prepping).
Unfortunately, we cannot solve the resource shortage overnight. Even if we could magically train the people to fill the role overnight, we don't have the infrastructure to support them. So now we are paying the price.
As for holding people accountable, where would we even begin? I saw politicians closing beds and physically demolishing hospitals 30 years ago. Politicians of varying stripes did little to rebuild the system after that. While there was a push to hire more people at the start of the pandemic (both in health care and education), the interest seems to have dwindled off since no one wants to deal with the long term costs. Even if they were willing to live with the costs, few sensible people are willing to take on those roles because the involve continual sacrifice. There is also no guarantee that months or years of training will be rewarded with a career since the demand is likely to be short-term. There are so many people who can be blamed, so many people who should be blamed, but it won't address the problem since the decisions were either made in the distant past or are a consequence of inaction rather than of action.
Do you have some hard numbers about this? Here in Buenos Aires we had a big wave in July 2021, and we had a daily report of the ICU occupation rate and at the peak it was like 95%. We delayed some medical procedures to keep the number under 100% and there was a huge discussion about increasing the lockdown. Lucky, we keep the number under 100%. Now we have a new big omicron wave, but the ICU occupation rate is still low, finger crossed.
> Before the pandemic, nurses would work marathon shifts
We have the same problem here. I don't understand how it's consider to be sane.
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> We have the same problem here. I don't understand how it's consider to be sane.
I don't know anything about nursing, but I've read elsewhere that the 12 hour shifts are to reduce the number of nurses a patient goes through in a single hospital visit.
Speculation: A patient in a hospital is like a software project -- better not to change ownership before release, if you can avoid it.
Many people are spreading covid but are completely asymptomatic, and tests are limited so they aren’t getting tested. Omicron is also extremely contagious, spreading despite masks and other sanitation protocols.
It’s too late and too contagious: if you’re not 100% isolating in your home you will get Omicron. Masking / testing / precautions like these only give false security, and maybe slow the spread a bit. But the virus is still spreading ridiculously fast. Look at Quebec - lockdown and cases are still increasing.
Idk, I don’t see the point in these guidelines. Maybe it will reduce viral load? A key point governments can do is hire more nurses and substantially increase nurse pay, that would reduce the strain on hospitals and ultimately increase capacity and treatment outcomes. But governments don’t seem to be doing this. It seems like people are doing things without really understanding the justification, or doing them just for publicity.
Omicron is one of the most contagious viruses known to man. It managed to spread everywhere despite countries initially closing their borders to SA, to the point where most people know relatives who are positive ~1 month in, whereas the original strain took much longer even in regions with few precautions. It has spread to a base in Antarctic despite extremely strict containment protocols. The only country I know of which has still managed to quarantine the virus is China, and even they are having some issues in the Xi’An province.
To those without empathy or conscience, these people seem to be doing something silly and theatrical and it mystifies them.
The difficulty is, nobody wants to Zoom with me any more, so I have to meet them in person or not at all. When it was illegal to meet, people were happy to Zoom 90% of the time, but now they are not.