Covid-19 miscellany

[Shadowy Man]

It’s crazy how many right-wingers are dying of covid. They should be dying of small pox, like god intended.

 

[crazyfingers]

Pro-Vax Christian Facebook Group Seeks Refuge From Friends, Family and Faith Communities

They've been frozen from family gatherings or church groups. Their theology is questioned, their faith credentials put under a microscope.

But these are not people who swear by ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, Zithromax or divine healing as the cure for COVID-19.

These are conservative Christians who are pro-vaccine. And they are steaming.

Read more in the link.

Interesting but I don't believe what is said in these paragraphs.

Although Mashal's group concentrates on evangelicals and a subset—Pentecostals and charismatics—it's actually the anti-religious "nones" who are the least vaccinated, according to Ryan Burge, a researcher and political science professor at Eastern Illinois University.

In data released last May, he said that 62 percent of evangelicals polled had been vaccinated compared to 47 percent of the "nones."

"If this data is accurate, that the media needs to be turning the spotlight a bit away from evangelicals and toward the vast swaths of America that is young and secular," Burge wrote for Religion Unplugged.

I do not believe that claim to be true.

According to this source, it's not.

https://www.prri.org/research/religious-vaccines-covid-vaccination/

Among religious groups, patterns of vaccine uptake have remained largely consistent between March and June. Jewish Americans are most likely to be vaccine accepters (85%), but, notably, they have not increased in likelihood since March (85%), even though all other religious groups have seen at least 10-percentage-point increases in acceptance.

Hispanic Catholics have increased most in vaccine acceptance, from 56% in March to 80% in June. Nearly eight in ten white Catholics (79%) are also vaccine accepters, up from 68% in March. Other Protestants of color (69%) increased by a similar amount from 45% in March. Other non-Christians (78%), other Christians (77%), the religiously unaffiliated (75%), and white mainline Protestants (74%) are also above the 70% mark, with increases of 11 to 15 percentage points in each group.[1] Black Protestants (66%) and Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (65%) fall around the two-thirds mark, with similar increases since March. Hispanic Protestants and white evangelical Protestants remain the least likely religious groups to be vaccine accepters (56% for both groups), but both groups nonetheless saw double-digit increases in acceptance since March (43% and 45%, respectively).[2]

This from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/20/10-facts-about-americans-and-coronavirus-vaccines/ also shows that non-religious have higher vaccination rated than protestants. 90% of atheists have had at lease one dose but only 57% of white evangelicals have. Go down to item 5 for that data.

 

[lpetrich]

Ryan Burge's claim could well be true of the Nothing in Particular sort of people, because such people tend to be social dropouts, but I seriously doubt that it would be true of atheists or agnostics. In our society, people who become explicit atheists or agnostics are often people who have thought a lot about their beliefs, and given their frequent support of mainstream science, they are unlikely to be anti-vaxxers.

Titled links:
10 facts about Americans and coronavirus vaccines | Pew Research Center - 2021 Sep 20
Religious Identities and the Race Against the Virus: (Wave 2: June 2021) | PRRI

Democrats were more likely vaccinated than Republicans, and amount of vaxx increased with education.

In order of what pct vaccinated:

White evangelicals 57%, Protestants 66%, nothing in particular 69%, black Protestants 70%, white non-evangelicals 73%, unaffiliated 75%, white Catholics 79%, Catholics 82%, agnostics 84%, Hispanic Catholics 86%, atheists 90%

So there is a big difference between the NiP's, as they might be called, and the agnostics and atheists.

 

[lpetrich]

Improved phylogenomic sampling of free-living nematodes enhances resolution of higher-level nematode phylogeny | BMC Ecology and Evolution | Full Text

I've added a few species to what is in post 3998 of this thread, and this covers all the next-level subtaxa of Nematoda.

• Chromadorea -- (above paper: Chromadoria)
• Enoplea -- (above paper: Dorylamia)
• Secernentea: Spirurida: (Thelaziidae: Oxyspirura mansoni, Atractidae: Cyrtosomum penneri)

So ivermectin can work over the full range of nematodes.

For arthropods, the targeted ones are in both Mandibulata (flies, lice, sea lice) and Chelicerata (ticks, mites), thus spanning Arthropoda.


Ivermectin | DermNet NZ

How does ivermectin work?

Ivermectin stimulates excessive release of neurotransmitters in the peripheral nervous system of parasites. It is thought to work by paralysing the parasite or inactivating the parasite gut. In humans the neurotransmitters acted on by ivermectin are in the brain. A protective barrier, called the blood-brain barrier, blocks ivermectin from reaching the human brain.

