Lol, turn out fine. Health condition is not binary. There are way more nuances between healthy, hospitalised and dead. We are only now getting a better picture of the aftermath.
Isn't this exactly what we would expect? It's more or less similar to what probably happened with the flu in 1920. New flu variants were still popping up, but they weren't like the 1918-1919 type, and the mortality rate was much lower. Plus, I recall being told before the vaccines showed up that they would be better at reducing mortality than at eliminating getting sick at all.
Now, if you thought you were going to just stay in hiding and neither get vaccinated nor get sick, and just wait it out, well that's not going to work (and was never a good strategy). Covid-19 is the new flu, it will always be in circulation, but just get vaccinated and get on with life.
I'm so exhausted and demoralised by this endless cascade of things-getting-worse. It's taking a really big toll on my mental health and there's no resources available in my country to offer support (and there's nothing to be done except try to learn to live with it, anyways). The future looks bleak.
I think its important to step back and reassess how the bleak picture that is often painted differs from the reality of day to day life. One of the reasons it was difficult to convince people to take effective action like social distancing and quarantine is because even at its worst (in the US), most people didn't get sick, and very few that did experienced severe disease. For the majority of people, beyond the restrictions to day to day life, Covid didn't seem that different from a flu season in terms of the burden of the disease. Ironically, I personally have been pretty cautious in my interactions over the course of the pandemic, and as a result 2020 was the longest stretch of health my family has ever had.
None of this is to say that the pandemic is no big deal, or that it was handled well. But the point is that between mainstream media and social media, the picture, not just of the pandemic, but for any given topic, is always taken to the extreme. Every new bit of information is evidence of the apocalypse, the collapse of society, and the impending extinction of the human race. Enemies are everywhere. Nothing can be trusted. You are always being taken advantage of. The dystopia is now. You can't even google symptoms for an illness, without, as my doctor puts it "discover that your stubbed toe is actually terminal cancer and you have six months to live".
The reality is that there are definitely things worth being concerned about both as a society and individually, but very rarely does it live up to the "hype". I've found that the more I unplug and spend that time and energy engaging in my day to day life, the less bleak the world seems, and the happier I am.
Remember that most media is built on the idea of capturing attention and it is easier to capture attention with stories of fear and disaster than it is with positive stories. 3 local acts of violence will get headlines while 300 acts of kindness will go without promotion.
Life is suffering with sparse sprinkles of happiness here and there. If you feel bad take a page from Budism, it's the best religion for your mind, and I am an avid agnostic. It's the "No bullshit" religion, basically it's your problem, fix it or learn to live with it.
It teaches you to embrace suffering as part of living, everything is for you to endure, consider how to solve (or not) and grow. By solve I mean reflect on the outcomes and choose to do something, just accept it or just ignore it. The best thing you can do is learn to be your own support, by analysing the issues that throuble you and choose a path.
Besides that We live in the best era human kind has ever had by a long mile.
* There is food to survive for almost everyone, no famines in the last 100 years.
* Big world changing wars have not happened in almost 100 years.
* So much extra wealth in the world almost anyone can enjoy life a bit, have a hobbie, travel, eat out, go out, movies, theather, sports.
* No cold war, no dooms day clock
* Democracy, information is basically free.
* Freedom to do whatever you want ( and face the consequences too)
* Poverty is getting smaller by the day (yeah rich are getting richer but check 1500, 1600, 1700, 1800 or 1900 out for a good perspective on what being poor was)
Basically we are the luckies people that ever lived, COVID or no COVID.
Randomly pick to someone from any other year that ever lived, your life is better even if you get a king it's probably still better.
* Feel good about the things you are doing that make a positive difference, however small.
* Don’t feel guilt about the things that aren’t under your control, however big.
P.S. Nobody is in control and the only way big positive differences ever happen is because of the aggregate of small positive differences that everyone makes.
Things are getting better, just not as quickly as one would like them to. I’d rather have people tell me the facts than lie and pretend like everything is fine.
The very best thing you can do to help yourself AND help combat coronavirus is go outside, enjoy the sun, get some exercise, and do all of that with a big gaggle of family and friends.
Try it. You'll be improving your own immune system, you'll be happier, and you can forget all this fearmongering garbage.
This research paper shows the vaccines are highly effective against the delta variant: "Conclusions: After 2 doses of either vaccine there were only modest differences in vaccine effectiveness with the B.1.617.2 variant." The efficacy drop was about 5-6%.
" there's no resources available in my country to offer support"
What did your ancestors do for 10 000 years up until public healthcare in rich nations? How did they stick it out so that eventually you could prosper? And FYI I'm not sure there are any public resources in most rich nations for this kind of support anyhow.
