Covid-19 miscellany

[Keith&Co.]

Wouldn't any actual power grab require kneecapping McConnell?
Investigating Kavenaugh and getting him to resign?
Prosecuting the Senators and Rapresentatives that block his bills, and judges that will stay or overturn the laws he'd want to legislate with this grabbed power?
Getting lots of Americans to stop dying seems to protect people that'll vote against him. Right now, almost any life saved will be a Trumpist. There's GOT to be someone in the cabinet who can see the tactical ramifications of keeping conservatives alive....

I mean, it's The Right Thing, and all, but not a Path to Power.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

If there isn't he's a fascist totalitarian bully.

Fascism isn't ordering people to do safe things during a pandemic. That's not what fascism is.

It depends if the order is practical or not.

No, the definition of fascism doesn't depend upon whether the mandate is practical. In this case, the order IS practical so that's a red herring.

If it ends up making the lives of the unvaccinated unmanageable then it's not about safety, then it's about controlling people.

No, that isn't what fascism is and besides that, it doesn't make the lives of unvaccinated unmanageable, it makes their lives better.

Fascism is using an external threat as a tool to grab power and remove people's freedom. Fascists, in all times, have always formulated their power grabs as being for the good and protection of the people. Yet, somehow it always ends up benefitting the leaders and his cronies. Leading to a nepotistic mess. The problem with it is that once it gets started, without opposition, it will rapidly spin out of control.

No, that is not what fascism is. Here is the definition from Wikipedia:

Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism[1][2] characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and of the economy,[3] which came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe.[4] The first fascist movements emerged in Italy during World War I, before spreading to other European countries.[4] Opposed to anarchism, democracy, liberalism, and Marxism, fascism is placed on the far right-wing within the traditional left–right spectrum.[4][5][6]

The fact that Biden's government was preceded by Trump, the most corrupt fascist asshole in American politics since... (for ever?) is likely to have shifted the American people's tolerance for corruption. So they need to be more vigilant than ever. So it's entirely appropriate to pay lots of attention to the details.

You are extremely confused. Trump probably could have become a fascist dictator. It's true, but this is not because he is disliked but because of definitions. Examine the definition. He was opposed to democracy and liberalism. Check! Forcible suppression of the opposition? Check! That was about to happen on January 6th. Instinctively, that idiot called those insurrectionists heroes. That undemocratic attempted takeover using violent force by Reich wing paramilitaries was fascistic.

And lastly, it doesn't matter if we like Biden more than Trump.

Well, there's a strawman everyone can agree on! Biden is meh. Trump was a narcissist who was willing to give up democracy for his own sake. Biden is someone who is trying to have a functional society during a pandemic. You don't have to like Biden to admit facts.

All leaders of any country are corrupt assholes. Only corrupt assholes are ever attracted by power to the point where they think it's worth it to be the president. Being in command of any large organization is a lot of extremely hard work and very stressful. You need to be very well motivated to want the job.

Great, whatever, but even if all that were true, it doesn't make the Biden administration fascist.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Talk about this as a power-grab is gutless paranoia.

People were given a choice. Made the wrong one. They made the pandemic worse and are directly impacting the economy.

After all the harm their choices have created, having them be tested weekly isn’t much a sacrifice especially in light of the sacrifices the un-vaxxed have dropped on other Americans.

 

[lpetrich]

I'll quote the Republican-Congress part in full:

Seems very familiar, doesn't it?

That's just a parody right? Like, reframing the behavior of today in the vein of WW2's context instead of the pandemic?

I'm vibrating at Poe's Law frequencies right now.

It is a parody.

Before Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, there was a sizable America First movement. But a few days after that attack, that movement disbanded. There was only one person who voted against declaring war on Japan: Rep. Jeannette Rankin of Montana. She did so out of pacifist principle. She had earlier voted against entering WWI, and near the end of her life, she wanted to run for Congress so she could vote against the Vietnam War.

 

[southernhybrid]

Biden isn't doing anything unusual by mandating a vaccine. Public health mandates have existed in the US for a very long time. When I was a young public health nurse, we had a patient with active TB who refused to follow the TB mandates, that included him being compliant with his medications and I think requiring him to stay at home until his TB became inactive. I vaguely remember our TB nurse having to call the sheriff because the mandate allowed noncompliant TB patients to be locked up. A person with an active case of TB who mingles in the community is an active threat to healthy people. That seems far more rigid compared to a vaccine mandate. I believe I've read there were even stricter rules during the earlier TB epidemic in the US.

