Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[AlabamAlum]

Hey, did you hear you can buy iron and carbon for just the price of one alloy?

What a steel!

[THE_WIZARD_]

horrible

[Dr. Strangelove]

Military coup in Sudan overnight

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59033142

[THE_WIZARD_]

I wish there was a coup at your house...

[Mike]

Military coup in Sudan overnight

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59033142

But what will that mean for the midterms?

[Dr. Strangelove]

I wish there was a coup at your house...

Forced. Revise and resubmit

[THE_WIZARD_]

Ok.

I wish there was a coup at your trailer...

[Kapture1]

SNHzJG7.png



again, he needs to have been fired already. Puppies? Gain of function.

Fauci is a litteral evil scientist, like Mengele.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I'm pretty much tapped out on M v. MSU on Saturday so, I'll sum up some of the COVID stuff I'm reading about.

First, in the US new cases have declined by nearly 60% and the decline is uniform across all regions of the US. That's new news. In the past cycles both surges and declines have been regional then spreading elsewhere. Epidemiologist think this subtle change predicts a less that scary next cycle. IOW, experts expect an overall increase in case numbers during the late fall and winter but it will be tamped down by the impact of vaccines and changed human behavior brought about by almost 2 years of the pandemic accompanied by increasing awareness of how to protect yourself and others from spreading SARS2.

We've been through several mutations and while infectiousness of them increases, they generally don't produce more severe symptoms. Evidence of this is that hospitalizations and deaths have remained relatively stable in the face of rising case numbers through September.

This is all good news but the US still leads the world in a number of key metrics that measure disease impact namely total cases and deaths. According to some analysts the political polarization in the US and misinformation associated with it explains some of this. I don't necessarily endorse that take but it nonetheless is one deserving consideration down the road as things sort themselves out with SARS2 and understanding it's behavior becomes clearer. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Deaths.PNG

...... and, some think it didn't need to be that way. Compared to a basket of other rich countries, the US has the lowest vaccination rate despite the availability of vaccines. Vaccine hesitancy and anti-vax politics contribute to the low US vax rate. For older age groups, the virus remains a leading cause of death. And the main reason is that millions of Americans have chosen to remain unvaccinated. Some facts:

• For older people, the effects of vaccination are profound. In late August, near the height of the Delta wave, 24 out of every 10,000 unvaccinated Americans 65 and above were hospitalized with COVID symptoms, according to the CDC. Among fully vaccinated Americans 65 and above, the number was 1.5 per 10,000.
• According to the Kaiser Foundations, only 67 percent of American adults without a four-year college degree have received a shot, compared with 82 percent of college graduates, and only 58 percent of self-identified Republicans are vaccinated, compared with 90 percent of Democrats.
• Globally, vax rates range from 88% in the UAE to < 0.1% in Congo. The US is at 57%

Take what you will from those facts. IMO, it's a triumph of misinformation spread through social media platforms and possibly more importantly here in the US, the absence of clear messaging at the federal level from people like Fauci of NIH and Walenski of CDC. Their confusing and often contradictory guidance and statements are, in large measure, responsible for the confusion within the US population.

One final comment. Months ago I wrote that I'm less concerned about the impact of COVID than government's reactions as they pertain to dealing with rising case numbers. My concerns have proven to be valid. The world relies on mobility and access for commerce and social interaction. That continues to be stifled by unnecessary, capricious government mandated mitigation measures. As these measures are implemented, as soon as the threat lessens, they are rarely withdrawn. There has been a trend toward governments developing health policies that stress living with the virus instead of eradicating it. China remains the only country pursuing an eradication approach to SARS2.

The lack of any kind of uniformity of COVID mitigation measures between nations is stunning. I've read plenty of articles on the mess that is the global supply chain and how this has been interrupted first by COVID and next by persistent government mandated COVID related measures. These impact staffing/employment on a massive scale across a wide range of businesses in the service sectors among others. The net result is too much demand, chasing too little supply. We see it as cargo ships stacked up outside US ports, skyrocketing prices for just about everything and empty shelves in Walmart.

On a personal level, keeping up with entry requirements, proof of vaccinations and COVID related health protocols for any number of countries I've visited in the last 3 months has been hard. It is no wonder that spending within the travel and leisure sectors of countries that depend almost entirely on this economic sector to sustain themselves still have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. In fact, countries returning to 50% of pre-pandemic spending levels are outside of the norm. I assign almost all of the supply chain, mobility and social interaction disruption to government over-reaction in dealing with COVID and the pandemic it spawned.










