Do you need to vent about things COVID-19?

[Ashy Calcutt]

hey everybody hope everybody is doing alright i read some of the stuff in this thread and i would like to add my two cents.. I'm from Canada and yeah the virus is bad but I would like to share some hope the New York times report that a Vaccine could be Available by September by Pfizer and also the Oxford university is also working on one and it too could be available by September  if all goes to plan and get Regulatory Permissions .. lets all hope these Vaccines come sooner than later

So there's my two cents I hope everybody stays safe and be mindful

[Coffee Pancake]

I'm not hopeful that we will get an effective 'one-shot' vaccine that just makes this go away.

The virus has managed to get way too far to be put back in the box and subtle mutations could easily make any vaccine less than 100% effective, which just means any virus left will continue to spread and mutate further.

Likewise 'Herd Immunity' will simply not work as that strategy requires both a monoculture AND a targeted vaccine. Of course we can achieve this kind of immunity with a virus installed in a population large enough to enable ongoing mutation, no vaccine and everyone back in work .. but the herd will end up a lot smaller.

 

 

 

[Qie Niangao]

2 hours ago, CoffeeDujour said:

subtle mutations

Oh, inasmuch as I posted a link to an article about the (unreviewed) Los Alamos paper about the supposedly more contagious European strain that dominated the original Asian strain, The Atlantic has a piece pointing out that this is most likely mistaken, and that the minuscule mutations in cv19 are very unlikely to have any effect on immunity, spread, or anything else.

That doesn't mean that cv19 immunity is going to be easy, by any means, and multiple vaccinations (or a cocktail of vaccine, monoclonal antibodies, and therapeutics) may well be needed to make any dent on immunity. Or not. And claims there'll be a silver bullet in a syringe by September -- maybe, but I'm more confident that as long as we're in isolation I want some of whatever they're smoking.

[Seicher Rae]

Ugh... is there nothing this administration does that doesn't look like at the top of the project description, in big, bold letters is: Let's Eff this up and make it the most convoluted, shady, deceitful project EVER! 

So Project Airbridge was supposed to be about getting PPE supplies to where it was needed, ASAP. Noble goal, right? Give credit where it is due, etc, right? Well apparently it is shrouded in so much secrecy and possible corporate-government corruption, and is reported with inflated "success" numbers by Trump/Pence, that just reading about Airbridge make you feel like you need a shower.

What the actual eff?

Every effing day it is a new lie, a new bit of incompetency, a new... something. One event pushes the last out of memory. Years of this leave us numb to it, moving it to "business as usual" cynicism and demoralization.

States don't have a clue even if they ARE receiving things from Airbridge! ffs  A short snip from the middle of the article:

• Kevin Klein, director of the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency, also wanted answers about how supplies were being distributed when he read in news reports that FEMA would direct shipments to certain counties.
• “No transparency. No communication with the states,” Klein wrote on April 6 to a regional FEMA director in an email released through a public records request. “Kept us out there fighting for supplies. It may have been effective 6 weeks ago, but now? What is really going on?”

If you have the stomach for it, and have the time (it is a long one) the special report here (don't know if you need a subscription or not for this one).

Edited May 8, 2020 by Seicher Rae

[Luna Bliss]

8 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

And claims there'll be a silver bullet in a syringe by September -- maybe, but I'm more confident that as long as we're in isolation I want some of whatever they're smoking.

I'm hoping for a miracle but bracing for Autumn...     

[kiramanell]

3 hours ago, Seicher Rae said:

Ugh... is there nothing this administration does that doesn't look like at the top of the project description, in big, bold letters is: Let's Eff this up and make it the most convoluted, shady, deceitful project EVER! 

So Project Airbridge was supposed to be about getting PPE supplies to where it was needed, ASAP. Noble goal, right? Give credit where it is due, etc, right? Well apparently it is shrouded in so much secrecy and possible corporate-government corruption, and is reported with inflated "success" numbers by Trump/Pence, that just reading about Airbridge make you feel like you need a shower.

What the actual eff?

Every effing day it is a new lie, a new bit of incompetency, a new... something. One event pushes the last out of memory. Years of this leave us numb to it, moving it to "business as usual" cynicism and demoralization.

States don't have a clue even if they ARE receiving things from Airbridge! ffs  A short snip from the middle of the article:

• Kevin Klein, director of the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency, also wanted answers about how supplies were being distributed when he read in news reports that FEMA would direct shipments to certain counties.
• “No transparency. No communication with the states,” Klein wrote on April 6 to a regional FEMA director in an email released through a public records request. “Kept us out there fighting for supplies. It may have been effective 6 weeks ago, but now? What is really going on?”

If you have the stomach for it, and have the time (it is a long one) the special report here (don't know if you need a subscription or not for this one).

 

Read it all. Rather sickening.  Thanks for posting it, though.

