COVID Stupid

[Runs For Fun]

 

[hulugu]

Hahaha.

This is exactly right. People are being incoherent about the vaccines and about treatments.

 

[lizkat]

There is a real question about how much damage we’ll do before we bite it. The worse would be a large scale nuclear exchange.

Nuclear warfare --nuclear winter!-- might be the worst for Earth as a habitat for organic life, but a virus is more likely to kill off the human species.

Example: a virus more clever than covid at hopping to new hosts and not killing a host too soon to make that hop, always presenting with a relatively long asymptomatic period, but then leaving irremediable damage behind for the host to die from in a matter of a few weeks. We ain't seen nothin' yet.

On the other hand we're dong a good job of ignoring climate change as a player with a great hand. The rate of desertification of Africa is still rising, and so much of the rainforests there and in Latin America are gone that the trees that are left are starting to work against climate change mitigation, becoming a source rather than a sink of carbon as they die off or grow more slowly in drought.

Global warming fast shrinking rainforest role as climate protector

The amount of planet-warming carbon dioxide that can be sucked up from the atmosphere and stored by tropical forests is falling as the global climate heats up, researchers said on Wednesday.

www.reuters.com

Researchers, who tracked the growth and death of 300,000 trees in Africa and the Amazon, found that undisturbed tropical forests had started the process of switching from a carbon sink to a source, largely due to carbon losses from trees dying.

“Extra carbon dioxide boosts tree growth, but every year this effect is being increasingly countered by the negative impacts of higher temperatures and droughts which slow growth and can kill trees,” said study lead author Wannes Hubau of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Belgium.

“Our modeling of these factors shows a long-term future decline in the African sink and that the Amazonian sink will continue to rapidly weaken, which we predict to become a carbon source in the mid-2030s,” he added in a statement.

 

[Huntn]

Hahaha.

This is exactly right. People are being incoherent about the vaccines and about treatments.

If you want something to be really sad about, in many cases it’s the stupid being driven by Right Wing Politics.

 

[JayMysteri0]

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1429809289632395265/

 

[Alli]

That is being ambivalent about it, which is completely different than rooting for people to die or being happy they died.

I think regardless of what we say/write, we are all ambivalent about it at this point. I don’t want anyone to die, but dayum!

The issue I have with Pelosi's edict was that at the time she issued it, it only applied to the House floor. Masks were not required anywhere in the offices or corridors. Just where there were TV cameras. That tells me it was for show.

Does she have power over the entire building? From the posts past this, I’d say not. She controls what she controls.

 

[Runs For Fun]

Here it is!

FDA Approves First COVID-19 Vaccine

FDA approved the first COVID-19 vaccine, now marketed as Comirnaty, for the prevention of COVID-19 disease in individuals 16 years of age and older.

www.fda.gov

Bring on the mandates!

"Wait and see" crowd:

 

[JayMysteri0]

Um...?

COVID-19 patients must isolate or face fines, jail time under new MSDH order

Violators could face misdemeanor or felony charges.

www.wlbt.com

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - As COVID-19 cases across the state continue to surge, state health leaders are hoping a new order will encourage people infected with the virus to self-isolate.

Friday, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs handed down a mandate that all individuals, vaccinated or not, who test positive for COVID-19 must stay home upon learning they are infected.

Individuals who fail to do so could be charged with a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of $500, six months’ imprisonment, or both, upon conviction. If a life-threatening disease is involved, failure to follow the order could result in a felony charge, carrying a fine of up to $5,000, five years in prison, or both.

The news comes as Mississippi continues to report thousands of new infections daily, and as it leads the nation in new cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

“Louisiana... They’ve had 36,000 cases in the last seven days with the rate of 791 cases per 100,000. When you look at Alabama... 21,000 cases in the last seven days. Their rate is 439 per 100,000 in the last seven days. Arkansas ... 528 per 100,000 in the last seven days. Mississippi... 25,000 cases in the last seven days, but our rate is 843 cases per 100,000 in the last seven days,” said State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers.

Byers was speaking at the weekly COVID-19 update hosted by the Mississippi State Medical Association. “These numbers are staggering guys. They’re real and they’re staggering.”

According to the order, individuals must remain at home or in an “appropriate residential location” for 10 days from the onset of the illness or 10 days from the date of the positive test for those who are asymptomatic.