Speaking of which:

[THE_WIZARD_]

STFU

[Kapture1]

FDA is meeting over whether to include children 5-11 in the forced injection category.

Pure malpractice.

[Jeff Buchanan]

FDA is meeting over whether to include children 5-11 in the forced injection category.

Pure malpractice.

To my knowledge, the FDA plays no role in vaccine mandates. Their role is to review the recommendations from a panel of experts that have completed a review of a pharmaceutical company's application to the FDA for authorized use. Right now, on the basis of a the declared PHE, emergency authorizations from the FDA for COVID related drugs are shortcutting the much longer process normally required. You can disagree or agree with this policy. There are reasonable arguments on both sides. Facts on the ground indicate that the benefits of these drugs being pushed through EUA are far, far greater than any risks associated with them. The most recent documents on this subject that I reviewed on line suggest that no drug made available through EU has demonstrated a side effects profile out of the norm.

The FDA recommends a list of childhood vaccines and if you are referring to the FDA playing a routine role in recommending that COVID vaccines be added to the list of recommended vaccines in childhood as "the forced injection category." I believe that is false.

The FDA does not mandate any vaccines. That's up to the states that typically mandate vaccines to attend school or some day care centers. All 50 states have most vaccines on the FDA list mandated. As a result many highly contagious diseases that were once common, such as measles, mumps, whooping cough (aka pertussis) and chickenpox, are now rare, while polio and smallpox have been eradicated in the U.S. Routine child vaccination is estimated to prevent 936,000 premature deaths and 419 million illnesses in American children born between 1994 and 2018.

I'll grant that it may be too early to consider COVID vaccines as one that should be added to the list of recommended childhood vaccinations. I certainly have my doubts about the kind of messaging such a move might produce here in the US. The FDA, if it is in fact considering adding the COVID vaccines to that list, and if a state mandated it for school, I'd oppose that until we had a year or more of vaccines voluntarily in the arms of children aged 5-11.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Yesterday the Feds quietly arrested 8 leaders of the United Nation of Islam aka The Promise Keepers, a lunatic offshoot from Farrakhan's Nation of Islam. The cult was basically enslaving children and forcing them to work in "church" owned businesses around the country. The leader, an ex-trucker named Royall Jenkins who proclaimed himself to be Allah, is either whereabouts unknown or died this year from covid.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/united-nation-of-islam-cult-leaders-forced-colonics-weekly-weigh-ins-on-kids-feds-say

[iam416]

I wonder why it was quiet.

[Kapture1]

To my knowledge, the FDA plays no role in vaccine mandates. Their role is to review the recommendations from a panel of experts that have completed a review of a pharmaceutical company's application to the FDA for authorized use. Right now, on the basis of a the declared PHE, emergency authorizations from the FDA for COVID related drugs are shortcutting the much longer process normally required. You can disagree or agree with this policy. There are reasonable arguments on both sides. Facts on the ground indicate that the benefits of these drugs being pushed through EUA are far, far greater than any risks associated with them. The most recent documents on this subject that I reviewed on line suggest that no drug made available through EU has demonstrated a side effects profile out of the norm.

The FDA recommends a list of childhood vaccines and if you are referring to the FDA playing a routine role in recommending that COVID vaccines be added to the list of recommended vaccines in childhood as "the forced injection category." I believe that is false.

The FDA does not mandate any vaccines. That's up to the states that typically mandate vaccines to attend school or some day care centers. All 50 states have most vaccines on the FDA list mandated. As a result many highly contagious diseases that were once common, such as measles, mumps, whooping cough (aka pertussis) and chickenpox, are now rare, while polio and smallpox have been eradicated in the U.S. Routine child vaccination is estimated to prevent 936,000 premature deaths and 419 million illnesses in American children born between 1994 and 2018.

I'll grant that it may be too early to consider COVID vaccines as one that should be added to the list of recommended childhood vaccinations. I certainly have my doubts about the kind of messaging such a move might produce here in the US. The FDA, if it is in fact considering adding the COVID vaccines to that list, and if a state mandated it for school, I'd oppose that until we had a year or more of vaccines voluntarily in the arms of children aged 5-11.

Ah Jesus Christ

I KNOW they play no role, but as soon as it's approved it will be mandated for school children.

Those other vaccines were on the market FOR YEARS before being required for children in schools