Analysis: A pandemic-scarred year [2021]ends in darkness -- but with hope on the horizon:
The year [2021] dawned in a blaze of hope that new, effective Covid-19 vaccines -- free and available to all -- would deliver the country from the worst public health emergency in 100 years, in which 350,000 Americans had already died. The promise of a new President, Joe Biden, to shut down the virus rang in the nation's ears after his predecessor had lied about Covid-19's severity, botched the government response and prized his political goals over its health.
But the year ends in a dark place. Hospitals are flooded with Covid-19 patients, the transportation network is seizing up, and a new coronavirus variant -- Omicron -- is finding even the most careful citizens.
[...] "I think that right now we're in the public health crisis of our lifetimes," Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University, told CNN on Thursday.
But there will come a day when it's no longer a pandemic, when cases are no longer out of control and hospitals aren't at great risk of overflowing with patients.
[...] The United States may be past the peak of Omicron cases around the end of January, some experts say; 2022 may be when the coronavirus becomes "part of our background and it comes goes," Dr. Ofer Levy told CNN's Alisyn Camerota this week.
"I think it's likely that we'll see this wave come and go and that the spring and summer will look a lot better than right now looks to us," said Levy, director of the Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Children's Hospital. "There will be fewer cases, and then again, next fall and winter we'll see a spike of viral illnesses, coronaviruses, influenza and others, but that it'll be more like an endemic cycle.
"Omicron is truly everywhere," Dr. Megan Ranney, a professor of emergency medicine at Brown University's School of Public Health, told CNN on Friday night. "What I am so worried about over the next month or so is that our economy is going to shut down, not because of policies from the federal government or from the state governments, but rather because so many of us are ill."
The nation broke records at least four times this week for its seven-day average of new daily Covid-19 cases, reporting an all-time high of more than 386,000 new daily infections Friday, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. The high case count is already causing disruptions in the country.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @08:09PM (2 children)
It was the best year ever for Wall Street..
Let's do it again!
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @08:17PM
Hope, more like cope for dopes, heheheh.
Hyperinflation incoming.
(Score: 3, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday January 04 2022, @10:28PM
I just started watching The Mandalorian, so the "A New Hope" analogy is strong in this one:
We blew up the Death Star (working vaccine) but it was just the first of many (variants). Omicron is striking back, not with waves of death this time, but economy crippling illnesses.
5 movies and many special features yet to come.
Use the mask, Luke, it's our only hope.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @08:40PM (12 children)
Initial reports were that infections were so mild people didn't even know they had it.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:25PM (11 children)
You mean they test positive without symptoms?
That's not 100%. I've lost the link, but there was a doctor talking about patients he's seeing with omicron. Even among those who chose to see a doctor, he's seeing mild symptoms from boosted people. Sometimes it's up to the level of a bad cold.
Without the vaccine it's much less happy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @10:36PM (1 child)
Before New Year, 45% of people in the UK with a cold. [joinzoe.com]
I understand the figure is now something like 75%. A growing percentage of hospital admissions are incidental. Many of the people admitted to hospital for omicron present with fever and are treated for dehydration (seriously people!) and discharged 24-48 hours later. A much smaller percentage than with previous waves end up on oxygen or in ICU. Most of these are unvaccinated or older than 55 without a booster shot. The concern is that infections started in the 20-40 age group and as older people become infected, they may not fare so well.
That said, in every household I personally know where all members tested positive and had to isolate over Christmas and New Year, the symptomatic were the minority. Anecdotally, the claim that most people don't know they have it would be accurate.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @12:00AM
Asymptomatic /= safe
> Usually, super spreaders are asymptomatic themselves, and yet the disease in their bodies has progressed to the point of being communicable.
> Most infections pass from the initial sufferer to people they deal with day to day, such as family members or co-workers. But super spreaders have been factors in almost every worldwide outbreak of disease. They are especially dangerous, not only because of the sheer numbers of people they infect, but because they can unwittingly carry pathogens from an isolated area to totally new parts of the globe.
https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/482377-what-is-a-coronavirus-super-spreader-and-why-are [thehill.com]
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @11:48PM
'
So, killing off the antivaxxers. To be expected - stupidity isn't conducive to survival.
