Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

By and large, no, the people who would die from this set of decisions are older people, not children, and the fact that they could have gotten vaccinated doesn't make me OK with their deaths. Somebody created the information environment that led them to this decision.

I think the only way to vaccinate the reluctant would be to require vaccines for various activities, whether going back to school or going to Disney World or taking a flight. But that seems unlikely, especially in the places with large numbers of people refusing the vaccine.

It seems like every day more and more colleges are moving to require it for this Fall and beyond, but I don't see what else would help much beyond that. Presumably, at some point, most school districts will require it - not a big stretch from what they already require, but we're still several months (at least) away from that even being an issue for the under high school crowd.

I really don't know what the solution is, but as eephus seems to be hinting towards, a better country would start with Trump answering for all the deaths he's caused already.

I don't mean just one somebody.

By and large, no, the people who would die from this set of decisions are older people, not children, and the fact that they could have gotten vaccinated doesn't make me OK with their deaths. Somebody created the information environment that led them to this decision.

I don't mean just one somebody.

Of course, it's a long list. But I want to start at the top.

of all the things he did in response to covid, this was the worst

Donald Trump put out a video of himself, with the White House as a backdrop, promising to distribute this drug free of charge to every “vulnerable senior” in America.

Six months later, no one has ever asked him why that never happened, even though 350,000 Americans died waiting. https://t.co/run5HrvMPr

— David Waldman-1, of Yorktown LLC™ (@KagroX) April 12, 2021

tbf, I'm not aware of Biden taking any steps to do this either, assuming it would be helpful

atm, the Biden administration, guided by the CDC and expert advice is rightly concentrating on mass vaccination, which has far greater potential benefits than mass distribution of a drug that reduces the severity of symptoms.

trump personally experienced regeneron, and promised it would be widely available. even grading him on a curve because he's a sociopath, his behavior around regeneron is shameful.

it's a very very good drug btw! you should absolutely ask the doctor about it if you get covid (and especially encourage any older people you know who are exposed to covid to ask about it): https://www.statnews.com/2021/04/12/regeneron-antibody-cocktail-covid-simple-injection/

Man I do not have covid and you’re making me want Regeneron! I mean check out that name it sounds awesome.

I think we all gotta be gentle with ourselves about feelings.

it'd be much easier to be gentle with myself about feelings if seemingly the entire world did not spew an avalanche of scolding and judgment at seemingly every possible caution level one can possible take with regard to the virus.

Don’t know why people went apeshit asking for hydroxychloroquine when they could’ve been getting REGENERON

Hydroxychloroquine is funner to say, once you've learned how to say it. Plus, I makes one sound like something of an authority.

I like to imagine "hydroxychloroquine" in a Wire song

First shot done.

I had mine on Saturday. Got a pretty good case of noodle arm, but OK now.

https://i.imgur.com/J5mq1bL.jpg

Second dose scheduled, not on 4/20 unfortunately

up in smoke those plans

xp Mine was more like a tube sock filled with Jell-o and taped to my shoulder. No way I was throwing a tight spiral on Sunday.

Gov Whitmer's begging for more doses to fight the ongoing surge is really the wrong way of attacking it, right? Increased vaccinations is a long game where a short game is badly needed. would think it'd just be better to dip into more of existing supply since they're currently just using 79% (and New York using about 83%?).

I mean more vaccinated people is good but Whitmer seems to be saying that's the way she wants to fight their surge. they have ~1,300 more cases a day than Florida does despite less than half our population. the benefits would take more than a month to materialize...and might not at all if exponential growth outpaces vaccinations.

re: vaccine denial, ima go ahead and recommend my mass wedgie protocol

Neando!!

Feeling like super, super low-grade flu-ish after jab one this morning. Sleepy, hazy, a little achy. Side effects thus far not nearly as bad as my arm, which feels like I got a 'two fer flinchin' from a fullback.

That DeSantis would be yelling for the same thing is the most depressing part.

tube sock filled with Jell-o

i.e. 'If people are dying, it's Biden's fault for not giving us jabs, not because I won't close indoor dining."

Whitmer seems to be saying that's the way she wants to fight their surge.

It's the most politically acceptable tool because it requires least personal sacrifice. Governors in general are dealing with populations that have used up their patience for all the approaches that limit opportunities for transmission.

btw, welcome back neanderthal

I can imagine whitmer being tired of fighting her state from the citizens to the legislature bc they shd just go back into lockdown

I mean she got death threats and was the target of a terror plot last year, I *definitely* can understand skittishness of walking headfirst back into that

Urgh uk NHS website unclear and I'm not sure if it accepted my 1st dose appointment as the 2nd dose appointment just threw up a failed page. Now if I go back to the start page the place I want to go is no longer there. Should i just turn up anyway?

i'll just ring em

are you booking via your GP or via the central NHS website?

