Covid-19 miscellany

[Shadowy Man]

Thinks more people are going to be encouraged to get vaccines now. Krispy Kreme is offering one free donut a day for the rest of the year when you show your vaccination card.

Sadly there is not one in my area

You’ll just die of heart disease instead of Covid

 

[marc]

Thinks more people are going to be encouraged to get vaccines now. Krispy Kreme is offering one free donut a day for the rest of the year when you show your vaccination card.

Sadly there is not one in my area

You’ll just die of heart disease instead of Covid

Maybe, but it is slower and tastes better

 

[ZiprHead]

National Guardsmen transporting Covid-19 vaccines held at gunpoint in Texas
The suspect is accused of stopping three National Guard vans, identifying himself as a detective, ordering the guardsmen out of their vehicles and demanding to search their vans.

National Guardsmen transporting Covid-19 vaccines through Texas on Monday were held at gunpoint, police said.

Larry Harris is accused of following a convoy of National Guard soldiers before attempting to run them off the highway with his truck several times in Lubbock County, according to Idalou police Chief Eric C. Williams.

Harris, 66, of Willcox, Arizona, eventually turned his truck into oncoming traffic, stopping three National Guard vans near Idalou, Williams said. He then pointed a gun at a soldier, identified himself as a detective, ordered the guardsmen out of their vehicles and demanded to search their vans, according to police.

The guardsmen were uniformed and transporting vaccines to Matador, Texas.

Idalou police responded and were able to arrest Harris without incident, Williams said. He had a loaded .45-caliber Colt 1911 pistol, an additional loaded magazine on his person and another loaded magazine in his truck.

 

[DrZoidberg]

US woman gives birth to first known baby with Covid antibodies, doctors say
The mother, a frontline healthcare worker, received her first Moderna dose in January, at 36 weeks pregnant

That's not news. We knew that would happen. Because of how it works for every other antibody against viruses. The mother primes the babies immune system for the diseases it's likely to encounter.

 

[Toni]

US woman gives birth to first known baby with Covid antibodies, doctors say
The mother, a frontline healthcare worker, received her first Moderna dose in January, at 36 weeks pregnant

That's not news. We knew that would happen. Because of how it works for every other antibody against viruses. The mother primes the babies immune system for the diseases it's likely to encounter.

Not really. We don't know to what extent human maternal antibodies prime antibody production in infants, although the phenomenon is better documented in some mammals.

However, we DO know that human mothers pass on their own antibodies to their offspring, conferring passive immunity which persists for some months, longer for some viruses if the mother breastfeeds. When testing a young child born to a mother infected with HIV for antibodies to HIV, it is presumed that any antibodies present are maternal antibodies until the child is 18-24 months old. If there is concern that an infant is actually infected with HIV, a PCR test is performed to determine whether there is actively replicating virus. A child born to a mother with an active HepB infection is given Hep B IgG (Hep B antibodies) to prevent the child from developing HepB, which, when acquired as an infant, often leads to serious liver disease later in life. Vaccination against HepB and other infections for which there is a vaccine cause the immune system to directly form its own antibodies against that pathogen.

In fact, we did not KNOW that a COVID infected mother or a vaccinated mother would pass on antibodies to COVID to her newborn. We thought it might be the case but we did not KNOW it.

 

[TSwizzle]

Bad news for the authoritarians;

A judge has ruled that a Scottish government ban on church worship during lockdown was unconstitutional, disproportionate and an interference with human rights. The legal challenge was brought by the Free Church of Scotland (continuing), the Free Church of Scotland, individuals from the Church of Scotland and a number of independent churches. Their challenge was made in response to restrictions announced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on 8 January, which made it a criminal offence for churches to hold in-person services. Following a judicial review at the Court of Session, Judge Lord Baird found that to criminalise communal church worship during the current lockdown "disproportionately infringed" the freedom to express religious beliefs secured in the European Convention on Human Rights. He also ruled that forcing church closures was unconstitutional.

SkyNews

 

[bilby]

Bad news for the authoritarians;

A judge has ruled that a Scottish government ban on church worship during lockdown was unconstitutional, disproportionate and an interference with human rights. The legal challenge was brought by the Free Church of Scotland (continuing), the Free Church of Scotland, individuals from the Church of Scotland and a number of independent churches. Their challenge was made in response to restrictions announced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on 8 January, which made it a criminal offence for churches to hold in-person services. Following a judicial review at the Court of Session, Judge Lord Baird found that to criminalise communal church worship during the current lockdown "disproportionately infringed" the freedom to express religious beliefs secured in the European Convention on Human Rights. He also ruled that forcing church closures was unconstitutional.

SkyNews

This would appear to be good news for the authoritarians. Unless you're labouring under the misapprehension that Scottish Presbyterians are paragons of liberalism and freethought.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

So, curious, is closing attendance to football games also unconstitutional?

The restriction of churches wasn't about churches, it was about cohabitation indoors for a period of time. What other indoor activities were permitted? Outdoor attendance of football games (a true religion in the UK) wasn't allowed either.

 

[TSwizzle]

The restriction of churches wasn't about churches, it was about cohabitation indoors for a period of time.

It doesn't matter what the reason was, the prohibition was unlawful. Ayatollah Sturgeon overstepped the mark.

 

[TomC]

The restriction of churches wasn't about churches, it was about cohabitation indoors for a period of time.

It doesn't matter what the reason was, the prohibition was unlawful. Ayatollah Sturgeon overstepped the mark.

