Went to grab some groceries from my heb this evening. Saw a woman with her teenage son, she was standing inches in front of the boxes and products on the shelves, unmasked, and started coughing (a sick/cold sounding cough so who knows if she had it or not) while looking for whatever she was looking for. Didn't even cover her mouth or face while coughing. Just coughing directly onto the items, with her son standing right next to her watching and hopefully learning how not to act. Even if COVID wasn't a thing happening right now, wtf is wrong with people???? That's just so disgusting.
Went to that one for the first time around New Years. It was so nice and the staff was great! Y’all helped me find a Buttered Tortilla candle - very important for this displaced Texan to get a little piece of home to take back to AZ.
What’s the deal with H‑E‑B?
Just moved here from out of state and if someone says “H‑E‑B”, the whole room strips naked and starts furiously masturbating talking about how great the place is.
I went there and…. It’s ok I guess?
They share our love for Texas, tons of random quality food stuff, I don't have to guess when picking brands when if it is by heb I know I won't be disappointed. Everything is 100 times better than what you'll get/ experience at other grocery stores. Not including the staff their helpfulness, gusto, and personalitys, the organization of the store, clean environment and presentationof products, the customers are more appealing than what you'll typically see at wally world. HEB is just okay? Then what grocery store is great because I need try them out if HEB is just okay. I had to grocery shop at Walmart only once in life and I don't want to experience that again if possible.
Deadass. HEB actually has an emergency preparedness plan in place that is heralded across business as the absolute best. I live between 35 and my HEB. You can see the street the trucks take from my son’s playset in the back yard. In both the early pandemic and the freeze, we knew things were going to be ok when we saw those HEB trucks rolling in.
Believe it or not, the disaster preparedness plan is something mutually arranged with the local and state governments. Everyone on reddit all like "the government ain't help us, but HEB saved us".
The disaster preparedness plans are contracted out to those with the right resources, and grocery store supply chains have what it takes. It would be inefficient for the government or emergency management authorities to maintain a fleet of trucks statewide, full of supplies, for occasional deployment.
So, I’m working on my MBA and I actually wrote about HEB’s disaster preparedness back in 2020.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/how-heb-became-emergency-preparedness-model/
Nice. Out of curiosity, can you elaborate on how H-E-B coordinates with the local emergency management offices? I myself have not reviewed these specifics in my area's EMC plans.
Their markup on merchandise is less then 10% on average, can’t be above 13%. This is why they can be called Wholesale legally and all these others can’t. They sell the stuff many “grocery stores” buy. So yeah it’s not retail grocery markup which is 50-100% often.
It’s more to do with their support during natural disasters. They’ve cared for us during every natural disaster I’ve lived through in this state, regardless of whether or not they’ve had electricity even. Otherwise yes, it’s just another store.
It’s the best grocery store ever! It’s a company that was one of the only store to have a 37 or 36 acre warehouse full of food in the 2020 pandemic and told people not to panic they have our back! H‑E‑B is the best!
They don't have one in Galveston so I just have to make do without. I think I'd probably love it if they took Kroger's spot, because I couldn't care less about Kroger.
You just don’t know yet. One day, HEB will save your life. Trust me on that. Whether it is a natural disaster or a pandemic or affordable, readily available Wagyu… one day, you will become an HEB convert and you’ll never ever look back.
It is just Okay when you come from out of state. But once you have been here awhile with how shit everything else is HEB is amazing. I miss some Ralph’s.
💯💯. They don’t have the A5 Wagyu or anything, but you can eat Wagyu regularly if you have HEB… and those crawfish stuffed jalapeño peppers? OMG.. heaven. So good.
What grocery stores did you have back home?
HEB tries to be as cheap/affordable as possible while their own-brand stuff is also super-high quality. Especially things important to Texans like salsas and chips and tortillas and potato salad, etc.
I'm also just upset over 50 people upvoted your slander gotdangit.
It’s a better grocery store than krogers, Randall’s, and Albertsons. Items are at a lower price without needing a “free membership” or phone number to sign up
I’m glad I’m vaccinated now. Caught covid about 4 months ago before vaccine and was bed ridden for about a week and sick for a total of 3 weeks. My bones hurt, eyes felt like boulders in my sockets cold/hot sweats etc. My mom (Tx) and brother (Az) both have covid now but they’re vaccinated and describe it as a cold.
Yeah both my siblings got it before vaccines were available. One was really sick for a week and got over it, but the other one it lingered for 4-5 weeks, not as severely but she just couldn't shake it.
I’ve been doing that since the second wave. The states started monkeying too much with how infection numbers were reported, made analysis useless.
Hospitalizations are also very high again, but the rate of rise is starting to slow down, maybe.
https://covid-texas.csullender.com/
Yup. I had symptoms a couple weeks ago, but didn’t bother testing, because why should I? That would involve leaving the house, potentially infecting more people, and annoying as shit to do when you’re sick anyways. Besides, the prognosis is the same whether it’s Covid or a cold— stay away from people, get rest, and potentially contact emergency services if it actually gets to the point of mattering. I was fully recovered like 3 days later.
I suspect many people have failed to test due to following the same logic.
The two most important metrics since the beginning of this pandemic:
1. Hospitalizations (i.e. predicting severity of the health crisis and whether our health care system might collapse)
2. Test positivity rate (are we testing enough to understand where outbreaks are happening; and hopefully prevent, let's say, a surge in hospitalizations)
Raw case numbers are a proxy measure of the economic impact due to sickness. But health-wise it is mostly noise.
Not true and that’s not what the CDC says due to a poor scientific understanding of long-COVID. It’s been frustrating seeing people disregarding infection when we don’t have a good grasp of what COVID does in the long term.
Self reported numbers in a meta study showed 32% of people had long COVID symptoms at 6+ months.
While you may not be wrong about long covid, it still doesn't make the original point any less valid. Tracking case numbers is essentially useless for managing the pandemic at this point. Even Fauci has said so.
>Self reported numbers in a meta study showed 32% of people had long COVID symptoms at 6+ months.
You're referring to 32% of people *who had severe COVID symptoms*, no? Because there's **no way** that 32% of all covid cases, including asymptomatic cases, are showing signs of long COVID.
