Covid-19 miscellany

[Tigers!]

M wife and I both got Covid 2.5 weeks ago for the first time. Just before our daughter's wedding. Good job it was not the week of the wedding itself.

 

[Shadowy Man]

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?

The saying is that one should not attribute to malice that which could more easily be attributed to incompetence. But who knows.

 

[bilby]

M wife and I both got Covid 2.5 weeks ago

That's only 13.16% as dangerous as Covid 19.

 

[lpetrich]

How American conservatives turned against the vaccine : HermanCainAward
noting
How American conservatives turned against the vaccine - YouTube

Until early 2021, Democrats and Republicans were dying of COVID-19 at roughly equal rates. But the first COVID-19 vaccines were introduced, and also around then, R's started dying faster than D's. Was that a coincidence?

Vaccines made a *big* difference. People died at much higher rates, like 4 times more during the Delta wave.

Then on who gets vaccinated.

Plenty of R's are vaccinated: 63% compared to 76% of Independents and 91% of D's. But of unvaccinated people 62% are R's, with I's and D's about half-half of the rest.

Before the vaccine, there was essentially zero correlation between COVID-19 deaths and political partisanship, while afterward, there was a clear correlation.

From a state like Vermont, with Donald Trump winning 30% of the popular vote, and dying at 40 per 100 thousand, to a state like Wyoming, with Trump at 70% of the vote, and dying at 140 per 100 thousand, all over Apr 1 - Dec 31, 2021.

 

[lpetrich]

Then a talk-radio broadcaster, Phil Valentine, pooh-poohing the pandemic, but getting the disease and dying from it. Thus earning this subreddit's Herman Cain Award - Radio host Phil Valentine : HermanCainAward

There wasn't any big difference in attitudes toward vaccines before COVID-19, so what happened?

The most trusted news services, trusted by at least 40% of respondents in a survey:

D's: CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, NY Times, BBC, MSNBC, Wash Post, NPR, Time Magazine

R's: Fox News

Source: 1. Democrats report much higher levels of trust in a number of news sources than Republicans | Pew Research Center

So there's a BIG difference in which services they trust.

Fox News has plenty of both pro-vax and anti-vax people in its broadcasts, at least from what this video showed.

People who "definitely" will get vaccinated trust most news services more than people who "definitely not", with two exceptions: Fox News and social media.

 

[crazyfingers]

Then a talk-radio broadcaster, Phil Valentine, pooh-poohing the pandemic, but getting the disease and dying from it. Thus earning this subreddit's Herman Cain Award - Radio host Phil Valentine : HermanCainAward

There wasn't any big difference in attitudes toward vaccines before COVID-19, so what happened?

The most trusted news services, trusted by at least 40% of respondents in a survey:

D's: CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, NY Times, BBC, MSNBC, Wash Post, NPR, Time Magazine

R's: Fox News

Source: 1. Democrats report much higher levels of trust in a number of news sources than Republicans | Pew Research Center

So there's a BIG difference in which services they trust.

Fox News has plenty of both pro-vax and anti-vax people in its broadcasts, at least from what this video showed.

People who "definitely" will get vaccinated trust most news services more than people who "definitely not", with two exceptions: Fox News and social media.

And Oh My, Fox was just demonstrated to be totally untrustworthy.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The Covid-19 pandemic most likely originated from a laboratory leak, according to a classified intelligence report from the U.S. Energy Department.
The report, which was included in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’s office, was recently provided to the White House and other lawmakers. Sources told the Wall Street Journal that the updated assessment from the Energy Department is the result of new intelligence.

Covid-19 Likely Originated with Lab Leak, U.S. Energy Department Finds in New Report

The Covid-19 pandemic most likely originated from a laboratory leak, according to a classified intelligence report from the U.S. Energy Department.

news.yahoo.com

I'm reading this too. I don't rule out a lab leak - sure it's possible, but I'm not seeing any new evidence brought forth here. We may never know unless they find the original animal. I don't expect China to be very cooperative, even though the WHO has tried it's best to maintain a relationship with China to have access to their labs.

