Covid-19 miscellany

[Loren Pechtel]

Before Delta, but after Alpha, Gamma and Lambda, and it still worked against those. So, it does work against variants - at least, against those that were around when the study was carried out. Do you think it would not work against Delta? Well, now Delta is here, and fatalities continue to fall, and as far as one can tell, it continues to work. Sure, you could say they fall for another reason, and it does not work anymore. But do you have evidence of that?

Omicron, anyone?

Omicron is not relevant to the part of the exchange you are quoting. Still, do you think it will not work against Omicron? If so, why? At any rate, they can always make an Omicron-killed-virus vaccine if they needed to.

Omicron is derived from the Wuhan strain, not from Delta. Thus "natural" immunity from Delta infection very well might not protect against it.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Having SARS-CoV-2 once confers much greater immunity than a vaccine—but vaccination remains vital

The natural immune protection that develops after a SARS-CoV-2 infection offers considerably more of a shield against the Delta variant of the pandemic coronavirus than two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to a large Israeli study that some scientists wish came with a “Don’t try this at home” label. The newly released data show people who once had a SARS-CoV-2 infection were much less likely than never-infected, vaccinated people to get Delta, develop symptoms from it, or become hospitalized with serious COVID-19.

The 27x number comes from this. Whether she is properly interpreting this number in her video, I'm not really sure:

But that's 27x less likely to get Delta. That doesn't mean 27x less likely to get Omicron.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

During that time frame, there were 15.8 cases per day for every 100,000 residents, on average, in the areas that required masks, compared with 21.7 cases per 100,000 residents in unmasked communities, according to The Missouri Independent’s analysis of the data. Regions without mask requirements recorded 1 death per 100,000 residents every 3.5 days, compared with 1 death per 100,000 residents every five days where masks were required, the Independent said.

One study done by who knows, shows a slight difference of barely six cases in 100,000 people, this is the "science" that makes masks permanent?
be off with you.

1) That's 1/3 more likely to catch it.

2) They're only looking at mask mandates, they're not looking at people's actual behavior. What we see in the real world is that Republicans are now much more likely to catch it than Democrats. More like 3x rather than a mere 1/3 more.

 

[Angra Mainyu]

Before Delta, but after Alpha, Gamma and Lambda, and it still worked against those. So, it does work against variants - at least, against those that were around when the study was carried out. Do you think it would not work against Delta? Well, now Delta is here, and fatalities continue to fall, and as far as one can tell, it continues to work. Sure, you could say they fall for another reason, and it does not work anymore. But do you have evidence of that?

Omicron, anyone?

Omicron is not relevant to the part of the exchange you are quoting. Still, do you think it will not work against Omicron? If so, why? At any rate, they can always make an Omicron-killed-virus vaccine if they needed to.

Omicron is derived from the Wuhan strain, not from Delta. Thus "natural" immunity from Delta infection very well might not protect against it.

That may well be the case. Or it may not. Natural immunity from Wuhan gives some protection vs. Delta - particularly against serious illness and death -, so it may well be that natural immunity from Delta also provides protection vs. Wuhan. And a question is how different Omicron is (though that's the long route; a close cousin of Delta - so to speak - might be more similar to it than to it's long-distant ancestor, but I'm leaving that option aside). It has plenty of Spike mutations, but natural immunity can have plenty of targets, not just the spike. So, who knows? We'll have to wait and see I think.

 

[lpetrich]

Pastor left puzzled as to why ‘big’ Democrats not dying from Covid. | Barry Duke notes Watch: Far Right Anti-Vaxx Pastor Just Can't Understand Why There Are No 'Big Democrats' Who Have Died From COVID

Christmas is a pro-Trump anti-vaxxer who back in August claimed Christians should not get vaccinated because “the law of God supersedes the law of men.”

Now he’s saying no “big Democrats” or billionaires have died of the coronavirus, and he’s correct – but for reasons that appear to escape him.

“I can’t think of one big Democrat that’s died from the Coronavirus,” he says in video posted by Friendly Atheist’s Hemant Mehta. “I can’t think of one billionaire that’s died of Coronavirus. Bill Gates is fine. George Soros is fine,” he adds, as an parishioner can be heard saying, “You’re right.”

“Biden’s fine. He’s 80 years old and half dead anyway,” the pastor added, to laughter and applause. “Rupert Murdoch’s fine. The CEOs of Vanguard and Berkshire Hathaway and State City and Mark Zuckerberg – they’re just fine.”

“Doesn’t that make you wonder?” he asks, as audience members agree.

