So, I have been trying to preach to not be hateful about the rubes and marks who are falling prey to propagandist techniques... be hateful about the hucksters, grifters, and political opportunists who are feeding them.

If so, then...

Bob Enyart, a conservative radio host, has died from COVID.

Enyart recently sued Colorado over the state's mask mandate and more recently encouraged his listeners to not get vaccinated.https://t.co/bCvcKtPR6R

— Travis Akers (@travisakers) September 14, 2021

...this is schadenfreude guy.

What’s the old joke about a priest on a church roof during a flood.

So as I was walking to work this morning, I was noticing how we were just starting to see signs of Fall.

And now I have a very slight scratchy throat. And very slight puffy eyes. And any other year, I'd think "Oh, yeah, change of season allergies."

But now I have to think "Is this a very mild breakthrough case? Is it really worth trying to get tested? I guess I should at least take my temperature?"

So fucking exhausting.

Yep. Every cough, you self-analyse a bit. My allergies are definitely kicking in.

I really don't want to hear anything more about Nicki Minaj's cousins balls.

To clarify:

Nicki Minaj's cousin's friend's balls.

Oh! Well carry on then.

Once you have hit the Nicki Minaj's cousins friends balls part of the simulation I think it is time to start a new game.

There today, too, with what feels like normal cold symptoms. Getting a swab tomorrow morning. Then pacing.

This is no joke. My brother-in-law's half-sister's nephew got the vaccine and look at him now. Do your research people. pic.twitter.com/6VvcKN7TVi

— Karen Kish 🌱🐝🌏 (@asclepiasyriaca) September 15, 2021

The mixture of disgust and hilarity in the family group chats regarding Nicki Minaj has been stunning.

Why even bother with the bike?

Don't understand why its so hard to just say you either get vaccinated or you can't work a job where you are in close contact with the public.

Religious exemption requests surge, including thousands within the LAPD, as vaccine mandates rise | KTLA

pic.twitter.com/wlFWFwt5pL

— Conspiracy Bullshit (@ConspiracyBull1) September 14, 2021

So I had my first confrontation over masks today while I was at Walmart. I let an older man go by me and he said "God Bless you for wearing your mask" :)

Let them eat cake... and... drink their own piss? Well, whatever!

Please let this be the next thing they resort to...

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has issued their vaccine exemption letter, which religiously exempts people from working near the unvaccinated:
Vaccine exemption letters « Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

I swear, between the Satanists and the Pastafarians... (insert "are we the baddies" gif)

SI

Of course I just saw a bumper for a Sinclair show "investigating" if COVID death statistics have been exaggerated. "None of the death certificates had COVID on them."

I’m sure you all know, but The Sunday Sport is a low-brow The Onion. I guess it could be appropriated in other countries, but if you know the Sunday Sport, you know every article is a piss take.

Link is most definitely NSFW!

15 of the best, funniest and most outrageous Sunday Sport headlines (NSFW) - Daily Star

Edit - TBH I didn’t know the Sport was still going - I thought it died a death years ago. But made me look at some of the classic (more SFW) headlines!
Sunday Sport - Classic Headlines | Flickr

Could you have let me know sooner? I've been drinking my own piss all week!

Same thing happened to Kevin Costner in Water World.

So, if Putin himself reports dozens of covid cases within his inner circle he's just preparing cover to murder some folks, right?

And did you get COVID this week? If not, it worked!

FYI.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/17/healt...udy/index.html

That fits with what we've suspected for a while now. It's likely also why the Moderna had a nastier side effect profile than Pfizer

SI

Pleasantly surprising, at least to me, poll showing Americans are basically split on whether booster shots for Americans or getting vaccines out to other countries around the world first are more important.

I want to know quantities that we have at hand first, plans for a worse case (e.g. a Mu, Sigma, Theta etc. variant), and if we have 2022 orders already booked.

But yeah, other than for <12 and some exceptions, the unvaccinated are doing that by "educated" choice, I rather give a large % of excess to the world.

Poll: 73 percent of vaccinated Americans would take COVID vaccine boosters
FWIW, can't find the chart but supports what below Aug 3 article says. The US is #1 in donations for vaccines and $.

The chart showed China far behind which I remember being curious. I'd assume China was pumping it out and donating heavily around their "silk road" countries. Recent article said China has administered 2.15B doses of their home grown stuff which implies most of their pop is already vaccinated.

