All you need is a new variant, and bam, the Nazis are back holocaust 3.0 :ahwow:

Everyone will have different experiences. Doing any sort of physical labor when it's peak summer and your safety glasses keep fogging up as you sweat your ass off won't love the mask as much as someone in an air conditioned environment.

Again, people double and tripled vaxxed, many have also HAD Covid

I wouldn’t be concerned at all with a new variant. And at this point in the game if you’re so vulnerable to infection that you are worried, it’s on you to deal with. You can wear a mask, you can avoid social situations etc. we’re catering to a increasingly smaller and smaller niche group worried about it.

It’s like not serving bread at a 500 person wedding because 1 person is a celiac.

I also feel like the booster program has “jumped the shark” as they say when you see Moderna Booster ad’s on the boards at hockey games..

This is a surprisingly good analogy.

I know some people with celiac disease, and most will take it upon themselves to make sure they know what they're eating.

But there's this one cunt who imposes it on everyone else. Sorry, can't go to eat there, I'm celiac. Sorry, please don't make this food when I'm coming over, celiac. And then they cry victim when nobody wants to hang out with them anymore...lol
/off-topic

Yea we have a friend with it so I spent time some learning about it. She manages the best she can to try and arrange things ahead of time. Definitely sucks if it’s a group of 8-10 people going out because places that are actually like certified gluten free are few and far between and generally not places anyone else is really eager to go to lol

I don't think it's first world problems to dislike having to wear a mask. No, of course a normal individual wouldn't protest on the street, or proclaim their government as fascist for it, but it certainly is an inconvenience.

Forgetting your mask and having to run back to the car, if you have a beard (the damn mask pulls on your hairs), if you wear glasses they fog your lenses, if you're wearing a hat the straps hurt the ears. Yes, minor inconveniences, but guess what, it's a silly inconvenience that simply isn't necessary anymore.

Why am I sitting at my table only to have to throw on my mask to go take a piss? Why am I throwing on my mask to not look like an asshole as I leave a restaurant with the door a few paces away from my table?

I also feel for servers and people who work in retail/hospitality that have to wear one the whole day, especially in the summer heat.

Another thing to note on a more human level is how much it changes the dynamic of simply smiling or acknowledging someone in a public space, covering your mouth takes away that engagement, and for some it can make you look more intimidating or unapproachable (I'm serious here). I can't tell you how freeing it felt to simply walk around a restaurant from the inside to outside, without fumbling around with a mask in Mexico.

I'd like to go back to that at this point.

Packed house yesterday. Adults, kids. My wife and I are the only vaxxed people. 2019 vibes. I make fun of their tinfoil hats and they make fun of the 5G that I have in my system now. We laugh, we drink, everyone is merry. Everyone has had covid already. My wife and I had the worst symptoms out of all of us. So yea, it's time to move on. /coolstorybro

I don't mind wearing a mask, I bought a cool one that looks dope, ninja vibes. But I don't go anywhere so I think my total masking-wearing time doesn't even exceed a couple hours total in 2 years. I can see how someone wearing one constantly would grow tired of it or maybe it masks their facial features so it makes it difficult to communicate. Not sure about a breathing restriction as I haven't worn one for long enough. You can choose to not wear a mask when not permitted to AND also not be a cunt to others about it. Those people making others feel uncomfortable about it were cunts long before a pandemic.

Sooo.... is covid over?

For 5 weeks, yes.

When the war is over and an even milder variant comes out Covid will be back in full swing to ruin all your summer plans, better to just not bother planning anything at all. #covidlogic

K I'm just gonna say, the point was to protect 1. healthcare system, and 2. vulnerable people.

Even with the shift in mood these days the above isn't going to change.

Even with Omicron being perceived the 'mild covid', hospitalizations were still way up, as were ICU (yes, vaxxed vs unvaxxed, old vs young, blah blah). Everyone talking about how they're inconvenienced this way, and government tyranny that way, frivolous plans being "ruined", wherein reality, it's not difficult to see just how fragile (and poorly run) our healthcare is right now, and it's going to take years to fix if it gets fixed at all.

I get what you're saying, and we're all tired of it, but not being able to go to mexico because of covid isn't really the same as having your cancer surgery postponed because of covid. You don't need Bonnie Henry to tell you which one is probably more important.

^ I’d be more willing to buy into any of that if Bonnie was straight forward when asked point blank, how many people are in hospital BECAUSE of Covid and how many are just admitted to the hospital for something else entirely but test positive. She completely sidestepped the question when asked a couple weeks ago while other jurisdictions like Toronto were being much more forthcoming saying yes hospitalizations are up but most are not directly related to Covid itself.