Ain't mother nature a bitch :-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @06:03AM (1 child)
Ugh. I saw that. TLDR it's bullshit from an ER doctor, not stats.
There's lots of initial statistical data available and we have no indication that Omicron's Long COVID impact will be meaningfully different outside of pulmonary fibrosis, which might be ~1/3 less common.
In the acute phase, because we don't have population-scale screening or even good statistical testing samples, we really don't know how much/whether the asymptomatic rate has shifted. We don't really have any indications of milder acute phase morbidities. Mortality seems slightly lower in the acute phase but the 1y mortality is probably very similar (look at the eg. stroke rate within 6mo of recovery as published by Imperial College London and the rate of death from stroke in that same population, looking at about a 5/1000 chance of death from stroke in unhospitalized mild cases).
Also we have kids dying of Omicron here in Ontario. I understand NYC is the same. The child and youth mortality seems much higher for Omicron for some reason.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @11:49AM
Omicron mutated to enter via clathrin-mediated endocytosis rather than via TMPRSS-2 cleavage into S1 and S2 fragments:
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.31.474653v1 [biorxiv.org]
It also appears to escape interferon induced immunity. Ie, it is "designed" to get through the broad innate immunity that is much stronger in children rather than the focused antibody-mediated adaptive immunity that adults rely on.
Usually the next step would be the end of the pandemic as children then raise an adaptive immune response to "trap" the virus. But these children are all getting vaccinated against a sequence 50 mutations ago, so who knows what is going to happen now.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 05 2022, @04:04PM (5 children)
That doc from New York got put on global blast for writing his "my anecdotal data says: get vaccinated, if you are vaccinated get the booster" personal account.
He might be right, but his experience puts him about a half step above Dr. Phil in terms of data quality. Heavy selection bias in his perspective.
Find 50 M.D.s willing to take the time to run a nine box tally sheet for a month (unvax, vax, boosted vs asymptomatic infection, mild, severe symptoms) and I would be 95% more impressed. The data would still have preselection bias, but at least it wouldn't be one guy talking off the top of his head.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 06 2022, @03:45PM
One top doc is worth 5,000 docs.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 07 2022, @03:23PM (3 children)
So factor of 5 to 10 drop in hospitalization, if you have the two shots and booster.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday January 07 2022, @08:01PM (2 children)
Slow golf clap. Much better.
Now, why isn't this kind of data tagged onto the story from the overworked ER doc's mouth?
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 07 2022, @10:48PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday January 08 2022, @01:32AM
In the primary public eye the numbers most often repeated are 99% and 99.9%, based on "trust me, I am a doctor / governor / actress / whatever.". 80 to 90% is a number I find much more believable.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Tuesday January 04 2022, @08:52PM (4 children)
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1502918 [nejm.org]
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:15PM (2 children)
OH MY GOD A REPORT BY BILL GATES!?!? THE 5G TRACKING CHIP MUST BE REEL!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @10:10PM (1 child)
Or, our Tengu did his own research!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 07 2022, @03:24PM
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @10:04PM
Pandemic planning and preparation has been a topic for 20 years prior to that Gates opinion piece [cdc.gov], so why is he getting all the credit now? This is classic Microsoft behavior: take something that is already out there, rebrand it and take credit for it yourself, and get hailed as a genius or someone with great foresight.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday January 04 2022, @08:56PM (17 children)
There are free vaccines? It's a bit weird that as soon as the the government pays for something then it becomes free for you. Like you didn't somehow pay taxes to the government. So I'm fairly sure that they are getting paid for them, you are paying for them with your taxes. They are not free. Just cause you don't have to pay for them a second time at injection doesn't mean they are free.
I don't think any of the vaccine producers are doing this out of their goodness and happy thoughts towards all mankind. They are being more then reasonably compensated for them.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:18PM (12 children)
The first two times I got my covid-19 shot, the site at the county fairgrounds took my insurance information, if I had it. But even without insurance, it was free. Of course, insurance, like taxes, is just a magical free pile of money in the sky.
The third covid-19 shot (1st booster), was at my doctors office. Was at no (direct immediate) cost to me -- because insurance covered the vax 100%.
It seems like anything good the government does could be argued is paid for by taxes. The public parks we enjoy. Roads, bridges, traffic signals.
