Coronavirus thread

[Todd]

I knew these vaccines were not going to protect against infection. And I think we overplayed the vaccines.

July 22, 2022.

[Florestan]

     That's not good enough because it doesn't strongly indict lying Commie bastards. It makes the outbreak a natural disaster bungled by local auth0rities that could have happened anywhere before lying Commie bastards covered it up. No, we need stronger stuff. I know!! Let's put a lying Commie virology lab funded by US liberals in there! Now that'll do the trick.

You can't even begin to understand what Communism means and does. I say, even if you're a hardcore atheist you should still praise the Lord that your country was never ruled by Communists.

Valid for many GMGers.

[drogulus]

You can't even begin to understand what Communism means and does. I say, even if you're a hardcore atheist you should still praise the Lord that your country was never ruled by Communists.

Valid for many GMGers.

     I sacrifice a white bull to Jupiter at least once a month to keep me safe from lying Commie bastards. That's because I treat Communism as another false religion, kinda like all the others only more fierce (sometimes). So, we partially agree. Where we disagree is probably about what Hitch said about the celestial N. Korea being worse on account of at least the Kims leave you in peace after you die.

     

[greg]

or why a lot of English-language media has been too lazy to say "a market selling exotic meat" instead of latching onto a phrase that sounds exotic?

They should call it an exotic meat market.
But... maybe not.
Hmmm then that sounds like a name of a weird gay bar. 

The English name sucks. What is a "wet market," a market were they sell water? Or videos of people's weird fetish of wetting themselves?

How about... exotic animal grocer?

Are you asking why Chinese languages have not bothered to make a distinction to suit you on the other side of the world

No... what even is the Chinese word? I would be surprised if it were actually translated as "farmer's market."
Ha... don't get me started on languages, though. I have been wondering lately how many wild words Chinese has that English doesn't have- since the more I continue in my Japanese studies, the more I notice these advanced words which are extremely niche and unexpected, and often they are derived from Chinese kanji combinations, and many more synonyms than you'd expect.
I bet they have multiple words for "wet market."

[MusicTurner]

Numbers of identified cases have now been pretty stable for a month here in DK, including after the recent growth of BA5 - around 2000 - 3000 daily.

BA 2.75 now considered the latest, more contagious variant here.

BA 2.75 receded, against expectations, into almost nothing, and is no longer considered important.

Case numbers also generally going down somewhat here in DK, in spite of the rise back in early summer.

So: patterns not necessarily predictable. But we've had a lot of sunny and hot weather recently.

[Madiel]

The current omicron wave in Australia, in winter, may have peaked sooner (and lower) than was expected.

I'm trying to dodge for another 5 days before my appointment for a booster vaccination...

[Todd]

CDC relaxes COVID-19 guidelines, drops quarantine and social distancing recommendations

[Karl Henning]

The current omicron wave in Australia, in winter, may have peaked sooner (and lower) than was expected.

I'm trying to dodge for another 5 days before my appointment for a booster vaccination...

Good luck!

[Madiel]

Good luck!

Well the booster shot was over a week ago now.

[Karl Henning]

Good.

[Todd]

Biden Administration Plans for End of Covid-19 Shot, Treatment Coverage

My hope is that in 2023, you're going to see the commercialization of almost all of these products. Some of that is actually going to begin this fall, in the days and weeks ahead. You're going to see commercialization of some of these things.

[Todd]

Are lockdown effects 'killing more people than Covid'?

Excess deaths data has blown open debate about pandemic restrictions

[drogulus]

     The Chinese lockdowns that are prematurely destroying the economy are due to the failure of the Chinese vaccine, and the decision not to beg for help from the capitalist ghouls.

[Madiel]

Are lockdown effects 'killing more people than Covid'?

Excess deaths data has blown open debate about pandemic restrictions

The UK lockdowns ended quite some time ago.

[milk]

The UK lockdowns ended quite some time ago.

It's interesting: I lean in no direction as to the wisdom of these things but here in Japan we've had no lockdowns ever. We do live in a total continual mask culture to this day everywhere, inside and outside. Despite the fact that Japanese are weirdly somewhat anti-vax we have been able to get vaccinated 3 times (too slowly). But, no lockdowns in Japan.

[krummholz]

One of the most unfortunate things about American culture vis. the pandemic is the degree to which masking and mask mandates have become equated to "Big Brother forcing me to do something I don't want to do". People here are so utterly sick of anything to do with pandemic mitigation that the percentage of people masking up in crowded stores here in Vermont is now under 10%. I was at a Costco last week where the ONLY people I saw wearing masks (other than myself) were some of the store staff - and even among the staff, mask wearers were in the minority.

Edited to add: the CDC has not helped matters by using "community levels" instead of "community transmission levels" to define degree of risk across the US. "Community level" seems to be a measure of the degree of strain on the health care system; while "community transmission level" is more relevant to one's risk of contracting the virus without adopting some mitigation measure like masking. "Community level" is low nearly everywhere, thanks largely to nearly everyone having some immunity to the virus; but community transmission levels are high enough in many places to justify calling this a surge (of the BA.5 variant). And while serious illness and death are not as widespread as they once were, people are still developing Long COVID.

[Todd]

August 17th: Walensky, Citing Botched Pandemic Response, Calls for C.D.C. Reorganization

August 22nd: Fauci Says He Will Step Down in December to Pursue His 'Next Chapter'

Unrelated stories.

[Madiel]

Given that Fauci is not at the CDC, they are indeed unrelated. 

[Karl Henning]

And, in non-surprising news:
High levels of immunity with COVID-19 vaccines have helped avoid 'excess mortality' in Mass., study says

[Karl Henning]

How long covid reshapes the brain — and how we might treat it