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[Vector]

Hey Vec, at least you'll be isolated during the break, yeah?

I will be, but then I go immediately afterwards to in-person instruction on a gigantic public university campus. The problem is that I am very weird now about being alone.

[hector13]

I think people wouldn’t accept new covid restrictions because you could quite easily make the argument that the restrictions that were previously put in place didn’t actually work, and now there are vaccines and, like, some people have taken it.

People would also be tremendously upset if Christmas were cancelled again.

[Rolan7]

Speak for yourself

But yes, that's going to cause an awful lot of stir.  And I even went to a three-day Friendsgiving thing before seeing some aunts for Thanksgiving itself.  (Dad and I did do nasal Covid tests to be safe.  We could have been infected at the Friendsgiving but we shouldn't have been infectious yet.  Neither of us were at all likely to be infected earlier.)

(The Friendsgiving wasn't *my* friends but it was still good fun, honestly)

I'm definitely skipping Christmas this year though.  I've used much worse excuses.  It's not a religious thing, although that does grate.  I hate birthday parties too.  Obligatory gift giving is great for most people, but I have a lot of personal experience problems with it so no thanks.
(The giving is fun, the receiving... I feel like I'm being saddled with obligations. I have problems.)

[None]

Covid restrictions are like the nationwide equivalent of the prisoner's dilemma, and capitalism has convinced half the participants that doing your part is A Bad Thing. The stock markets are gonna panic anyways, because money is made of speculation and there's lots to speculate right now that there may be new restrictions, vaccines, or freezer trucks full of corpses, and that's Bad For Business.

My concern is as much about the severity of a new strain and the probable unwillingness of swaths of people either to continue minding it or using it as a shovel to continue entrenching in antivax bullshit (you got that last shot and it's no good any more, how much stuff are you going to let The Man pump into your arm?). It was a battle of attrition with the bug to begin with, the worry is the metaphorical terrain will slant uphill while the human death spiral sucks in the hapless and unwilling into its deadly vortex.

I think each and every one of us who has taken each and every consideration for a deadly global pandemic has every right to continue flipping out as it becomes progressively more difficult to keep ourselves and others safe.

[hector13]

You could also just accept the inevitable that the human race is too stupid to survive.

I mean, two current existential crises have fairly easy solutions to them: basic hygiene and consideration for your neighbour will likely keep you from getting sick, and not burning the world to the ground will mean we can continue, like, breathing and shit. (well alright over-simplifying climate change but seriously doing something is better than progressively accelerating it.)

Will people do that? Fuck no. Why should they spend a dollar today to avoid spending two tomorrow fixing a now much more significant problem? A stitch in time saves nine, but they could just buy a new dress, too, it’s fine. Doesn’t matter that the new dress is just the shreds of the old one (the metaphor is getting away from me) but by the time it matters they’ll be dead and their kids and grand-kids have to deal with it.

Morganite away, guys.

[Rolan7]

Human behavior is economic behavior. The particulars may vary, but competition for limited resources remains a constant. Need as well as greed have followed us to the stars, and the rewards of wealth still await those wise enough to recognize this deep thrumming of our common pulse.

- A maniac who funded measures against all those literal brainworms, marking him as a much better capitalist than any of our market leaders.

Of course, he planned to live forever.  He wasn't running down his last 10 years trying to build a high score, and damn the consequences to everyone else.

[Vector]

To be clear I'm freaking out because my housemates are leaving to travel for holiday stuff. Not because I'm expecting a lockdown. Because six months of enforced Alone Time has created personality changes such that I'm no longer exactly an introvert.

[martinuzz]

In the past 16 months, a total of 48 people where found to be infected with corona on flights entering our country from South Africa...

But now, in just one day, on two flights from South Africa, 600 people were tested, and 61 were tested positive for corona.

Although it is not yet known if they have the new omicron variant, this is not boding well. It looks like this omicron variant is much more contagious than the delta variant.

[LordBaal]

Because is Lrrrr, the Omicron Persei Variant.

[hector13]

SA is complaining that they’re being punished for finding a new variant.

Also, the WHO is urging countries not to rush to travel bans, and instead use a risk-based and scientific approach.

I would personally have thought that not allowing people into your country that have been in an at-risk area would be quite a sensible decision, but then again they also allow their own nationals in even if they’ve been to those places, just quarantine ‘em first.

[TamerVirus]

Interesting that we skipped Nu-Covid

And the Xi variant 

[Stench Guzman]

Merry Clotsmas

[Vector]

Merry Clotsmas

Not looking forward to trying to explain this one to the grandkids

[Egan_BW]

To be clear I'm freaking out because my housemates are leaving to travel for holiday stuff. Not because I'm expecting a lockdown. Because six months of enforced Alone Time has created personality changes such that I'm no longer exactly an introvert.

I think that six months living alone would be unpleasant for plenty of actual introverts, myself included.

That said, I seem to have gotten sick with something-or-other right after thanksgiving, so I'd support canceling all family gathering holidays. Forever. I might be biased at this moment because it still hurts, but still.

[martinuzz]

Oh, the solitude.
There will be a sad empty spot on my christmas table.
Ever since my long pig escaped.