Yes.

Omicron is already less deadly by 10x. Covid has a 0.5% death rate pre-omicron. With vaccinations it brings the death rate down to negligible.

At thus point I think we need to stop trying to protect everyone. Some people as going to die. It’s tragic. But we can’t keep locking down everyone.

I am currently going through Covid. I could die from it. I probably won’t. It’s an annoying cold at this point. We have to change policy to accept that for 99.99% of people omicron will be mild and will confer immunity. Some people will die like the flu. We have medication now that works. We have vaccinations that work. We have masks that work.

Let’s move on.

>Omicron is already less deadly by 10x. Covid has a 0.5% death rate pre-omicron. With vaccinations it brings the death rate down to negligible.

To put another way, if you are right (I haven't seen definitive numbers, other than hopes/preliminary findings that the variant seems to be less deadly), the Omicron variant is about half as deadly as the annual flu (about 0.1% IFR).

Isn't that an accurate description of how life used to work pre-2020?

You mean before there was a pandemic? Sure, it's all a matter of risk factors though. When there is a pan/epidemic that puts a large group at a 5-25% risk of mortality, that is a special circumstance.

Life expectancy numbers dropped by about 1 years in most countries, but since it is in the middle of a pandemic it will go up again when this is done. 1 year temporary drop for just 2 years is really small, it means that if covid ravaged us like this every single year people would just die 1 year earlier on average. Divided by a lifespan of 80 years it means an average person lost about 0.025 years or about 8 days. 8 days average lifespan is worth doing something about, sure, but I doubt the magnitude of the response we have seen was actually worth it.

With long Covid, I don’t think it’sa given that life expectancy will go up. If that effect is not temporary, or if it lasts across generations, your comment falls apart.

There is no evidence that long COVID is anything other than the Post-viral syndrome we've known for decades accompanies the flu and other illnesses.

I’m a little confused as to your central point.

Is it that we should be more aware of the long term deleterious effects of contracting a virus?

Because then I think we agree!

My point is that "Long COVID" isn't something new, and therefor is unlikely to effect life expectancy. Viruses are harmful, they cause damage that has long-lasting effects. But COVID isn't more likely to cause those effects than the flu. And we certainly shouldn't be making policy decisions based on those effects.

The new part is the scale at which it’s happening. If we had an addition 100M flu cases, we would expect a decrease in life expectancy.

(Also, this doesn’t address the reality that we don’t know if long Covid is the same as with the flu. I just wanted to point out that even if we accept this premise, we would still se a decrease.)

Everyone has the flu at least once in their life. Any life expectancy drop from Post Viral Syndrome is already priced in.

We don’t know that COVID is any different—in absence of evidence it’s always best to assume the null case.

So you propose we should lockdown every year to prevent the deleterious long term effects of the yearly flu?

This always boils down to the push-pull between self-centered and group-centered people. The self-centered only care about themselves, and favor letting the weak die to further that end. I think they sound like monsters, and they probably think I sound like a "cuck."

I frankly see it the other way around. I want measures to relax precisely because I think about groups and not specific people.

The psychological damage being done, in a society which doesn't have the tools to deal with it properly (and with this I mean pretty much the entirety of western society) is not even being taken into account. Quality of living for a good deal of society has gone to hell, I can't even take a walk in the park without a mask on (I happen to be Spanish). It's madness.

Public healthcare psychology is not even brought up by GPs anymore unless you risk suicide, and even then there is a waiting period of several months. Suicide attempts are at an all-time high and the amount of depression and anxiety backing it up can't be overstated.

I feel like we are pretending we solved the trolley problem all of a sudden.

In other words, "let the weak die...I'm tired of wearing a mask."

https://twitter.com/kombatliberlism/status/14815700214909747...

I am astonished how many people prioritize the social/pub/restaurant/movie theater scene over the literal survival chances of millions of people. I guess I should stop being astonished and accept that people are driven primarily by their desires and self-interest. Cast them into the pit, I want a cheeseburger.

>I am astonished how many people prioritize the social/pub/restaurant/movie theater scene over the literal survival chances of millions of people.

We all do. We have always done this. That's why drugs exist. That's why transportation exists. Life is not a "maximize your lifespan" game, it has never been.

I think it is the other way round. The tiny, 'selfish' fraction want to shut down the 'group' that is society because they are more at risk.

You have your groups backwards. The self-centered are the ones demanding society shut down in response to their own personal fears, even if that shut-down disproportionately effects others (i.e. the poor, the young, etc.) The group-centered people are the ones willing to accept a higher degree of personal risk in order to keep schools open and supply chains functioning.

Let's say I walk into a movie theater/church/restaurant and nobody is wearing a mask. Is everyone else a jerk for not wearing one, or am I the jerk for expecting everyone else to?

Third option: You are the jerk for not wearing a mask.

I mean, why would you worry about if others are unmasked when you already are vaccinated and wearing an N95 mask on top of that?

The most extrapunitive, other-blaming, people I know are sociopaths so I'm going with the latter explanation.

You sound like someone who really enjoys building up and tearing down straw men.

You sound like someone who responds on message boards with ad-hominems rather than counterarguments, nice to meet you!

Does this sentence sound that crazy to you?