Originally Posted by
donkdowndonedied
I don't think anyone was under the impression that we'd prevent omicron from arriving. Rather, it just slows down the spread here to help us allow more measures in place, whatever they might be. (new vaccine for those who want one, or more understanding, etc)
I don't necessarily disagree with you but it'd seem they should just reverse the bans earlier. Like this omnicron thing is all over the US now, so preventing travel from South Africa more than another week doesn't really make sense regardless. I think a bit of caution is fine but the bans need to be revisited constantly to see if they make sense.
It just doesn't seem useful to me.
A very contagious variant is going to spread rapidly, even if a relatively small number of people with that variant are already in the country.
Very contagious variant + mostly pre-symptomatic transmission = exponential spread
They might as well give up on this.
One big problem with recent COVID prevention methods is that they require highly burdensome sacrifices in order to achieve a negligible gain. Mask mandates, 6-foot distancing requirements, crowd restrictions, travel restrictions, and hyper-sanitizing have not been proven to make any kind of noticeable difference in COVID spread. So why are we doing it?
We should be in the "live with COVID, return to normal, and concentrate on major benefits" phase at this point. The vaccine makes a major difference. The upcoming COVID pill might make a major difference. Future treatments might make a major difference. This is where the focus should be, while everything else should return to normal.
Every day brings a series of risks, including that of death. Driving to the grocery store is a risk. Going skiing is a risk. Swimming is a risk. Hiking is a risk. Drinking alcohol is a risk. Getting on an airplane is a risk. Even shoveling snow is a risk.
We can't seek to bring risk to zero, because that causes a disruption of nornal life to where the tradeoff isn't worth it.
People who want to manage their own personal risk should have the right to do so, but it's just insane that we aren't back to normal life with everything. The fact that we're still masking and distancing young kids is just insane.
It's fairly clear at this point that COVID will be endemic, will have a constant stream of variants, and some people will die from it each year. Hopefully our advanced scientific minds can minimize that number as time wears on.