Covid-19 #22: What Were You Doing This Time Last Year?

[Spockydog]

Also, when selecting candidates for TV vaccination, the person I would definitely NOT have anywhere near the cameras is someone with a history of fainting immediately after an injection. I mean, come on. What a bunch of clowns.

 

[Heartofice]

If I was inclined to believe conspiracy nonsense then I might see something in this, but my first instinct in almost all such cases is to assume there isn’t something under hand going on, and certainly to not believe something because I saw it on social media. It’s more terrifying that these sort of stories are going to propagate and just give energy to anti vaccers

[Spockydog]

And neither is it helpful just to dismiss everything with 'conspiracy theory nonsense.'

Sixty years ago, cigarettes were good for you and anyone who said otherwise was a conspiracy theory nutter.

Ten years ago the existence of the Bilderberg Group was dismissed as a wild conspiracy theory. These fuckers have been meeting, in secret, since the fifties.

Oh look, another favourite 'conspiracy theory' that turned out to be true was the fact that the British Royal family, led by Prince Philips's uncle, twice attempted a military coup to remove Harold Wilson from office.

So, just because newspapers or TV news outlets say stuff, doesn't mean it's fucking true. I mean, come on, this is 2020, the Age of Bollocks. Truth is you can't believe a word the media says these days.

 

 

[ummester]

There is also a thing called cognitive dissonance... 

[Spockydog]

Hello, I'm Dr Vaccinator from Big Pharma. What's your name, please?

Tiffany Dover.

And how old are you?

Thirty.

And do you have any allergies or pre-existing medical conditions?

Yes, I have a long history of collapsing like a sack of potatoes whenever I get an injection..

Great! Are the cameras ready? Please roll up your sleeve, Tiffany.

I mean, get the fuck out of here.

 

[Spockydog]

4 minutes ago, ummester said:

There is also a thing called cognitive dissonance... 

Ah, okay.

*places pencils up nose and underpants on head* Wibble.

[Heartofice]

All I’m saying is that if my first instinct when it comes to cases like this is to believe in some grand cover up, rather than the facts at hand then I don’t think that would be very healthy.

if I was the sort of person who regularly believed in conspiracy and always assumed the worst, no matter how unlikely, then I might want to consider why that was.

That doesn’t mean that some conspiracies aren’t true, but they would be the vast minority of cases, and the exception to the rule. 

[Spockydog]

6 minutes ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

The thing that is shocking is how ignorant people are. “She fainted, so she must be dead!!!”

Fainting is not an allergic reaction response, it’s a vagus response called vasovagal syncope. This is people who faint at needles or the sight of their own blood.

An allergic response leading to anaphylaxis has much different symptoms. It can include fainting, but fainting alone would not indicate an allergic response.

Im an accountant, and I know this.

Sure. I totally get that.

But does anyone seriously believe that when people are being selected for these high visibility vaccinations, it is done without any reference to the Guinea pig's patient's medical history?

Therefore, I'm having a hard time believing that her vasovagal thingy wasn't flagged up beforehand.

And I'm having an even harder time buying that they would go ahead and vaccinate this person on live TV given her medical history.

But, I guess, wibble?

 

[Spockydog]

2 minutes ago, ummester said:

That nurse chick - seriously it is 1 person in a planet of 7 billion,  who really gives a fuck? 

What it does is sow doubt amongst the public. Which is the last thing we need right now.

ETA: And she is/was a woman, not a baby fucking chicken

[BigFatCoward]

3 minutes ago, ummester said:

That nurse chick - seriously it is 1 person in a planet of 7 billion,  who really gives a fuck? That's the issue with modern media social media - makes us focus on the minute and deludes us to the broader narrative.

That nurse chick?  Where are you from, the 50s? 

[Spockydog]

Charming.

[Spockydog]

Speaking of conspiracy theories, here's one of the wildest I know that might possibly be true.

The great Bill Hicks faked his death to become libertarian nutter Alex Jones.

Same eyes. Same teeth. Same production company.

*runs for cover* 

[williamjm]

1 hour ago, Heartofice said:

We should all anticipate stories of people getting ill and dying after the vaccine, because people do get ill and die in real life.