We're over the worst of it, the data on D variant is just a warning to maintain vigilance.
since the dawn of time its been possible to spin a bleak future at any point in history. In the 900s for example they thought the world was gonna end in 1000AD with the rapture.
Hey, we have a vaccine at least. If you feel like this make use of the fact that you cannot do much by yourself to change the situation. Sit down, avoid the news and let the world do whatever :)
Every other reply to this comment: "Have you tried not being sad by being happy instead?"
Sometimes the world does get worse. History is not a linear function of progress, there are many examples of generations which have been much worse off than the generations that precede them. It's time we re-evaluated society and how we care for each other because we're not at the end of history. Ruthless capitalism isn't compatible with our rapidly decaying biosphere. It's completely ridiculous how much wealth a handful of people have while the rest of us suffer under the USA's medieval healthcare system. We know what choices to make, we just refuse to make them because rich people might get mad. The world is getting worse, but we can ameliorate the biggest problems if we choose to do so.
Coronavirus was never a big deal unless you were old, sick, or obese. Even with these demographics, it had a 1% death rate, the same order of magnitude as various viral illnesses.
We really should have not blown this out of proportion. I think when people realized we could work from home, people faked fear to enjoy a mini vacation. Media loves fear. Politicians wanted to use this.
Do we spend trillions of dollars a year on safer cars? No, but apparently if we use statistics we should.
Long Covid is ill defined, not especially common (~5-15% depending on the study), usually not that serious, and correlated with the intensity of the disease (so it will be lessened with vaccines avoiding hospitalization).
The headline seems misleading. Isn’t the reduction possibly caused as much by easing of restrictions as by the Delta variant?
> Israel has recorded a steep drop in the efficacy rate of the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE in preventing coronavirus infections, due to the spread of the delta variant and the easing of government restrictions.
A different source [1, German only] details that these numbers are based on observations from the last two weeks, and that 50 percent of the newly infected people had been vaccinated.
Makes sense. If a vaccination protects you from catching the disease after being exposed to small amounts of the virus ... once you remove the mask mandate you will be exposed to larger viral loads and may get sick.
I've lost count of how many times we've seen the same headline for different variants and relating to different underlying results, and this "less effective" headline always seems to get interpreted by people I talk to as "we'll be back to living like it's 2020 again pretty soon here" rather than the much more accurate "kinda sucks for us collectively but if you and all your close contacts get vaccinated (if!) then it's probably not enough additional risk that you should want to change your behavior".
I notice that I'm also curious what their methodology for coming up with these effectiveness numbers is, and even the "original" public source at https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/rJQ1O5kp00 doesn't seem to make that clear.
I'm wondering whether this number is a population-level observational result that has more to do with someone ignoring base rates rather than delta actually being much better at causing infection.
Probably we shall take into account, that journalist like to spread bad news! Looking back at the previous variants, the vaccines keep working. This is good news! What will bring is into trouble are non vaccinated people which build a big resource pool for Covid-19 to become more aggressive.
Lockdowns, removal of rights or masks cannot eliminate Covid-19 (so called short term workarounds) but the vaccines can make it rather safe (i.e. solution). What we need to get done is vaccinating as much people as possible, Covid-19 only mutates when it has a pool to do so. So it is stupid saying "I'm healthy and don't need to be vaccinated", you're just postpone a problem in front of you until it becomes worse - either for you, your loved ones, humankind or your rights. So two problems remain, stupid people and getting enough people vaccinated quickly - especially third world! We have to care about Asia, Africa and so on or we will lose.
We get all vaccinated as toddlers against various diseases, sometimes it enough to not care about the illness anymore, sometimes we have eliminated the disease entirely and sometimes we need to repeat the vaccination (FSME/TBE). Clearly better than dying for preventable stuff.
> Covid-19 only mutates when it has a pool to do so
Have the vaccines shown to prevent infection and transmission, or only reducing the chances of getting sick? If not the case, will variants still develop among a mostly vaccinated population?
I realize the article is specifically about the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the delta variant, but even in more general articles about immunity, 'natural immunity' is left out of the conversation[1]. You can carry your COVID test paperwork and latest antibody test to show you are equally, if not better protected, however, it strangely is ignored. Or, a study by a vaccine producer (NOVAX), comes up with evidence that natural immunity is not as effective. Pfizer is projected to do about $15bn worth of business with a 30% profit margin by year's end [2,3]. I think following the money and opinions of certain groups says a lot about their motivations, and not the science they claim to perform. It takes 3 to 7 years to see some negative consequences of vaccines, and the COVID vaccines only have 7 months, since the first vaccine was given, and limited testing and populations before approval to vaccinate the general public. I hope for my family's sake and others, these side effects don't materialize.
