Was reading this post and was absolutely terrified. It's gonna be bad.

Take away is that current lock downs are basically useless against the new strain as it has mutated enough to be more transmissible thru/around mask. Vaccines are still likely to work, and its not more deadly (seems like), but just going to blow thru our preventive measures like nothing.

Reposting because the first post didn't get enough traction and I need people to commiserate with me. Pulled out the money shot image, because I know libs don't read .

  • Not_irony [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    The end result is the same, its gonna/is getting worse. But it would be weird, in my mind as a layman, if the virus didn't mutate to be more infectious. Lock downs are 1/3rd (at least/most? they aren't enough, is what i'm saying) of a proper pandemic response, for sure

    • KantNeverCould [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      The only way it could "get worse" in the US at least is if we stopped making people wear masks. We've basically had uncontrolled spread in every region of the country now. We're almost certainly going to reach "herd immunity" long before the vaccines get distributed to everyone. There's not really any "preventative measures" to blow through anyway, so pretty much don't let the news get you in a tizzy.

      Oddly enough, in the UK (not sure about Ireland), I read that major supermarket chains didn't even start requiring masks until like 2 weeks ago lol.

      • Not_irony [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        A full-blown Ireland event is driven by both the more virulent UK-strain AND a deterioration in social distancing behaviors… Irish health authorities estimate that their starting point for Covid Re was something between 1.1 and 1.3 (meaning that, on average, one person infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus would pass it along to 1.1 – 1.3 new people). They blame deteriorating masking/social distancing for the majority of their “event” (say, a 0.9 – 1.1 increase in the Re number), and the UK-variant for the balance (say, a 0.5 – 0.7 increase in Re)…Notably, the UK-variant is, relatively speaking, significantly more infectious than the baseline virus for “close contacts” (not face-to-face, up to 2 meters apart) rather than “direct contacts”, meaning that the UK-variant virus is particularly successful at bridging the air gap between strangers or short-duration contacts in an indoor space…. the UK-variant virus dramatically reduces the margin of error we have with mask wearing and social distancing outside of the home.

        tokyodrifttrollyproblem.jpeg

        • KantNeverCould [any]
          ·
          4 years ago

          This is basically what already happened in every region of the US outside of NYC. Eventually, people got tired of the restrictions, so they got sloppy and welp, the virus spread. The whole "NEW STRAIN" is just because we can actually study it now. There's likely several strains everywhere, no one noticed them before it was just "Covid"