Speaking of gratuitous suffering, let's talk about what it means when people don't take infectious disease (and vaccines, that sort of thing) seriously.

The American public flatly does not care.

Reparations, please - while we ignore actual slavery practiced by many members of the UN.

Donald Trump might be mean to gays - so, let's vote for the candidate who took money from those who kill them.

"America has a Rape Culture - #metoo!" - let's return Afghani women to slavery. They like it!

-----

In other news, NYC hospitalizations are apparently low, so the networks have now discovered that children can get COVID, so they're beating on that.

Here's an article about relative vaccine effectiveness. Here's a quote from that article:

"It’s not yet known if any of these vaccines prevent asymptomatic infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Nor is it known if vaccinated people can transmit the virus if they do become infected but don’t show symptoms."

Radwaste, like Isab, you're going to spend your life finding flattering little squibs from idiots on the internet to affirm your illiterate postures… But you're never going to crack a biology textbook, or speak to someone with a medical degree or a typical practice, let alone an advanced course of study. You're out of your depth, and there's no reason to trust that you've had, or would sustain in your family, any of the other dozen or so vaccines that have made your own life so healthy.

You, in a very, very personal way, are the reason it's time for passports.

The fascist Crid emerges.

The cognitive dissonance will be epic if/when the reality of these "vaccines" becomes too obvious to ignore or sweep under the rug. The jury is still out, so you may get lucky.

Try to enforce COVID vaccine passports. That ought to get the shooting started. And the cowards who think their delusional safety from a virus that everyone is going to get is more important than other peoples' freedoms and liberty will have brought it about.

And I have plenty of 4.0 biochemistry in my CV, as well as have an MD brother and personally know the head of Moderna's vaccine program. These "vaccines" are nothing like the "other dozen or so vaccines that have made your own lives so healthy." So keep making shit up to make yourself feel smart and safe. The bottom line is we don't know if the vaccines will make you safe or just temporarily safe and kill you in 5 years.

"You, in a very, very personal way, are the reason it's time for passports."

One article citation can make you post this. I shouldn't wonder, as you've fabricated entire universes on your own before.

Your tiny side is shouting, and it shouldn't. In so doing, you're calling for Daddy to come save you, and he's gone.

Gone.

Sorry.

You're still not immune to Delta, Lambda, {insert Greek character here}. Fear!

That was from February, Rad. We now know that yes the vaccinated can catch the current variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. So can the previously infected. There does appear to be some benefit in both cases as both groups show milder symptoms compared against those neither vaccinated nor infected. The infection rates of both groups are also lower. I'm still seeing robust debate on which provides better protection. That there is such debate shows the difference isn't large.

And I have plenty of 4.0 biochemistry in my CV, as well as have an MD brother and personally know the head of Moderna's vaccine program. These "vaccines" are nothing like the "other dozen or so vaccines that have made your own lives so healthy." So keep making shit up to make yourself feel smart and safe. The bottom line is we don't know if the vaccines will make you safe or just temporarily safe and kill you in 5 years.

ruralcounsel at August 17, 2021 6:03 AM

Total agreement. My doctor and friend pointed out that the reason these vaccines were approved for emergency use is that for a certain small subset of the population, the very elderly and people in ill health, the risk was worth it. For a healthy thirty year old, the calculation changes.
My doctor further stated that if she had a younger family member who happened to be pregnant, she would literally lock her in a room for the duration of the pregnancy if that was what it took to keep her from being vaccinated.

And yea, my doctor is vaccinated, but she is 71. She isn’t wearing a mask anymore either. So am I, at 65. If I was 30 I wouldn’t bother. There is no single vaccine or medical treatment that is right for everyone.
The gov seems to be spreading the lie that vaccination of the entire population will stop the transmission of all the Covid variants. From the studies in Israel, that is clearly not the case. The virus is endemic. It isn’t going away. Our hospitals aren’t overwhelmed. They won’t be. This desperation to keep mail in vote fraud for the 22 election is causing a lot of flop sweat.

By all means. Carry on. Panic some more. Just don’t expect me to join you.

Assuming the vaccines are as perfect as a vaccine can be in terms of efficacy and of side effects... realistically, the logistics of vaccinating the entire planet are very difficult, even if everyone wanted the vaccines. So there will always be a sizeable chunk of the population that is unvaccinated, providing a platform for the virus to mutate. Vaccine mandates won't change that.

That said I don't get why people are so freaking worked up about masks, they are seriously not a big deal.

Reality: "Gay people, a Taliban judge promised, will be prosecuted and executed by stoning or pushing a wall on top of them..."

Pushing a wall on someone seems to be a very inefficient method of execution. For each execution, you have to build a new wall.