 Blood–brain barrier - mostly the human one, so I looked in Google Scholar to find out which other species have it. I found:

All vertebrates started out with a glial blood‐brain barrier 4–500 million years ago - Bundgaard - 2008 - Glia - Wiley Online Library - All vertebrates started out with a glial blood-brain barrier 4-500 million years ago - 7-Bundgaard&Abbott_2008_EvoBBB.pdf

That can explain why ivermectin works for vertebrates. Their BBB's can block it from entering their brains.

Frontiers | Barrier mechanisms in the Drosophila blood-brain barrier | Neuroscience - "The invertebrate blood-brain barrier (BBB) field is growing at a rapid pace and, in recent years, studies have shown a physiologic and molecular complexity that has begun to rival its vertebrate counterpart."

However, Absence of Blood-Brain Barrier in a Crustacean, Carcinus maenas L. | Nature

THE term “blood-brain barrier” is used to explain the observed selective impermeability of vertebrate brain compared with other tissues. Passive features of this impermeability are attributable to the specialized cerebral capillary endothelium and choroid epithelium1. The invertebrates so far studied seem not to have a cellular barrier, although brain extracellular regulation may be possible in some species2. But all the invertebrates previously investigated have no intracerebral blood supply, and so because the blood-brain diffusion paths are almost always greater than in vertebrates, the systems are scarcely comparable.

So invertebrate BBB's, to the extent that they exist, are not quite comparable to vertebrate ones.

 

[ZiprHead]

871 Firefighters File Intent to Sue Over LA City’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Strange. I always thought fire-fighters were smarter than that.

 

[Keith&Co.]

871 Firefighters File Intent to Sue Over LA City’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Strange. I always thought fire-fighters were smarter than that.

How smart do you have to be to remember 'Put the wet stuff on the red stuff.'?

 

[Shadowy Man]

871 Firefighters File Intent to Sue Over LA City’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Strange. I always thought fire-fighters were smarter than that.

If they get the $2.5Million *EACH* they are suing for then that'd be pretty smart.

 

[Keith&Co.]

871 Firefighters File Intent to Sue Over LA City’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Strange. I always thought fire-fighters were smarter than that.

If they get the $2.5Million *EACH* they are suing for then that'd be pretty smart.

If their lawyers get most of the $, they're still not so smart.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

871 Firefighters File Intent to Sue Over LA City’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Strange. I always thought fire-fighters were smarter than that.

Let me get this straight. Their job is to risk their lives to save other people... in fires....

Their job is risky, dangerous, could get themselves killed. All for the benefit of others who aren't themselves.

And they are worried about the negligible risk of getting a vaccine that would protect themselves and others?

 

[crazyfingers]

871 Firefighters File Intent to Sue Over LA City’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Strange. I always thought fire-fighters were smarter than that.

I had read that Fire and Police less likely to be vaccinated that the communities where they work. Police are a particular problem given that it's sometimes not an option not to deal with them.

 

[crazyfingers]

871 Firefighters File Intent to Sue Over LA City’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Strange. I always thought fire-fighters were smarter than that.

Let me get this straight. Their job is to risk their lives to save other people... in fires....

Their job is risky, dangerous, could get themselves killed. All for the benefit of others who aren't themselves.

And they are worried about the negligible risk of getting a vaccine that would protect themselves and others?

Probably it's more like "tough guys don't need no stinking vaccine" Same with police.

 

[Keith&Co.]

871 Firefighters File Intent to Sue Over LA City’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Strange. I always thought fire-fighters were smarter than that.

Let me get this straight. Their job is to risk their lives to save other people... in fires....

Their job is risky, dangerous, could get themselves killed. All for the benefit of others who aren't themselves.

And they are worried about the negligible risk of getting a vaccine that would protect themselves and others?

But start a rumor that a guy on the other shift has herpes, MAYBE the one you share a respirator with, and they're all about best possible safety practices and hygienic inspections....

 

[bilby]

871 Firefighters File Intent to Sue Over LA City’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Strange. I always thought fire-fighters were smarter than that.

NFPA estimates there were an estimated 1,115,000 career and volunteer firefighters in the United States in 2018. Of the total number of firefighters 370,000 (33%) were career firefighters and 745,000 (67%) were volunteer firefighters.

https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Data-research-and-tools/Emergency-Responders/US-fire-department-profile

So 871 of maybe 370,000, or about 0.23% of firefighters are engaged in this lawsuit.

ie 99.77% of firefighters are smarter than that.

That's a pretty impressive idiot ratio. Few professions, no matter how highly skilled, can boast fewer than 1% of total morons. Most selection processes just aren't that watertight.

