[News] Coronavirus

A place to discuss the now-global coronavirus outbreak.

Replace Karen with one of the Batman wannabes from The Dark Knight.

Karen's not the one wearing hockey pants.

OG_slinger wrote:

“I was strongly against getting the vaccine,” Barker said through labored breathing. “Just because we’re a strong conservative family.”

That has to be the purest expression of unthinking partisan idiocy I've heard recently and wish the reporter would have spent the rest of the article asking Barker to explain, in excruciating detail, what he meant by that.

In less than 2 years, American conservatism has transformed to include anti-vaxing as a core value. It's insane. And these people just don't seem to question it.

It is truly antivaxxer? Seems like even more pure partisanship.
Does 'strong conservative' value here simply mean you will gladly accept the "Trump Vaccine", but not the "Biden Vaccine" (even though it is of course neither of those).

Looking at the UK numbers again, since they're a highly vaccinated population and currently letting things run their course, here's is what I'm seeing.

Positive cases near the same as peak in the winter months.
Significantly lower deaths. Practically nonexistent.
Significantly lower hospitalizations, though not as low as deaths.

And this is with Delta being the primary.

I think we truly have entered the "living with Covid" phase but only if your population is highly vaccinated.

As I said the other day, I think the UK has chosen the herd immunity path and knew it was a bad PR move to call it that so instead they're calling it nothing. And it might be working.

The next step is you'll hear that "Covid has mutated to be more infectious but less deadly". Folks, as in leaders, in the UK are probably waiting for the wave to pass before claiming that. I'm sure many are already claiming that, despite the fact that older populations are highly vaccinated and it's younger people mostly getting sick. Science needs to parse the data first, but maybe Delta really is less deadly and the adage about viruses holds true.

Anyway, my tldr on this is I think we're fully in the next phase here. The phase in which Covid because seasonal, this being the first official season before we all get used to having our yearly Covid shot that will help keep numbers below the flu (hopefully).

But until a lot more are inoculated against Covid it'll be masks on during the school year. Sorry, kids.

Unless you live in Florida, then sorry hospital workers.

The CDC abruptly telling everyone that vaccinated people could ditch their masks a few months back has come back to bite them in the ass.

74% of the people in a 900-person delta cluster in Massachusetts are vaccinated. Infected vaccinated people are found to have a similar viral load in their nose & throat as unvaccinated people do, and are spreading it to other vaccinated people. There're been no deaths and only 5 hospitalizations.

Health experts who were critical of the May announcement that treated being able to go maskless as a reward for getting vaccinated warned that it could create this very scenario, and now it has.

Stengah wrote:

The CDC abruptly telling everyone that vaccinated people could ditch their masks a few months back has come back to bite them in the ass.

Oh my heavens to betsy, who could have possibly anticipated such an outcome?!

The Oklahoma GOP did another "vaccine mandates = Holocaust" FB post today, and I really gotta say, it is amazing how these people who demand strength and no snowflakes from others are also fundamentally spineless cowards.

Also, RE: Coronavirus but not RE: Coronavirus, I really loved Ed Zitron's article on why there's so much pushback against remote work.

MY company has pushed the decision back until Labor Day (at least, we had prior to Delta's arrival), but amongst the rank-and-file, there's been the group realization that for a solid chunk of us, being "in the office" was really about nothing more than optics and control.

Yeah I read that a day ago, loved it. Wish my company did.

The real question is, do you owe your employer a full, productive 8 hour day, or only the 2 hours of productivity you would have had in the office while being constantly interrupted or distracted?

I ran a small office for a while for a company that made YouTube videos and Twitch streams. I had the devil's own time convincing the employees that they were never under any obligation to "look busy," that I could see whether the videos and streams happened on schedule and as long as that happened I honestly didn't give a sh*t if they spent the rest of their time goofing off, or went home early, or showed up late, or took a three-hour lunch, or whatever.

There are advantages to sharing a physical work space, especially in a creative field. The disadvantage is that you have to constantly push back against the monolithic default work culture in the Western world that seeks to suck all the joy out of work.

Stengah wrote:

The CDC abruptly telling everyone that vaccinated people could ditch their masks a few months back has come back to bite them in the ass.

74% of the people in a 900-person delta cluster in Massachusetts are vaccinated. Infected vaccinated people are found to have a similar viral load in their nose & throat as unvaccinated people do, and are spreading it to other vaccinated people. There're been no deaths and only 5 hospitalizations.

Health experts who were critical of the May announcement that treated being able to go maskless as a reward for getting vaccinated warned that it could create this very scenario, and now it has.

I get the reason for articles like these, but I really wish they'd make the effort to put in the appropriate context: that the vast majority of the 460k+ cases that happened this week were among the unvaccinated and that they fared far, far worse than the "no deaths and only 5 hospitalizations" experienced by the vaccinated. I mean my first takeaway from the article was "this is a tremendous case study about the effectiveness of vaccines."

I'm back to wearing a mask now. But I'm not doing it to protect the unvaccinated. They've had 18 months to understand how serious this disease is and six months to get a free vaccine and they've done neither. f*ck those people. I have no sympathy left for them, only contempt.

OG_slinger wrote:

I'm back to wearing a mask now. But I'm not doing it to protect the unvaccinated. They've had 18 months to understand how serious this disease is and six months to get a free vaccine and they've done neither. f*ck those people. I have no sympathy left for them, only contempt.

*Except kids under 12 right?

Obviously

OG_slinger wrote:
Stengah wrote:

The CDC abruptly telling everyone that vaccinated people could ditch their masks a few months back has come back to bite them in the ass.