In one of the vaccine trials they diligently reported the hospitalisation/death (can't remember which now) of one of the participants who was struck by lightning a few days after being vaccinated.

Unfortunately these stories will just fuel anti vaccine idiots and help them build their conspiracy theories. For the most part we should ignore it.

I remember back in the late spring there were similar unfounded stories about the first recipient of the Oxford vaccine dying.

1 hour ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

Edit: and by conflicting, it seems to be crazies on twitter claiming she’s dead, stalking the shit out of her, her family and colleagues. Poor woman is probably lying low somewhere

Sadly I think anyone who become prominent in the vaccination campaign will probably get targeted by trolls.

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, maarsen said:

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/28/950861977/toxic-individualism-pandemic-politics-driving-health-care-workers-from-small-tow?utm_source=pocket-newtab

I just saw this article on a news feed. Seems as if small town America is making a late surge to win the Darwin Award.

Nobody better lecture me about being understanding, generous and sympathetic to 'rural amuurka' again.

And this kind of thing:

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/maskless-protesters-gather-outside-erewhon-market-in-fairfax/

Antimask jerkwaddies shove themselves into a grocery chanting masks don't work and the usual tyranny liberty bs because we take care of ourselves.

This in a city where they are awash in the dead and in the hospitals there is nary a bed.

Needless to add, presumably, that not an arrest was made.

So, since for the common good, these people refuse to wear masks, or perform any of the other precautions against covid-19 because that interferes with their libbtry, why should this woman expose her identity and her family's to these people who threaten to kill her because she's a medical professional who wants vaccinations and mask? 

[Fragile Bird]

I saw that story about health professionals being driven out of parts of rural American yesterday on Facebook. Pretty damn sad.

[Whitestripe]

One year ago is bittersweet for me. I was in Nevada with my family. My sister and her family were meeting us to celebrate 2020 with our parents. This year I’m also packing to go to Nevada, but for a very different reason.  I’m terrified to fly, but needs must. 

[Fragile Bird]

That Colorado case of the UK variant is a member of the military, 6 of whom were deployed to a LTC facility. He is confirmed and a second is a possible. All the residents and the staff are being tested and contact tracing is going on to see if they can determine the origin.

[Zorral]

I was having wonderful times with a kaleidoscope of friends, going to hear great music, having dinner parties, meeting for drinks, planning next semester, and getting ready for a month-long separation from Partner, who was spending it working in the Caribbean.  Also paying attention to this virally spreading virus in China, and thinking it likely it would hit here, which includes with all the boroughs the largest Asian population outside Asia, thinking that likely with Chinese New Year.  Starting to slowly stock up more than usual on tp and paper towels, etc., which I did a lot more of January, and a whole lot more in February.  Getting cartons of parmalat milk, stuffing the freezer, etc.  What I was not doing was envisioning that what I was sorta preparing for would last this long.  Three months I thought, whenever we got it here.  If it went longer, surely we'd be dead or things would be so broken down, we would soon be dead.  I was modeling a long term pandemic on the Black Death, rather than the Great Influenza.

~~~~~~~~

Seeing reports that the variant virus is a much heavier viral load.  No one knows certainly whether the vaccines are effective against it.  They Think it's likely to be effective, but They don't know.

Very, very frightening.

[Mlle. Zabzie]

12 minutes ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

Well, F.....ck. I stopped to talk to my housekeeper for a few minutes...And she ended up showing me videos of her kids and boyfriend going to Disney right after Christmas, and her parents traveled from Brazil FOR Christmas...

fuck. Neither of us were wearing masks.

Welp, I guess a PCR test in 3-5 days is in order?

[Spockydog]

36 minutes ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

Well, F.....ck. I stopped to talk to my housekeeper for a few minutes...And she ended up showing me videos of her kids and boyfriend going to Disney right after Christmas, and her parents traveled from Brazil FOR Christmas...

fuck. Neither of us were wearing masks.

You know what? I generally do not enjoy wishing harm or ill upon anyone. But fuck these people. Fuck 'em right to hell.