Coronavirus Thread
- Thread starter blotsfan
- Start date
I’ll drop this in here. Hopefully one of the good things that comes out of all this is more mRNA vaccines.
arstechnica.com
mRNA vaccine technology moves to flu: Moderna says trial has begun
Moderna aims for one seasonal shot for flu, COVID-19, respiratory viruses RSV and HMPV.
arstechnica.com
Wasn’t it always? Anti-vaxxers have been around a long time.
I'm definitely not anti-vax, but I generally have not gotten a flu shot. They have to guess the strain the prior year, so many times the shot you get isn't for the strain that's active. And they tend to make people feel like crap, and aren't super effective, and I haven't gotten the flu (knock on wood) but a couple times in my life.
If an mRNA flu vax was broadly targeted (like how the covid shot helps against all known variants thus far), I'd get one as soon as it was approved.
If an mRNA flu vax was broadly targeted (like how the covid shot helps against all known variants thus far), I'd get one as soon as it was approved.
They’ve existed but it’s never been the explicit goal of one of the major political parties.
Neither is being against the COVID vaccine.
Since COVID has been compared to the flu in these peoples minds, it’d be interesting to see the difference between flu vaccine rates and Covid vaccine rates so far.
Since I was curious, this is what I found for flu vaccine rates. I know it’s hard to compare the two, but when the reasoning of the right is that covid is no worse than the flu, I think it’s basically more of the same.
usafacts.org
How many Americans get flu shots?
Historically, children have been more likely to be vaccinated than adults.
usafacts.org
GasBandit
Staff member
I got the flu vaccine every year when I worked at the radio station, because if I was out sick, nobody could do what I did, so it was a massive headache to come back to after time off (same reason I didn't use any of my SIX WEEKS of paid vacation).
But now as a programmer, time off is something much more easily gotten
But I still get the flu shot because the flu sucks and it don't cost much (in fact it is usually 100% covered by insurance). I wish that my new company had the flu shot guys come to the office for our convenience, like the radio station did, tho.
But now as a programmer, time off is something much more easily gotten
But I still get the flu shot because the flu sucks and it don't cost much (in fact it is usually 100% covered by insurance). I wish that my new company had the flu shot guys come to the office for our convenience, like the radio station did, tho.
figmentPez
Staff member
Newsmax is advocating eugenics.
Who could’ve seen this coming.
Though given that pretty much all covid deaths are unvaccinated people and being unvaccinated is a choice in the US*, I don’t totally disagree with the premise.
*I know kids under 12 can’t get vaxxed and there are a few medical reasons where you’d be unable to but that’s not super common.
Though given that pretty much all covid deaths are unvaccinated people and being unvaccinated is a choice in the US*, I don’t totally disagree with the premise.
*I know kids under 12 can’t get vaxxed and there are a few medical reasons where you’d be unable to but that’s not super common.
Well they can't call it "evolution," because that would go against their brand.
--Patrick
1) My daughter is 11. She will probably get a vaccine the moment (hell, the actual day of her birthday if I can pull it off) she turns 12. She’s already had two close calls where she was exposed to someone with COVID-19, but luckily she has tested negative both times.
2) My mom has cancer, and for reasons I don’t fully understand her doctor says she can’t be vaccinated. She even got a 2nd opinion and was told no. It has something to do with her immune system being compromised so much that he worried the vaccine would make her sick.
These two facts cause me no end of stress. You know what I need to feel better? The rest of the fucking anti-vax population to stop being stupid and get vaccinated! It pisses me off now when I encounter some dipshit who proudly and defiantly talks about not getting the vaccine. I just want to look at them at say “Thanks for putting my family in jeopardy, asshole.” That goes double for unvaccinated people who stopped (or never started) wearing masks.
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Chemo tends to severely weaken the immune system, mainly because bone marrow and other parts of the body that create white blood cells are very sensitive to the type of poisons used in many types of chemo.
While the modern vaccines don't use actual living or dead viral cells (as older vaccines used to), they still work on the principle of provoking a reaction from the immune system.
