COVID-19

[SlickAg]

@Flash, has this been peer reviewed? I’m sure that this, combined with the millions of kids that stopped going to school, won’t have any long-lasting consequences or anything like that.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2783690

3 Million Kids Missing From School Because of COVID-19 Is a Travesty

Check out this coauthored op-ed written by Rey Saldaña and Shaquille O’Neal on how low-income students are experiencing learning loss and chronic absenteeism at higher …

www.communitiesinschools.org

 

[Spekkio]

Why does the skepticism people have for the masks, and apparently for the vaccine and monoclonal antibodies, not also extend to ivermectin?

No one is telling people to take ivermectin and taking away their rights if they don't, but we are doing exactly that with vaccines and masks. We are also not doing anything about the myriad of people who act extremely negatively toward others based on their health decisions. In some places with optional mask compliance for the vaccinated and mandatory for the unvaccinated, wearing a mask might as well be a scarlet letter.

Only one of all 50 governors is actually standing up against this government sanctioned discrimination, and he's being widely criticized for it.

 

[taxi1]

and taking away their rights

Do I have the right to infect other people if I want to?

 

[Spekkio]

Do I have the right to infect other people if I want to?

That's a stupid question. The vaccine is available to anyone who wants it. For those who don't, they accept the risk of contracting a potentially fatal disease. It's really quite that simple.

I would sooner see people get motivated to take the vaccine via health insurance premiums and coverage rather than checking their vaccination status at the entrance of [insert business].

 

[SlickAg]

Do I have the right to infect other people if I want to?

“On Tuesday, Martin Kulldorff, a Harvard Medical School professor who specializes in disease surveillance and outbreaks, expressed concern about people being blamed for infecting others.

He tweeted: "For thousands of years, disease pathogens have spread from person to person. Never before have carriers been blamed for infecting the next sick person. That is a very dangerous ideology."”

“In a statement to Newsweek about his tweet, Kulldorff said: "The second sentence is incorrect. Blaming disease carriers was wrong in the past. It is disturbing that such blame and shame now comes from public health officials, scientists and politicians. It is a very dangerous ideology."”

Typhoid Mary Explained After Harvard Professor's Tweet Raises Eyebrows

The story of the historical figure who lived out her last days on an island after she was found to carry typhoid has re-emerged after a controversial tweet.

www.newsweek.com

 

[Spekkio]

I admittedly have not fact checked this, but the version of Typhoid Mary I was told in 9th grade biology was that she purposefully spread the disease by wiping her ass with her bare hand prior to cooking food.

 

[taxi1]

That's a stupid question. The vaccine is available to anyone who wants it. For those who don't, they accept the risk of contracting a potentially fatal disease.

They also place at heightened risk those around them, because they are more contagious. So your answer is stupid.

I would sooner see people get motivated to take the vaccine via health insurance premiums and coverage rather than checking their vaccination status at the entrance of [insert business].

Let them keep their increased contagiousness out on the street until they do.

This isn’t about them, it’s about everyone else they place at needless risk.

 

[Jim123]

Do I have the right to infect other people if I want to?

No, not one way or the other, but when other people includes subsets who fall into the overly vulnerable category, I would consider the fact that they've now had 18 months to come up with a plan to mitigate their own vulnerability. The comorbidities that we know now aren't a whole lot different than what we knew in February-March 2020, that is being overweight, being grossly overweight, age, and immunocompromised. If another person is wearing merely a raggedy, loose-fitting facemask then I appreciate that they're making a conscious choice to protect "others" from whatever bugs they might have, but I also consider it a signal that they do not consider themselves to be overly vulnerable to covid.

If a random person is really truly concerned that they might be vulnerable or that they might bring it home to someone else who is vulnerable, then the only sensible measures for them to take starts with wearing a proper, tightly fitting and sealed N95 mask. I'm afraid I've seen precisely zero of those in my travels, at least in the last six months or so. If I do or did see anyone like that then I'd politely give them a wide berth and respect their (additional) personal space.



In the meantime (and note I'm not directing this next stuff at you or your, @taxi1 ), the government and the media both continue to dodge the obvious connection between obesity and covid mortality. I read a feature article about a covid survivor who was on a breathing tube for about six months. The article gave his former height-weight, described him as "burly," and said his weight plummeted to a given figure. The h-w numbers translate into a 30+ BMI and about a 22. That's not burly, that's not "big boned" nor "but my body type," that's going from too #&$% fat to breathe when you're sick to healthy~skinny. About half of the Americans who have died of this virus would still be alive if they hadn't started out as too #&$% fat to breathe when they're sick.

A year ago I'd have sympathy in the sense of everybody knows it's unhealthy, nobody's perfect, and we've accepted it as a society now for so long that being fat is okay. Nowadays though, I'm of the mind that people who make poor personal health choices are bogging down the economic recovery and having an outsize (ha ha pun intended) impact on the healthcare system.

But hey... let's stick with "burly" and "we're all in this together."

 

[Spekkio]

They also place at heightened risk those around them, because they are more contagious...This isn’t about them, it’s about everyone else they place at needless risk.

They only pose more risk to other people who are unvaccinated.

