Seems to be turning out that the Omicron variant is transmitted more easily but not nearly as lethal as earlier varieties.


The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 infects and multiplies faster than the Delta variant and original SARS-CoV-2 in the human bronchus, which may explain why it may transmit faster between people than previous variants. However, it does not easily infect the lower lungs and this, researchers say, potentially explains why instances of severe disease are proportionally lower in cases involving Omicron.
The study was led by researchers from the LKS Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/omicron-slow-to-infect-lungs-says-study/article37972410.ece

next year Comicon will arrive just in time for the mid-term campaign.

The Omicron variant was predictable if you follow the science. Virus' that kill off their hosts don't survive..They evolve .Eventually they become like the common cold ;which in some cases is a coronavirus too. There are over 200 strains of that and there are NO vaccines to prevent it .
Clueless says getting vaccinated is a patriotic duty because it stops the spread. But that is proved to be a false statement as vaccinated people can indeed be spreaders .

This week the CDC ended it's endorsement of the J&J vaccine . Something about it causing blood clots .Who saw that coming ? What do they say to the multi-millions who have taken the J&J jab on their advice ?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FG0vyH1WUAE1gJo?format=jpg&name=small

Back in the day a vaccine was taken to provide immunity ;prevent getting a disease or the spread of the disease . If I read correctly the vaccine disciples say the reason for vaccine is to have a less serious case of the disease. Omicon is spreading rapidly even though more than half the population is vaccinated .

Time for all patriotic Americans to get covid. Omicron is here and no jab is going to make a difference. New York ;one of the most heavily regulated states in the nation recorded 20,000 cases in a single day.

New York coronavirus cases top 20,000 for daily record as shutdowns spread | South China Morning Post (scmp.com) (https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3160208/new-york-coronavirus-cases-top-20000-daily-record)

Omicron does not care if you practice suggested covid prevention protocols . It does not care if you are vaxed .If you are the lucky few who have not gotten the virus yet consider yourself fortunate and thank your lucky stars that when Omicron gets you ;it is the mildest of variants yet But it will get you . Forget the idea of evading it by wrapping yourself in a bubble wrap world . That aint happening .


We are now going into that 2nd year of "two weeks to flatten the curve" . We now live in a new reality that says if you become a pin cushion you MAY avoid hospitalization.

Our response should enter a new phase too. Continue the vaccines as is recommended (I am not sold on the idea yet that boosters make a difference) . What is needed is therapeutic responses. The vaxes were fast tract through emergency use authorization. Why are theraputics tied up in bureaucratic slow roll out?

Our response should enter a new phase too. Continue the vaccines as is recommended (I am not sold on the idea yet that boosters make a difference) . What is needed is therapeutic responses. The vaxes were fast tract through emergency use authorization. Why are therapeutics tied up in bureaucratic slow roll out?That's a really good point. This thing is here to stay in all likelihood. We're going to have to learn to live with it, and developing more effective treatments is vital.

Clueless was at his clueless best today. One question ;States and cities are awash with Quidbucks to the tune of more than $1 trillion in covid funding passed by Congress early this year. Why didn’t they use the funds to stockpile Covid tests? Why didn’t they build surge capacity at hospitals and clinics? Where did the money go? Answer ;the $$$ went to bail out state employee union pension funds .

ground zero for new infections is NYC ;the most vaccinated place in the country . And yet Clueless continues to create the unvaccinated as the national boogiemen as the Dems latest effort to divide the nation

“We are looking at a winter of severe illness and death for the unvaccinated — for themselves, their families, and the hospitals they’ll soon overwhelm.” LIE
The unvaccinated are 'looking at a winter of severe illness and death': White House - ABC News (go.com) (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/unvaccinated-winter-severe-illness-death-white-house/story?id=81817431)

“We are intent on not letting omicron disrupt work and school for the vaccinated. You’ve done the right thing, and we will get through this,” “For the unvaccinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm
("White House COVID response coordinator Jeff Zients) LIE

There’s no evidence right now that omicron is going to bring “severe illness and death” The evidence so far suggests just the opposite.
South Africa Hospitalization Rate Plunges in Omicron Wave - Bloomberg (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-17/s-africa-says-hospitalizations-in-omicron-wave-much-lower)

Even lib publication 'The Atlantic says a middle course should be tried .
"Successfully navigating the next wave of the coronavirus pandemic requires charting a middle course—one designed with clear goals in mind: preventing deaths, protecting our hospitals from crushing caseloads, and keeping schools and businesses open."
Omicron Is Coming. Here’s What to Do. - The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/12/omicron-is-coming-heres-what-to-do/621064/)

If Clueless is concerned about a surge it should be the surge of illegals crossing the border. He should be concerned about the surge of illegal addictive opioids crossing the border. He should be concerned about the surge of government spending that is creating a surge in inflation. He should be concerned about the surge of crime plaguing Democrat controlled cities throughout America.

