Covid 19-31 The Mutants Are Coming

[IheartIheartTesla]

Every few months there is some article about the current COVID-19 originating from a Wuhan lab, so I dont think US intelligence reports are particularly compelling (there was a pretty good sub-thread on that particular tweet that laid out some reasons for why this report wasnt as strong as made out t obe).

Anyway, with all the Asian American hate stuff going on in the US, I hope they have a watertight case before making such reports more widely accessible or spread. I'd agree that the issue should be studied further, and the Chinese government needs to be more forthcoming, but we dont have a smoking gun yet.

[Padraig]

7 hours ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

Austria already have a digital system that tracks vaccinations. It went beta a few months ago and seems to work well. 

The only problem is that data from vaccination certificates will be added to the system too and that those are incredible easy to fake.

I don't quite understand this.  If there is a system that tracks who gets a vaccine, why would you allow people to load their own certs?

I get the idea of faking being vaccinated but I bet a country like Estonia doesn't allow it!  It seems you just need more IT.

[Luzifer's right hand]

19 minutes ago, Padraig said:

I don't quite understand this.  If there is a system that tracks who gets a vaccine, why would you allow people to load their own certs?

I get the idea of faking being vaccinated but I bet a country like Estonia doesn't allow it!  It seems you just need more IT.

It was only in beta mode when vaccination started and not all doctors used it. A doctor I know also did not use it for the friends he vaccinates ahead of shedule. 

[Clueless Northman]

13 hours ago, Kalebear said:

Us intel report says three workers from the wuhan lab reported sick at around the same time in nov 2019. More admittedly circumstantial evidence to the lab escape theory. 

Based on reports from the former Trump administration, mind you. And we know Trump wanted dearly to pin this on China. Sorry, but that's not the kind of reliable data. At this point, it's akin to Bush's arguments to go for Iraq back in 2002/2003.

 

8 hours ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

Edit: I think people in the pro-vax bubble also underestimate how far the Covid-19 anti-vaxxers are prepared to go. 

I think we really should begin to call them as they are: subhuman scum. I don't expect anyone to fake a Yellow Fever certificate when visiting tropical countries. Why the fuck would these assholes fake it now? This should be a criminal offense with mandatory jail time. Heck, were it to me, I'd sue them all for attempted manslaughter.

[TrueMetis]

https://www.wired.com/story/the-teeny-tiny-scientific-screwup-that-helped-covid-kill/

Interesting article on how small errors in science can cause serious issues.

[Zorral]

Politicians here locally racing to promise full, in person, public school education this fall.

But to even minimally adhere to health issues, starting with distance, we need far more classrooms, thus more teachers and more buildings.  The kids may or may not be required to be vaccinated in the age groups for which vaccine is available, but teachers and staff are not -- across the board, from all the mayoral hopeful candidates.

Sure, yes! they all say!  We will hire teachers to take the place of those who for health reasons do not wish to return in the fall.

It's like these jerkwaddie politicians, despite all them boasting their own parenthood, have no idea how miserably teachers are treated and have been for decades.  Even before the pandemic teachers were quitting.  Enrollment in education depts. are way down.  Why go into so much debt to get  job that pays shyte, in which one is personally and as a member of a group treated like shyte, having to balance all the cray cray of conflicting local political, religious and cultural bs -- none of which have anything to do with educating anyone in anything.

Additionally, ALL these jerkwaddie politicians, beginning with the current mayor, blithely opine how among other work this fall, teachers must be prepared to play counselor to All the Kids' traumas from the pandemic, integrate them back into socialization in groups, proper behavior and on and on.  Not a mention of course that the teachers themselves may very well have plenty of trauma from the pandemic, not to mention already being burned out working out how to handle the myriad of troubles and problems they've had to deal with in the virtual realm of education and dealing with the children.

It's as though these jerkwaddies think teachers, like nurses, are a magical, ever naturally renewing resources, that they can just say, "More," and there they are with all the skills, socialization, expertise, experience and love that are to keep our kids healthy, safe from crazies with guns, and fulfill every specific need of every specific student, of the, how many students they are to deal with every day.

But we crow about all the money we're pouring into the restaurant businesses and bringing back tourism.

