I’m voting for testing only when symptomatic.
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I am sorry they were more sick than they expected. That is anecdotal though. For the vast vast majority of vaccinated humans under 60 with no underlying conditions, Covid is mild and typically no worse than somewhere between a head cold and the flu. For college-aged vaccinated, it is proportionally milder. Boosters help it be even less symptomatic. This will be endemic and needs to become treated like a head cold or flu–no mandatory isolations or quarantines, etc. Definitely no testing of vaccinated asymptomatic people–frankly that should have already stopped, but I get that the practice is tied to the need to isolate the positives. It is hard to get off the hamster wheel until the mandatory isolation and quarantine go away.
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To be fair, suicide and Ivy League schools have a shared history that predates covid.
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You realize that testing once a week is kind of theater too? I’m really not trying to pick fights but I’m so done. If you’re not testing at least twice a week then there could be positive cases walking around and contagious.
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But there are schools that don’t seem to be mandating isolation, no? Those that aren’t surveillance testing don’t even know if students have Covid.
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No tests, no covid. Just colds.
Well, kind of? I think if a student wants a test they can get one at most colleges or in the town. It’s just up to each student to decide. At the beginning when this was scary and we had no vaccines, I was as careful as the next guy but that’s not where we are now. Especially on campuses that mandate boosters, I just don’t see why all of the restrictions.
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As the recent posts have been dominated by a handful of users, I have put the thread on slow mode until morning. My hope is this will allow other users to join the conversation and prompt the more exuberant users to be strategic in postings.
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That’s a horrible comment. Maybe they were inside of 6 months? Maybe they had other reasons? My dad is vaxxed - not ready for booster. he is currently pretty sick.
We have more cases now with vaccines and boosters? yes less deaths right now- but we need to stop the “we don’t care” mantra.
NY is highly vaxxed and the highest cases ever.
Israel is on their 4th shot. Extremely high cases too - they fear the testing system will crash and they will no longer keep track.
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I am tired of restrictions imposed on those of us who did the right thing-got vaxxed, got boosted, wore masks-in order to further protect those who chose not to protect themselves. Vaccines were authorized for all adults in the US in April, boosters were widely available in the last few months. If people chose not to avail themselves of them, they accepted the risks and consequences of that decision. Young adults can get covid; some of them will feel rotten but not be seriously ill. This is expected. Personal accountability is important, not just compassion.
I expect colleges to act accordingly.
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I agree with all that - and still with extremely high vaccination rates and compliance we are experiencing the most cases ever. Cannot only blame unvaccinated anymore. That doesn’t do any good.
We need to shift the focus to therapeutics in order to shorten the illness which will correlate in less transmission, less burden on hospitals and a quicker return to normal.
We cannot “boost” our way out of this. Israel is on their 4th. Some countries can’t even get one shot. Some others including WHO are now saying the boosters are prolonging this.
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Chiming in to add that I know several pretty sick people who are boosted. Two even had Covid already, one prior to vaccination and one after.
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If more people got vaccinated in the first place then we wouldn’t now have vaccinated people with Covid.
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Vaccination will always be the primary lever to reduce cases, severity, and death.
By therapeutics I assume you are talking about the Pfizer and Merck pills. They will not be a panacea because they will be in short supply and must be started within 3 days of symptom onset…that’s a tight window considering people need to have a positive test and will need to see a physician to gain access to the products. They just aren’t going to help much with this Omicron wave over the next month or so.
There is only one mAb left on the market that is effective against Omicron. There is a mAb prophylaxis product for those who don’t/can’t develop antibodies to the vaccine, such as transplant patients.
That’s it for therapeutics. We just aren’t there yet. Meanwhile people need to get boosted.
Do you have a source for your statement about the WHO saying boosters are prolonging the pandemic?
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I don’t doubt that all of us will get covid in the next 12 months. If we are boosted, for almost all of us it will be a brief unpleasant illness, and very few of those who took precautions by getting boosted will be hospitalized. I don’t expect the world to stop, or kids to miss in person education, because we may all feel rotten for a few days.
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Hi. I know you asked luckyjade about her source for the WHO statement but I just wanted to say that I saw that on one of my newsfeeds also, although I can’t remember which one. The basis of the statement is that the WHO feels like there still isn’t enough vaccine to go around and the pandemic would be ended earlier if everyone, including folks in 3rd world countries, get their first shots rather than some of the supply going towards booster shots in developed countries.
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Typical political posturing by the WHO. They haven’t been able to distribute all of the vaccines that have been donated/bought for less affluent countries. There are 10 WHO approved vaccines, including the 3 approved in the US (not sure where they all are re: omicron effectiveness). There is not currently a supply problem AFAIK, but there are many hurdles in distributing vaccines to poorer countries, and getting people to take the vaccines.
South Africa is a good example…they told Covax (WHO’s covid vaccine arm) to stop sending them vaccines because most people didn’t want them. South Africa destroyed some not insignificant number of doses.
For the vaccines that are already distributed in the US, EU, UK, and Israel there is no where else for those to go but into the arms of the populace…those doses can’t be re-distributed to other countries.
Colleges are correct to require boosters.
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But how many is that? What % of the population has no underlying conditions? Obesity, diabetes, asthma, chronic bronchitis, chronic strep, cardiovascular disease, etc. According to this article, roughly 20% of the 18-29 yo population has at least ONE comorbidity, obviously some more than one:
I remember attending a HS track meet a couple years ago and I saw a boatload of discarded inhalers on the field. I mean A LOT.
Almost 50% of the entire adult population has one comorbidity.
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