My Taipei Quarantine

Re:My Taipei Quarantine by unityByFreedom on Thursday April 28, 2022 @04:04AM (#31189913)

The virus isn't winning. Everyone who wanted to be is vaccinated. The thing to track now is severe reactions, not positive tests. The government in Taiwan has already acknowledged that they're probably undercounting cases. Meanwhile, they are reducing restrictions, and less rigorous contact tracing, except for arrivals on the small chance they bring in a new variant.

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Re:My Taipei Quarantine by xyzzy_plugh on Thursday April 28, 2022 @04:52AM (#31190181)

> Everyone who wanted to be is vaccinated.

No. I'm saddened that you believe this. There are plenty of people ineligible for the vaccine, and many of them are age 5 and under.

The virus is most certainly winning, at least in it's current form. The direction we're all headed right now is that vaccinated or not you'll get it and we must assume everyone will because we stopped measuring. A more lethal variant would be catastrophic right now, as if the past two years haven't been enough of a catastrophy.

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Re:My Taipei Quarantine by unityByFreedom on Thursday April 28, 2022 @06:11PM (#31198849)

Children have far more success fending off all variants of Covid. It really is more like a flu for them. Nonetheless, some are still worried about them since some vaccines do give children less risk than catching the virus itself.

If you read HN, then I assume you read the science, so there is no reason to peddle fear about kids and Covid.

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Re:My Taipei Quarantine by xyzzy_plugh on Thursday April 28, 2022 @08:59PM (#31200131)

Children are also eligible for flu vaccines within their first year of life. A flu can be very dangerous for a young child.

This isn't peddling fear. Why have we normalized illnesses that we can otherwise prevent or avoid?

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Re:My Taipei Quarantine by unityByFreedom on Thursday April 28, 2022 @10:45PM (#31200804)

> Children younger than 6 months old have the highest risk for being hospitalized from flu compared to children of other ages but are too young to get a flu vaccine. Because flu vaccines are not approved for use in children younger than 6 months old, protecting them from flu is especially important. [1]

Parents of newborns must be vigilant, even against the flu. We cannot prevent Covid forever, just like we cannot erradicate the flu.

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/flu/highrisk/infantcare.htm#:~:text=Chil....

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Re:My Taipei Quarantine by xyzzy_plugh on Thursday April 28, 2022 @11:47PM (#31201178)

I'm aware, it's the 6mo-5year group that you're ignoring. They're eligible for the flu shot, but no such covid vaccine had been approved yet. So to say that anyone who wanted a vaccine has got one by now is simply not true.

I'm pretty convinced this is an unproductive conversation given that you state we cannot erradicate the flu when we absolutely could erradicate the flu just like covid. You don't seem to understand how selfish it is to care more about personal freedoms than the accompanying personal impact to the health of others, such as that of toddlers. It makes me sick.

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Re:My Taipei Quarantine by unityByFreedom on Friday April 29, 2022 @12:42AM (#31201533)

Let's focus on first year of life. That's where greater risk for flu/covid exists. For younger than 6 months, nobody is doing research for that age range. For older than 6 months, research is ongoing.

> I'm pretty convinced this is an unproductive conversation given that you state we cannot erradicate the flu when we absolutely could erradicate the flu just like covid.

Okay. That's a pretty extreme view. I've never seen or heard anyone argue that. Viruses can be endemic. Like weather, they are out of our control. Humans can only manage so much. In some areas, nature exercises its power over us.

> You don't seem to understand how selfish it is to care more about personal freedoms than the accompanying personal impact to the health of others, such as that of toddlers. It makes me sick.

I have toddlers, and I do care about their personal health. I'm not about to advocate we all take the full lockdown being done in areas of China right now [1]. Fire is more likely to kill than covid when you lock people in their homes. And, I can't imagine not letting a toddler go outdoors for weeks on end. Domestic issues will flare up.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/ThatsInsane/comments/udtnvu/extreme...

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Re:My Taipei Quarantine by modeless on Thursday April 28, 2022 @04:14AM (#31189968)

The virus is clearly winning, it just matters less now. But if it matters less now, it mattered less months ago too. Vaccines have been available for a long time. It seems to me that restrictions since then have been and continue to be a waste.

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Re:My Taipei Quarantine by unityByFreedom on Thursday April 28, 2022 @04:21AM (#31190019)

Are you in Taiwan and able to assess the situation in person? Restrictions have been small relative to the rest of the world, with the exception of last summer during a Delta outbreak that was later brought down by effective contact tracing.

Context and time are relevant. Both Delta and an undervaccinated population were issues months ago. I would not say the virus is winning, nor would I call the response here a shit show. The CDC here has been saying since late last year that we will eventually need to live with Covid when it arrives.

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Re:My Taipei Quarantine by modeless on Thursday April 28, 2022 @04:38AM (#31190119)

I'm specifically taking issue with the linked article's description of their specific experience in the last month as "not a shitshow", when it is pretty clear to me that in the specific timeframe of last month almost everything they went through, however well executed it might be, is pointless and ultimately a waste.

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Re:My Taipei Quarantine by unityByFreedom on Thursday April 28, 2022 @08:10AM (#31191543)

Okay. Well I'm in Taiwan and it's all no big deal. Certainly not a shitshow.

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Re:My Taipei Quarantine by modeless on Thursday April 28, 2022 @10:49AM (#31193148)

Okay. Being in Taiwan doesn't necessarily mean you've experienced the process of traveling to Taiwan described in the article. Ten days of imprisonment even in a hotel room can't be fairly described as "no big deal", especially if it is unnecessary.

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Re:My Taipei Quarantine by unityByFreedom on Thursday April 28, 2022 @06:05PM (#31198786)

We've done it. Not fun with a family, but understandable given the times, and that policy is going away this summer.

A related response: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31189893

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