74% of the people in a 900-person delta cluster in Massachusetts are vaccinated. Infected vaccinated people are found to have a similar viral load in their nose & throat as unvaccinated people do, and are spreading it to other vaccinated people. There're been no deaths and only 5 hospitalizations.

Health experts who were critical of the May announcement that treated being able to go maskless as a reward for getting vaccinated warned that it could create this very scenario, and now it has.

I get the reason for articles like these, but I really wish they'd make the effort to put in the appropriate context: that the vast majority of the 460k+ cases that happened this week were among the unvaccinated and that they fared far, far worse than the "no deaths and only 5 hospitalizations" experienced by the vaccinated. I mean my first takeaway from the article was "this is a tremendous case study about the effectiveness of vaccines."

I'm back to wearing a mask now. But I'm not doing it to protect the unvaccinated. They've had 18 months to understand how serious this disease is and six months to get a free vaccine and they've done neither. f*ck those people. I have no sympathy left for them, only contempt.

I felt like the appropriate context was given. It wasn't an article about the efficiency of the vaccines but about the shortfalls of them. The CDC was wrong to tell people they didn't have to wear masks inside anymore because the vaccine is not effective at stopping the spread of the delta variant, it's just very effective at reducing the severity of it. My main concern with covid has always been that I'd spread it to someone who dies from it, not that I'd die from it myself.

The willfully unvaccinated have made no bones about their intent to act as bio weapons. I wonder if they see the irony in the current reality.

Congratulations to Florida for beating its all-time daily COVID infection record!

The fun part is that DeSantis threatened to pull state funding from schools--some of which open in a week or so--who require staff and student to wear masks.

What sucks is that DeSantis will see zero repercussions from this.
He may really be Trump 2.0

My wife and I were signed up to staff the University of Iowa booth at the Iowa State Fair in a couple weeks. Now I am thinking we will not do it, in fact I don't even think we will go.

The booth is in the "varied industries" building which is always shoulder to shoulder cramped during the fair so we would be within inches of a thousand people or more during our shift. I can't beleive that with the rising numbers of cases some of the would not be infected. And our state doesn't love that masking so while we would be I bet the majority of people would not be maked.

fangblackbone wrote:

What sucks is that DeSantis will see zero repercussions from this.

Zilch. The virus simply isn't deadly enough to cause the kind of casualty numbers that might actually have an effect, and as for anything else, he triggered the libs. That's all that matters.

Prederick wrote:
fangblackbone wrote:

What sucks is that DeSantis will see zero repercussions from this.

Zilch. The virus simply isn't deadly enough to cause the kind of casualty numbers that might actually have an effect, and as for anything else, he triggered the libs. That's all that matters.

Close to 80% of over 60 are fully vaxxed in Florida. He knows he can let the hospitals overrun and folks generally won't die, though many still will. So, yeah, no repercussions, we're on the fasttrack to 2024. All aboard!

The situation locally in Sydney is dire. A victim of our own eradication success, the Delta variant is too rampant and contagious to be able to be controlled via contact tracing. It infects on average 8 persons - reportedly 8 times more than the original Wuhan strain. Because of the border control and previously successful contact tracing strategy, the government and the community dropped the ball on getting vaccinated. We don't have enough Pfizer for our under-60s and the over-60s are declining to accept the Astrazenica shots (which are in plentiful supply).

So earlier today, in the midst of the lockdown, I was getting my car serviced in a suburb listed as a hotspot - and I'd say about half the people outside were either unmasked, or had their masks worn down around their chins. Age, sex, and race were no determining factor - people of all backgrounds were not complying with the rules. Are humans really this foolish?

Welcome to 2020, and yes humans really are this foolish.

Quebec is offering an incentive to get vaccinated:

If you have been vaccinated, you can enter a draw to win stuff from the government of Quebec. In addition to a total of $1.6 million in cash prizes, there are also a bunch of non-cash prizes available:

A 90-minute flight for the winner and six guests on a world-class Bombardier business jet produced in Québec and powered by sustainable aviation fuel. Departure from Montréal or Québec City

1 all-inclusive 7-night package for two at the Sandos Cancun Lifestyle Resort in Cancun, including round-trip economy airfare courtesy of Air Canada

1 travel voucher for two for a round-trip business class flight to any destination served by Air Canada

10 travel vouchers for two for a round-trip economy class flight to any destination in Canada served by Air Canada

3 prizes of 100,000 bonus Aeroplan points offered by Air Canada

5 Aeroplan 50K memberships offered by Air Canada

For the 12-17 year olds who have been at least partially vaccinated, there is a bunch of scholarships (starting at $10,000) available.

The travel things hopefully are set out a fair distance into the future right?

There are restrictions that apply. I assume that some legalese version of "when safe" is in there somewhere, as well as a deadline longer than what is normally included in prizes.

I saw background footage of kids going to school during discussion with a doctor about the COVID variant spike in Alabama. Two of the kids were wearing masks and face shields... but of course the masks were below their nose with the parents right there with them.

God dammit people! Wear masks properly. Don't half ass it. This is not hard nor incomprehensible!

Looks like one of our offices in voluntary return to work had a covid case this weekend. So everyone working with them (I guess they checked who badged into the building) last week got an email and is supposed to stay home for 10 days. Of course if anyone piggybacked on badges...

One of my wife's closest friends is an ultrasound technician in south Alabama. She told my wife that two of her coworkers are on ventilators now, and she was advised to limit contact to covid patients as much as possible due to the delta strain.
The two coworkers were vaccinated, according to her. While it wasn't specified, I assume she meant "fully". That's seriously -shoddy- luck if two vaccinated ppl from the same smaller company both go to ICU...