Negative tests results are not required to end the isolation at the end of the 10 days, but individuals must be fever-free for at least 24 hours and have an improvement in regard to other symptoms.

Meanwhile, Mississippi schools are required to exclude all students and faculty diagnosed with the virus from school settings during the isolation period.

A copy of the order is shown below.

In other news, Byers said he expects new guidelines from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to mandate vaccinations for all long-term care staffers.

“It may well be that pretty soon, CMS makes it mandatory for the facilities they oversee - that receive Medicare and Medicaid payments - those long-term care facilities will be required to have their staff vaccinated,” he said during the MSMA meeting. “I think that will be coming down the pipe too. That won’t be coming from the Department of Health. That will be coming from CMS.”

I'm not suuuurree about this...

I get the sentiment, but considering WHERE we are talking about, I'm concerned WHO would tend to get caught up in this. Especially if they have employment that does NOT allow sick days, with the possibility of being fired, and are just worried about trying to survive. Meanwhile those who cry the loudest that mask mandates are somehow like slavery, spread falsehoods about the vaccine, will be given warnings after the 3rd time they are caught outside with the virus.

This is a little worrying even for me.

Remember. This is the place that has it's poison control begging SOME people not to take horse dewormer...

 

[Huntn]

Nuclear warfare --nuclear winter!-- might be the worst for Earth as a habitat for organic life, but a virus is more likely to kill off the human species.

Example: a virus more clever than covid at hopping to new hosts and not killing a host too soon to make that hop, always presenting with a relatively long asymptomatic period, but then leaving irremediable damage behind for the host to die from in a matter of a few weeks. We ain't seen nothin' yet.

On the other hand we're dong a good job of ignoring climate change as a player with a great hand. The rate of desertification of Africa is still rising, and so much of the rainforests there and in Latin America are gone that the trees that are left are starting to work against climate change mitigation, becoming a source rather than a sink of carbon as they die off or grow more slowly in drought.

Global warming fast shrinking rainforest role as climate protector

The amount of planet-warming carbon dioxide that can be sucked up from the atmosphere and stored by tropical forests is falling as the global climate heats up, researchers said on Wednesday.

www.reuters.com

Not to beat a dead horse, but I think we are witnessing Great Filter action. I'm closer to the end than the beginning, so it's not going to make that much difference to me, but I feel depressed about the future of our species on planet Earth. An exaggeration? As a disinterested party (not referencing myself), it would interesting to witness this occurrence, like an episode of Star Trek.

 

[JayMysteri0]

As I said, stupid doesn't always happen in a vacuum. It often gets help. In this case...

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1429827930759258113/

Reminder: You MUST be vaccinated to work in the Faux Newsroom, AND give them your vaccination status.

That is all.

 

[lizkat]

As I said, stupid doesn't always happen in a vacuum. It often gets help. In this case...

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1429827930759258113/

So the post by @Runs For Fun a bit earlier was right on the money.... mind the moving goalposts!

Some private equity print-media vulture with really deep pockets should expand into TV news, scoop up Fox --goalposts and all--, and then promptly move it to the far sidelines, doing what hedge funds do: cut costs, strip assets, load the thing up with debt and starve it to death.

Whatever happened to "buy and bury" as an acquisition strategy? Tech behemoths do it all the time with potential competitors...

 

[fooferdoggie]

'It's impossible': Lack of Covid safeguards overwhelm school nurses​

Florida's Hillsborough County Public Schools have had students in classrooms for only two weeks, and yet Katherine Burdge, a school nurse for the district, said she's more stressed out than at any other point during the coronavirus pandemic.

The district, the eighth largest in the U.S., has had to isolate or quarantine more than 13,485 students and employees since the start of August, and more than 2,650 of them have tested positive for Covid-19. In response, the Hillsborough County school board ordered a more restrictive mask mandate Wednesday after hours of debate, defying Gov. Ron DeSantis' order that masking decisions be made by parents.

'It's impossible': Lack of Covid safeguards overwhelm school nurses

"School nurses here are facing a moral dilemma, because the protocols that are in place and coming from the state don't align with their values," one expert said.

www.nbcnews.com

`

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Man Drives Car Into COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic Workers in California

Authorities are looking for the man alleged to have attacked two workers at a COVID-19 vaccine clinic in the Santa Clarita County area over the weekend.

www.complex.com

 

[Runs For Fun]

As I said, stupid doesn't always happen in a vacuum. It often gets help. In this case...