Nothing for people who LIVE here and contribute instead of mere exploiting and extracting.

 

[JoannaL]

5 hours ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Every few months there is some article about the current COVID-19 originating from a Wuhan lab, so I dont think US intelligence reports are particularly compelling (there was a pretty good sub-thread on that particular tweet that laid out some reasons for why this report wasnt as strong as made out t obe).

Anyway, with all the Asian American hate stuff going on in the US, I hope they have a watertight case before making such reports more widely accessible or spread. I'd agree that the issue should be studied further, and the Chinese government needs to be more forthcoming, but we dont have a smoking gun yet.

I really do not get this point. Why does it lead to Asian American hate if some scientists in Wuhan inadvertently let some virus escape? Why is this worse than discussing if the virus jumped in the Wuhan market somehow? It is not as if someone is accusing china of generating a virus and willingly bringing it into the population. If the wuhan lab theory were true it would be a screw up of some harmless scientists, BUT it should be known to the world to learn from this mistake and to advert it in the future. To suppress the investigations into it is wrong and dangerous for mankind and it must stop.

[IheartIheartTesla]

This has been going on in the US for the past year, a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans  that can be directly correlated with blame for causing the COVID pandemic. It isnt anything particularly new I am saying. I thought this was common knowledge.

And I didnt say suppress knowledge. Honestly..... I did say you need to have a watertight case, and this report aint it. Capeesh?

[Zorral]

Woo! The messages, social and professional, arriving in from people coming to NYC for various reasons, starting last week, who want to get together, increase every day.  I guess we're open all right.

[Padraig]

8 hours ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

It was only in beta mode when vaccination started and not all doctors used it. A doctor I know also did not use it for the friends he vaccinates ahead of shedule. 

Gotcha.  That is a problem.

I know they are saying here that they don't expect us to have this vaccine cert in place until August, even if it is approved at EU level in June.  Just because of the IT requirements (and this was before the hack).  So perhaps it will have extra security?

3 hours ago, JoannaL said:

I really do not get this point. Why does it lead to Asian American hate if some scientists in Wuhan inadvertently let some virus escape?

A cover-up makes a mistake or accident look a lot worse.  I'm not saying there was a mistake made in this case but the Chinese government has insisted there wasn't.  If it turns out that were lying, then what other "shady" things were they up to?

We need to find the truth but people are people and don't need much excuse to be racist.   Trump just inflamed things last year.  And if he was right?  Ouch.  But yes, I wouldn't trust much coming from his officials.

5 hours ago, TrueMetis said:

https://www.wired.com/story/the-teeny-tiny-scientific-screwup-that-helped-covid-kill/

That was fascinating.

[Clueless Northman]

6 hours ago, Zorral said:

It's as though these jerkwaddies think teachers, like nurses, are a magical, ever naturally renewing resources, that they can just say, "More," and there they are with all the skills, socialization, expertise, experience and love.

That's not a surprise. They rely on the only thing they know: politicians. And these you can find aplenty because no experience, knowledge or qualification is required, and you can fuck up as much as you want, killing thousands, without any consequences. They assume all other professions are the same, because you can literally find millions of prospective politicians across New York City.

 

1 hour ago, Padraig said:

A cover-up makes a mistake or accident look a lot worse.  I'm not saying there was a mistake made in this case but the Chinese government has insisted there wasn't.  If it turns out that were lying, then what other "shady" things were they up to?

Yeah, Chinese authorities should really have pointed out since day 1 that the lab wasn't under direct orders or responsibility of the Party. If they screwed up some bit, it was the fault of the labs; arguably the fault of its backers, in which case Western countries, which had experiments going on there, would have to share the responsibility.

Whatever the ultimate source of the virus, maybe China would've reacted a bit differently, were the other side not led by Trump and his rabid anti-China posturing.

Still, whether it came from the lab or not only matters as far as Western reactions up to late January 2020 are concerned. Every single decision after China orderer full lockdown of Wuhan are their entire responsibility, because it was obvious a major catastrophe was ongoing and only complete idiots - like most Western leaders and people heading the WHO - wouldn't see it immediately.

