Covid 48： The Long March

[Zorral]

Second omicron booster for elderly and other vulnerable people OKed.

Quote

.... People who are eligible for the extra boosters might be able to get them as soon as this week. Vaccine advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss the second booster, and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky is expected to sign off quickly. ....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/04/18/covid-booster-older-americans/

 

[The Anti-Targ]

Just about to head into winter so I'll be booking my Omicron booster soon.

[Zorral]

A closer look at the U.S. pandemic response reached an unsettling conclusion -- “a collective national incompetence in government

Keep in mind, boyz/grrlz -- this government nationally incompetent was the tRump's government.  Almost from the beginning, to make a long story short, he quit handling the catastrophe, preferring to scream instead.  Funny, how that didn't impress the virus. At all.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/24/covid-pandemic-government-response-report/

Quote

 

Looking back at the U.S. response to the pandemic, many setbacks and mistakes are well-known. But a closer examination by a team of seasoned experts has brought to the surface a profoundly unsettling conclusion. The United States, once the paragon of can-do pragmatism, of successful moon shots and biomedical breakthroughs, fell down on the job in confronting the crisis. The pandemic, the experts say, revealed “a collective national incompetence in government.”

This warning comes through over and over again in “Lessons from the Covid War: An Investigative Report,” a book published Tuesday by a group of 34 specialists led by Philip Zelikow, the executive director of the 9/11 Commission and a history professor at the University of Virginia. Their verdict: “The leaders of the United States could not apply their country’s vast assets effectively enough in practice.”

Mr. Zelikow mobilized the experts to help get ready for a possible national commission on the pandemic. When Congress and the White House failed to launch a national inquiry, the experts wrote their own report. It is a compelling, disturbing account. They conclude the pandemic was not an inescapable tragedy. The United States could and should have done better.

Government chaos
A year before the outbreak, in early 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services ran a set of four pandemic planning exercises, known as Crimson Contagion. The exercises assumed a new influenza virus was rising out of China, but did not spotlight the possibility of a virus spreading asymptomatically. They also assumed lockdowns and school closures would be short, failed to take into account the need to scale up testing, and assumed the government had enough medicine — 30 million doses — to treat the hypothetical flu. “In the Covid war,” the report recalls, “there were no such medicines at hand. The temporary lockdown and closures quickly and foreseeably spawned the question: If good medicines are not yet available, what should we do now?”

“The lockdowns could not be sustained,” the report says. “But leaders did not develop and communicate practical alternative strategies.” ....

...  The authors of the report show, in detail, how federal crisis management “splintered by the third week of March.” HHS Secretary Alex Azar had placed the assistant secretary for preparedness and response, Robert Kadlec, in charge of the HHS effort — but at the same time, Vice President Mike Pence’s staff kicked him off the White House task force. The head of the Food and Drug Administration was not even on the task force for the first month. The CDC was “fractured into too many missions.” While some officials recognized the urgency of a crash program of testing and masks, “Kadlec had no money, no real emergency fund.”

“By late April, as a frightened and bewildered country became more and more confused about continuing business and school closures, and after some brow-raising comments at a White House briefing in which he discussed treating the virus with light, heat, or disinfectant, Trump essentially detached himself from his own government,” the report says. “He moved toward questioning and challenging what other government officials were doing.”

“The administration abdicated its wartime responsibility to lead,” they add. “It left the battlefield, and the war strategy” to the states and localities. By April, the White House chief of staff concluded the task force was “useless and broken.” ....

 

 

[mcbigski]

11 hours ago, Zorral said:

A closer look at the U.S. pandemic response reached an unsettling conclusion -- “a collective national incompetence in government

Keep in mind, boyz/grrlz -- this government nationally incompetent was the tRump's government. 

 

Weirdly, the excess deaths spike after Trump left office.  Perhaps his tentacles are longer than even you fear.  

The government did a whole lot shit wrong.  Mostly by lies.  Masks make you safer, even the cotton ones.  Keep 6 foot distance.  Walk one way in the coffee aisle but the opposite way in the baking goods aisle.  Respirators will save you.  Remdesiver will be as good for you as it will be for the hospital and drug manufacturers. Ivermectin is horse paste.  Stay inside instead of getting sunlight and activity.  Safe maybe, and effective for PZE and MRNA stock prices certainly, so keep on boosting!  

