New Covid variant BA.2 detected in at least 40 different countries

I don't dismiss it prima facie like you do here. On one hand you probably have small but non-zero damage from the vaccines (putting aside the controversy of supposed significant damage). On the other, you supposedly have the ability to keep damage from the disease to also small (but non-zero) by early treatment. Plus, you get immunity to more proteins in the end. At least some studies out there indicate that infection-based immunity is stronger and/or longer lasting than vaccine-based.

But again, the reality of the situation may very well be as you imply. I just want to steelman their argument. I'm also rather skeptical of their claims about mitigating damage with early treatment, but maybe.

> 2 prior to vaccination was absolutely horrible nonsense.

I have mixed agreement here. As it pertains to careless massive spread of the thing, I'm with you.

As it pertains to individual choices, I really think it's a value judgment. Do you want to live life hidden away for this unknown period of time, the government apparently moving the goal posts over and over, etc etc? Or would you rather just take a risk in life like you always do, albeit a bit larger one than usual? Or maybe you're close to the end of life anyway, and you're willing to risk dying to see your grandkids one last time? etc etc.

I've always had zero judgment toward people who make this choice in as much as it affects only them. I was close to taking this route myself (in a controlled manner) winter 2020-2021 if the vaccines didn't come out. (On the other hand, I've had a lot of judgment toward people in as much as they affect others. It's been a tough couple years for me as a libertarian.)

> If you hold position 2 the only logical way to proceed would be to take protective measures prior to vaccination, vaccinate, then get infected.

This is more or less me, other than pulling back during hospital surges.

I guess there's no free lunch here.

Also, you can infect others presymptomatically with the vaccine. With omicron, it looks like asymptomatic transmission also occurs. Don't worry. I've researched this. You're not the first person in this world to try to make others feel guilty for not getting the vaccine. The problem is you don't have a ton of science backing your guilt trip.

It would be impossible to give antibody tests to 60M antivaxxers in any reasonable time frame. Instead of asking people to wait in line a year for a test that has very little medical use the politically expedient thing would be to ask for the equivalent of a doctors note saying they pinky swear their patient had covid. Some states/some doctors would fire up the presses and within a month 95% of the antivaxxers there would have a certificate regardless of actual status.

Since vaccination is actually in everyone's interests even if they have already had covid this would lead to less people being vaccinated and it would be against even the anti vaxxers interests and furthermore locations that only allow vaccinated or tested people would now be equally full of infectious people as vulnerable people with a newly false sense of security.

Because humans love any opportunity to discriminate against another group of people. Despite this discrimination making zero sense, since clearly us vaccinated people are still spreading COVID at very high rates.

2. Unity - we're in this together and I'm sorry if you live in a place where communities are disconnected

"Hey it doesn't matter if there's 20,000 deaths, I found this one fake report! The entire system is thus suspicious and should be disregarded"

Luckily people see right through this weak argument.

I'd for sure choose Omicron, though.

"An April 20 paper awaiting peer review — and cited by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — found that people who had received two doses of shots from Pfizer or Moderna had antibody levels "up to 10 times" higher than those of a natural infection."

This science was complete garbage, partially because antibody levels are a poor signal for the strength of one's immunity even as admitted by the FDA: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/safety-communications/an...

More importantly, it was not a real-world study of how one form of immunity performs versus the other. This by the way, is not the first time the CDC cited or published study, reached conclusions they should never have responsibly reached, and then had their conclusions parroted by corporate media and leftwing fact checkers for months or even a year or more before being discredited. By that time, the damage had already been done.

Others doing studies around the same time comparing real-world immunity performance concluded the exact opposite: https://www.citizensjournal.us/johns-hopkins-medical-prof-ex....

"The study authors concluded that ‘individuals who have had SARS-CoV-2 infection are unlikely to benefit from covid-19 vaccination.’ And in May, a Washington University study found that even a mild covid infection resulted in long-lasting immunity.”

I understand that, and their strategy is no longer tenable with Omicron.

However, I think it's also proof that lockdowns and masks could have ended the pandemic before Omicron or Delta variants developed, if they had been implemented rigorously and early enough. So it's only correct to claim that "half-ass mask mandates and lockdowns failed to end the pandemic."

One of the irritating things is that a lot of people who now claim mask mandates and lockdowns don't work were also the people who were sabotaging them, and they failed in large part because of that sabotage.

I believe kids are better off in school and that the pandemic and response has certainly had an effect, but I can’t imagine that most parents would even know to consult a speech therapist otherwise unless suggested by the school as is usually the case.