 

[robav8r]

Do I have the right to infect other people if I want to?

You know what's a bit funny? This notion that all of a sudden we're hyper-sensitive to "infecting other people" when we have never as a society, writ large, (OK, with a very few exceptions), ever cared before. Isn't it funny that Flu & Cold data, death by all the myriad other causes, is no longer easily accessible on the CDC and other USG websites? A smart man once said; "you can't manage what you can't measure." The entire COVID-19 narrative is being forced down the throats of the entire world with no context, no comparative data. Why ???

 

[Spekkio]

In the meantime (and note I'm not directing this next stuff at you or your, @taxi1 ), the government and the media both continue to dodge the obvious connection between obesity and covid mortality.

No elected official or public media figure is going to risk the social media outrage of 'fat shaming' that would come with focusing on this obvious fact.

 

[Jim123]

No elected official or public media figure is going to risk the social media outrage of 'fat shaming' that would come with focusing on this obvious fact.

You're right, and another way of putting it is an absence of leadership.

 

[SlickAg]

No, not one way or the other, but when other people includes subsets who fall into the overly vulnerable category, I would consider the fact that they've now had 18 months to come up with a plan to mitigate their own vulnerability. The comorbidities that we know now aren't a whole lot different than what we knew in February-March 2020, that is being overweight, being grossly overweight, age, and immunocompromised. If another person is wearing merely a raggedy, loose-fitting facemask then I appreciate that they're making a conscious choice to protect "others" from whatever bugs they might have, but I also consider it a signal that they do not consider themselves to be overly vulnerable to covid.

If a random person is really truly concerned that they might be vulnerable or that they might bring it home to someone else who is vulnerable, then the only sensible measures for them to take starts with wearing a proper, tightly fitting and sealed N95 mask. I'm afraid I've seen precisely zero of those in my travels, at least in the last six months or so. If I do or did see anyone like that then I'd politely give them a wide berth and respect their (additional) personal space.



In the meantime (and note I'm not directing this paragraph at you or your, @taxi1 ), the government and the media both continue to dodge the obvious connection between obesity and covid mortality. I read a feature article about a covid survivor who was on a breathing tube for about six months. The article gave his former height-weight, described him as "burly," and said his weight plummeted to a given figure. The h-w numbers translate into a 30+ BMI and about a 22. That's not burly, that's not "big boned" nor "but my body type," that's going from too #&$% fat to breathe when you're sick to healthy~skinny. About half of the Americans who have died of this virus would still be alive if they hadn't started out as too #&$% fat to breathe when they're sick. A year ago I'd have sympathy in the sense of everybody knows it's unhealthy, nobody's perfect, and we've accepted it as a society now for so long that being fat is okay. Nowadays though, I'm of the mind that people who make poor personal health choices are bogging down the economic recovery and having an outsize (ha ha pun intended) impact on the healthcare system.

But hey... let's stick with "burly" and "we're all in this together."

It's better for them to just ignore the connection and go about their business keeping people scared. Same thing with the article I posted earlier about the massive increase in childhood obesity as a result of the pandemic. Think that's just children? Close down gyms, shame people for being outside in the fresh air and sunshine, close restaurants and grocery stores, make people feel dirty for not ordering uber eats for dinner...we haven't even scratched the surface of all of the diet and exercise-related issues coming out the backside of this. It's funny that people like taxi1 can't see how much of our societal fabric is being destroyed in their zeal to "protect grandma". Guess what, grandma is an adult and can make her own decisions.

The unvaccinated and/or unmasked and MAGA people have also become one and the same for people like taxi1: they are a visible and viable representation of what they perceive to be wrong with America. They don't want personal accountability and individual freedom. They want state control. I really hope that somewhere down the road they can look back and say man, we sort of overreacted in our zeal and fervor to get Orange Man out of the White House. I'm not holding my breath though (unless I'm outside, you know, to protect those around me).

 

[Spekkio]

You're right, and another way of putting it is an absence of leadership.

I wouldn't say that. I'd say from a public health policy stand point, it's now irrelevant. The concern is (or ought to be) preventing the overloading of our healthcare system.

The majority of the U.S. is obese. It's very unlikely that overweight and obese Americans will change their eating habits or lifestyles because of the risks associated with contracting COVID-19, and even if they did dropping weight takes months, so focusing on this fact accomplishes what exactly?

Various elected officials and education leaders have tried to tackle the issue of obesity in America (in general, not just pertaining to COVID-19), but have had little success.

It's better for them to just ignore the connection and go about their business keeping people scared. Same thing with the article I posted earlier about the massive increase in childhood obesity as a result of the pandemic.

What was very surprising to me last fall / summer was the seemingly large concern that children would become malnourished or starve if they didn't go to school. Part of that surprise is that I always associated school lunches with a more expensive yet lower quality food option than just bringing a sandwich and some fruit.

I can see how this makes sense in some parts of the country. However, my district would give out free lunches to anyone who wanted them, despite the fact that no one in my neighborhood would otherwise qualify for government assistance.

 

[Hair Warrior]

Do you have the right to eat peanuts at a baseball game, at a playground, or on a public sidewalk, knowing that some people are deathly allergic to peanut particles?