Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

I agree they are catering way too much to the teachers unions on this, especially in districts where they have all been vaccinated. Even the mayor of Chicago is being more forceful than he is.

At the same time, can I bring up a criticism of that chart from this morning? It compares covid to the 2017-2018 flu season specifically. That year probably wasn't chosen by accident. It was the deadliest flu season (correct me if I'm wrong) since the 1970's. My only point is that you can manipulate that "relative to covid" column in the selection of which flu season you choose to compare it with. 2017-2018 wasn't average or "typical" -- it was among the worst.

[iam416]

I specifically noted I don’t think the IFR is right and I don’t care about compared to anything. However, I do care about the Florida:California comp or lockdown:no lockdown comps.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I like Florida's approach to schools better. I'm not sure I agree with which state has done better overall in terms of proportional deaths.

[iam416]

Well, the point isn’t really “better” — it’s comparable. They’re pretty comparable and both are below national averages for cases and deaths per capita. I don’t think Florida has done something genius on containing Covid, but they’re roughly in the same spot as California, which ought to at least raise questions about the efficacy of school shutdowns and general lockdowns.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Well, the point isn’t really “better” — it’s comparable. They’re pretty comparable and both are below national averages for cases and deaths per capita. I don’t think Florida has done something genius on containing Covid, but they’re roughly in the same spot as California, which ought to at least raise questions about the efficacy of school shutdowns and general lockdowns.

I think that's a perfectly fair point, that they are comparable.

Let me throw out there again that Ohio has done really fucking well compared to most states of similar population. And we have some sneaky good hospital systems. Especially compared with the region around us.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Early today i heard that Bruce Springsteen was arrested for a DUI.

This evening, this article says it was in November and he only blew 0.02, a quarter of the legal limit in New Jersey. So WTF?

https://www.app.com/story/news/local/courts/2021/02/10/springsteen-blew-0-02-quarter-legal-limit-source-says/6712582002/

[lineygoblue]

Early today i heard that Bruce Springsteen was arrested for a DUI.

This evening, this article says it was in November and he only blew 0.02, a quarter of the legal limit in New Jersey. So WTF?

https://www.app.com/story/news/local...ys/6712582002/

Whatever he blew, it was enough for Jeep to pull his ad.

[Tom W]

He probably thought he was in that imaginary place called the Upper Peninsula and could do whatever he wanted to.

[iam416]

I think that's a perfectly fair point, that they are comparable.

Let me throw out there again that Ohio has done really fucking well compared to most states of similar population. And we have some sneaky good hospital systems. Especially compared with the region around us.

Ohio may be adding a bunch of deaths to its totals.

[Jeff Buchanan]

To follow-up on not getting the straight scoop ......

Already mentioned the WHO carries Xi's water. Fucking shameful. There may be little evidence that SARS-2 escaped from a lab but there isn't any that it didn't either.

The variants thing is getting a lot of press. IMO, it's another over-reaction to the virus just like we clearly over-reacted to it in February..... a lot of this based on modeling. Well, same shit is happening. I read a not scientific article that global travel will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2023. Yet it was a front page piece. Didn't track it down because I dismissed it out of hand as overly speculative conclusions based on, yep, modeling. Next .....

Here's the deal and I have looked very closely at the science. There are variants. This is nothing new nor should it be surprising. It's what viruses do to survive. There are many studies out there looking at specific variants - the UK (B1.1.1), the South African (B1.1.35) and the Brazilian (B1.1.7) {Caveat, there are lots of different names and numbers for these variants out there. The press get the names right but screws up the numbering all the time). I think the last article I read found over 200 genomic variants of SARS-2. The reason these three are front page is because, the Brits and South Africans got right on genomic sequencing as part of their look at places that had rapidly accelerating new case numbers and found a lot of the new cases were the B1.1.1 or B 1.1.35 variants. Next both countries starting looking at whether these variances were more lethal, more transmissible or would defeat known vaccines.

At this point EVERYTHING remains speculative and the studies I've read are loaded with caveat emptors.,,, preliminary results, not peer reviewed, needs more study. Meanwhile we have state and to a certain degree federal health authorities, although Fauci is as usual circumspect, raising red-flags. The MSM simply augments this shit and so everyone is despondent when, in reality, things are looking pretty good if you focus on daily outcomes in the typical measures that should be used to guide PH policy. You're not paying attention, or worse yet you are scared and predisposed to consume bad news to support your predictions of particular dark outcomes, to not know vaccines are getting into arms despite the immense complexity of doing this.