[Zorral]

6 hours ago, TrueMetis said:

https://www.wired.com/story/the-teeny-tiny-scientific-screwup-that-helped-covid-kill/

Interesting article on how small errors in science can cause serious issues.

Yes, indeed.  But, didn't we all just go, droplets - aerosols, for we the infection targets, what difference?  Didn't we then, the infection targets, go YES! Masks!

Gosh though, was I glad to not have to disinfect the delivered groceries' fomites anymore.

Edited to add: I still wash my hands vigorously every time I return home from outside the home.

And i still mask in most situations, fully vaccinated as I am.  But today -- I had a conversation unmasked with someone I don't know at all, who was also unmasked.  I don't think either of us were even thinking about that. It was in the community garden here on LaGuardia Place.  She's one of the gardeners (elderly so I am sure was vaccinated because our neighborhood residents are in the high percentage of vaccinations -- and she was carrying a mask, as was I.  I had removed mine to smell the scent of the peonies).

[Wilbur]

I am in SoCal right now, and I am amazed at the numbers of the unmasked.  Not a lot of effort being put into requesting the unmasked to mask up, either.

[Bubba the Lone Potato]

Unfortunately not many are trained as first responders, HAZMAT technicians or NBC defense specialists. Even among the smarter people 36% won't get vaccinated. The worst among the selfish knuckle draggers see masks as a: 'I don't wanna and you can't make me' issue. About 600 people die every day from COVID but until all those in charge unite behind a solid program, we will have this crap happen. Protect yourself and those around you the best you can, pray for the rest.

[Fragile Bird]

I just looked at Worldometer for the first time in a while and I see that the US has crossed the 600,000 deaths mark, 604,000. I know Johns Hopkins has been regularly at least 10,000 deaths lower, so I assume they're at 590,000 or so.

Has anyone seen the vaccination number for the US military recently? I know that at one point 40% of some of the branches were refusing to be vaccinated, has that number gone down? I only ask because today I saw that 85% of the Canadian military have received at least one dose (our overall 2nd dose number is just above 4%, we've gone for get everyone vaccinated with at least one dose first).

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

20 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Has anyone seen the vaccination number for the US military recently? I know that at one point 40% of some of the branches were refusing to be vaccinated, has that number gone down? I only ask because today I saw that 85% of the Canadian military have received at least one dose (our overall 2nd dose number is just above 4%, we've gone for get everyone vaccinated with at least one dose first).

One of my step-brothers recently visited for a few days and he's a drill sergeant in the Army. He got the vaccine as quick as he could, but said it's a literal coinflip on a case by case basis, so the 40% number sounds about right. My guess would be that the vaccination levels go up as the individual's rank does, especially when you consider the support decreases for Trump too as one's rank increases. Not scientific, but he's pretty honest about these things. 

[Luzifer's right hand]

This week everybody who preregistered for a vaccination can sign up for an appointment in my state of Austria.

It is just like it was in some parts of the USA and if you pick a vaccination center in a rural mostly conservative district you get an earlier date. 

I got my mail late yesterday and was able to pick a date on the 26.05 in the district that actually made national news because of the huge numbers of cases at one point. The centers in the next city had only appointments in July available at that point. 

[Which Tyler]

22 hours ago, TrueMetis said:

https://www.wired.com/story/the-teeny-tiny-scientific-screwup-that-helped-covid-kill/

Interesting article on how small errors in science can cause serious issues.

Very interesting - thank you.
Worth noting though, that it doesn't negate the importance of social distancing; just reduces it. Getting big droplets that are chock-full of virus from deep inside someone's lungs is still going to be dangerous - it's just not a panacea for prevention (but I don't think anyone thought it was).

As a tale, it's also a good example of how science works, and is supposed to work. Initially she made an assertion; which was rejected as it went against the (professional) dictionary definition of the terms. She went back and gathered evidence; and made an assertion that she proved to be true - and opinions changed almost immediately; and the dictionary definition is going to be revisited and changed.

[Inkdaub]

Got my second Moderna and did experience the common side effects though they were fairly light.  Glad to have it done...for now at least. 

[Maithanet]

Today I'm two weeks out from my second shot, so I'm fully vaccinated!  Hooray!