It is simply a question of politics whether one would deem it a worthy use of tax dollars to try to get the population vaccinated -- especially people who may not be able to afford vaccination.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 05 2022, @04:07PM (8 children)
Pro tip:. If you have a high deductible insurance plan, tell places like that you are uninsured. It's not really a lie.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 05 2022, @04:14PM
I don't. Thinking for a moment about "what if I did" . . . I suddenly have the realization that you are correct. It's not really a lie.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 07 2022, @03:37PM (6 children)
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday January 07 2022, @03:43PM
I'm buying insurance the way I have for the last four plus decades. Maybe I'm too set in my ways.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday January 07 2022, @08:04PM (4 children)
Well, if you enjoy being tagged for hundreds, sometimes thousands, in bogus inflated bills because "you're insured," that you end up paying 100% out of pocket because that's the way the system works, that's your kink.
Honesty is the best policy, until you're swimming in a sea of crooked sharks. If there is a medical problem that comes up during my vaccination, the insurance card can be produced from the wallet in less than 10 seconds.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 07 2022, @10:32PM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday January 08 2022, @01:29AM (2 children)
Point being, there is a common behavior among medical money grubbers to charge people who have insurance for certain things that they will do for free for the uninsured. Mind you the unemployed in Florida have state provided insurance for their children, it's the employed with benefits who are offered, sometimes as the only viable choice, the high deductible plans.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 09 2022, @05:10PM (1 child)
Like move you to another hospital.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday January 09 2022, @11:21PM
I can count the number of times in my family's collective lives (well over 500 years in total) that medical decisions like hospital moves have been made for us while unconscious on one finger, and have one finger left over.
I'm sure it happens, it could happen to me. I could also win the lottery.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 07 2022, @03:31PM (2 children)
Corporate welfare, bombing brown people, and spying on everyone with a cellphone. Not much point to defending taxation when you're not paying attention to what it gets spent on.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday January 07 2022, @03:47PM (1 child)
Arguing about (1) how much taxes, and (2) what it is spent on should be the crux of what we call politics. Different opinions. (btw, I don't think that corporate welfare and spying on all cell phones are good ideas. How we use our military is other good political topic that should be disgust.)
But instead of arguing about the real substance of politics, we argue about ridiculous things like vaccine safety (well proven by now) and secret jewish space lasers, and whether the school shootings are staged, and voting machines rigged by dead dictators.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 07 2022, @10:40PM
No, that's just you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @02:42AM
Yes, yes, of course somebody has to pay. This has to be the fucking stupidest talking point.
When somebody gives you something for "free," of course they paid for it! Let's go to war against Christmas, because all the free shit you get isn't actually free! TANSTAAFL bitches!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Sourcery42 on Wednesday January 05 2022, @05:39PM (1 child)
You're right, but I'll take my tax money going to public health over military-industrial pork any day.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday January 05 2022, @05:48PM
That is fine. It's a choice on that to spend the tax money on. I'm, or was, more annoyed by this idea that things paid for by taxes or the government are somehow free. That said I'm perfectly fine with a lot of things being paid for by taxes. It's probably better for most people instead of us all running around and just paying for ourselves. Something are just better when taken care of by a common pool.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday January 07 2022, @11:00PM
(Score: -1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @08:57PM (31 children)
Imagine volunteering your grade-school children for a clinical trial, waiving their right to be compensated for any injuries they may suffer as a result, for a disease which is only slightly more dangerous than using a ladder, unless you're over 80 with multiple co-morbidities.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:11PM
I'll just leave this [cnn.com] right here for you. No need to thank me.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by khallow on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:15PM (7 children)
Well, that's the thing. There are people over 80 with multiple co-morbidities. And they can catch covid from kids, or people who had exposure to kids or who had exposure to people who had exposure to kids, and so on. At some point, the responsible person has to acknowledge that disease isn't like a ladder accident. When you fall off a ladder, it just affects you. When you catch covid, you can spread it to many other people, and for some of them, it's not going to be a slightly more dangerous disease.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:49PM (1 child)
Of course, those people over 80 with multiple co-morbidities have been dying of all sorts of other things (like the common influenza) all along. But let's just pretend that it's only COVID that kills them.
While we're at it, let's outlaw peanuts, since people (young people with no co-morbidities other than peanut allergies) die from those.
