COVID-19

[Gamble1]

I just think it's the way they record the data and it's not being done daily. It should be, but they're busy partying in the bars and taking extended Euro vacations filling the beaches. ...while Germany is tucked away in their houses and all they have to do is collect and analyze their cases rising.

Edit: OK, seriously...it's just the fact they are not doing a good job reporting numbers on a daily basis. I don't think it's anything fishy. It's just not a thing there as we know they don't wear masks and wipe down everything.

Finally got my answer fo this. They report completely different from the rest of the EU. They report on the day the death occured which means all recent data is incomplete due to the lag in death certificate reporting. The other EU countries report on just the cumulative increase from the previous day regardless of when the death occured.

Even with all that I question the data set being reported. Statistically it is improbable to get the same number of deaths being reported for 4 to 5 consecutive days and that has happened multiple times in a month which is well past the 10 day lag period for reporting.


https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/d...e&region=World

[graphic-er]

Yet the state of Indiana is far worse and most states in America are worse than Sweden.

also take a look at their demographics in Sweden. They are not as homogeneous as the other Nordic countries.

edit: in addition to being more diverse Sweden simply has a larger population. It’s closer to being the size of a European country than any other Nordic country.

I feel like Sweden is an enigma, They are a far more healthy society than America, and especially Indiana. America has legalized the slow poisoning of our population through processed foods.

[Bball]

This seems to be more evidence of the obvious... Trump wanted a herd immunity strategy and though it wasn't said, that's what was promoted and led to much of the mixed messaging, even though it was not a strategy that anyone with a calculator could get behind and was met with resistance.

Maybe it does begin to explain Trump's rhetoric against masks in some "method to the madness" sort of way. If he wanted the economy to be as open as possible, and to slow the spread and rate of the illness, promoting mask wearing was a no-brainer... Yet he continually did the opposite. Anything to the contrary was an extreme outlier. So maybe he wanted people getting sick... "Liberate..." and all the anti-mask rhetoric makes some sense if you start to consider he wanted people getting sick.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/16/trump-appointee-demanded-herd-immunity-strategy-446408

...
[I]"Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk….so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected…" Alexander added.

"t may be that it will be best if we open up and flood the zone and let the kids and young folk get infected" in order to get "natural immunity…natural exposure," Alexander wrote on July 24 to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn, Caputo and eight other senior officials. Caputo subsequently asked Alexander to research the idea, according to emails obtained by the House Oversight Committee's select subcommittee on coronavirus.

Alexander also argued that colleges should stay open to allow Covid-19 infections to spread, lamenting in a July 27 email to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield that “we essentially took off the battlefield the most potent weapon we had...younger healthy people, children, teens, young people who we needed to fastly [sic] infect themselves, spread it around, develop immunity, and help stop the spread.”

“It was understood that he spoke for Michael Caputo, who spoke for the White House,” said Kyle McGowan, a Trump appointee who was CDC chief of staff before leaving this summer. “That’s how they wanted it to be perceived.”
...
Senior Trump officials have repeatedly denied that herd immunity — a concept advocated by some conservatives as a tactic to control Covid-19 by deliberately exposing less vulnerable populations in hopes of re-opening the economy — was under consideration or shaped the White House's approach to the pandemic. “Herd immunity is not the strategy of the U.S. government with regard to coronavirus," HHS Secretary Alex Azar testified in a hearing before the House coronavirus subcommittee on Oct. 2.

In his emails, Alexander also spent months attacking government scientists and pushing to shape official statements to be more favorable to President Donald Trump.

For instance, Alexander acknowledges in a May 30 email that a draft statement from the CDC about how Covid-19 was disproportionately affecting minority populations was "very accurate," but he warned HHS and CDC communications officials that "in this election cycle that is the kind of statement coming from CDC that the media and Democrat [sic] antagonists will use against the president." The problems were "due to decades of democrat neglect," Alexander alleged.
....

More at the link...

