At least 174,455 new cases were reported between August 19 and August 25, up from 169,217 the week before (+3%) and the highest since March 3. Those figures were collected from state health departments and, where necessary, estimated based on hospital admissions.
Actual case numbers are higher because many hospitals and states are no longer reporting detailed COVID data. Laboratory testing is also low as most people and doctors are using at-home tests which are not included in official statistics.
1,075 new COVID deaths were reported during the week, the second week in a row with more than 1,000 new deaths. It’s also the seventh week in a row with more than 500 new deaths and the 232nd week with more than 400 new deaths.
So far this year, nearly 4.8 million COVID cases have been reported across the U.S., causing at least 340,153 hospitalizations (limited data) and 37,301 deaths, according to BNO’s COVID data tracker.
We couldn't even normalize mask use while sick.
Is there any way to realistically stop this now? It's not just a US isolated situation, it's a worldwide phenomenon. Even China has fully opened up. Is COVID just going to be like influenza, around forever with a similar or higher annual death toll? So basically having the equivalent of two or three flu seasons at once for the foreseeable future? That's a dark thought
The West really fucked the rest of the entire world by basically not doing fucking anything and then hoarding vaccines. Just another iteration of the West fucking over the rest of the world for centuries I guess
I mean even if the west acted in the best collective interests of humanity, the problem of COVID still being around would still exist. Yes the initial death toll and long COVID numbers would have been much, much lower, but COVID would still exist now. Which is what I'm getting at. There doesn't appear to be a solution to stop that. While vaccines are very helpful, we can't vaccinate against COVID like we vaccinated against measles and polio for example, COVID mutates and spreads too quickly, so you keep on needing new vaccines. Even with all our scientific and social advancement, we're still stumped.
I just struggle to imagine we'd be in anywhere close to the position we currently are if the rest of the world had followed the example of AES states, particularly China, and had actual serious lockdowns when the WHO declared the pandemic, followed by local lockdowns for local outbreaks, along with mobilizing the military to go door to door handing out food so people wouldnt have to risk going to grocery stores. But the West couldnt abide that, because the line might keep going down for a little while longer. I think the US turning it's working class into a petri dish for COVID mutations was just about the worst possible thing that could've happened, while the entire bourgeoisie kept adhering to COVID precautions. But maybe you're right and we wouldn't have been able to fully stop it regardless. It just bodes very ill for whatever the next pandemic will be.
I don’t think this is true, this is the most researched virus in history. I have been told from numerous people in epidemiology & virology that if everyone did what China and NZ did it would be a matter of two or three weeks before this thing was completely eradicated. Since there are animal reservoirs now even though it seems less contagious through those means I’m not sure this is possible anymore. Vax and relax will not work. We have a wealth of research and the knowledge of what we need to do, but the social & political will is not there. That should be the part that gets you feeling
because as far as I’m aware the science actually seems very optimistic in a vacuum.
I think it's still possible, since COVID did not come from a bat, and pretty much all wildlife is as unrelated to us as a bat (rodents like squirrels are still slightly close tho)
It brings up a more important question of whether wildlife is being hurt by covid, however
People think this is fine, so we have to wait until there are vaccines that stop transmission, or prevent it from getting in the bloodstream. There's a few in the works, but since "covid is over" there doesn't seem to be a rush.
In the meantime we have to hope that no crazy new variant appears that completely bypasses an immune response from previous exposure/vaccines and restarts the worst of it.
It's still very fixable on a physical level. There are multiple ways we could end the pandemic.
On a cultural level, I don't think anything can change until there's a major shock: a collapse of western hegemony over media or politics, or a series of particularly gruesome and visible covid deaths.
Sure on a physical level you could eradicate almost every disease known to man. But as you said that's not really a viable possibility, society and humanity doesn't work that way. If it did, disease would not exist. I guess the best we have on a systemic level is what China did, weather the worst of the COVID pandemic with lockdowns, and open up once the worst is over, avoiding the high initial death tolls and worst effects of long term illness/disability, and getting a large amount of the population vaccinated before opening up again. But that still leaves dealing with the virus afterwards long term, which there appears to be no visible solution for.
Physical solutions would include:
Do China-style contact tracing lockdowns forever, globally, forever (nowhere near as bad as it sounds; countries that did this succeeded until they reopened borders with countries that didn't)
Massively invest in better air filtration and HVAC until the disease's r-value dips below 1
Lock down everything globally for two months, eradicating covid, the flu, the common cold, strep throat, and a hundred unnamed seasonal cruds