https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/18...0-minutes/index.html

This nonsense is exhausting.

Sorry, but it is over.

COVID will always be with us.

Seems pretty much over to me.

Hospitals are no longer overwhelmed, there are treatments, imperfect though they may be.

I foresee getting a vax every year and I’m OK with it.

We were considering buying a replacement batch of FFP2 masks yesterday, quite quickly deciding not to.
It's over except for testing before visiting vulnerable or aged relatives & friends.

The vaccines and boosters don't have good efficacy or durability.

The new boosters weren't tested on humans because "we don't have time" (CDC director).

How many people contract Covid on a daily basis? I read about it here. I see it "IRL." I read the data.

How many people have long Covid?

"It's over" and "it's always going to be here" don't sound the same to me especially about a disease that's so poorly understood and about vaccines the side effects of which are so poorly understood (or not understood at all).

Deaths are still in the 400-500 per day range. That's the vulnerable, and maybe the unvaccinated. But it ain't over.

quote:

Originally posted by QuirtEvans:
Deaths are still in the 400-500 per day range. That's the vulnerable, and maybe the unvaccinated. But it ain't over.

Where are we in terms of death rates for Covid vs. the flu?

quote:

Originally posted by RealPlayer:

quote:

Originally posted by QuirtEvans:
Deaths are still in the 400-500 per day range. That's the vulnerable, and maybe the unvaccinated. But it ain't over.

Where are we in terms of death rates for Covid vs. the flu?

That's a difficult measurement problem, and like everything else these days, easily politicized. Credible epidemiologists argue on both sides of the issue.

Debating the Way Deaths are Counted

I think this is primarily a problem of semantics.

Based on everything I'm reading, I think it's probably appropriate to say that the pandemic is over. That does not mean "there's no more covid," but I think that's the response of many people when they hear "the pandemic is over." Many people don't understand what it means for covid to become endemic... or maybe it's more accurate to say, many people don't care about this distinction and are only interested in on/off thinking.

Covid is mostly certainly here to stay, and how any of us deals with that is really dependent on our individual perspectives.

I don't want to be contrary but it meets the definition of-- "pandemic."

On the other hand, it's necessarily politicized when a politician says-- "the pandemic is over" and such a statement certainly represents a binary thought process.

Well, it's not a pandemic because it isn't a new disease without treatments anymore.

This may have more specific information about the semantics:

https://www.publichealth.colum...what-are-differences

"pandemic when a disease’s growth is exponential"

We are averaging 400-500 reported new positives daily in Chicago, but that number has remained pretty stable over the past 4-5 months... Hospital and death rates remain low.

American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language--

en·dem·ic (ĕn-dĕmĭk)
Share:
adj.
1. Prevalent in a particular locality, region, or population: endemic diseases of the tropics.
2. Native only to a particular locality or region: endemic birds.
3. Common in or inherent to an enterprise or situation: "All the difficulties endemic to historical research become more acute in the case of war" (Constantine Pleshakov).
n.
1. An organism that is native only to a particular locality or region.
2. A disease that is prevalent in a particular locality, region, or population.
[From Greek endēmos, native, endemic : en-, in; see EN-2 + dēmos, people; see dā- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

pan·dem·ic (păn-dĕmĭk)
Share:
adj.
1. Widespread; general.
2. Medicine Epidemic over a wide geographic area and affecting a large proportion of the population: pandemic influenza.
n.
A pandemic disease.
[From Late Latin pandēmus, from Greek pandēmos, of all the people : pan-, pan- + dēmos, people; see dā- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

QED

No desire to litigate labels but for my part I’ve been treating it as here to stay, but far less of a threat, for a good six months now.

So I’m back to living my life as I normally would, albeit with some risk measures in place (eg masks).

I think it's here to stay. I continue to try to mitigate risk. I wear masks. I try to stay away from crowds. I still don't go to restaurants.

I think my third vaccination damaged my health so I'm not getting the latest one.

I think we each have to make our own health care decisions. I don't think it could or should be otherwise.

I don't think Covid is under control in the way AIDS is though.

Will it be in our lifetimes? I doubt it but that's just me.