Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[THE_WIZARD_]

STFU ya old fart

[Jeff Buchanan]

I'd be careful drawing the obvious conclusions from the graph Hannibal posted. Those kinds of graphs, where it is clear what the implication is, can be misleading. I don't object to them but context is important. Israel reached a daily test rate of 120,000 tests per day over the last week. That is a very high number of tests over population compared to just about every other place on the planet.

Israeli PH officials test the shit out of citizens residing there and do a better job than other places in the world in analyzing and drawing conclusions from that data. Israeli health authorities claim they are testing 5% of Israel's population every week. COVID positives given that testing rate are going to be multiples higher than SA's which does very little testing nationally. You'd expect that chart to show the differences in new case numbers that it does and, surprise, that's exactly what it shows. It's not of much use.

Israel has a strikingly low COVID death rate compared to SA showing vaccines widely administered do work, even better when prevalence rates are low and the Israel's also do a better job at that than anywhere else. ...... for preventing serious illness and deaths when comparisons are standardized for age. We've been down this road. New case numbers taken out of context are mostly useless. They can be displayed to graphically demonstrate a particular viewpoint. I suspect that is what has happened in that graph.

[lineygoblue]

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[THE_WIZARD_]

Thats where my missing fuckin' Amazon package is...

[Hannibal]

I'd be careful drawing the obvious conclusions from the graph Hannibal posted. Those kinds of graphs, where it is clear what the implication is, can be misleading. I don't object to them but context is important. Israel reached a daily test rate of 120,000 tests per day over the last week. That is a very high number of tests over population compared to just about every other place on the planet.

Israeli PH officials test the shit out of citizens residing there and do a better job than other places in the world in analyzing and drawing conclusions from that data. Israeli health authorities claim they are testing 5% of Israel's population every week. COVID positives given that testing rate are going to be multiples higher than SA's which does very little testing nationally. You'd expect that chart to show the differences in new case numbers that it does and, surprise, that's exactly what it shows. It's not of much use.

Israel has a strikingly low COVID death rate compared to SA showing vaccines widely administered do work, even better when prevalence rates are low and the Israel's also do a better job at that than anywhere else. ...... for preventing serious illness and deaths when comparisons are standardized for age. We've been down this road. New case numbers taken out of context are mostly useless. They can be displayed to graphically demonstrate a particular viewpoint. I suspect that is what has happened in that graph.

More testing would skew the data but in Israel's case, they would have to have a positivity rate of less than 1% for the graph above to not be accurately communication what appears fairly obvious -- that the Covid-19 vaccines do nothing to prevent transmission and spread of the virus. That they reduce symptoms and risk of death also seems to be supported by data. That tells me that getting vaccinated is a wise personal choice for most people, and a personal choice only.

[lineygoblue]

Thats where my missing fuckin' Amazon package is...

Its in a cul-de-sac in Oxnard by now.

[Jeff Buchanan]

More testing would skew the data but in Israel's case, they would have to have a positivity rate of less than 1% for the graph above to not be accurately communication what appears fairly obvious -- that the Covid-19 vaccines do nothing to prevent transmission and spread of the virus. That they reduce symptoms and risk of death also seems to be supported by data. That tells me that getting vaccinated is a wise personal choice for most people, and a personal choice only.

I'd agree with that and I probably failed to make that point clear in my post in response to yours.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Its in a cul-de-sac in Oxnard by now.

And it's a long day livin' in Reseda
There's a freeway runnin' through the yard
And I'm a bad boy, 'cause I don't even miss her
I'm a bad boy for breakin' her heart

[lineygoblue]

You should probably stick with Merle Haggard songs.

[THE_WIZARD_]

I'm not into rap music sir...

[lineygoblue]

I'll rap you upside the head ...

[THE_WIZARD_]

Are you flirting with me?

[Jeff Buchanan]

After about 3w of Omicron, anyone with a brain knew it would burn out quickly. It is doing just that despite the WHO's, among other doom sayer's, admonitions that whoa, not so fast, it's still really bad out here. Take cover. GTFO.

The reasons should be clear. The big question is now what? For over a month, journalists have been asking that question in various forms. Not surprisingly, this isn't the first time that a wave of some really shitty pathogen has sickened and killed millions of humans. Goes way back. Why the fuck then does the human race repeatedly find themselves ill-prepared to deal with these things? I do know one thing. The steps that should be taken to be prepared for another surge of SARS-CoV2 or some off-the-wall new virus, involve restraint. You know, like recognizing that time and time again, interventions designed and implemented by governments to mitigate and subdue these things more often than not create catastrophic economic and social outcomes. Meanwhile those policies produce little benefit wrt the targeted virus or pathogen.

With the next wave of whatever, and there will be a next wave, first and foremost governments need to shape what is being said about it to deliver an unambiguously clear message of, DON"T PANIC. We got this. In contrast, since the start of the current pandemic, fear and panic driven messaging has predominated. It has been consistently confusing and often contradictory. It is messaging that creates a lack of faith in the ability of government's public health apparatus to deal with an illness producing virus while not restricting mobility and social interaction to anywhere near the catastrophic extent, such extent not related to illness and death, that the current pandemic has produced.

That so many are now invested in being right about most of the bull-shit that was pushed out the door by governments and onto the human race, a big bowl of dick is going to have to be swallowed by individuals responsible for what has gone down in the last 3 years..... and I can name most of them. That is going to be hard. No one likes to admit they have been stupendously wrong about how to deal with SARS-CoV2. It represents a major obstacle that has to be over come before any meaningful future plans - logistical and operational - for the next shit storm can be developed and put on the shelf for future use. I'm actually encouraged that there are people out there that can rise to the challenge. None of them are in government.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Delticron is coming.

[Dr. Strangelove]

State orders family members of Embassy staff to leave Ukraine. Tells non-essential personnel they should consider leaving too. Sounds like the UK and Canada are following suit. The EU is staying and implies we're overreacting.

Russia's main stock index is down almost 10% today.