[cm2187]

Until when? Until covid goes away (which Biden implied earlier this year, that the reason we still have covid is because of the unvaccinated)? Vaccines seem to do nothing to infections, it only reduces the risk of hospitalisation and death. In the UK the % of positive cases that are vaccinated is pretty much the same than the % of people vaccinated in the population. Covid isn't going away.

So are you suggesting vaccines, masks and lockdowns forever? I don't think many will agree to that. I certain don't.

[dragontamer]

If this is our new reality then this is our new reality.

Given that our hospital systems are being pushed to basically their breaking point, we need to do what we can to help our the nurses / doctors handle this situation.

A cloth mask is something like 30% effective. That's better than nothing, and certainly can slow down the spread if used universally. Booster-vaccines are something like 70% vs Omicron.

You do what you can, with the tools you have.

[cm2187]

I don't know the situation in the US, but here in the UK, the only reason there is a strain on hospitals is not because of high hospital admissions, they aren't particularly high. It is because of mandatory self-quarantine requirement for hospital staff who test positive, which result in staff shortage. We wouldn't do that with a cold, and this variant, at least to the vaccinated, is little more than a cold.

[dragontamer]

For crying out loud man...

If you are sick, stay home. Don't infect your colleagues, don't infect your patients. Its not that hard.

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The fact that you're arguing for the opposite is incredibly callous and reckless of you. Its like the pandemic has removed you of common sense.

That's literally why we have paid sick leave. Having 5% of your workforce stuck at home is better than those people coming in and infecting _EVERONE ELSE AT THE OFFICE_.

[jdminhbg]

It seems like you misunderstand what people are calling for. It doesn't make sense for a triple-vaxxed, asymptomatic, positive test to be quarantined for ten days. We have rapid tests that are very good at determining whether people are actually infectious. We can use those to return asymptomatic people to work faster with minimal risk of spread.

[dragontamer]

In the USA, we've already changed our guidance to 5-day quarantines. So as usual, my words are USA-focused and based off of our current US-politics.

There seem to be people arguing for the COVID19 sick doctors/nurses to come in and work as usual, even with symptoms.

If that's not the case in UK (and if you're still on the old 10-day quarantine), then I guess your local politics are just different than what I'm dealing with here. We can blame this misunderstanding on our different local situations for sure.

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EDIT: https://www.reddit.com/r/nursing/comments/s0jaai/hey_cdc_im_...

Frankly, we're erring on the side of "too short a quarantine" right now in the USA with these 5-day periods.

[jdminhbg]

> There seem to be people arguing for the COVID19 sick doctors/nurses to come in and work as usual, even with symptoms.

I'm sure people are arguing for that somewhere, but it doesn't seem like it's anywhere I can see in this thread.

[vkou]

The strain on your hospitals and morgues could be much higher, if only those COVID-positive healthcare workers were at work, infecting their colleagues and patients.

I'm not sure that's an outcome you want, though.

[dragontamer]

I'm not so conspiracy minded typically.

But this line of discussion is so bad, that I can only imagine it originated from Russian propaganda. How the hell does bringing in _PROVEN_ COVID19 positive people into a face-to-face setting with sick/immunocompromised patients a possible benefit in this situation?

The situation is sickening to think about. Its not something a rational person could ever possibly come up on their own.

[zarzavat]

Clearly if all doctors stay home sick, then it will lead to many more deaths than if they all came in with COVID.

On the other hand, if only 0.1% stay home sick with COVID, then the effect of their absence will probably be to reduce deaths if their job can be covered by others adequately.

So what we have is a question of degree: there exists a threshold at which doctors (or nurses, etc) should come in even if they have COVID. And somewhat counterintuitively the more doctors who are sick, the greater the likelihood that if they came in with COVID there would be fewer deaths overall.

Exactly where this threshold lies is an open question, and will depend on the facts.

[godshatter]

>Given that our hospital systems are being pushed to basically their breaking point, we need to do what we can to help our the nurses / doctors handle this situation.

Our hospitals have been pushed to the breaking point for a long time. Maybe we should focus on extending our ICU capability to meet the demand better, given that this may be the new normal for who knows how many years yet. I think we need to come to terms with this and expand accordingly on a more permanent basis.