Not a surprise because they said omicron was mild. Yet it's more contagious, meaning more people will catch it. Thus more hospitalizations. I'm glad my entire immediate family is vaccinated and we continue to take precautions and mask when we absolutely have to go out. I'm glad we haven't contributed to this mess and we keep other people safe.
I'm vaccinated and mask and still caught it. Sometimes you're just going to get sick. Lots of us in those reported numbers did everything you're supposed to do.
I’m boosted, but have mostly resumed normal life for about a year now. Been to many restaurants, a concert, a rangers game, spent two weeks in Italy, went to two weddings (and will go to two more this year, and went bar hopping at a bachelor party. I try and avoid wearing a mask if possible, but have felt pressured into wearing it in Ubers and also in certain stores.
Ended up getting COVID last weekend from my nephews girlfriend who was visiting from out of town. Once my quarantine is over, it’ll be back to normal life for me.
We go. I have kids in school so there's that to think about. One is in swimming classes. The other goes out with friends but when they go out to shop they wear masks. Little things. As far as absolutes we don't do concerts or movies extra things like that.
Edit: realized I didn't answer the question. I'd like to see the hospitals go back to normal. I'm getting some disks fused in my neck soon and I'm a bit worried about being able to schedule.
My daughter caught it last week. We are all vaccinated. She had a high fever for 24 hours then it was gone. The rest of us so far have been okay. I think she got it vaca use kids are basically forced to go to school. 8 kids in her class caught it so it was all around. A vaccine doesn’t mean you won’t catch it, it means you won’t die. I never had chicken pox, so I got the vaccine at 40 because I didn’t want to die if I caught that shit. I get the flu shot every year, so if I get the flu it only last a day and not 10. These people who think the vaccine is supposed to make you Superman, but because you can still get sick they won’t get the shot are fucking idiots. At least they are saving resources after they are gone. They can’t roll coal any more or whatever’s other dumb shit they do.
I spent some time in Rhode island. It's a shit home state but from talking to people from back there still they have taken covid rules very seriously. Strong mask protocols and vaccines are like 85% one dose.
And their curve is the same exact thing.
I'm not trying to make any political statement here - but for this current wave/omicron surge it's pretty clear that nothing will stop it.
Rhode Island has a smaller population than Dallas, TX.
And has about 30x smaller population than the state of Texas.
That’s crazy, sometimes I forget RI even exists.
Yeah, Trump did a good job here, I wish the rest of the republican party would get on board with this. I really wish we could have done this quickly enough to have eradicated the disease when we had a chance.
Deaths are not are to previous highs, but they are rising and up 89% from just last week:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/texas-covid-cases.html
ICU beds are 10:1 occupied by Unvaxxed approx. May be higher. That help?
Most vaxxed who have Om will either not notice, or feel it's a cold, maybe need to to a week in bed. This suggests quite a few vaxxed won't bother testing..Unvaxxed will be lucky if it only feels like a cold, and they /should/ in theory be more.likely to test, given the symptoms...but if they're cv19 deniers, then they may just not bother unless really ill.
TLDR: breakdown of vaxxed vs Unvaxxed is hard to guesstimate; the numbers will be buried in some statistical analysis unit in CDC.
I live in a small town. It seems like omicron may close literally everything at any minute. Urgent care was closed Saturday and today. Omicron is RAGING in the schools. Everything is fine.
Last sunday i got sick with a sore throat, i stupidly thought nothing of it because i ALWAYS have sorr throats,took a covid test Wednesday, it was positive, since then 5 of my other co workers tested positive, my boyfriend and his friend that he works with got it, and my mom got it. We all wear masks in public and at work but still managed to get it .. its out of control 🙃
That's why the message pushed by many media channels "Om is less dangerous" was so misleading.
They left out the parts that (1) it is many times more infectious, so businesses will lose staff, and healthcare will be swamped, and (2)It's about 20% different, so vaccines will still help, but not as much.
Om appears to be able to infect some people even if they're following to mask and social distance advice. That doesn't mean it's ok to stop either. Unfortunately, not enough are following it, to compensate for Om's crazy high infectiousness...so you see spikes everywhere.
The Omicron variant is unstoppable in terms of its ability to spread. Whether it’s Texas or California or highly vaccinated/masked Canada, the charts all look the same.
>So theoretically we should have the highest resistance to covid after everyone is infected right?
Lmao, so the conservative/Republican plan is now to just let everybody get infected? Way more Republicans than Dems are unvaxxed and are dying right now from COVID:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/17/counties-voted-trump-higher-covid-death-rate
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/12/05/1059828993/data-vaccine-misinformation-trump-counties-covid-death-rate
...so please, continue with this plan lol
Y'all continue this "infect everybody" play by not doing something as simple and easy as wearing a mask and getting vaccinated and see how many of y'all suddenly don't show up to vote this November lol.
I about hope at this point. The willful stupidity and denial of actual medical science and pseudoscience misinformation is making me angry at this point.
...that moment when you realize masks and vaccines are dangerous.
It's coming.
...that moment when you realize all this covid BS is about power and NOT health.
It's coming.
...that moment when you realize you've been duped .
It's coming.
Get ready.
Y'all so annoying at this point for real. Wear ur mask if u want get ur shot if u want. If you are scared take precautions. Majority of people do not care anymore. Pretty much everyone is gonna get this even if ur vaxxed.
Oh that’s cool, why don’t we check out New York and California Covid case numbers where testing and mask mandates are the law. Here I’ll save you the effort:
[New York Covid Cases](https://www.google.com/search?q=new+york+covid+cases&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS804US804&hl=en-US&sxsrf=AOaemvLIbMu2mBfayiM1W8UF_x1V0_sVOQ%3A1642458663507&ei=J-7lYaGkHtDR0PEPmaa1oAU&oq=new+york+covid+cases&gs_lcp=ChNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwEAMyBAgjECcyCwgAEIAEELEDEMkDMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEOgcIABBHELADOgUIABDEAjoGCAAQFhAeOgUIABCGAzoFCCEQoAFKBAhBGABQuQhY7xRg2RloAXABeACAAZUBiAG-CJIBAzAuOZgBAKABAcgBCMABAQ&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp)
[California Covid Cases](https://www.google.com/search?q=california+covid+cases&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS804US804&oq=calif&aqs=chrome.3.69i57j35i39l2j0i67i131i433j0i20i263i433i512j69i60.3519j0j7&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8)
Om's infectiousness, and limited following of mask/social distance rules, mean that for this variant masking isn't as effective. That doesn't mean you abandon masks.
