Covid #35: I am the Alpha and the Omega.

[Fragile Bird]

By the way, everyone else should feel free to talk about their current life, I was just curious how Americans on the Board were dealing with the crummy situation in the US, where loony governors are outright banning attempts people are making to protect their businesses and workplaces and selves from the Delta variant. I see the Governor of Florida told the largest school district in Florida that if they institute a mask policy their funding would be cut off.

Parts of the US are a world-class kind of crazy.

[Kalbear]

I guess that's the other bit of news. We had planned on both kids coming back to school, even though one isn't vaccinated yet. Now we're not sure that either of them is going to come back until they're both vaccinated. That's kind of a big deal, and it's going to suck a lot. 

[Derfel Cadarn]

(UK boarder)

Was confirmed today those of us in my organisation who’re working from home will continue to do so until end of the year.

Yay!

[IheartIheartTesla]

19 hours ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

I basically do everything I’ve always done. And I’m fully vaccinated, so I don’t wear a mask unless a particular venue requires it, such as doctor’s office, airplane, certain retail stores.

That said, I avoid crowds and I work from home more often than not, because it’s convenient when working long hours. And I also hate crowds anyways.

I go out to eat every night, same as I typically have done, previously.

I do need to go to the gym much more often, but I’ve been working too much.

My risk tolerance may vary from others.

ETA - I haven’t been to a club in ages, but only because I’m too damn tired to go. I have been to strip clubs several times.

I'm pretty much the same, except I do go in to work quite often (being an experimentalist necessitates doing experiments). Err...and the strip club part. And eating out every night or going to gym. Hmm...maybe it isn't the same after all, but my life did return to almost something approaching the Before Times. I'm glad I eased up a bit, because I believe there will be a few changes coming very shortly, and for my own mental health that little bit of a break was awesome and much needed so I can hunker down again. 

[Fragile Bird]

I see the Chinese are doing widespread testing in Wuhan, where the city has seen an increase in cases. I bet they’ll test millions in a week.

[mcbigski]

Eh.  I had covid last September.  So I'm in the class of people least likely to have a so called breakthrough infection.  Though how many of those are really just to do with sensitivity of testing?  Getting vaccinated, or obtaining natural immunity doesn't mean that each of your cells has some sort Maxwell's Demon in it that lets all the regular stuff through but is impenetrable to Covid, just means that your body can kick the crap out of whatever beachhead tries to get established.  But if you get re-exposed and have no symptoms and a tiny viral load, is that really a breakthrough infection, or just your immune system doing what it's supposed to?  I find the framing so alarmist here.

So I go to bars, restaurants, stores, golf courses, casinos, work, family events, where ever.  I'd need to catch covid another 400 times or so to have an even chance of dying, assuming each subsequent infection was as deadly as the first, based on my age.  Probably more since I'm not obese, and don't have any other co morbidities I'm aware of. 

Really I can't believe anyone trusts the CDC at this point.  At least to do anything besides pimp expensive treatments.  Regulatory capture is a real thing.  Couldn't find it with a cursory look, so probably they memory holed it, but around March or so, they were claiming that vaccines are not only safe and effective, but that they provide long term protection against covid, whereas there is no proof that naturally generated immune response would be long lasting.  At that point, the baseline for natural immunity was much longer than for mRNA treatments, so obvious bullshit.   (And with related diseases like SARS, even longer baselines for natural immunity.)  I'm in sales, not medicine, but it was obvious to me which of the two CDC was basing their verbiage on.   But hey, my Pfizer stock was up nicely today. 

Covid will be endemic, probably beyond all of our lifetimes.  So choose for yourself, permanent lock down, or get back to living. 

[Luzifer's right hand]

4 hours ago, mcbigski said:

Eh.  I had covid last September.  So I'm in the class of people least likely to have a so called breakthrough infection.  Though how many of those are really just to do with sensitivity of testing?  Getting vaccinated, or obtaining natural immunity doesn't mean that each of your cells has some sort Maxwell's Demon in it that lets all the regular stuff through but is impenetrable to Covid, just means that your body can kick the crap out of whatever beachhead tries to get established.  But if you get re-exposed and have no symptoms and a tiny viral load, is that really a breakthrough infection, or just your immune system doing what it's supposed to?  I find the framing so alarmist here.

