When will COVID-19 end by?

@lonelyspacepanda: I'm with you. Fully vaccinated here and now enjoying life as I did pre-pandemic. I have no worries going to the movies, concerts, bars, restaurants, etc. If I somehow still get Covid so be it, I'm going to live my life. Just recently two of my family members got Covid after being fully vaccinated, both are 60+ years old. Each have been fully vaccinated for 3 months prior to getting Covid. Both family members had minor flu / cold symptoms and have recovered. Their symptoms were far less severe then the friend that passed Covid to them who wasn't fully vaccinated. Once I can get a booster shot I'll get it but in the meantime I'm going to keep living my life.

As ever you individually are not the only concern so please don’t be a shit and continue to follow recommendations even when you get vaccinated.

Like the chip shortage, this is gonna be a thing for a good while. Get vaxed, wear mask, be safe but also don't forget to have fun.

I'm sure there are a few exceptions for immediate health reasons, but pretty much everyone should get the vaccine.

The delta variant is more transmissible and they're seeing younger people in need of emergency care.

Last year, covid was being called a "boomer eraser". Black humor, and now, not necessarily true. If you're 20 -40 years old and healthy, you're liable to get over it, but why risk it, and furthermore, I suspect this virus could be like chicken pox in that you get over the initial disease just fine, but you get hit hard by another complication later in life. In the case of chicken pox, it's shingles. Who knows what "gift" covid will bring people 20 or 30 years from now?

It's encouraging to see what a difference a year and a vaccination campaign makes. As for covid giving long-term gifts, long covid already is that.

I'm in the UK. We are more vaccinated, but the idiot government is still making huge mistakes. We have our own anti vax anti mask idiots but no where near what America has. You guys literally have the Republican politicians who by the way are fully vaccinated using this as political leverage.

For fully vaccinated folk, i do think that you should be able to go out in public and do the things you need to do to get through the year in a reasonable fashion.

However, it's still the case that the spread of a virus results in more chances for a virus to mutate into a more effective virus. So it's still worthwhile to at least social distance as much as possible, avoid small rooms with bad ventilation as much as you reasonably can, and wear a mask when you get into a situation where you're close to a bunch of other folk. We're in a global pandemic, and it will take a long time before the vaccination rate across the planet is high enough to slow down these mutations from appearing. Just read that we're already thinking of using zodiac signs after the greek letters run out. That said, i don't want to speed up that process by cramming myself in a small nightclub with a bunch of folk for the immediate future.

I haven't paid too close attention to Long Covid and how it interacts with fully vaccinated folk, but it's still a concern that makes me uncomfortable to go out without wearing a mask & social distancing, eventhough it seems like most people have dropped those rules by now. I don't want to lose a chunk of my lungcapacity.

Tim Rogers had Covid at the start and got shingles twice since then and it's really ruined his health. It's pretty sad.

Live music is a huge part of my life and I'm not going to just sit around forever. People had a chance to get the vaccine and things are opening up. I don't agree with this idea that we can't have live events again -- as a NBA fan I just watched many games of full arenas with few masks. If you are truly vulnerable and can't get the vaccine, you should live your life differently. I didn't go outside at all because my mom had cancer. I literally had no contact for almost a year. My brother is paraplegic and can't physically get out to get the vaccine -- he doesn't see anyone who isn't vaccinated. It made sense to protect the vulnerable before the vaccine but now we need to start getting back to normal or some in-between.

As for longterm health concerns of getting covid after vaccination, that is reasonable but also you can worry about a lot of things. In all likelihood, people breathing in the smog and smoke from wildfires right now is probably way worse. There is only so much you can do to protect yourself and others, in both situations (while different in nature)

@berfunkle:

Do I have an album for you :
https://cattledecapitation.bandcamp.com/album/death-atlas

Sadly I have a friend I go get Cappacino there now have it and was in the ICU. I have my nephew's wife's parents now having it. It is all about getting vaccinated. If you do not for yourself then do it for others.

Before Halflife 3 is released.

This thread always reminds me of the time I was still back in the office and they were talking about some flu in China and maybe we should start washing our hands "more" after leaving the bathroom. I thought man, that stuff is never going to get over here this is just like a bunch of other self contained flu epidemics that cropped up in Asia a few years back. Those folks are pretty good at wearing masks and protecting themselves it will blow over.

Fast forward 2 years later and yah.

@humanity: I can still VIVIDLY remember chuckling, "Yeah, just like SARS and bird flu, THIS ONE'S GONNA BE REAL BAD! Psh, they're even selling facemasks. Profit-driven bullshit."

I'm not sure if that was a wrong-headed thing to think, or if it was emblematic of something bigger wrong with the culture.

And like the chip shortage: the people making it worse are only going to get shittier.

@undeadpool: Yah I didn't take it very seriously until the news starting reporting outbreaks in Europe and then I was like.. oh this seems like maybe it's going to be a thing? I remember there was a very specific moment where I started following the newly hung up posters with how to effectively wash your hands and trying to not open doorknobs with my hands.