If you are so sick that a random encounter can kill you, it's your responsibility to avoid those situations, not the responsibility of everyone else in the world.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Thursday January 06 2022, @11:25AM
Nobody pretended that. I find it interesting how immature these arguments are. Covid has killed more than just people with multiple co-morbidities over 80. And how healthy would it be for a society to create a class of people who survive only by staying in isolation? They can't do most work as a result because that would mean working with other people. They can't travel or do stuff. Apparently, it's just too mean on you to stop spreading covid.
That's a broken analogy. First, it's possible to avoid peanuts in food and atmosphere. Second, you're not going to die because someone three connections removed had peanuts. It's not contagious like covid.
Except, of course, everyone else creates those random encounters. Because dumb behavior can spread covid and kill people, you have a responsibility as does everyone else in the world to work to prevent that.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:55PM (1 child)
But even vaccinated people are now catching and spreading covid. The fact does not work much. Better to focus on treatments. After we all catch covid, it will be no worse than the flu. You can't stop the spread and evolution of this respiratory virus.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 06 2022, @11:30AM
Nobody said vaccines would be perfect defenses against covid. So it's not relevant that they aren't perfect.
Like vaccination? Funny what the blind spots are here. It remains that being pre-treated with a covid vaccine greatly reduces the harm of the disease.
Maybe. There's a lot of irrational faith here that assumes things will get better because the poster wants them to get better. In the meantime, it makes no sense for all of us to catch covid, when we have vaccines.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @10:09PM (2 children)
Agreed, to keep believing in "that disease" in 2022 you had to have multiple ladder accidents, hitting your head on every step.
No worries, the impending economic crash will cure you all at once!
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/gadgets-news/elon-musk-has-a-gloomy-financial-prediction-for-2022/articleshow/88679431.cms [indiatimes.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 05 2022, @04:33AM
I know multiple people who came down with covid and I know people who died of it. That's the ladders I dealt with.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 06 2022, @11:36AM
(Score: 4, Informative) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:28PM (5 children)
The truth, if anyone is left who gives a flying fuck about truth, is that compensation for hypothetical vaccine injuries is available.
https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/about/index.html [hrsa.gov]
(Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @10:23PM
As per usual, "The truth" out of you is a lie.
https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/FAQ [hrsa.gov] says:
Let's look at the nice helpful comparison, and laugh together, shall we?
https://www.hrsa.gov/cicp/cicp-vicp [hrsa.gov]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday January 05 2022, @04:08AM (3 children)
That's great. After the vaxx destroys half of my organs, I'll be entitled to a couple thousand dollars. That's a load off my mind! Oh, but, waitaminit! Do a word search for "covid" on you linked page. One instance, in the header. Covid isn't mentioned at all. Did we all forget that the US gubbermint gave the vaxx manufacturers full immunity and impunity for any harm their vaxxes might cause? I'd like to see some stories of people who were harmed by the COVID vax who have actually been paid any substantial sum of money - at least to the point where all their medical bills were covered.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Wednesday January 05 2022, @04:34AM (1 child)
Has that happened to you?
(Score: 5, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday January 05 2022, @04:57AM
There's the possibility of brain damage, but I have no idea how we'd tell...!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @06:06PM
Many people say degaussing helps with that.
--
Let's Go, Democracy!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:30PM (13 children)
I can choose to not use a ladder.
You overstate it. You could be 60 or maybe 50 and be more susceptible to infection. Especially if you take certain medications. You don't have to be obese to have a higher risk of infection and a lower risk of successfully recovering.
Clinical trials are already done. Children's vaccines are now available.
Globally over 7 BILLION doses have been given. That's a solid statistical base for understanding the problems caused and at what rates.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:52PM (9 children)
And you can choose to avoid crowds, wear a mask and maintain social distancing.
It isn't the responsibility of the 99% to bend over backwards to accommodate the 1%.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday January 04 2022, @11:08PM (8 children)
Your percentages are wrong. You can use Google to help you.
I do avoid crowds, wear a mask or two and maintain social distancing. Thus I'm not the one out spreading death and disease. So how is it that we are having record high cases and deaths? Oh, yeah, the unvaccinated, unmasked, un-social-distanced, and uneducated.
