You are right.

As an aside police pepper spraying teen girls for not wearing masks was something to envy.

So the thread has died down but can someone explain the science behind that if you drive across the US border from Canada or Mexico you can not carry covid and do not require a test but if you fly into the USA than you require a test?

I suspect that is one of those unanswerable questions.

Number of countries with road access to the u.s....2. Number of countries flying into the u.s...much more than 2. So if you have a testing policy for flights then it better be a blanket policy. Otherwise people could easily stop over in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and make their way to the states. Much like passengers from India were doing en route to Canada.

Ik I just blew your mind so I hope you were sitting down

Yeah, but they could just fly to Toronto and then drive down. Inconsistent, not based on science!!1!1!1!

Not sure I understand the question totally but here goes...

When you fly into the US if you have Covid you would potentially be exposing everyone on the plane to Covid. Because the US sucks at contact tracing, to reach everybody on the plane and then everyone they were in contact with would be virtually impossible. So not testing for Covid could turn flights into super spreader events. Which could cause deaths and would be unfair to the other people flying. If there were no mandatory tests prior to flying there might be a dropoff of passengers (probably those over 60 and/or who have comorbidities like diabetes)

Driving into the US would expose basically all of the people in the car who would be friends and/or family. Up to them really how they handle potential exposure. The bigger picture of course is that the people driving in untested to the US could spread Covid in public settings. But the truth is that preventing somebody from coming into the country wouldn't make a bit of difference in terms of Covid being in the US. We would have to have Covid levels extremely low (below 1 new case per 100,000 people) for it to potentially impact communities.

Right now the majority of the US population seems to be taking Covid not seriously. They prefer to not mask up indoors. Many young people are doing things like going to bars, partying, etc. and are getting Covid at much higher rates than say people over 65 (about 60% of the US population has had Covid but only about 20% of people over 65 have gotten it).

There is right now no way to stop the spread of Covid in the US. If we get lucky the newer variants will not be particularly deadly. If we get unlucky hospitals will be overrun again especially in rural communities and perhaps a lot of people will die over the winter. Not that anybody is accurately counting anyway but there have been almost 1 million official Covid deaths in the US to date (that is dead people who tested positive for Covid after they were dead). When counting unexplained deaths there would be another 1 million to 2 million people who would have died as a result of the pandemic (these people were either not tested for Covid and had it or were biproduct deaths of the pandemic environment like people who wouldn't go to the hospital because they were afraid of catching Covid and instead died at home of a heart attack - or somebody who committed suicide due to depression - or somebody who had Covid, died of pneumonia and the doctor rules death a result of pneumonia). The estimate that 100 million people in the US will get Covid over the winter may or may not be accurate. It could be an effort to get people to take it seriously. Then again it could happen.

I was going to say the same.

Airplanes have a air chamber or almost sealed of air supply for all passengers. Which could make the entire passenger population sick.

You do need to be vaxxed to enter the USA via airplane and vice versa Europe demand it too. I hope they change it fast.

The thing I failed to mention is that there are no test mandates for flights within the US...

This is mitigated somewhat by the masking rules. But the reality is that about 10% to 15% of people don't wear their masks properly or at all. And of course, mask rules are waived when people are eating or drinking (which some people then do all flight long). I am guessing that part of the reason for major outbreaks in the US during holiday seasons (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year) the past two years has been due to millions of people on airplane flights daily within the US, even with masks being worn.

Now that mask mandates on airplanes have been eliminated (until the Trump appointed judge in Florida who made his ridiculous ruling is overruled) airplanes will likely be very prone to Covid infection. I doubt that I will be traveling by plane unless the local rates for daily Covid infection are very low, or if by some miracle rapid tests are required at the airport (even if its only for people with symptoms).

I just read a couple of articles about frequency of air circulation on airplanes and it turns out that it happens about 12 to 30 times an hour. On Airbus airplanes the pilot can adjust the number of times it happens (High/Norm/Low options) but it is usually on "Norm" and likely gets shifted to Low (to save on gas) infrequently. On Boeing planes there is no pilot option (but I would guess the number of circulations per hour is set by airlines and may be lower for longer flights to save on gas - I have yet to see an airline publicly disclose its rate of circulation). The only problem with the air circulation is that it contains half the air that was in the cabin and replaces half of it each circulation. The air is filtered through HEPA air filters which means that up to 95% of microbes are filtered out. Which means that the air in an airplane is likely better than other places indoors, but not perfect.

Airplanes have some of the best air circulation of any indoor setting, with air completely turned over and exchanged for fresh air from outside.

The biggest problem with airplanes is proximity. Good air circulation will struggle to overcome someone sick sitting very near you.