Beheading, hanging, defenestration, etc. all take advantage of reusing an existing structure or device. Much more efficient. That is, unless you're doing some major urban renewal projects and have lots of walls to knock down. Then, synergy.

That said I don't get why people are so freaking worked up about masks, they are seriously not a big deal.

NicoleK at August 17, 2021 7:52 AM

Older? Live at high altitude? Asthmatic? Allergies? Put on a mask and a pulse Oximeter. See what happens.

> The cognitive dissonance

If you're afraid of doctors, it's impossible to take your understanding of 'cognition' seriously. You're being flattered by some enormously tawdry people, see links at cite:

Many writers, including Michael Fitzpatrick, author of “Defeating Autism, a Damaging Delusion” and Seth Mnookin, author of “The Panic Virus,” have shown that the anti-vaccine movement is not merely a self-help group of concerned mothers. It is a business pushed by millionaires: the sellers of vitamin and herbal supplements, the directors of unregulated clinics prescribing chelation drugs, detoxifying purges and hyperbaric chambers, the seekers of fame and tax-deductible donations.

The chief domestic purveyors have been dubbed the “Disinformation Dozen.” Their tactics have been described in detail.

In normal times, the harm they do is limited. The anti-vaccine movement helped bring measles back to America, and since 2010 about 3,000 cases have occurred, mostly in New York and California. But no children died in those outbreaks, though dozens were hospitalized. The movement has also helped weaken our national defense against whooping cough, which a handful of babies die of every year.

But now we are at war with a virus. More than 600,000 Americans have died. That’s 200,000 more than died in World War II. We need to treat deliberate disinformation for what it is: a betrayal of the American public.

Well.. The other option was for her to tell the truth that she was/is into puppy play so..

https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1427645312454299648

I just want to pet teh kitties:

https://twitter.com/WholesomeMeme/status/1427601110265745426

"... the logistics of vaccinating the entire planet are very difficult, even if everyone wanted the vaccines." ~NicoleK

Don't forget the animals. You need to get the deer, the cats, the squirrels. Every last one of them. And don't forget the birds. Damn geese never stop at the border for their one week quarantine.

Ben's never talked to doctor about it, either.

https://thehill.com/homenews/news/568203-school-bus-driver-shortage-causes-districts-to-pay-parents-to-drive-their-own

We are now paying parents to get their children to school.

School bus driver shortages are causing schools to take extreme measures, including paying parents stipends to drive their kids to campus for the year. EastSide Charter School in Wilmington, Del., has resorted to offering parents $700 to not use the school bus system to get their kids to and from school, The Washington Post reports.

I want my $700 for not burdening the school system with another fat butt in a hard seat.

Hopefully this is fake like every AITA reddit posts:

https://twitter.com/AITA_reddit/status/1427666043695210501

Unfortunately, it does sound (un)reasonable enough like a bridezilla to be plausible

"We are now paying parents to get their children to school." ~Kevin

That has gone on for a while. It is a pretty good scam if you don't care about your kids. You put them in one school and get your money. Then you put them into another school and get more money. The more you move your kids the better the pay. Though they do stop after 4-5 times a year.

That said I don't get why people are so freaking worked up about masks, they are seriously not a big deal.

Otherwise powerless, the ordinary person seizes power by demanding ugly things.

"Ben's never talked to doctor about it, either."

Read this again:

"And I have plenty of 4.0 biochemistry in my CV, as well as have an MD brother and personally know the head of Moderna's vaccine program."

Apparently, you were talking and didn't hear that.

How does it feel to be an adult with ADHD? Well..

https://twitter.com/AriDrennen/status/1427315934402859012

You can tell someone majored in English:

https://twitter.com/MoneyDougEsq/status/1427646094826254355

That was Ruralcounsel not me, Rad.

That said Crid's complaint was about me knowing the very basic knowledge not only humans get sick. Nobody tell him about swine flu (influenza that moves from pigs to humans) or bird flu or all that stuff about bats getting covid.

I don't know what doctor Crid has been talking to. I'm suspecting one that divines the future using animal intestines.

If you children were proud of your reasoning, you'd try it on a pro.

You know better.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, has issued a statement warning the Taliban to be nice to the womyns.

Whew. Crisis averted.

ruralcounsel Says:

"The bottom line is we don't know if the vaccines will make you safe or just temporarily safe and kill you in 5 years."

Invocation of hyperbolic doubt is unbecoming of any serious discussion about such an important topic.

One could just as easily say the same thing about a meal you eat when you go out to dinner:

'The bottom line is you don't know if that steak is going to be a safe and delicious meal... or if it will cause you to die of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease years down the road.'