I don't know, so I'll ask.

Were the church fathers claiming that all such restrictions were unlawful? Advocating for opening the bars and concerts and movies?

Or is this another episode of religionists demanding special rights?
Tom

 

[bilby]

The restriction of churches wasn't about churches, it was about cohabitation indoors for a period of time.

It doesn't matter what the reason was, the prohibition was unlawful. Ayatollah Sturgeon overstepped the mark.

I don't know, so I'll ask.

Were the church fathers claiming that all such restrictions were unlawful? Advocating for opening the bars and concerts and movies?

Or is this another episode of religionists demanding special rights?
Tom

Very much the latter.

The Scottish Presbyterians are renowned for their efforts to prohibit concerts, music, bars, movies, or absolutely anything else that might be considered 'fun'. The churches mentioned don't even permit the singing of hymns.

They're still upset at their stacked local councils being overruled on Sunday liquor licence bans by the Equality Act a decade ago.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/jan/31/western-isles-sunday-laws-equality-act

Presenting these Scottish churches in particular as bastions of anti-authoritarianism is yet another layer of high farce in TSwizzle's already farcical argumentation, which I am increasingly unclear about whether it is his actual position, or a deep performance of satire intended to present those who protest against Covid protection measures as irrational fools.

 

[TSwizzle]

Texas covid cases continue to down after opening up and dropping mask mandate. So much for the “Neanderthal thinking”.

 

[untermensche]

The last two weeks in Texas has not been a downward trend.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Texas covid cases continue to down after opening up and dropping mask mandate. So much for the “Neanderthal thinking”.

It looks basically flat at this point.

You keep looking at the weekend decline as if it's real.

 

[Derec]

The last two weeks in Texas has not been a downward trend.

Daily numbers have always been chaotic. You need to look at 7 day averages. And based on those Texas is still trending down.


I would be much more concerned about Michigan than Texas.

 

[bilby]

Well it's official; Greater Brisbane is going into lockdown for three days from 5pm tonight until 5pm Thursday night.

Everyone is required to remain at home except for essential purposes; Masks are mandatory in any indoor location except private residences.

There have been four more cases reported today, bringing the seven day total for South East Queensland to six (thats 0.86/day as a seven day average).

 

[untermensche]

Daily numbers have always been chaotic. You need to look at 7 day averages. And based on those Texas is still trending down.

It's about an average of 5000 cases a day.

That is perhaps better than the over 30 thousand one day just two months ago but it is still enough cases to keep this thing going.

It is not disastrously high. Just dangerously high.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

The restriction of churches wasn't about churches, it was about cohabitation indoors for a period of time.

It doesn't matter what the reason was, the prohibition was unlawful. Ayatollah Sturgeon overstepped the mark.

I don't know, so I'll ask.

Were the church fathers claiming that all such restrictions were unlawful? Advocating for opening the bars and concerts and movies?

Or is this another episode of religionists demanding special rights?
Tom

...crickets...

 

[ZiprHead]

I don't know, so I'll ask.

Were the church fathers claiming that all such restrictions were unlawful? Advocating for opening the bars and concerts and movies?

Or is this another episode of religionists demanding special rights?
Tom

...crickets...

It was answered in the very next post by Bilby.

 

[lpetrich]

Trump lashes out at Fauci and Birx after CNN documentary - POLITICO
"The former president released a fact-challenged statement criticizing the former advisers after they criticized his administration’s pandemic response."

“Based on their interviews, I felt it was time to speak up about Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx, two self-promoters trying to reinvent history to cover for their bad instincts and faulty recommendations, which I fortunately almost always overturned,” Trump said. “They had bad policy decisions that would have left our country open to China and others, closed to reopening our economy, and years away from an approved vaccine — putting millions of lives at risk.”

That's Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx.

Fauci said the decision “to go all out and develop a vaccine” was “the best decision that I’ve ever made with regard to an intervention as director of the institute,” referring to his role at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Trump responded

“Dr. Fauci was incapable of pressing the FDA to move it through faster. I was the one to get it done, and even the fake news media knows and reports this,” Trump said, even though Fauci, in his capacity as NIAID director, did not have the authority to pressure the FDA to make such decisions.

Both AF and DB criticized the Trump Admin's messaging about the virus, with DB calling its incoherence "fault number one."

“The thing that hit me like a punch to the chest was then all of a sudden he got up and says, ‘Liberate Virginia, liberate Michigan,’ and I said to myself, ‘Oh my goodness, what is going on here?’” Fauci told CNN, referring to a series of Trump tweets. “It shocked me because it was such a jolt to what we were trying to do.”

...
In his statement, Trump labeled Fauci as “the king of ‘flip-flops’ and moving the goalposts to make himself look as good as possible,” while adding that he ignored the recommendations of both Fauci and Birx.

DB noted that many of the 550,000 American deaths from this virus were very likely preventable.

“I look at it this way — the first time, we have an excuse. There were about 100,000 deaths that came from that original surge,” she said. “All of the rest of them, in my mind, could have been mitigated or decreased substantially.”

Trump, however:

“Dr. Birx was a terrible medical advisor, which is why I seldom followed her advice,” Trump said in his statement.

Then about an interview on CNN last August:

“Everybody in the White House was upset with that interview and the clarity that I brought about the epidemic,” she said. “I got called by the president. It was very uncomfortable, very direct and very difficult to hear.”