COVID-19: Chapter 7 - Brags, Beats, and Variants

https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1340771970359697409

Julyish. If things go amazingly well aprilish?

giving vaccinations to insure people are safe and alive in congress (lol able to do their jobs) would be an obvious thing to do in a functioning government. In this mess? Maybe not

Do we think there is a value in public officials rushing to get their vaccination in terms of encouraging the waffling quartile

(Letā€™s guess 50/25/25 of yes/maybe/nut jobs)

in a society that was the slightest bit sane, yes. If this was GWB in 2006 and there was a commercial with him, Gore, Kerry, Cheney all endorsing/getting the shot, that would matter to people.

This take is bad. There are 538 members of congress. That is a drop in the bucket compared to how many vaccine doses will soon be available. All of them should be publicly getting vaccinated for two reasons:

  1. To show stupid antivaxxers that itā€™s fine; and
  2. So that congress can keep functioning and doesnā€™t shut down in the event of a bad outbreak.

Edit: I guess more than 538 if you count novoting members and other senior officials in the exec and judicial branches, but still, a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of doses going out right now.

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Christmas is cancelled by conservatives?!?! Hooray!!

EDIT: Also my pony is on lockdown.

Well this sucks for me personally. Probably looking at the back half of 2021 to get my vaccine, and I had been expecting Feb/Mar. What a brutal feeling on a personal level.

Good thing I took this poker invite or Iā€™d be choosing between being forced back to 40+ hours a week in casinos before getting my vaccine, or forced to return post-vaxx with about a $6K 2/5 roll before having to move to 1/3 if I run bad and grind a couple 300 hour months to recover.

That said, this means instead of like 24-36 more hours of poker before I get the vaccine itā€™s probably more like 72+. So my risk of getting pozzed goes way up. Also my risk of a downswing putting me in a really bad spot.

Iā€™m going to have to sleep on it and crunch some numbers when Iā€™m less emotional about it, it may be time to start applying to every WFH job available and hope I get lucky and bink one.

Is what it is I guess, the next few months just got a lot darker for me. But the main thing that pisses me off is that knowing that a bunch of these 65+ year olds who donā€™t have their income affected because theyā€™re retired on social security will get vaccinated before me even though they think itā€™s just the flu and theyā€™re out there at Applebeeā€™s and bars and shit.

I think her spot stays about the same or gets slightly worse. She was in group 2 for health risks. Now sheā€™ll be in group 2B or 3A for age.

Yeah Iā€™m too personally impacted to separate myself entirely. Iā€™m pretty pissed that millions of Boomers out there driving the spread and arguing against shutdowns and masks because itā€™s just the flu are going to have a chance at the vaxx before me. Also they only need to go out for fun, theyā€™re retired. I need to make a living.

Itā€™s also not just the chance a younger person with risks dies, itā€™s that they have their quality of life diminished for the 30-50 years they have left.

On the other hand if we vaxx the old people and keep them out of hospitals, everyone who gets pozzed is more likely to get really good care. So that factors in too.

If I knew Iā€™d be able to get Regeneron right away if pozzed, tests were widely available, healthcare workers were all vaxxed and the healthcare system wasnā€™t stressed, Iā€™d probably return to casinos and get tested once or twice a week, assuming that reduced my risk of long-term complications.

Fuck this is the worst slow roll of my life. It also blows that it came only a few days after I had to commit to my health insurance choice for next year. This would have impacted my decision quite a bit. I would have leaned away from an HSA and toward a lower deductible, and deprioritized being on an EPO vs an HMO.

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Honestly, Iā€™m relieved. This is finally the ironclad policy Iā€™ve been hoping for to not gather at my momā€™s this year. I caved because my sister insisted back in October and I didnā€™t want to cause a huge family problem, and Iā€™ve regretted it ever since.

It wouldā€™ve been just the five of us (me and my wife, my sister and BIL, and my mom) but my sister works at a hotel near Pearson Airport (in a lockdown since last month) and Iā€™ve been dreading being around her for an entire day. Plus they actually did all their Christmas shopping in malls and such (always masked, but stillā€¦I didnā€™t set foot in a single store this year). And it was like pulling teeth to get people to agree to a socially distanced dinner and wearing masks all day. Not going will suck, but on another level I feel like a huge weight got lifted.

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If youā€™re on day 10 youā€™re fine IMO. Super unlikely for it to take that long to develop after exposure. Obviously finish the quarantine tho.

Probably the biggest failure of US policy is that rigorous, enforced quarantines for people who travel interstate donā€™t seem to be on the table for anywhere other than Hawaii.

Just found out my mom is getting it tomorrow. Sheā€™s 68, has MS, but happens to work part time in a nursing home (sheā€™s a physical therapist). Otherwise she would have been in 1c.

My dad is 76, so heā€™ll be in 1b

My sister should be in 1c, but we have questions about how those groups will be contacted/pushed to get vaccinated. Sheā€™s only 38 but has a couple of nasty autoimmune diseases.

Will it be up to your doctor to contact you? Do you apply somewhere? How is it gonna work past group 1a?

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People with emotional distress animals are 1d, so you need to reach out to golfnut ASAP

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Hang in there, youā€™re almost done.

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So your complaint is that people 65+ are prioritized over people with high-risk medical conditions? It seems like not all states are following those guidelines and currently NC and TN prioritize comorbidities.

The deployment is being determined at the state level, so it depends on each state department of health, I presume.

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Yeah and 75+ too. I think it should factor in that they (mostly) donā€™t have to go out to work. They have fixed income. But theyā€™re going to go out and live it up anyway, so itā€™s probably for the greater good that they go first to reduce the strain on hospitals. I just happen to be in a bad spot now and it sucks a lot. I went from needing to run at or above EV and not catch COVID for 18-36 hours of poker to 72+ hours.

I also resent the shit out of the ones who are full fledged fuck masks fuck shutdowns fuck your feelings who will now go before those of us who are young with health risks who have been taking a lot of precautions. Thereā€™s no justice in that.

The social implications suck personally too, but thatā€™s a separate concern and not nearly as important. It hurts, but thatā€™s the same for anyone whoā€™s single and toward the back of the line.

Iā€™d be shocked if PA didnā€™t follow the CDC guidelines but weā€™ll see, I guess.

My sister is an emergency room nurse so my family wasnā€™t getting together for the holidays. When my mom told me the plan it was like ā€œhere is the plan for Christmasā€¦uhh there is no plan weā€™re doing nothing.ā€ Which was good and what I hoped for.

But lockdown is nice so you have an easy out to not get pressured into anything. Sure some people will ignore it but hopefully it will reduce some unnecessary gatherings.

How would you feel about the Massachusetts guidelines where 2+ comorbidities take precedence over 65+ which takes precedence over one comorbidity? They also include prisons and homeless shelters in 1a.

Mass. has the most detailed plan and they seem to be aiming for getting all vulnerable populations vaccinated so that it can be rolled out to the general public by April. No other state Iā€™ve looked at so far even had a timeline that gave months.

Maybe you should work on encouraging people who donā€™t care to skip getting the vaccine so you can skip ahead of them.

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I know nothing about the state of online poker in the US, and youā€™ve probably covered it before, but do you have no options to grind online just to keep your head above water?