We watched the old movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington last night. It reminded me so much of what goes on now it was pitiful. So much of Washington is about maintaining power.

Yes .The big difference between then and now is that a filibuster was a filibuster and they had to hold the floor debate with actual debate . The Capraesque happy ending of the movie is in contrast to the dark corruption that dominates the Swamp.

https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/s640x640/268261002_10166484657005160_5168380227256582300_n. jpg?_nc_cat=105&_nc_rgb565=1&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=vGBTj4ypBskAX_-hkb6&tn=D3-YMvk4ckA6zEtC&_nc_ht=scontent-atl3-1.xx&oh=00_AT8T6mdnz4rQ4dW2Xtjw8AlV8BNL43-p0VnuYRodgiugMw&oe=61C9C086

Herr doctor Fauci compared covid to WWII

"There's no way I’m going to walk away from this until we get this under control," "We're in a war, Jon. It's kind of like we're halfway through World War II, and you decide, ‘I think I’ve had enough of this. I’m walking away.’ You can’t do that. You've gotta finish it. And we're gonna finish this and get back to normal."

Fauci urges Americans to stay 'prudent' as omicron 'something to be reckoned with' - ABC News (go.com) (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fauci-urges-americans-stay-prudent-omicron-reckoned/story?id=81834377)

Not quite yet . 5.3 million
people world wide have died from covid so far . 35 million died in WWII . But there is one point to what he said .
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FHZlc31XIAMxdZz?format=jpg&name=small

What did people do during WW2 to get themselves through it in one piece?

I don't understand your question much like I don't understand his comparison except for some faulty comparison to mobilizing to fight a war.

I don't understand your question much like I don't understand his comparison except for some faulty comparison to mobilizing to fight a war.
We mobilized at home and abroad in all sorts of ways to fight WW2.

We are mobilizing in all sorts of ways to fight covid and its variants.

the threat does not justify a national mobilization response . Primarily the mandates are a matter of power ,control and not need .

the threat does not justify a national mobilization response . Primarily the mandates are a matter of power ,control and not need .
The threat covers all fifty states plus territories. In other words, let everyone run amuck and sicken/kill each other? Too many people don't use the brains God gave them. Thus, the government has to step in.

Yes the Hank Morgan school of governement .

" An earthly despotism would be the absolutely perfect earthly government, if the conditions were the same, namely the despot the perfectest individual of the human race," (Mark Twain ....'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court')
The people must cast aside their primitive traditions of personal liberty and freedom of thought for the collective interests . The benevolent dictator will bring reason and science to the ignorant rubes ("I follow the science "chant)
The nanny state theory enunciated again. We must accept the benevolent dictator for our own good.The flaw is that there are not a lot of King Solomons out there .What seems good and wise appears foolish and tyrannical to others .

Herr Doctor Fauci says he is a scientist . He says follow the science . But he also acts like a nannystate politician who squashes and suppresses science he does not agree with. Along with Herr Doctor Francis Collins,retiring Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH),he called epidemiologists who questioned the lock down logic "fringe" . Martin Kulldorff of Harvard, Sunetra Gupta of Oxford, and Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford were following the evidence.They wrote the Great Barrington Declaration [GBD] that now has over 900,000 signatures from "fringe " scientists .
Great Barrington Declaration (gbdeclaration.org) (https://gbdeclaration.org/)

He pressured social media to censor the GBD and anyone who posted support . Herr Doctor Fauci represents the nanny state. But he went on TV and claimed anyone who says he is wrong is anti-science because he represents science.

Transcript: Dr. Anthony Fauci on "Face the Nation," November 28, 2021 - CBS News (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-dr-anthony-fauci-on-face-the-nation-november-28-2021/)

The heads of our government's health bureaucracy felt it was more important to shut down the views of a group of scientists than to have an open debate about the best approach to dealing with the virus.

Herr Doctor Fauci does not live in a policy vacuum. What he does and says affects the whole nation. How many deaths is he responsible for just because he shutdown medical usage of repurposed medications like Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin ? How many people were negatively impacted healthwise and economically by policy decisions these so called experts convinced the tip pot dictators to follow ?

Merry Christmas to all of you. God bless your soon to be here new year.

Merry Christmas .

In Hoc Anno Domini - WSJ (https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-hoc-anno-domini-vermont-royster-editorial-11640296509)

No Christmas cheer from the libs on this site. Sad.

Looks like the CDC was a just a tiny bit off on its omicron prediction.


