Senate Pandemics in the Age of Globalization: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion: See OP Warning

I continue to find something grating in any of these "well, I didn't think I'd get that sick" is..... that still indicates knowing other people *could* get sticker still. And just not caring.

 

V96.01A— balloon crash injuring occupant, initial encounter.

A healthy 20-year-old college student in my home county just died from COVID.

I have finally reached the conclusion that we’re going to have to let the 30 to 40% of Americans’ obsession with creating a quasi-fascist, libertarian paradise in the red states play out. I don’t know what the breaking point is, but it’s probably going to come when the blue states with their 70% of the country’s economic activity find themselves on the receiving end of demands to transfer their wealth over and subsequently refuse to do so.

That point maybe coming sooner than we think: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/04/debt-limit-congress-502417.

Republicans are bat**** insane. I believe a debt limit breach may actually occur this year. Also, New Jersey governor Phil Murphy held a press conference today and chewed out anti-vaxers as “insane“. Good times all around.

 

Though I've largely given up on electoral politics--opting instead for confrontational activism--it still stings to see someone as fundamentally decent as Nina Turner toppled by an unholy Democrat/Republican/Israeli lobby(WTF?!?!) alliance. God, we could have used her voice in Washington.

 

... would it surprise anyone to learn that he was mocking vaccinations 5 days before his death?

 

Ugh, masks officially strongly encouraged because we've reached a high transmission rate here. Not surprising. It doesn't matter that 70% of adults are vaccinated, there's still a lot of adults that are not and kids. Plus even adults I know who ran out to get vaccinated themselves are just now getting around to having their 12-17 year old kids get vaccinated, because school starts soon and they procrastinated.

I just got back from CVS because my 13 year old had to get some baby teeth that never fell out pulled so he can have braces put on (poor kid) Anyway we needed to pick up prescription strength Ibuprofen. There's a sign in CVS that Covid testing is available, rapid test only, you must make an appointment online, appointments fill up fast, there's a 2 day wait for appointments. If I am feeling sick I don't want to wait 2 days to find out if it's Covid. Is this for real?

Meanwhile at work still no mask requirement (we had one before the CDC rule but it was lifted in early June). People eating together in conference rooms during meetings. Work in person 5 days a week is required, but I have my own office and I'm not invited to these fancy meetings. It's just that the biggest most major conference room is right across from my office so I get to see these meetings everyday. I'm expecting to hear one or more person at my office tests positive and we have to put the masks back on any moment.

 

Yep. I filed tonight, and the earliest I could get was for Saturday here in Central Florida. I can't say I was that surprised, really.

 

It's absurd how much of a backwards place Florida is.... here I can go do a walk-in test during roughly normal business hours with no problem, or make an appointment with the county, and they always have day-of results. And then test results are back the following day.

The city I'm in has their own programs in addition to that, and some drug stores are doing testing as well.

 

The telemetry unit nurse manager at the hospital where I work is no longer there. I thought she retired, but apparently she was forced to resign.

The reason? Absolute refusal to get the vaccine due to concerns that it contains a secret microchip. I’m floored.

 

Does that mean they've all been cleared out, or is she just one of the first?

 

So I was reading hubby this post and he thought you were joking until he googled the code. I told him "you should know better than to doubt Dr. Vaderize !!!"

Yep. A friend in my area is trying to get a test now at CVS...wait will be 4 days.

 

This was just a CVS, I hope if I get sick I can call my primary practice and find a way to get a test sooner than 2 days.

In Florida, unfortunately I am not surprised by days of waiting just to get a test. I wouldn't even be that surprised here. I mean a month ago we thought this was over, so there probably aren't but so many tests available.

 

@Pensivia

I have an ICD-10 coding app on my phone (yes for real). You wouldn’t believe the **** that’s on there.

 

Wait ‘til she hears about what’s in her phone.

 

Ah, but she can turn off her phone. The insidious microchip is beyond her control.

 

Yeah, but those aren't secret. Microchips are fine so long as they're disclosed.