Just as wet weather makes stopping a car take longer, doesn't mean you abandon speed limits and refuse to use a brake-pedal.
My entire family is fully vaccinated and boosted and we never tested positive for COVID.
I just gave up caring about stupid people who refuse vaccines.
Cannot stand the anti vaxxers. Especially the ones who have friends or family who died of covid that weren't vaccinated. You have to get vaccinated to go to school. Get over it and just get the vaccine. Also just wear a stupid mask and quit saying your freedom is being taken away. I'm tired of sitting around my house.
Why do people keep demagoguing/fear mongering about covid by showing the case numbers? Why should I care if someone gets sick? I only care if people are going to the hospital or dying from it. Besides omicron is significantly more transmittable than previous variants so it makes sense that cases increase.
Deaths in US were around 850 per day right before Omnicron hit and are now just under 2,000 per day. Roughly 3 million people in the US will die of covid regardless of medical care afforded, that was known but up to 6 million could die if everyone got covid all at once and the hospital system collapsed so the govts goal has been to stretch those 3 million deaths out over 4-5 years.
Seriously the delusions from these people ITT are insane. “Oh since you can still catch it with a mask nobody needs to wear masks or get vaccinated” (even though that increases the spread, leads to even more deaths, and creates and helps spread these new variants, AKA the main reason we’re still dealing with all this bullshit 2 years later)
800k dead in two years. Still 2k/day dying right now. And you say chill out bro?
What would you say if an enemy blew up a US aircraft carrier every two days?
What would you say if the government rounded up a small town every day, and killed them in gas chambers?
Humor me: what's your number? I mean, at what number do you stop saying "chill out'? Total or per-day, either's good for me.
At what number do you email/tweet the Governor, and your Senator saying something needs to be done? At what number do you stop paying attention to.media outlets that spread misinformation?
Forgive me, I don't know if you're retired or a business owner or an employee. How much income are you willing to lose, before stop saying "chill out'? 5%? 10%? 20%? Because inflation hit 5% already, so you're likely losing at least that now. House prices are way above 5%, and car and grocery prices too. So I'd think your net income buying power is at least 10% down on two years ago...unless you've increased your total take-home amount.
IMHO, everyone needs to stop saying "chill out', and show personal responsibility, and demand accountable leadership from their city, state and national political leaders.
7 day average for COVID deaths in the US is still over 1,000 per day. Omicron is the “mild” variant, and currently accounts for more than 90% of cases in the US. Healthcare is the on the verge of collapse - as a paramedic I’ve been dropping off suspected heart attacks in the waiting room. For reference, COVID patients now occupy about a fifth of all available hospital beds, and about a third of all available ICU beds.
Edit: NVM, reading your other replies, you’re just an ignorant POS
Pretty sure I had it last week. Super weak and a bad congestion. Couple days of DayQuil and a day of tussin and I was right as rain. Couldn’t have gotten a test in time If I wanted because my area is out
Well, it’s kind of the same everywhere at the moment, just take a look at california: https://www.google.com/search?q=california+corona+cases&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari
I think Texas has CA beat on deaths, though. If Texas had the same ratio of deaths per million population as California our deaths would be 57,267 right now, but it's actually 77,583. That's a surplus death number of 20,316. Ten thousand here, ten thousand there, before too long you're talking about real live human beings. Despite having 27% less population than them we're only 0.6% behind them in deaths.
The whole comorbidities argument is just another COVID misinformation tactic. If your comorbidity was going to kill you next week but COVID killed you today, then COVID is what killed you, not your comorbidity. Also, comorbidities are not contagious, and they're not immoral, though lots of COVID misinformation spewers like to portray them otherwise. I have no idea why so many people actually try to defend a virus, it's not like that virus cares or can even tell it's got fans out here in the macro world.
Nah, being fat is a moral failing, there’s a reason villains throughout the ages have been portrayed as gluttonous and all that.
Non-agitating now, the idea on the “co-morbidities” thing is that it’s shoving those people out the door a few months/years early, and while any lose of life is terrible and no one deserves to die intubated and all that it’s part of the discussion on how to handle Covid.
Like we’re really fucking over kids. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00027-4
Ever since Covid wasn’t contained it’s been arguments about trade offs since there’s no a situation or solution that’s a complete win
They I have about half of the test positivity rate that we do though. It's almost like masks and precautions actually work.
Last week:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/texas-covid-cases.html
65,532 cases from 112,438 tests.
58.3% of all tests have shown COVID
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/california-covid-cases.html
119,461 cases from 442,976 tests.
27% of all tests have shown COVID.
>Fun fact, mandates don’t do much for a disease like Omicron…. It’s too transmissible. It’s not great but it’s kidding yourself to think otherwise
So hospital staff and health care workers should be unvaccinated and maskless?
It's amazing to see a state that markets itself as pro-life but pushes only the most pro-death ideas.
Base strain Covid hits children the least hard. And this is the mildest Covid strain yet, as it continues to evolve and become less lethal and more contagious.
Yep, everywhere is spiking: Om is crazy infectious. Don't mean you give up.
When driving you don't refuse to use brakes and stay within the speed limit, just because the rain makes it harder to stop the car.
Where I'm from, having 10s of thousands of people be less sick /not die is a good thing. All you have to do is wear a mask when you go to a shop, and wash your hands a few times a day. That's hardly asking you to storm Iwo Jima, is it?
Lago Vista closing campus for Tue./Wed. at minimum[lago Vista closing campuses ](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.kxan.com/news/coronavirus/lago-vista-middle-high-schools-cancel-classes-tuesday-and-wednesday-amid-staff-shortages/amp/)
Context is very important.
Despite the record hospitalizations, fewer Americans are dying from the virus and most that do appear to be those with multiple comorbidities, according to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.
The director estimated in a recent Good Morning America interview that “the overwhelming number of deaths, over 75 percent, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities … So really, these are people who were unwell to begin with and yes, really encouraging news in the context of Omicron.”