The CDC significantly reduced its estimate for how prevalent the omicron variant of COVID-19 (https://www.foxnews.com/category/health/infectious-disease/coronavirus) is in the United States on Tuesday, saying that the new variant was only responsible for 22.5% of new cases in the week that ended Dec. 18, not the alarming 73.2% that it had originally estimated last week. They are only off by almost 350%.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/cdc-significantly-reduces-estimate-of-omicron-prevalence-in-the-united-states

What is more alarming is that there is a spike in cases ;and if it isn't omicrom then the Delta is still surging.

Probably less of a spike if the level of vaccinations would increase a lot faster.

The Compost is reporting that the O variant has peaked in South Africa causing "relatively few deaths and hospitalizations " .

Omicron has passed peak in South Africa, causing relatively few deaths and hospitalizations, authorities say (msn.com) (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/omicron-has-passed-peak-in-south-africa-causing-relatively-few-deaths-and-hospitalizations-authorities-say/ar-AASiKZ7?ocid=msedgntp)

So can all the 'Chicken Little' cluckers please go back into your coops please?

That includes you nanny Hochel of NY who has decided to follow the science by ignoring the science .....or at least the science as recommended by the CDC . The CDC said that any vaxed person that tests positive need only quarantine for 5 days.

Nanny Hochel says that in NY she is the final arbiter of the science. She says that so called "essential " workers as interpreted by her definition of who is essential may follow the CDC guidelines . But ; if she deems you to be so unimportant as to be nonessential ,then you have to quarantine 5 extra days .
This isn't following the science .It is nanny state central planning as NY Dems are wont to do. If a shorter period is scientifically and medically acceptable, it should be the standard rule for all , not a government bestowed privilege.

So who in NY's planned economy are deemed essential ? Well you have the obvious ones that no one would dispute ;heath care providers ,police ,firefighters etc. Others are head scratchers . Bartenders are essential . People who do services for government buildings are . But their peers in the private sector are not .
It is a mishmash of inconsistent exemptions that only make sense in the eyes of the power hungry despots who run NY state . Il duce Cuomo chose his successor well.

When Trump was pres, some of the liberal dems on this board could hardly wait to accuse him of being responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Covid victims. Now that Biden is pres, they are strangely silent. At any rate, the latest news on the Covid front is not great.

This is according to Foxnews. "Meanwhile, the U.S. recorded its record number of COVID-19 cases for a single day on Monday, almost doubling the previous record of about 590,000 set just four days earlier. This, despite 73% of the U.S. population being at least partially vaccinated and 62% fully vaccinated, according to the CDC."

Why isn't everyone fully vaccinated?

San Fran mayor learning to live with covid .

Where have you heard that before ?

San Francisco mayor: 'learning to live with COVID' - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlMaigsjR9w),

Going for the booster shot. Still wearing mask, and living my life.

I see no point in the booster . Even the flu vax gets tweaked for different strains But we are supposed to believe that the same one developed for Alpha will protect against every variant.It is not practical or feasible for everyone to take another jab ever 4-6 months .

"Former President Donald Trump (https://abcnews.go.com/alerts/DonaldTrump) revealed he received a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, drawing boos from a crowd in Dallas."
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/trump-reveals-covid-19-booster-shot-crowd-boos-81860432

What Trump does is not my problem . He can make his own choices .

Unfortunately Tom, the dufus still holds a lot of influences among repubs both elected and unelected so his choices have effects even with the rare pushback from some of his followers.

Perhaps I missed it, but when have any of the liberal dems here exercised any "pushback" on Biden? And if they haven't, and they haven't, then why would you hold repubs to a standard you are not willing to meet yourself?

Conservative dems have always pushed back on dems in the WH. Never heard of bluedogs or Manchin??

I’m talking about lib dems here.

How many conservative repubs pushed back on the dufus's big mouth?

At least one. Me.

A group of Dem policy advisors led by Zeke Emanuel (brother of 'never let a crisis go to waste' Rham and one of the main architects of Obamacare ) have written an essay entitled 'A National Strategy for the 'New Normal ' life with Covid ' .

In their view ,the 'new normal ' is the permanent health crisis nanny state.

“The goal for the ‘new normal’ with COVID-19 does not include eradication or elimination, eg, the ‘zero COVID’ strategy.”

Eradication is a plan that Clueless has abandoned for all intent and purpose although he is still stuck on disproved rhetoric like 'pandemic of the unvaccinated ' and the 'vaccinated don't spread the disease'.

What is new is that they want to double down on emergency policies by expanding the list of respiratory illnesses covered .


The “new normal” requires recognizing that SARS-CoV-2 is but one of several circulating respiratory viruses that include influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and more. COVID-19 must now be considered among the risks posed by all respiratory viral illnesses combined. Many of the measures to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (eg, ventilation) will also reduce transmission of other respiratory viruses. Thus, policy makers should retire previous public health categorizations, including deaths from pneumonia and influenza or pneumonia, influenza, and COVID-19, and focus on a new category: the aggregate risk of all respiratory virus infections.