 

@Runjedirun For a while with the boys my wife lost of the taste of well me. Even the sight of me seemed to bother her LOL! I tried to not take it personally especially we had twins right out of the gate. With my daughter she lost her taste for mangos which she normally is munching on like crazy as it's one of her go to snacks. Despite it all, I do miss those late night ventures to get food especially the times when we could go out to eat whether it was before the boys came or the times my parents stayed over at our house overnight to help with them during my wives pregnancy/after she was born. My waistline doesn't as I freely admit that I can get a bit of a sympathy belly during that time!

That is surprising about CVS not masking up since the one by us is now mandating that all employees due so and to be honest, we shopped at Walmart today since they are now mandating masks for everyone. Not everyone wore them but there was a significant uptick in people wearing them you could tell MAGAers took the one given free to them when they first walk in and put it in their pocket. Still at least the policy is in place and a lot of glares were given to the antimaskers so hopefully some peer pressure + increases cases will cause a few of them to put it on. I am waiting for Costco to do the same btw. It has not been mandated yet but we did see more masks when we went shopping a bit ago. Far as the office goes, let them do as they want. You worry about your health and if they got a problem with it so be it. Stay in your office and when you walk out mask up. Anyone gives you grieve just tell them it's none of their business.

Testing is a massive issue btw in so many states it's incredible even though Biden put in the infrastructure and resources (money) into it so it wouldn't be. Too many states let testing lapse and not restarting it quickly enough to keep up with need. See Florida for reference. We are lucky here since the crazy kids @ University of Illinois develop the spit COVID-19 test and our governor went all in on purchases therefore he announced today that ALL school districts in the state have "full access" to them. As the superintendent of the elementary school district where my wife is principal at (and where my kids attend school) these tests should be like voting in Chicago when it comes to student AND staff. Use it early, use it often. My wife even went ahead and bought tons of suckers and lollipops to give the kiddies after they are done with the test though I told her most of the boys in her school will be delighted to spit in a tube on command! Now granted the turnaround on these is still too slow (1-2 days she was told) and I completely agree with health experts that we should be moving more towards antigen testing especially with more vaccinated people since in those individuals being contagious > positive test. The hope is perhaps once we get a vast majority of people vaccinated (and kids) will go goes towards that testing knowing that

@anakinfansince1983 That is just going to play out at school after school especially in the south as it's already happening in Arkansas:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/428-students-staff-quarantine-first-211902161.html

It's an absolutely firestorm down there and they are absolutely doing nothing to contain it. Meanwhile our governor (Pritzker) already announced that K-12 will be start the year with mask REGARDLESS of vaccination status:

https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20...e-for-schools-vaccine-rules-for-state-workers

This is does not pertain to outdoor activities so our football camp (and hopefully season) is not affected by it except when everyone goes inside such as today to watch film therefore we made the kids mask up even though we knew it was not starting until tomorrow as we wanted the kids getting to this right away (I actually wasn't even supposed to be at practice today since I took today off as well from it due to my colonoscopy but I felt good enough to go in for a good portion of it and just duck out early). We might be maskless at practice but inside is a different story even in the locker room or watching film. Most of my colleagues are happy about this but a few ones are kind of mad actually. They are kind of like, "well I am vaccinated so isn't that enough?" My response to them today was fourfold:

1. This is the first time everyone has been back in the building together since March 13 of 2020! On a given day there are close to 3000 people or more in the building counting students, staff and visitors. Who knows what the hell what is going to happen starting next week.
2. Even though a significant number of kids (and almost our entire staff) is vaccinated, a significant portion is not and even if we were allowed not to wear it but the kids had to, what message does that send to our kids? We are educators. We lead. Lead by example and wear a mask.
3. As my wife said so perfectly to a group of antimask parents last week, "it is much easier for us to start with masks on and see how it goes then to not start with them on and have to put them on after a horrible breakout".
4. Your odds of not getting the virus are greatly enhanced when you wear combine vaccines + masking. Why not layer up just to be sure? Yeah it sucks but the vaccines + masks are making us live our lives safely compare to last year and the last thing any of us is to go back to last year when we have the tools now to live our lives again *fingers crossed* safely.