Sure we were lied to a lot, but I'm just glad that our government was looking out for best interests at the citizen level, instead of shaping truth to benefit the billionaire level.  Imagine what a catastrophe that might have been!

[Week]

What does Petrobras Energia (PZE) have to do with it?

It's quite astounding that you don't feel any embarrassment bringing up your old standbys from 2020 about masking (surgical and N95 specifically recommended for years) and ivermectin (debunked several, several, several times without any documented benefit (and, anecdotally, many harms!).

[maarsen]

Occasionally I feel the need to elucidate the uneducated on this board, especially when they are so egregiously wrong. But then I reconsider since in a battle of wits why would one arm the enemy?

[Zorral]

Why yes we can stop   (one of the many reasons I've come to adore IGNORE feature, which among them is how much the Ignored desire attention).  But  fools will be fools and asses too.  They can't stop!

We are booking second omicron bivalent for the start of next week; Partner's going to Cuba next month, so it seems a good time to do it.

[Fragile Bird]

Friends of mine are going on a European river cruise next week, Basel to Paris, and were heading off to get vaccinated 10 days ago and asked if I wanted to come. That was #6 for them, # 4 for me. Pfizer.

[Tywin et al.]

The docs aren't 100% sure, but they think the reason I got really sick was due to this stupid virus. Three and half weeks later and I'm still a ghost of myself. Today was my first day back at work and could only manage to stay for a few hours yet was kindly greeted with a ton of backlog and a major problem I had to correct. I was able to do so, but called it a day afterwards. I'm just glad it wasn't due to a mistake I made.

[Fragile Bird]

7 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

The docs aren't 100% sure, but they think the reason I got really sick was due to this stupid virus. Three and half weeks later and I'm still a ghost of myself. Today was my first day back at work and could only manage to stay for a few hours yet was kindly greeted with a ton of backlog and a major problem I had to correct. I was able to do so, but called it a day afterwards. I'm just glad it wasn't due to a mistake I made.

Ah, hell. Get well soon, Ty. That really sucks. 

[mcbigski]

On 4/26/2023 at 3:33 PM, Zorral said:

Why yes we can stop   (one of the many reasons I've come to adore IGNORE feature, which among them is how much the Ignored desire attention).  But  fools will be fools and asses too.  They can't stop!

We are booking second omicron bivalent for the start of next week; Partner's going to Cuba next month, so it seems a good time to do it.

I do hope that all works out, but I wouldn't do that.  The press has been as captured by the monied interest/billionaire class as everything else.  Z, I don't remember where you stood on Occupy Wall Street back in the day, but the pharma companies seem to me to be more about profit than wellness.

We've all been lied to on a mass scale.  If I'm wrong and the mRNA vaccines are both safe effective, why do you need more doses?

[mcbigski]

On 4/26/2023 at 8:32 AM, Week said:

What does Petrobras Energia (PZE) have to do with it?

It's quite astounding that you don't feel any embarrassment bringing up your old standbys from 2020 about masking (surgical and N95 specifically recommended for years) and ivermectin (debunked several, several, several times without any documented benefit (and, anecdotally, many harms!).

Just judging by the name of mistake, I would have probably done even better in PZE than I did in PFE.  I made about 80% in one year in Pfizer and sold out when the excess death news came in.  But my petroleum stocks did even better over admittedly generally a 2 year period instead of 1. (purchase times weren't the same so not totally apples to apples.)  XOM under 40 or so a share, 8% yield to wait it out yes please, especially when 1 year CDs were still under 50 bps.

Also, you should look at sources that aren't billionaire owned for your news.  I don't think you're unintelligent, but you're obviously disinformed, and probably intellectually lazy.  We're all being lied to nearly continuously.  

Recommended does not mean effective.  It's probably orthogonal at best.  Because the incentives were push drugs under patent.  Suppress anything on the generic pricing level in the US.  Declare every sniffle Covid, and attribute death possible to the same.  Large corporation financial imperatives because the government forced consolidation and then subsidized covid deaths such that falling out of a tree was because of covid.

