Coronavirus

[Luxman]

This confuses me. I understand that vaccine may not be as effective against variants, but how does vaccine efficacy drop so quickly against the initial virus it was supposed to protect against? I'm hoping the article is right in that it has something to do with masking adherence, occupation or something else, as I'm not looking forward to getting a booster every 6 months which could take me out of a day of work.

Moreover, imagine the near-impossibility of convincing those who didn't even want to get one jab after all this time.

When you get a vaccine shot your immune system creates antibodies to fight the virus. Over time your body gets rid of most of the antibodies if they aren't being used to fight a virus, but it keeps a few in case the same virus infects you. The same thing happens if you get infected and if you get better without a vaccine.

The booster shot makes your immune system maintain a high level of antibodies in case you get infected, so that your body can fight and get rid of the virus more quickly.
This prevents the symptoms from getting too serious and shortens the time you're infected, which also reduces the chances of you infecting other people.
People at high risk may need a booster shot every year until covid dies out.
Multiple vaccine booster shots makes your immune system more effective in fighting the virus immediately and also in the future.

The flu is a seasonal virus so one shot usually is enough.
Covid lasts all year long, so the booster shots are necessary mainly for the elderly and people with underlying conditions that have a weakened immune system.

I read that in the 50's and 60's people got about 4 vaccine booster shots for polio every 6 months then finally one large booster shot, which protected them for the rest of their lives.

This is my understanding of the vaccine booster shots, from what I've read.

 

[gmase]

So how about this. We all know that many first responders and healthcare pros are not willing to get vaccinated, for whatever reason. Maybe we can work out a way to have Covid only hospitals staffed by the ones who are not afraid of it or afraid of the vaccine more? Might be a little complicated but then the other hospitals could then go back to doing everything else and the exposures and deaths might be isolated some more anyway. And if the number of non vaccine worker is short then maybe a big pay check for some of the other vaccinated ones to come to work there. Just a thought to quote Beau.

Not getting a transplant without a vaccine:
https://www.thedenverchannel.com/ne...idney-transplant-list-over-vaccination-status

… Kaiser Permanente suspends 2,200 staff;
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fo...anente-suspension-workers-vaccine-mandate.amp

 

[DrakeM]

Canada imposes COVID-19 vaccine mandate on federal workers, transportation​

https://www.reuters.com/world/ameri...ll-be-put-unpaid-leave-globe-mail-2021-10-06/

They won't "fire" you, but they'll put you on indefinite unpaid leave. Although that was promised even before the election, so it's not a real surprise. Seeing how the US has put a similar mandate with a Nov. 22 deadline, I don't think you can say it's drastic. The real question is, are they really going to follow through with these mandates when the time comes in November?

As for the traveler's mandate, that's also going to be interesting. I would certainly feel more comfortable flying knowing that everyone on the flight was required to be fully vaxxed.

I don't recall the exact quote but Trudeau said something along the lines of: It is time for the minority (unvaccinated) to stop dictating to the majority (vaccinated). Makes me glad I voted for him in the September election.

One interesting piece of fall-out from the air/train travel rules is the effect on unvaccinated professional atheletes. It will mean they can't fly or take the train inside Canada to go to away games. Will affect the NHL, CFL, and MLS initially; NBA eventually I suppose. Wonder if any of these unvaccinated athletes will stay that way and miss half their games.

 

[gmase]

Colin Powell dies at 84
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/18/general-colin-powell-advance-obit-036445

 

[tvstrip]

John Oliver criticises US police who threaten to quit over vaccine mandate: ‘F****** let them’​

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-...police-vaccine-mandates-america-b1944961.html

Interesting take last night on Oliver's show.

He is right about how police insist that if people "followed rules", there would be no problems, yet some police seem to blow their shit when they're called out for not following the rules that are imposed on them.

 

[D-rock]

John Oliver criticises US police who threaten to quit over vaccine mandate: ‘F****** let them’​

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-...police-vaccine-mandates-america-b1944961.html

Interesting take last night on Oliver's show.

He is right about how police insist that if people "followed rules", there would be no problems, yet some police seem to blow their shit when they're called out for not following the rules that are imposed on them.

One of the things that my decades of life and the experience that has come from that have taught me is that there are a lot of people in this world that like to act macho, talk tough, and puff out their chest. When push comes to shove however the overwhelming majority of them cave. When faced with true pain or hardship they back down. Talk is very cheap and easy and that's why so many people do it.

