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Biden’s New Strategy for Omicron: ‘Hold On and Hope the Worst Is Over Soon’
National Review ^ | January 6, 2022 | JIM GERAGHTY

Posted on 01/06/2022 11:08:30 AM PST by BeauBo

Health officials inside and outside his administration privately acknowledge that there’s little new left for the federal government to do but hold on and hope the worst is over soon.

“Hold on and hope the worst is over soon” is very, very far away from “I’m going to shut down the virus.”

The good news is that with all of the vaccinations, boosters, and natural immunity and past infections, the Omicron variant wave isn’t going to be nearly as deadly as past waves. But we’re still in for a challenging couple of weeks ahead...

the number of hospital beds in use, and the percentage of hospital beds being used by someone being treated for Covid-19, is creeping up, day by day...

Are we peaking yet? We’re probably close...

Dr. Jeffrey Shaman, an infectious disease modeler and epidemiologist at Columbia University, writes, “our models project that the United States is likely to document more Covid-19 cases in January than in any previous month of the pandemic, but a smaller fraction of those cases will require hospitalization… a rapid surge of cases nationally that peaks at record high numbers during the first one to three weeks of January... Our middle-of-the-cone projection produces five million cases during the worst week but ranges from three million to more than eight million cases... New York City is projected to peak during the first week of January; other locations peak later.”

That sounds pretty ominous, but thankfully, most Omicron infections are mild. What we’re experiencing... should be akin to a bad flu season. The problem is that Covid-19 can still kill people who are elderly, immunocompromised, in particularly bad health, or have some combination of those factors, and the odds of beating a Covid infection are worse if the person is unvaccinated.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: covid; omicron
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It seems that many National Governments are now leaning more toward "Let it Rip" policies for Omicron. That has been what I have favored, especially since the vaccines have been available to all who wanted them.

Travel bans are now being lifted in several Countries, Testing and quarantine requirements are being loosened in many areas.

We should see some of the areas where Omicron first took off in the USA (like New York City) crest pretty soon. The first few local crests should ease general anxiety quite a bit.

COVID seems to be on track to play itself out pretty soon. February should be a whole new scene, with folks emerging from their bunkers, blinking in the sunlight...

1 posted on 01/06/2022 11:08:30 AM PST by BeauBo
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To: BeauBo

so was he lying when he said he would end covid...

or is he lying now?


2 posted on 01/06/2022 11:13:16 AM PST by cableguymn
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To: BeauBo

Close, try:

Let go and watch it get better soon.


3 posted on 01/06/2022 11:15:40 AM PST by SaxxonWoods
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To: BeauBo

That’s my strategy too. I finally got covid last week, after 2 years avoiding it.

Meanwhile my 19 year old son’s Cal State university is requiring him to be vaxxed, boosted, tested, and masked when he returns to school in two weeks, and they STILL are pondering shutting down “for a few weeks at first.” Despite all that.


4 posted on 01/06/2022 11:18:02 AM PST by olivia3boys
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To: BeauBo

So, after 2 years Biden has come to the conclusion Trump reached by May 2020.


5 posted on 01/06/2022 11:21:28 AM PST by circlecity
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To: circlecity
So, after 2 years Biden has come to the conclusion Trump reached by May 2020.

Maybe because Brandon thinks it's 2020.

6 posted on 01/06/2022 11:23:06 AM PST by 1Old Pro (Let's make crime illegal again!)
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To: BeauBo
“I’m going to shut down the virus.”

You couldn't shut down a Kool Aid stand.

7 posted on 01/06/2022 11:24:57 AM PST by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
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To: All

No.

The Excess Deaths profile of NYC has been near zero such since mid 2020. There is no NYC Omicron crest coming because it hasn’t seen a peak of deaths for nearly 2 years.

The why in this is likely found in the recent quotes from I think the new mayor. Namely: “You cannot run this city when there is 30% occupancy in office buildings. Mortgages can’t be paid. All sorts of finance cannot work. I am begging people . . . please come back.”

