Any guesses on when they stop publishing numbers entirely? I feel like that's the point where I'm going to be completely screwed.
Can't wait for administration to once again loosen the precautions and for COVID to kill a bunch more of my patients. I mean, fuck, most people at this point that are getting COVID on my rehab unit are bringing it from the hospital because hospitals have just stopped caring. This "normalcy" is fucking deranged.
How are hospitals looking? Nursing reddit used to be dominated by covid posts but I haven’t seen any lately, feel like the crush would be now-ish
I don' work in a hospital a this point, but from what I've been hearing through the grapevine they've long since stopped using N95 masks in general, there's basically no testing of staff unless they're symptomatic, and masking is more of a suggestion than a rule for visitors. The LTC facility I work at is one of the few places in the region that has a medical director that still takes COVID seriously but he's basically fighting an uphill battle against the rest of administration that wants to ease the precautions. There's a reputation that we have a lot of COVID, but it's mostly because we're like the only place that still regularly tests people. The hospital sent us a patient just this week that was having COVID symptoms but hadn't quite tested positive. When we checked them, they were positive. I see a lot of people just absolutely exhausted by the never ending COVID. We might go a couple weeks without it, but it always keeps coming back. I work with a rather vulnerable patient population as well since they're just out from the hospital and usually have a stack of comorbidities.
I see it as just people adjusting to the new normal, we're all tired of dealing with COVID. A lot of people are just wanting to turn a blind eye to it or just pretend to be back to normal because it's very obvious that it will only continue to get worse. The systemic response has been so botched that nothing we can do will fix it at this point and as GrantGreen says, consent has been manufactured. People don't think of it as severe anymore. Doctors see it as just another flu. Between just being sick of dealing with COVID and the very obvious fact that it's not going anywhere people have just decided to go along with the "mild" thread. Like was stated somewhere before in an essay I don't remember the name of, people have to actively want to believe the fake stories when consent is manufactured for imperialism and through their vested interest in imperialism they'll believe it. It's the same concept with nursing and wanting to go "back to normal."
The systemic response has been so botched that nothing we can do will fix it at this point
I’m so fucking sick of hearing this. This is just not true. At any point we could do a hard 1 month lockdown and mass testing and it’d be mostly over. The solution is exactly the same as it always has been even if it’s slightly more difficult than it would’ve been in April 2020.
The solution is obvious and clear, but impossible under capitalism.
There was a window for agitation in the US, and we used it, sometimes successfully. That window existed because liberals could be rallied against Trump to do local politics things against liberals.
Then Biden was elected and everything was fine again and criticizing the government was gauche or naive again.
But at the heart at all of it is real estate and failing businesses. Real estate taxes make up huge amounts of local and state budgets. Lockdowns disrupt rent payments as well as the overall resale profitability of real estate. Failing businesses have a similar situation regarding tax bases and also directly employ people. Local and state governments are the ones that stopped doing lockdowns, they crunched the numbers and listened to their real constituents (capitalists) and halted lockdowns, which were always incredibly weak ones in the US, way back in 2020.
In order to reinstitute a lockdiwn, you'll need one of two things:
-
A completely different material base for government, i.e. the abolition of capitalism itself (or at least a dotp situation).
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A new variant or pandemic that forces a lockdown because it's a greater threat to short term profits.
-
I was referring to nurses being unable to fix a systemic problem, but honestly I don't see a way to put the cat in the bag at this point.
Looking at the material reality around us, it is unfeasible. There is no infrastructure that would allow a mass lockdown at this point that wouldn't just be another way to brutalize minorities. The population as a whole has since given up on trying, believing the pandemic to be over. Even if we should see a miracle where the US decides to do another lockdown, it's still going wild in other countries and will continue to mutate. On a global scale the only thing that would possibly have a chance is a large global revolution that would simultaneously overthrow all the main seats of power in one fell swoop allowing for a large global collaborative effort to lockdown for a period. As it stands though, there's not any political will globally to make such a sweeping decision. So I stand by what I said that there's nothing we can do that isn't assuming a massive shift in how the world works when there's close to nothing in motion that would see it happen.
No political will != not possible
There's no political will for pretty much anything we advocate for here
Still doesn't change the fact that without a global response, nothing will change. China gave up on zero COVID as a result of nothing else happening globally beyond letting COVID just rip through people. I"m not against doing a month long lockdown either globally, I just don't see it as a feasible reality within my lifetime.
Ngl I still think zero-covid-in-one-country is still a totally feasible strategy and I think China fucked up big time by dropping it and the people in China that advocates for dropping it did not understand what they were asking for.
I’d happy be locked down 1 month out of the year the rest of my life in exchange for not getting sick anymore. I usually spend more than a month out sick anyway.