Finding the original won't say how it got from the animal to humans. It's inherently impossible to rule out a lab leak.

The thing is, we have no reason to blame a lab leak, either--the virus clearly is capable of species jumps on it's own. Thus there's no need to include a lab in the sequence.

It's inherently unprovable either way, the only point is China-bashing.

 

[lpetrich]

As to believing four or more false statements about COVID-19, it was 64% of unvaccinated people, 18% of vaccinated ones.

Among those who trusted right-wing news services Newsmax, One America News, and Fox News, it was 35 - 45%, while it among those who trusted local and network TV news, CNN, NPR, and MSNBC, it was 10 - 15%.

That was back in Jan 2021.

Another poll, from May 2020, found that among D's, only about 18% would not get vaccinated, and among I's, 22%, while among R's it was 40%.

Then in Oct 2021, the Kaiser Foundation polled on various sorts of misinformation. R's believed most of them much more than D's, with the two being equal for vaccines containing microchips. The lowest margin of the others was for the belief that one can get the disease from its vaccine, and Republicans were almost twice as likely as Democrats to believe that. The highest relative difference was the notion that ivermectin is a safe and effective treatment for COVID-19 - more then 9 times as many R's as D's believed that.

In absolute numbers, the biggest misconception was the belief that the government is exaggerating the number of COVID-19 deaths. About 65% of R's believed that, while only about 13% of D's believed that.

 

[lpetrich]

Then differences between unvaccinated and vaccinated Republicans. Vaxxed ones tended to be younger, better educated, less strongly identifying as conservative, more likely to live in an urban or suburban area, more likely to worry about getting sick, and the biggest one of all, less likely to believe that this virus is exaggerated. Some 88% of unvaxxed R's believe that, as opposed to some 54% of vaxxed ones.

Then Pew Research: some 65% of R's consistently believe that COVID-19 has been made into a bigger deal than it really is, compared to some 15% of D's. The R's started out at some 50% in April 2020, then got up to 65% and stayed there. The D's stayed at 15% the whole time.

Part of this was due to Donald Trump being President, and a very polarizing President at that. He pooh-poohed the virus, once calling it a Chinese "hoax". He also supported protests of lockdowns, and went maskless, while Joe Biden wore a lower-face mask. Fox New commentators mocked JB as a coward for doing so.

This led to vaccinated R pols sounding like anti-vaxxers.

Not only did many R's become anti-vaxxers about COVID-19, many of them also became anti-vaxxers about the flu, and some of them anti-vaxxers in general. D's, however, stayed pretty much the same. R's were already less friendly to vaccines than D's, and that gap has increased.

 

[TSwizzle]

There is a lot of coverage on UK health minister Matt Hancock's WhatsApp texts that were exchanged during the covid 19 lockdown. In summary, Matt Hancock's decision making about lockdown and other policies was driven by politics and not science.

Britain was failed by a pro-lockdown clique incapable of admitting its errors.
Sweden was doing pretty well, in spite of having kept schools, pubs and restaurants open. Rather than ask what there was to learn, Hancock became enraged by what he called the “f—–g Sweden argument” and wanted it quashed. “Supply three or four bullet [points] of why Sweden is wrong,” he asked of his aides. Not whether it was wrong: why it was wrong…

Telegraph

Hancock is an arse.

 

[TomC]

There is a lot of coverage on UK health minister Matt Hancock's WhatsApp texts that were exchanged during the covid 19 lockdown.

I can well understand why you'd like to change the subject from "facts on the ground in the U.S." to a "British politician".

Good luck with that.
Tom

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

There is a lot of coverage on UK health minister Matt Hancock's WhatsApp texts that were exchanged during the covid 19 lockdown. In summary, Matt Hancock's decision making about lockdown and other policies was driven by politics and not science.

Britain was failed by a pro-lockdown clique incapable of admitting its errors.
Sweden was doing pretty well, in spite of having kept schools, pubs and restaurants open. Rather than ask what there was to learn, Hancock became enraged by what he called the “f—–g Sweden argument” and wanted it quashed. “Supply three or four bullet [points] of why Sweden is wrong,” he asked of his aides. Not whether it was wrong: why it was wrong…

Telegraph

Hancock is an arse.

