Covid 19 - Updates from your zones

[Róisín]

Star got his Pfizer booster shot today. A great relief. He had better be okay, since this is his last home visit from the doctor. From now on I will be completely on my own doing his daily dressing changes and wraps. At least we don’t have to worry about covid entering the mix of other medical problems. I know you can still catch covid even when vaccinated and boosted, but people in that situation tend to get a far less severe case, and only rarely die or wind up in the ICU.

Things are a bit scary today in SA. One baby has died in hospital and the case numbers are ramping up again - 1,374 new cases overnight. And a month ago we were down to just a few new cases a day, some days none at all. So much for opening up the economy. And the government has changed the regulations so that medical staff who have been exposed have to keep working after being tested unless or until they get a definite positive result. I suppose the whole idea is herd immunity, since Omicron is supposed to be less severe than other variants even if more contagious, and catching it is supposed to confer immunity to other strains. Did I mention that Australia has both State and Federal elections this year? I suppose the anti-vaxxers and those desperate for work will be glad to vote for anything that lets them work and party. I feel it could be better managed for the long term.

[JoB]

the government has changed the regulations so that medical staff who have been exposed have to keep working after being tested unless or until they get a definite positive result. I suppose the whole idea is herd immunity, since Omicron is supposed to be less severe than other variants even if more contagious, and catching it is supposed to confer immunity to other strains.

Why would you hand this regulation only to medical personnel, then?

My guess would be that they're worrying about omicron spreading faster, leading to more simultaneous cases, thus more people calling in sick at once, thus critical infrastructure (like health care) in danger of failing due to lack of workforce. At least that's the stated reason why Germany is currently pondering to shorten the quarantine for symptomlessly infected from 10 days to maybe 7 or 5.

(And yes, being more infectious and less lethal in the short term is a requirement for a new strain to be able to supplant the old one(s) in an ongoing epidemic.)

[wavewright62]

Australia's situation is serving as an object lesson in NZ, even while we are gagging to reopen the travel bubble with them.

[tehta]

Whee! 1.6k new cases here today, up from 700 yesterday, in a region of 300k people. And I know people who couldn't even get a testing appointment, so it's probably more.

I plan to get up early tomorrow and hit the supermarket to stock up on a week's worth of food (and wine).

[thorny]

Why is some chunk of my head saying "A week's not enough!" ?

[lumilaulu]

(And yes, being more infectious and less lethal in the short term is a requirement for a new strain to be able to supplant the old one(s) in an ongoing epidemic.)

Unless you're talking about a strain that kills very quickly, at most within a few days, being less lethal isn't a requirement to supplant a different strain. I'm not sure about alpha, but, while omicron seems to be less lethal than what came before it, delta is (unfortunately) more lethal. What alpha, delta, and omicron all have in common is that they are/were more infectious than the strain they supplanted. Alpha supplanted the original SARS-CoV-2 strain because it was more infectious, delta supplanted alpha because it was more infectious, omicron supplanted delta because it is more infectious (situation in Western Europe).

[JoB]

I plan to get up early tomorrow and hit the supermarket to stock up on a week's worth of food (and wine).

Why is some chunk of my head saying "A week's not enough!" ?

Because it takes 10-14 days to get rid of an infection in the best case, so that's the yardstick for the length of the quarantine handed to people who cannot prove (with a test ...) that they're in fact not infected.

Unless you're talking about a strain that kills very quickly, at most within a few days, being less lethal isn't a requirement to supplant a different strain.

... yeeaaaah, that addition might've been put in writing with infectious diseases other than COVID-19 in mind ...

[thorny]

Because it takes 10-14 days to get rid of an infection in the best case, so that's the yardstick for the length of the quarantine handed to people who cannot prove (with a test ...) that they're in fact not infected.

That's a nice fully logical reason. But I think the part of my head reacting like that is actually the bit that's been expecting The End Of The World As We Know It for about, oh, fifty years now. Mostly the rest of my head points out to that bit that it hasn't happened in 50 years so it's probably not going to happen this year either, and gets it calmed back down; but it also helps to have at any rate several week's worth of most things that keep that well on hand. Which isn't very logical, because if TEOTWAWKI did happen, several weeks wouldn't be all that much better than one week.

[tehta]

Thorny, I would absolutely buy more than a week's worth of food, but if stuff gets worse we won't stay at this house. (My partner and I are working remotely from his hometown. We're currently house-sitting his aunt's somewhat dilapidated apartment, but his parents would like us to go live with them if there's a lockdown.)

[JoB]

But I think the part of my head reacting like that is actually the bit that's been expecting The End Of The World As We Know It for about, oh, fifty years now.

Can I interest you that part in some of the materials from back when I was with the BVS ...

[thorny]

JoB, I regret to tell you that I can't read that site! I only have English and a very little bit of French. (And, I suppose, Google Translate; but I didn't go that far.)

Looks like a list of large packages of long-term-storage food, maybe? I don't actually go in for those versions of things -- I just buy extra of things I'm using anyway, and rotate. (And I do have seed in stock, and tools, and while I only raise produce I am surrounded by field crop/livestock farms in an area that I'm sure is normally overall a net food producer; in the case of TEOTWAWKI, starvation's actually fairly low on the list of things I'd be likely to die of. It's just that the back of my head isn't entirely convinced of that. And it is a lot more convenient -- as well as currently safer -- not to have to go to the store very often, anyway.)

[Róisín]

Being the old bushie that I am, I always have at least a month’s supply of dried and tinned supplies on hand, plus firewood and medical supplies. Where I live it is common for the power to be out for days at a time, and not uncommon for it to be out for weeks. And I am very relieved to be getting my rainwater tanks repaired!

[JoB]

JoB, I regret to tell you that I can't read that site!

... yeeeaaahh I'm afraid that Germany's Federal Organization for [the Support of] Self-Protection was not very interested in internationalization/translations.
(It was disbanded after the Cold War.)

Spoiler: (cold) wartimes stories • show

Frankly, the BVS brochure I wanted to link would've been the one on constructing private nuclear shelters, with info on half-dose thicknesses of ferroconcrete and soil cover, minimum cross-section of filtered-air vent pipes per occupant, usage instructions for radiation dose computation disks, yadda yadda, but it seems that this one on stockpiling suggestions for general households is the only one to ever have arrived in the WWW.

Dangit, I'd like to find the bunker one online. Someone nicked my printed copy when my back-then employer dabbled with the earliest form of legally binding electronic signatures in Germany - under legalese that required the CA to be housed in outright bunkers, not to speak of the requirements plainly defying logic and physics.

[Yastreb]

Australian figures for new infections are spiking; over 34,000 recorded today, with fifteen deaths.

NSW: + 21,131, with six deaths
Victoria: + 7,362, with nine deaths
Queensland: + 3,111
South Australia: + 2,085
Australian Capital Territory: +446
Tasmania: +148
Northern Territory: +63
Western Australia: + 8

[Róisín]

Sadly expected, with all the parties and protests. But incredibly stupid! Keep looking after you and yours as you can, Yastreb!