Almost took the bus today but

[james_davis_nicoll]

I stepped on to see some old beardy without a mask hacking away and decided I'd rather have heat-stroke.

Comments

[agoodwinsmith]

I approve of your decision, although I wish the alternative wasn't heat-stroke.

[dewline]

Perfectly understandable. I wish I felt comfortable with that option these days.

[graydon]

Took the bus yesterday; carefully tried to pick a non-busy, mid-morning time, and wore an elastomeric respirator and goggles.

(There was no possibility of walking that three kilometres carrying the boxed-up two laptops I had to delivery to a courier, at least not and walking back. I do not like this, but ignoring it doesn't seem like a sensible plan.)

Nobody hacking but most of the people on the bus were unmasked.

Rt is probably at or over 1; that little dip at the end is nigh-always lag in the data, not a real reduction. And against BA.4 and BA.5, most of us -- anybody who hasn't had a recent booster -- might as well be unvaccinated for planning purposes.

[jreynolds197]

"Recent booster"

Yeah, I've been keeping an eye on the vaccination website (Ontario), waiting for my chance to get a 4th jab. No change in the rules since May, according to a pharmacist I asked about it the other day.

The 1st one I took is in the process of wearing off, and I want to renew my protection. But no.

[graydon]

Were one to postulate a certain level of care, there is an argument that you want the boosting to happen as close as possible to the front edge of the rising wave and there's an argument -- it's not looking the least bit like a well-supported argument, but it's there -- that summer prevents a rising wave so you want to do all the boosting in August.

The actual data, such as it is and what there is of it, looks like we've got the wave starting now. And given recent Omicron strains degree of immune escape, induced immune dysfunction, and short-interval reinfection, don't support "oh we won't have a wave in summer" as the most probable outcome.

My take is that Dougie knows he's got a majority and will dismantle all COVID countermeasures lest someone conclude that there's a legitimate ongoing government expenditure involved in public health. There will be no further boosters for COVID (except possibly for the old) and there will be no useful response to the pox at all. (At least one case in Guelph. Time to take precautions.)

[(Anonymous)]

The BA.4/BA.5 wave has been in progress for at least three weeks (that being when the growth in BA.4/BA.5 cases became greater than the fall in BA.2 cases) in the UK now; positive tests up 150%, but infection estimates from the surveillance program up by more.

[graydon]

Ontario seems to generally run three to five weeks behind the UK in these things.

Of course, the UK still has much better tracking; Ontario case numbers are working by inference at this point, and someone could quite readily assert that there's no scientific basis for doing anything.

[kraig]

My employer has, in fact, asserted exactly that.
The person my employer retains as president is, allegedly, a public health expert.

[graydon]

The general presumption of institutional competence is dead in a ditch somewhere, isn't it?

Its bones still clad in the tattered remnants of synthetic fibre garments and picked over by weasels whose offspring have become strangely terrible unnatural things.

[jhetley]

Gratuitous insult to beard wearers.

[yamamanama]

My mind went to bearded dragons.

[pameladean]

Definitely the right decision, but I hope you're okay.

P.

[dormouse1953]

Well, I have a beard and I cough and sneeze a lot thanks to the blood pressure medications I take. But I rarely travel by bus - haven't done for years - as the town centre is only a fifteen-minute walk away and buses are every 40 minutes. Mind you, I did a ten-mile walk a week ago in when the temperature was 30.