Vaccine mandates have been around since the days of Washington, when he ordered his troops to be vaccinated against Small Pox. Again, when I was a public health nurse, we had to check school records to make sure the children were vaccinated against a list of serious infectious diseases. If the parent didn't comply, the child could be suspended from school until vaccinated. Public health mandates aren't extreme. They are no different from things like requiring seat belts, etc. These mandate are to "promote the general welfare", if one wants to use words right out of the American constitution. Perhaps other countries don't need to require a mandate for the COVID vaccine because their citizens aren't as divided over this issue. Sadly, this hasn't been the case in the US, so a mandate has become necessary to protect the rest of us from those who were easily mislead to believe false information.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Biden isn't doing anything unusual by mandating a vaccine. Public health mandates have existed in the US for a very long time. When I was a young public health nurse, we had a patient with active TB who refused to follow the TB mandates, that included him being compliant with his medications and I think requiring him to stay at home until his TB became inactive. I vaguely remember our TB nurse having to call the sheriff because the mandate allowed noncompliant TB patients to be locked up. A person with an active case of TB who mingles in the community is an active threat to healthy people. That seems far more rigid compared to a vaccine mandate. I believe I've read there were even stricter rules during the earlier TB epidemic in the US.

Vaccine mandates have been around since the days of Washington, when he ordered his troops to be vaccinated against Small Pox. Again, when I was a public health nurse, we had to check school records to make sure the children were vaccinated against a list of serious infectious diseases. If the parent didn't comply, the child could be suspended from school until vaccinated. Public health mandates aren't extreme. They are no different from things like requiring seat belts, etc. These mandate are to "promote the general welfare", if one wants to use words right out of the American constitution. Perhaps other countries don't need to require a mandate for the COVID vaccine because their citizens aren't as divided over this issue. Sadly, this hasn't been the case in the US, so a mandate has become necessary to protect the rest of us from those who were easily mislead to believe false information.

Hasn’t this largely been left up to the states though? I agree it seems constitutionally sound and why it has been left up to the states, I know not.

 

[Shadowy Man]

The fact that Biden's government was preceded by Trump, the most corrupt fascist asshole in American politics since... (for ever?) is likely to have shifted the American people's tolerance for corruption. So they need to be more vigilant than ever. So it's entirely appropriate to pay lots of attention to the details.

Except that the people who are pushing back against Biden’s “fascism” are the very people who supported (and continue to support) that fascist asshole’s corruption. So, clearly it is not intolerance of corruption that is driving the pushback against Biden.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Hasn’t this largely been left up to the states though? I agree it seems constitutionally sound and why it has been left up to the states, I know not.

Because Covid-19 is a bitch of a virus. It isn't that deadly. It doesn't send that many people to the hospital. It is not Polio! It is straining our economy, our health care system, killing over 1,000 a day, but it isn't Ebola or Polio or TB. Many people who get it never even know.

There seems to be a threshold for implied risk and welcomed government intervention, and the impact of Covid-19 isn't obvious enough to impress upon people that it does cross that threshold. In other words, in general, the nation isn't scared of Covid-19 (though, it should be pointed out that a super majority of Americans over the age of 12 are vaccinated). And the Federal Government knows if there isn't a consensus on fear and a feel that something has to be done, mandatory vaccination would be impossible, or the attempt to do so would get problematic.

 

[ZiprHead]

A customer who refused to wear a mask in a Wells Fargo bank waited in the parking lot to violently ambush the manager at the end of his shift, report says

 

[jab]

NRA cancels annual meeting in Houston next week due to COVID concerns - Click2houston.com

What a shame, shit just got real.

Idiots! Just shoot the damn virus!

2 shots in the arm of every NRA member should do it.

 

[jab]

It's all about freedom of choice. Shot in the arm, or shot in the face?

I wish it was so easy. I need to research the Israeli data or my daughter will just drama queen and launch the accusation that we are just kicking her out. Unlike my sons who at least read CNN every day, she doesn't read the news.

how old is this daughter? It's a generation or 2 ago, but my parents made it very clear that all 7 of us kids were to be out of the house by our early 20s, mid 20s at the latest--and we all were--at 22 I was the oldest one to leave. On the other hand our parents were very demanding that we visit once or twice a year--even spotting us travel funds when we couldn't afford it. Some of us lived in crappy housing at first, and shared accommodations with other siblings, but we got out on our own, and led our own lives.