Hemant Mehta on Twitter: ""I can't think of one big Democrat that's died from the coronavirus..."
Pastor Kent Christmas is so close to figuring it out.
Instead, he's going with a conspiracy theory. (vid link)" / Twitter

 

[Swammerdami]

This is probably what Nancy Mace is referring to (from science.org)

Having SARS-CoV-2 once confers much greater immunity than a vaccine—but vaccination remains vital

The natural immune protection that develops after a SARS-CoV-2 infection offers considerably more of a shield against the Delta variant of the pandemic coronavirus than two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to a large Israeli study that some scientists wish came with a “Don’t try this at home” label. The newly released data show people who once had a SARS-CoV-2 infection were much less likely than never-infected, vaccinated people to get Delta, develop symptoms from it, or become hospitalized with serious COVID-19.

The 27x number comes from this. Whether she is properly interpreting this number in her video, I'm not really sure:

Of course the risk-reward assessment must consider the often-deleterious results of an an actual Covid-19 infection.
Some of the infectees even died of their Covid-19. But, in conformance with the claim, those infectees did NOT get infected a 2nd time!

 

[Elixir]

The Republican Death Cult is now shelling out the big bucks to keep coronavirus moving forward with new mutations, greater contagiousness and other improvements, while simultaneously preventing any economic recovery that might take place under a Democrat President. The "Party of Jobs" is literally paying people to quit working. Not because of any real factor to which they might legitimately object, but solely to demonstrate their personal commitment to belief in right wing propaganda.

Red States Are Now Paying Unemployment Benefits to Anti-Vaxxers Who Quit Their Jobs+

On Oct. 20, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced a crackdown on unemployment benefits. She required recipients to double their job search activity, and she imposed strict audits—with the threat of cutting off payments to anyone who fell short—to ensure that “no Iowan who is receiving unemployment benefits unnecessarily remains on the sidelines” of the job market.

Nine days later, however, Reynolds signed legislation that pays vaccine refusers to do just that: sit on the sidelines. Under the new law, anyone “discharged from employment for refusing to receive a vaccination against COVID-19 … shall not be disqualified for benefits.”
Reynolds is one of many Republican politicians who openly advocate, and in some states have successfully imposed, a two-tiered system of unemployment insurance. It’s not a left-wing policy of money for everyone or a right-wing policy of money for no one. It’s a policy of pernicious hypocrisy: welfare for vaccine refusers, tough love for everyone else.

One does not simply walk into hypocrisy like this. It takes foresight, considerable malice and complete disregard for public health and the welfare of the constituents whose stupidity caused these people to be elected.
It's hard to believe that the Party that hangs its hat on opposition to the "Welfare State", has created and embraced this new Welfare State exclusively for its stupidest, most malicious and most dangerous members.

 

[TSwizzle]

During that time frame, there were 15.8 cases per day for every 100,000 residents, on average, in the areas that required masks, compared with 21.7 cases per 100,000 residents in unmasked communities, according to The Missouri Independent’s analysis of the data. Regions without mask requirements recorded 1 death per 100,000 residents every 3.5 days, compared with 1 death per 100,000 residents every five days where masks were required, the Independent said.

One study done by who knows, shows a slight difference of barely six cases in 100,000 people, this is the "science" that makes masks permanent?
be off with you.

Okay, let's extrapolate this a little. As a Missouri resident this interested me.

The study covered 5 months, so about 150 days. This means that unmasked areas had an additional 900 cases per 100,000. And death rate comparisons - masked areas had about 30 deaths per 100,000 over that period. Unmasked areas had about 49 deaths per 100,000 for that period. So an additional 19 people per 100,000 died in unmasked areas. And just for clarity, those unmasked areas are low population compared to the mask mandate comparison areas of KC & St. Louis. We are talking about places like where I live, where the total county population is about 24,000 people. So the low population density provides a small advantage to those places - and they still had a higher death rate.

And the study was done by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services - who have always opposed mask mandates. Kind of knocks out the possibility that the study was skewed towards masking.

Ruth

Keep wearing your amulet if you wish, nobody is stopping you but don’t foist your weird superstition on others.

 

[Swammerdami]

Wow! Has anyone tested the average IQ in red states lately? It's hard to believe it could be as high as 95 and they'd still suffer with a hypocrite like Reynolds.

Is The Onion going out of business soon? The real news is just as astounding these days as The Onion's funny fake news.

 

[Ruth Harris]

Keep wearing your amulet if you wish, nobody is stopping you but don’t foist your weird superstition on others.

Tell me you don't understand science without telling me you don't understand science.

Ruth

 

[blastula]

Omicron coronavirus variant possibly more infectious due to sharing genetic code with common cold, study says - The Washington Post

The omicron variant is likely to have picked up genetic material from another virus that causes the common cold in humans, according to a new preliminary study, prompting one of its authors to suggest omicron could have greater transmissibility but lower virulence than other variants of the coronavirus.