Article on 5 countries pivoting to "living with Covid"

1) Denmark
2) Singapore
3) Thailand
4) South Africa
5) Chile

Denmark, Singapore, Chile have high vaccination rates. Thailand seems to be doing it out of desperation (and hence, good odds it will backfire) and no vaccination rate reported for SA but assume low also ... so same as Thailand.

The article made me wonder ... aren't the US vaccinated already living with Covid? Other than business & international travel and <12, aren't the majority of us doing what we used to do?

Other than for REI, no other places require masks - didn't see any masks at the football games, didn't see any masks in the drive thru CFA yesterday, there were masks at Costco last weekend but not required etc.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/16/world...ntl/index.html

This feels a little premature to me. I'm good with opening things up (like the contact tracing, pre-flight test etc.) but don't understand the no quarantine period. Some EU countries have required quarantine period depending on where you come from. This is reasonable to me.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/20/polit...ons/index.html

Lower doses for younger kids which makes sense I guess. There's about 48M kids 0-11 and about 25M 5-11. So using 55% vaccination rate, that's another 25M x .55 = 14M vaccinated soon.

Not sure about the 0-4. You would think there is concurrent studies going on for them.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/22/healt...ess/index.html

Sort of. But my kid under 12 isn't. So we aren't really there practically or psychologically.

I think that opening the vaccine to < 12 will have a bigger effect than people realize.

Right now, the horse dewormer set still has a fair amount of leverage over anyone with kids.

Once our kids are protected, the "I'd literally rather die than admit that science works" crowd will have less leverage over us, and I'm not sure that's going to go so well for them.

dola: And if the GOP does shut down the government at the end of the month, and if that shutdown keeps the < 12 approval from happening . . .

There's obviously been a huge divide for a while now between the COVID deniers and the rest of us. People in the latter set have varying degrees of careful but there was no denying it was real or that it was a risk - it was just various degrees of risk tolerance (where to mask, what activities were "safe" enough, getting vaccine, etc).

But my wife and I, and a number of other have observed, the other major divide has been between those with younger kids and those without. Sure, in the COVID denier set, they just pretend it doesn't exist or that it's a cold or whatever so they don't feel there's risk to their kids. But among the rational folks - every decision is fraught with worry and there are no easy choices. There's the hard stuff like do we send our kid to school and risk giving them some long COVID complication for the rest of their life or does someone quit a job or homeschool and risk their social development and/or economic consequences. Do we take that vacation that might be good for all of our mental health or is there too much risk to do it? Right down to all sorts of daily decisions.

Never mind if you have young kids, say, under 6. Then it's just the Stephen Colbert-John Oliver segment early in the pandemic where Colbert, who has older kids, was like "say, watching any new shows or taking up any new hobbies". Oliver, exasperated, looks into the camera and "I'm drowning" in a completely sincere tone that seems to frighten everyone else who doesn't have small kids. And he goes on to open up and try and explain how difficult it is, but Colbert just keeps trying to make jokes and back away from the segment so Oliver just stops trying.

SI

43 out of 43000 healthcare workers in Maine have quit rather than get the vaccine. Turns out hardly anyone is willing to throw away their career just for a higher chance of death.

If you're trying to open up to leisure travelers, in what world does quarantine make sense?

Yea it’s really a silly thing to call a bluff on. You look at something like this:

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...lining-vaccine

Some of the nurses who were fired honestly believed they couldn’t fire them all. I saw it all over social media “they can’t fire us all.” OK, well, how is that working out for you guys? Anti-vaxxers in the medical field are extremely frustrating to work with as they seem completely unconcerned with evidenced based practice.

If you were vaccinated by AZ or Sinopharm or Russian stuff (e.g. the 2nd tier stuff), then you should have greater scrutiny. If your country is still below x% vaccinated and/or infections greatly increasing, there should be greater scrutiny.

And yes, plenty of countries require US citizens to quarantine for 10-14 days. Seems like the smart thing to do.

You are right. Sorry, I should have said

"Other than business & international travel, <12 and families with <12"

That is definitely a big chunk of families.

And nobody goes to those countries

See map. Plenty of red. Some orange also have quarantine requirements.

https://www.kayak.com/travel-restrictions

A friends son is finally heading to Japan to teach English. He has been trying to get over there since the beginning of the pandemic and is just now being allowed to go. He is having to quarantine for two weeks first.

None of those are 2nd tier stuff. They all work.

Depends on your state. The hospitals here had to rescind their vaccine requirements because it left them without enough staff. We're already in a position where healthcare is being rationed and people are being turned away.

Yeah, I noticed that Asia seem to like quarantine. Singapore is like don't come if you are US citizen on business even though they have a high vaccination rate.