[vapacersfan]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/16/h...e=articleShare

Alaska Health Worker Had a Serious Allergic Reaction After Pfizer’s Vaccine

WASHINGTON — A health worker in Alaska had a serious allergic reaction after getting Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday and was hospitalized, according to three people familiar with official reports of the person’s health. The person was still in the hospital on Wednesday morning, under observation.

Government officials were scrambling on Wednesday to learn more about the case. The worker had no history of drug allergies but it was unclear whether he or she suffered from other types of allergies, according to one person familiar with the case.

With millions of Americans expected to be vaccinated by the end of the year, the incident is likely to prompt federal officials to be even more watchful for any sign of serious side effects. The Alaska recipient’s reaction was believed to be similar to the anaphylactic reactions two health workers in Britain experienced after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine last week. Both of them recovered.

Pfizer’s trial in the United States involving more than 40,000 people did not find any serious adverse events caused by the vaccine, although many participants did experience aches, fevers and other side effects. Severe allergic reactions to vaccines are typically linked to the vaccine because of their timing.

A Pfizer spokeswoman, Jerica Pitts, said that the company does not yet have all of the details of the case but is working with local health authorities. The vaccine comes with information warning that medical treatment should be available in case of a rare anaphylactic event, she said. “We will closely monitor all reports suggestive of serious allergic reactions following vaccination and update labeling language if needed,” Ms. Pitts said.

After the workers in Britain fell ill, authorities there initially warned against giving the vaccines to anyone with a history of severe allergic reactions. They later clarified their concerns, changing the wording from “severe allergic reactions” to specify that the vaccine should not be given to anyone who has ever had an anaphylactic reaction to a food, medicine or vaccine. That type of reaction to a vaccine is “very rare,” they said.

Pfizer officials have said the two British people who had the reaction had a history of severe allergies. One, a 49-year-old woman, had a history of egg allergies. The other, a 40-year-old woman, had a history of allergies to several different medications. Both carried EpiPen-like devices to inject themselves with epinephrine in case of such a reaction.

Pfizer has said that its vaccine does not contain egg ingredients.

The British update also said that a third patient had a “possible allergic reaction,” but did not describe it.

In the United States, federal regulators issued a broad authorization for the vaccine on Friday to adults 16 years and older. Health care providers were warned not to give the vaccine to anyone with a “known history of a severe allergic reaction” to any component of the vaccine, which they said was a standard warning for vaccines.

But because of the British cases, F.D.A. officials have said they would require Pfizer to increase its monitoring for anaphylaxis and submit data on it once the vaccine comes into use. Pfizer also said that the vaccine is recommended to be administered in settings that have access to equipment to manage anaphylaxis. Last weekend, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that people with serious allergies can be safely vaccinated, with close monitoring for 30 minutes after receiving the shot.

Anaphylaxis can be life-threatening, with impaired breathing and drops in blood pressure that usually occur within minutes or even seconds after exposure to a food or medicine, or even a substance like latex to which the person is allergic.

[vapacersfan]

Fauci: 85 percent of the US needs to get the Covid-19 vaccine for “true herd immunity”

As the Covid-19 vaccination campaign gets underway, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease scientist, told Vox’s Sean Rameswaram on Tuesday that he is hoping to get as much as 85 percent of Americans vaccinated against the virus.

“If you really want true herd immunity, where you get a blanket of protection over the country ... you want about 75 to 85 percent of the country to get vaccinated,” Fauci, the longtime head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a live-recorded interview with Rameswaram, the host of Today, Explained. “I would say even closer to 85 percent.”

[vapacersfan]

Waitress Quits Her Job On The Spot After Anti-Maskers Claim “Religious Exemption” At Denny’s

A video of a Denny’s hostess announcing that she’s quitting after a group of anti-maskers came in claiming religious exemptions to mask mandates (of which there is no such thing) went viral as every working person lived vicariously through her. The video was caught on one of the anti-masker’s cell phones and made its way onto Reddit, where people thoroughly enjoyed the woman’s demonstration of being absolutely fed up with this nonsense.

You can see the hostess making up her mind as she begins to walk away from the unwelcome customers.