You can go ahead and mask the rest of your life, but I'm going to live by the science from 2019 prior.  Masking has no salutary effect on respiratory viruses.  Though masking can keep you short of breath, and generally anti social and fearful.  Some modern studies seem to indicate that increased CO2 levels can lead to miscarriage.  And also retards language skills for young children.  Why is this a win for you Week?

Again, we've all been been lied to on an almost previously unfathomable scale.  I happen to be an optimist and think that if most of us use our own critical thinking skills, we'll end up with the right consensus.  (Though there are also a lot of people who think that suppressing information and decision making is the way to go.  I suspect they and I have dissimilar end goals.  Who do you want to be?)

Edited April 28, 2023 by mcbigski

[A True Kaniggit]

40 minutes ago, mcbigski said:

I do hope that all works out, but I wouldn't do that.  The press has been as captured by the monied interest/billionaire class as everything else.  Z, I don't remember where you stood on Occupy Wall Street back in the day, but the pharma companies seem to me to be more about profit than wellness.

We've all been lied to on a mass scale.  If I'm wrong and the mRNA vaccines are both safe effective, why do you need more doses?

Dude. I give a pass for one conspiracy theory. 
 

But you can only draw so many inside straights in a row.

You can’t hit it every time.

[mcbigski]

19 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Dude. I give a pass for one conspiracy theory. 
 

But you can only draw so many inside straights in a row.

You can’t hit it every time.

Well in poker/game theory terms, when you think you have an edge and keep getting run over, you have to weigh your sample size versus your assumptions.

I don't think it's a reach to say that mass media is owned by the super wealthy instead of guys like you and me.

Likewise, the pharma execs make money for selling product.  Health outcomes are irrelevant to that compared to making the next quarter's earnings numbers.

Are we arguing over the definition of conspiracy theory?  Gravity is a conspiracy theory from a skeptically strict enough point of view.  

Masks were always a dumb idea and ineffective, and now research says that they're worse than neutral.  That's not a conspiracy, that's the non I Am The Science science.

[Week]

10 hours ago, mcbigski said:

Some modern studies seem to indicate that increased CO2 levels can lead to miscarriage.  And also retards language skills for young children.  Why is this a win for you Week?

Masks don't prevent the spread of COVID droplets and aerosols* but they do block CO2? 

(*citation needed here. Mask mandates in the West were ineffective due to compliance of an illiterate and ill tempered populace)

You are very clearly tying some of the flimsiest correlation - often two completely unrelated items - to create some kind of attempted meaning out of nothing. Dunning-Kruger in action.

Video of this type of rant in action:

 

 

Edited April 28, 2023 by Week

[Luzifer's right hand]

I only see his posts when someone quotes him but sound like he is concerned about climate change and insufficient indoor ventilation. 

[maarsen]

8 hours ago, mcbigski said:

I do hope that all works out, but I wouldn't do that.  The press has been as captured by the monied interest/billionaire class as everything else.  Z, I don't remember where you stood on Occupy Wall Street back in the day, but the pharma companies seem to me to be more about profit than wellness.

We've all been lied to on a mass scale.  If I'm wrong and the mRNA vaccines are both safe effective, why do you need more doses?

Flu vaccines? Every year a different one? Viruses mutate and some mutate rapidly.

[Week]

59 minutes ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

I only see his posts when someone quotes him but sound like he is concerned about climate change and insufficient indoor ventilation. 

That would be more logical and defensible. 

[Zorral]

5 hours ago, Week said:

I only see his posts when someone quotes him

Even then I attempt to skip over, because there is nothing of fact involved, and often, mean and nasty stuff.

[Impmk2]

 

Not sure if anyone is interested, but I remember debating immune imprinting on this board a couple years back now. Here's a great paper that shows that imprinting isn't the be all and end all, and our immune system can learn and adapt to a mutating virus (even SARS-CoV-2) with a couple exposures.

It's funny how basic principles of immunology (and millions of years of evolution to deal with viral threats) do hold up, and the patterns look to play out pretty similarly to other related coronaviruses.

Anyway the practical implications from this is if you're going to boost make sure it's the most recent available (now the BA.4/BA.5 bivalent) and not with a booster with the OG strain in it.