Covid 19 thread

[XXXIVwin]

View attachment 40819

BRING IT

Perfect. Hilarious.

I can't "bring it" right now because I'm tired of my wife and teenage kids asking me why I waste so much time on this damn thread.

I'll break down soon enough and get caught up in debate soon enough though, probably.

 

[XXXIVwin]

I can understand pro-mask people
I can understand anti-mask people.
But people who think the Government has the answers?

You perplex me.

I think my previous response to this was deleted (understandably so, since I didn't choose my words carefully enough).

So I'll try to be more vague this time.

I am 'perplexed' by the notion that millions of people are so susceptible to obvious, blatantly disprovable lies.

And I am also 'perplexed' by people who are sophisticated enough to recognize blatant lies as such, yet choose to shrug off blatant lies as "no big deal."

I'll just leave it at that, since it's impossible to discuss this whole subject of "lying" without verging into the so-called "politics" arena.

 

[Faceplant]

Yeah, maybe I hit the “laugh” icon as a way of saying to myself, “I disagree so completely with this post I don’t even know where to begin.” I should probably use that “shaking head emoji”, it’s more respectful.

Once the vaccine comes out and starts getting distributed, that’ll change the dynamics of,well, everything. So we’ll never know whether we “overreacted” or not.

Well now that, my friend, is called hedging your bet.

Are you going to get this vaccine as soon as you can? Does the speed to market not worry you and or make you say hmmmmmm? Serious questions. Not trying to be the guy.

 

[XXXIVwin]

Well now that, my friend, is called hedging your bet.

Are you going to get this vaccine as soon as you can? Does the speed to market not worry you and or make you say hmmmmmm? Serious questions. Not trying to be the guy.

Thanks for being tactful and respectful. But I'm not quite sure what you are asking-- I assume you are wondering whether I will truly trust the safety of the Covid vaccine?

Am I going to get this vaccine as soon as I can? Yes, damn sure I will. Because I know that well before I'll have access to it, all the reports will have been released and the whole scientific community will have had a chance to weigh in on it. So far the reports look extremely promising (90%, wow!), and I'm optimistic they will continue to be very damn good.

BTW, I'm a fifty year-old male in decent health; I'm sure I'll have to wait in line to get the vaccine before (a) medical personnel and (b) the elderly and high-risk folks. So I expect that millions of folks will get it before I even have my turn in line.

Nothing in life has zero risk. Vaccines are not "zero risk." But the chance of harm is very, very, very, very, very (add about ten more "very's") minimal. The rate of negative reactions to vaccines varies, but it's always on a scale between "super rare" and "almost unheard of." I did a quick google search and saw that the measles vaccine only gets a severe reaction in about one out of a million cases. Severe reactions to other vaccines vary, but they are uniformly exceedingly rare-- usually on the order of somewhere between one in 50,000 and one in a million.

So yes, I have faith in the science behind these vaccines. I understand that they are trying to strike a delicate balance-- they want to get it to market at "Warp Speed" on the one hand, and they want to go through the NECESSARY safety precautions on the other.

I did a quick check on the Pfizer study, and saw the following: "Study enrolled 43,538 participants, with 42% having diverse backgrounds, and no serious safety concerns have been observed."

Zero serious safety concerns have been observed (so far) out of 43K participants? That is extremely promising.

My best friend is a PA at an urgent care facility. He is extremely skeptical and in some ways pessimistic about the limits of mankind's current medical knowledge. But I asked him once, "Throughout human history, what do you think is the greatest advancement in medicine?" His answer: "Vaccines."

A lot of stuff in the medical field involves a huge amount of uncertainty. But for vaccines, the benefits outweigh the risks by a margin greater than anything else in all of medicine. IMHO.

[Important disclaimer: the flu vaccine is crappier than all other vaccines. Flu vaccine efficacy only varies between 40% and 70%, I think. And yes, "mild reactions" (muscle aches, slight fever, etc.) are fairly common, but SERIOUS reactions are still exceedingly rare. ]

As with everything else in this polarized country, I'm afraid the word "vaccine" is often seen through a prism of already-settled beliefs. As I said before, though, I sincerely hope that the word "vaccine" can be immune from being infected (ha ha) by politicization. If ppl lean Red, I hope they want the vaccine. If ppl lean Blue, I hope they want the vaccine.

