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

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

4 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

The sense of entitlement is breathtaking. Entitlement to the point they feel it's their right to endanger others, the modern Republican attitude.

I abhor violence but jeez. Pepper spray... or tasers... maybe Pepper spray and tasers.

On second thought, scratch that. You know half of these clowns are carrying concealed firearms so, flame throwers.

2 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

I just saw on the news that in Florida, one hospital with vaccine said they would vaccinate nurses and doctors on a first-come, first-serve, basis, so people lined up for hours only to find out they didn’t have enough vaccine to go round.

And another hospital in Brevard County announced they would vaccinate people over 65, by appointment. 30,000 people called in and crashed their phone system. They are now booked until February, but only 5,000 appointments.

Ah, Florida. The hospital screw up is inexcusable. They have an HR department. They have payrolls and personnel lists. Start with the Nurses, go alphabetically if there's any doubt. Same for the seniors in Brevard County.

The bright side is, when they do get themselves sorted out, the take rate should be high. That's encouraging.

[Whitestripe]

A good friend of mine here is married to a psychiatrist who works exclusively in a hospital. He was letting other healthcare workers go ahead of him since his risk was low as far as healthcare workers went. He wasn’t seeing COVID cases. Until they had to open a psychiatric unit for COVID+ patients. He got his first dose in Christmas Eve. My friend says that was the best gift ever. 

[VigoTheCarpathian]

Condolences to your family, Zorral - very sad situation for what sounds like a person trying to do good in this world.

Our hospital system is rolling the vaccinations out 10% staff / week, to avoid staffing shortages due to vaccine symptoms.  Not sure when patients/members will start getting the vaccinations, likely sometime after the projected surge through mid-Feb.

In other news, father-in-law works for a memory care facility and is slated for his first vaccine shot next week.  MiL is the sole caretaker for her mother, and they all fall into high risk categories, based on age and comorbidities.  So we have only seen them at a distance since March...and they are the only babysitters we have for our kiddos, and we could not even bubble with them.  Small thing, but realizing you both haven’t had a single night off parenting duty for 10 months...it’s rough. 

[The Anti-Targ]

10 hours ago, Zorral said:

Our niece, in her 20's. med student working in hot zone hospital in AZ, has died.  We just got the news.

 

 

Deepest sympathies for your family's loss. She was a hero and a martyr in the true sense of the word: selfless sacrifice for the good of others.

[The Anti-Targ]

6 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

I just saw on the news that in Florida, one hospital with vaccine said they would vaccinate nurses and doctors on a first-come, first-serve, basis, so people lined up for hours only to find out they didn’t have enough vaccine to go round.

And another hospital in Brevard County announced they would vaccinate people over 65, by appointment. 30,000 people called in and crashed their phone system. They are now booked until February, but only 5,000 appointments.

The problem with a vaccine that has very demanding preservation conditions is that even in the most advanced healthcare system there are limited locations for carrying out vaccination campaigns. With the Oxford vaccine now approved any clinic and pharmacy with a kitchen freezer can become a vaccination hub and packing it in dry ice 10s of thousands of doses can be flown anywhere in the world on a single flight. And you can have mobile vaccination buses to multiply the number of vaccination facilities even further. 

[DireWolfSpirit]

The vaccine rollout is an utter disaster. You cannot excuse this away.

From an Intelligencer article-

How badly are we doing? In September, President Trump promised 100 million vaccinations by the end of the year. As a country, we have only 40 million doses, and had aimed, according to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, to vaccinate 20 million by year-end. That’s bad enough. But we have administered only 2 million of those — barely 10 percent of the goal.

 Keep in mind that, in 1947, New York City vaccinated 5 million people against smallpox in two weeks. 

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/amp/article/americas-vaccine-rollout-disaster.html

So over 70 yrs ago one major U.S. city was able to administer 5 million innoculations in 2 weeks. And yet today the entire nation has only administered 2 million shots since the vaccines have been available.

[The Anti-Targ]

Not excusing anything, the roll out has not gone very well. But smallpox vacc is a different kettle of fish to this one. Still, it should have been possible to get at least 10 million people nation-wide through the door for their first dose by now.