There was a post around here that dug deeper into what happened with China dropping zero covid and if I'm remembering right, China didn't intend to drop zero covid, but instead local governments misunderstood something, opened up, and then the cat was out of the bag. This also goes against the narrative that the Chinese government is an oppressive regime, but that doesn't matter to westerners.
If ICUs were full nurses would be going on there to vent I think and i don’t really see it anymore. OTOH there’s a lot of red pockets on the cdc maps which would indicate high hospital utilization so it’s confusing.
It’s like now we have a bunch of data points to try to form our own complete picture and it just doesn’t line up
I think the cultural amalgamation of RSV, Flu, and Covid into an ongoing, oh gee nothing we can do🤷♂️, respiratory epidemic may have been the nail in the coffin of a nurse-based covid backlash. There was like 6 months of packed hospitals from the tripledemic. At this point, it seems like they've effectively absorbed the covid concerns into an every day Armageddon.
3000 PEOPLE ARE DYING EVERY WEEK YOU BASTARD :agony-limitless:
I keep seeing people say, "what did immunocompromised people do in regards to the flu before covid?"
Uhhhhh we got extra cautious and avoided gatherings during flu season? Or we got really sick and sometimes died?
But every season is covid season. It's vastly different than the flu.
But every season is covid season. It’s vastly different than the flu.
Monkey's paw curls.
I have a feeling the increasing amount of bird flu news will not lead to anything good and I apologize for my contributions via monkey's paw
:yea:
Oh, geez, I wasn't even thinking about bird flu. I was talking about how the damage covid is doing to our overall herd immunity is increasing the length and danger of flu and rsv season. Along with others.
:this-is-fine:
Edit: tho given that covid is in the animal population, wonder if it's making them more vulnerable, as well.
We absolutely crushed the flu with covid mitigations, but since that's off the table we'll probably go with the "just infect people and get it over with" strategy if bird flu starts spreading in humans.
Maybe we can get this one a sponsor even. Big Bird's Big Flu brought to you by HBO. They can dress Snuffalupagus up in a virus costume and pretend he doesn't exist again.
AFAIK the USA’s excess deaths for 2022 have not been released yet. Probably this is because the numbers look great! /s
literally just had a "super important", "all-hands" multi hour meeting yesterday where the bosses were very insistent we all come in-person. including the immunocompromised guy. they made accommodations last minute for someone to attend via zoom, because they had been exposed to covid earlier in the day.
in reality, the meeting could have been an email and was full of platitudes. and one of the attendees told us this morning that they had been exposed to covid the last few nights, but attended the meeting anyway because they "felt fine"...but now they have symptoms. this is literally the second in-person meeting this person has "oops, i did a covid" to a shitload of people in maybe 6 months despite people with any exposure being encouraged not to come to meetings.
the nature of our work means that we could literally all be fully remote, but of course the managerial culture here is dominated by the worst sort of careerist and petty psychos. i'm grateful we are allowed to "take steps" when we've been exposed, but of course bad actors don't give a fuck and it's not like anyone can get in trouble for knowingly spreading plague everywhere.
our union hasn't got the numbers yet for certification, because many here are PMC douchebags who think they are special. i updated my resume/CV and started applying for fully remote work in december. would love to walk out on this place and be really fucking noisy about it.
There is a hole at the center of everything, and it is always growing larger.
:mission-accomplished-1::mission-accomplished-2:
:covid-cool: :biden-rember:
This is pure uncut idealism, simply declare the emergency over and the covid deaths will cease.
When I say death to America, people get mad. When the white house says it, people applaud.
https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/5eUUqOEtwrY6Key4E-8ULP4FtVo=/1024x0/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-bostonglobe.s3.amazonaws.com/public/GQV5TTR76YI6RFQBTHKUNPXYAY.jpg
This was Biden at July 4th 2021, declaring masks were no longer necessary. This was Biden in peak Omicron January 2022, when the CDC expressed excitement that only elderly and immunocompromised people are dying. This was Biden in autumn 2022, declaring the pandemic over. This will be Biden in May 2023, declaring the emergency is over.
🚬
:rust-darkness:
It is 2024 and COVID is now over
It is 2025 and COVID is now over
It is 2026...
It is 2024 and COVID is now over
There is a growing number of young people having heart attacks and strokes for some mysterious reason. Life expectancy continues to plummet. Experts attribute this to people developing immunity debt and bad eating habits during the lockdowns.
It is 2025 and COVID is now over
Cancer rates are showing dramatic increases in younger and younger demographics. Flu season continues to get deadlier. Could this be because of the vaccines? President DeSantis is ordering a commission to investigate.
It is 2026…
No one wants to work anymore. It's time to raise the retirement age above the average life expectancy and force immigrants into indentured servitude. :liberalism:
Fun fact - there are 42 other current national emergencies. The earliest relates to the Iran Hostage Crisis. The two national emergencies for 9/11 are still current.
:yea:
