☮ Social ☮ PD Social Talk Thread: If 2020 Was the Dumpster, Can 2021 Be the Fire?

[Buzz Lightbeer]

It could also be that this variant is itself less severe

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Omicron is so weak. It would help if official messaging around omicron would focus on how we're almost out of this crap and that people can resume their normal lives. Pretty much the only issue now, at least for European countries is that there's some additional pressure on hospitals due to staff falling out.

Spoiler: Relevant quotes

Understanding the burden of omicron depends crucially on the proportion of asymptomatic infections. A systematic review based on previous SARS-CoV-2 variants suggested that 40% of infections were asymptomatic.
Evidence suggests that the proportion of asymptomatic infections is much higher for omicron, perhaps as high as 80–90%. Garrett and colleagues found that among 230 individuals in South Africa enrolling in a clinical trial, 71 (31% ) were PCR positive for SARS-CoV-2 and had the omicron variant and no symptoms.
Assuming this prevalence of infection was representative of the population, the implied incidence compared to detected cases suggests that more than 90% of infections were asymptomatic in South Africa.

In addition to the much larger proportion of asymptomatic infections, in the USA the ratio of COVID-19 hospitalisations to detected cases hospitalised has declined by about 50% in most states compared with previous peaks.
The proportion of COVID-19 patients in hospital who require intubation or are dying has declined by as much as 80–90% in Canada and South Africa.

Despite the reduced disease severity per infection, the massive wave of omicron infections means that hospital admissions are increasing in many countries and will rise to twice or more the number of COVID-19 hospital admissions of past surges in some countries according to the IHME models.
In countries where all hospital admissions are screened for COVID-19, a substantial proportion of these admissions will be among individuals coming to hospital for non-COVID-19 reasons who have asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection. Nevertheless, infection control requirements put increased demands on hospitals.

Surprisingly, IHME models suggest that the transmission intensity of omicron is so high that policy actions—eg, increasing mask use, expanding vaccination coverage in people who have not been vaccinated, or delivering third doses of COVID-19 vaccines—taken in the next weeks will have limited impact on the course of the omicron wave. IHME estimates suggest that increasing use of masks to 80% of the population, for example, will only reduce cumulative infections over the next 4 months by 10%. Increasing COVID-19 vaccine boosters or vaccinating people who have not yet been vaccinated is unlikely to have any substantial impact on the omicron wave because by the time these interventions are scaled up the omicron wave will be largely over.

By March, 2022 a large proportion of the world will have been infected with the omicron variant. With continued increases in COVID-19 vaccination, the use in many countries of a third vaccine dose, and high levels of infection-acquired immunity, for some time global levels of SARS-CoV-2 immunity should be at an all time high. For some weeks or months, the world should expect low levels of virus transmission.

Thank God this is almost over.

 

[perpetualdawn]

Omicron is the best possible thing that could have happened. The exit door. I just hope the long term stuff is nonexistent

 

[Buzz Lightbeer]

Omicron is the best possible thing that could have happened. The exit door.

Yeah it really is people will talk about this time for decades.

I just hope the long term stuff is nonexistent

Hope so too, cause we're probably all getting infected with some COVID variant at some point. 80-90% being asymptomatic is hopeful though, I'll take my chances, although it might not be related to long COVID.

 

[Img_9999]

Let's hope this shit is over soon

 

[AutoTripper]

Decades? Unless all record is lost, as in consciousness or data, I'm thinking more like millenia, not even centuries.

2022 could be bigger than 0000, or 1 BC/AD.

 

[Img_9999]

I've been hanging out with some Chileans lately and it has really inspired me to explore Chile some day. They did a road trip to the south recently and it sounds amazing. I've also been following an instagram channel that posts a lot of photos from that area - so many beautiful places

There's some really beautiful places here. Specially in the south of the country. The farther southern end is sooooo far away though, that I've only been once there, and there's a lot I have never explored, including the iconic "Torres del Paine". I plan to go by ground all the way down there and visit them, with various stops in between. It's something I've been planning to do for a long time now. Hopefully I can finally get there !

 

[Deleted member 521610]

holy fuck i had the most epic k hole of my life smoked a joint and railed a extra 250 mg ketamine. Died and was reforged in love. I am more open now to the changing world.


ketamine is some weird shit. I was gone for countless eons beyond time. I seen sooo many things so many insights into my life and my shadows.

That was one of the best things to ever happen to me. It broke me down and was some massive therapy.

I also saw a fucking ufo before the k hole when i was outside smoking a joint last night was insane it just vanished in the sky. I will never know if it was aliens or not but it was strange.