The case can be made that we are on the cusp of seeing meaningful data that the vaccine is having a positive impact. There is still too much confounding data that makes a conclusion that yep, the vaccines are working but, it your an optimist, yes they are by existing measures. If you're into dark outcomes then, nope, the variants are going to bite us in the ass and we'll be dealing with mobility restrictions and people dying in droves for years to come...... and that brings to mind one of the best parts of Twitter link, talent provided yesterday:

They (Blue politicians) have given voice to scientists and doctors who have exaggerated the risk to those under 45, and denied the costs to this same group, even though once strict measures were removed, no excess deaths were seen in this group. Chart follows, re-visit the link to see it

This is a bid deal, IMO. Taken a step further, it was pretty fucking clear back in February that steps needed to be taken to protect over 75s, right away. Some states did that, others fucked this up badly but, nooooo, one of the governors that blew it was getting praise for his news conferences while he was sending sick LTC residents back to infect whoever else they were lodged with and one was getting pilloried because he did that very thing and made it a calling card of his efforts - protect the elderly - while keeping most things open, including schools, knowing full well, way back then, the risk to under 45's was extremely low and for school age kids, especially elementary schools, about zero. You know who both are.

This morning, the NYTs news feed I got had stunningly positive reports on the pandemic. yet there was this:

It’s been a long time since the virus news was as encouraging as it is right now.

The overall situation is still bad. The virus is spreading more rapidly in the U.S. than in almost any other large country, and more than 2,500 Americans are dying daily. Newly contagious variants may create future outbreaks. For now, though, things are getting better — and a combination of vaccinations, mask wearing and social distancing has the potential to sustain the recent progress.

I don't know about you but I find this paragraph noteworthy for its implicit contradiction. It is however, reflective of the generally conflicting virus information we get on a daily basis and the MSM's recognition of it and how hard it is for them to write something positive. I'd call this, in part, the deference to Joe Biden effect that we all thought would take place. Well, it's taking place.

[iam416]

Already mentioned the WHO carries Xi's water. Fucking shameful. There may be little evidence that SARS-2 escaped from a lab but there isn't any that it didn't either.

It's remarkable to me that WHO can't rule out any other cause -- including that it came from some other country -- but can definitively rule out that it came from a lab researching and manipulating the SARS virus in the city where the first outbreak occurred. I mean, seriously.

Along the same lines, the UN Human Rights Council will surely issue another half dozen or proclamations in 2021 denouncing Israel, but won't say word one about the Uyghurs.

PDJT pretty accurately assessed that certain institutions basically exist as Chinese puppets.

This is a bid deal, IMO. Taken a step further, it was pretty fucking clear back in February that steps needed to be taken to protect over 75s, right away. Some states did that, others fucked this up badly but, nooooo, one of the governors that blew it was getting praise for his news conferences while he was sending sick LTC residents back to infect whoever else they were lodged with and one was getting pilloried because he did that very thing and made it a calling card of his efforts - protect the elderly - while keeping most things open, including schools, knowing full well, way back then, the risk to under 45's was extremely low and for school age kids, especially elementary schools, about zero. You know who both are.

Simply quoted for truth. I'll fully admit I was in the Fear Monkey camp for awhile, but by May I was out.

[Da Geezer]

Well, the point isn’t really “better” — it’s comparable. They’re pretty comparable and both are below national averages for cases and deaths per capita. I don’t think Florida has done something genius on containing Covid, but they’re roughly in the same spot as California, which ought to at least raise questions about the efficacy of school shutdowns and general lockdowns.

FL has done a vastly superior job of "handling" covid than CA if personal freedom is considered of value. One of the problems in the US is that so many are so willing to trade freedom for security. You know the rest of that story.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Simply quoted for truth. I'll fully admit I was in the Fear Monkey camp for awhile, but by May I was out.

Yep.

[Dr. Strangelove]

The entire story about Officer Sicknick dying after being hit on the head with a fire extinguisher looks to be false at this point. In fact, they aren't at all sure WHAT killed him but are looking at a possible allergic reaction to bear spray as a cause.

https://news.yahoo.com/federal-investigators-looking-whether-bear-163307346.html

[iam416]

The FDA won't meet to discuss J&J's vaccine until February 26. The FDA has had the J&J data since early February/end of January. It's been approved in other countries. The US is sitting here with a real supply issue that isn't going to get magically fixed by the DPA. What the US Govt can do is hurry the fuck up with J&J. But, apparently, they'll get to it when they get to it.

If this PDJT's FDA The Media would be screaming bloody murder. Literally. I hope they go after Chairman Joe's FDA with similar vigor.