You don't have a right to spread death and disease any more than you have a right to drive intoxicated, without a driver license or insurance.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @11:48PM (7 children)
International travel.
Seems a little xenophobic to me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @11:55PM (5 children)
The best investment would be purchasing encyclopedia subscriptions for all conservatives. Xenophobia, you keep using that word but I don't think it means what you think it means.
I'm back to wondering if the rightwing shitposts aren't simply crappy chatbots
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @12:14AM (4 children)
So where did the virus originate and how did it enter the country Einstein?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @12:47AM (3 children)
It is well documented that drumpf wanted to be a wartime president so when attacking Iran didn't pan out he requested Lutin to help him out and create a disaster he could manage. The dummy forgot to be specific and sinply did not know how to handle a pandemic for political success. Truly the dumbest man ever to hold office, and a war criminal that unleashed a virus on the world killing millions and using his base's xenophobia to blame ChYnuh. White supremacists once again prove their own ineptitude, which is why yall hate anything different (xenophobia). Now you know the truth my child, spread your newfound wisdom far and wide like Johnny Appleseed!
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @01:09AM (2 children)
Come on man. I'm not going to shut down the country, I'm not going to shut down the economy, I'm going to shut down the virus. Surround your kids with people who are vaccinated. The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely. I'll lead an effective strategy to mobilize trunalimunumaprzure. Failure to lead is costing American lives. We're mounting an aggressive, coordinated, equitable, and professional response to get the virus under control as soon as possible. Corn Pop was a bad dude. People are standing in line a mile away from the White House to get a COVID test. There’s a lot of reason to be hopeful in 2020. The federal government is launching a website this month, where you can get tests shipped to your home for free upon your request. I got hairy legs that... turn blonde in the sun and the kids used to come up and reach in the pool and rub my leg down so it was straight and watch the hair come back up again. State and local governments and healthcare providers are passing out free at-home tests that you can pick up. Social distance in classrooms, even larger classrooms, on buses, and... uh... everything from bus drivers to buses... the actual bus! Google - excuse me - "COVID test near me" on Google to find the nearest site where you can get a test most often and free. You’re going to save lives, maybe yours, maybe your child's. Drugstores and online websites are restocking... more tests are available or are going to continue to become available. I agree, "let's go Brandon". [lgbcoin.io]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @02:44AM (1 child)
Its ok buddy, you can just say "fuck Joe Biden" no one cares.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 06 2022, @12:51AM
Nah, the "brandon" jackasses worship the cock of state, so they can't directly disrespect a (white) president.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 06 2022, @12:09PM
And that's supposed to be relevant how? It's not like we'll stop having international travel, right?
(Score: 2) by DrkShadow on Wednesday January 05 2022, @10:00PM (2 children)
You can also choose to not go outside and choose to not interact with people getting back to their lives. Such as PeaPod grocery delivery, and Amazon deliveries.
Please do so.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 06 2022, @12:11PM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday January 06 2022, @04:08PM
Your argument is that people who drive drunk should be the only ones allowed on the road. Other people should just stay home to be safe.
You do not have a right to go out spreading death and disease any more than you have a right to drive intoxicated, without a driver license, registration or insurance.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @11:28PM
Feel free to jump headfirst off a ladder to own the libs.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 05 2022, @04:09PM
Texas did this for the HPV vaccine, except instead of asking for volunteers they mandated it for public school attendance. Worked out ok in that case, but it certainly won't be 100% problem free every time.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @08:59PM (25 children)
The vaccines were developed under Trump, not Biden.
As a matter of fact, the Pfizer vaccine was ready, but the bastard Pfizer CEO purposefully withheld that info until AFTER the election to help throw it against Trump.
All you vaxx worshippers, THANK TRUMP for developing those vaccines. Drooler in Chief Biden did nothing to develop them.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:24PM (19 children)
All you anti-vaxxers and Trump worshipers, you claim that the vaccine was rushed. Not tested enough. Etc. Who was responsible for that? I seem to recall a former president who coined the term "Warp Speed" for his program to mobilize national resources to speedily develop a safe and effective vaccine. So BLAME TRUMP that the vaccines were available so soon.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:47PM (16 children)
Here's what Leftists like you never understand: it's about freedom to choose. If you believe the benefits outweigh the risks for you, you are free to choose to take the vaccine. If you don't, you are free to not take it. None of this totalitarianism that guys like you are pushing.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @10:01PM (2 children)
Runaway is not only a moron but a coward too! Surprised? Doubtful.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @10:16PM (1 child)
If I am a rabid dog, that is just my lifestyle choice, that I found on Gab. You do not have a right to shoot me down like a runaway mad dog in the noonday sun, because that would infringe on my personal freedom!
