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

Only 170,000 people in long-term care facilities received a shot as of Dec. 30 even though 2.2 million doses were distributed for residents, according to data released from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

I didnā€™t post a conclusion, and donā€™t claim I did. Nor does your citation disprove what I did post, which was a hypothesis.

The average Americanā€™s risk of dying from COVID yesterday was about 1 in 100,000. Avg chance of getting COVID yesterday, with all kinds of weird unknown scary side effects, was like 1 in 2k. The overall risk of anaphylactic shock from a vaccination is longer than 1 in a million, and people apparently never die from it because of epipens.

Thereā€™s not even a selfish case for a young, healthy person refusing a vaccine.

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Your hypothesis is flawed because every other country, all of which have kept schools open (never closed) have reduced transmission during lockdown periodsā€¦ until the new variant - which the professionals have had 10 days to study and OFS ainā€™t on anyone elseā€™s radar

Anyway, Happy New Year, letā€™s see where the variant takes us

Person I worked with had it and he was miserable. Thought I was bulletproof since Iā€™ve never had the pox but turns out not so much and I should probably get shots for it.

OK, how about you spell out how itā€™s impossible that the new variant ā€“ you know, one that literally has different proteins from prior versions ā€“ could transmit better in kids than the old variant, when schools and daycares were notably some of the only things open for nontrivial group gatherings where that new variant exploded.

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So deplorable uncle-in-law was diagnosed a month ago. Never got horrible bad but not getting better. Has now been diagnosed with bronchial casts. Hasnā€™t been put on O2 yet. Going home after a couple of days in the hospital for tests.

Docs- whatā€™s the prognosis? About 70 years old. He had some kind of heart event a couple of years back.

The new restrictions on covid travel plus Americaā€™s inefficient health care system made it impossible for me to make my current flight on time.

That is unless I pay $400 for a rapid test.

Yeah, I paid it. Fuck you America.

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The world has changed a lot though. If Facebook existed in WWII half of Americans would have been denying that PH happened because they examined the pixels and did their own research.

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Itā€™s irrelevant to some extent. Opening during rising case density was wrong. We donā€™t know where it arose or why. There will be much debate over time. Maybe theyā€™ll figure it out maybe not.

Otherwise nature is damn powerful. Look at the diversity of life on the planet. The only difference is viruses can evolve and become dominant in a matter of weeks.

Another aspect of hypersocial behavior. Everyone can find their own tribe now. Nobody is into Q in a vacuum - itā€™s the camaraderie.

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Indeed. Another aspect of all this is that several decades of emphatic corportization of not just our economy but also our culture has really, really ratcheted up the overall level if insecurity in the population. That desperate rush into the arms of a tribe, any tribe, seems to me to be driven in large part by the desperation people feel to not just belong, but to also feel right about something. So many people are just sitting on years and years and years of being told by corporations ā€œyou suck, buy thisā€ but of course they are then told that they still suck. This is just a perfect breeding ground for Facebook conspiracies. Guess what, your shitty life isnā€™t your fault! Itā€™s the lizard people!

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Friend from HS just posted on FB about being a lightweight tonight because she took some Sudafed for her ā€œallergiesā€ before heading out for a dinner party with the neighbors.

I hate everyone.

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Iā€™ve seen this clip a million times and itā€™s legit like the only SNL skit in the last 30 years that always gets a chuckle.

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McCarthy Spicer cracks me up. Also this:

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Yeah, Iā€™ve expressed concerns here multiple times about the fast trials mean we donā€™t know any long term effects

However, I do think itā€™s worth the risk given the societal benefits of people getting vaccinated so I will be getting it when available to me.

Thatā€™s probably on my original summer timeline anyway which is a year after trials started so long enough for me to feel good, but if Iā€™m offered it sooner I will take it sooner. Everyone needs to do their part to get us to herd immunity.

I simply love to touch down from my pandemic world tour and engage in nuanced discussion about antisocial behavior

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The rise of the new variant isnā€™t entirely predicated on opening too early. It was rising while other cases were falling. There arenā€™t very many possible explanations for why that is. One, it could be totally outcompeting the old strain when someone comes into contact with both. Two, itā€™s spreading via a means that is both not covered by the lockdown and that isnā€™t a means of effective spread of the old strain. Three, the spread is so much more effective that even while in some degree of lockdown people can still get sick. If it were in one population, there might be more, like random chance of which strain gets spread at a handful of super spreader events, but this is holding true over a large number of regions of England. From what we know, #1 isnā€™t especially likely, because if the internal growth of the virus were that much more dominant, that would also likely be associated with worse health outcomes, but that doesnā€™t appear to be the case at this point, even if more study is needed to be sure. Thereā€™s a decent chance of case 3, but that would be a pretty devastating outcome, in that masks during limited trips out may no longer all that effective at keeping people safe from this strain. But my hypothesis is that itā€™s case 2, specifically children, that the old strain wasnā€™t quite effective at spreading through children (even though they could still spread it), but now the new strain spreads through children much more effectively, perhaps even moreso than the old strain spreads through adults. Thatā€™s also pretty bad, because weā€™d have to go to all online schooling and only in home day care, and our social organization is just not equipped to handle that for more than brief periods of time.

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This is the first mRNA vaccine unless Iā€™m mistaken

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Sick of anti maskers, anti vaccine folk, but people who go out sick right now are the worst of the worst. Should be charged with reckless endangerment or something.

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