Covid-19 miscellany

[blastula]

News

Well, it was never about science really was it?

Told ya

It's not about science for you since you keep posting these lockdown studies by economists, and not just any economists, but activist economists from conservative think tanks.

 

[blastula]

So it’s a shame that when Cochrane took on something that has, stupidly, become very politicized, they didn’t do their usual “gold standard” job.

Cochrane is the same place that does those reviews of alternative "medicines" giving them much more credence than they deserve, because they don't generally consider mechanisms or plausibility of treatments.

This article explains the problems with Cochrane's review on masks.

TVO Today | Current Affairs Journalism, Documentaries and Podcasts

www.tvo.org

 

[TSwizzle]

The Lancet medical journal this month published a review of 65 studies that concluded prior infection with Covid—i.e., natural immunity—is at least as protective as two doses of mRNA vaccines. The most surprising news was that the study made the mainstream press.

“Immunity acquired from a Covid infection is as protective as vaccination against severe illness and death, study finds,” NBC reported on Feb. 16. The study found that prior infection offered 78.6% protection against reinfection from the original Wuhan, Alpha or Delta variants at 40 weeks, which slipped to 36.1% against Omicron. Protection against severe illness remained around 90% across all variants after 40 weeks. These results exceed what other studies have found for two and even three mRNA doses.

WSJ

A big F you to all the fascists.

 

[Shadowy Man]

Like I said, I'm sure it was just an oversight on TSwizzle's part that he left those pieces out.

To be fair to him, it was snowing in Southern California.

 

[laughing dog]

We know that prior infection of covid that results in death prevents reinfection, so Tswizzle’s article has some merit. And while prior infection does provide some immunity, it also provides a higher possibility of death or severe illness compared to vaccines, something the study conveniently omits.

 

[laughing dog]

News

Well, it was never about science really was it?

Told ya

It's not about science for you since you keep posting these lockdown studies by economists, and not just any economists, but activist economists from conservative think tanks.

There is no doubt lockdowns reduced economic activity and increased paranoia and stupidity in populations. And as the linked article acknowledges, lockdowns reduced deaths. So the question, which cannot be answered scientifically, is whether the reductions in death and illness from the lockdowns were worth the costs. The answer depends on one’s ideology
and values.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

News

Well, it was never about science really was it?

Told ya

It's not about science for you since you keep posting these lockdown studies by economists, and not just any economists, but activist economists from conservative think tanks.

There is no doubt lockdowns reduced economic activity and increased paranoia and stupidity in populations. And as the linked article acknowledges, lockdowns reduced deaths. So the question, which cannot be answered scientifically, is whether the reductions in death and illness from the lockdowns were worth the costs. The answer depends on one’s ideology
and values.

What is hard to quantify is just how many more hospitals would have been in crisis had the alt-right got its way overall. This seems easy, but the reality is that smaller areas would have likely had it worse as their small hospitals would have been overrun immediately.

This pandemic was held back, even among the stupidity of the alt-right, by other Americans that held back and didn't engage all the while the "cool kids" were embracing a pandemic and stuffing hospitals full of patients. We know there would have been a much higher obstruction for access to needed health care without the "lockdown" which wasn't ever an actual lock down.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

The Lancet medical journal this month published a review of 65 studies that concluded prior infection with Covid—i.e., natural immunity—is at least as protective as two doses of mRNA vaccines. The most surprising news was that the study made the mainstream press.

“Immunity acquired from a Covid infection is as protective as vaccination against severe illness and death, study finds,” NBC reported on Feb. 16. The study found that prior infection offered 78.6% protection against reinfection from the original Wuhan, Alpha or Delta variants at 40 weeks, which slipped to 36.1% against Omicron. Protection against severe illness remained around 90% across all variants after 40 weeks. These results exceed what other studies have found for two and even three mRNA doses.

WSJ

A big F you to all the fascists.

You seem to be missing the point. Getting a vaccine is preventive. Getting the virus isn't preventive because you have it.

To some extent it's like saying that being murdered is great protection against being murdered in the future.

