comment: >
  
  It’s here already everyone by me is getting some new crazy strong  strain been sucks for 3 weeks not going away , permanent COVID on the way
context: I don't want any more Covid 19 DLC. >
  
  This is COVID 23 the surprise edition >
  
  Fucking pay to play life edition >
  
  Does anyone have the patch notes >
  
  Viral load +50%, infection rate +20%, vaccine effectiveness -80%, misinformation +100%
  Added new skill line to the Grifter class: multivitamin overdose cures COVID-23
  Skill cap on Depression increased from 99 to 149
  World settings for Inflation and Supply Chain Disruption increased.
  Gasoline price cap removed.
  Additional dialogue branches:
  Nazis are back. King of England dies and Ireland rejoices. Half of over 70s die in London due to cold front and inability to pay 400% heating bills. Elon Musk starts buying Reddit shares. Footage of abuse from Epstein island released with no following convictions. Governor Desantis takes lead of the Republican party. Trump starts own party. >
  
  It is also the dominant variant in the US. >
  
  I’m so confused about variants. How did we get up to Delta and Omicron so fast and now we are just stuck oh Omicron and different variants of omicron? >
  
  Variants are an interesting thing in virology. Bumpersticker version, as genes turn on and off in the code of the virus, the more gene switching, the more "distant" the variant is from the original, in a tree chart, as if it were branches from a trunk.  Omicron hasn't had a major enough change be replicated to do something huge like Delta did from Alpha or Omicron from Delta, but the newer variants are being able to escape of sorts from antibodies locking onto them and destroying them, creating a higher infection and transmission rate. >
  
  But are these variants more severe or deadly? If they are mild and escape antibodies then it doesn't really matter, does it? >
  
  The answer is, when taken in isolation, the more recent variants are probably in the same realm of deadliness as the earlier COVID-19 variants. There is virtually no evolutionary pressure on COVID to become less deadly due to the fact it spreads so well asymptotically.
  The big difference is that we now have better treatment plans for severe cases, there's vaccines, and prior infections can infer some immunity. Though there's some early research out of the University of Waterloo in Canada showing prior infections can also cause subsequent infections to be worse in certain cases.
  Still, I'm less worried about how deadly COVID is and more worried about long COVID. Every infection seems to be rolling the dice on long COVID and if you keep getting infected the odds are not in your favor. >
  
  I’m being treated for long covid, constant inflammation causing muscle and joint pain in random parts of my body during the day, not severe but enough of an issue I’ve stopped jogging and regularly take OTC codeine, breathlessness, dizziness, palpitations, general brain fog, anxiety etc etc. 
  Between therapy and diazepam (very rarely if I’m getting palpitations and panic attacks whilst trying to sleep) there isn’t really anything they can do at the moment. They’re still trying to work out how big an impact it’s having and if any treatments are working but as I tend to dissociate big time in these sessions with professionals it’s hard to get across how my daily life has been impacted. >
  
  Wow, I’m starting to wonder if I have some level of long Covid now.  Those symptoms sound spot on to things I’ve been dealing with for the past year—heart palpitations, light headedness, joint and nerve pain, really stiff neck etc.  All of these things started about a week after a sustained exposure to a Covid positive person last year, although I never tested positive (pcr on the second and sixth days after exposure) nor had respiratory symptoms.  I’ve also had to give up exercising and golfing, along with almost all sugar and caffeine, and been feeling kinda bummed out about it all.  Been to my primary care physician maybe 5 times but he just seems to think it’s general inflammation and prescribed a small course of corticosteroids a few months ago. >
  
  Can I ask about the sugar and caffeine?  Why have you had to limit those? >
  
  Caffeine and sugar both tend to increase general inflammation response in your body. When you have a normal immune system this isn’t usually too noticeable, but mix in autoimmune or post-viral disorders and it can run out of control pretty quick. >
  
