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Comment by sfotm | Hacker News Reader

This isn't really true, regardless of whether you like masks or not. There have been one or two level changes with respect to how much risk you're introducing to those around you as well as the personal accountability of those you'd affect. It's not surprising that different people have different tolerances for these risks.

Even without the above factored in, this is sort of like saying that not using your turn signals in traffic on the 100th turn nullifies their utility for the previous 99 (not a perfect analogy).

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It's not about individual risk, it's about collective risk, and honestly it's quite selfish to consider the COVID risks only with regard to yourself.

And Omicron has made it so the risk profile is effectively the same as when this pandemic started; you will get it, you will be contagious for a time, and you will infect others.

By looking at that risk and accepting it, you're throwing away the work you've previously put in to avoid being a bad person.

> And Omicron has made it so the risk profile is effectively the same as when this pandemic started; you will get it, you will be contagious for a time, and you will infect others.

Total nonsense. Anyone's chance of dying is massively diminished with the vaccine.

Dying isn't the only bad thing that can happen to you if you contract SARS-CoV-19, and it's not just about you.

Many respiratory viruses have “long” symptoms. Covid is not even close to unique in that regard. Should we shut down everything and force little kids to wear masks for 8 hours a day for the annual flu?

Yes, if those other viruses are as contagious, widespread, and deadly as SARS-CoV-2.

Luckily, nothing else has reached that level. Yet.

The risk profiles that I refer to are both collective and individual - they're correlated for pretty clear reasons. Nobody is experiencing the spread of the disease in a vacuum.

Omicron's risk profile doesn't seem to be the same, looking at the numbers available on the Google chart I look at. We're seeing a lot fewer deaths per cases. That's not to say everyone should throw caution to the wind and do whatever they want, but it's disingenuous to say the math hasn't changed at all.

COVID cases are acting like a marketplace. People take different actions when the numbers/unknowns change, and that's not surprising. I know I'm doing a lot more outside of the home than I was when COVID first started, and that I'm not unique in that respect _at all_.

Not prescribing any course of action, just tossing out what I've been seeing.

Omicron may only be less deadly because of the precautions we're currently taking. Reducing those precautions could very well slingshot Omicron into being the deadliest variant, if it isn't already by sheer numbers.

> It's not about individual risk, it's about collective risk, and honestly it's quite selfish to consider the COVID risks only with regard to yourself.

Is it wrong to be selfish? That seems be an implicit assumption in your argument.

Yes, it's wrong to be so selfish that you can't experience a minor inconvenience to mitigate the risk of causing another person's death or severe injury.

More assumptions:

1. Should people have the expectation that they can inconvenience others, even if only in minor ways? This is taken as given, but it's not always the case. For instance, reducing speed limits everywhere would only slightly inconvenience everyone but save thousands of lives.

2. Is it a minor inconvenience? Certainly not to some people with breathing difficulties.

3. Does it really mitigate the risk to the degree you imply? The case is frankly not as solid as you suggest.

There are even more, but frankly the case is flimsy enough as it is.

How long will you wear a mask for? Will you wear one in 2028 when Covid is still a circulating illness? Will you wear one in 2046? Are you in favor of mask-wearing in the permanent absence of covid to protect others from the flu, just in case you have it but haven't realized yet?

Its not March 2020 anymore we have vaccines and treatments the externalities have changed so should our behaviors.

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