BTW - friends son teaching english ... TEFL or CELTA certified? or like a BA in Education/Teaching? Regardless, I envy him, would have loved to do that during a gap year.

Makes total sense. I mean, if your kid feels fine, what else could go wrong by going back to school?

#BREAKING: Florida students exposed to COVID-19 won't have to quarantine if asymptomatic, new emergency order says https://t.co/ZUEwAls5eW pic.twitter.com/ZtVrxtHha3

— WPTV (@WPTV) September 22, 2021

Kids don't vote so no reason to keep them alive!

Our county in NC went even farther last week. They rescinded all current quarantine orders and also eliminated contact tracing so you will not know if you are a close contact going forward. This week, they mostly backtracked due to pressure from the state but FL probably won't put that pressure on this school system.

Edit: I see now that it is the state that issued the order.

Also note that in NC, if you are vaccinated you are not required to quarantine due to a close contact. So quarantines only applied to unvaccinated students anyway.

Florida wants to get rid of measles and mumps vaccines too.

Manny Diaz wants to 'review' existing non-COVID-19 vaccine mandates

They should be evaluating everything that infringes on our rights.

Driver's license requirements, speed limits, clothes, etc.

Well of course because consistency of position is the only logical next step once you've planted your flag on the hill you're willing to die on.

COVID-19 - Wuhan Coronavirus (a non-political thread, see pg. 36 #1778)
 

The Florida Governor just made it so schools are giant Petri dishes fml


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You mean Moreso? They already were. What is different?
Is he trucking in dead rats and stuff?

COVID-19 - Wuhan Coronavirus (a non-political thread, see pg. 36 #1778)
 

Unless you’re kid tests positive

No matter what it’s the parents choice to send him to school as long as they’re asymptomatic… well so….

No one gets there kids tested and asymptomatic is in the eye of the beholder apparently

Thus

Everyone goes to school and gets COVID

Quarantining is child’s parental option smh


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Klepper is so freaking good at this. The short haired blond lady, oof...

Jordan Klepper vs. anti-mask parents at a North Carolina school board meeting pic.twitter.com/6E10JfLoMK

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) September 24, 2021

I figure I put this here so as not to limit this to just the NBA.

NBA denies Andrew Wiggins' request for religious exemption from COVID-19 vaccine


So how do these religious exemptions work? Is it based on certain passages of religious doctrine? Is it based on guidance from a individual religious leader or does it have to be someone like the Pope that can make the call? I know that for someone to to avoid military service as a conscientious objector that have to show evidence of how they arrived at the anti military service position and how that position influences their life. Is it the same for the vaccine? Does someone have to refuse all vaccines and not give any vaccines to my children? Not take any meds at all? Most of the stuff I am finding is wishy washy at best, ridiculous (IMO) at worst when it comes to anything concrete.

Unless you're a Christian Scientist or something similar, you're probably making shit up.

Dr. Walensky overrules CDC advisory (outside party) committee. They agree on some populations but advisory did not recommend boosters for healthcare workers. In another article, it's the "people 18 to 65 who work in a job or other setting where they are at high risk of exposure to COVID-19 should not yet be allowed to receive an extra Pfizer dose".

Don't know who is "right" here. The anti-vaxxers may say that Walensky is not following the science but FDA and CDC advisory did not agree so she had to make the call.

Just as long healthcare workers are already vaccinated and boosters are voluntary, I'm okay with healthcare workers making their own decision.

CDC chief overrules her advisers on Covid-19 boosters - POLITICO

The potential for differentiation between the advice of the FDA and CDC could have led to another systemic weakness... mixed messages from our own federal government doesn't help the situation. I'm not wild about the decision to override on its surface, but avoiding that outcome seems like a material part of why to do so.

Let's be honest, they're just making shit up, too.

Not sure what's going. CNN today is reporting there is agreement between CDC and FDA whereas my post above said CDC and FDA disagreed on whether healthcare workers needed "boosters".

My guess is after Walensky made the call, the CDC rubber stamped it and so now there is a formal unified position. I don't think its a big deal and/or can believe it was a mistake. I'd think the CDC folks, if they really disagree, will make their opinions known in the next few days.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/25/healt...ngs/index.html

Not really. FDA included HCW, CDC advisory panel did not. It's actually in the quote you took from the article from earlier ;)

Meanwhile a week ago in Germany a person following all the crazies (and those "just asking questions") went into a gas station, left in a fit after being told he needed to wear his mask. Then he went home, got a gun, walked back in with his mask. Then took it off, got told to put it on again and then shot and killed this 20 year old working there part time to pay for college. In his own words to "make a statement".

