Fear and Loathing, a Rat Flu Odyssey

[jono]

i have a hard time understanding you. What did the last sentence mean?

It means you are not obligated to ignore all information that doesn't come from a legal authority or politician. You can branch out and learn things from other sources and make decisions based on that information. Reading and stuff.

That would be pretty disappointing and probably wouldn't make you happy. But you could do it.

Please don't.

But you could.

[Benny Profane]

https://blogs.jwatch.org/hiv-id-obse...es/2021/04/19/

[Meadow Skipper]

It's true. Fauci has no "authority" over anything important. Assholes like Desantis do. Where the fuck you been for over a year?

Whoosh.

[BobMc]

Nugent avoided Covids 1-18 but apparently couldn't avoid 19. Or, could it have just been Cat Scratch Fever?

[bodywhomper]

Not sure if this is better here or in the covid/kids thread, but lausd has instituted an (apparently) controversial Covid surveillance program that includes having to get a negative test before students/staff can start on-campus instruction and then required weekly testing. The first week with 62 elementary school campuses opened: 177 positive cases (72 employees and 105 students). It’s great that they have instituted this program. Surveillance, it is the way.

https://www.latimes.com/california/s...pus-reopenings

[Ottime]

Wish we had that. Only staff required to be tested here and I know for a fact a number of families lie on their symptoms check to get their kids into school.

One question is “have you left the state in the last 14 days”. Kind of arbitrary, but a family that was seen in Hawaii over spring break checked “no” the day after their return and the admin did not bat an eye. Even tho it was an admin who bumped into the family the week prior.

So what is the point?

[KQ]

Noted Norwegian COVID Conspiracy Theorist Dies of COVID.


Hans Gaarder and his 'culture barn' where he hosted COVID parties.

The problem with science denial is that the truth is the truth, no matter what your opinion on the subject is. Not to worry, the chances are it won’t make a difference in your daily life — but beware, it can kill you. The moral is, pick your stupidity wisely. Denying evolution makes you look like an idiot, but physically leaves you unharmed. Denying climate change might kill your descendants, but you’ll probably make it. But thinking COVID is a hoax can be fatal. And so it was for Hans Kristian Gaarder. On April 6th he died — aged 60 — of COVID.

Gaarder — although not an Amerian — certainly believed like a certain kind of one. He was an aficionado of 2020 US electoral conspiracy theories. He had a beef with the Illuminati. But his real passion was COVID denial. As late as March 18, he was on social media criticizing the “massive measures” aimed at preventing infection of “something that will be like a cold or light flu.” He wondered whether the measures really were a means of “camouflaging that the Coronavirus does NOT spread from person to person.”

Identifying himself as an independent researcher of suppressed information, he reminded his followers to remember that the “lying and weak media’s job is to trick its readers into blindly and obediently being led into the mud by lying and weak politicians.”

On March 26th and 27th, undeterred by local ordinances enacted in the face of new virulent viral strains, he had two house parties. In at least one, the guests discussed the topic of “Trump, Biden and the way forward for the United States and the world”. A dozen attendees have now come down with the disease. Gaarder ignored his symptoms, refused a COVID test, and denied having coronavirus until he expired.

Gaarder was not new to the denial game. In 2009, he took the same dismissive approach to swine flu. Over the years he explored his passion for conspiracy in an online magazine and TV interviews. Gaarder also wrote for a Norwegian website known for reporting on alternative health care and spreading conspiracy theories. Many of its writers and readers are also highly skeptical of vaccines. As late as Monday, April 5th, the day before he died, the site reported that news of Gaarder’s infection was fake and he was completely healthy.

Ironically, a cynic might say that the best evidence to discredit the theory of evolution is the continued existence of morons like Gaarder. It is hard to see how the perpetuation of this kind of insanity points to ‘survival of the fittest’. But better minds than mine will easily explain the seeming inconsistency.

[abraham]

Man imagine living your life without a real passion until you find it in a fake disease spreading around the world. And then it kills you.

