To Vaccinate or Not---The Rat Flu Odyssey Continues

[jono]

Wake me up when they invent a vaccine that prevents long Covid.

If they have the headlines will still say it's better to be young and dumb than old and vaccinated (except they'll leave out young). Luckily, we can all get younger by sticking our heads in the sand, so we've got that going for us. Which is nice.

[NakedShorts]

Wrong. Vaccines still reduce the severity of infection.

According to the data also more inclined to catch it too. Best of luck when this beast turns back into a more deadly version. Pretty sure the multi boosted gonna get fuckeded.

Why you say? Science. Bugs always try and beat our systems. Just like we are seeing with Super Bugs and Antibiotics we will have a Super Rona that will get around the gene therapy treatment. It will have TARGETED it.

[jono]

Right on cue. Post up some of this science.

Statistically speaking, vaccinated and boosted means old and at risk. Don't be clickbaited.

[RoooR]

I don’t think they know. They stopped paying attention and listening. Burn out is definitely a factor, but unclear, conflicting, and confusing recommendations is another.

Alameda County re-instituted a mask mandate that starts tomorrow. CalPoly SLO and UCSB have them, too. Apparently, the public schools near those universities have followed suit.

Covid is contagious enough that the mandades didn't work.
NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/31/b...sultPosition=1

"The evidence suggests that broad mask mandates have not done much to reduce Covid caseloads over the past two years. Today, mask rules may do even less than in the past, given the contagiousness of current versions of the virus. And successful public health campaigns rarely involve a divisive fight over a measure unlikely to make a big difference."

[jono]

^^Handwaving dismissal of the most meaningful problem with mandate stats is weak. Mandates have been applied reactively, so mandates correlate with community spread, and exponential growth therefore virtually guarantees that cases will be higher when and where there are mandates. Because spread causes both more spread and mandates. Simple stuff that he should have addressed if he wants to be taken seriously. (That is a significant "if" these days.)

He's right that mandates haven't been applied in a way that maximizes mask effectiveness. And they've been used as a signal to the general public that informs them about relative risk at a given moment. Which is unfortunate now.

[bodywhomper]

Among many of the educated people that I know, the burn out has resulted in the mentality that they’re mostly protected because they’re vaxed. They’ll comply with mask mandates because they trust PH officials, but they’re not wearing masks otherwise because they stopped listening closely or listening to those that said it’s no big deal to have a breakthrough infection.

Leonhardt is gaining a pretty good reputation for misinformation and manipulating information/data. SMEs are thinking a loud that he’s not being fact-checked and that it’s reflecting pretty poorly on the NYT.

Here’s an example of his most recent article: https://twitter.com/gregggonsalves/s...Sp3hNPpSoW8zDQ

[bennymac]

Thanks for the laughs NakedShorts

[skaredshtles]

Thanks for the laughs NakedShorts

Actual video of NS:

[jono]

Among many of the educated people that I know, the burn out has resulted in the mentality that they’re mostly protected because they’re vaxed. They’ll comply with mask mandates because they trust PH officials, but they’re not wearing masks otherwise because they stopped listening closely or listening to those that said it’s no big deal to have a breakthrough infection.

Leonhardt is gaining a pretty good reputation for misinformation and manipulating information/data. SMEs are thinking a loud that he’s not being fact-checked and that it’s reflecting pretty poorly on the NYT.

Here’s an example of his most recent article: https://twitter.com/gregggonsalves/s...Sp3hNPpSoW8zDQ

Unfortunately I'm past expecting better from NYT. Populist pseudo-intellectual clickbait with weak foundations is more profitable than putting in the effort to present something to actually inform, let alone educate. Maybe their readership has changed, maybe its just $. Doesn't really matter why, it's the consistency that I notice.

[old goat]

NYT is good on what it's always been good at--politics, international affairs, etc etc. I don't think any of the MSM are doing particularly well with the pandemic. Science is not their wheelhouse, there are thousands of eager sources out there with various degrees of qualification and trustworthiness and the editors don't have the background to know who to trust. So they fall back on publishing contrarian stuff, with an emphasis on sensationalism. The Atlantic in particular seems to have made a specialty out of it.

With most of us reading the national newspapers online the old triaging process--solid news in the front, things get sketchier towards the back--is gone from the websites, and there seems to be a lot more space to fill with syndicated stuff and other outside sources.

[Falcon3]

NYT is good on what it's always been good at--politics, international affairs, etc etc. I don't think any of the MSM are doing particularly well with the pandemic. Science is not their wheelhouse,

I’d disagree. The NYT put together a county by county database early on in the pandemic, something which not even the federal agencies were able to do at the time. And kept it updated throughout.