Vaccines are coming to save the day from this nightmare, and I sincerely hope that the American people can have faith in them. Other countries might be a little faster than the USA, but only because the USA is refusing to cut corners on safety protocols. So I won't be in the least surprised if it's an AMERICAN company that will be first to market with a PROVEN SAFE and EFFECTIVE vaccine. "America, fuck yeah!"

 

[Raptorman]

There is no magic bullet. The strategy and plan for helping to control (not stop) the spread of Covid has been the same for many months now. The countries and states that have mostly followed that plan have mostly done much better. The reason the U.S. is just about the worst in the world at handling Covid is that the U.S. has not consistently and unitedly followed that plan.

Which ones? Because from what I see, no one is doing much better. FL has been open since May. Do we have a mask mandate? Nope. But you can't go into a store without one on. Every store requires it. Has it slowed the spread? Good question. We protect the old and compromised. Compare MN and WI. One has been shut down more or less since March and one has been open since June. One has 2,793 deaths on 201,795 cases and the other 2,515 deaths on 293,388 cases. So exactly what has been "shut down" done for MN?

 

[OldSchool]

 

[XXXIVwin]

Compare MN and WI. One has been shut down more or less since March and one has been open since June.

This is demonstrably false. Granted there have been slight variations between these two states. But this vastly overstates the difference.

 

[-X-]

This is demonstrably false. Granted there have been slight variations between these two states. But this vastly overstates the difference.

Well I could add onto @Raptorman's train of thought by saying my State has 190,490 cases with 4,084 deaths (.079% per capita), with very little in the way of restrictions. Just what individual stores call for. Grocery stores like Publix and Target, etc., you have to wear a mask. Convenience stores and most restaurants, not so much. We peaked in late June. While the daily cases continue to decline since then, deaths have been steadily declining also. Our neighbor to the north (N.C.) has MUCH more strict mandates in place. So much so, that we stopped visiting there until they relax a little. Asheville, for instance, has #MASKASHEVILLE in place, and you have to wear one even while walking around outside. We have about 1200 cases per day (as of yesterday) while they have over 2500. They also have twice the deaths per day (and again, per the CDC, it's deaths while having Covid. Not deaths from Covid), and their daily deaths aren't declining since August like ours. They're staying lateral.

So I ask. If a National Mandate came down, what's it going to do for them since they're already doing that?
And what's it going to do for me since we seemingly already have it under control?

South Carolina
North Carolina

 

[Raptorman]

This is demonstrably false. Granted there have been slight variations between these two states. But this vastly overstates the difference.

By all means, enlighten us why this is false.

 

[XXXIVwin]

By all means, enlighten us why this is false.

I already did. To say that MN has been “shut down more or less since March” is false.

Eight months in a row of “basically shut down”? Come on.

Just one example, here’s an article from June 9th about Minnesota’s “phase 3 reopening.”

Redirect Notice

False.

 

[thirteen28]

I already did. To say that MN has been “shut down more or less since March” is false.

Well they definitely opened up for riots and mass protests, which totally don't spread the virus at all, no siree ...

 

[thirteen28]

Trutht the thienth!!!


View: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1327125840040169472

 

[-X-]

Trutht the thienth!!!


View: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1327125840040169472

Was just coming here to post this. It’s kinda old news though, in the grand scheme of things. MANY examples of this. My test was negative, but I don’t even know anymore. I felt worn out for a couple of weeks for no reason, so now I kinda think I had it.

 

[12intheBox]

Well I could add onto @Raptorman's train of thought by saying my State has 190,490 cases with 4,084 deaths (.079% per capita), with very little in the way of restrictions. Just what individual stores call for. Grocery stores like Publix and Target, etc., you have to wear a mask. Convenience stores and most restaurants, not so much. We peaked in late June. While the daily cases continue to decline since then, deaths have been steadily declining also. Our neighbor to the north (N.C.) has MUCH more strict mandates in place. So much so, that we stopped visiting there until they relax a little. Asheville, for instance, has #MASKASHEVILLE in place, and you have to wear one even while walking around outside. We have about 1200 cases per day (as of yesterday) while they have over 2500. They also have twice the deaths per day (and again, per the CDC, it's deaths while having Covid. Not deaths from Covid), and their daily deaths aren't declining since August like ours. They're staying lateral.