So I go to bars, restaurants, stores, golf courses, casinos, work, family events, where ever.  I'd need to catch covid another 400 times or so to have an even chance of dying, assuming each subsequent infection was as deadly as the first, based on my age.  Probably more since I'm not obese, and don't have any other co morbidities I'm aware of. 

Really I can't believe anyone trusts the CDC at this point.  At least to do anything besides pimp expensive treatments.  Regulatory capture is a real thing.  Couldn't find it with a cursory look, so probably they memory holed it, but around March or so, they were claiming that vaccines are not only safe and effective, but that they provide long term protection against covid, whereas there is no proof that naturally generated immune response would be long lasting.  At that point, the baseline for natural immunity was much longer than for mRNA treatments, so obvious bullshit.   (And with related diseases like SARS, even longer baselines for natural immunity.)  I'm in sales, not medicine, but it was obvious to me which of the two CDC was basing their verbiage on.   But hey, my Pfizer stock was up nicely today. 

Covid will be endemic, probably beyond all of our lifetimes.  So choose for yourself, permanent lock down, or get back to living. 

Most known breakthrough infections have light symptoms as far as I know which makes a lot of sense because most places(including Austria) don't require testing for fully vaccinated people. You do not even need to get a test as a contact of a positive person. Only hospitals require testing of fully vaccinated people without symptoms here I think. 

Is the US testing a lot of asymptomatic unvaccinated people for some reason? 

How did the CDC get the EU, Australia, China and all the rest on board? 

Personally I can see an argument for personal choice at least in the USA at this point but it would also require UBI and a completly online school system because normality at places people are forced to go to because of economic reasons like work and school is a risk that is forced on people. There is no real choice for most people in our societies. Edit: The people who can choose are a very privileged group. I mean there are still unvaccinated people in the US because they can't afford sick leave in case of side effects. What choice do they have under your system? Unemployment or vaccination?

[Fragile Bird]

I heard a little more about the situation on China. It looks like all 11M people in Wuhan will be tested. And in other cities. Travel restrictions and some form of lockdowns have been placed on 33 cities so far. If you’re a tourist in one of those cities, tough luck, you’re stuck.

How bad is the situation, to trigger all this? Yesterday 96 cases were reported, and apparently 440 cases are being investigated.

[Week]

7 hours ago, mcbigski said:

 [...]

I'm in sales, not medicine

[...]

Covid will be endemic, probably beyond all of our lifetimes.  So choose for yourself, permanent lock down, or get back to living. 

You don't say.

Those are the only two options? Sounds more like a sales pitch based on bullshit. Those are - very obviously - not the only two options. Frankly, neither are likely possible - although Florida and Texas are trying the latter, I suppose. It just looks a lot like getting back to dying and getting sick.

[Filippa Eilhart]

we're supposed to gradually return to the office as of September but they said that last September too, lol. We're now both fully vaccinated and just went on a holiday. We dined out (also inside a couple of times) and went to a few museums. Masks were obligatory indoors and in busy town centre streets, and on the beach promenades (that was France). Museums checked covid passports. One place also checked them against ID and one other didn't bother checking at all. One restaurant asked us to fill in our details or scan a QR code but didn't care that the QR code didn't actually work without a dedicated app. Other places didn't care at all. Most waiting staff had masks over their mouth but not nose.

[Luzifer's right hand]

4 minutes ago, Filippa Eilhart said:

we're supposed to gradually return to the office as of September but they said that last September too, lol. We're now both fully vaccinated and just went on a holiday. We dined out (also inside a couple of times) and went to a few museums. Masks were obligatory indoors and in busy town centre streets, and on the beach promenades (that was France). Museums checked covid passports. One place also checked them against ID and one other didn't bother checking at all. One restaurant asked us to fill in our details or scan a QR code but didn't care that the QR code didn't actually work without a dedicated app. Other places didn't care at all. Most waiting staff had masks over their mouth but not nose.