The website, thought it might be quick and easy but I'm now a bit unsure so I'll probably end up just ringing my GP instead now.

Ugh that’s annoying. I just did it this morning and I booked both appointments as part of the same process.

If you go here there's a "manage my appointments" button. Anything show up there?

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/book-coronavirus-vaccination/

Thanks, it puts me in a queue at the minute. I'll see if it changes.

hmm, it's telling me that i need to book both my appointments again so I guess it didn't go through. Unfortunately now the place close to me doesn't show up on the list.

Rats.

yay sorted. just kept trying, managed to get 1st dose for next friday just down the road. 2nd dose in July a bit of travelling on that day though. but happy now that's arranged. Big win.

nice!

Goddammit

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-call-pause-johnson-johnsons-110642224.html

The feds are now saying that Michigan should go back into lockdown. Not sure if holding out for more vaccines instead is Whitmer's way of giving her detractors enough rope to hang themselves, but "you were right, I was wrong" is not something republicans will ever admit. They organized to pressure her to open up school sports and when she did, Covid exploded in families with school age kids. But to hear republicans explain it, her previous lockdowns actually caused this surge somehow because Texas and Florida aren't surging as much as Michigan right now and they didn't lock down their sports, so obviously opening up was the right thing to do and she just did it the wrong way. It's so dumb.

I certainly don't envy her. As noted above, being the target of a very real terror plot probably makes one hesitant to piss off their constituents. But I think the Feds are right on this one, to a point, vaccines are going to take at least a month to change the trajectory even assuming very, very good distribution and almost no hesitancy. Shutting things down will presumably have a more immediate impact.

What worries me is what the Minnesota and Illinois numbers are starting to look like, the Peoria area is doing particularly awful.

There's no way any Governor anywhere is going to implement new shutdowns, let alone right before summer. It's just not going to happen, for a myriad of reasons. And yeah, Whitmer without a doubt is playing the send us more vaccine card for that very reason, as if lack of vaccines is why any state is still seeing outbreaks and not the contrary. Namely, people refusing vaccines, refusing masks, refusing crowd avoidance. Which at this point, I dunno, what can you really do?

Assuming it's still largely the elderly dying of covid, it's terrible someone at risk could have made it this far without getting sick only to get struck down with the (possible) end in sight. What percentage of those 60 or over are now vaccinated in the US? 75% or so?

I mean, yes, agreed, it's extremely unlikely that any governor is going to shutdown now, but that doesn't mean they might not be a good idea in some areas to help slow the spread again. But, well, that's kinda why we are where we are anyway, we never had a plan for how to make any of these shutdowns feasible by supporting people.

Problem is, at least in the recent Illinois numbers, the ages of the new cases are trending downwards, but it's hard to say what it all means just yet. Deaths are down, but hospitalizations are up again. Even if fewer people die, it's still irresponsible to just *shrug* and move on, but that's essentially what we've been doing since last summer.

Yeah. But also, strict number of cases has always been a kinda unhelpful metric. It's all about deaths and serious hospitalizations, and even that basically boils down to an ethical argument of how many of each we are willing to accept. Just to bring up the flu again, it's much less deadly than covid, of course, and yet there are still some 30k that typically die a year (and more small kids than die of covid), hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations, and millions of cases. And that's *with* a generally effective vaccine readily available. This year (more or less) without flu has shown that all those numbers *can* be reduced almost down to nil, but there's never been a will or demand to do so. And I doubt there will be once we've moved on from covid.

Right, I was just pointing out that the numbers are particularly hard to parse right now as the vaccination rates increase. Are we reaching a peak? Have we peaked again? It's really hard to say, the rate of hospitalization is the one metric I really pay attention to right now, so the increase concerns me.

I don't think we're disagreeing, I just think writing off the ideas of targeted shutdowns completely is short-sighted (but, we've been short-sighted throughout the entire pandemic, why stop now?). Looking at the Illinois data, it seems to me that a targeted stay-at-home order for Peoria County for two weeks would do more good than harm. Would is solve everything? Of course not, but I don't know why we haven't really tried that approach - particularly now when we can very much point to a specific single county with an outbreak.

Oh, we're definitely not disagreeing. The idea of shutdowns makes perfect sense, as does quarantine, contact tracing, all this stuff. It's just been happening half-assed and piecemeal at best, so putting any hopes into it happening now seem like a stretch (not on your part, just generally). I said it's become an ethical or moral issue here, and I think that's exactly where we stand. How many deaths will this country accept from covid? Dunno, but we're clearly not there yet.

it's still irresponsible to just *shrug* and move on, but that's essentially what we've been doing since last summer.

Who’s this “we”?? Name names!