"You know what I quit, I f---ing quit," she says after the man filming claims the exemption. "What is wrong with you people?"

She throws down the Denny's menus and summons her manager before nearly storming out the door, but the manager seems to convince her not to outright leave.

"Roger, I'm not working for this s--t anymore," she says to him. "These guys won't put their masks on, I'm sick of feeling like this."

The man behind the camera tries to cite the Civil Rights Act of 1964, claiming that it "says we can claim a religious exemption for not wearing a mask." This is, of course, not true, as mask mandates were not a thing prior to the current pandemic and after the pandemic of 1918 disappeared. The law also contains a specific provision saying that it "does not guarantee your entry into any particular business establishment."

This is why establishments can have a "no shirt, no shoes, no service" policy regardless of your religion's stance on wearing shirts and shoes.

While trying to avoid losing a staff member in the middle of a shift, Roger again explains to the anti-maskers that the state mandate can't be overridden by an imaginary exemption.

"I'm sorry you can't come in here without a mask, the governor said 'no mask, no service,'" he tells them.

The men again cite the Civil Rights Act incorrectly and claim that "we're not sick," again exposing the fact that anti-maskers are apparently incapable of understanding the concept of "asymptomatic." After being refused once more, they say that Denny's has lost their business.

[Bball]

Businesses trying to stay open. People trying to have jobs. All in a pandemic. And it's all put in jeopardy by ignorant, selfish azzholes like that.

[Bball]

News on Keyontae Johnson 'really, really positive' last 48 hours

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin joined the Sportscene with Steve Russell program on local radio in town on Wednesday and provided the latest update on hospitalized UF wing Keyontae Johnson, who collapsed on the court in Saturday's basketball game against Florida State.

Johnson has since been airlifted from Tallahassee Memorial Hospital to UF Health, where he is under care of a team of medical experts.

His progress has been very positive in the last few days. On Tuesday, his parents released a statement that Johnson was breathing on his own and in stable condition, enough so that he was able to speak to family and doctors and even share a FaceTime call with teammates.

The news since continues to trend in a positive direction.

"First off, let me say the information we're getting about Keyontae has been really, really positive in the last 48 hours," Stricklin said. "Everybody saw what his parents put out yesterday. I actually had a chance (to visit him). I was in Dallas at CFP meetings and got back late yesterday afternoon, was able to go straight to the hospital. Had a chance to see him. He was actually awake. He was actually sitting up in a chair. You could tell he's still been sedated, so he was still a little groggy, but he thanked me for coming by. It was good to see him and sitting up, he had family in there, his parents and others."

Since then Stricklin has received even more news on Johnson.

"I'm told today that he's even progressed a lot since then, that he's having good conversations with his doctors, with his coaches," the Florida athletics director said. "He's smiling and laughing. Still undergoing more tests. I think the tests that have gotten back so far have been positive from a medical standpoint. His prognosis seems to be trending in the right direction, but we still have a lot of questions. The medical folks have a lot of questions they want to make sure they get answered."

It's still unclear what exactly caused Johnson's collapse, which came just moments after he completed an alley-oop dunk early in the game and Florida State called timeout.

But the incident required him to be taken off the court on a stretcher and taken to Tallahassee Memorial, where he was soon listed in critical but stable condition.

His fall had athletes and fans across the country united in prayer for his recovery.

"The one thing I told Key when I saw him yesterday is he has no idea the number of people who have been lifting him up in prayer and sending along good thoughts," Stricklin said. "He needed to know how much he was loved, not just by Gators, I mean people all over the sporting community in the state of Florida and beyond have really lifted him up."

The Florida athletics director also took a minute on Sportscene with Steve Russell to thank everyone at Florida State.

"I also want to take this time -- and we're going to do it in a more formal way -- but, we love to have the rivalry we have with FSU, but the way their folks responded and stepped up was really huge Saturday," Stricklin said. "Everything from their medical people on site jumping in, their president John Thrasher actually went to the hospital himself to see the family and he called (UF president Kent Fuchs) to update him on what he was hearing.