NOTE: Open a private browsing window to forego the paywalls/registration popups for the links below:
> The history of vaccines shows that delayed effects following vaccination can occur. But when they do, these effects tend to happen within two months of vaccination
> These experiences demonstrate two important findings. First, when these events occurred, the onset was within eight weeks of receipt of the vaccine.
> the COVID vaccines only have 7 months, since the first vaccine was given
Your comment is full of factual inaccuracies, and this one is easy to refute. The first COVID vaccines were given in trials in February 2020, shortly after the SARS-CoV-2 genome was sequenced, and they've already got 17 months of data.
Also worth repeating what another commenter said, vaccine side effects always show up in the first two months.
You may not trust governments and their narratives. I don't either, and I can still see that the evidence clearly points to these vaccines being safe and effective. There doesn't seem to be much evidence in support of continued living in fear.
[+] [-] umanwizard|4 years ago|reply
> At the same time, protection against hospitalization and serious illness remained strong.
I.e., Delta is more likely to get you sick, but you’ll still turn out fine.
[+] [-] 0-_-0|4 years ago|reply
From May 2 to June 5, the efficacy rate in preventing hospitalization was 98.2%, compared with 93% from June 6 to July 3
That's a 4x higher chance of hospitalisation.
[+] [-] sonicggg|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shoto_io|4 years ago|reply
If you’re 2x vaccinated, hospitalization is highly unlikely for Alpha and Delta variants.
See this report, page 44 bottom:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...
[+] [-] rossdavidh|4 years ago|reply
Now, if you thought you were going to just stay in hiding and neither get vaccinated nor get sick, and just wait it out, well that's not going to work (and was never a good strategy). Covid-19 is the new flu, it will always be in circulation, but just get vaccinated and get on with life.
[+] [-] phendrenad2|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cfcf14|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bart_spoon|4 years ago|reply
None of this is to say that the pandemic is no big deal, or that it was handled well. But the point is that between mainstream media and social media, the picture, not just of the pandemic, but for any given topic, is always taken to the extreme. Every new bit of information is evidence of the apocalypse, the collapse of society, and the impending extinction of the human race. Enemies are everywhere. Nothing can be trusted. You are always being taken advantage of. The dystopia is now. You can't even google symptoms for an illness, without, as my doctor puts it "discover that your stubbed toe is actually terminal cancer and you have six months to live".
The reality is that there are definitely things worth being concerned about both as a society and individually, but very rarely does it live up to the "hype". I've found that the more I unplug and spend that time and energy engaging in my day to day life, the less bleak the world seems, and the happier I am.
[+] [-] mmcconnell1618|4 years ago|reply
Remember that most media is built on the idea of capturing attention and it is easier to capture attention with stories of fear and disaster than it is with positive stories. 3 local acts of violence will get headlines while 300 acts of kindness will go without promotion.
[+] [-] cfontes|4 years ago|reply
Life is suffering with sparse sprinkles of happiness here and there. If you feel bad take a page from Budism, it's the best religion for your mind, and I am an avid agnostic. It's the "No bullshit" religion, basically it's your problem, fix it or learn to live with it.
It teaches you to embrace suffering as part of living, everything is for you to endure, consider how to solve (or not) and grow. By solve I mean reflect on the outcomes and choose to do something, just accept it or just ignore it. The best thing you can do is learn to be your own support, by analysing the issues that throuble you and choose a path.
Besides that We live in the best era human kind has ever had by a long mile.
Basically we are the luckies people that ever lived, COVID or no COVID.Randomly pick to someone from any other year that ever lived, your life is better even if you get a king it's probably still better.
[+] [-] jl6|4 years ago|reply
* Feel good about the things you are doing that make a positive difference, however small.
* Don’t feel guilt about the things that aren’t under your control, however big.
P.S. Nobody is in control and the only way big positive differences ever happen is because of the aggregate of small positive differences that everyone makes.
[+] [-] vmception|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] umanwizard|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DangerousPie|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] johnbaker92|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sjwalter|4 years ago|reply
Try it. You'll be improving your own immune system, you'll be happier, and you can forget all this fearmongering garbage.
[+] [-] 11thEarlOfMar|4 years ago|reply
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.22.21257658v...
[+] [-] jollybean|4 years ago|reply
What did your ancestors do for 10 000 years up until public healthcare in rich nations? How did they stick it out so that eventually you could prosper? And FYI I'm not sure there are any public resources in most rich nations for this kind of support anyhow.
We're over the worst of it, the data on D variant is just a warning to maintain vigilance.
Keep your chin up.