While that is a fair point, it's also nitpicking for something trivial. Hospitals aren't overwhelmed because suddenly people started breaking their arm more, or because everyone is getting more ulcers, or whatever. Covid is the only variable, and is directly affecting total hospitalization numbers.

If I were to guess as to why BH deflected, probably because she/they don't know - but like I said, other than the mystery aspect, does it matter? I mean unless you subscribe to the idea of stupidity that the whole thing is a Bill Gates conspiracy, what meaningful impact does that have on your decision making?

Well I’d then ask what’s “normal” hospitalizations?

If you say 500 people are in hospital but 3/4 are there for underlying health issues but have also tested positive for Covid, is that just a normal rate of hospitalization? Or are you just saying 500 people are in hospital with Covid but while they are positive, many are asymptomatic? I think there’s a distinction in the details

I mean, you're right - I can't find info for how full hospitals were before covid, so there's no baseline. But that aside you must agree that covid had an impact on healthcare.

In 2020 and for much of 2021 it was all about hospitals in the US being overwhelmed, people in Italy dying in their homes, triage, etc. I don't think BC would have escaped similar trends if not for lockdowns and restrictions.

My original point was that the goal was to not have healthcare collapse - which in retrospect we (BC) have seem to have accomplished.

Depends if you listen to mainstream media or not lol. If it's your main source of news, then Putin eradicated covid.

I'm hearing from family that HK case #s are blowing up, and they are locking down much of the country. Extremely difficult to fly into or out of HK at the moment... I have relatives that are trying to buy tickets to fly out but haven't been able to for the last month+. And relatives trying to visit are being told there are very limited flights, and they must fly to Singapore, quarantine for 2 weeks, and then fly into HK.

I wear a mask for 8+ hours a day. I also have glasses and work a physical job. Went from cloth masks at the beginning to surgical paper masks and haven't had any issues. Sure, glasses might fog up momentarily when I'm breathing in a cold environment, but a simple adjustment of the nose pieces fixes that.

I also have guys at work who wear a full on respirator all day and have done so for years. Haven't heard any of them complain about it in all that time. :shrug:

Not sure which thread to put this in or if it's been brought up.
But I plan on flying down to the states in a few weeks, where is the cheapest place to get those rapid tests? Seems to be many clinics selling for $99+, and YVR has a testing site that will do it for $79? But I've heard people getting them for under $40, or even free?

If you have parents (which I assume you do), you can just pick up some free tests via them.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/c...9/info/testing

Go down and pick them up before your trip, you need their name/address/PHN and they'll give you the free tests from your pharmacy.

"Pick up a kit for someone else
You can pick up a kit for someone else, like a parent or grandparent. Make sure you know their full name, date of birth and PHN, the pharmacist will ask you for that information. "

Easy.

I just bought the ones you mentioned from switch health associated with Aeroplan, $75 for 2 tests seem to be alright, I can report back on how they worked once I get back from Mexico

How will you know if they "work" or not?

Also a lot of pharmacies have been running out but if you put your name down to reserve one and they'll call you when it arrives. Also kids in school are starting to receive their pack of 5 so if you know anyone with kids might be able to also snag one that route too.

This is that document, from a BC FOI request:
http://docs.openinfo.gov.bc.ca/Respo...2021-13906.pdf

In a nutshell:

2015/2016: Hospitalizations: 442,992 ICU: 39,545
2016/2017: Hospitalizations: 451,803 ICU: 39,953
2017/2018: Hospitalizations: 455,393 ICU: 39,656
2018/2019: Hospitalizations: 459,088 ICU: 40,032
2019/2020: Hospitalizations: 461,022 ICU: 40,536
2020/2021: Hospitalizations: 431,822 ICU: 39,160


Unless I'm missing something, looks like COVID barely moved the needle, like not even a 1% increase in total hospitalizations. And a reduction in 2021/2022 to below 2015/2016 numbers?

That probably doesn’t account for the fact our hospital system Has already been maxed out pre-covid, so all they did was kick out and defer other patients to make room for covid.

Also, remember the term ‘flattening the curve’. The point of all our restrictions was to prevent a max influx of critical patients. That means they worked

^^^

One could also argue if 2020/2021 got crushed by COVID, and prevented people from going to the hospital? The data counts are by cases (individuals), and doesn't take duration (other than >1 day) into account. I wonder what the number of days of hospitalization would be compared between the years.