Covid is not just like the flu, yes. If you have no immunity covid is about 10x more likely to kill you. But, once you're vaccinated, the risk from covid is lower than the flu.

That may have been true a week ago, with omicron we don't know that yet. Hence google delaying. Jan 10 seems a little optimistic though. i'm not sure why they were even going to bother right before Christmas break anyway, at least in mostly Christian Western countries that slow down the last couple of weeks of december anyway.

Right up until our strong pool of unvaccinated folk provide the evolutionary opportunity to infect the vaccinated pool. Why that seems to be exactly what's happening right now with omicron. But since fatality rates are decoupled from virulence rates as long as you survive long enough to spread the thing, we're all stuck waiting another couple months to sort this out.

I'm 100% on team life finds a way (tm). I don't need you to think that way but I'm going to continue thinking that way and we'll see how that goes.

The vaccines are highly protective against hospitalization and death. As someone vaccinated (and boosted) against covid, I would much rather be infected with covid than the flu.

As for life finding a way, I do think we should expect to continue to see additional waves of covid, mutation and infection, but I'm not sure why you would expect that to lead to a high risk of death?

The vaccines are great (And I'm boosted)! We agree on that. But I hope we agree that anti-vaxxers suck. And they are providing a pool for the virus to evolve past the vaccines (as Omicron seems to do).

As for the risk of death. I know people who prefer normality with a ~0.5-1.0% additional chance of random death over continued isolation. I get that. I prefer isolation to that myself but I won't impose my views on anyone else. Why can't we just politely accept both sorts have to coexist? Go back to normality if you wish, be my guest even, except where we have to mix upon where you put on a mask or GTFO. Why is this unreasonable? Because apparently this is crazytalk to some.

While I encourage everyone eligible to get vaccinated, the current thinking is that new variants are most likely to evolve in immunocompromised patients who have persistent infections. Vaccines aren't very effective for patients with malfunctioning immune systems.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/covid-variants-ma...

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsb2104756

Unvaccinated people will eventually catch the virus and in the overwhelming majority of the cases recover and develop potent and robust immunity against future infection.

For about 5-7 months or until a new variant emerges but let's not talk about that, right? I enthusiastically support your right to play Russian roulette with pretty good odds if only you support my right not to play. After all if you die and I live that's more social security benefits for me.

I'm less worried about dying of the thing than I am of an indefinite and impossible to cure case of long covid and all the horrible things that come with it. People have literally killed themselves over it. But your body your choices and all that. Just remember that goes both ways.

> For about 5-7 months or until a new variant emerges

Neutralizing antibody titres remain stable even 13 months post infection[0]. This isn't an upper limit, it's just that there's no data beyond this. And despite whatever you might have heard, reinfection remains extremely rare across all variants. All data points to immunity acquired after an infection being more potent and robust than that imparted by vaccines.

I'm not unvaccinated, I'm not American and I don't work for Google. I don't have a dog in this particular fight. But if you decide to spread FUD and misinformation on your way to find new scapegoats, expect to be called out for it.

0: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-021-07057-0

I'll see your preliminary study and raise you mine. As little as 3 months and up to 5 years. The consequences of long COVID alone are enough for me to avoid catching it (along with the six-figure medical bills this has been generating) but apparently that's unamerican to some people. Unless we magically vaccinate the world and convince people to wear masks in closed spaces we're stuck on this demonic hamster wheel indefinitely.

What you're suggesting here is go catch a very serious case of covid and nearly die so that one has that multi-year long-term immunity. Not planning to take such advice but I welcome you to do so (for science of course, you can get a Nobel prize for doing that if you live after all). Too bad if a new variant like omicron comes along and skips past those antibodies though but those are the breaks.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanmic/article/PIIS2666-5...

In fact, let's take this stupidity all the way home. Let's all go back to the craptastically ventilated open offices for 8-12 hours 5 days a week. And since there's no vaccine mandate, your eventual chance of exposure to COVID is 100%. There have been ~180K breakthrough infections that led to ~11K hospitalizations or about a 6.4% chance of ending up in the hospital so far.

https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/covid-19-breakthrough-data

If you end up in the hospital, that's anywhere from $100K-$500K of medical bills.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/average-charge...

All of that is pre-omicron which seems evolved to evade vaccines. You may to wish to take that risk, that's your business.

> What you're suggesting here is go catch a very serious case of covid and nearly die

Can you please point to where I made such a suggestion? You are arguing against a straw man. My comment was in response to your attempt at scapegoating:

> But I hope we agree that anti-vaxxers suck. And they are providing a pool for the virus to evolve past the vaccines

To repeat myself, unvaccinated people will eventually catch the virus and in the overwhelming majority of the cases recover and develop potent and robust immunity against future infection. Apart from possibly putting strain on hospitals, they are not a threat to your health.

> All of that is pre-omicron which seems evolved to evade vaccines.

This is speculation bordering on fearmongering. There is hardly any data on efficacy of vaccines against Omicron. Although there is some preliminary evidence that reinfection rate due to Omicron is higher: A whopping 1.27%. Which is again, much lower than the rate of breakthrough infections.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.11.21266068v...

There is a very unambiguous clean definition of the end of the pandemic whereupon it has literally become "just like the flu" and that is where in the United States there are no more than 100 daily deaths on average for 60+ days. Adjust accordingly for wherever you live. Until then, you'll just have to adjust to annoying people like myself valuing self-preservation over stock market indices and looking busy in poorly ventilated spaces. Do try to come terms with that and especially people around you demanding that. We have come nowhere near that benchmark...

We're 10 days into omicron we have nowhere near enough data. But you're the one talking about long-term immunity and long-term immunity is proportional to the severity of infection. You are free to take any risks you wish to take.

If my employer wishes to pay the total cost for risking my health to work in a closed space for the sake of looking busy, and in the event of a hospitalization they will agree in writing to pay 100% of the uninsured costs, plus take out a $10 million life insurance policy in the event of my demise, I still wouldn't take the deal because I don't hate myself. But I do hate the tech sorts that think bringing everyone back into the office wearing masks all day is a good idea right now. Even Google's leadership knows that's a bad idea. Just more arguments in favor of not going to startups led by sociopathic TLAs for crumbs of the equity pie when you can make six to seven figures working for the big guys.

Further, I doubt any employer would take that deal above. They know that once you factor in the total cost it's a terrible risk. Just like unless you're a TLA at a startup you're taking a really bad deal with less than 2% equity. But you wouldn't believe that listening to any TLA sitting pretty with 5 to 25% of the pie telling you why they're going to be just like FAANG one day.

I'm a strong believer in attaching dollar figures to decisions and I know these CEOs are not continuing to allow working from home out of the goodness of their hearts. You may choose to believe otherwise of course