Researchers from Nference, a Cambridge, Mass.-based firm that analyzes biomedical information, sequenced omicron and found a snippet of genetic code that is also present in a virus that can bring about a cold. They say this particular mutation could have occurred in a host simultaneously infected by SARS-CoV-2, also known as the novel coronavirus, and the HCoV-229E coronavirus, which can cause the common cold. The shared genetic code with HCoV-229E has not been detected in other novel coronavirus variants, the scientists said.

OSF Preprints | Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 harbors a unique insertion mutation of putative viral or human genomic origin

I don't see a reason to worry about this variant until it's shown the vaccines don't work against getting severe disease from it.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Got my booster shot.
Thry took my old vaccination card. I laminated it, because i wasn't sure how often i'd be showing it, or under what conditions, what sort of wear.
Apparently the CDC directs taking that card and rewriting a whole new one with all the original information.

I wonder if thst's for clarity, continuity, or to minimize the number of 'got jabbed' proofs out there to limit chicanery.

 

[TomC]

I wonder if thst's for clarity, continuity, or to minimize the number of 'got jabbed' proofs out there to limit chicanery.

Any or all would work for me. I wish I had a hard copy of the Health Department evidence, but I don't.

All I've got is a text from the government. It directs you to a government website. Enter the correct string of numbers and letters and the website will do something. Supposedly.

I'd rather have a hard copy.
Apparently, the Republicans who run this state prefer to keep the government in control. I can't prove I've been vaccinated unless the government responds, promptly.

As usual, the Republicans want to keep control of the little people.
Tom

 

[TSwizzle]

Anti lockdown protests occurring in Europe. 40,000+ take to the streets in Vienna

More than 40,000 people marched through Vienna on Saturday to protest against a lockdown and plans to make vaccinations compulsory to curb the coronavirus pandemic.

News

 

[crazyfingers]

Anti lockdown protests occurring in Europe. 40,000+ take to the streets in Vienna

More than 40,000 people marched through Vienna on Saturday to protest against a lockdown and plans to make vaccinations compulsory to curb the coronavirus pandemic.

News

Stupid, selfish people protesting their right to spread sickness and death to others.

 

[crazyfingers]

I was talking to my colleague in Germany yesterday about the lockdown of the unvaccinated. She said that the general population in Germany is really fed up and have little tolerance left for the vaccine refusers. Calling them drunk drivers is common.

 

[TSwizzle]

Anti lockdown protests occurring in Europe. 40,000+ take to the streets in Vienna

More than 40,000 people marched through Vienna on Saturday to protest against a lockdown and plans to make vaccinations compulsory to curb the coronavirus pandemic.

News

Stupid, selfish people protesting their right to spread sickness and death to others.

What utter claptrap. You have zero evidence that any participant at this event has any sickness of any kind. You have no clue.

 

[bilby]

Anti lockdown protests occurring in Europe. 40,000+ take to the streets in Vienna

More than 40,000 people marched through Vienna on Saturday to protest against a lockdown and plans to make vaccinations compulsory to curb the coronavirus pandemic.

News

Stupid, selfish people protesting their right to spread sickness and death to others.

What utter claptrap. You have zero evidence that any participant at this event has any sickness of any kind. You have no clue.

You would struggle to find any assemblage of humanity numbering in the thousands that included zero individuals with an infectious disease, much less zero sickness of any kind.

If you seriously think it's plausible that no participant had any sickness of any kind; Or even that none had SARS-CoV-2 virus, then you should buy a lottery ticket.

Statistical evidence is perfectly good evidence.

 

[crazyfingers]

Anti lockdown protests occurring in Europe. 40,000+ take to the streets in Vienna

More than 40,000 people marched through Vienna on Saturday to protest against a lockdown and plans to make vaccinations compulsory to curb the coronavirus pandemic.

News

Stupid, selfish people protesting their right to spread sickness and death to others.

What utter claptrap. You have zero evidence that any participant at this event has any sickness of any kind. You have no clue.

That is a truly stupid "rebuttal". You really are lost on the point.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Stupid, selfish people protesting their right to spread sickness and death to others.

What utter claptrap. You have zero evidence that any participant at this event has any sickness of any kind. You have no clue.

That is a truly stupid "rebuttal". You really are lost on the point.

Yeah, you said protesting -the right to- spread it, not predicting that it will spread in this protest.
But what are the odds against that?
Are all the protedters all going to mask and practice social distancing?
Have they all BEEN masked/vaxed/distant, up to now?
Are NONE of them knowingly positive but going, anyway? This is the demographic that would almost least surprise me of socializing while infectious.