Fuck that's arrogant and ignorant.

Here is Italy. This is New York. That was with the lockdown. It'd been exponentially worse without one. The equipment wasn't where it needed to be. City hospitals would have been overrun. They had not much of an idea how to treat it. The lockdown gave the medical world time to react. Instead of being hopelessly outnumbered, with people being "treated" in triage... in late winter. But here you are, being the typical alt-right soldier. Bitching about Gov. Cuomo sending people where they typically go after hospitalization for rehab... but also bitching about "the science" which didn't quite exist yet.

If the lockdown wasn't needed, then there was no reason not to send sick people to nursing homes due to hospitals being flooded with patients.

 

[TSwizzle]

Just following the science?

Novak Djokovic is poised to withdraw from the Indian Wells Open as his hopes of a Covid-19 vaccine exemption dwindle, according to reports. The world No 1's wish for an exemption for next week's tournament is fading, with Djokovic admitting on Thursday he will pull out before the draw is made whether or not a decision is confirmed. There are only five days until the opening Masters competition this season and the 35-year-old has not yet received a response from the US government about his application.
The US is the only country on the ATP tour for which players must be vaccinated - though that rule is set to be lifted on May 11 by President Joe Biden's office - three months before the Grand Slam US Open. Djokovic missed the flagship US Open and several other competitions in the US last year after the Centre for Disease Control did not ease its regulations.

Daily Mail

 

[TomC]

"Novak Djokovic is poised to withdraw from the Indian Wells Open as his hopes of a Covid-19 vaccine exemption dwindle,"

Djokovic is free to make his own choices.
The U.S. makes their own. His are demonstrably against the science of epidemiological experts, but they are his own to make.
Tom

If competing is less important to him than vaccination that's a choice he is free to make.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Just following the science?

Novak Djokovic is poised to withdraw from the Indian Wells Open as his hopes of a Covid-19 vaccine exemption dwindle, according to reports. The world No 1's wish for an exemption for next week's tournament is fading, with Djokovic admitting on Thursday he will pull out before the draw is made whether or not a decision is confirmed. There are only five days until the opening Masters competition this season and the 35-year-old has not yet received a response from the US government about his application.
The US is the only country on the ATP tour for which players must be vaccinated - though that rule is set to be lifted on May 11 by President Joe Biden's office - three months before the Grand Slam US Open. Djokovic missed the flagship US Open and several other competitions in the US last year after the Centre for Disease Control did not ease its regulations.

Daily Mail

At what point do your posts stop being spam?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

If everyone in the USA that died from Covid was from one city. Here are a few of the cities near that number that would be left lifeless.

Boston	Massachusetts
El Paso	Texas
Portland	Oregon
Las Vegas	Nevada
Memphis	Tennessee
Detroit	Michigan

If you are in one of these Cities, look around you and imagine every single living human you see, died. Cause that's what happened.

How would I look if I'm dead?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

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.

If it's equally protective as two doses of vaccine it's a horrible choice.

1) Compare the deaths from those two doses of vaccine (well under 1 per million) to the deaths from prior infection (a few thousand per million.)

2) The population that has survived one infection has been culled of many of the most vulnerable. Thus it should have a lower death rate than the vaccine group. Merely being equal says prior infection is inferior.

Anthony Fauci and two co-authors explained this process last month in the journal Cell Host & Microbe. The concept of natural immunity isn’t scientifically controversial, yet it was disparaged by public-health officials who associated it with opposition to lockdowns and the Great Barrington Declaration in autumn 2020.

Of course it's not controversial that it happens. What's insane is incurring the cost of getting it when you don't need to.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

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.

I didn't see a link to the study. Do you perhaps mean that piece of crap that pretends to be journalism?

 

[repoman]

Motherfucker,

ignoring and discounting natural (post infection) immunity after you have it is ridiculous.

This is about what to do NOW.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

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?

God knows his own, they'll go to heaven a little early. No downside.