What? What about the children? And the slower old people? And the ferrets and badgers? What a bunch of tryants!!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @10:38PM
A rabid inflation biting you right in the wallet is the thing that will do you in, sweetie.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday January 04 2022, @11:04PM (2 children)
I don't want to force you to get vaxxed.
If you don't want to get vaxxed, then stay home.
You don't have a right to spread death and disease any more than you have a right to drive drunk, or without a driver license, or insurance.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: -1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @11:40PM (1 child)
Once again, Mr. Liar; vaccine DOES NOT prevent infection and DOES NOT prevent spread. Now in January 2022 you CANNOT not know it, so you are DELIBERATELY LYING. Scum.
If anything, the vaccinated get infected MORE: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccine-weekly-surveillance-reports [www.gov.uk]
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @03:53AM
So posting false information like that got you banned on Twitter, so you slither over here looking for comfort from the likes of Runaway. Crawl back under your bridge troll.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @11:42PM (3 children)
Cough on me and I'll apply the same rule - my freedom to swing my fist stops well after it breaks your face.
No more"one rule for me and another for thee." Because coughing on me is assault, and I WILL assert my lawful right to self defence.
Because a lot of us on the left are fed up with the right, and would enjoy giving you a good ass whooping.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @11:51PM (2 children)
Then why are international borders still open?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @02:42AM
To allow smart people who want to part of a growing economy to replace stupid ones that choose to be “rats with fleas”
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 06 2022, @12:13PM
What does closing the "international borders" entail, and how is it going to help?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @11:46PM (2 children)
Please Please Read the Consution!
The openning paragraph alone frames the whole thing. It is:
"WE THE PEOPLE of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
WE the peolple come together to help each other.
Your view of not taking the vax, is "Fuck you all! I know better!" - Well you don't.
Trump brain washing the stupid like yourself...
Costs us ALL more! Killing many that did not have die. Paiding for higher costs of medical support.
Costs us ALL protecting each other. Being a spreader since you cannot even understand the 2 functions of a simple mask. 1) Preventing your germs of reaching the rest of us (same reason they are used in surgey!). 2) Head prevent the partials not stopped your mask mask, from reaching me.
Now, help us all. Sign a DNR, so you do not cost us all for your stupid medical decidion. And state home, to keep yourself safe.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @01:19AM
Yes!!! Read the Consution!!! (Whatever the hell that is.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @02:49PM
"WE THE PEOPLE" is non-math speak to mean the "sum-symbol" with the n being on how many you could convince to lend you their governing rights.
once you win you become the "we the people" and can do pretty much anything heyya?
it's not like you're going to go ask all those individual n's if your next decisions is okay ...
it's more like "we the people" coalesce into a temporary king or despot sans the normally required revolution and lynching to get rid of them again?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday January 05 2022, @06:21PM (2 children)
I choose to swing my fist. If your nose (or lungs) get in the way then fuck you I GOT FREEDOM!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 06 2022, @12:55AM (1 child)
If my nose is in the way I'll shoot you dead, legally.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 06 2022, @12:43PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @02:50AM (1 child)
I wish I could peer into a parallel universe where Trump legit won and rolled out the vaccine. I just want to see what the antivaxxers do.
Only a peek though. I wouldn't want to live in that universe. If I understand RWAs, I'm betting they would probably go out and shoot up vaxx every other day.... just like they accuse vaccinated people of doing....
But it's just not good enough trusting that the theory is correct. I want to see it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @04:24AM
Snort enough of your vax, and you can see anything you want.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:52PM (1 child)
Lawl, how bout we praise dump's operation WARP SPEED if you can own up to his anti-vaxx-mask garbage that caused so many unnecessary deaths? Won't even make you own up to the insurrection or the rest of dumbfuck's criminal actions and ties to extensive ties to pedo island.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @12:07AM
It also didn't bring about the compariravely less effective AstraZenica (Oxford University), Sputnik (doubtful it works at even 20%), Sinovax, etc. The J&J vaccine? The Netherlands, by Jannsen Labs of Belgium.