None of the people he followed online managed to even consider taking responsibility.

Some stark US numbers: More Covid deaths age 50-64 than older age groups, considerable undercount likely (lots of unspecifif Pneumonia deaths despite no Influenza still), excess deaths plenty higher than any flu season despite this younger age makeup, fun times ... Only 4% of the 110k deaths since May 1st double vaxxed. Not really up for maths now, but 500k lives saved seems a reasonable ballpark, not to mention hospitalisations. If Delta variant was the default last year pre vaccine this would have been even more insane ...(and the pre delta version and other less potent strains managed to kill 50% more or even twice as many people than usual over 12 months in multiple countries, many more in some regions/towns)

Also:

https://mobile.twitter.com/EricTopol...01478943887365

Great job all around, awesome attention to detail. 12 people involved and not one stops to ask "hey guys, since our results are so much higher than everybody elses ... Are we sure the math checks out ?"

Between this and the insanely bad dumpster diving vaers study (rejected by 3 journals, then uploaded as preprint and launched via astroturfing campaign), we got a close race for most damaging study this month.

COVID-19 - Wuhan Coronavirus (a non-political thread, see pg. 36 #1778)
 

Yeah but as we’ve learned in this very thread statistics don’t matter and some people will just BS their way to make shit up anyways


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It looks like there might actually be a COVID *treatment* on the horizon.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/daily-...ry?id=80304573

Of course, it is a legit anti-viral that will be tested to ensure safety and approved and recommended by legitimate doctors and public health organizations, so I am sure that the anti-vax set will reject it in favor of injecting giraffe diarrhea medicine directly into their eyeballs or whatever is trending on Dr. Facebook at the time.

But this could be a lifesaver in parts of the world that haven't gotten adequate access to the vaccine yet.

Where can I get this giraffe diarrhea injection?

SI

Is it injected in just one eye, or both? I'll ask for both, just to be extra safe.

I got some, but I have to say it is really tough to get giraffe diarrhea. The zoo keeper's really get pissy about feeding them Taco Bell, and that's not even talking about trying to hold the pail under them just right to catch it.

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Just put on giraffe diapers. Problem solved!

You guys are idiots buying giraffe diarrhea. I bought a giraffe and now I can get all of the diarrhea I want. I'm selling what I can't inject and using the profits to buy Bitcoin.

Hmmm, I think this vaccine has had an unexpected side effect-thankfully I haven't had the urge to inject giraffe diarrhea yet.

Just wait until I unveil my giraffe diarrhea injectable NFT.

Can anyone explain why it's breaking news that a fully vaccinated public official (or anyone with high public visibility) with no symptoms has tested positive for Covid? I mean, for the people they might, or have, come in contact with, sure, they should know. But why are we treating every single one of these like it's a big deal?

We need to move beyond last year's mindset about positive tests. We have a vaccine. To me, this is mixed messaging - get the vaccine, you'll drastically cut down on the chance you get Covid or if you do, that you'll get seriously ill, but OH MY GOD YOU NEED MULTIPLE PHONE ALERTS THAT BRETT KAVANAUGH TESTED POSITIVE!

Some Broadway show shut down after one day because of a positive test. The audience, cast and workers are all required to be vaccinated. Why are we still reacting to positive tests as if it's October 1, 2020?

For many, someone who is vaccinated being positive means the vaccine doesn't work. They need to make sure we know it doesn't work.

That's the thing, though - this is the "liberal fake media" alerting everyone. It's not like it's just Fox News. And I guess that goes to the point that all of this faux-hysteria is helping to make that exact case because the level of importance placed on it feels like it's based on the false premise that no one who is vaccinated should be getting Covid and it's newsworthy every single time it happens to someone you've heard of.

Now, in some cases, it makes sense - like when KISS postponed tour dates, it's reasonable to explain that Paul Stanley got Covid. But what relevance is Brett Kavanaugh's positive test? He's just the latest, but this happens almost daily, it feels like.

Great news. Another step to help the new normal.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-1...pitalizations/

Anyone have a link to the study? I can't seem to find it. It seems like, with a number of these stories, they just reworded the press release from the drug company and didn't even have the courtesy to link to the actual study.

The Safety of Molnupiravir (EIDD-2801) and Its Effect on Viral Shedding of SARS-CoV-2 (END-COVID) - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov
I think this may be the clinical trial - I was curious if vaccination status was taken into account - and it looks like you're excluded if you're vaccinated.