Far as testing goes, again I think it all depends when and where you are in the country right now. Where I am (suburbs of Chicago) there are several same day appointments to get tested as I went to on Saturday (again due to my colonoscopy I needed one) email my results before noon the following day. They told me btw that they sit around and wait for people to come in mostly as the only ones come in are normally people like me who need a negative test in order to do/go somewhere. CVS and Walgreens though you need to make a appointment in a day in advance as there is a cut off time to make an appointment for some reason. Like right now you cannot find a time for tomorrow at all but for Friday there are tons. Our kids doctors office does the test right there as well. I think testing by and large in Illinois is pretty easy to find and again I credit the governor for going all in on testing including banking on the kids at the University of Illinois with the spit test which they have. They are going to save our paint this fall when it comes to schooling. So many potential outbreaks could very well be nipped in the bud thanks to their surveillance testing though my wife worries that some schools will just not bother testing kids unless they are sick. My wife will not be one of those who only uses it when kids show symptoms. As she put it, "I bought a ton of suckers and lollipops and plan not having a single one of them!"

@DarkGingerJedi There is no way on God's Green Earth that DeSantis or any of the MAGA Governor will ever reverse course. Ever. They are way too entrenched to do that no matter what. DeSantis did nothing but deflect when he was asked about the record of hospitalizations today with absolute babble and showed absolutely ZERO empathy of the 10k+ people in hospitals right now due to COVID in his state. I mean zero. That is most likely the scariest about it. It doesn't even exist to him. He is a sociopath just like the rest of the GQP. And the scariest thing of all? It very well likely might peak in the next couple weeks and drop off pretty quickly due to it hitting a vaccine wall (again about half of the state is vaccinated so it does not have a complete unlimited amount of people to effect without protection) and really the MO of the Delta variant so far is that it expands like wildfire and just dies out rather quickly.

The Rt rate which is a good indicator of how quickly the virus is expanding has begun to slow down and even drop in Florida and some MAGA states:



So it could be very well likely that cases towards the end of the month drop like a rock and just as they do the cases in the northern states will be at their peak because there is some seasonality to it therefore DeSantis will get on top of all the dead bodies and people's lives he ruined by simply not doing the very simplest of public health measures and declare victory before trying to fix his Big Wheel to do another pathetic attempt at a victory lap. So don't expect DeSantis to do anything but be the mayor from Jaws. The funny thing is he be applauded by most people especially the medical community if he reserve course since while yes it could very well likely peak in a few weeks and then drop down quickly the peak itself could be lower if they mask up even if it were start the mandate tomorrow. Any little help like that will mostly help curve the peak just a bit. Nope. Asking too much of the "I will die for my country but not take a shot to protect my neighbor" brigade.

My wife btw talked with one of the doctors in our kids practice the other day (same spin class that is now outdoors long as the weather permits) and said the same thing. Vaccination rates are really good in our area and *knock on wood* cases have stayed low even during the latest spike. That combined with mask mandates they feel okay sending kids back to school but like your doctor, she feels the same way. Kids need to start getting vaccinated soon as it's safe so hopefully *knock on wood* it's all hands on deck to get them their shots by the time the year ends. She honestly cannot believe the WHO has still not changed their stance about kids being basically "immune" to the virus since the evidence during the Alpha wave showed kids are not immune to it and get significantly sick from it to say nothing of Delta where 75k kids in this country last week ALONE tested positive and now they are having more illnesses due to it as well. The WHO also said we should not be giving out third doses to anyone to which our health experts said "these shots are literally going to expire within the two months therefore it's too late to send them abroad so would you rather them go to the elderly and low immunity so they at least get a better chance of having stronger immunity over the next several months?". Again the WHO to me is need of serious reorganization when this is all over with. Not to get disbanded like the MAGAers say but rather significantly overhauled (plus fund properly which is part of it's problem) and yes hold China more accountable who is STILL STALLING on to let scientists in so they can study how this is all started so not only can we better at treating this long term but also be better prepared for the next pandemic. Speaking of China, seems like Delta found it's way there:

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/04/chi...jing-restrictions-as-covid-delta-spreads.html

The Winter Olympics are literally six months from now. I fully expect a full cover up in cases, hospitalizations and deaths there leading up to it.