[bodywhomper]

Wish we had that. Only staff required to be tested here and I know for a fact a number of families lie on their symptoms check to get their kids into school.

One question is “have you left the state in the last 14 days”. Kind of arbitrary, but a family that was seen in Hawaii over spring break checked “no” the day after their return and the admin did not bat an eye. Even tho it was an admin who bumped into the family the week prior.

So what is the point?

i'd have to dig a bit, but there's evidence that the daily symptom checking and other screenings for schools drastically reduces the incident of covid entering the schools. even with some families lieing on the forms.

i posted somewhere upthread an article from Nature about a Rx for successful running institutions that was very reliant on surveillance testing and close contract tracing. A research psychologist friend at UIUC apparently has developed a behavioral salivating response on the morning of their spit test days. It is the way. i can imagine something similar in the future for seasonal flu.

[KQ]

Yup.


There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing
The neglected middle child of mental health can dull your motivation and focus — and it may be the dominant emotion of 2021.

At first, I didn’t recognize the symptoms that we all had in common. Friends mentioned that they were having trouble concentrating. Colleagues reported that even with vaccines on the horizon, they weren’t excited about 2021. A family member was staying up late to watch “National Treasure” again even though she knows the movie by heart. And instead of bouncing out of bed at 6 a.m., I was lying there until 7, playing Words with Friends.

It wasn’t burnout — we still had energy. It wasn’t depression — we didn’t feel hopeless. We just felt somewhat joyless and aimless. It turns out there’s a name for that: languishing.

Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield. And it might be the dominant emotion of 2021.

As scientists and physicians work to treat and cure the physical symptoms of long-haul Covid, many people are struggling with the emotional long-haul of the pandemic. It hit some of us unprepared as the intense fear and grief of last year faded.

......click link to continue reading......

[Ted Striker]

Man imagine living your life without a real passion until you find it in a fake disease spreading around the world. And then it kills you.

Ha! That should be his obituary.

[Benny Profane]

Yup.


There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing
The neglected middle child of mental health can dull your motivation and focus — and it may be the dominant emotion of 2021.

At first, I didn’t recognize the symptoms that we all had in common. Friends mentioned that they were having trouble concentrating. Colleagues reported that even with vaccines on the horizon, they weren’t excited about 2021. A family member was staying up late to watch “National Treasure” again even though she knows the movie by heart. And instead of bouncing out of bed at 6 a.m., I was lying there until 7, playing Words with Friends.

It wasn’t burnout — we still had energy. It wasn’t depression — we didn’t feel hopeless. We just felt somewhat joyless and aimless. It turns out there’s a name for that: languishing.

Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield. And it might be the dominant emotion of 2021.

As scientists and physicians work to treat and cure the physical symptoms of long-haul Covid, many people are struggling with the emotional long-haul of the pandemic. It hit some of us unprepared as the intense fear and grief of last year faded.

......click link to continue reading......

Didn't Bergman and Fassbinder make their careers on this?

[KQ]

Can certainly smell my own bad breath now that I'm masking up.

[bobz]

Nugent avoided Covids 1-18 but apparently couldn't avoid 19. Or, could it have just been Cat Scratch Fever?

Hahahahahahaha. By my estimation, he caught the Covid, badly, within a week of his "Covid 1 through 18" propaganda outburst. Thanks for the comedy, Nuge! Dumbass.

[gravitylover]

Yup.


There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing
The neglected middle child of mental health can dull your motivation and focus — and it may be the dominant emotion of 2021.

At first, I didn’t recognize the symptoms that we all had in common. Friends mentioned that they were having trouble concentrating. Colleagues reported that even with vaccines on the horizon, they weren’t excited about 2021. A family member was staying up late to watch “National Treasure” again even though she knows the movie by heart. And instead of bouncing out of bed at 6 a.m., I was lying there until 7, playing Words with Friends.

It wasn’t burnout — we still had energy. It wasn’t depression — we didn’t feel hopeless. We just felt somewhat joyless and aimless. It turns out there’s a name for that: languishing.

Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield. And it might be the dominant emotion of 2021.

As scientists and physicians work to treat and cure the physical symptoms of long-haul Covid, many people are struggling with the emotional long-haul of the pandemic. It hit some of us unprepared as the intense fear and grief of last year faded.

......click link to continue reading......

I've definitely fallen into this trap. I'll start doing or reading something and lose patience for it before I finish. I'll think of all these things I should do and not bother following through because I can't find the fun in it so "why bother". The worst part is now that I'm vaxed (2nd shot tomorrow afternoon) and can get back on the road selling stuff there isn't shit left for me to sell so I don't have a reason to go to work other than to spend money traveling with little chance of making it back in commissions so my desire to work is gone but the need is more intense than ever. Uggh. Blah...

[huckbucket]

Remember that study showing smokers caught CV19 at a lower rate than non-smokers? Big study out of Greece. Well, turns out the authors failed to disclose they are funded by tobacco. Bzzzt. Retracted.

https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/57/3/2002144

The journal essentially said their mission is to promote lung health and they do not publish studies from people who have relationships with the tobacco industry. Also, the authors hid that fact.

[jono]

Published last July--doesn't that mean they had to get a pretty early start on this whole thing? Hard not to be impressed with tobacco's responsiveness there. It's like they must have been keeping people on staff whose job was specifically to respond to large scale phenomena that might have an impact on their economics.

[KQ]

I've definitely fallen into this trap. I'll start doing or reading something and lose patience for it before I finish. I'll think of all these things I should do and not bother following through because I can't find the fun in it so "why bother". The worst part is now that I'm vaxed (2nd shot tomorrow afternoon) and can get back on the road selling stuff there isn't shit left for me to sell so I don't have a reason to go to work other than to spend money traveling with little chance of making it back in commissions so my desire to work is gone but the need is more intense than ever. Uggh. Blah...

Yeah I'm right there too. Haven't been doing any art (I do fiber art). Throughout the pandemic I've been accumulating supplies but they just sit there because of my funk. I've got a piece I've been working on for a week that should have only taken me a day. That said, reading that article kinda helped. I pulled the cover off my WIP and got a lot done on it yesterday. Will probably finish it this morning and I already have ideas for the next piece.

[huckbucket]

Published last July--doesn't that mean they had to get a pretty early start on this whole thing? Hard not to be impressed with tobacco's responsiveness there. It's like they must have been keeping people on staff whose job was specifically to respond to large scale phenomena that might have an impact on their economics.

"out of the box," "next-gen," guerilla marketing.

[old goat]

Yeah I'm right there too. Haven't been doing any art (I do fiber art). Throughout the pandemic I've been accumulating supplies but they just sit there because of my funk. I've got a piece I've been working on for a week that should have only taken me a day. That said, reading that article kinda helped. I pulled the cover off my WIP and got a lot done on it yesterday. Will probably finish it this morning and I already have ideas for the next piece.

I haven't picked up a guitar since the pandemic started. I used to play daily. The neighbors appreciate it, since I play electric, and sing.

[LongShortLong]

A good friend of mine who is an ER doctor in a big city that has high rates of covid said they are still seeing lots of covid positive patients of all ages coming in sick even though they have had their first shot. And still seeing elderly people coming in sick despite having 2 shots. I’m not at all surprised but it sounds like some of you might be.

Yes the thinking is that these people are less sick than they would be without vaccines. But they are still sick enough to end up in the ER. Think about how often you get sick enough that you feel you need to go to the emergency room.

I remember this from a few weeks ago...
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/100-fu...ry?id=76784838
102 vaxxed people got Covid, 8 hospitalized, 2 died.

My conclusions after looking at WA's covid stats around that time:
The vaccinated are roughly 90% less likely to have a positive test.
For those who test positive, hospitalization chances are roughly the same as for anyone else positive.
For those who test positive, Death chances are roughly the same as for anyone else positive.
This article does not support the notion that a Covid infection is less severe among the vaccinated, only that it is less likely.