It was also pretty wild when they announced we are going to be working from home since my line of work deals with incredibly sensitive client information and we were repeatedly told in the past how it's absolutely impossible for my department to work remotely because of this. Lo and behold, it very quickly became very possible when government restrictions started mandating WFH.

@gtxforza: Never. There are states that have just decided to start ignoring it.

@ginormous76: I live in one of the “better” states as far as following the guidelines goes among the general populous, and we are sort of just coming out of a shorter, unofficial lockdown since Christmas for omicron. That said, coming out of it this time, the vibe in my city is that most folks think it was an on/off switch. Bars are getting packed again, the theater I perform at is opening up full house shows again (I’m not performing for a while longer myself) and I’m starting to see folks go maskless in the grocery stores again. Even in places that mostly take it seriously (compared to, say, Florida) there is so much fatigue that people drop recommendations fully the second things look clearer. I don’t get it. It’s not gone. It’s likely never going to be gone. I get feeling protected by the vaccine and I get being fed up with it all, but I don’t get the immediacy of dropping precautions.

If I were to guess, I’d say there is probably at least one more really shitty winter with lockdowns before it we settle into just mostly shitty winters for the rest of our lives. Maybe in five years or so it’ll stop being notably fatal with new treatments and even sooner when lockdowns end, but the cultural scars are permanent, and there will be at least a few deaths every year from Covid for the rest of our lives.

That is, if other thing don’t end the earth first. There are soooo many things.

One more bad winter? Nah. Each wave's been lessened and the Omicron one has left a lot of natural immunity behind. I suspect ahead of winter they'll roll out Omicron vaccines to the vulnerable and keep that going on an annual basis.

And yeah, I didn't really think it would get this far until we started actively discussing lockdowns at work. Mainly because China was running the same SARS playbook that kept that largely in check.

Omicron restrictions in my county lasted just long enough to get me out of jury duty, so I'll take it.

I'll give it one more year before I can go back to worrying about people's normal cooties, as opposed to people's super special awesome cooties.

For USA, I am afraid we have to live with it because this is a respiratory virus that is airborne and extremely contagious. Because we value individualism over collectivism compared to my home country which is Asian, it is harder to get people to mask up or vaccinate on top of the strange political/cultural issues that polarizes COVID-19. It has been 2 years or almost. The pandemic has not been easy as we face shortages of labor and supply making it even difficult to achieve stability.

This is from my experience working two jobs: one in the health industry and another - promoting the vaccine outreach out in the field. It baffles me why people are risking their lives. It is sad to see people dying every day when the vaccine is free. People in other countries pay to get their vaccines or travel to the USA to get vaccinated. It is so surreal.

I do hope it does end.

@takashichea: I've been living in South Korea for 3 years, and am heading home to the US in 2 weeks and am dreading it. My wife went ahead of me, and her reports basically say that everyone has just elected to just claim that it's all over and few wear masks and there are no vaccine mandates or guarantees that the person your sitting next to, coughing and hacking with no mask on, is vaccinated at all. Which, I knew about, but still. Granted, Korea is kind of getting crushed by Omicron right now by their standards, but I still can't imagine leaving a situation where everyone gets the vaccine, wears their masks, and are diligent about social distancing, etc...and going to one where people like my idiot father is like "we just treat it like the flu and we will get used to it". As someone with asthma, sorry, I don't feel like just risking it. It's also funny how when I say to family "when I'm home, I'm happy to visit people but in groups no bigger than 5, and everyone must be vaccinated and wearing a mask (unless eating)." Like, they legit ARGUE with me as if my health concerns are their decision to make. Wild stuff going on in the US.

@takashichea: Plenty of countries in Europe also have their fair share of anti-vaxxers. It is baffling in this day and age but unfortunately it is a global phenomenon not just restricted to the United States. Canada's Prime Minister for all intents and purposes called in martial law to deal with that whole Freedom Convoy fiasco. It is bizarre.

Wishing a worldwide pandemic would end so you can get your videogames is the stupidest take I've seen in ages

The worst export of the USA during covid is out-of-context reporting and undue exaltation of the relative successes of other jurisdictions compared to the USA (that are themselves merely regular-sized disasters)

@sethmode:You have a good reason too. People with pre existing health conditions, immunocompromised, going into chemotherapy, going into surgery, dialysis et cetera should be very careful. The late Colin Powell had his vaccine and booster but his myeloma made his immune system so weak to fight COVID. It's up to the people around him to be mask and vaccinate, so we protect the vulnerable individuals.

@humanity:

I am aware of it. Just only talking about USA since I can't really talk about the other countries in terms of experiences in outreaching. I try to not use that word because management wants us canvassers and ambassadors to be open and not make the individuals feel discriminated or segregated.

Seeing all over the world - we are not ready to handle another pandemic.

Really you can only hope for the best, expect the worst sadly. But really hope it ends asap. But doubt it. It is about everybody doing their part. And getting healthy for their sake and others. Just IMHO!

Probable answer is next year. Maybe :))

Never. Flu never went away and neither will covid