Very reminiscent of The 1,000-Bed Comfort Was Supposed to Aid New York. It Has 20 Patients. Except more corporate, more deceitful, and more GOP-like. And the worst part, he's leading over Biden again. If my jaw were detachable, it would literally fall off.

Edited May 8, 2020 by kiramanell
Typo

[sirhc DeSantis]

Says vent on the tin so ok

Any Tory voter giving my NHS the clap (in STD form as may have to explain) - rude words

Anyone conflating VE Day to this C19 - very rude word redacted in the (F)UK - rude words

To anyone flying a Union Rag - I hope it rains

Checks - yes is a rant thread.

Sorry if not US related

 

[Benson Gravois]

On 4/6/2020 at 5:40 PM, Rhonda Huntress said:

If I let myself be serious, I die inside.  Recent studies say 50-75% of those infected are asymptomatic.  We are all waiting on a vaccine that has been given an aggressive timeline of 18 months away.  This is life now.  There is not going to be a fix any time soon. We are olny prolonging the inevitable.

And what is the "inevitable? "

[Beth Macbain]

Now it’s gone and killed Roy, one of the two original Tiger Kings. 😪

[Mollymews]

On 5/8/2020 at 2:53 AM, Tolya Ugajin said:

It's the small businesses that are being crushed.  They don't have large capital reserves or an ability to easily borrow operating capital, and can't take a lot of the actions (notably lay off people) to stay afloat that large businesses can.  It's not oil execs being led off in handcuffs, it's hair salon operators, and I don't see business executives at protests over this (they're at home as their salaries keep getting paid), I see tattoo artists.  A month or two of being locked out of their businesses puts them under, and for them it's not just a matter of going through a bankruptcy reorganization and getting your golden parachute paid out before heading off the the consulting biz

about the effects on the self-employed and small businesses

a lot of the current effect on these people is a consequence of what support systems were in place before the covid crisis

each country has its own support systems. In the NZ case the effect has been ameliorated by the Supported Living Payment programme. This programme has been in place since before the lock down

the programme has enabled lots of people to have a go at being their own boss. And when things are not working out income-wise for them as well as they had worked/hoped for then they can continue to work at it as best they can, in any environment without the risk of losing it all through circumstances not of their own making

edit add. link

https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/deskfile/main-benefits-cut-out-points/supported-living-payment-cut-out-points-current.html

Edited May 9, 2020 by Mollymews

[Luna Bliss]

9 hours ago, Mollymews said:

In the NZ case the effect has been ameliorated

"Then there are the real success stories. Take a country like gentle and wise New Zealand. It’s long been one of the world’s untold success stories. Countries like America and Britain — who are failing badly — should study it, but don’t, in their arrogance. Never mind: over the last few decades, New Zealand has emerged as a bastion of peace, prosperity, civilization, democracy.

But that change isn’t just skin deep. It’s not just about — at least in my estimation — the superficialities that neoliberals call “policy.’ It is about a people becoming truly gentle, cooperative, wise, full of a certain kind of soul. Ready to be friends with one another. Remember how the little creatures play at the park? There’s no wish to hurt each other, just to be close, to be good to one another. New Zealand has that feeling — which is the feeling of a true social democracy. Goodness and friendship. How rare these things are in our torn human worlds.

Yet is it any surprise that it led the world in its Coronavirus response, then? It wasn’t only about Jacinda Ardern — as stellar an example of a leader as she is. It took a certain kind of people to elect her. People brimming over, at last, after a difficult peace, with friendship and goodness towards each other. Maybe even New Zealanders themselves will say: “Umair, you’re too kind.” But compare them to Americans, or even Brits — people who now wish only the worst for their neighbours, to the point of denying them healthcare and retirement. Is it any wonder, they, too, led the world in worst Coronavirus response?

Today’s most successful societies — whether New Zealand or South Korea or Canada — are all social democracies"

https://eand.co/think-life-will-go-back-to-normal-after-coronavirus-think-again-2639fe9265ac

Edited May 9, 2020 by Luna Bliss

[Ashlyn Voir]

You know what will get rid of Covid? If we could make a Psycho Ray. 

[Luna Bliss]

1 hour ago, Ashlyn Voir said:

You know what will get rid of Covid? If we could make a Psycho Ray.

I will try that in my meditation tonight.....

[Qie Niangao]

I need to vent about so much magical thinking, specifically the absurdity of "herd immunity" and COVID-19. To wit, Johns Hopkins epidemiologists "Early Herd Immunity against COVID-19: A Dangerous Misconception"

Quote

To reach herd immunity for COVID-19, likely 70% or more of the population would need to be immune. Without a vaccine, over 200 million Americans would have to get infected before we reach this threshold. Put another way, even if the current pace of the COVID-19 pandemic continues in the United States – with over 25,000 confirmed cases a day – it will be well into 2021 before we reach herd immunity. If current daily death rates continue, over half a million Americans would be dead from COVID-19 by that time.