"Just the whole FSU community was, they were really special during this time and we have great appreciation for them doing this and showing that, at the end of the day, this is just a game. There are bigger things in sports."

Stricklin concluded by noting that no decision has been made yet on whether to play Saturday's scheduled game against Florida Atlantic. Florida scrapped a game against North Florida tonight in the wake of Johnson's injury.

The athletics director said that players will have significant input on the decision whether to play Saturday, and he said a decision will most likely have to be reached by Thursday at the latest.

https://247sports.com/college/florida/Article/Florida-Gators-Basketball-News-on-Keyontae-Johnson-really-really-positive-last-48-hours-after-collapse-hospitalization-157099936/

[BlueNGold]

Businesses trying to stay open. People trying to have jobs. All in a pandemic. And it's all put in jeopardy by ignorant, selfish azzholes like that.

There are all kinds out there. Not directed at you, but don't demonize religious people just because there are some claiming that kind of thing. I know V does that. I don't think anyone else here does.

[Bball]

There are all kinds out there. Not directed at you, but don't demonize religious people just because there are some claiming that kind of thing. I know V does that. I don't think anyone else here does.

I don't think there's any chance that religion had anything to do with their claims. I'd be more likely to believe they were just stupid enough to think if they said that, they'd get a pass. Maybe even used that excuse before and got away with it. And if they did it probably had more to with a business (or an employee) not wanting to argue with customers than it did with the excuse actually being taken seriously.

But it's pretty simple... If your religion says you cannot wear a mask, then you're going to have to go some place besides Denny's in that town....

[Bball]

The US set its daily Covid-19 death toll record yesterday with over 3600 deaths.
All of a sudden, seeing a day with 4000 deaths no longer looks unimaginable.

Meanwhile, Congress SEEMS to be as close as they've been in some time on readying another Covid-19 relief bill that they will pass.

[BlueNGold]

Germany and Sweden's deaths are going up...much faster now than UK and France. Their rolling averages just passed them.

Unlike masks being pushed by some, including here, the lockdowns seem to actually work. I expect if Sweden doesn't lockdown too, Germany will start doing much better and stop tracking them in death per capita as they have now for months.

Point is, masks are of questionable effectiveness. Now I'm not anti-mask...nor am I saying I don't wear a mask. I do. But I have yet to see convincing evidence it makes much of a difference and I disagree with the "so called experts" who keep making claims they cannot back up.

[Gamble1]

For those interested for all IU campuses the mitigation testing has a positivity rate of 1.8%. So these are the asymptomatic and presymptomatic cases. The symptomatic cases have a positivity rate of 27.4%. In all there have been 4500 cases from august 1st till now. Again this is for all IU campuses which include satellite campuses. IU had 90,000 students enrolled for the fall.

[Gamble1]

Germany and Sweden's deaths are going up...much faster now than UK and France. Their rolling averages just passed them.

Unlike masks being pushed by some, including here, the lockdowns seem to actually work. I expect if Sweden doesn't lockdown too, Germany will start doing much better and stop tracking them in death per capita as they have now for months.

Point is, masks are of questionable effectiveness. Now I'm not anti-mask...nor am I saying I don't wear a mask. I do. But I have yet to see convincing evidence it makes much of a difference and I disagree with the "so called experts" who keep making claims they cannot back up.

The problem is that in the real world you can not unlink all of the covid 19 mitigation from one particular mitigation policy. Its a melting pot which makes the study designs all that much harder for researchers. The best evidence will come from schools and in particular middle schools children on up to college. That is a very controlled study design for many areas in country.

For direct evidence you have seen me post a decrease in viral particles with different mask materials. For real world evidence you have the flu virus being held in check this year. The flu virus is different in it transmission but her in Indiana IU pathology screens have uncovered one case this fall. That is down from last year.

Here is another study on mask.

https://news.vcu.edu/article/Early_face_mask_policies_curbed_COVID19s_spread_according_to

[vnzla81]

Weird he didn't pray on it instead of getting lucifer's mark on him



Also weird he is getting a vaccine for a hoax