 

[jab]

People are required to use car seats for infants and toddlers. We require people to use seat belts. We make them stop at stop signs and obey traffic signals. We even make people stand in line and wait their turn.

Wow. I never realized how much we're like the Taliban until you reminded me.

There's no ideological movement against car seats for infants and toddlers. There's a lot of antivaxxers. And here's my prediction. The more we force the antivaxxers the more antivaxxers we'll get. A bit like invading Afghanistan and "destroying" the Taleban.

I'm old enough to remember: there was an right-wing, individual-rights movement against mandatory seatbelts, also one against fluoridated water, using much of the same arguments--except the aborted fetus one--that I am hearing from the anti-vaxxers. The fluoridated water was chiefly to improved dental health and not really a life-and-death issue; it was before bottled water was widely available, so people were literally being forced to drink fluoridated water to improve dental health, particularly in children.

 

[jab]

I keep noticing that that the craziest ones are women. What's up with that?

Maybe women are more emotionally based then men. Not all of course but as a general observation I find this to be the case. Are female prefontal cortices wired slightly differently or slightly smaller? There is always a physical reason for a given behavior.

But I've not noticed any sexual bdifference. The crazies are everywhere.

I haven't noticed any difference in the anti-vaxxers. However, the confrontational antimaskers online, on the news and in my lived life have seemed to be to be more women. I think, based on some of their statements it is because in North America, women are raised to value being looked at , and to always look as good as possible in public; and so more women are more invested in not wanting to cover up the bottom part of their made-up mugs in public because doing so impinges on their sense of value and self-worth.

 

[jab]

crazyfingers is obviously a monster, out to deny people their basic freedoms.

In light of this he should be demoted and forced to give up his kitten ration. Or is he supposed to be promoted for the monsterish behavior?

Isn't it his wife's call, since it's her body, and it's also her daughter as well as his?

 

[jab]

Seen elsewhere:

Caleb Wallace, head of ‘San Angelo Freedom Fighters’ to “end covid tyranny” just died of Covid. He was sedated on a ventilator for the last week. He treated himself with ivermectin saying “The science is out there, and it’s saying this is perfectly fine to live with.”
He organized several rallies against covid restrictions and was the leader of the West Texas Minutemen.

he was 30 years old--but fat.

 

[jab]

Not talking about covid and ivermectin, but the assertion that it is not rock solid FDA approved for it is not a sensible reason for it not to be used at all. Maybe the evidence actually is crap and it is a bad idea or maybe it meets a threshhold of risk/reward. But again lack of full rock solid FDA approval does not rule out off label usage. This is from the CDC website about ivermectin for use with scabies.

I bolded the part saying it is a last resort

https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/scabies/health_professionals/meds.html

Ivermectin Brand name product: Stromectol* Ivermectin is an oral antiparasitic agent approved for the treatment of worm infestations. Evidence suggests that oral ivermectin may be a safe and effective treatment for scabies; however, ivermectin is not FDA-approved for this use. Oral ivermectin should be considered for patients who have failed treatment with or who cannot tolerate FDA-approved topical medications for the treatment of scabies. If used for classic scabies, two doses of oral ivermectin (200µg/kg/dose) should be taken with food, each approximately one week apart. The safety of ivermectin in children weighing less than 15 kg and in pregnant women has not been established.
Note that although ivermectin guidelines recommend taking on an empty stomach, scabies experts recommend taking with a meal to increase bioavailability (CITE NEJM Currie article).

Are you lunatic radicals going to the CDC headquarters with pitchforks over this scabies usage allowance?

scabies is caused by a parasitic mite--and ivermectin, I believe, is used for other parasites besides intestinal worms.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Ah... good ole CNN, returning to exploitive journalism.

NY hospital to pause baby deliveries after resignations over Covid-19 vaccine mandate

OMFG!!! This looks bad.

A hospital in upstate New York is "pausing" deliveries of babies because of the number of maternity unit employee resignations over the state's Covid-19 vaccination requirements, health officials say.

Oh... upstate New York. Not as big a deal. Though "upstate" could mean just about anywhere.

