<story><title>South Africa’s omicron coronavirus outbreak subsides as fast as it grew</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/12/22/south-africa-omicron-coronavirus-cases/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>spookthesunset</author><text>If hospital capacity is such a concern, why has there been just about zero effort in spinning up some kind of capacity to deal with Covid? Wasn&amp;#x27;t that the entire rationale of these lockdowns in the first place? To build capacity for covid?&lt;p&gt;Like, it&amp;#x27;s been 2 years. We shouldn&amp;#x27;t be doing any of these restrictions at all. We should be angry at our governments wasting 2 years of our non-refundable time on this earth while they did nothing. Blaming the public for hospital capacity at this point is absurd.</text></item><item><author>davidw</author><text>&amp;gt; What exactly are they waiting on?&lt;p&gt;The thing that needs to not happen is filling up hospitals. People died where I live because they could not get access to &amp;#x27;elective&amp;#x27; surgery due to the medical system being slammed during the most recent Delta wave.&lt;p&gt;Once that&amp;#x27;s not a factor, things will start getting more normal.</text></item><item><author>toolz</author><text>I can&amp;#x27;t wait until public opinion seems to catch on to the fact that we will never eliminate covid. It blows my mind that we see 100% vaccinated universities going back to online-only learning. What exactly are they waiting on?</text></item><item><author>nostromo</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m glad it&amp;#x27;s more contagious than Delta, because Delta is much worse than Omicron.&lt;p&gt;Sure, I&amp;#x27;d rather we didn&amp;#x27;t have Covid at all, but that&amp;#x27;s not been a realistic option for quite some time now.</text></item><item><author>cdrini</author><text>That chart is misleading; the rise&amp;#x2F;spike in deaths is always delayed from the rise&amp;#x2F;spike in cases.&lt;p&gt;It does seem like Omicron is less deadly than Delta. The big concern is that because it&amp;#x27;s so significantly more contagious, that even though a smaller percentage of infected people will require ventilators, the absolute number will be high enough to overwhelm hospitals.&lt;p&gt;Sources: Dr. John Campbell, Dr. Larry Brilliant (WHO) &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;YdVymGK3OzM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;YdVymGK3OzM&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;ltXkJTSBeaE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;ltXkJTSBeaE&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>nostromo</author><text>The panic surrounding Omicron is absurd.&lt;p&gt;Take a look at these two charts.  Omicron cases spiked in SA.  Deaths didn&amp;#x27;t budge.  At all.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;TgRmz4F.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;TgRmz4F.png&lt;/a&gt; [1]&lt;p&gt;Omicron is a good thing, if your baseline is Delta.  But I&amp;#x27;m still waiting for the US media stop hyperventilating about it.&lt;p&gt;1. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;graphics.reuters.com&amp;#x2F;world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps&amp;#x2F;countries-and-territories&amp;#x2F;south-africa&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;graphics.reuters.com&amp;#x2F;world-coronavirus-tracker-and-m...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>com2kid</author><text>&amp;gt; If hospital capacity is such a concern, why has there been just about zero effort in spinning up some kind of capacity to deal with Covid?&lt;p&gt;The first wave of COVID killed a bunch of doctors and nurses, and burnt a lot more out.&lt;p&gt;Then Delta made a bunch more doctors and nurses quit, with wide reports right now that 20% of nurses are looking to up and leave their job. Talking to my friends who are nurses, they are short staffed, and have been for some time.&lt;p&gt;On top of that, the way the US does medical training for both nurses and doctors ensures we don&amp;#x27;t have enough medical professionals during normal times. Nursing schools can&amp;#x27;t find instructors (pay is too low) and hospitals are purposefully limiting the number of residency spots available to ensure prices for medical care stay high (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Residency_(medicine)#Financing_residency_programs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Residency_(medicine)#Financing...&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;p&gt;So, you know, business as usual in the US.</text></comment>
<story><title>South Africa’s omicron coronavirus outbreak subsides as fast as it grew</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/12/22/south-africa-omicron-coronavirus-cases/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>spookthesunset</author><text>If hospital capacity is such a concern, why has there been just about zero effort in spinning up some kind of capacity to deal with Covid? Wasn&amp;#x27;t that the entire rationale of these lockdowns in the first place? To build capacity for covid?&lt;p&gt;Like, it&amp;#x27;s been 2 years. We shouldn&amp;#x27;t be doing any of these restrictions at all. We should be angry at our governments wasting 2 years of our non-refundable time on this earth while they did nothing. Blaming the public for hospital capacity at this point is absurd.</text></item><item><author>davidw</author><text>&amp;gt; What exactly are they waiting on?&lt;p&gt;The thing that needs to not happen is filling up hospitals. People died where I live because they could not get access to &amp;#x27;elective&amp;#x27; surgery due to the medical system being slammed during the most recent Delta wave.&lt;p&gt;Once that&amp;#x27;s not a factor, things will start getting more normal.</text></item><item><author>toolz</author><text>I can&amp;#x27;t wait until public opinion seems to catch on to the fact that we will never eliminate covid. It blows my mind that we see 100% vaccinated universities going back to online-only learning. What exactly are they waiting on?</text></item><item><author>nostromo</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m glad it&amp;#x27;s more contagious than Delta, because Delta is much worse than Omicron.&lt;p&gt;Sure, I&amp;#x27;d rather we didn&amp;#x27;t have Covid at all, but that&amp;#x27;s not been a realistic option for quite some time now.</text></item><item><author>cdrini</author><text>That chart is misleading; the rise&amp;#x2F;spike in deaths is always delayed from the rise&amp;#x2F;spike in cases.&lt;p&gt;It does seem like Omicron is less deadly than Delta. The big concern is that because it&amp;#x27;s so significantly more contagious, that even though a smaller percentage of infected people will require ventilators, the absolute number will be high enough to overwhelm hospitals.&lt;p&gt;Sources: Dr. John Campbell, Dr. Larry Brilliant (WHO) &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;YdVymGK3OzM&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;YdVymGK3OzM&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;ltXkJTSBeaE&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;youtu.be&amp;#x2F;ltXkJTSBeaE&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>nostromo</author><text>The panic surrounding Omicron is absurd.&lt;p&gt;Take a look at these two charts.  Omicron cases spiked in SA.  Deaths didn&amp;#x27;t budge.  At all.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;TgRmz4F.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;TgRmz4F.png&lt;/a&gt; [1]&lt;p&gt;Omicron is a good thing, if your baseline is Delta.  But I&amp;#x27;m still waiting for the US media stop hyperventilating about it.&lt;p&gt;1. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;graphics.reuters.com&amp;#x2F;world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps&amp;#x2F;countries-and-territories&amp;#x2F;south-africa&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;graphics.reuters.com&amp;#x2F;world-coronavirus-tracker-and-m...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>davidw</author><text>A lot of it is finding the people, beyond the physical space. You can&amp;#x27;t just &amp;#x27;spin up&amp;#x27; nurses like AWS instances. They&amp;#x27;re in short supply right now, and many are feeling burned out. There&amp;#x27;s a post going around about a doctor who got assaulted by deranged family members of a man who died. Don&amp;#x27;t know if it&amp;#x27;s real, but a lot of people were saying they&amp;#x27;ve experienced similar and are just done with it.</text></comment>