Yeah the main hope at this point is that different strains will also produce less lethal/less serious complications.

Obv it can just as easily go in the other direction, so it's a big hope that it doesnt get worse either.

As I understood it*, the only relevance of it being a different strain was that it provided strong evidence that it was a reinfection. It has no particular bearing on vaccines which will work (or not) for all these minor very common, strain variations. The key bits may well evolve which would be serious but this is not that.


*after listening to a fairly lengthy BBC discussion with someone from the Hong Kong team and then with an epidemiologist from imperial (UK)

Yes but if we can keep getting reinfected than shutting anything down is a waste of time and the focus should be on getting healthier so the virus doesn't kill you. Though one person is not enough evidence

Not when shutting down gets us closer to effective treatments and vaccines. Also not where it prevents health systems from getting overwhelmed.

But as with most things this isn't remotely binary. Rate of reinfection is what matters, with a zero rate always being most unlikely. Also whether we have better natural protection when reinfected matters.

I thought id share how Covid testing go is in Communist Socialist Canada

I woke up Thursday with scratchy throat, sniffles, cough. Figured summer cold my sister guilted me into testing. I went on to our communist Alberta Health site and booked an appointment for a test Monday at 1:00 at a drive thru. Showed up at 12:45 and there was a line ( Sadly I caught the all teachers getting tested.) Took 90 minutes and they did the one were they swab your brain. It feels weird but not as bad as folks describe it.
Received an automated phonecall today less than 48 hours after test Negative

Cost $0

Ho hum, just the Trump administration directing the CDC to tell people not to get tested amid the worst pandemic in a century.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/26/polit...nce/index.html

Her Royal Majesty's Socialist Republic of Canada does sound awful. How you must wish you were in the land of the free.

lol when your public health department is getting orders from the top to issue bad guidance that jeopardizes public health solely for political optics ahead of an election that neither side trusts the legitimacy of, have you not reached totalitarian dystopia levels of reality?

We are not manly enough to wait 2 weeks for our test results.

6,000,000 million cases total and 1300 dead today.
Canada had 6 dead if only we tested at your rate

Not taking a shot at Canada (I love Canada) but besides the cost I don't see how this is positive.
Show symptoms on Thur so if positive you've already been shedding.
4 days to get a test and 2 days waiting for the results. Basically 7 days from symptomatic to test results.
If you had been positive, the tracing effort is going to be a lot less effective.
Faster tests and results are needed.

A person I know who took a test literally just showed up at one of the testing places and had to wait just under an hour for it. Got the results the next day (also negative).

I guess results will vary in terms of timing, but it is still quite a bit different in terms of efficiency and then contact tracing (for positives), which of course is a byproduct of a much lower amount of virus in the population due to more proper actions taken the whole time compared to the USA#1.

There was a video of how people from the rest of the world reacted to news of how the USA#1 was handling this (and that was a while ago when the deaths were much lower, guess Trump would mock it for the old death numbers) and that is pretty accurate. It is pretty unusual to see a chunk of Americans actually think the federal government in the USA#1 handled this in a proper manner, but this alternative timeline has created that type of following for now. Once Trump is gone later this year that effect will disperse pretty quickly. Think even many Trumpers will be happy when its over already.

Maybe I'm cynical but I think there is a decent % of the Trump supporters that will fight any additional measures to battle covid pretty fiercely if the policies are coming from lolbiden's mouth.
The Karens are going to be going buck wild.

Abbott's $5 foot-long Covid test approved, data show it is less effective than other tests, but you can't beat that price!

If you went to the south side location then I probably drove by you while you were standing in line. My business is just up the street.

I was at Sherwood Park its closer to Forest Heights for me

I also had a horrible experience with socialized health care lately. Needed four surgeries from probably the best oral maxillofacial surgeon in the country and a complete reconstruction of my jaw due to an infection deep in the bone. Total fees probably in excess of $80,000.

Total cost to me: $0

A lot more than $80,000.
I broke my ankle back in like 1990 that needed 3 screws. Pretty standard stuff. Bill was 30k. Had insurance but in your case that would have been well into the 6 figures. Glad you're ok.

That is one thing I can't wrap my head around. Not as in I don't understand how the US system works, but how it is to live under it.

No citizen in my country has to worry about financial risk or ruin from getting sick or injured. I simply can not go into the perspective of how it must feel to have that pressure.

You read these stories of people who gets some disease or injury, and they literally have to choose between ruining their family or getting a chance at a reasonable life (or even not dying), and I feel bad for not understanding how that must be.

And I don't understand how people who don't live under that pressure can accept that so many of their fellow citizens do. I live in a country where if a newspaper find some poor soul who hasn't gotten treatment for some ailment, the comment section will be overflowing with people demanding the firing of anyone in charge of his case and the political heads of whichever politicians currently lead the country.

I mean, it's not about "socialism" or "capitalism". It's just humanity.

Depends on the country. Depends on the state. Depends on the county.

The problem with the US system is it basically works this way if you make 6 figures or above. Your out of pocket max plus premiums are capped at less than 10% of your income which is pretty much the cheapest healthcare in the world.

Cite some sources real quick.

edit: Did you mean if you make > $100,000 a year your insurance acts as a safety net? Legitimately trying to figure out how you've determined these parameters.

I have had a total of 12 surgeries. One major one retinal detachment was on the table within 6 hours after diagnosed , add in Tonsils, reconstructive knee .
Never waited long for any. Though nowadays hips and knee replacements are a 1 year wait.

Though the words Medical Bankruptcy do not exist in Canada.

think the post is just saying if you make >100k a year you're likely not facing annual insurance costs >10% of your income, but that insurance is a weird system where you as customer are completely price insensitive to fees/costs so what would've cost 80k costs you nothing, so most people are oblivious to the inefficiencies of that system that ironically make it more expensive and exclusive to people making <100k/yr, and nobody well off (>100k) will complain about the current healthcare system because sure seems like it's working to them

That's heavily dependent on a number of factors. If you have an ACA-qualified plan then there are limitations, but I'm not aware of what limitations exist for plans that aren't in the marketplace.

Hence why I asked for sources.