Also I think (but I do not know) that there are periods when the pilots do not have the air circulation on (pressurizing the plane??) and then you notice when it is turned on. So in those periods covid levels would spike.

https://academic.oup.com/jid/advance...iac195/6582941

New peer reviewed banger that shows (I mean obviously) that anything less than a properly* fitted n95 does not reduce virus particle intake vs no mask.

So nothing matters and WAAF?

That does seem to be the common thread lately.

The mask is to protect others.

Imagine if we lived underwater and covid was soluable aspirin. A simple mask would stop much asprin getting into the water but only a very good filtration mask would prevent the aspirin in the water from being drunk.

The key to that is '...protects against high virus aerosol loads at close range and for prolonged periods of time' which I think has always been known.

I think N95 masks were reported to only provide a few hours coverage in those circumstances.

What it does not mean is surgical and other masks provide no benefit to more casual short term contact, in more open spaces and at longer range', as they do.

Think about the thousands (millions?) of healthcare workers in the ICU and ERs during the first two years of this pandemic.

If you believe this study as a WAAF version of masks-do-no-good.... then why didn't ALL those health workers get C19 and/or die?

They did die. They were replaced by clones. The Lizard People told me.

3 years of those sweet, sweet evolutionary mutations. Late '19 and early '20 COVID was fresh off the boat.

Not gonna lie I'm a little nostalgic for the variant that decreased traffic

Bruh...

I self tested (rapid test) for covid on Monday May 2 after a Friday night outing to the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel lobby bar for live music and being social. Another friend of mine who attended also tested positive.

It is an extremely open and airy venue with super high ceilings so I did not feel it was a super high risk place compared to others I had visited and not got covid but the fact we were there for about 4 hours will always present risk and I know that.

I got both Shot 1 and 2 Pfizer but choose not to get boosted. My friend got 3 Pfizer shots including the Booster.

We both had very mild symptoms (just minor cold like) and we both tested clear of covid in the middle of last week (me it was Wednesday).


So now I am actually considering getting a booster (Moderna) as the best super immunity one can get is getting the Booster after recent infection, which seems to be slightly better than getting the Booster and then having natural infection. Both seem to confer a form of 'super immunity' but infection first followed by Booster seems to be best, if I recall correctly?


The counter I am considering though is that Covid naturally is lower risk in spring/summer to begin with, with lots of hospital capacity (why I did not get the Booster in March when i could have) and that I should wait until Fall/Winter season is kicking in and look at what the lay of the lay of the land is with Covid variants then, how hospital capacity looks and make a call about taking any booster at that point??? Maximize my protection closer to the "Danger period' should one present again.

And I think that is what I will end up doing and hoping it is not needed at all. If that means I miss out on a window to develop super immunity, oh well.

I don't know about the super immunity thing (especially with new variants) but there's plenty of time to get a shot now and then another one if needs be as winter approaches.

Wait for the new formula to come out if you're dead set on getting boosted.

Didn't a lot of them?

We're almost Covid twins!

After going over two years with no one in our house even so much as needing a test (and my wife is a teacher!), we got whacked this month. I started with a slightly scratchy throat on Sunday May 1st. Took a test, negative. Felt worse Monday, took a test, negative. But I shifted our hockey pool that was supposed to be Monday night at our house, to online, and decided not to go to work events I was scheduled for on Tuesday. Took a test Wednesday, positive, and glad I shifted Monday & Tuesday schedule. By then I was actually feeling slightly better after a rough Monday and Tuesday. Kept getting better, but tested positive both Friday and Sunday. On Tuesday I was almost symptom-free and frustrated after another positive test (both Sunday and this day the positive line was getting fainter), and finally looked up the recommendations on the BC CDC website. Turns out they just want you to be 5 days clear of your first symptoms, no fever, and less symptoms. It had been 10 days, I never had a fever, and symptoms were mostly gone, so I stopped worrying about tests.

I've had 3 shots. No way to pinpoint where I got it, as life is getting back to normal. I was at a conference with a few hundred people the weekend previous, at small meetings during the week, Canucks game on the Thursday, a couple of events on Saturday. Canucks game seems most likely. In the end, this was just like an unpleasant cold for me. If I hadn't heard of Covid, that's what I would have assumed it was.

But as for boosters:

This, IMO. Whenever I'm eligible for the fourth shot, I'm going, and if they want to give us a new one in late fall/early winter, I'm in.

Glad you're feeling better.

I got the two Pfizer shots late last summer. Regarding the booster: I'll probably give it a shot.

Thanks!

Oh, a couple things I should clarify. The BC CDC recommendations I posted are for people who have received 2 vaccine doses or are under 18. Over 18 unvaccinated requirements are the same, except they call for 10 days from onset of symptoms rather than 5. And my thoughts on boosters weren't intended as judgement of what anyone else is doing., in case they came across that way.