 

[Shadowy Man]

To some extent it's like saying that being murdered is great protection against being murdered in the future.

To be fair, it really is. How many murder victims do you know who have gotten murdered?

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

To some extent it's like saying that being murdered is great protection against being murdered in the future.

To be fair, it really is. How many murder victims do you know who have gotten murdered?

Natural immunity!

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

The Lancet medical journal this month published a review of 65 studies that concluded prior infection with Covid—i.e., natural immunity—is at least as protective as two doses of mRNA vaccines. The most surprising news was that the study made the mainstream press.

“Immunity acquired from a Covid infection is as protective as vaccination against severe illness and death, study finds,” NBC reported on Feb. 16. The study found that prior infection offered 78.6% protection against reinfection from the original Wuhan, Alpha or Delta variants at 40 weeks, which slipped to 36.1% against Omicron. Protection against severe illness remained around 90% across all variants after 40 weeks. These results exceed what other studies have found for two and even three mRNA doses.

WSJ

A big F you to all the fascists.

So as long as a person got it and didn't die from it (or suffer long term effects), that's a win.

Had everyone got Covid-19, stuffed the hospitals so other people couldn't use them, the death toll from Covid-19 alone would have been over 3.5 million people. Around 8 to 10 million hospitalized. And really, it'd been worse because we can't hospitalize that many people, so people that could have survived would have died too.

This... according to TSwizzle, is victory.

You look back in the history books during pandemics and what not and you think, man, glad I didn't live back then. People are so much wiser today. And then you read a post by TSwizzle. And a large chunk inside of you dies. Can't read and interpret graphs, can't tell the difference between an economist and a scientist, saturated with bitter partisan obsession... but they think they can fucking manage a global pandemic. A gawd damn fucking cult!

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

To some extent it's like saying that being murdered is great protection against being murdered in the future.

To be fair, it really is. How many murder victims do you know who have gotten murdered?

Natural immunity!

It is incredible... the alt-right's medical response plan is that of France's plan to defend against the Nazis... and they are fucking smug about it too!

People: What do we do about this disease?
Alt-right: Have we tried just giving up and getting sick?
People: Wouldn't that kill the most possible people of all the plans that we could come up with?
Alt-right: But we'd all be immune.
People: Except those that died.
Alt-right: Fucking commie.

 

[repoman]

This is about what to do in the present moment.

Having a high 80s% reduction in hospitalization for the second go around with covid is an actual fact.

I got two doses of Pfizer vaccine in April of 2021, then got covid in April 2022.

There is no way I am getting another vaccination (which at this point is more of an inoculation) that has the Wuhan strain in it.

Five years ago, could you possibly imagine getting a three year old flu vaccine and seeing that as a great thing?

Try to have some balance and perspective about what to do now and not relitigate the past.

 

[Shadowy Man]

To some extent it's like saying that being murdered is great protection against being murdered in the future.

To be fair, it really is. How many murder victims do you know who have gotten murdered?

Natural immunity!

It is incredible... the alt-right's medical response plan is that of France's plan to defend against the Nazis... and they are fucking smug about it too!

People: What do we do about this disease?
Alt-right: Have we tried just giving up and getting sick?
People: Wouldn't that kill the most possible people of all the plans that we could come up with?
Alt-right: But we'd all be immune.
People: Except those that died.
Alt-right: Fucking commie.

But think of all the money we could save if all the old and weak people died. No social security outlays or doctors’ visits. I’m sure there must be other savings as well. And likely very little downsides, right?

 

[TomC]

But think of all the money we could save if all the old and weak people died. No social security outlays or doctors’ visits. I’m sure there must be other savings as well. And likely very little downsides, right?

Vicious old cynic that I am,

I can't help but think about all the government and insurance company bean counters out there calculating how much money C19 has saved them by pushing the old and sick(and expensive) people off the cliff a little earlier than the actuarial tables predicted.
Tom

 

[Ruth Harris]

This is where I stand on COVID.