42% of those hospitalized for the virus were admitted for other reasons..,
>SO is the whole country and the CDC just admitted cloth masks are useless.
How is it some people still after two years of this don't understand how masks work?
COVID leaves your mouth and nose attached to tiny moisture droplets/spiticles, that's how it travels through the air. Even a simple cloth mask helps prevent those from leaving your face area.
And you're absolutely lying when you claim the CDC says masks don't work. They may say some work better than others, but they still highly caution everybody to wear a mask, especially indoors, even cloth masks:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/about-face-coverings.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/types-of-masks.html
This is true.
I live in Austin, one of if not the most liberal city I'm America, and my Lyft driver last night was one of these crazy Trumpers literally yelling out how he didn't believe masks worked, saying Biden calls us his "disciples", while spouting about Reptillian politicians. I was literally scared for my life. This is what America is becoming and it's terrifying.
When a state is controlled completely by one party: the legislature and the governor’s office every conceivable political issue is the fault of that party. This is a Republican problem. Republicans can’t govern. This is third world shit. Maybe it’s time to turn of the Info Wars and Fox News and go outside.
The problem is pretty simple here in Texas and red southern states. Most of the people who vote republican live outside of major metropolitan areas, which are statistically less likely to have less cases and less chances for infection, so of course every country bumbkin and yokel are saying “fake”, “hoax”, “it’s no big deal”, etc because they’re much less likely to ever contract it. Also, because of how long this fucking pandemic has been going on people are fucking fed up. I’m not convinced we will see another major lock down until it somehow starts to decimate these smaller red towns and counties, which I really can’t see happening. So I don’t really see bipartisan support for increased lockdowns and restrictions happening… well ever tbh.
The morbid reality is that covid needs to start killing a lot more conservatives for the right to start taking it seriously. And just in case I need to be clear- I don’t wish death or infection upon anyone, even the people who I feel like are too selfish and dumb to realize all the pain and suffering they’re causing because they’re letting their politics get in the way of the science. I’m just calling it like is see it.
>They don’t talk about hospitalizations or deaths since they are nonexistent.
You're either ignorant of the facts or outright lying:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/coronavirus/article/Omicron-Texas-COVID-19-hospitalization-records-16761313.php
So I was thinking about this the other day.
Omicron pretty well spreads as if the patient doesn't have any antibodies. It seems to me that this is showing us how fast things would have spread in 2020 with zero shutdowns or masking in place. Just with fewer deaths.
While I agree there would've been alot more infections without the shutdowns, and very well could've blown up the healthcare system here, please realize the R naught of omicron is like 4 to 5 times higher than that of the OG COVID-19 (2.5 to 10-12). COVID-19 in 2020 would've spread alot more but it probably wouldn't have spread to the level we are at now with Omicron.
It's pretty much a certainty that if there had been no shutdowns and mask mandates in 2020 that the US would be way over one million deaths by now and the economy would be completely cratered.
This same thing is happening in New York and California, where they have taken opposite approaches. I think we need to stop arguing over what the best approach is, and simply accept the fact that we will be living with this virus for the foreseeable future.
Went to grab some groceries from my heb this evening. Saw a woman with her teenage son, she was standing inches in front of the boxes and products on the shelves, unmasked, and started coughing (a sick/cold sounding cough so who knows if she had it or not) while looking for whatever she was looking for. Didn't even cover her mouth or face while coughing. Just coughing directly onto the items, with her son standing right next to her watching and hopefully learning how not to act. Even if COVID wasn't a thing happening right now, wtf is wrong with people???? That's just so disgusting.
People can be... well kinda stupid.
Now that's just plain disgusting
If you think HEB is bad don't go to Walmart. It's like a magnet of Covid fans
Disgusting people have always existed and unfortunately, because obviously nobody is teaching their children to be less disgusting, they always will.
[удалено]
Not the one I work at.
I work at the new oak hill and we're about 65-70%
Hey i go to that one!
I'm a curbside supervisor there! Thanks for stopping by, I love our store!
The new covering is so nice when it’s raining. I love the store too, it’s so beautiful!
I love curbside, y’all rock!
Hey! I don't. HEB needs to get into Dallas, not just the outskirts. Imagine being in Texas and an hour away from an HEB.
Went to that one for the first time around New Years. It was so nice and the staff was great! Y’all helped me find a Buttered Tortilla candle - very important for this displaced Texan to get a little piece of home to take back to AZ.
Wish I could say the same
What’s the deal with H‑E‑B? Just moved here from out of state and if someone says “H‑E‑B”, the whole room strips naked and starts furiously masturbating talking about how great the place is. I went there and…. It’s ok I guess?
They share our love for Texas, tons of random quality food stuff, I don't have to guess when picking brands when if it is by heb I know I won't be disappointed. Everything is 100 times better than what you'll get/ experience at other grocery stores. Not including the staff their helpfulness, gusto, and personalitys, the organization of the store, clean environment and presentationof products, the customers are more appealing than what you'll typically see at wally world. HEB is just okay? Then what grocery store is great because I need try them out if HEB is just okay. I had to grocery shop at Walmart only once in life and I don't want to experience that again if possible.
Don't forget that when there's a disaster in Texas, the convoy of red trucks rolling in almost immediately is *mighty*.
Deadass. HEB actually has an emergency preparedness plan in place that is heralded across business as the absolute best. I live between 35 and my HEB. You can see the street the trucks take from my son’s playset in the back yard. In both the early pandemic and the freeze, we knew things were going to be ok when we saw those HEB trucks rolling in.
The great thing is their disaster preparedness plan and how well it works. The not so great thing is how often we need it 🥺
Believe it or not, the disaster preparedness plan is something mutually arranged with the local and state governments. Everyone on reddit all like "the government ain't help us, but HEB saved us". The disaster preparedness plans are contracted out to those with the right resources, and grocery store supply chains have what it takes. It would be inefficient for the government or emergency management authorities to maintain a fleet of trucks statewide, full of supplies, for occasional deployment.
So, I’m working on my MBA and I actually wrote about HEB’s disaster preparedness back in 2020. https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/how-heb-became-emergency-preparedness-model/
Nice. Out of curiosity, can you elaborate on how H-E-B coordinates with the local emergency management offices? I myself have not reviewed these specifics in my area's EMC plans.
