Hacker News Reader

Comment by josephcsible | Hacker News Reader

The best way to not get COVID when you're at high risk of death from it is to have already gotten it while you were at low risk of death from it.

View on HN

No. The best way to not get COVID is to get vaccinated.

Like in the childhood, right? It is very likely how it works with other disease that is constantly surrounding us and how we can tolerate many previously deadly epidemic pathogens.

Still the research has displayed that almost any viral infection has undesirable outcomes in the long run so it would make sense to try to avoid as many as possible.

The key word being "possible". So far, everything we've tried to protect people from COVID has only delayed the inevitable. Even New Zealand, everyone's favorite example of how to handle it, appears to have lost this battle back in August. Do you foresee something coming that will let people avoid COVID forever?

But it has far more than “delayed the inevitable.” The things we’ve tried to protect people have (a) enabled us to stave off a lot of infections until this latest less-lethal variant evolved, and (b) helped reduce hospital loads. Things would be orders of magnitude worse had we not tried to protect people.

Accepting those points for the sake of argument, now that the less-lethal variant is here, why haven't we stopped doing those things yet?

I don’t like to think people are stupid, so I’m going to believe you are being disingenuous and already know the answer. Nonetheless I’ll spell it out: at a quarter of the the hospitalization rate but 4x the rate of spread, omicron overloads the healthcare system just as much as delta. The math is so very simple and obvious that it’s embarrassing.

In the USA omicron deaths are now outpacing delta’s.

That is why we haven’t stopped doing things to slow its spread.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/omicron-deaths-in-u-s-exceed-de...

I see in your post history that you like to downplay the pandemic and the healthcare crisis it has caused. Why are you like this? What do you gain by it?

> So far, everything we've tried to protect people from COVID has only delayed the inevitable...

You mean except for the vaccines...

No, I very specifically mean including the vaccines. Breakthrough COVID exists and isn't at all uncommon. (Remember, if this weren't the case, then there'd be no reason for vaccinated people to have to wear masks anymore.)

>Breakthrough COVID exists and isn't at all uncommon.

The difference between a "breakthrough COVID" case in a vaccinated person and a COVID infection in an unvaccinated person is a complete elimination in the risk of death and greatly reduced chances of severe illness and long-term disability. It's VERY preferable to be vaccinated.

> a complete elimination in the risk of death

It sounds like you're saying that nobody has ever died from COVID after being fully vaccinated against it, which isn't true.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com