  Omicron Super Variant XBB.1.5: Turbo Championship Edition HD Remix >
  
  Hadouken >
  
  Tiger, uppercut! >
  
  Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! Tiger Uppercut! 
  You Lose! 
  Man I hated Sagat for this reason. >
  
  I had someone tell the they thought he said fiber, and some other dummy tell me they thought Gambit said credit card. >
  
  I just want to know wtf Wolverine says. >
  
  I’m guessing you’re referring to berserker barrage >
  
  holy shit, I had to go listen to it again to realize he's saying those words. It's such gibberish, but thank you! >
  
  Happy Old Year !!! >
  
  Sir, this is Q17 of 2020 >
  
  Q13. 17 quarters into 2020 would start January of 2024. >
  
  Clearly this redditor is a time traveller.
  Which means....oh no.  Oh no no no no.... >
  
  Well, shit. >
  
  2019-2023 have been the exact same year. >
  
  2022 was absolutely huge in geopolitics. Russia decided to delete its army and exports, Japan is remilitarizing and Europe hugely upped its military spending, Europe is now binging US and Qatari LNG, both US and China are heavily investing in replacing Taiwanese chip manufacturing so that a conflict over it isn't a full disaster domestically
  Edit: Almost forgot our Latin American friends, where several countries narrowly avoided dictatorial coups. And the ongoing several months of protests in Iran, of course. >
  
  Also, Shinzo Abe got assassinated, America managed to keep it's democracy functioning a little while longer after a historic midterm, and the year ended with Brazil and Israel both having former leaders return to power in the same week. >
  
  US elections were a nail biter, but yeah, authoritarian populism (or whatever you wanna call it) was beat back some. Same pattern in Brazil actually, the Lula win is definitely a win for voter rights even if he's an old leader. Netanyahu's a piece of work from what little I know, but tbh don't know enough to comment. So I think it was a good year for democratic values in "borderline countries"
  The Abe assassination was an oddball, but that wasn't really even political >
  
  The Abe assassination has been a huge thing in Japanese politics, and seemingly in a good way (!).  The government has been forced to examine politicians' corrupt ties with the Unification Church and other religious scams.  Strangely, the shooter seems to have been getting exactly what he wanted by killing Abe. >
  
  Are the church tie-ins that strong? The coverage I read when it happened, it seemed like an isolated thing with Abe in particular. Almost like he had some shady stuff with basically a cult >
  
  It's come out that a lot of politicians had ties to the Unification church. >
  
  The fuck is ap7am.com? >
  
  Apparently 7 apple martinis >
  
  I’m down for that.  I volunteer for a medical study that will determine how much free alcohol it takes to defeat Covid >
  
  Day 117: u/Dogdad1971 has not recovered from his day 2 hangover and the super variant is still alive, in fact thriving, in his body >
  
  Lemon Rock town Vodka mixed with sweet southern iced tea and i can take on the world and everything it can throw at me. >
  
  The newest COVID variants aren't so bad on the initial sickness end. The real problem isn't that part of it. It's all the other weird shit it seems to be doing to people. Giving them heart disease, literally making them dumber, giving people auto-immune responses, stripping sense of taste, giving you asthma. This is all stuff that other diseases don't do. Long Covid is the real nightmare fuel.  We don't know why it does it or how it does it or even what it does - all we know is that for some people it damages them permanently and in ways we don't understand. Hopefully as it spreads around these side-effects become less and less prevalent, but every health professional knew it was going to be endemic once it hit pandemic. >
  
  When I got Covid about a year ago, it was fairly mild.  I wouldn't have known it was something exceptional had I not been tested.
  Then a few weeks later, my lungs started feeling wierd.  Hard to breath sometimes, particularly when I feel stressed.  Not nearly as life changing as some people have it, but concerning.  And sometimes my heart feels strange too, which might just be the stress of life (things haven't been going well for me the past few years) but I can't help but wonder if that's related.  That one worries me.
  I also have a family history of an autoimmune disease that it hypothesized to have a viral trigger.  Could Covid do that, who knows, ask again in ten years.
  I live in an area with low mask and vaccine rates.  No one here takes it seriously, despite how we've also had a lot of Covid deaths.
  Yeah, it's concerning.  And so many people just don't want to acknowledge it. >
  