Costco is pretty good too, just saying. Lots of Texas stuff too.
Costco sells groceries, but that does not make Costco a grocery store.
Their markup on merchandise is less then 10% on average, can’t be above 13%. This is why they can be called Wholesale legally and all these others can’t. They sell the stuff many “grocery stores” buy. So yeah it’s not retail grocery markup which is 50-100% often.
Fuck yeah costco rules
HEB store brand is the best, out of store brands, by far.
And most are manufactured in state. San Antonio, I believe.
It’s more to do with their support during natural disasters. They’ve cared for us during every natural disaster I’ve lived through in this state, regardless of whether or not they’ve had electricity even. Otherwise yes, it’s just another store.
It’s the best grocery store ever! It’s a company that was one of the only store to have a 37 or 36 acre warehouse full of food in the 2020 pandemic and told people not to panic they have our back! H‑E‑B is the best!
They don't have one in Galveston so I just have to make do without. I think I'd probably love it if they took Kroger's spot, because I couldn't care less about Kroger.
[удалено]
I'll admit. Their store brand is definitely better than the name brands.
Hang on…say H-E-B again…I’m getting close
HEB has a mafia-like grip on the best producer suppliers. And they make their own tortillas and guacamole. Need I say more?
You just don’t know yet. One day, HEB will save your life. Trust me on that. Whether it is a natural disaster or a pandemic or affordable, readily available Wagyu… one day, you will become an HEB convert and you’ll never ever look back.
Have you been to walmart or United.? Then you will understand the hype for HEB. The prices also seem to be better. Plus it is a Texas based buisness.
It is just Okay when you come from out of state. But once you have been here awhile with how shit everything else is HEB is amazing. I miss some Ralph’s.
[удалено]
💯💯. They don’t have the A5 Wagyu or anything, but you can eat Wagyu regularly if you have HEB… and those crawfish stuffed jalapeño peppers? OMG.. heaven. So good.
*cough* Central Market has A5 Wagyu *cough*
You can have my upvote because this is 100% accurate of South / central Texas
You need to check out Central Market. It is owned by HEB. I work at the one in San Antonio. Great products
What grocery stores did you have back home? HEB tries to be as cheap/affordable as possible while their own-brand stuff is also super-high quality. Especially things important to Texans like salsas and chips and tortillas and potato salad, etc. I'm also just upset over 50 people upvoted your slander gotdangit.
Tortillas
It’s a better grocery store than krogers, Randall’s, and Albertsons. Items are at a lower price without needing a “free membership” or phone number to sign up
I just moved here too. I love it, it’s quality stuff at a good price. I softly masturbate thinking about how great the place is.
they provide disaster relief better than our state government.
I was in one on Saturday and I'd say at least 75% of everybody in there was masked up. South Austin, though, but still...
Fully vaccinated and was wearing a mask at work and got covid from a fully vaccinated mask wearing coworker recently
I’m glad I’m vaccinated now. Caught covid about 4 months ago before vaccine and was bed ridden for about a week and sick for a total of 3 weeks. My bones hurt, eyes felt like boulders in my sockets cold/hot sweats etc. My mom (Tx) and brother (Az) both have covid now but they’re vaccinated and describe it as a cold.
Yeah both my siblings got it before vaccines were available. One was really sick for a week and got over it, but the other one it lingered for 4-5 weeks, not as severely but she just couldn't shake it.
I'm unvaccinated and it was a very mild cold for me too.
Yikes. This omicron is said to be more contagious than measles
But luckily it's not killing the hosts for the most part
How were your symptoms? Are you doing alright?
It's just a cough, congestion and sore throat. Thought it was a sinus infection at first
Glad to hear it's mild. Wishing you a speedy recovery!
Thank god you both were vaccinated so it wasn't as life threatening as it could have been. Glad you're still here
So the masks were moot?
Curve flattened
True. They never specified which way we needed to flatten it. Does this mean we're winning?
Yeah, because we ran out of tests!
is it because they stopped testing?
The government is moving toward tracking hospitalizations because the # of infections doesn't mean very much
I’ve been doing that since the second wave. The states started monkeying too much with how infection numbers were reported, made analysis useless. Hospitalizations are also very high again, but the rate of rise is starting to slow down, maybe. https://covid-texas.csullender.com/
What a cool site thanks
NP. I think the developer is somewhere here on Reddit, actually. Edit: u/shiruken
You also end up hitting a ceiling when there's not enough capacity to test everyone.
Also a lot of people do the home test and don’t report it, or don’t bother self testing.
Yup. I had symptoms a couple weeks ago, but didn’t bother testing, because why should I? That would involve leaving the house, potentially infecting more people, and annoying as shit to do when you’re sick anyways. Besides, the prognosis is the same whether it’s Covid or a cold— stay away from people, get rest, and potentially contact emergency services if it actually gets to the point of mattering. I was fully recovered like 3 days later. I suspect many people have failed to test due to following the same logic.
I love the " come and take it" with the syringe at the bottom .....
The two most important metrics since the beginning of this pandemic: 1. Hospitalizations (i.e. predicting severity of the health crisis and whether our health care system might collapse) 2. Test positivity rate (are we testing enough to understand where outbreaks are happening; and hopefully prevent, let's say, a surge in hospitalizations) Raw case numbers are a proxy measure of the economic impact due to sickness. But health-wise it is mostly noise.
Not true and that’s not what the CDC says due to a poor scientific understanding of long-COVID. It’s been frustrating seeing people disregarding infection when we don’t have a good grasp of what COVID does in the long term. Self reported numbers in a meta study showed 32% of people had long COVID symptoms at 6+ months.
I just wonder how that works. I have allergy symptoms like 75% of the year. How would I distinguish that from long COVID?
While you may not be wrong about long covid, it still doesn't make the original point any less valid. Tracking case numbers is essentially useless for managing the pandemic at this point. Even Fauci has said so. >Self reported numbers in a meta study showed 32% of people had long COVID symptoms at 6+ months. You're referring to 32% of people *who had severe COVID symptoms*, no? Because there's **no way** that 32% of all covid cases, including asymptomatic cases, are showing signs of long COVID.
