[News] Coronavirus

A place to discuss the now-global coronavirus outbreak.

Amoebic wrote:

We generally don't ban on first time offenses farscry, esp for the person being baited, and even skimming...Pigpen, the concern trolling isn't going to fly. Knock it off. This is the news thread, stop talking about yourselves and eachother. No one here is new to the internet, playing the bothsides game and decrying the loss of civilized discourse isn't being bought by anyone. Move on and move along.

I need some help here.. this dude posts several highly offensive posts that basically points the finger to Black and Brown people being the "real" reason that the Pandemic is still raging and not the FOX news watcher/Conservative crowd.. and the only response is to knock it off?? because he is only concern trolling? and perhaps doing it in a polite fashion?

Help me understand why this is ok in any shape or form?

That's horrific Paleocon. I'm so sorry.

One of Kiri's co-workers lives in their neighborhood and knew them as neighbors. This is where Republicans have taken us.

At first, they didn't publish the address or the victims' names -- only that they were in their late 50's, that he was a pharmacist, that the murder occurred in Ellicott City, and that the perpetrator fled in the victim's stolen Corvette. This had me in a panic because I have a neighbor who fit that precise description, so I immediately went outside to see if his car was visible. It was parked in his garage with the door rolled down so I wasn't able to tell at first. When he came out of his house he saw me staring and shaking and asked me what was wrong. I nearly lost it as I described what had happened.

This is what the Republican quest for power and their psychotic hate machine has reduced our country to. At this point, I am unconvinced Chinese masters would be much worse.

I don't know how much more hatred and anger I can harbor before something snaps.

Whoa, 44 unread posts in this thread? It's only been a couple days, I wonder wha...

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/fDO2Nk0ImzvvW/giphy.gif)

TheGameguru wrote:
Amoebic wrote:

We generally don't ban on first time offenses farscry, esp for the person being baited, and even skimming...Pigpen, the concern trolling isn't going to fly. Knock it off. This is the news thread, stop talking about yourselves and eachother. No one here is new to the internet, playing the bothsides game and decrying the loss of civilized discourse isn't being bought by anyone. Move on and move along.

I need some help here.. this dude posts several highly offensive posts that basically points the finger to Black and Brown people being the "real" reason that the Pandemic is still raging and not the FOX news watcher/Conservative crowd.. and the only response is to knock it off?? because he is only concern trolling? and perhaps doing it in a polite fashion?

Help me understand why this is ok in any shape or form?

It's not okay. He's been spoken to. I wrote it off as regurgitated opinions from right-wing propaganda outlets or trolling to piss off the leftists. With how quickly the slacks and discords light up when things are done publicly and the popcorn comes out, and some unfortunate scheduling conflicts with most of the volunteer moderation staff here, this took longer than anyone is going to be satisfied with. The conversation has moved on (as we'd asked), so dragging this out again when we've had time to deal with it seemed like the thing we just told other people not to do.

Could this have been handled with more public follow up? Sure, though I detest spectacles and giving line-crossers fodder to play martyrs for the entertainment of others. We've had enough of that in the last year already in this political forum that exists in a site for video games.

Was this thread lighting up faster than we had the chance to read back and respond? Absolutely. Fire out first, train back on track, then assess the fallout. Sorry that the pace of that is unsatisfactory.

One step at a time with everything else going on, but we are also looking for moderators (forums and twitch), writers, editors, and other volunteers for GWJ. If folks have experience in any of these areas, my PM's are open.

As for the rest of this conversation, we can take things to PM's, if you like. This is entirely off-topic.

*Legion* wrote:

Whoa, 44 unread posts in this thread? It's only been a couple days, I wonder wha...

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/fDO2Nk0ImzvvW/giphy.gif)

Huh. That gif has a flipped orientation from the broadcast version (if I'm remembering correctly).

Nevin73 wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

...

Huh. That gif has a flipped orientation from the broadcast version (if I'm remembering correctly).

I remember it as shown, and the clip I found on youtube has it as shown. It is slightly longer and has the madam rubbing Bart's head with her right hand, so I think that is the correct orientation.

The most commonly used GIF online does indeed flip the orientation the other way, though, which is probably where the confusion is coming from.

*Legion* wrote:

The most commonly used GIF online does indeed flip the orientation the other way, though, which is probably where the confusion is coming from.

You're telling me everything on the internet isn't true?!

The overwhelming consensus of infectious disease experts states that wearing a mask and physical distancing is the most effective way to prevent the spread of COVID. They also agree that getting vaccinated against COVID is highly effective in preventing infection, and greatly reduces the chance of death and hospitalization for vaccinated people. Negative side effects from getting vaccinated are practically nonexistent and the risks involved with not getting vaccinated far outweigh any potential negative side effects of receiving the vaccine.

I sincerely don’t understand how these statements can be considered controversial.

Some of my colleagues are approaching full-on conspiracy theorists.

IMAGE(https://preview.redd.it/6e9x845dixr71.png?width=659&format=png&auto=webp&s=60962e6ed70d499e1bff48c1cf5d3bc3eefba1a2)

IMAGE(https://preview.redd.it/mgk0n35dixr71.png?width=480&format=png&auto=webp&s=51e966c03c1a8ad40aec9eac9faf2faf438f8e57)

Now this same person is suggesting that as opposed to getting vaccinated, and thus not getting COVID in the first place, that a retroviral drug be used to help deal with the issue after getting COVID.