  God damn that "wierd lung feeling" particularly when stressed out is fucking DEAD on accurate for me. Had multiple different tests (xray, lung breathing spirography thing), all completely inconclusive. Doc basically said its anxiety, aka doctor for "shit i dunno lol"
  Never confirmed had covid, but i've had the issue since a particularly nasty mystery bug a while back (before home covid tests, figured i'd just stay home and quarantine to be safe) >
  
  Dude this is me 100%. I got the original variant and was sick as a dog before the lockdowns even happened, made a full recovery, and then like a year later started feeling short of breath randomly (especially when stressed). Luckily, it seemingly getting gradually better but I’m going on two years of this now. Who knows though, maybe it is anxiety (like my doc also said). It would make sense that my first major bout with anxiety and the pandemic appeared at the same time. >
  
  Similar to you, it's something that is getting less frequent. 
  Things like your heart beating and lungs breathing are done automatically by your body, and the best way I can describe it is that my subconscious forgets to do a cycle of my lungs inflating and sucking in air, so my conscious brain has to take over.
  The reason I describe it like this is that it has never happened when I'm running or excercising, when I am thinking about my breathing pattern.
  But I can be just chilling on the couch or making dinner and all of a sudden have to take 2-3 deliberate deep breaths >
  
  This damn virus is getting more version updates than any steam early access games. >
  
  DLC EDITION is real fun 🤩 >
  
  Does "super variant" have a scientific definition? >
  
  No it’s just to keep people scared. >
  
  2020.
  2020 won.
  2020 II Omicron Bugaloo
  2020 III Revenge of XBB >
  
  2020 IV : Necropolis
  2020 V : Rave to the Grave >
  
  Can we just get an alien invasion to end it all? I cannot deal with that anymore. >
  
  What if this is the alien invasionn? This is how it starts. Why would they land early and get their hands dirty? They can send these little tiny things to sanitize the planet before they arrive. >
  
  i'm sure they add "super" for clicks. >
  
  You're not dealing with the average omicron variant anymore... I, XBB.1.5, have finally become... the legendary Super Variant! >
  
  'Super variant' makes me doubt the publication. It's just another variant that's maybe somewhat more transmissible and with a little luck also less lethal, more or less the best likely outcome other than it vanishes or we develop a highly effective and safe treatment like penicillin for COVID. >
  
  Seems like every new variant is more transmissible (sometimes much more) than the last.  Makes me wonder what the end game is.  Perhaps a variant where one cough will infect everyone in a 50mi radius?
  Of course at this point there are so many variables that affect transmissibility and susceptibility that its probably hard to put a number on anything. >
  
  That's incorret.
  There are new variants on an almost weekly basis. Those that aren't as transmissable/advantagous merely fade away quickly.
  Its natural selection virusified. >
  
  I'm really not trying to start a fight......but what did everyone expect?  It was never going anywhere.  We were never going to eradicate it. >
  
  There was a point in the summer 2020 when our cases here were getting close to zero, I thought we were going to beat this thing. >
  
  cases in the entire world would need to go to zero, this is never going to happen.
  even if a vaccine is 90% effective that's still a geometric rate of spreading. >
  
  Even if cases went to zero we'd still have COVID. Numerous animals and pets can catch it and act as reservoirs. 
  It's a permanent part of Earth's ecosystem now. >
  
  As it has been ever since it wasn't. >
  
  Y'all know the tame impala song the less I know the better? That's how I feel about covid. >
  
  Let me guess, more contagious and more escape behavior than any other variant? >
  
  Who keeps updating Plague Inc.? >
  
  Honestly, as heartless as it is, this is going to be common. I've heard people say it's going to be like a flu now. This is just life. Covid is never fully getting eradicated and, therefore, will continue to mutate as the many diseases we call the flu do. This is our new reality. >
  