Instead, Dr. Larry Brilliant advocates a way to manage the virus, despite early failures and without waiting for a vaccine, using approaches similar to the WHO's successful smallpox eradication campaign on which he worked. If you have an hour to spare for audio, I recommend Al Franken's podcast interview with him, "Epidemiologist Larry Brilliant on Where We Go from Here."

Finally, if you saw the US version of 60 Minutes tonight, you'll know why I'm too disgusted to vent without profanity about the deathly tragic cost of willful scapegoating the Wuhan lab blamed as magical villain in a crackpot conspiracy theory plausible only to the dunce hat brigade.

[Lindal Kidd]

The lab theory isn't actually all that bad.  The version where it's an engineered virus and was deliberately released is poppycock, of course.  But the scenario where some lab worker was careless, got infected with a natural coronavirus he was studying, and then spread it is plausible on the surface.  So is the scenario where a lab worker was out to make some extra cash and sold some bats to a wet market vendor when the lab was done with them (something like this actually happened in Beijing).

But ALL the "Wuhan lab" theories have now been proven to be false.  The lab checked and cross checked.  The SARS-COV-2 virus does not have the same genetic structure, or one that could have mutated from, any of the viruses that were under study in the Wuhan lab.   Different viruses.  So all of the "lab" theories are junk.

[Qie Niangao]

4 hours ago, Lindal Kidd said:

 it is plausible on the surface

Yes, that's fair. Until the 60 Minutes piece, I too wasn't aware non-Chinese on the scene were rejecting any possibility of a close match to the virus in the lab at all, so until then I wasn't 100% sure it was false. That said, I never understood why it mattered except, if true, needing better secure containment at the site... and either way, urgently needing to increase the entire world's resources committed to exactly that research at exactly that location.

And truthfully, all along it was difficult not to be skeptical of how convenient the conspiracy theory was, supplying a hard to refute scapegoat to blame for everything. (Yeah, we screwed up testing but it's all really Chy-nuh's fault; yeah, we actively refused to stockpile PPE but I banned those dirty Chy-neeze right away; yeah, we've squandered months of lost productivity making none of the requisite preparations for reopening safely, but Nancy wanted to "dance in the streets" in Chy-nuhtown.* But it's not racist at all because we have this perfect evidence so perfect we can't tell you. So perfect.)

_______________
*where the average resident has been a US citizen for more generations than Dear Leader's fresh-off-the-boat family.

[Amina Sopwith]

As I said on another thread, the only thing the Tories are testing 100,000 times a day is my patience.

 

ETA: Cultural reference for the first one.

Edited May 11, 2020 by Amina Sopwith

[Beth Macbain]

17 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

Dr. Larry Brilliant

"Brilliant... Dr. Brilliant..."

I'm so jealous of his name. Except the Larry part. His parents couldn't come up with something better to go with Brilliant? Dr. Extraordinarily Brilliant... Dr. Orgasmically Brilliant... Dr. Stupendously Brilliant... but, no, he got stuck with Larry.

[Seicher Rae]

I'm not sure how to feel or react to the following, which was in an email from The Washington Post's 5-Minute Fix

On one hand I'm surprised, and a little pleased (?) that the majority of Americans are at least nervous about going back to normal, after the media (all of the media) rather sensationalized a handful twits with guns marching on various state capitals to complain against... probably Obama?

And I wonder what will happen when/if several GOP leaders end up with at least a positive test.

[Beth Macbain]

33 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

And I wonder what will happen when/if several GOP leaders end up with at least a positive test.

Laughter and dancing.

[Seicher Rae]

11 minutes ago, Beth Macbain said:

Laughter and dancing.

That's so... so... wrong.

And yet I laughed. I'm going to hell.

I don't believe in hell. But I'm going there.

[Qie Niangao]

2 minutes ago, Beth Macbain said:

Laughter and dancing.

or thoughts and prayers. Same difference.

But imagine the shame of a COVID-19 diagnosis for a Republican. It would be a direct affront to the President. And to die of it? Downright unpatriotic!

[Beth Macbain]

4 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

I don't believe in hell. But I'm going there.

I have a nice table reserved down in front... I’ll save you a seat!

[Seicher Rae]

2 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

or thoughts and prayers. Same difference.

But imagine the shame of a COVID-19 diagnosis for a Republican. It would be a direct affront to the President. And to die of it? Downright unpatriotic!

I'm sure it would be blamed on Obama bringing home a Chinese bat and willing it to invade the White House.  :::thanks Obama:::

[Seicher Rae]

4 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

thoughts and prayers

Ya know, this should go on the peeves thread but I hate how that phrase was used so much, so stupidly, for every little thing (which always reminds me of the Southpark bit with the woman in the audience wringing her hands and lamenting, "but think about the children!"). It used to be a useful phrase for people you actually knew, and you literally had them in your thoughts (and prayers if that's your thing). Now? Even when I mean it I cannot say it because...ewwww.