[PNWbrit]

NYT is good on what it's always been good at--politics, international affairs, etc etc. I don't think any of the MSM are doing particularly well with the pandemic. Science is not their wheelhouse, there are thousands of eager sources out there with various degrees of qualification and trustworthiness and the editors don't have the background to know who to trust. So they fall back on publishing contrarian stuff, with an emphasis on sensationalism. The Atlantic in particular seems to have made a specialty out of it.

With most of us reading the national newspapers online the old triaging process--solid news in the front, things get sketchier towards the back--is gone from the websites, and there seems to be a lot more space to fill with syndicated stuff and other outside sources.

Completely disagree.

[happytimefunbox]

Two bars what did I win?

Started feeling shitty last weekend did a couple of OTC tests from CVS and they were all neg. Convinced myself it was allergies. Feeling a bit better our free Gov tests showed up today and here we are. Triple vaxxed

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[jfost]

…

He's right that mandates haven't been applied in a way that maximizes mask effectiveness. And they've been used as a signal to the general public that informs them about relative risk at a given moment. Which is unfortunate now.

Probably the most frustrating conclusion drawn by people is that “masks don’t work”…

Only in our dumb country will people not only decide for themselves that masking doesn’t work, but then double down and actually make fun of those that do wear masks.

This has been awesome.

[riser4]

Two bars what did I win?

Started feeling shitty last weekend did a couple of OTC tests from CVS and they were all neg. Convinced myself it was allergies. Feeling a bit better our free Gov tests showed up today and here we are. Triple vaxxed

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

Congratulations. You're preggers.

[old goat]

I’d disagree. The NYT put together a county by county database early on in the pandemic, something which not even the federal agencies were able to do at the time. And kept it updated throughout.

So they did something right--by sticking to raw data and not trying to understand or explain it. Don't get me wrong--my main source for Covid info these days is mainstream media. But I read around the sensationalism, the contrarianism, and the hand wringing, and try to figure out what is actually news.

Completely disagree.

You make an excellent point. I shall have to reconsider my position.

[SumJongGuy]

OK so all the issues with the rapid tests not going positive on folks until day 3-5 of the infection and even 2-3 days AFTER symptoms are noticeable.

Weren't some folks saying that maybe a throat swab would detect the virus sooner? Somewhere a couple months ago folks were saying they'd test negative then test again from the throat and it resulted positive.

What happened to the theory that the throat might be better than the nose for grabbing the test sample??


So we've got people who were exposed and/or don't feel great testing once or twice and if negative at that point just tossing their hands up and going on with their lives... out in public. Might very well be positive and show positive i another day or two but not testing day after day after day after day.. I wouldn't either.. . It would be nice if the throat swab really did help solve this dilemma. On well..

[bodywhomper]

It’s a public health messaging problem

[happytimefunbox]

Congratulations. You're preggers.

The gender reveal is gonna be all time!

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[SumJongGuy]

It’s a public health messaging problem

I'd still like to know what was the final expert opinion regarding the notion that swabbing the throat could give a better sample than swabbing the nose. The discussion seems to have just fizzled out without any official CDC or NIH opinion given. @SkiJ, MoForo Trackhead, did any of you see anything official about that theory before it just kind of quietly went away.. Or did the experts determine for sure that the nose is still the better sample source for rapid tests?

[skiJ]

I have not seen anything "official" And I will hold my opinions ( for now ) -

Summit is also currently, actively, (professionally - it appears ) involved in this, and may be seeing Information. . .

and I have not seen anything "official" about alternative testing procedue(s)...


Thank you. skiJ

[jono]

Is there even a standard yet for cycle thresholds or is that still being decided locally? Seems like if you want a standard test with more sensitivity (say, to account for more contagious variants) that might be a good starting point. My googler machine is not showing me very current stuff on that.

[RShea]

So it has been over 2 weeks since I did the government order for the tests. Still have not arrived. All are now post covid quarantine time wise and considered covid recovered by the medical definitions.

Not sure if they are out or out of funding for them (recent article about the legislators not passing any additional funding as of yet and they are redirecting some efforts to keep vaccines available, etc.) , if they are having manpower issues with packing and shipping or if the delivery of the package was delayed or something.

[SumJongGuy]

^^^^
I ordered last round that promised 8 tests... probably about 6 weeks ago. It took almost a month but they sent 10, 2 packs of 5. It definitely took more than 2 weeks though. First time they came really quick. Your experience this round seems similar to mine. I did get notices with tracking when they shipped. I'm guessing you didn't get that yet..

[bodywhomper]

One of my kids’ schools kept us in good supply for all of May. My work health insurance has a reimbursement system. I have not gotten reimbursed yet for the tests that I bought and submitted receipts for in April.