Also, I’m not sure if everyone really appreciates how incredible it is that Moderna made another mRNA vaccine in a world that a month ago had none and has it stable at refrigerator temperatures. mRNA is an especially fragile molecule as biomolecules go. The difference between RNA (ribonucleic acid) and DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is slight, one extra -OH group per base (thus, DNA’s deoxy- prefix), but those two extra atoms make RNA much more susceptible to catalytic cleavage, including self-cleavage. Biochemists who work with DNA are pretty lackadaisical in their cleanliness compared to RNA scientists, who have to be meticulously clean, wear gloves, won’t talk when doing experiments, etc. When I worked with RNA, I wouldn’t have expected a sample left in the fridge to last more than a couple days, and even stuff stored at -20 C was not going to be counted on for more than a month or two, even if undisturbed. Moderna must have come up with some remarkable secret sauce in order to keep their mRNA intact at +4 C for non-trivial amounts of time, because not many RNA researchers in academia who’ve posted twitter commentary on it have any idea how that could be possible.
Carnival up 10% today.
Because stonks
Let’s hope so.
I mean we’re definitely looking at one of the most remarkable scientific achievements in human history here to go from zero to vaccine in under a year with two 90%+ effective vaccines, let alone the stuff with temperature.
On the other hand we’re looking at one of the most remarkable self-owns in human history that we’re going to see hundreds of thousands of people jump off a cliff like lemmings right before the vaccines are available… Then like 30-40% will refuse to take them.
Oh by the way here’s how the anti-vaxx stuff is going to play out:
John Q. Fuckwad: I ain’t takin no liberal vaccine for the hoax virus.
Normal Person: Your grandmother died how is it a hoax?
John Q. Fuckwad: She was old. I’m young and healthy.
Normal Person: You weigh 400 pounds and have three underlying health risks.
John Q. Fuckwad: I’m strong as an ox, I ain’t letting Bill Gates microchip me and mine my thoughts for his 7G mind control.
Normal Person: That’s ridiculous it’s totally safe.
John Q. Fuckwad: Let everyone else take that commie socialist vaccine that turns the frogs gay. No way in hell any liberal doctor is sticking a needle in my ass.
Normal Person: You can’t go to the Alabama game without it.
John Q. Fuckwad: (Drops pants, bends over.) STICK ME DOC! ROLL TIDE!!! WHOOO!!!
Pre Covid-19 I definitely had a belief that a root cause to many 21st century problems was that too many people had led lives of uninterrupted comfort and convenience and that was causing then to gravitate to sociopathic political belief systems. I am not sure if Covid-19 confirms this (because so many people are basically demanding insurrection because their comfortable consumer lifestyles have been disrupted) or if Covid-19 contradicts this belief (because there’s so little evidence that hardship is improving anyone’s moral fiber). I’m not sure what to believe.
So last week there was a “hugs not masks” rally in Steinbach, Manitoba. Small rural town. About 100 people showed up, but bylaw officers ticketed the main speaker. This got the crowd angry/violent.
The whole Province is currently on a “code red” lockdown with all non essential businesses closed, gatherings over 5 ppl prohibited and masks mandatory in all public spaces.
Today our conservative Premier announced that all in attendance would be fined. (Well, based on license plates of vehicles in attendance)
Fines are a little over equivalent to $900 USD
I get that this reasoning seems plausible in a vacuum, but we aren’t operating in a vacuum. There are dozens of examples of corporations doing evil shit that they know will harm their customers/the general public and still decide to go forward with it because they stand to make a lot more money. Like, the incentive is even greater now, probably, because most of these companies have gotten away with it in an EV sense in that the penalties our court systems are willing to impose are like a rounding error compared with the profits they can make.
At this point I’m ready for more biblical punishment. Lock all of them in a warehouse. Infect a couple with Covid. Maybe provide a livestream.
Yeah like does anyone have a list of all the ghouls who went to jail for lying in public fillings about their balance sheets until they unloaded credit default swaps on their own unsuspecting customers?
Or maybe of all the oil execs who have been lying about climate change and bringing us to the brink of the end of humanity for 50 years?
LIVE FREE and DIE
This is what we need
GOAT
Someone asked for this further upthread, CFR vs. pos test rate.
I shifted the positive test rates forward 28 days to more closely align them with the deaths used for CFR.
Scatterplot
edit #2: updated the top graph to include full data for 11/14 week.
Trump=Barney
Obv
Looks like a threshold of about 3.5% followed by exponential coming out of it. Yikes.
It was hilarious watching NPH get more and more paranoid about getting slapped as the series progressed. I think that storyline was over multiple seasons too.
As much as the main premise turned out to be tragic and a dud, everything else was AWESOME.