The reality is that there is no credible or known mechanism by which any of the current vaccine platforms could result in your imminent demise.

Additionally, even if you have concerns about the mRNA platform... there is still the J&J vaccine which is more traditional.

The only folks acting out of fear and paranoia are anti-vaxxers such as yourself.

Additionally, folks who are wearing masks and vaccinating are *not* acting out of fear... they are being responsible.

You are projecting your own motivations onto others.

Reasonable people buckle their seat belt because it is the responsible thing to do... not because they would be having panic attacks in the car without one.

You are being irrational and irresponsible.

"I have plenty of 4.0 biochemistry in my CV"

Typically a CV will include educational background, a list of publications, courses taught, presentations given, a list of awards, etc...

I have never seen a CV that looks like a transcript with grades in specific courses.

No one really cares what grade you received in an individual course during your undergrad education by the time you are putting together a CV.

In any event, since you have "plenty of 4.0 biochemistry" in your background, please do us all a favor and explain in detail the biological and chemical mechanisms by which the vaccines might cause you to die in 5 years... this should be a piece of cake for someone such as yourself... or better yet, ask your brother or the head of Moderna's vaccine program such you guys have such a close connection.

It's my understanding, from friends who work in vaccine development, that while sometimes vaccines do have horrible side effects, they manifest themselves in the first six months.

That is typically true, NicoleK. But there are exceptions. Most likely everything is safe. The same can be said about 'long covid' scare stories.

Still it would be nice if things went through the standard bureaucratic process we've used for vaccines for decades. Making medicine political isn't good.

NicoleK,

Your understanding is correct.

What's more, things like anaphylaxis would show up much faster than that. This is the reason why the established protocol is to have patients wait a minimum of 15 minutes after receiving the vaccination in the extremely unlikely event they would need medical attention.

If someone has a known allergy to a component of the vaccine and hence would be at high risk of a reaction they should avoid it... but such individuals represent an extremely small percentage of society.

What we are looking at here is a hesitancy informed by unfounded concerns.

In general what I have heard expressed is conspiracy theories that the mRNA platform will somehow rewrite someone's DNA and encode their death years down the road.

The thing is that the mRNA vaccine platform cannot do anything like this... but facts and evidence do not matter to people who have fallen down this rabbit hole.

In any event, this is a platform that has been in development for decades:

https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd.2017.243

This article is from 2018 (i.e., before the pandemic hit). The research community has been developing mRNA-based vaccines for years, it didn't just pop up out of nowhere the way some folks seem to believe.

Studies and trials for mRNA-based vaccines were already in the pipeline when COVID hit... the only thing that changed was a reprioritization to deal with a public health crisis, which is of course completely reasonable and expected.

It would have been far more surprising if no one bothered to shift gears toward finding solutions to a global pandemic.

Ben,

Using existing emergency authorization measures during a health crisis isn't "making medicine political".

The people making medicine political are the folks who are pretending that emergency authorization never has a legitimate use.

What is the point of establishing emergency authorization protocols if one cannot use them during an emergency?

You keep fighting that good fight Arty. Don't let reality every sway you from your feelings!

Ben,

Let's try and be clear on what your "political" stand is here.

Are you for or against government regulations slowing down the progress of industry?

If this is a nuanced position for you where the answer is sometimes yes and sometimes no, then let's explore this further.

Is it more appropriate to cut red tape and bureaucracy in times when things are normal or in times when there are extenuating circumstances that might justify speeding things up a bit?

Lastly... if the approval process was made "political" because it didn't go through "the standard bureaucratic process we've used for vaccines for decades" who exactly is responsible for that?

I seem to recall Operation Warp Speed being the partnership initiated by the Trump administration to get the vaccine available to the public as quickly as possible.

So was it the Trump administration that flubbed this whole thing and politicized the vaccine which has resulted in largely Trump supporters refusing to use it?

I'm not talking about feelings you numb nuts... you guys are just goofy.

Just how long does an 'emergency' last Arty? Check your calendar. It aint February.

But hey, you do you. Feelings and all.

Ben,

Your question doesn't make any rational sense.

There is no specific time table for how lone an emergency lasts... it lasts until the conditions that justified the emergency are gone.

Furthermore, what exactly was your expectation, that the vaccine would be approved for use under emergency authorization... and then the approval would be revoked a few months later such that no one could use the vaccine anymore?

You keep wanting to talk about feelings but this isn't about feelings... your position doesn't make any rational sense.

Based on what you are saying the vaccine should have only been available to the public for two months... but the Trump administration had already ordered hundreds of millions of doses that wouldn't be available in that time frame.

What was your plan, to vaccinate people with what was available by the end of February and then toss hundreds of millions of doses into the garbage?

You sound like an idiot.