Why on Earth would anyone go to a movie theater in the middle of a pandemic?????
There is no interaction between the people other than that they are all breathing the same air.
If there is anything that could be done online just as well as in person, it's watching a damn movie!
#COVID #COVID19 #vax #vaccine #mask #masks #movie #movies #social #distance #remote
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@Pat I go to movie theaters mostly just for the popcorn to be honest. That said I havent went to one during the pandemic. I probably would though now that we moved onto the delta variant and deaths have been consistently reasonable even during infection spikes. I'm kinda over covid as a result and just pretend it doesnt even exist at this point. Back before Delta though no way would I have went to a theater.
(we posted simultaneously)
The delta variant is more contagious. Now is not a good time to be around a bunch of other people.
The main difference is that the media are not talking about the thousands of people who are dying every day. They want people to go out and spend money and burn gas, even if it kills thousands of more people.
I thought mankind was making progress, but this is reprehensible.
@Pat recent data is suggesting delta isnt more contagious, it is just that the vaccine has no effect on preventing its spread. So it appears more contagious since people are vaccinated. The data is new like everything covid so we cant say for certain either way, but this seems to be the case.
That said even if it is mroe contagious, the death toll even when cases spike has been minimal. As such I'm not really worried about it spreading.
Here in the US it's terrible. It's over a thousand people a day for a very long time. It was over 3000/day a few weeks back. All preventable.
This week, over 10,000 people were buried by their loved ones.
I'm unaware of that recent research on delta. The R0 for delta has been ~150% of alpha, which has been ~150% of the original. But it's entirely possible that the difference is due to behavior and public policy.
@Pat In the USA before delta the morbidity rate was well over 4x higher than it is now with delta. Yes a lot of people are still dying sadly, but it is far less lethal than the old variant even in the USA. It is still more lethal than the flu but the margin is much closer as a result, the new variant is getting pretty close to flu levels of morbidity.
Attached is an example from the USA, specifically massachusits. As you can see the mortality during Delta has gone down to nearly 0, its just not a very lethal virus anymore.
That said I am more than happy to put it behind us and not take social measures anymore given where its at.
All that said its been almost 2 years now, even if the virus was just as deadly as it was we cant remain in lock down forever. A new vaccine is not even close to being ready and we are looking at it being well over a year away if one ever comes that fights delta at all... Its time to be done with it, and accept the deaths until we can cure it. Lock down nursing homes, wear a mask around the elderly, but other its time to go back to normal IMO and has been that time for a while.
You may be done with covid, but covid is not done with us. The virus continues to kill massive numbers of people and many times that amount are left with chronic illness. Millions of people can no longer work because they are dead or disabled from the virus. Millions more are justifiably afraid to go back to work. And millions more are so disgusted with the way that the politician have handled this that they've joined the general strike.
You may be done with it, but it's not done with you.
@Pat It may not be done with me, but living in fear for 2 years is my limit. I am willing to accept the very real death toll if that means going back to a normal life. People living the way we have for 2 years extended into the future forever is not a solution or acceptable, the deaths are preferable.
I have only really looked at the effectiveness of the vaccines available to me WRT delta variant, and none of them are effective to any degree on viral load. If novavax is somehow the exception then id be all for it if it was available.
@freemo @icedquinn
>What respirators dont do is eliminate the virus completely. If even a single case of the virus remains (and it will no matter how effective respirators are) then as I already said the moment everyone stops wearing respirators the virus goes right back to where it was.
Respirator DO eliminate the virus. (eliminate, not exterminate or make extinct) Once the virus is eliminated in a region, then there are only sporadic cases from people who travel to the area. Other countries has done this. It called the elimination strategy and it works. It works much better than what the US has tried. Those countries can go a long time with very few cases, while they continue with test and trace. If an outbreak crops up, they just put the respirators back on. Those who don't want to wear a respirator don't have to, they just take a chance on getting the virus and don't get invited to a lot of parties.
Nothing about what you said is true. You can not completely eliminate a virus from a region using respirators no matter how effective the respirators are. The only way the model works out where respirators would eliminate it from an area is if you have almost everyone wearing 24/7 (including in their own homes, while they sleep, etc), if people never touch their face, and if they do this over the course of years. None of which is practical.
The simple fact is respirators dont (and we have known this for a long time) stop virual outbreaks. They temporarily slow it, but you do not eliminate it with respirators.
The idea "if an outbreak happens they put the respirators back on"... yea thats the problem. All youll see is people wearing respirators for the rest of their lives where maybe every few months you might get a break and restrictation relax for a week or two until the outbreak resurges due to lack of respirators.
Like I said I am not living the rest of my life wearing respirators all the time out of fear of a virus. I was ok with at first, im over it.
I am also perfectly ok not getting invited to parties. I have started hosting my own parties again, and my parties are more fun and dont require masks :)
It isnt the physical presence of something rubbing on me that makes it extremely unpleasant. It is the uncomfortable feeling of highly humid air along with the very noticeable CO2 buildup in the air. I could never even wear the cold-weather face mask intended to keep you warm for the same reason.
Regardless of what you wish to call "eliminate" the fact of the matter is measles never comes back en-mass because we are vaccinated. We have no vaccinations that reduce the spread of delta covid so it isnt comparable. The fact that Austria and Germany "eliminated it" and now its back only proves my point, masks temporarily reduce the infection and without effective vaccines the virus will **always** resurge once mask restrictions are removed.
Dice words however you wish the fact is im not going the rest of my life wearing masks on and off. I intend to behave as COVID isnt going to dominate my life and i wont live in fear. I dont live in fear of the flu, or of cancer, or anything else and I wont live in fear of COVID. I'm ok with the risk, i wont change my life anymore.
>It is the uncomfortable feeling of highly humid air along with the very noticeable CO2 buildup in the air.
An exhalation valve significantly reduces moisture and CO2 build up. I've had the same issue with moisture. I've thought of trying a non-toxic desiccant, like rice, inside the mask, not sure if that would help much. I've seen respirators that advertise the benefits of the exhalation valve in reducing moisture and CO2.
It might help. And in the rare case where I will wear a mask around elderly or sick ill certainly try that. But regardless, like I said, as of the past few days I decided to no longer take steps to avoid covid outside of maybe the usual good habits of washing my hands and covering my mouth if i cough.
@freemo @icedquinn
>considering how extremely uncomfortable I find respirators to be.
You should try different models. I found some of the filtering facepiece respirators have an airflow that tickles my nose, but others don't. The elastomeric respirators are actually more comfortable than than those white "dome" types.
People wear bras and ties (which are much more uncomfortable than respirators) and they wear them for much more trivial reasons than to save thousands of lives. And they wear them for their whole lives.
"Eliminate" is a term of art in epidemiology which means that there is not continuous community spread of a disease. Measles is eliminated but there are still outbreaks occasionally. Covid was eliminated in Australia, Germany, Austria. Now Austria, after many months, is having another upsurge, so they'll wear the respirators again for a while. Same thing happened in Australia.
In Asia after SARS-1, most people just continued to wear masks even after the pandemic was over. It's not a big deal, really. And you don't need to have 100% of people wearing them. Just 60-65% is enough.
If you don't want to wear a respirator, that's fine, but why do you want to encourage others not to wear them. How does it hurt you if everyone else is wearing a respirator if they want to?