Hard to infect people who aren’t there to breathe virus, regardless of variant.


8 posted on 01/06/2022 11:37:14 AM PST by Owen
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To: Owen

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm

Scroll waaaay down to the update dashboard button, but don’t click it yet. First, slightly above it to the right, click weekly deaths by age. Then click it and there is a pull down by state. NYC has its own specifier.

Select and look at graphs. NYC has had no signif EDs, all age groups, since spring of 2020. There is no peak to crest. NY state as a whole, different story. Hard to empty out an entire state or have everyone in it work from home.


9 posted on 01/06/2022 11:42:39 AM PST by Owen
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To: Owen

“30% occupancy”

What a disaster DiCommio and Cuomo have been to New York.

It would be very hard for the new Mayor to screw up as bad as the last.

The new Governor though, seems to be on track...


10 posted on 01/06/2022 11:49:05 AM PST by BeauBo
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To: BeauBo

HOLY CRAP. Heads up Beau.

South Africa today 551 Covid dead.


11 posted on 01/06/2022 11:50:16 AM PST by Owen
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To: Owen

“South Africa today 551 Covid dead.”

Lets hope it is some reporting delay, from the holidays or something. That is not good news.


12 posted on 01/06/2022 11:53:36 AM PST by BeauBo
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To: Owen

Worldometer charts for South African deaths does not seem to have updated in a while.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/south-africa/

551 per day would be like the Delta wave.


13 posted on 01/06/2022 12:00:24 PM PST by BeauBo
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To: Owen
Namely: “You cannot run this city when there is 30% occupancy in office buildings. Mortgages can’t be paid. All sorts of finance cannot work. I am begging people . . . please come back.”

I would point out that the he mayor of NYC uttered this nonsense just days after he announced that he will continue his predecessor’s ludicrous vaccine mandates, and on the same day that the newly-elected Manhattan DA effectively decriminalized most violent crimes.

You couldn’t find people this retarded in a bad movie script.

14 posted on 01/06/2022 12:02:23 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("All lies and jest; still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.")
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To: cableguymn

“so was he lying when he said he would end covid... or is he lying now?”

Let’s apply the usual test. If his lips were moving, he was lying.


15 posted on 01/06/2022 12:03:12 PM PST by BeauBo
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To: BeauBo

???

The chart has been updated daily for weeks.

Jan 1 53
Jan 2 30
Jan 3 83
Jan 4 159
Jan 5 110
Jan 6 not yet on chart 551


16 posted on 01/06/2022 12:08:00 PM PST by Owen
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To: Alberta's Child

Regardless of policy, people take their own actions. This is the explanation for why NYC did not see huge deaths since spring of 2020. Had nothing to do with recovery immunity. They simply weren’t in offices to breathe virus.

If you forced them back into offices or whatever enclosed space, you could probably generate deaths.


17 posted on 01/06/2022 12:11:14 PM PST by Owen
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To: unixfox

He shut down the Keystone XL pipeline.


18 posted on 01/06/2022 12:11:53 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (81 million votes...and NOT ONE "Build Back Better" hat)
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To: Owen

I’m not sure what any of those numbers mean anyway. Many of the NYC workers who have been working from home early 2020 live outside the city, so they wouldn’t necessarily show up as NYC COVID cases. You’d have to look at the numbers for the entire NYC metro region — which covers parts of four states — to get an accurate measure.


19 posted on 01/06/2022 12:18:41 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("All lies and jest; still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.")
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To: Alberta's Child

Maybe. It’s trends that tell us things about events. Not absolute measures.

They had a huge peak when no one knew anything about mitigation measures. Then they have had nothing. The peak was measured the same as the flat areas, NYC metro or just NYC.

The trend is zero Excess Deaths for almost 2 years, because no one is sitting next to each other. I have been looking for before/after subway videos. Failing so far.


20 posted on 01/06/2022 12:23:35 PM PST by Owen
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