Coronavirus thread

[Karl Henning]

The people attending the rally probably dug January 6th and, if anything, think it didn't go far enough. 

Just the problem.

[T. D.]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-22/radio-host-who-regretted-vaccine-hesitancy-dies-of-covid

If paywalled, should be able to find via Google.
An Associated Press story is cited, that should be easy to find.

[Karl Henning]

There's also the widely reported difficulty of filling jobs, especially in restaurants and retail. This phenomenon has persisted despite free vaccines and elevated pay scales. In fact, people are resigning at an elevated rate, leading some analysts to dub the current labor situation "the Great Resignation." Some of this is likely the result of unemployment benefits, but there seem to be deeper shifts underway in the labor market. It's also possible that service workers will come out of this with a little more bargaining power, and that many will do their best not to return to the sector.

On the white-collar end, permanent or at least medium-term changes to land use and commuting seem more and more likely, as some employers push back their September office reopenings and school closures rear their head again. Longer but less frequent commutes, or permanent work-from-home arrangements, already seem to be starting a new wave of growth at or beyond the exurban edge of major metro areas. In other words, our labor and economic issues are also land-use and transportation issues. Are cities prepared for this? Are communities caught between the urban core and exploding exurbs ready for it? A move might be temporary, but alterations in things like land use, tax revenues, and road capacity will cast a long shadow.

All of this and more—will handshakes survive? business travel?—is uncertain. A return to "normal" may still be possible, even if it isn't quite a snapback. But many people have been forced to rethink, or had the opportunity to rethink, their careers, their salary requirements, their family time, and their true needs. It's one thing to do what you've always done; it's another thing to go back to that after seeing what else is possible.

Remember the narrative earlier this year that summer might be mostly normal, but that fall would likely be difficult? (Turns out, that simply happened a month or two earlier than predicted, with the current Delta wave.) My wife and I were at a crab-leg buffet in Virginia Beach on Memorial Day weekend, when Virginia followed updated CDC guidance and essentially lifted all public health precautions. The restaurant was filled to capacity and there was a line out the door. Whatever the virus does later this year, it will be very, very hard to stuff that sense of liberation back in the bottle.

The Great Unsettledness, Revisited

[Karl Henning]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-22/radio-host-who-regretted-vaccine-hesitancy-dies-of-covid

If paywalled, should be able to find via Google.
An Associated Press story is cited, that should be easy to find.

Atop his reprehensible disinformation hucksterism is the "elective tragedy" of his at last seeing light, but not living to try to undo the harm he's done:

Conservative Radio Host Who Mocked Vaccines Dies of COVID-19

[Holden]

It is crazy and scary to think Trump might be back in the White House in Jan. 2025! 

If you keep talking about him he will be. Trump doesn't care what press he gets, as long as he keeps getting it.

[André]

If you keep talking about him he will be. Trump doesn't care what press he gets, as long as he keeps getting it.

Very true !

[Karl Henning]

Mass. grapples with whether to adopt new restrictions; US weekly COVID infections surpass 1 million amid Delta surge

By Globe staff Updated August 22, 2021, 1 hour ago

[Karl Henning]

Forecasters offer grim fall outlook on COVID-19, with deaths predicted to rise in Mass.

By Kay Lazar Globe Staff,Updated August 21, 2021, 6:29 p.m.

Another season lost to pandemic may lie ahead.

Two separate disease forecasting teams are predicting that COVID-19 deaths will rise in Massachusetts and across the country for weeks to come, as the grim flood of new infections and steady rise in hospitalizations that began around July 4 continues.

Meanwhile, a third forecasting team has acknowledged that the ongoing surge is even stronger than they predicted only a few weeks ago based on early July data because they had underestimated the contagiousness of the Delta strain of the virus.

But the extremity of the COVID surge's high-water mark, and how quickly Massachusetts turns the tide, depends on choices about wearing masks and getting vaccinated that can mean the difference between life and death, several disease trackers said.

It isn't looking as though I can make a case for the church choir getting together in September.

[JBS]

Meanwhile in my state of Florida, the one week total of deaths last week exceeded the worst week of 2020
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1428875158337556483

[T. D.]

Meanwhile in my state of Florida, the one week total of deaths last week exceeded the worst week of 2020
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1428875158337556483

And the GOP is surely undercounting the deaths, so the situation is likely worse than the numbers indicate.

But they've undercounted all along, so we're making inferences from a somewhat fake time series!
Perhaps the undercount was less severe in 2020? There was that whistleblowing state scientist who got fired midway through 2020 - Rebekah Jones - I didn't keep track of what happened to her.

[Que]

Further spreading of the Delta variant:

Meanwhile in Europe, despite ongoing vaccinations things are still not looking better on the spreading of the virus:

[Mandryka]

Meanwhile in Europe, despite ongoing vaccinations things are still not looking better on the spreading of the virus:

The spread will become less important as population immunity is increasing.

The one everyone should be watching now is Scotland, their schools opened last week.

[MusicTurner]

I love Scotland, but I think that is mainly relevant for UK residents and travellers. Their vaccination rate and school situation is not unique.

[Mandryka]

I love Scotland, but I think that is mainly relevant for UK residents and travellers. Their vaccination rate and school situation is not unique.

No but I was assuming the early opening of schools is unique. So it will allow us to see the consequences of opening schools in a vaccinated population with delta circulating. Or have other countries with a high level of vaccination already opened schools?

[MusicTurner]

Here for example schools started 2 weeks ago!

[Mandryka]

Here for example schools started 2 weeks ago!

Ah! And has the incidence of the disease changed as a result?

What measures are you taking in schools to reduce transmission? Is there special air testing and  purification equipment?

[T. D.]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-21/fda-issues-you-are-not-a-cow-warning-after-livestock-drug-use

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a strong and unusual warning on Saturday: "You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it."

The FDA was reacting to alarms from Mississippi, the state with the worst outbreak in the U.S., that people have been taking ivermectin to treat or prevent Covid-19. The drug is often used against parasites in livestock.

...

An FDA warning said that ivermectin "is not an anti-viral" and that "taking large doses of this drug is dangerous and can cause serious harm." Though most often used in animals, the FDA said the drug has been approved in smaller doses in humans to treat two conditions caused by parasitic worms.

[Karl Henning]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-21/fda-issues-you-are-not-a-cow-warning-after-livestock-drug-use

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a strong and unusual warning on Saturday: "You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it."

The FDA was reacting to alarms from Mississippi, the state with the worst outbreak in the U.S., that people have been taking ivermectin to treat or prevent Covid-19. The drug is often used against parasites in livestock.

...

An FDA warning said that ivermectin "is not an anti-viral" and that "taking large doses of this drug is dangerous and can cause serious harm." Though most often used in animals, the FDA said the drug has been approved in smaller doses in humans to treat two conditions caused by parasitic worms.

Maybe they are cows. Nah, cows are brighter.

[T. D.]

Maybe they are cows. Nah, cows are brighter.

No doubt the same dumbasses who call the vaccinated "sheeple". 

[Mirror Image]

No doubt the same dumbasses who call the vaccinated "sheeple". 

I'm telling you that whenever these people are lying in an ICU bed or someone they love or care about is, they'll think twice before they call those who want to protect themselves (and others) "sheeple". As I've said, once this virus hits home, it's a completely different story.