How many vaccination centres are there up and running around the country?

[Gareth]

34 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Not excusing anything, the roll out has not gone very well. But smallpox vacc is a different kettle of fish to this one. Still, it should have been possible to get at least 10 million people nation-wide through the door for their first dose by now.

How many vaccination centres are there up and running around the country?

Most retail pharmacies offer vaccination by pharmacists.  There are about 80,000 or more pharmacies in the United States, most offering influenza, varicella, etc. vaccinations to the general public.   Even w/o a deep freezer, the Pfizer/biontech vaccine can be stored in a regular refrigerator (by law, all pharmacies must have a refrigerator) for 5 days after thawing.  So there wouldn't be a storage issue with retail pharmacies.  These "vaccination centers" are untapped potential that could have helped distribute COVID vaccines if the roll out was managed by a more competent administration that actually care.

[VarysTheSpider]

20 hours ago, Spockydog said:

This entire story is very fishy, and it's all very well calling it BS, but have you looked into this at all? 

God help me but I actually did look into this a bit.

Here is the evidence that she died:

1. Twitter users have been very modest and respectful in asking for proof that she is alive but it hasn't been forthcoming. All they have asked for is a real time video of Tiffany, her husband, her kids, all standing together, unmasked, holding up a copy of today's newspaper and her birth certificate, and to do a little dance. She refuses to even acknowledge these requests. Why?

2. She hasn't been on social media. One member of her family has been online to say that Tiffany was doing well, but when social media users politely requested some follow up details, her family member then went silent. Isn't that suspicious? This is proof they are gagged. But also, if a load of crazies on Twitter thought you were dead, wouldn't you want to draw their attention and tell them you're ok? I'm sure they would then let the matter drop.

3. The hospital released a picture of Tiffany and her colleagues several days later. There were two problems with this. Firstly, she was masked. How "convenient" that a critical care nurse was wearing a mask, eh. Secondly, she was clearly a lookalike. Yeah, that's right, the hospital, in cahoots with Pfizer and the government and probably Nancy Pelosi, hired someone to pretend to be Tiffany and stand with her colleagues. Her colleagues know this but have been gagged from revealing this. The imposter isn't very realistic, though. Despite finding someone who exactly matched her eye brows, they forgot to brush her hair the same way.

 

If I ever decide to go on Twitter again, kill me.

[Derfel Cadarn]

44 minutes ago, VarysTheSpider said:

God help me but I actually did look into this a bit.

Here is the evidence that she died:

1. Twitter users have been very modest and respectful in asking for proof that she is alive but it hasn't been forthcoming. All they have asked for is a real time video of Tiffany, her husband, her kids, all standing together, unmasked, holding up a copy of today's newspaper and her birth certificate, and to do a little dance. She refuses to even acknowledge these requests. Why?

2. She hasn't been on social media. One member of her family has been online to say that Tiffany was doing well, but when social media users politely requested some follow up details, her family member then went silent. Isn't that suspicious? This is proof they are gagged. But also, if a load of crazies on Twitter thought you were dead, wouldn't you want to draw their attention and tell them you're ok? I'm sure they would then let the matter drop.

3. The hospital released a picture of Tiffany and her colleagues several days later. There were two problems with this. Firstly, she was masked. How "convenient" that a critical care nurse was wearing a mask, eh. Secondly, she was clearly a lookalike. Yeah, that's right, the hospital, in cahoots with Pfizer and the government and probably Nancy Pelosi, hired someone to pretend to be Tiffany and stand with her colleagues. Her colleagues know this but have been gagged from revealing this. The imposter isn't very realistic, though. Despite finding someone who exactly matched her eye brows, they forgot to brush her hair the same way.

 

If I ever decide to go on Twitter again, kill me.

We’ll need indisputable proof you’re still alive first. You might not have updated Instagram in a while.

[Heartofice]

Is anyone who doesn’t regularly update their Instagram even truly alive. How do we even know??