[+] [-] secondcoming|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Quarrelsome|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mglz|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] minikites|4 years ago|reply
Sometimes the world does get worse. History is not a linear function of progress, there are many examples of generations which have been much worse off than the generations that precede them. It's time we re-evaluated society and how we care for each other because we're not at the end of history. Ruthless capitalism isn't compatible with our rapidly decaying biosphere. It's completely ridiculous how much wealth a handful of people have while the rest of us suffer under the USA's medieval healthcare system. We know what choices to make, we just refuse to make them because rich people might get mad. The world is getting worse, but we can ameliorate the biggest problems if we choose to do so.
[+] [-] deregulateMed|4 years ago|reply
Coronavirus was never a big deal unless you were old, sick, or obese. Even with these demographics, it had a 1% death rate, the same order of magnitude as various viral illnesses.
We really should have not blown this out of proportion. I think when people realized we could work from home, people faked fear to enjoy a mini vacation. Media loves fear. Politicians wanted to use this.
Do we spend trillions of dollars a year on safer cars? No, but apparently if we use statistics we should.
[+] [-] bad_alloc|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] umanwizard|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] refurb|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] elif|4 years ago|reply
However the vaccine itself had weird and strong side effects on me for a month and a half.
[+] [-] deeviant|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spywaregorilla|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kwertyoowiyop|4 years ago|reply
> Israel has recorded a steep drop in the efficacy rate of the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE in preventing coronavirus infections, due to the spread of the delta variant and the easing of government restrictions.
[+] [-] kleiba|4 years ago|reply
[1] https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/asien/israel-studie-impfun...
[+] [-] Tepix|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vmchale|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] convexfunction|4 years ago|reply
I notice that I'm also curious what their methodology for coming up with these effectiveness numbers is, and even the "original" public source at https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/rJQ1O5kp00 doesn't seem to make that clear.
[+] [-] convexfunction|4 years ago|reply
I'm wondering whether this number is a population-level observational result that has more to do with someone ignoring base rates rather than delta actually being much better at causing infection.
[+] [-] oldgradstudent|4 years ago|reply
They've changed the testing policy for the vaccinated, so more of the vaccinated are getting tested.
The efficacy was artificially high before because the vaccinated were rarely tested and therefore rarely reported as infected.
[+] [-] chopin|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zestyping|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] forcry|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ho_schi|4 years ago|reply
Lockdowns, removal of rights or masks cannot eliminate Covid-19 (so called short term workarounds) but the vaccines can make it rather safe (i.e. solution). What we need to get done is vaccinating as much people as possible, Covid-19 only mutates when it has a pool to do so. So it is stupid saying "I'm healthy and don't need to be vaccinated", you're just postpone a problem in front of you until it becomes worse - either for you, your loved ones, humankind or your rights. So two problems remain, stupid people and getting enough people vaccinated quickly - especially third world! We have to care about Asia, Africa and so on or we will lose.
We get all vaccinated as toddlers against various diseases, sometimes it enough to not care about the illness anymore, sometimes we have eliminated the disease entirely and sometimes we need to repeat the vaccination (FSME/TBE). Clearly better than dying for preventable stuff.
[+] [-] bamboozled|4 years ago|reply
I've heard a different story from an interview with Robert Malone, the creator of mRNA vaccines [1]
[1] https://www.bitchute.com/video/ukx8L3lh5CA7/
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] afkqs|4 years ago|reply
Have the vaccines shown to prevent infection and transmission, or only reducing the chances of getting sick? If not the case, will variants still develop among a mostly vaccinated population?
[+] [-] eggy|4 years ago|reply
NOTE: Open a private browsing window to forego the paywalls/registration popups for the links below:
[1] https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/92836
[2] https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/13/business/business-of-covid-va...
[3] https://www.thenation.com/article/world/covid-vaccines-pharm...
[+] [-] neogodless|4 years ago|reply
I tried some Google Fu but all I came up with was this:
https://www.chop.edu/news/long-term-side-effects-covid-19-va...
> The history of vaccines shows that delayed effects following vaccination can occur. But when they do, these effects tend to happen within two months of vaccination
> These experiences demonstrate two important findings. First, when these events occurred, the onset was within eight weeks of receipt of the vaccine.
[+] [-] yosito|4 years ago|reply
Your comment is full of factual inaccuracies, and this one is easy to refute. The first COVID vaccines were given in trials in February 2020, shortly after the SARS-CoV-2 genome was sequenced, and they've already got 17 months of data.
Also worth repeating what another commenter said, vaccine side effects always show up in the first two months.
You may not trust governments and their narratives. I don't either, and I can still see that the evidence clearly points to these vaccines being safe and effective. There doesn't seem to be much evidence in support of continued living in fear.
[+] [-] Cthulhu_|4 years ago|reply
Can you also cite a source for this claim please?