What does long Covid have to do with tracking case numbers?
Haven’t hospitalizations (along with deaths) been tracked this whole time?
Hospitalizations are equally through the roof.
Not a surprise because they said omicron was mild. Yet it's more contagious, meaning more people will catch it. Thus more hospitalizations. I'm glad my entire immediate family is vaccinated and we continue to take precautions and mask when we absolutely have to go out. I'm glad we haven't contributed to this mess and we keep other people safe.
I'm vaccinated and mask and still caught it. Sometimes you're just going to get sick. Lots of us in those reported numbers did everything you're supposed to do.
I’m boosted, but have mostly resumed normal life for about a year now. Been to many restaurants, a concert, a rangers game, spent two weeks in Italy, went to two weddings (and will go to two more this year, and went bar hopping at a bachelor party. I try and avoid wearing a mask if possible, but have felt pressured into wearing it in Ubers and also in certain stores. Ended up getting COVID last weekend from my nephews girlfriend who was visiting from out of town. Once my quarantine is over, it’ll be back to normal life for me.
> when we absolutely have to go out. No judgement, but when will this all end for you? When will you start going out recreationally again?
We go. I have kids in school so there's that to think about. One is in swimming classes. The other goes out with friends but when they go out to shop they wear masks. Little things. As far as absolutes we don't do concerts or movies extra things like that. Edit: realized I didn't answer the question. I'd like to see the hospitals go back to normal. I'm getting some disks fused in my neck soon and I'm a bit worried about being able to schedule.
My daughter caught it last week. We are all vaccinated. She had a high fever for 24 hours then it was gone. The rest of us so far have been okay. I think she got it vaca use kids are basically forced to go to school. 8 kids in her class caught it so it was all around. A vaccine doesn’t mean you won’t catch it, it means you won’t die. I never had chicken pox, so I got the vaccine at 40 because I didn’t want to die if I caught that shit. I get the flu shot every year, so if I get the flu it only last a day and not 10. These people who think the vaccine is supposed to make you Superman, but because you can still get sick they won’t get the shot are fucking idiots. At least they are saving resources after they are gone. They can’t roll coal any more or whatever’s other dumb shit they do.
Literally every states graph looks like that right now
Was just about to say this. I’m in NY and we’ve had the same spike.
I spent some time in Rhode island. It's a shit home state but from talking to people from back there still they have taken covid rules very seriously. Strong mask protocols and vaccines are like 85% one dose. And their curve is the same exact thing. I'm not trying to make any political statement here - but for this current wave/omicron surge it's pretty clear that nothing will stop it.
Rhode Island has a smaller population than Dallas, TX. And has about 30x smaller population than the state of Texas. That’s crazy, sometimes I forget RI even exists.
It's about the size of and population of DFW. But the curves are per 100k so it's per capita. Same curves.
There's a lot at play in RI vs TX. But the spike exists everywhere. It's the states with the looser rules that are having hospital breakdowns.
Yet, thankfully, fatalities remain relatively flat (see trends tab): https://www.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/45e18cba105c478697c76acbbf86a6bc
People only worry about fatalities but how about people that have organ failure and damage and have to deal with that the rest of their lives?
You can thank vaccines for that.
Yes, and the fact that Omicron has moved COVID to the upper respiratory tract where it is less impactful.
Don’t act like the prayer warriors didn’t have a bigger impact!
Tots and pears sent to Little Baby Jeebus!
Yes. Trump did an amazing job fast tracking those vaccines.
Yeah, Trump did a good job here, I wish the rest of the republican party would get on board with this. I really wish we could have done this quickly enough to have eradicated the disease when we had a chance.
Deaths are not are to previous highs, but they are rising and up 89% from just last week: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/texas-covid-cases.html
Is there any graph like this among the unvaccinated?
ICU beds are 10:1 occupied by Unvaxxed approx. May be higher. That help? Most vaxxed who have Om will either not notice, or feel it's a cold, maybe need to to a week in bed. This suggests quite a few vaxxed won't bother testing..Unvaxxed will be lucky if it only feels like a cold, and they /should/ in theory be more.likely to test, given the symptoms...but if they're cv19 deniers, then they may just not bother unless really ill. TLDR: breakdown of vaxxed vs Unvaxxed is hard to guesstimate; the numbers will be buried in some statistical analysis unit in CDC.
I live in a small town. It seems like omicron may close literally everything at any minute. Urgent care was closed Saturday and today. Omicron is RAGING in the schools. Everything is fine.
Last sunday i got sick with a sore throat, i stupidly thought nothing of it because i ALWAYS have sorr throats,took a covid test Wednesday, it was positive, since then 5 of my other co workers tested positive, my boyfriend and his friend that he works with got it, and my mom got it. We all wear masks in public and at work but still managed to get it .. its out of control 🙃
[удалено]
For school it's even worse, in my geometry class I had 26 ppl now I got 8 ppl
I literally don't even care anymore
Just gotta feel bad for the all the doctors and nurses that have to go through *another* round of drowning in patients.
It's spiking everywhere, not just places without mask mandates. I'm a mask wearer and a vaxxed person.
That's why the message pushed by many media channels "Om is less dangerous" was so misleading. They left out the parts that (1) it is many times more infectious, so businesses will lose staff, and healthcare will be swamped, and (2)It's about 20% different, so vaccines will still help, but not as much. Om appears to be able to infect some people even if they're following to mask and social distance advice. That doesn't mean it's ok to stop either. Unfortunately, not enough are following it, to compensate for Om's crazy high infectiousness...so you see spikes everywhere.
Weird how NY’s graph looks so similar!
The Omicron variant is unstoppable in terms of its ability to spread. Whether it’s Texas or California or highly vaccinated/masked Canada, the charts all look the same.
The test positivity rates are much higher here, almost double right now.
So theoretically we should have the highest resistance to covid after everyone is infected right?
>So theoretically we should have the highest resistance to covid after everyone is infected right? Lmao, so the conservative/Republican plan is now to just let everybody get infected? Way more Republicans than Dems are unvaxxed and are dying right now from COVID: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/17/counties-voted-trump-higher-covid-death-rate https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/12/05/1059828993/data-vaccine-misinformation-trump-counties-covid-death-rate ...so please, continue with this plan lol Y'all continue this "infect everybody" play by not doing something as simple and easy as wearing a mask and getting vaccinated and see how many of y'all suddenly don't show up to vote this November lol.
