Daughter and I both had covid last week. Omicron is gonna get everyone. There's no way to flatten this curve. At least it had the decency to hit its peek in January, after full time workers got their sick time replenished for the year.
[EDIT] For some evidence that we may get a de facto shutdown anyway: our (large) school district was short three hundred teachers the other day, and only managed to get one hundred subs. The schools are barely hanging on and shutting down or going remote for a week or two to cool things off and/or wait out the peak is a distinct possibility, which will have knock-on effects for the rest of the economy, which is also already dealing with high absence rates due to illness or direct exposure (which, with Omicron, is equivalent to "definitely has it, just waiting for symptoms").
https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/01/11/governor-newsom-signs-exec...
[EDIT] this is actually yet another case where a universal healthcare system would help. $120/day and an uncertain schedule is a lot more appealing when your healthcare's covered. Not saying it's great, but that would help a lot.
So, the idea is to spread the force accelerating retirements in education to the rest of the state workforce, while whining about the “labor shortage”?
At least, if OK's state government works like ours, that's the situation. This will be fun to watch if they actually try it.
[EDIT] I just looked it up and it seems like the idea is that state employees can optionally work as subs without losing their current pay, position, et c., not that they're being directed to. That's less crazy.
[EDIT EDIT] Oh, never mind, they wouldn't get the sub pay on top of their normal state salary, just their state salary. Yeah, approximately zero people will do this unless they really hate their usual job. Not crazy, just pointless, then.
The striking part of all this is that the goal seems to keep schools open rather than keep educating kids. My son's high school has 400 kids out last week, that's about 45%. Yet the "important" thing is to keep the school doors unlocked which is the only factor used in determining total success. It doesn't actually matter if anyone is there or if anyone is being educated, or even if the "educator" is trained to educate in anyway.
It's very frustrating to see your public schools constantly receive less and less over the years and then all of a sudden we need to fix the schools with random people showing up for a day here or there (and nobody shows up).
This is a very specific claim that gets thrown around a lot with zero evidence.
"There's no way to flatten this curve."
If people were dying now at the same rate they were dying in the first wave, the curve would be flattened because people would once again be cowering in their homes while only ambulances and hearses roamed the streets.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/vinay-prasad/94646
If you think it will be possible to avoid the virus forever then please explain how that could be accomplished in the real world? Because people aren't going to continue with social distancing or wearing PPE for the rest of their lives, regardless of the risks.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burd...
[EDIT] barring other risk factors, obviously. Some kids definitely are at significant risk.
What... have you been looking at that has you thinking otherwise?
[EDIT] I mean for the colloquial "everyone" that means "so close to everyone that there's not much practical difference", not necessarily "literally zero people anywhere won't get it"—because it's really looking like "everyone" in the US is gonna get it within ~3 months, from what I see, which is just totally ordinary sources about infection rates.