Lewis County General Hospital in Lowville, about 60 miles northeast of Syracuse, will stop deliveries after September 24, said Gerald Cayer, chief executive of the Lewis County Health System.

60 miles northeast of Syracuse?! Lewis County... as in 80,000 people live in Lewis County?

I mean, sure, this isn't good for those who live there, especially pregnant women who are about about to give birth. But a small rural county in the state of New York... getting front page news coverage? I'm thinking, click bait.

With that out of the way:

Six of the resignations were in the hospital's maternity unit.

Are you kidding me?! Maternity... and they have a problem with vaccination requirements?! WTF?!

 

[TV and credit cards]

Hasn’t this largely been left up to the states though? I agree it seems constitutionally sound and why it has been left up to the states, I know not.

Because Covid-19 is a bitch of a virus. It isn't that deadly. It doesn't send that many people to the hospital. It is not Polio! It is straining our economy, our health care system, killing over 1,000 a day, but it isn't Ebola or Polio or TB. Many people who get it never even know.

There seems to be a threshold for implied risk and welcomed government intervention, and the impact of Covid-19 isn't obvious enough to impress upon people that it does cross that threshold. In other words, in general, the nation isn't scared of Covid-19 (though, it should be pointed out that a super majority of Americans over the age of 12 are vaccinated). And the Federal Government knows if there isn't a consensus on fear and a feel that something has to be done, mandatory vaccination would be impossible, or the attempt to do so would get problematic.

Ah, so from this: https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/LSB10300.pdf it would seem that while the feds can not mandate vaccines, they do have the authority to prevent the spread by quarantine.

Anti-vaxxer camps: https://ecfr.io/Title-42/Section-70.6 It'd be a shame if we had to go there.

https://ecfr.io/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=bc3a98fa87ab015dbe6a76b71b35547e&mc=true&tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title42/42cfr70_main_02.tpl

 

[untermensche]

Hasn’t this largely been left up to the states though? I agree it seems constitutionally sound and why it has been left up to the states, I know not.

Because Covid-19 is a bitch of a virus. It isn't that deadly. It doesn't send that many people to the hospital. It is not Polio! It is straining our economy, our health care system, killing over 1,000 a day, but it isn't Ebola or Polio or TB. Many people who get it never even know.

There seems to be a threshold for implied risk and welcomed government intervention, and the impact of Covid-19 isn't obvious enough to impress upon people that it does cross that threshold. In other words, in general, the nation isn't scared of Covid-19 (though, it should be pointed out that a super majority of Americans over the age of 12 are vaccinated). And the Federal Government knows if there isn't a consensus on fear and a feel that something has to be done, mandatory vaccination would be impossible, or the attempt to do so would get problematic.

It is about stopping the spread to prevent more deaths and end it.

Idiots serving as a vector to keep the virus alive are a problem for everybody.

The anti-vaxx insanity has killed many.

Too bad not just the anti-vaxxers.

 

[jab]

WTF is going on here? There are plenty of studies regarding the effectiveness, or not, of ivermectin with Covid. I don’t have a strong opinion either way. But this contagious stupidity that ivermectin doesn’t have antiviral properties is bewildering. Here’s one on the use of ivermectin and dengue virus: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30452439/. So yes, extraordinary ignorance. It’s not like this information is hidden and unavailable from public view.

They used it on infected mosquitos and it reduced the infection rate by as much as 49.63%. That was not the average, that was the best result they could achieve. So the best they could get was a reduction in disease which was less than 50% using it on mosquitos, not on people or lab rats or animals.

Now any sane, rational, unbiased, person of average intelligence and curiosity would look at that study, not at Trausti's asinine claim that it is an effective antiviral, and conclude that it is not in any way an effective, tested antiviral that I should dose myself with.

The same is true for people using bleach, even though we know that disease can be reduced by using bleach, making it also an effective antiviral.

And this is why people are using bleach and ivermectin on themselves, because of claims made by people like Trausti.

So, extraordinary ignorance? You bet, but with a generous helping of extraordinary fraud and sleaze.

The ivermectin reduced viral dengue fever by killing its insect host, which would reduce transmission of the virus to humans, and would presumably kill the virus when its host was no longer alive to sustain it. However, when dengue gets into a human it has a new host, and feeding its former host. This study does not show that ivermectin directly kills the virus, or that it kills the virus once it inside a human.