 

[izo]

I’m at the hospital again, this time for one month by now. Why? Because of nothing. I had a neurological problem and wanted to the hospital on my own. Then after they tested me on ct a judge came and wants me to stay for 2,5 month all in all. For what? Nothing. They said I was intoxicated and had to stay there because I was high and became psychotic. Totally wrong. Wanted to change my medication during this time but all I get again is placebos. Plus it is the worst hospital I ever went to. And I know 6 different ones by now. Germany isn’t that different from the USA when it comes to prison states, only difference is they put you in a hospital with a judges decision. Fuck it.

 

[perpetualdawn]

There's some really beautiful places here. Specially in the south of the country. The farther southern end is sooooo far away though

What's the length of Chile? 4000km or something?

 

[Buzz Lightbeer]

Would absolutely love to go to Chile someday.
A friend of mine just came back from Argentina after spending 5 months there, looked amazing but I'm going off pics and short online interactions. I should just ask him about things, I will.

 

[Buzz Lightbeer]

I’m at the hospital again, this time for one month by now. Why? Because of nothing. I had a neurological problem and wanted to the hospital on my own. Then after they tested me on ct a judge came and wants me to stay for 2,5 month all in all. For what? Nothing. They said I was intoxicated and had to stay there because I was high and became psychotic. Totally wrong. Wanted to change my medication during this time but all I get again is placebos. Plus it is the worst hospital I ever went to. And I know 6 different ones by now. Germany isn’t that different from the USA when it comes to prison states, only difference is they put you in a hospital with a judges decision. Fuck it.

Damn man. They'll do that with "drug addicts" that are in the system and "get caught" again, here too. At least they're not ordering forceful injections of neuroleptics and stuff, which they seem to do to lots people in the Invega thread.

I was at a psychiatric hospital for a while a couple months ago, lots of freedom there though and I was there voluntarily. One guy had relapsed on coke or something and got temporarily placed there (which was a lucky break for him). He had been through things.... he once spent a year and a half in some sort of super strict drug addict program (with many homeless people) where they lived all together, learned crafts and shit, almost completely separate from the real world, and then one or two similar but shorter programs, it's that or jail time I think. Can't say the judges lose faith in people

The guy had been been through some shit, permanently fucked knee as well. Then one day there he arrived with this banging car (Audi R8 I think) he had bought with the heritage from his exceedingly rich but recently deceased grandmother that got sorted out. that was an epic moment. And he's still clean from drugs now...

 

[izo]

I was in a hospital for 1,5 years before after vaping 342g of mainly a-pvp, a-pihp and the like. That has helped me but this here is just fucked up and boring as hell…

 

[Buzz Lightbeer]

342 grams?? Holy shit. Time-span, if I may ask?

 

[izo]

Around 6 to 7 years with some time in between. Always ordered 10g minimum and vaped it in about 7 days. The time I did this was totally fucked up, did some other drugs in these days but never had benzos during this time which made me a mess on the pyrrolidino ketones. Today I only vape a-php with a benzo mixed in which is great. The flash is a bit softer and delayed but the high is much better than without.

 

[izo]

Btw, I registered here when I was 23 but didn’t post much until 1,5 years ago.

 

[Deleted member 521610]

damm my bladder hurts a little bit from that tiny amount of ket i had consumed over the weekend. Def not doing anymore for a while

 

[Cream Gravy?]

I’m amazed how much bladder pain is reported these days with K. Seemed people got on alright for the better part of two decades then suddenly all the K users started reporting bladder issues en mass.

I don’t doubt the damage, I’m glad I didn’t use enough MXE to damage my bladder... but I do wonder what has caused the increase for ketamine users.

 

[Pfafffed]

That's a good point. I wonder if there are just a lot more ketamine users. Or if it's an entirely other phenomena. It's real enough by all accounts, not that rare, and doesn't even take all that much use for a small percentage of people to develop it...which makes me wonder what the plan is now that it's a commonly used depression treatment.

 

[simstim]

I can't wait to get a gram of dpt again. It's my favorite psychedelic.

I wonder if that makes me a closet member of the temple of inner light? It's their holy blessed sacrament, so...

The last time I bought a gram of dpt I tripped for 24 hours solid and just redosed every two hours.

I did join an online church once. The church of the molecular sacrament.

You had to be a member to order from this site that was around back in the day. They had everything from really late MXE to 5-MAPB. Craziest 'church' ever.

 

[Buzz Lightbeer]

I too can be very devout