I'm sure there are still people that get really sick and even die with Covid being a contributor. But man, we get 7-10 new cases a day in Brazos County. It seems that last round of new cases combined with those who are vaccinated has gotten us to this point.

Are we done? There will always be new cases. There will also always be improved treatment of you catch it. I ask this as I sit in an airport (IAH) which seems to be the last holdout (air travel in general) to "combat the spread."

I can't help but think this is just theatrics at this point. What am I missing?

Saw the Pfizer CEO on the news this morning discussing the coming approval for <5 year old vaccinations. Also discussed the need for the 4th booster.

fightingfarmer09 said:

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Saw the Pfizer CEO on the news this morning discussing the coming approval for <5 year old vaccinations. Also discussed the need for the 4th booster.

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I mean, that's the drug guy...he's gonna say that. I'm not sure I trust the wolf watching the henhouse regarding the well being of the hens....

Gotta make those vaccine sales go higher, whether you need it or not. I totally ignore what the drug manufacturers say.

fightingfarmer09 said:

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Saw the Pfizer CEO on the news this morning discussing the coming approval for <5 year old vaccinations. Also discussed the need for the 4th booster.

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Which will certainly cause the next "wave."

Yes. It is an endemic. At this point it is time to move on and end all restrictions and mandates and honestly they need to be permanently ended regardless of what the "outbreaks" in Hong Kong and Europe become. Given the number of confirmed recovered cases combined with those that were vaccinated, enough people have either had a variant of this or been vaccinated to the point where we are safe enough to go forward without much consideration for future Covid cases. The fact is if you have survived Covid the first time, the odds are extremely slight you will have future serious complications from the virus if you are indeed infected. This has been studied pretty well at this point.

What I do not understand is that, at this point, how one would still mask if they are not seriously comorbid is beyond me. I see way too many younger, healthy people masked up and way too many young children masked for no reason and it is sad. I do hope that as time goes by these people come to their senses and end this practice. I also would love the news to stop continued reporting of every single "outbreak" of Covid. Won't happen I know as the news is incentivized to report sensationalism.

scd88 said:

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I'm sure there are still people that get really sick and even die with Covid being a contributor. But man, we get 7-10 new cases a day in Brazos County. It seems that last round of new cases combined with those who are vaccinated has gotten us to this point.

Are we done? There will always be new cases. There will also always be improved treatment of you catch it. I ask this as I sit in an airport (IAH) which seems to be the last holdout (air travel in general) to "combat the spread."

I can't help but think this is just theatrics at this point. What am I missing?

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It's been theatrics for about 2 years now

Here is the case for keeping the mitigations/masks:

The Biden Administration Killed America's Collective Pandemic Approach

and this:

Seeing everyone indoors totally unmasked and crowded together at panels, events, and parties at #SXSW makes me sad, when will things be safe for those who are high risk and vulnerable to participate in events and conferences and events?

— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) March 13, 2022

Its incredibly sad that people still view it this way. There is no more risk at this point to most than in any regular flu season given the amount of recovered and vaccinated/boosted. Yet we are supposed to "protect" every last at risk individual. That would essentially mean this will never end the way they argue this. The fact is that not enough people are at risk from this to warrant any policy regarding Covid be made...

scd88 said:

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Reported new cases in Brazos County this morning - 0.

Can China contain their outbreak or is another freak out coming?

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Silly question…the reason is clear and happens in the fall

Shhhhhhhhh…don't tell anyone!

scd88 said:

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Reported new cases in Brazos County this morning - 0.

Can China contain their outbreak or is another freak out coming?

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China's outbreak is omicron and given that they have a zero tolerance policy so will do a complete shut down at the drop of a hat, it gives the appearance of a rise of the least dangerous variant seem alarmingly bad when it is not. Europe is seeing an uptick of Omicron and strangely an uptick of hospitalizations in conjunction with the uptick which normally takes 10 days to happen. Problem is that it could just be an uptick with covid not b/c of covid. Regardless, ICUs are not filling up. The issue here is the alarmists will claim early mitigation is the only answer and only be concerned with infections that increase regardless of hospitalizations. Even in the article I posted, they are against just using hospital overflow as the main metric. It'll come here as well most likely. Can we hold off the alarmists this time from unnecessarily masking kids, limiting access in certain places and states and pushing vaccines and/or boosters on children when they just aren't needed in the very young?