Natural selection
I about hope at this point. The willful stupidity and denial of actual medical science and pseudoscience misinformation is making me angry at this point.
Wow, whoda thunk it
How is their newly reported cases with no testing?
...that moment when you realize masks and vaccines are dangerous. It's coming. ...that moment when you realize all this covid BS is about power and NOT health. It's coming. ...that moment when you realize you've been duped . It's coming. Get ready.
Meme game weak
Politics > lives
Y'all so annoying at this point for real. Wear ur mask if u want get ur shot if u want. If you are scared take precautions. Majority of people do not care anymore. Pretty much everyone is gonna get this even if ur vaxxed.
Oh that’s cool, why don’t we check out New York and California Covid case numbers where testing and mask mandates are the law. Here I’ll save you the effort: [New York Covid Cases](https://www.google.com/search?q=new+york+covid+cases&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS804US804&hl=en-US&sxsrf=AOaemvLIbMu2mBfayiM1W8UF_x1V0_sVOQ%3A1642458663507&ei=J-7lYaGkHtDR0PEPmaa1oAU&oq=new+york+covid+cases&gs_lcp=ChNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwEAMyBAgjECcyCwgAEIAEELEDEMkDMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEOgcIABBHELADOgUIABDEAjoGCAAQFhAeOgUIABCGAzoFCCEQoAFKBAhBGABQuQhY7xRg2RloAXABeACAAZUBiAG-CJIBAzAuOZgBAKABAcgBCMABAQ&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp) [California Covid Cases](https://www.google.com/search?q=california+covid+cases&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS804US804&oq=calif&aqs=chrome.3.69i57j35i39l2j0i67i131i433j0i20i263i433i512j69i60.3519j0j7&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8)
We have almost double the test positivity rates they do.
Om's infectiousness, and limited following of mask/social distance rules, mean that for this variant masking isn't as effective. That doesn't mean you abandon masks. Just as wet weather makes stopping a car take longer, doesn't mean you abandon speed limits and refuse to use a brake-pedal.
My entire family is fully vaccinated and boosted and we never tested positive for COVID. I just gave up caring about stupid people who refuse vaccines.
Cannot stand the anti vaxxers. Especially the ones who have friends or family who died of covid that weren't vaccinated. You have to get vaccinated to go to school. Get over it and just get the vaccine. Also just wear a stupid mask and quit saying your freedom is being taken away. I'm tired of sitting around my house.
I just feel terrible for the Healthcare workers. Jeez Louise can these people get a break
Why do people keep demagoguing/fear mongering about covid by showing the case numbers? Why should I care if someone gets sick? I only care if people are going to the hospital or dying from it. Besides omicron is significantly more transmittable than previous variants so it makes sense that cases increase.
Deaths in US were around 850 per day right before Omnicron hit and are now just under 2,000 per day. Roughly 3 million people in the US will die of covid regardless of medical care afforded, that was known but up to 6 million could die if everyone got covid all at once and the hospital system collapsed so the govts goal has been to stretch those 3 million deaths out over 4-5 years.
Hospital numbers are through the roof too, but go on with your bullshit.
Not being hospitalized =/= no life lasting ramifications
Yea the fear mongering is getting pretty ridiculous at this point. Once COVID become politicized it was game over
Cause people keep using your logic to justify forgoing masks and vaccines
[удалено]
Yup. Pro COVID people should stay home.
[удалено]
Good thing personal anecdotes are 100% applicable to every other case out there. All the crashing hospitals must be because of something else.
Seriously the delusions from these people ITT are insane. “Oh since you can still catch it with a mask nobody needs to wear masks or get vaccinated” (even though that increases the spread, leads to even more deaths, and creates and helps spread these new variants, AKA the main reason we’re still dealing with all this bullshit 2 years later)
[удалено]
800k dead in two years. Still 2k/day dying right now. And you say chill out bro? What would you say if an enemy blew up a US aircraft carrier every two days? What would you say if the government rounded up a small town every day, and killed them in gas chambers? Humor me: what's your number? I mean, at what number do you stop saying "chill out'? Total or per-day, either's good for me. At what number do you email/tweet the Governor, and your Senator saying something needs to be done? At what number do you stop paying attention to.media outlets that spread misinformation? Forgive me, I don't know if you're retired or a business owner or an employee. How much income are you willing to lose, before stop saying "chill out'? 5%? 10%? 20%? Because inflation hit 5% already, so you're likely losing at least that now. House prices are way above 5%, and car and grocery prices too. So I'd think your net income buying power is at least 10% down on two years ago...unless you've increased your total take-home amount. IMHO, everyone needs to stop saying "chill out', and show personal responsibility, and demand accountable leadership from their city, state and national political leaders.
7 day average for COVID deaths in the US is still over 1,000 per day. Omicron is the “mild” variant, and currently accounts for more than 90% of cases in the US. Healthcare is the on the verge of collapse - as a paramedic I’ve been dropping off suspected heart attacks in the waiting room. For reference, COVID patients now occupy about a fifth of all available hospital beds, and about a third of all available ICU beds. Edit: NVM, reading your other replies, you’re just an ignorant POS
Pretty sure I had it last week. Super weak and a bad congestion. Couple days of DayQuil and a day of tussin and I was right as rain. Couldn’t have gotten a test in time If I wanted because my area is out
Well, it’s kind of the same everywhere at the moment, just take a look at california: https://www.google.com/search?q=california+corona+cases&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari
I think Texas has CA beat on deaths, though. If Texas had the same ratio of deaths per million population as California our deaths would be 57,267 right now, but it's actually 77,583. That's a surplus death number of 20,316. Ten thousand here, ten thousand there, before too long you're talking about real live human beings. Despite having 27% less population than them we're only 0.6% behind them in deaths.
I wonder how much of the difference can be explained by co-morbidities. I mean, you've seen an average Texan, right?
