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The COVID-19 pandemic
(12-31-2021, 04:44 PM)tomh009 Wrote:
(12-31-2021, 03:53 PM)jeffster Wrote: Right now, the omicron appears to be the disease of little children and vaccinated adults.

Not just kids. And not just vaccinated adults, though the unvaccinated are more likely to get Delta.

The early study shows significantly reduced likelihood of death or hospitalization as compared to Delta. I like this study as it accounts for the differences in age, vaccination etc to ensure the cases are comparable.

https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/med...sc_lang=en

I hope they'll be updating the study frequently.

Yes, if no ones dies from Omicron it would be a strain of 'much ado about nothing'.

As I said before, though, I believe the infection rates are high in vaccinated individuals for two main reasons: vaccine does little to prevent infection, and vaccinated people are more likely to throw caution in the wind with other vaccinated people.

One hopes that the pi variant will be just as tame, in severity, as omicron.
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(12-31-2021, 05:03 PM)jeffster Wrote: One hopes that the pi variant will be just as tame, in severity, as omicron.

I hope we won't see the Pi variant until well after Pi Day.
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(12-31-2021, 05:46 PM)tomh009 Wrote:
(12-31-2021, 05:03 PM)jeffster Wrote: One hopes that the pi variant will be just as tame, in severity, as omicron.

I hope we won't see the Pi variant until well after Pi Day.

Hope we don't ever see it! Hope....

But if Pi does occur, it's more suitable for it to occur on Pi Day, no? We need some irony, if only to put a smile on some peoples face.
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(12-31-2021, 06:48 PM)jeffster Wrote:
(12-31-2021, 05:46 PM)tomh009 Wrote: I hope we won't see the Pi variant until well after Pi Day.

Hope we don't ever see it! Hope....

But if Pi does occur, it's more suitable for it to occur on Pi Day, no? We need some irony, if only to put a smile on some peoples face.

I predict the Pi variant will be 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679821480865132823066470938446095505822317253594081284811174502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485669234603486104543266482133936072602491412737245870066063155881748815209209628292540917153643678925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185480744623799627495673518857527248912279381830119491298336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798609437027705392171762931767523846748184676694051320005681271452635608277857713427577896091736371787214684409012249534301465495853710507922796892589235420199561121290219608640344181598136297747713099605187072113499999983729780499510597317328160963185950244594553469083026425223082533446850352619311881710100031378387528865875332083814206171776691473035982534904287554687311595628638823537875937519577818577805321712268066130019278766111959092164201989 (etc) more transmissible and deadlier than everything we've ever witnessed in human history. This will be the one, folks. Not even Doug Ford's table will be able to hold enough precautions to save us this time around.
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Dr. Tam suggesting that boosters might be a permanent feature as the virus goes endemic.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronaviru...-1.5724998
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No surprise there. Just a matter of how frequently
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There will be no updated until January 4th. There might be numbers leak like last week though. Here is a recent summary for the week:

(December 21-28)

Omicron in Ontario

21,782 cases
17,919 cases in individuals with at least 2 doses (83% of cases)
124 cases of re-infection

52 hospitalizations
2 ICU admissions
1 death

Major take away is that you are more likely to become infected if you are fully vaccinated, but you won't die from the infection, and you should avoid hospitalization, if vaccinated.

Source:

https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/med...ummary.pdf
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BREAKING: Public Health Ontario is reporting 18,445 new cases of COVID-19 today, alongside 12 new virus-related deaths.

PHO notes that case counts are an underestimate, due to testing limits at hospitals and appointment centres.

Source:

https://twitter.com/citynewskit/status/1...77632?s=21
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(01-01-2022, 02:39 PM)jeffster Wrote: PHO notes that case counts are an underestimate, due to testing limits at hospitals and appointment centres.

That's been the case for a while. The positivity rates are a better indicator of the spread right now.
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Covid starting to hit Antarctica hard:

https://nationalpost.com/news/world/covi...1641057505
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What I don't understand about the vaccine and Omicron (other than personal habits and hygiene) is why vaccinated people are being hit so much harder by this variant than none-vaccinated. Current rates per million:

Unvaccinated: 24.2
Vaccinated: 36.3
3-dose: 30.5

Keep in mind too that 90% of cases are symptomatic.

Crazy. Perhaps, and I hope, a bright spot is that everyone will be infected and we'll be through with Covid. Re-infection rate was 0.6%.
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(12-31-2021, 04:45 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: If everyone is infected by February, we'll have tens of thousands die from preventable deaths because ERs and ORs will literally be empty of staff and doctors. It would be the single greatest self inflicted disaster of my lifetime.

And for bonus points, a solid 30% of the entire population would have long term chronic disabilities. This kind of thing could literally be a downfall event in some places on earth.

And for extra bonus points, with spread that extensive, there's a good chance new mutations would arise which would start the whole damn thing over again in March.

So yeah, I hope you're wrong...although frankly, we're not doing a damn thing to avert it.

It's unfortunately a society-wide problem and we can take individual actions.

I think when people say "everyone" they mean "50% of the population". Weird. Anyway, trying to delay is valuable, both individually and societally (better treatments, better vaccines).
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(12-31-2021, 04:59 PM)jeffster Wrote: So much for those rapid tests:

https://www.therecord.com/ts/news/gta/20...sults.html

Paywalled most likely, but those tests that you can do by yourself aren't very accurate, with too many false negatives.

Says that it should not be your only line of defence. Elsewhere on twitter people are saying do a throat swab and then a nasal swab to best detect Omicron.
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Ontario moves school online, closes indoor dining and gyms as part of sweeping new COVID-19 measures: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/f...-1.6302531
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(01-03-2022, 12:39 PM)ac3r Wrote: Ontario moves school online, closes indoor dining and gyms as part of sweeping new COVID-19 measures: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/f...-1.6302531

I don't quite know how we will measure the success (or the lack thereof) of these measures, given that testing is now very restricted. Based on hospital and ICU population only?
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