I still think that the vaccinations, partial shut downs, masking and social distancing prevented what could have been a real death march. I also think that things could have been much better had this not been politicized to the nth degree.

My reasoning for this is that I saw first hand what COVID could do. I have friends who are permanently disabled from having COVID, a niece who is suffering long COVID as well as having serious heart damage from it, and I lost a dear friend to it. All of these people were very healthy and considered low risk.

Recently, my son came down with it for the first time. He was fully vaccinated and boosted thankfully, as he is an asthmatic. His doctor prescribed Paxlovid and he started it within about 36 hours of his first symptoms. Even with that, he missed 4 days of work due to feeling so bad which is telling because he is like me in that he would rather be working than doing nothing.

If it was not for the vaccines and the Paxlovid it is very likely he would have died from this. Quite frankly, I would have blamed all the anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers if he had died. We have both done our best to stay safe and taken actions to keep others safe but this consideration has not been returned.

So you can bleat all you want about infringements on your rights, and your distrust of the scientists who provided the vaccines and treatments for this. It means nothing to me. All I know is that my son is alive and recovering from a virulent disease that would have killed him had they not been available.

Ruth

 

[TSwizzle]

But think of all the money we could save if all the old and weak people died. No social security outlays or doctors’ visits. I’m sure there must be other savings as well. And likely very little downsides, right?

Do you think that is why Cuomo sent infected patients into nursing homes, killing thousands of elderly?

 

[ZiprHead]

But think of all the money we could save if all the old and weak people died. No social security outlays or doctors’ visits. I’m sure there must be other savings as well. And likely very little downsides, right?

Do you think that is why Cuomo sent infected patients into nursing homes, killing thousands of elderly?

Nursing homes should be professional health centers. They should know how to do infection control.

And where would you have put them because the hospitals were full of sicker people?

 

[TomC]

But think of all the money we could save if all the old and weak people died. No social security outlays or doctors’ visits. I’m sure there must be other savings as well. And likely very little downsides, right?

Do you think that is why Cuomo sent infected patients into nursing homes, killing thousands of elderly?

I think it had far more to do with the federal government, led by the Trump administration, insisting that C19 was no big deal.
No worse than a cold.
Tom

 

[ZiprHead]

Do You Have Coronaphobiaphobia? Ask Your Doctor if Notmybizumab is Right for You.

Are you a doctor who has written multiple articles saying “now is the time to stop living in fear?” Did you say cautious people were not "truly not actually living right now", months before anyone

sciencebasedmedicine.org

Are you a doctor who has written multiple articles saying “now is the time to stop living in fear?” Did you say cautious people were not “truly not actually living right now“, months before anyone had been vaccinated? Are you engulfed with white hot rage by the handful of people who still wear masks in crowds? Have you relentlessly mocked them on your podcasts and Twitter feed? Have you called them “idiots“, “STUPID“, a “bunch of fools” “total morons“ “delusional” and “off their rocker”? Did you mercilessly shame anyone who wanted a booster just weeks before the Omicron variant ripped through the population? Do you actively encourage strangers, whose lives you know nothing about, to repeatedly expose themselves to a new, mutating virus with unknown long-term consequences? Do people who are still trying to avoid SARS-CoV-2 remind you the pandemic didn’t end in 2021 as you said it would? Have you coined new terms to stigmatize anyone who doesn’t want to repeatedly get sick with COVID for the rest of their lives?

If so, you may have coronaphobiaphobia, an inexplicable fear of and inappropriate obsession with total strangers who want to avoid COVID. Signs of coronaphobiaphobia include:

• The number of YouTube videos you’ve made greatly exceeds the number of COVID patients you’ve treated
• You’ve claimed that young people felled by COVID don’t matter, since more die of other causes and grandma has more risk
• You’ve treated a rare, vaccine side-effect with “excellent short-term outcomes” as a fate worse than death
• You’ve repeatedly spread bogus statistics minimizing COVID’s harms
• You’ve said Long COVID is “massively exaggerated“
• You’ve declared the pandemic over multiple times in the past two years