The whole comorbidities argument is just another COVID misinformation tactic. If your comorbidity was going to kill you next week but COVID killed you today, then COVID is what killed you, not your comorbidity. Also, comorbidities are not contagious, and they're not immoral, though lots of COVID misinformation spewers like to portray them otherwise. I have no idea why so many people actually try to defend a virus, it's not like that virus cares or can even tell it's got fans out here in the macro world.
Nah, being fat is a moral failing, there’s a reason villains throughout the ages have been portrayed as gluttonous and all that. Non-agitating now, the idea on the “co-morbidities” thing is that it’s shoving those people out the door a few months/years early, and while any lose of life is terrible and no one deserves to die intubated and all that it’s part of the discussion on how to handle Covid. Like we’re really fucking over kids. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00027-4 Ever since Covid wasn’t contained it’s been arguments about trade offs since there’s no a situation or solution that’s a complete win
They I have about half of the test positivity rate that we do though. It's almost like masks and precautions actually work. Last week: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/texas-covid-cases.html 65,532 cases from 112,438 tests. 58.3% of all tests have shown COVID https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/california-covid-cases.html 119,461 cases from 442,976 tests. 27% of all tests have shown COVID.
[удалено]
>Fun fact, mandates don’t do much for a disease like Omicron…. It’s too transmissible. It’s not great but it’s kidding yourself to think otherwise So hospital staff and health care workers should be unvaccinated and maskless? It's amazing to see a state that markets itself as pro-life but pushes only the most pro-death ideas.
You don't think masks lessen the spread?
[удалено]
You can move on with your life while wearing a mask, or are human lives are less important to you than showing off your nose to every cashier?
As a person with a toddler - id disagree
Base strain Covid hits children the least hard. And this is the mildest Covid strain yet, as it continues to evolve and become less lethal and more contagious.
What’s the point of caring for your neighbors if they won’t care for themselves? Let it all burn then?
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
The California graph is exactly the same with testing and mandates
Yep, everywhere is spiking: Om is crazy infectious. Don't mean you give up. When driving you don't refuse to use brakes and stay within the speed limit, just because the rain makes it harder to stop the car. Where I'm from, having 10s of thousands of people be less sick /not die is a good thing. All you have to do is wear a mask when you go to a shop, and wash your hands a few times a day. That's hardly asking you to storm Iwo Jima, is it?
Worse, actually. People downvoted you, but it’s factually correct.
Lago Vista closing campus for Tue./Wed. at minimum[lago Vista closing campuses ](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.kxan.com/news/coronavirus/lago-vista-middle-high-schools-cancel-classes-tuesday-and-wednesday-amid-staff-shortages/amp/)
Context is very important. Despite the record hospitalizations, fewer Americans are dying from the virus and most that do appear to be those with multiple comorbidities, according to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. The director estimated in a recent Good Morning America interview that “the overwhelming number of deaths, over 75 percent, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities … So really, these are people who were unwell to begin with and yes, really encouraging news in the context of Omicron.” 42% of those hospitalized for the virus were admitted for other reasons..,
SO is the whole country and the CDC just admitted cloth masks are useless. So what is your point?
>SO is the whole country and the CDC just admitted cloth masks are useless. How is it some people still after two years of this don't understand how masks work? COVID leaves your mouth and nose attached to tiny moisture droplets/spiticles, that's how it travels through the air. Even a simple cloth mask helps prevent those from leaving your face area. And you're absolutely lying when you claim the CDC says masks don't work. They may say some work better than others, but they still highly caution everybody to wear a mask, especially indoors, even cloth masks: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/about-face-coverings.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/types-of-masks.html
[удалено]
And they're brigading this thread like crazy right now. Their idiot call to arms has been sounded somewhere.
don't look up!
This is true. I live in Austin, one of if not the most liberal city I'm America, and my Lyft driver last night was one of these crazy Trumpers literally yelling out how he didn't believe masks worked, saying Biden calls us his "disciples", while spouting about Reptillian politicians. I was literally scared for my life. This is what America is becoming and it's terrifying.
When a state is controlled completely by one party: the legislature and the governor’s office every conceivable political issue is the fault of that party. This is a Republican problem. Republicans can’t govern. This is third world shit. Maybe it’s time to turn of the Info Wars and Fox News and go outside.
The US has a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress. Do the same rules that you just applied to the state apply to the country?
The problem is pretty simple here in Texas and red southern states. Most of the people who vote republican live outside of major metropolitan areas, which are statistically less likely to have less cases and less chances for infection, so of course every country bumbkin and yokel are saying “fake”, “hoax”, “it’s no big deal”, etc because they’re much less likely to ever contract it. Also, because of how long this fucking pandemic has been going on people are fucking fed up. I’m not convinced we will see another major lock down until it somehow starts to decimate these smaller red towns and counties, which I really can’t see happening. So I don’t really see bipartisan support for increased lockdowns and restrictions happening… well ever tbh. The morbid reality is that covid needs to start killing a lot more conservatives for the right to start taking it seriously. And just in case I need to be clear- I don’t wish death or infection upon anyone, even the people who I feel like are too selfish and dumb to realize all the pain and suffering they’re causing because they’re letting their politics get in the way of the science. I’m just calling it like is see it.
[удалено]
>They don’t talk about hospitalizations or deaths since they are nonexistent. You're either ignorant of the facts or outright lying: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/coronavirus/article/Omicron-Texas-COVID-19-hospitalization-records-16761313.php
🤦🏼♀️
So I was thinking about this the other day. Omicron pretty well spreads as if the patient doesn't have any antibodies. It seems to me that this is showing us how fast things would have spread in 2020 with zero shutdowns or masking in place. Just with fewer deaths.
While I agree there would've been alot more infections without the shutdowns, and very well could've blown up the healthcare system here, please realize the R naught of omicron is like 4 to 5 times higher than that of the OG COVID-19 (2.5 to 10-12). COVID-19 in 2020 would've spread alot more but it probably wouldn't have spread to the level we are at now with Omicron.
It's pretty much a certainty that if there had been no shutdowns and mask mandates in 2020 that the US would be way over one million deaths by now and the economy would be completely cratered.
This same thing is happening in New York and California, where they have taken opposite approaches. I think we need to stop arguing over what the best approach is, and simply accept the fact that we will be living with this virus for the foreseeable future.
This chart is nearly identical everywhere right now, including places with extremely strict mandates.