@jcgoble3 There is no other way you to say this but yes you are masking up for mostly other people and 100% yes most of them are selfish crazy "fill in the blank" people. But you are also masking up for those who cannot get the shot (children) and those who the shot really does not work for (immunocompromised) and I can tell you as a parent of three children who are not old enough to get the vaccine and in the case of my wife working at a school where NONE of the kids are old enough to get it, we cannot say thank you enough to those who vaccinated + mask up. I truly think when the story of this is all said and done, the good, bad and ugly will be written. Some of the good? Those who kept their masks on even after vaccination knowing there were still people out there who were at risk. Plus? It can benefit you as well. Think of it this way. *knock on wood* The current data shows that the vaccine has about a 80% efficacy rate against Delta infection. That is very good no doubt. But thinking of it as a free throw contest with your health on the line. Would you rather have Jeremy Lin shooting them who is a lifetime 80% FT shooter or Steph Bleeping Curry who is a lifetime 90% FT shooter which would be your protection against Delta with vaccination + mask especially if it was a N95 or KN95 one? Heck in lower transmission spots, vaccine + good mask would equal a even better a % protection against then 90%. To me with my health on the line (to say nothing of my family), I will gladly mask up and have Steph Curry shoot those FT then Jeremy Lin....nothing against Jeremy Lin who is actually a good FT shooter.

@Vaderize03 That is almost as crazy as our union putting out a tweet of support about the mask mandating by the governor but NOTHING about vaccines. No talk of possible mandates or even "encouragement". Lot of other teacher unions are doing the same thing. Our union rep said basically there is a lot of "red tape in the bush" to quote Peter Falk from "The In-Laws" (I wonder how many will get that reference) therefore until it's fully authorized, they cannot really push a true vaccinate mandate...yet. Assuming it gets full authorization come Labor Day weekend (or sooner) you better believe the union better start pushing or there will be hell to pay from the overwhelming majority of it's members. I do think a lot of school districts/unions are waiting for it to come down the pike as it does clear up a lot of potential legal issues long term with full authorization so my hope is things will move quickly in September that you will see state education systems/school districts mandate them quickly with my guess that by school year all staff AND students must be vaccinated. I don't think school districts in most states even red ones will be fooling around with this come next year come what has happened this summer and I fully expect this fall/winter therefore DeSantis and the like will have to get bent over it.

So here comes the MAGAers latest excuse to not get the vaccine:

https://www.cbssports.com/golf/news...r-positive-test-leads-to-olympics-withdrawal/

I hope someone from the PGA Tour particularly the health director gives him a major tongue lashing and explains shots were WASTED on him as they had set them aside for him on multiple occasions but he refuse to do it. So expect the "I am going to be sacrifice my shot for someone else" to be coming shortly by the antivaxxers even though "American First" dogma states that we vaccinated our country first before we help others. Trump even talk about the airplane analogy where you mask yourself up first and then you help others. But that was last fall before vaccines were on the market. Funny how they have a different tune now we are swimming in them.

Good news? First doses this past week hit over 3 million again:



Still not enough to make a dent into this wave but anything can help plus could pay dividends in the fall/winter when a fifth wave could be forming.

Edit: Sorry for the ridiculously long post but I kept writing at this on and off all day but never hit send. New record length!

 

Are you in favor of nationalizing the pharmaceutical industry?

 

I'm in favor of a federal law making it a felony punishable by life in prison to not get vaccinated unless you have a medical exemption or are too young.

You can claim "ethics" all you want, but I'm ****ing done with that. The reimplementation of the mask mandate at my university today sent me over the edge. I'm about halfway to saying that anyone capable of getting it who refuses should just be executed. If you won't add to the numerator, we'll subtract you from the denominator.

 

No.

 

Did I say I care about ethics? No, I don't anymore. I'm done with idiots.

I'm in favor of forcing the vaccine by whatever means necessary. Doesn't mean that's going to happen (and obviously it isn't), but that's my opinion right now.

If I have to walk across the stage at graduation in December with a mother****ing mask on my face, I may be spending Christmas in jail because I can't take this anymore.

 

Or you could just forcibly vaccinate them as a worst case scenario…

 

We can't trust them to be honest about their vaccination status. There has to someone supervising them for that to work. Sounds like a job for... a prison!