These numbers are small so conclusions are tentative. Additionally most of the info comes from a major media source who doesn't understand the subject, so major errors possible. And, I'm a "dentist" so what do I know? I await larger data sets.

[jono]

I remember this from a few weeks ago...
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/100-fu...ry?id=76784838
102 vaxxed people got Covid, 8 hospitalized, 2 died.

My conclusions after looking at WA's covid stats around that time:
The vaccinated are roughly 90% less likely to have a positive test.
For those who test positive, hospitalization chances are roughly the same as for anyone else positive.
For those who test positive, Death chances are roughly the same as for anyone else positive.
This article does not support the notion that a Covid infection is less severe among the vaccinated, only that it is less likely.

These numbers are small so conclusions are tentative. Additionally most of the info comes from a major media source who doesn't understand the subject, so major errors possible. And, I'm a "dentist" so what do I know? I await larger data sets.

Do I understand you correctly that the odds of testing positive, being hospitalized and dying all fall by about 90%, such that both vaxed and unvaxed positive populations have the same odds of hospitalization and death within those populations? In other words, still a 90% reduction in hospitalization and deaths in the vaxed group overall.

If I understood you right I see your point but it seems a little complicated to draw conclusions about whether the vaccine reduces severity when the most severe outcomes are still down. From that kind of data it might be just as well to say it reduces severity across the board and 10% of the time that's still enough to test positive, etc. Which also seems like kind of a reach to me based on what I know I don't know, but maybe I'm wrong.

[LongShortLong]

Do I understand you correctly that the odds of testing positive, being hospitalized and dying all fall by about 90%, such that both vaxed and unvaxed positive populations have the same odds of hospitalization and death within those populations? In other words, still a 90% reduction in hospitalization and deaths in the vaxed group overall.

If I understood you right I see your point but it seems a little complicated to draw conclusions about whether the vaccine reduces severity when the most severe outcomes are still down. From that kind of data it might be just as well to say it reduces severity across the board and 10% of the time that's still enough to test positive, etc. Which also seems like kind of a reach to me based on what I know I don't know, but maybe I'm wrong.

Yes, all fall by 90%. Based on the Washington data cited in that ABC piece, once a vaccinee tests positive, outcomes are about the same as for other folk testing positive. In contrast, I believe the Israelis reported that vaccination resulted in mostly symptomless or mild Covid cases (as did the EUAs). The difference could be sloppy wording, I haven't looked at primary sources. It seemed clear the Israelis said vaccination resulted in both less infection and milder cases if infected.

Cross referencing the reported vaccination numbers with the JHU state level data for WA, I came up with ~90% less likely to test positive if vaxxed. I made several assumptions, with my goal to prove that the WA data shows the vaccines are about as effective as claimed elsewhere (EUA applications and Israel). CDC should make a report tracking real world vax performance so we can detect whether immune response changes, or if any variants change the results.

Either way, get vaxed for ~90% lower chance of bad Covid outcomes. I'd like clearer data before attending pox parties - no sense getting infected if I might be one of the 10% unlucky vaccinees and may fair no better than average if I test positive.

Edit - Just noticed the set of vaxxed people is biased toward older people, who we expect to have worse outcomes. The WA data showed outcomes matching that expected for the general population. With that in mind I'm comfortable saying that the vaccines both reduce likelihood of infection, and reduce severity if infected. Which agrees with the EUAs and Israeli reports.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Is this too political/bigoted? I think it's funny. https://i.redd.it/ekfsdvms1iu61.jpg


It's not even the bat eating that I really think is bad, per se, it's the general disregard for the life and sanitation of the bat and the way it's prepared.

[Tri-Ungulate]

Is this too political/bigoted? I think it's funny. https://i.redd.it/ekfsdvms1iu61.jpg


It's not even the bat eating that I really think is bad, per se, it's the general disregard for the life and sanitation of the bat and the way it's prepared.

Yeah, that's all those Chinks eat is bats. Raw. Alive and squirming, even. Like Ozzy would.

I think it's funny.