A National Strategy for the “New Normal” of Life With COVID | Infectious Diseases | JAMA | JAMA Network (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2787944)

BRILLIANT !

Get the sniffles ;LOCK THEM DOWN !

Now you ask any Dem about photo id's for the purpose of the integrity of the vote and their hair goes afire. But these guys have no issue with requiring national vaccination passports .

In addition, to facilitate verification of vaccination status and to better track postvaccination infections, there needs to be an electronic vaccine certificate platform. Relying on forgeable paper cards is unacceptable in the 21st century. Current state immunization information systems are incomplete, fragmented, and not interoperable, hindering national efforts to control the virus. A national electronic vaccine certificate platform is needed, such as the SMART Health Card, that ensures interoperability across states and countries, safeguards individual privacy, and is based on open-source technology publicly available for vetting to help satisfy any concerns over government surveillance. While controversial, this is not unprecedented. State and national databases are in use for other information, including for driver’s licenses, Social Security, voter registration, and specific health purposes, such as organ donation.

In the 'new normal ' America they would have mandatory vax for attending school and have us carry around our electronic passport for the ability to attend public events ;eat at restaurants ,go to movies ,sporting events etc ,and travel on public transportation.

The sound we hear in the distance is a red wave coming in November. We better hope it is. Otherwise, it is hard to imagine how much longer this semi-fantasy existence we have created can go on.

Speaking of the vax;oral arguments were made to SCOTUS over the Clueless OSHA vax mandate. Notable was in questioning ,lib justices Sotomayer and Breyer treated unvaxed workers as sub human garbage.

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: So what’s the difference between this and telling employers, where sparks are flying in the workplace, your workers have to be — wear a mask?
MR. KELLER: When sparks are flying in the workplace, that’s presumably because there’s a machine that’s unique to that workplace. That is the —
JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: Why is the human being not like a machine if it’s spewing a virus, blood-borne viruses? Are you questioning Congress’s power or desire that OSHA do this? It already in 1991 told OSHA to issue regulations with respect to Hep C and B.

well for one thing ,covid is not blood borne . Hep C and B are covered in the OSHA statutes ;not off the cuff executive action by an imperial dictate.

Justice Breyer, argued that it should be acceptable for OSHA to adopt regulations that drive workers out of the workplace because, some people might quit rather than work with unvaccinated others.

Imagine the irony of a lib saying it is ok to discriminate against' others ' because workers would quit rather than working with them.Substitute the word Blacks with unvaccinated and see the protests .

What we know now is that vaccination does not protect others from either getting covid or spreading it . Follow the science dude! Your logic is flawed and outdated .

SCOTUS stayed implementation of the Clueless Joe power grab covid mandate



Why does the major questions doctrine matter? It ensures that the national government’s power to make the laws that govern us remains where Article I of the Constitution says it belongs—with the people’s elected representatives. If administrative agencies seek to regulate the daily lives and liberties of millions of Americans, the doctrine says, they must at least be able to trace that power to a clear grant of authority from Congress.

Majority opinion 'NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS v. OSHA' Gorsuch writing for the majority .

Doctrines cited by the majority serve to prevent “government by bureaucracy supplanting government by the people. "

On the one hand, OSHA claims the power to issue a nationwide mandate on a major question but cannot trace its authority to do so to any clear congressional mandate. On the other hand, if the statutory subsection the agency cites really did endow OSHA with the power it asserts, that law would likely constitute an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority. Under OSHA’s reading,the law would afford it almost unlimited discretion—and certainly impose no “specific restrictions” that “meaningfully constrain” the agency


21A244 National Federation of Independent Business v. OSHA (01/13/2022) (supremecourt.gov) (https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21a244_hgci.pdf)

And that is by far the biggest problem with the progressive administrative nanny state . Congress hands over power to unelected bureaucrats that don't have accountability to the elected representatives or indeed any accountability to the people .

Barring an act of congress then corporations and companies can mandate their own work rules. Surprisingly I can live with that as it just blows the covers off those companies that have implemented a shots or testing requirement. Wonder what they'll do now.

They will probably tread carefully . The company I worked for implemented covid policies long before any were mandated . This is a stay and not a final ruling although the way I read the decision ,it may as well be so.

The court upheld the mandate that health care workers must be vaccinated to work at medical facilities receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding.

Got a new name for the President's testing roll out ......... Operation Snail Speed .

It's hard to imagine how the pres could do much worse than he's doing, It's amazing to think that he's only been in office for a year. Feels much, much longer than that.

Won't be long before insurance companies start charging the unvaxxed for those hospital visits. Pray for that herd immunity.