Covid update of the moment
Elementary and high school students can go to sit in class without masks as of Monday.
Some immunocompromised people think they’re being forgotten by government as Covid restrictions vanish this month and next. Concern has also been expressed for immunocompromised students.
Aaron Derfel has a twitter thread assessing the current state of play from a scientific point of view. Summed up: politicians want it to be over, but science says hold up.
Mark Côté 10:26 on 2022-03-07 Permalink
They don’t have to wear masks in class; they still have to wear them to class (in hallways, etc.)..
Given they were allowed to remove them to eat several times a day I did wonder how effective masks were; however, my bigger wonder is why so many restrictions are being removed in such a short time.
Kate 10:29 on 2022-03-07 Permalink
Thanks for the clarification, Mark Côté.
Joey 11:19 on 2022-03-07 Permalink
There’s something to be said for being vaxxed and relaxxed, at least in between variants of concern, no? Hard to square with the legitimate needs of the immunocomprimised, parents of kids under five, those who can’t get vaccinated, etc., of course. But I increasingly see the value of being able to quickly ramp up and, importantly, ramp down public health restrictions. Then again, governments all over the world seem to really struggle with the idea that you should be simultaneously ending restrictions and preparing for future waves – though the relatively low uptake in booster doses reveals a lot about individual preferences (not me: I *love* vaccines). Hopefully the combo of boosters, RATs and anti-virals will blunt whatever nightmares SARS-COV-2 has in store for us. Surely the Pi variant will arrive next Monday, March 14…
(PS: I found Derfel’s twitter thread, as is customary, to be a over the top. All the headlines he cited as being reckless were somewhat balanced, no?)
Chris 11:10 on 2022-03-08 Permalink
>my bigger wonder is why so many restrictions are being removed in such a short time
Because 1) the hospitals are emptied out and 2) people want to live normally again.
Mark Côté 11:23 on 2022-03-08 Permalink
Dunno if I’d call hospitals “emptied out” with 1200+ people still in there with covid…
j2 11:46 on 2022-03-08 Permalink
oh great you’re back
We are about 2/3 the amount from peak values in hospitalizations and less than half for ICU patients. Given 2/3rds ICU patients – IIUC – are unvaccinated what Chris says might be true if we dumped the unvaccinated on the street. It’s true at least the ICU staff are no longer handling multiple patients at the same time, which represents compromised care for very vulnerable people.
Chris is absolutely right people are done with it, however, which is plain just watching people. Goodwill wasted on slapdash bad government health theatre. Unfortunately the disease doesn’t care how you feel and we’ve squandered a lot of time which we could have used to improve ventilation and other measures in preparation for more serious variants and also for everyday health.