COVID-19: Chapter 9 - OMGicron

I don’t think he’s an idiot, per se. I think he’s actually pretty intelligent, but he’s one of those people who thinks he’s SOOOO smart that he’s willing to believe tons of weird-ass bullshit because now he knows more than everyone else. He believes in UFOs, for instance. And crypto. Look how fucking smart he is, he understands all this whacked-out shit that we could never wrap our minds around.

It’s sort of like “both-sidesing” news/arguments. Some people think it’s good because it’s fair, when really you shouldn’t give airtime to dumb bullshit and lies. Rodgers is intelligent, but he thinks absorbing ALL information adds to his intelligence, when it really just clogs his brain.

Doesn’t help that because of who he is, he never gets pushback from anyone.

Valid

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There may very well be a dynamic where he is objectively smarter than most of the people he is around (like other NFL players living in a bubble) and that he has a self perception that is way out of line with reality.

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I think we’re all coming to grips with the fact that people we always would have historically tagged as “intelligent” are fucking moron dipshit clowndonks.

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The Ben Carson Effect

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Rodgers is super smart, good looking, and very funny.

(and I’m not just saying that because he paid me $10 in BTC to say it)

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Toxic masculinity and American conservatism in 2021 are closely aligned. We should expect every area (pro sports, investment banking, etc.) with fiercely competitive and overtly masculine cultures to be all in on Trumpism.

That Mike McCarthy was the smart one in that partnership is not a revelation I was ready for.

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Speaking of, this is worth a read. Absolute psychopaths.

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Godgers being an idiot on these issues was completely unsurprising to me. Partially because his wife is nuts too.

'Perineum sunning' is the insane hobby wellness influencers swear by.

This isn’t a euphemism for sex?

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Sadly, no.

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Another study published in the same journal, out a few days before this - indicates the importance of boosters given that Turkey Day and Xmas are just round the corner and olds may be attending

The Lancet Infectious Diseases work shows why getting even more people vaccinated and protected is important, they say.

Individuals who have had two vaccine doses can be just as infectious as those who have not been jabbed.

Even if they have no or few symptoms, the chance of them transmitting the virus to other unvaccinated housemates is about two in five, or 38%.

This drops to one in four, or 25%, if housemates are also fully vaccinated.

According to the study, which ran from September 2020 to September 2021 and included 440 households in London and Bolton doing PCR Covid tests:

  • People who are double jabbed have a lower, but still appreciable, risk of becoming infected with the Delta variant compared with unvaccinated people

  • They also appear to be just as infectious

  • Vaccinated people clear the infection more quickly, but their peak viral load - when people are most infectious - is similar to that seen in unvaccinated people

Is the Pfizer pill legit? Even Berenson was like, “wow, this looks very promising” which isn’t a good take for his bottom line.

Looks like it.

100 years from now, horse paste won’t be common knowledge. you might hear a footnote about it in some future-pod a la hardcore history about the coronavirus pandemic.

You’re thinking of “Vitamin A”!

That’s a great topline number at least.

The Pfizer treatment is a mix of an experimental antiviral, code-named PF-07321332, with the existing antiviral ritonavir, used to treat HIV. The company has since trademarked the combination as Paxlovid.

PF-07321332 is apparently a small molecule protease inhibitor rather than a nucleotide analog like our titular molnupiravir. To me, it’s pretty remarkable that they found something like this that’s effective so quickly. Ritonavir is apparently a molecule that inhibits enzymes that cleave inhibitors of HIV’s protease, which I guess it’s serving the same purpose here, but it’s also really unexpected that it has any impact in SARS-CoV-2 as-is. That an existing drug functions in the same way in a wholly separate virus without any chemical changes seems really unlikely, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

OOF

https://twitter.com/granthpaulsen/status/1456676991202172936

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They say around 60% of people from South Asian backgrounds and 15% of people of European ancestry carry the high-risk version of the gene.

Vaccines are key and help significantly reduce these risks, researchers say.

The Nature Genetics study sheds light on why some communities in the UK and South Asia are at higher risk from Covid - but does not fully explain it.

Building on previous genetic work, researchers used a combination of artificial intelligence and new molecular technology to pinpoint the exact gene - called LZTFL1 - responsible for the increased risks.