So I ask. If a National Mandate came down, what's it going to do for them since they're already doing that?
And what's it going to do for me since we seemingly already have it under control?

South Carolina
North Carolina

I read this post this morning. As you know, I live and work in Asheville. So I decided to just spend the day observing. I went to court, went to jail, grabbed lunch to go, ran out to mail something, and came back to my office. I thought about counting people not wearing masks today but I got to 50 in the first 20 minutes of my day so I just generally observed from there. Masks are required in the courthouse - and the deputies really are supposed to escort people out if they don’t comply. But the deputies barely wear them, the public has them on their faces in the courthouse, generally on their chins, but out in the hallway, they are almost always off, people take them off to stop me and ask me for questions - like I cant hear them through the mask - and this is all indoors I’m talking about. Less than 10% of the people I see outside are wearing masks. They usually have one - on their neck, in their hand, but its only for when they are about to go indoors.

If Asheville is the mask wearing standard, then we really suck at this. If you are avoiding Asheville because you think you wouldn’t belong with a mask less face, then you should know that you will feel right at home here.

Having said all that - I don’t know what good a national mandate would do. Probably no good at all right now. It’s not like anyone out there is willing to actually change their minds about anything. Anti - maskers are going to anti - mask and that will continue to be the case no matter what any studies show, what the government says about anything, no matter who gets behind it. In fact, as I have said, if its the Biden Administration implementing a national mandate, lets be real about - the pushback against it is likely to be even more forceful.

 

[-X-]

If Asheville is the mask wearing standard, then we really suck at this. If you are avoiding Asheville because you think you wouldn’t belong with a mask less face, then you should know that you will feel right at home here.

Things must have really changed in the past 60 days then. We went up there a couple of months ago to check out downtown and maybe grab some white duck, and the amount of people walking around outside with masks HAD to be 95%.

 

[12intheBox]

Things must have really changed in the past 60 days then. We went up there a couple of months ago to check out downtown and maybe grab some white duck, and the amount of people walking around outside with masks HAD to be 95%.

maybe it’s a time of day thing - or weekend v week day. I think I’m just frustrated at the courthouse because we have big talk about safety and then no one follows it at all.

get 15 min outside of Asheville and it’s even worse. I’ve been yelled at for wearing a mask. Yelled at! I mean - I get being mad about having to wear one - but getting mad at people who do?

Anyway - it’s time to start drinking.

 

[VegasRam]

Anyway - it’s time to start drinking.

Don't forget to take your mask off.

 

[12intheBox]

Don't forget to take your mask off.

i take this bitch off as early and often as I can. I really don’t like wearing it at all. I’m just willing to sacrifice my comfort for the potential safety of others. Except you.

 

[Raptorman]

i take this bitch off as early and often as I can. I really don’t like wearing it at all. I’m just willing to sacrifice my comfort for the potential safety of others. Except you.

Put mine on walking into the store, take it off walking out. If I'm not around anyone, it moves down below my nose.

 

[RamBall]

So true.
I tried to get a test through the county where I live.
Now, their website is plastered with “Community Health Crisis” and “Covid Tracker” data etc. On and on.
It was a full seven days just to get a test and another 2-7 days to get a result. They test 2 1/2 hours a day during the week.
A real crisis, right?
Pathetic.
I went an urgent care. Got tested the same day.
Got a positive result back in three days.
The doctor told me county health would be contacting me.
They still haven’t.
Beyond pathetic.
Most of the mother fuckers down there don’t even know what it means to work let alone how to work like something is an emergency.
Think of the DMV......they EXIST to collect money and they make it almost impossible.
The government offers nothing.
To quote Adam Carolla, a government program is like if a rice cake had the caloric content of cheese cake.
None of the benefit, all of the calories.

My county is being threatened with another lockdown and businesses are asking people to get tested to prove we arent having a higher % of positive tests than we did earlier in the year. Yet you can only get tested if you are symptomatic or have been exposed to someone that is symptomatic.