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, VarysTheSpider said:

but when social media users politely requested some follow up details,

 

[BigFatCoward]

964 deaths in the UK. Equivalent to 4500 pro rata in the US. The new virus may not be more dangerous per se. But it doesnt fuck around with its reach. Everyone else has a small head start. you all should be locking down like a mother fucker until the vaccine starts to roll out. 

[Luzifer's right hand]

46 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

964 deaths in the UK. Equivalent to 4500 pro rata in the US. The new virus may not be more dangerous per se. But it doesnt fuck around with its reach. Everyone else has a small head start. you all should be locking down like a mother fucker until the vaccine starts to roll out. 

Ski tourism, not enforcing the existing rules and a lot of new years eve parties you say? Coming right up!

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

8 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

The vaccine rollout is an utter disaster. You cannot excuse this away.

From an Intelligencer article-

How badly are we doing? In September, President Trump promised 100 million vaccinations by the end of the year. As a country, we have only 40 million doses, and had aimed, according to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, to vaccinate 20 million by year-end. That’s bad enough. But we have administered only 2 million of those — barely 10 percent of the goal.

 Keep in mind that, in 1947, New York City vaccinated 5 million people against smallpox in two weeks. 

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/amp/article/americas-vaccine-rollout-disaster.html

So over 70 yrs ago one major U.S. city was able to administer 5 million innoculations in 2 weeks. And yet today the entire nation has only administered 2 million shots since the vaccines have been available.

"Put the business guy in charge!" Remember that one? From the school of "overpromise and massively underdeliver."

He actually said that? Jesus.

 

 

[IheartIheartTesla]

Regardless of the disastrous rollout, such incidents cannot help:

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/30/951736164/some-500-coronavirus-vaccine-doses-intentionally-destroyed-hospital-says

Quote

Aurora Medical Center officials had initially suspected the Moderna vaccines, which must be kept between 36 and 46 degrees Fahrenheit, had inadvertently been left out at the Grafton hospital on Dec. 26. But an investigation found the individual "acknowledged that they intentionally removed the vaccine from refrigeration," officials said Wednesday.

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

13 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Regardless of the disastrous rollout, such incidents cannot help:

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/30/951736164/some-500-coronavirus-vaccine-doses-intentionally-destroyed-hospital-says

 

The sad thing is that those doses probably would have been fine just sitting outside this time of year in Wisconsin.

Our patio is a nice backup fridge we take advantage of every holiday. Never a need to fret over freezer space in winters.

[VigoTheCarpathian]

21 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Regardless of the disastrous rollout, such incidents cannot help:

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/30/951736164/some-500-coronavirus-vaccine-doses-intentionally-destroyed-hospital-says

 

Ugh, they don’t talk about motivation but seriously, that’s 500 people (likely healthcare workers) that won’t get a vaccine in as timely a manner as they should have that will be dealing with a surge.

I wish there could be some kind of individual consequence for this type of behavior, including anti-mask rallies and conspiracy theorists putting stigma on a vaccine.  Clearly we have no collective accountability to be able to get through this.

E.g., with a 0.5% mortality rate, someone who destroyed 500 vaccinations be charged with a single count of “statistically-derived manslaughter” - or pre-meditated murder. Or a person who went to a rally with 200 people maskless gets a fine for $10k of hospital bills accrued because of their likelihood of spreading.  A Twitter troll yelling “vaccine killed that nurse” when there is no proof gets punched in the face by Jay and Silent Bob.

 

[IheartIheartTesla]

I would be surprised criminal charges would not be filed for wilful destruction of property that doesnt belong to the individual in question. A distinction between this and attending or organizing an anti-mask rally to be sure. Still, I understand the wish for punishing the latter, many of the people behind the sh*tshow that was the 2020 pandemic response appear to have escaped consequence free for their actions (except the few who caught COVID as a result of their own stupidity)

[IheartIheartTesla]

43 minutes ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

The sad thing is that those doses probably would have been fine just sitting outside this time of year in Wisconsin.

Our patio is a nice backup fridge we take advantage of every holiday. Never a need to fret over freezer space in winters.

Michigan isnt quite that cold yet, but I always find it funny to have it be really cold outside, and a warm interior of the house, in which there is a refrigerator that cools stuff down.