  Unfortunately it's not comparable with the flu. The flu doesn't leave long-term symptoms with very rare exceptions. Also most people don't contract the flu annually. On average people only catch the flu once every 5 years according to analysis. People are contracting covid multiple times a year because of the huge amount of variants out there, causing lots of re-infections. 
  This is a huge problem. It's going to take a huge amount of ingenuity to figure out. >
  
  people mix up flu with common cold. flu is not to be fucked with. common cold is contracted multiple times a year and simply means you have to tune down physical activities, drink a lot and sleep well. >
  
  Yep. When the flu actually hits you instead of a bad cold, you're like "Oh fuck... I forgot how bad this feels". Too many people out there get a bad cold and call it the flu when it's simply just a bad cold. The flu is so much worse. >
  
  Remember the first lecture i had on Virus Infections at uni. Lecturer asked 'who has had the flu in their lifetime?' 
  About 90% of us raised our hand. He just went something like 'To most of you, no you haven't.' Then proceeded to explain what flu really is. I was definitely thinking colds were the flu before that. >
  
  I have had the flu several times (grew up in a large family, and get sick easily), and the difference between it and colds is massive. For colds, you get like one symptom after another over several days to a week, and feel like shit. With the flu, one day you're fine, and the next you wake up with every webmd common symptom under the sun all at the same time, and you feel like you're dying. >
  
  Can confirm. Last had the flu about 12 years ago. Spent the first 3 days living on the bathroom floor. The cold tile felt good on my skin with my fever, and I would not have had the strength to walk down the hallway to the bathroom every time I needed to vomit. I have made to sure to get a flu shot every year since. >
  
  
  The cold tile felt good on my skin with my fever,
  
  Fuck reading this is giving me flashbacks to H1N1. >
  
  Yep, I was one of those that didn’t get flu shots regularly cause “I never get it”. Got it one year, and holy shit. Didn’t have an appetite for like a week and a half. Will get flu shots every year now since then. >
  
  2023 is not wasting any time in bringing shit to our doorstep >
  
  Fuck sake. >
  
  I'm just getting over Covid for my 1st time ever...I wonder which variety I got... I mean variant. Also fuck covid cuz all my favorite hot sauces smell and taste like metallic shit. >
  
  Sucks doesn’t it?  I lost all smell and taste for almost a week.  Now I smell cigarette smoke all the time and I don’t even smoke and try not to be around anyone who does.  Didn’t have that issue until after I had covid…😒 >
  
  It sucks because I legit love tons of different hot sauces and they all smell the same right now (except for homemade ones without vinegar oddly enough) for everything else it's like my sense of smell and taste are lessened by like 70% not all the way gone but enough to notice and also distorted. It sucks! As far as the cigarette smell I don't know what to tell ya, that sucks too as if cigarette smell wasn't bad enough on its own now you got an amplifier for it? dayum. >
  
  Neat >
  
  At this point until they find Omicron Persei 8, I find it difficult to care. >
  
  It's just the first day of 2023 for fuck sake 😭 . COME ON 😭😭😭 >
  
  Chill. You know the drill now. We all do. >
  
  You're right . I'm gonna need some toilet paper 😥 >
  
  .... People never learn
  I'm gonna need some trucks with toilet paper >
  
  Hang on India! >
  
  Keep them planes grounded >
  
  OH GOOD 😐 I was worried that 2023 was going to just be more of the same shit as before >
  
  a 2 paragraph link gets 11,000 upvotes. none of these are super variants. its just another variant. 
  there is an omicron booster but few people are getting it. you get that and its unlikely you will get seriously ill. done. 
  2 paragraph stories from garbage links should not be permitted here. This sub should have standards and only allow mainstream news sources. >
  
  I'm ready for COVID to evolve into a computer virus and take down paywalls and Facebook >
  
  Present to you, COVID-19 Virus of the Year edition >
  
  Waiting for the SUPER MEGA DELUXE GOLDEN COVID EDITION to hit the stores it'll be hot!! >
  