The Moderna vaccine was late out of the gate, so Operation Warp Speed didn't have enough effect to compensate for all the anti-vax, anti-mask propaganda Trump pushed. The US and the entire world would have been better off without Trump, even if that meant erasing Moderna from the timeline (but Moderna would still have been produced without Operation Warp Speed because profit potential drives business decisions, not Trump's big mouth. Ask all those Carrier workers whom he promised their jobs would not move to Mexico if he was elected, who lost their jobs to Mexico shortly after he was elected).
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @10:02PM
A voice from another person who really cannot read...
Pfizer Vax was developed by a German Company company on their dime. Was included retro added under "Light Speed" (European Union)... Trump just stole the name to "Wrap Speed" and PAID for Pzifer to make it - in limited quianities.
Trump just did not care, as along as he got protected. Long live the king!
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @10:10PM
He told your family to not protect themselves, convinced some to literally poison themselves, and encouraged risky behaviors likely to result in COVID infections. Deplirables, Hillary was so sooooo right on. Don't forget she still had the integrity to add that many Republicans are just misguided unlike their KKKomrades.
(Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Wednesday January 05 2022, @04:18PM
Actually the Pfizer vaccine was developed by BioNTech in Germany. So it was developed neither under Biden nor under Trump, but under Merkel.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:04PM (1 child)
The only thing Drumph's handlers know is The Big Lie
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:45PM
They are out every day, raging that liberals were right about the whale in chief that threw them all under the bus and stole their donations. How's that wall coming knuckleheads? No to mention the auto-donate that hurt a lot of older conservatives on a fixed budget? That was some pure evil BS! Loving the AC above that says everyone should be thanking him for funding vaccine research while ignoring that he convinced a hell of a lot of people to not wear masks or get vaccinated. I'd say its turtles all the way down, but that would be insulting turtles.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:13PM (8 children)
From TFA:
Compare to the number of Americans who died in various wars. [statista.com]
At some point, will we collectively decide to actually do something and stamp this out? If everyone could stop spreading it for a few weeks, how low would the numbers of new cases drop down to? But we don't seem to have the will.
The numbers show that getting vaccinated is about politics not science. And the unnatural zombie like rage of anti maskers is a persuasive scientific argument for their anti-mask
politicsviewpoint.From TFA:
So what, maybe some hope?
But by the time it is over, will our country still be the same as it once was?
How can we convince easily exploitable people to go back to work and resume being exploited?
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:19PM
How did we in the first place? /sarc
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 04 2022, @09:50PM (3 children)
You're that guy that wears a mask inside his car with the windows rolled up, right? Nah, you probably don't even drive, preferring to instead breathe virus-laden breath from your fellow public transportation riders.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday January 04 2022, @11:02PM (2 children)
Actually, sometimes, Yes! Because a mask keeps my face warm before the car warms up. Yes, really!
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @12:32AM (1 child)
Exact same reason my SO wears a mask when not required!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 05 2022, @04:29PM
The cold of winter has us firmly within its gripe.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday January 05 2022, @04:12PM
I know deaths are easier to count, but if you compare years of life lost, the war vs COVID impact ratio climbs by a big factor.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 05 2022, @10:04PM (1 child)
Gawd, if the government would quit fucking with everyone, it could be!
I've talked to the elderly. They don't know anyone who's died of this. Some have had it. Alas.
I've heard that even funeral directors haven't had an upsurge in business.
I've not seen grocery stores having issues, after people went back to work after the initial shut-in.
Workers are moving around, business is booming.
Who, exactly, is being harmed by this? Can you point them out, outside of a news article? It seems to be only obese people, and none of them seem to be contributing to the economy AT ALL -- because the economy is doing great. People are doing fine. The one problem in everyone's lives is the government fucking with everyone still.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday January 09 2022, @04:46AM
And in other news, world hunger is solved because I had a big burrito for supper. After all, *I* don't see any hungry people and *I'm* not hungry, ergo, hunger is a non-problem.
...you stupid shit.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...