Even if we just consider the LAFD, that's 871 of 3,246 uniformed fire personnel (https://www.lafd.org/about/organization), so only 26.8% idiots, with 74.2% of non-idiots. That's still not a bad ratio.

I wish only a quarter of my coworkers were morons.

 

[none]

Burn it with fire.

 

[WAB]

871 Firefighters File Intent to Sue Over LA City’s COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Strange. I always thought fire-fighters were smarter than that.

NFPA estimates there were an estimated 1,115,000 career and volunteer firefighters in the United States in 2018. Of the total number of firefighters 370,000 (33%) were career firefighters and 745,000 (67%) were volunteer firefighters.

https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Data-research-and-tools/Emergency-Responders/US-fire-department-profile

So 871 of maybe 370,000, or about 0.23% of firefighters are engaged in this lawsuit.

ie 99.77% of firefighters are smarter than that.

That's a pretty impressive idiot ratio. Few professions, no matter how highly skilled, can boast fewer than 1% of total morons. Most selection processes just aren't that watertight.

Even if we just consider the LAFD, that's 871 of 3,246 uniformed fire personnel (https://www.lafd.org/about/organization), so only 26.8% idiots, with 74.2% of non-idiots. That's still not a bad ratio.

I wish only a quarter of my coworkers were morons.

You should get a job in an American university or college, then probably only a quarter of your coworkers would be morons! Or idiots. Maybe even imbeciles?

Whatever. Like Zappa once said: you wanna get laid, go to college. You want an education, go to a library.

 

[crazyfingers]

Texas Gov Abbott bans all vaccine mandates even for businesses in Texas. Is that the conservative thing to do? No. It's how to kill as many people as possible but also fire-up those unvaccinated who have not been killed to continue to vote for republicans, to ruin the economy and the lives of others all the while being able to blame Biden for not getting Covid under control which is required for the economy to get fixed.

I wonder how Biden's mandate for companies 100+ will mesh with this.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/11/politics/texas-vaccine-mandate-greg-abbott/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/12/politics/greg-abbott-texas-law-vaccines-covid-19/index.html

 

[Elixir]

Texas Gov Abbott bans all vaccine mandates even for businesses in Texas

So much for free-dumb/free enterprise.

 

[ZiprHead]

Texas Gov Abbott bans all vaccine mandates even for businesses in Texas. Is that the conservative thing to do? No. It's how to kill as many people as possible but also fire-up those unvaccinated who have not been killed to continue to vote for republicans, to ruin the economy and the lives of others all the while being able to blame Biden for not getting Covid under control which is required for the economy to get fixed.

I wonder how Biden's mandate for companies 100+ will mesh with this.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/11/politics/texas-vaccine-mandate-greg-abbott/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/12/politics/greg-abbott-texas-law-vaccines-covid-19/index.html

See the supremacy clause of the constitution for the answer.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Resea...ergency-Responders/US-fire-department-profile

So 871 of maybe 370,000, or about 0.23% of firefighters are engaged in this lawsuit.

ie 99.77% of firefighters are smarter than that.

That's a pretty impressive idiot ratio. Few professions, no matter how highly skilled, can boast fewer than 1% of total morons. Most selection processes just aren't that watertight.

Even if we just consider the LAFD, that's 871 of 3,246 uniformed fire personnel (https://www.lafd.org/about/organization), so only 26.8% idiots, with 74.2% of non-idiots. That's still not a bad ratio.

I wish only a quarter of my coworkers were morons.

You should get a job in an American university or college, then probably only a quarter of your coworkers would be morons! Or idiots. Maybe even imbeciles?

Whatever. Like Zappa once said: you wanna get laid, go to college. You want an education, go to a library.

Zappa likely didn't mean that literally for all professions.

"You not one of them college learnin' doctors are you?"

 

[crazyfingers]

Texas Gov Abbott bans all vaccine mandates even for businesses in Texas. Is that the conservative thing to do? No. It's how to kill as many people as possible but also fire-up those unvaccinated who have not been killed to continue to vote for republicans, to ruin the economy and the lives of others all the while being able to blame Biden for not getting Covid under control which is required for the economy to get fixed.

I wonder how Biden's mandate for companies 100+ will mesh with this.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/11/politics/texas-vaccine-mandate-greg-abbott/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/12/politics/greg-abbott-texas-law-vaccines-covid-19/index.html

See the supremacy clause of the constitution for the answer.

Ya that applies to laws. Don't know about executive orders. And then if Texas passes a law, will a Biden executive order still win?