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1429827930759258113/

Reminder: You MUST be vaccinated to work in the Faux Newsroom, AND give them your vaccination status.

That is all.

Oh FFS. I called it that they would say "the approval was rushed".

 

[JayMysteri0]

Man Drives Car Into COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic Workers in California

Authorities are looking for the man alleged to have attacked two workers at a COVID-19 vaccine clinic in the Santa Clarita County area over the weekend.

www.complex.com

You guys decide Florida was getting too much attention?

 

[lizkat]

Man Drives Car Into COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic Workers in California

Authorities are looking for the man alleged to have attacked two workers at a COVID-19 vaccine clinic in the Santa Clarita County area over the weekend.

www.complex.com

Assault with a car used as deadly weapon... road rage, covid rage...

... and anger management 101 won't fix it. It's all about me me me, and also all about right damn now.

How does a country fix an epidemic of this stuff? It's gone beyond toddler-style tantrums now.

I have scoffed at those who say we're headed to a civil war. But an upswing in mental illness is part of the landscape of any war.

 

[JayMysteri0]

 

[JayMysteri0]

I'm not sure to post this here or in the Florida thread, so maybe someone will post this again

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1429787917782769671/

Group of South Florida doctors stage demonstration amid surge of unvaccinated COVID patients

The latest Speed Read,/speed-reads,,speed-reads, breaking news, comment, reviews and features from the experts at The Week

theweek.com

THIS Twitter response sums up what the doctors are dealing with.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1429819573193351168/

 

[Roller]

I'm not sure to post this here or in the Florida thread, so maybe someone will post this again

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1429787917782769671/



THIS Twitter response sums up what the doctors are dealing with.

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1429819573193351168/

People in healthcare are battling on multiple fronts:

1. Sheer physical and mental exhaustion from caring for COVID patients day after day, night after night, with no relief in sight in some places. It's especially hard for ED and ICU nurses, physicians, APPs, and other staff, because nothing can be done in most cases. Seeing relatively young people die in such numbers takes a toll that will last long beyond this pandemic.
2. Knowing that most of the pain and suffering could have been prevented by vaccination and NPIs like masking.
3. Anger at the politicians and other officials who care much more about being re-elected than helping their constituents.
4. Rage at the people on Fox News and other media who purvey lies about mitigation measures even though they're required to follow them by company policy.
5. Knowing that they and their families may not be able to receive ICU or other advanced care, even for non-COVID conditions. Patients are being transferred hundreds of miles because no care is available locally.
6. Facing the prospect of yet another wave / surge this winter.

I keep hearing media reports about the healthcare system being at the breaking point. I disagree — in many locations, especially in the South, we're already well beyond that.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

FDA approval will not change anti-vaxxers' minds — but it does make vaccine mandates possible

Trumpers were using the FDA as an excuse, not a reason. Only personal consequences will persuade them to vaccinate

www.salon.com

Last week, Dr. Anita Sircar, an infectious-disease physician in Los Angeles, wrote a moving piece for the Los Angeles Times about how doctors are losing compassion for COVID-19 patients, almost all of whom are willfully unvaccinated. She opens the article with a story of a 40-something father of two she had as a patient. His excuse for not vaccinating? "I was just waiting for the FDA to approve the vaccine first. I didn't want to take anything experimental."

As Dr. Sircar notes, this is the same man who "started taking some hydroxychloroquine he had found on the internet," only to find it didn't work. In the hospital, she offered to treat him with Remdesivir, which had been under the same emergency use authorization as the vaccines "for most of last year and had not been studied or administered as widely as COVID-19 vaccines." While he accepted this much more experimental treatment, just as he experimented on himself at home, it was too late. He died.

To be clear, the man's actual objection was not, as he said, that he "didn't want to take anything experimental." No, the likely reason was a right-wing propaganda blitz that has convinced Republican voters that refusing the shot is the best way to stick it to President Joe Biden and the hated Democrats. These are folks who booed Donald Trump himself for promoting the vaccination. The "FDA approval" excuse was only rolled out because even Trumpers know that saying "I'm risking COVID-19 to own the liberals" out loud sounds dumb. But remember, these are the same folks who reject the FDA's advice against eating horse paste.