Giving a (severely) immuno-compromised person a vaccine puts an incredible stress on an already heavily weakened system. Those 5 lonely white blood cells she may still have, get replaced with ones to fight the vaccine*, and what little there's left to fight anything else is gone. Also, what response is triggered is usually fairly ineffective, rendering the vaccine itself kind of pointless.
*the mRNA vaccines try to trigger an antibody response, not a white blood cell response, but it's still the same factory building them that's already half-destroyed, half without power and half swamped and with all the employees on strike. Asking that factory to add another model to their build list just isn't a good idea)
After a year and a half of this shit, Anti-vaxxers are incubators for mutations and I honestly wouldn't give a damn if they died *life long after effects would be a drain on other people's access to healthcare*, it's their kids and people that are immuno compromised around them that I really truly feel sorry for.
And I'm an unfeeling bastard, I'm just tired of STILL seeing anti-vax crap.
And I'm an unfeeling bastard, I'm just tired of STILL seeing anti-vax crap.
Yeah, I get it and feel the same until I.I'm reminded of all the immunosuppressive people who suffer because of these assholes, not to mention children are not approved for the vaccinations yet.
I hate how selfish and stupid our society is, but I'm thankful I have no offspring to worry over. Caring for future generations is a terrible burden.
I hate how selfish and stupid our society is, but I'm thankful I have no offspring to worry over. Caring for future generations is a terrible burden.
No, no you’re not.
You feel for the vulnerable ones just fine. You just don’t think it’s fair that these people deliberately choose NOT to care.
—Patrick
it's their kids and people that are immuno compromised around them that I really truly feel sorry for.
Mayo Clinic as of this past Friday: Guys? Hellooooo..?
(for those following along at home, this means that the average number of positive tests PER DAY in the US has MORE THAN DOUBLED over the last two weeks. Might want to lay in a supply of quarantini fixins, is what I think I'm saying.
--Patrick
Has the amount of testing stayed more or less the same?
Increasing positivity rates can also be caused by less testing in low-risk situations reducing overall test numbers but keeping the amount of discovered positives more or less equal.
Not sure what difference that would make. The graph is not “Number of positive tests,” it is “Percentage of tests which come back positive.” Unless you are suggesting the numbers are skewed due to “more infected people were tested”…but unless they knew ahead of time that they were infected, isn’t that why they were being tested? To find out?
—Patrick
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Which is why the total number matters.
If you were testing 100 people every day, 50 of who had a real dangerous encounter, and 50 who just needed a test for official reasons like being allowed to enter their place of employment, and you found 10 sick people, that's be a positivity rate of 10%.
Next week, the government decides you don't need a test to enter that place of employment anymore, so you only test the 50 purple who actually had a high risk meeting. You still find 10 sick people. Total amount doesn't go up, but your positivity rating just went up to 20%.
Obviously those figures are exaggerated, but in Europe a while bunch of countries did set e their positivity ratings shoot up because they've lowered the amount of situations where tests were needed.
I do not know the actual numbers nor how they acquired, but I know each date on the X axis of the graph is a calculated 7-day moving average, and that the data are available publicly (though apparently not at this very moment because the page is not fully loading for me).
--Patrick
--Patrick
Honestly, this is too little, too late. They spent way too long denying and obfuscating. People died because they listened to these hack "journalists" over doctors, scientists, and their own families.
They're being forced slightly back to the center (such as it is).
The fringe is moving on to OANN and Datamax and Breitbart. 538 had an article about it a while ago - the antivax, Big Lie, etc group doesn't trust Fox anymore. So they'll move slightly back to "moderate" hyperconservativism for a while, probably.
I think the whole pandemic and the response to it has (and continues to) proved again that by FAR the majority of people are selfish, short-sighted dickheads. "Do it for someone else" just doesn't work.
See also: the Climate Crisis affecting poor farmers in Brazil or Ethiopia, sucks to be them. It makes the weather in the USA worse? WHY HASNT ANYONE DONE ANYTHING SCIENTISTS LIED TO US OMG.
And it's not just the (extreme) right. The amount of people who go "I'm vaccinated, now let me do whatever I want" without apparent comprehension that they can still infect others is appaling.
Empathy for others? Sounds like communism to me.