The festival I went to is actually the only place I have been that checked the code and my ID. All other places just asked if we had something and never checked anything(restaurants and a hotel).  Wait staff does not need to wear masks here anymore and the mask mandate for the puplic is limited to grocery stores, pharmacies and puplic transport and in medical settings. Nose holes are on the rise again in those places(the FFP2 mandate we had for a time really helped there). 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Just watched a wild scene playing out in Arkansas. The state has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, and the right wing governor was being heckled while begging people to get vaccinated. The comments came from people who clearly shouldn't have even graduated from HS.

We've talked carrot vs. stick before. I say take it a step further. Treat the unvaccinated like lepers. Unvaccinated? You can't shop in person. Unvaccinated? You can't go to work, nor can you receive unemployment. Unvaccinated? Your children cannot go to school. Unvaccinated? $1,000 a month tax per person in your household. Make it so uncomfortable that the only option is to get vaccinated, because we're at the point where the unvaccinated are every bit as dangerous as the virus itself.

[Fragile Bird]

I just saw a CNN story pop up on Facebook: almost 72,000 children and teens were among the new Covid-19 cases reported in the US last week.

But cases in children and teens don’t matter, right?

[Luzifer's right hand]

8 minutes ago, L'oiseau français said:

I just saw a CNN story pop up on Facebook: almost 72,000 children and teens were among the new Covid-19 cases reported in the US last week.

But cases in children and teens don’t matter, right?

Kids are only important in the womb of a women you want to control.

[IheartIheartTesla]

My concern about this whole COVID vaccine kerfuffle is whether it will have a ripple effect on other vaccinations in the US, that are by and large accepted by Americans till now. For instance, whether polio vaccinations will take a dip because of these conservative morons riding the freedumb train.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

7 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

My concern about this whole COVID vaccine kerfuffle is whether it will have a ripple effect on other vaccinations in the US, that are by and large accepted by Americans till now. For instance, whether polio vaccinations will take a dip because of these conservative morons riding the freedumb train.

Did you miss this?:

Quote

The Tennessee Department of Health will halt all adolescent vaccine outreach – not just for coronavirus, but all diseases – amid pressure from Republican state lawmakers, according to an internal report and agency emails obtained by the Tennessean. If the health department must issue any information about vaccines, staff are instructed to strip the agency logo off the documents.

The health department will also stop all COVID-19 vaccine events on school property, despite holding at least one such event this month. The decisions to end vaccine outreach and school events come directly from Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey, the internal report states.

Additionally, the health department will take steps to ensure it no longer sends postcards or other notices reminding teenagers to get their second dose of the coronavirus vaccines. Postcards will still be sent to adults, but teens will be excluded from the mailing list so the postcards are not “potentially interpreted as solicitation to minors,” the report states.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/health/2021/07/13/tennessee-halts-all-vaccine-outreach-minors-not-just-covid-19/7928701002/

 

 

[Week]

Not sure if this should be filed under the reaping/sowing meme or hot dog meme.

..."I wish that had not become law."

You signed it!!!

 

 

[Fragile Bird]

45 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Did you miss this?:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/health/2021/07/13/tennessee-halts-all-vaccine-outreach-minors-not-just-covid-19/7928701002/

 

 

Honestly, while I really don’t want people to die, all these folks deserve to die. Darwinism at work!

[IheartIheartTesla]

Unfortunately, since this vaccine outreach is for minors, kids will be dying or losing quality of life from the 'Darwinism' of their parents.

I cant read the article, but if its adolescents then hopefully the <10 age cohort is still being vaccinated as normal. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

43 minutes ago, L'oiseau français said:

Honestly, while I really don’t want people to die, all these folks deserve to die. Darwinism at work!

Makes you wonder if the change in talking points by conservative elites is more due to the market potentially tanking out or because their voters are disproportionately dying.