  Babe wake up, new covid variant just dropped >
  
  Headline really trying to instill fear with the "super" >
  
  So this is the subvariant that has been going around in the USA for the past year and has made it to India. Meaning, if you (in the US) have gotten the latest booster shot you are covered. I don't think the latest booster shot has made it to India, which is why they're worried.
  This isn't a brand new subvariant. But some good news, The US Army's Covid vaccine should enter Second stage Human Trails soon and if everything works out it will probably get emergency authorization sometime in late Summer early Fall. This new vaccine uses a different tech then mRNA and can be programed with 20 plus different virus version into one shot. So theoretically this new shot could cover ALL of the current Covid subvariants and have room to add new ones down the line. >
  
  I wouldn't use the word "programmed" in reference to a covid vaccine...you're gonna set off the conspiracy wackos who think it's a computer chip. >
  
  haha, good point. >
  
  Covid delta plus rewards program variant >
  
  I don't wanna die, but even the threat of dying from covid doesn't hit as hard as the threat of long covid.
  It's a cold that makes you roll dice, and if you roll a 1 you basically get AIDS. And it's not even a fortitude save >
  
  Mother Nature has been watching too many playthroughs of Plague Inc. Now she has basically said, "Aight bet. Hold my beer." >
  
  Ill be concerned when its a super ultra insano varient >
  
  "I wanna be just as cursed as 2022, 2021 and 2020." - 2023 >
  
  No, thanks. We've already got one. >
  
  OH NO! THIS IS WORSE THAN THE COVID DELTA OMICRON PLUS REWARDS PROGRAM VARIANT. >
  
  Hadouken! >
  
  Oh that’s fucking great now Elon gets to name the variant after his kid!? Talk about white privilege.. >
  
  And people still think evolution doesn’t exist >
  
  It’s almost like they’re the problem >
  
  All I know is I live in Texas and not Austin. We still mask up at super busy times but due to Covid and social distancing we have naturally become the people who eat outside, play outside, do most things outside unless there's rain or it's extremely cold. We were and still are the people who get to places when they are less crowded because it's just easier. We like less people and the pandemic further cemented that. Still haven't taken a flight and not sure about that. Also prices are nuts. 
  We are all boosted or in the process but most places in Texas thanks to our awesome governor decided that people need "freedom". Well, they don't have to mask, they have freedom and sadly they have the freedom since vaccines are optional here to also experience long term COVID or die by it. Prior to COVID we were having an awesome measles outbreak. Our hospitals are packed due to RSV, flu etc. So, yay freedom. 
  I'm honestly equally pissed at the current administrations response but then again we were promised nothing would fundamentally change so.....yup. >
  
  I blinked at the words “Texas” and “masking up” for a second because, central Florida here. Not by choice. 
  To say I feel your pain/frustration is a massive understatement. >
  
  Florida! Lord, is it just me or our governor's having a pissing contest? I mean it's who can grab the most power. I feel you. >
  
  Yeah, I am canceling my gym membership I can exercise outside. Sure with the surge in China another crazy variant will come from that. >
  
  Give it a few days and new variants are gonna be popping up all over the place now that China has unleashed its people on the world. >
  
  It’s endemic, folks. You’re going to have to deal with Covid for the rest of your lives. Get used to it. >
  
  Industry professionals have been saying this ever since the first wave. I have no idea why people are so surprised. >
  
  Reddit shut-ins are just craving for a return to restrictions so they eat up any kind of news about it. >
  
  Fortunately these new variants of Omicron have been less deadly.  So far anyway.  Dangerous to people with comorbidities or the unvaccinated. >
  
  BA.2 in Hong Kong wasn't mild at all. It had a death shock right out of 2020. 
  Omicron isn't as bad as Delta, but Delta would have been globally devastating if it had been the original. >
  
  To think we could've not had any of this is we had competent leadership and the ability to sacrifice for others when this whole thing started.