I have a feeling most of those cops that threaten to quit will back down when the time comes to do so, and even a good portion of the few that do so were probably thinking about quitting or retiring for unrelated reasons.

Hell, it's the same where I work. I live in a relatively conservative area, and there have been so many people that I've overheard threatening to quit because of the mandate that's coming soon from our employer (not that my employer will have much of a choice), and yet as that time gets closer they are already coming up with a multitude of excuses and rationalizing on whey they won't be able to, even when they talked so much smack not that long ago. It's fucking hilarious.

 

[gmase]

… or they can move to Florida and get $5k. What could go wrong with unvaccinated public safety personnel in a state with a dense population of elderly residents?

https://www.thehill.com/homenews/st...or-unvaccinated-police-to-relocate-to-florida

 

[Luxman]

 

[Luxman]

 

[Luxman]

COVID Vaccine Makers Prepare for a Variant Worse Than Delta
Companies are updating vaccines and testing them on people to prepare for whatever comes next in the pandemic
https://www.scientificamerican.com/...akers-prepare-for-a-variant-worse-than-delta/

 

[Little Red Wagon Repairman]

I don’t follow the NBA but what’s all the hullabaloo about this Kylie Irving? I hear there was quite a ruckus outside the arena. Seemed like a big news story.

 

[tvstrip]

On the lighter side of things...

 

[Luxman]

How a COVID-19 vaccine trial error led to an unexpected discovery
https://newatlas.com/science/astrazeneca-vaccine-trial-error-dose-efficacy-immune-response/

Many if not most significant scientific discoveries were made by mistake or luck.

 

[Luxman]

Right-click the link and open it in a private or incognito window.

Vermont, the most vaccinated state in the nation, has been weathering a spike in COVID cases. But why?
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/10...on-has-been-weathering-spike-covid-cases-why/

People are becoming careless and not following all contamination prevention protocols.
Even people who are fully vaccinated can still get infected and infect other people.
People are whining that they can't go out and socialize.
We can't even begin to imagine what people had to endure 100 years ago during the Spanish flu, which was way worse than the covid pandemic, so far.

 

[Pornfan99]

"We can't even begin to imagine what people had to endure 100 years ago during the Spanish flu, which was way worse than the covid pandemic, so far."

Agreed. As bad as the past .. 19 months have been, *I've* been able to pass the time by Netflix binging some Emmy award winning tv series, I bought a couple of new Call of Duty games - and, of course, spending "quality time" with some knock-out starlets.

Don't know what people did for the Spanish Flu. Played card games; chess; checkers? Read books?

 

[Luxman]

^^ That and everything else about the Spanish Flu and life in general back in the early 20th century was way harder than our lives now.
Hopefully, in 100 years, most of the problems we face now will be solved.

I think you’re crazy’: CNN reporter confronts doctor spreading Covid-19 lies

 

[gmase]

https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/620572/

An interesting article about the lack of direction in combatting COVID.

“This is the point at which we then have to start looking at ourselves and asking the hard question: Exactly how hard do we want to work to help how many people?”

 

[Luxman]

Restaurants reopen, everything back to normal. (repost)

 

[DrakeM]

Some interesting news from Canada, here's today's vaccination rates (source CBC news):

Age	Fully Vaccinated	1st Shot Only
12+	84.6%	88.9%
Everyone including kids	74%	77.8%

So what are the consequences of having almost 85% of the 12+ population fully vaccinated? The biggest age group of daily COVID cases in Canada is now in children (age 0 to 17) where most of them are in school mixing with each other. There are still hotspots and a bunch of vaccine holdouts but once the age 5-11 vaccine is approved in a few weeks, this picture should get even better. The Trudeau government has already signed a deal with Pfizer to get enough child-dose vaccine to do the whole country.

 

[Supafly]

Here in Germany, the Booster-Shots are one of the hottest topics right now. Our Gesundheitsminister (Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services) is telling people everybody should get his Boostershot - but there are not enough doses, and our citizens above the age of 70 have GOT to get theirs asap.

And more and more of the Querdenker (The wild bunch of vaccine critics for tons of different reasons) get more violent ba the day. Even doctors get attacked. This is like your hardcore Trumptards.