"Expect to see a mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of medical personnel..."

This medical professional appears to have a difficult time counting into double digits. I wonder how they are with estimating crowd sizes in general.

Good grief!!! ::face palm times 1000::

Vaccine requirements, getting rid of...

Teachers who don't believe in science,
Public servants who don't believe in public safety, and
Health care workers who don't believe in health care.

I'm sure the net positive of curbing the epidemic will result in more people staying in the medical field by reducing the related stress vs the amount that are let go for apparently not even believing the science they practice.

Might be an overall much larger net positive by shaking out the quacks.

There was also apparently a zoom call that all doctors, nurses and other health practitioners in Canada that was mandatory whereupon they were all given the above orders.

mudbunny wrote:

There was also apparently a zoom call that all doctors, nurses and other health practitioners in Canada that was mandatory whereupon they were all given the above orders.

This absolutely checks out. This is so perfectly sensible and definitely occurred...

I can't imagine how people could possibly believe this. Those notes you posted are absolutely terrifying mudbunny.

Apparently they got tired of constantly pushing back the date Trump would be reinstalled on and have come up with a new fantasy to keep pushing back the date on.

What industry is that you work in mudbunny, that folks are this conspiratorial, in the open, with colleagues? Am I the weird one that thinks you don't talk politics/religion at work? Or is that an anachronism, now?

People in government and Federal contracting are initially circumspect, but give them a sign that you think that way and boom! off to the races...

Top_Shelf wrote:

What industry is that you work in mudbunny, that folks are this conspiratorial, in the open, with colleagues? Am I the weird one that thinks you don't talk politics/religion at work? Or is that an anachronism, now?

I work for the federal government in Canada, and she posts that, on FB, not to a friends list, but to everyone.

This person is a union colleague who works in a different government department.

I have been very clear I think she is out to lunch and full of sh*t.

She has yet to block me on FB.

Gotcha. I'd block her!

Apologies, Australia.

Polling suggests that Australians overwhelmingly support vaccine mandates, but prominent figures on the American right have had crucial assistance from their counterparts across the Pacific in creating a dystopian image of the country, which they have wielded as a weapon in the polarised pandemic politics of the US.

Days before the New York event, Tucker Carlson devoted the opening monologue on his nightly Fox News program to the proposition that Australia “looks a lot like China did at the beginning of the pandemic” and painted lockdowns in the darkest possible hues, connecting them with the 2019 Australian federal police raids on the ABC.

Carlson, whose show is the highest-rated news program on US cable television, according to Adweek, also seized upon the use of the phrase “new world order” by the New South Wales chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, at a press conference.

That phrase has long been invoked by conspiracy theorists as a term for the imposition of a worldwide totalitarian government by a shadowy global elite. After Carlson played the relevant clip of Chant, he remarked: “The new world order. She said it out loud.”

But Carlson did not have to make his case alone. For a local view, he interviewed the director of the libertarian Institute for Public Affairs, Gideon Rozner, who readily agreed with Carlson’s take, and claimed: “I don’t think it’s possible to say that Australia right now is a functioning liberal democracy.”

Carlson’s Fox News colleague Laura Ingraham has pursued the idea of an Australian dystopia even more aggressively, if anything, on the cable news channel and on her conservative talk radio program.

And again, she has drawn on fringe figures in Australia to lend her message authority. On Thursday, she hosted self-styled “freedom lawyer” Tony Nikolic, who has tried to sue Chant and the NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, over mandatory vaccination.

Ingraham has been on the attack over Australia’s pandemic response since at least August, when she interviewed Liberal National MP George Christensen, after a video of his anti-lockdown parliamentary speech had been removed from Facebook for breaching the platform’s Covid misinformation policy.

The video of that interview, containing a lengthy excerpt of the banned speech, remains on Ingraham’s own Facebook page.

Perplexed Aussies respond as US protesters take to the streets of New York in bid to ‘save Australia’

Prederick wrote:

Apologies, Australia.

Carlson, whose show is the highest-rated news program on US cable television, according to Adweek, also seized upon the use of the phrase “new world order” by the New South Wales chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, at a press conference.

That phrase has long been invoked by conspiracy theorists as a term for the imposition of a worldwide totalitarian government by a shadowy global elite. After Carlson played the relevant clip of Chant, he remarked: “The new world order. She said it out loud.”

Perplexed Aussies respond as US protesters take to the streets of New York in bid to ‘save Australia’

It continues to amaze/sadden/disgust/infuriate me how much whinging and hand wringing the republicans do over something they themselves are implementing.

Top_Shelf wrote:

Gotcha. I'd block her!

Nope. I am waiting to see if she lets slip what department she works for, so I can let them know that one of their employees is spreading conspiracy theories that violate the Code of Values and Ethics all public servants agree to follow.

America in the dumbest timeline.

Save from what? We have collectively hunkered down until we got to a high percentage of vaccinated population and are now in the process opening up.

I'm no fan of calling it "Freedom Day" but today NSW has eased restrictions significantly as they have gone past 70% fully vaccinated and over 90% first dose. (* for those aged 16+)

We are a couple of weeks behind in Victoria but will be pretty much fully open for the fully vaxxed by December. Vaccine hesitancy was always a myth. We are almost certain to go past 90% full vaccinated and over 95% with a single dose.

Yes we are divided, but not equally. Those against the plan are outnumbered 25:1 by those that are for it.

Are you hiring software developers with cybersecurity experience?