Just running some rough numbers: 775 in study, presumably 50/50 with drug and placebo.
387 with drug, 28 hospitalized, 0 deaths
387 with placebo, 54 hospitalized, 8 deaths

Looks statistically significant but still kinda noisy with that sample size.

Pass - where do I get this giraffe diarrhea again (I love how this joke subtly shifted from giraffe diarrhea medicine to straight up injecting giraffe diarrhea).

SI

Cases have dropped pretty significantly nationally in the last month. Daily new cases down about 1/3 since the start of September.

Not in my state though! We're still peaking and the hospitals are rationing care. If I had to take a shot in the dark as to the reason for that, I'd say it's because we rank #50 in states in % of people with at least one dose, and #47 in states in % of people fully vaccinated. Boise as a city is doing much better than that, but of course we have to take the brunt of the sick and dying from surrounding more rural areas.

I only know vaccinated people in my personal life. But it's starting to get tense again socially with people having different levels of risk tolerance. I'm on the end of being more willing to do stuff. It probably helps that I don't have kids.

Texas is starting to come off of its peak. This whole wave has felt like weird timing to me - peaking a month before school started and not really exploding much more once school started. Sure, it peaked a couple of weeks ago, but those cases were already baked in as they had been caught a week or two prior. I expected this peak to last longer and, assuming it continues to come off the peak, I'm happy to be wrong. Still, we're back over 2K deaths per day and should hit the grim milestone of 700K official deaths any day now.

SI

How much of it is people doing the things that make them safe? Shit hits the fan and people start making the right decisions again? Even the people who don't want to believe it is real will be afraid when things get bad.

I think there is a lot of that - especially with the "squishy middle". Sure, there's the defiant, belligerent like 10%-20% but I've seen quite a few more masks of late, more than I saw 4 months ago. But 4 months ago, things weren't nearly as bad. However, it's also a lot more than I saw 2 months ago when things were ramping up again.

SI

Fauci is pretty optimistic about it and I'm sure he's seen the studies/results. So that is pretty good news.

One of my first questions too. What was the vaccination status.

Trout diarrhea cures everything. Giant squid diarrhea makes you immortal.

I think mixed messaging is par for the course with modern media. It's why, even with all the information that's out there, only an extremely small number of people are remotely well-informed on Covid. The media's role in modern society is sensationalism, entertainment is at least as important as informing and often more so.

There are a variety of perspectives that will want to use a figure like Kavanaugh testing positive as a bolster to their particular argument on the pandemic.

Article also talked about the new Merck pill, a blurb on unvaccinated pregnancy but this one caught my eye. If true, boosters are coming sooner than expected ...

COVID SCIENCE-Delta increases COVID-19 risks for pregnant ...

If this doesn't cause people to get a vaccine then I don't know what will.

Restless Anal Syndrome Affects Man Who Had Covid-19 Coronavirus Infection

you're the best NH

Good news from Portugal. I've always wanted to visit so maybe can late/early next year.

In Portugal, There Is Virtually No One Left to Vaccinate

No surprise vaccine effectiveness wanes but prevention of hospitalization & deaths is still pretty good.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/06/healt...ity/index.html
However, this reduction is a lot faster than mumps, measles etc. vaccines. Wonder what's going on here.

I heard some speculation that the first two doses are too close together so your body treats it more as one dose. They were, obviously, trying to go for speed, so they found something that worked and proved it was safe and then went with it. But that if they had really had time to develop it with no pressures, they would have been able to test various time periods.

The good news, if this is true, is that the third/booster dose will act as the real second dose and should provide the longer lasting immunity that is typical of most vaccines.

Protection from the flu shot only lasts about 6 months.

It's a dumb article that uses a false headline to draw clicks. Effectiveness remains sky-high for the vaccine (WHICH IS ALL THAT FUCKING MATTERS). All they are showing is waning antibodies which happens naturally. That doesn't mean you'll get sick and die, your immune system has a memory and knows how to fight the virus.

Meanwhile, more scientific shenanigans

Ivermectin: How false science created a Covid 'miracle' drug

Did we cover this one?

Maryland man allegedly fatally shot his pharmacist brother for ‘killing people’ with the COVID vaccine, court records show - Baltimore Sun

Saw that. That would be terrorism.

I wonder if he'll run for the GOP nomination for governor or senator.

GA looks to be doing okay. I'm thinking we are at the beginning of a slow/long end.

Tracking Covid-19 cases in the US