Hacker News Reader

Comment by titzer | Hacker News Reader

I've gone through cycles with this. Mostly I am done arguing. I hate arguing about this. It's just more of the culture war shit that so many different media sources love pushing to keep people amped up.

I double vaxxed and boosted. Stopped wearing a mask for the most part, but with Omicron I started wearing a mask again because I just don't want this stupid virus. I'm healthy and would probably not have a symptomatic infection. But I still don't want this stupid virus, and I don't want to spread it.

I think for 2022 I am going to try to argue less, and focus more on my areas of personal expertise. I've done a lot of arguing and feel like I'm generally worse off for it.

View on HN

I don't want to discourage you but it appears to me like with this variant (and probably even more with further variants), it will be impossible to avoid infection whatever you do (and I mean, mitigation strategies will have probably no effect). Look at the numbers we're suddenly getting without anything changing in the landscape (actually, despite a very high number of vaccinations). It looks like the virus has become so contagious that it has rendered our mitigation measures moot.

This reminds me of people who say that "duck and cover" is useless in the face of a nuclear strike.

Obviously mitigations won't help if you're blasted in the face by an airburst (nuclear or biological), but it seems like it could still help if you're on the fringe of exposure.

I don't know how useless that would have been but in the case of Omnicron it does seem basically useless. I don't know, I don't have studies on hand or anything like that, but when you look at the numbers you have to wonder...

[edit]: maybe some of the more "extreme" (n95 masks, etc) have some decent level of protection, but I'm not sure anybody knows, at least with this variant. Even for previous variants all I've seen so far are models, which as we all know have a lot of assumptions.

Maybe it's more duck and cover in the face of lava like in South Park.

It seems active / non-retired people will have a hard time avoiding it but after all the current wave will stop like the others so maybe I'm wrong.

I don't see why that would be true if you just wear an N95 (or equivalent) mask indoors, or whenever you're in close proximity to others. Eventually, the spike will subside.

https://calmcovid.substack.com/p/youre-not-doomed-to-get-omi...

Vaxxed, wearing n95s inside and avoiding crowds outside, wfh, and not having any close personal contacts over the past few weeks, I just tested positive. Omicron is incredibly infectious and all my mitigation strategies from the past 2 years stopped working.

It's really hard to see the big picture when you're literally sitting there with a verifiable data point to the contrary (your own experience), but do you think your experience is a guaranteed outcome for everyone, or is it possible your specific situation (testing positive for COVID despite taking precautions) is either an outlier, or at least not the most common outcome?

I'm sorry you're sick, that really sucks. I hope it's asymptomatic and you can get back to living your life soon.

I think this is going to be a common outcome. I read a contact tracing case of Omicron from a Hong Kong quarantine hotel. They have a strict 21 day 0-contact quarantine for entering the country and only 4 cases a day in a city of 7 million. One positive traveler infected another traveler. The positive traveler opened the hotel door at the ordained time to retrieve food and the virus migrated to the hallway, then the other person opened their door hours later and was infected. Our previous sanitary regime is no match for something that spreads as easily as measles and that is evident in the skyrocketing case counts. How many people do you know who are positive at this moment?

"Airborne transmission across the corridor is the most probable mode of transmission."

For reference, this case is described here:

Gu H, Krishnan P, Ng DYM, Chang LDJ, Liu GYZ, Cheng SSM, et al. Probable transmission of SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant in quarantine hotel, Hong Kong, China, November 2021. Emerg Infect Dis. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2802.212422

It’s not that they stopped working - it’s that they reduce risk to a low amount, but over time, you have more and more opportunities for something to break through that low amount.

No, it’s that Omicron is both more infectious and has significant effect immune escape.

Are you ... boosted?

A double vax from back in April or so would have substantially diminished protection by now.

Booster was scheduled for last week, 8 months post Moderna. Based on stronger Moderna immunity vs Pfizer and since I am careful, healthy and young, I decided to stretch a few more months out. Once I saw study that Moderna offered at least 10 weeks of moderate protection against Omicron, I scheduled booster. Could not get it due to symptoms.

Well, bummer, and best of luck to you then.

At least you know you did everything you reasonably could and didn't just give up like the "vaxxed and done" crowd.

Do you have any idea where you might have caught it?

It must have been while walking around outside or masked in the grocery store.

The virus isn't going away. No matter what you do with masks and other measures you'll eventually be exposed. The most you can do is delay it a bit.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/vinay-prasad/94646

Even if it's true that infection is inevitable (it's not true), delaying infection is a good idea, to reduce the immediate strain on the hospital system.

The hospital strain is caused by staffing shortages, not an overwhelming number of patients.

Those staffing shortages are in turn caused by strict quarantines for people who are asymptomatic but test positive.

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/COVID-San-Francisco-s...

Maybe in your area. My hospital is literally putting people in the hallways because every bed is full.

It is not either or. It is also because hospital staff is burned out.

You may want to be exposed and catch it less often though.

I'm just happy to have a good excuse to wear a mask on an airplane. I always used to get sick after flights.

I wonder how much of this is the mask-wearing in the airplane and how much is simply now nobody travels with a sniffle anymore (maybe a slight exaggeration, but pre-covid you few would stay home with respiratory symptoms if they could physically manage it).

I don't notice myself getting sick any less now that masks are required on planes. Recently took 3 back-to-back flights and got sick afterwards for a few days. Maybe COVID, maybe not (hard to tell because other than loss of taste/smell there are no real distinguishing features of COVID symptoms from the flu or common cold).

Same here, and you shouldn't be downvoted for this. Flying is just gross.

The airport is more risky than the airplane. In an airplane you are sat next to a fixed number of people and you have top down insertion of clean air, exactly like in an operating theatre.

Meanwhile in the airport you are in a large building with many other people, you might come into contact with 100s of new people from a wide variety of places.

airplane is dehumidified

I will continue to wear a mask on airplanes and airports. I'm really enjoying not getting sick with a cold or flu

Thank you. Cannot agree more. Let's live out lives. Do what we love, grow in it and stop dividing.

Our office director is scared and has closed down again (were doing 3 days a week in person) due to Omicron. I don't personally think it was necessary and I liked working there in the quite (away from kids).

But, whatever. I am done with the fighting and with the political division over it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com