The Trump Virus

NoCoPilot wrote:

SCOTUS to make emergency vaccine mandate ruling.  I honestly have no idea which way they'll rule.  Which itself is a searing indictment.

After oral arguments yesterday, the consensus is that SCOTUS will overturn Biden's vaccine mandate for employers with more than 100 employees.

Kagan said the Court has no business, absolutely none, inserting itself into epidemiology matters.  Thomas, Barrett, Roberts and Tucker Carlson all said the state "mandating medical procedures" is a step toward fascism.

Personally, I really don't care.  It's not like smart people are PREVENTED from getting vaccinated.  If the dumb people want to get sick & die, why should we stop them?

Oddly though, nobody on the court made the connection between "mandating you must get vaccinated" and "mandating you must carry that baby to term."  Both are, ostensibly, medical decisions people should make for themselves.... except one endangers the public and the other doesn't.

Omicron has an r0 ("r naught") of 10.  That means every infected person will spread his infection, on average, to ten other people.  

Delta was r0=2.5.

Alpha was r0=1.

This sort of EXPONENTIAL spread (1, 10, 100, 1000, 10,000, 100,000, 1,000,000, 10,000,000, 100,000,000, 1,000,000,000), as opposed to a simple GEOMETRIC spread, is the reason probably everyone in the world will get it within the next couple of months.  If you're vaxxed and boosted, the symptoms will be like a bad cold.

If you're unvaccinated, it could kill you, or at least make you very very sick. Even if you've had a different Covid variant.

I say, stop overcrowding the hospitals with the unvaccinated.  There's plenty of room on the sidewalks and parking lots. They made their choice.  Let them take responsibility.

The oral arguments on the Covid mandate case were held remotely, not in person... because at least one of the lawyers arguing against the mandate tested positive for Covid and was not allowed into chambers.

Another one bites the dust. President of the over-50 club, and wouldn't even get a shot to protect his members.

Life, death and 'hugs and prayers': A story of covid in rural Michigan

Howard Stern wrote:

If it was up to me, anyone unvaccinated would not be admitted to a hospital.

Why is this considered controversial? It's just common sense if people with broken bones and cancer can't find beds.

It's to laugh, really.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sarah-palin-covid-nyt-lawsuit_n_61eec099e4b04db85c861df6

She "believes in science":
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sarah-palin-unvaccinated-covid-19_n_61458b1fe4b0efa77f804776

Sarah Palin wrote:

I do believe in science and the Fauci-ism of the day back then was, if you’ve had COVID — I’ve had COVID — well then, Mother Nature was creating an immunity.

Except a prior Delta infection is no protection against the Omicron variant. Oh ha ha ha jokes's on you.

A Washington State Parol officer, with 22 years on the force, was fired last October for refusing to get vaccinated. He died last Friday of COVID.

When he videotaped himself being fired and telling our governor he could "kiss my ass," his video went viral.  Fox News featured him several times and called him a hero.

Since he died, Fox News has not reported the death, nor mentioned him even once, nor the irony of their "hero" dying needlessly over a cause with no plus side.

Explain to me again why FNC still has a broadcast license?

In 2021, COVID was the #1 cause of death among law enforcement.

For the second year in a row. In 2020, 182 officers nationwide died of COVID, surpassing accidents and on-the-job injuries as the leading case of death. In 2021 that number was 301.

Pearls Before Swine

Bill Gates is releasing a book in May on how to prevent future pandemics.
https://www.gatesnotes.com/How-to-Prevent-the-Next-Pandemic

The PROBLEM is, as I see it, no matter how successful science can be in preventing another public health emergency, we still have a percentage of people who will refuse, deny, and thwart all efforts at remediation. It's just human nature.

The comments underneath Bill's announcement are very typical of all responses to Bill's "Gatesnotes," and indicative of the general low level of scientific literacy world wide. Even allowing for dodgy English translations, the level of intellect displayed in these comments is appalling.

This is encouraging.

A universal vaccine to end COVID pandemics? It's in the Army's sights

Omicron BA.2 variant

Just as infectious, and more serious and the vaccines are less effective against it.

Oh boy.

NoCoPilot wrote:

This sort of EXPONENTIAL spread is the reason probably everyone in the world will get it within the next couple of months.  If you're vaxxed and boosted, the symptoms will be like a bad cold.

We got our government test kits in the mail last week, but reading the fine print on the box, they will not detect if you've HAD Covid, only if you have a currently-active case.

I think I probably have had Covid.  Ever since around the first of the year I've had backaches and difficulty taking deep breaths.  It hurts to sneeze.  I spent 3 weeks end-of-Jan/beginning-of-Feb with zero energy.  

The symptoms, while annoying, have not been serious enough to limit my activities.  At my age the difference between being sick with a low-level infection and just being old is not that great.

It's a tricky question, as the article suggests. I think they should be counted.

There are a lot of people who argue that Covid is wildly exaggerated, and that the disease has actually killed far fewer than is reported. Typically these idiots claim that many deaths from other causes are called Covid deaths because "reasons". This is fairly obviously bollocks because doctors and coroners don't really have any good reason to lie about this. And in the early stages of the pandemic, especially, there were probably a good number of people who died at home and got listed as pneumonia or cardiomyopathy or something by the coroner (because the effects and spread of Covid weren't understood at the time). So my first thought is that almost certainly, Covid deaths are under-reported, possibly significantly.

The second thought is that the way to count is to look at excess death statistics, as described in the article. That will give you the best estimate of the effect of the pandemic (not, strictly speaking, the effect of the disease specifically). It's a more meaningful statistic, and includes the people who die as the healthcare system comes under pressure.

Here's the first global estimate.

Over 18 Million People Have Died From the Pandemic, Large Study Estimates

Quote :

...the authors of this latest report, published in the Lancet on Friday, say theirs is the first peer-reviewed study to try gauging it on a global scale.

As of December 31, 2021, they estimate that there have been 18.2 million excess deaths attributable to the pandemic—substantially more than the 5.9 million official deaths recorded at the time. But not every country was hit equally hard.

Did you hear the story behind the judge that nullified the CDC mask mandate?  Shocking.

• Trump appointee
  
• One of only 3 judges (of the 134 he appointed) rated "Not Qualified" by the ABA
  
• Appointed AFTER Trump had lost the election
  
• Only 33 years old, and serving a lifetime appointment
  
• Never been a judge before in her life
  
• Clerked as an intern for Clarence Thomas
  
• Had a case before her in a local district in Florida
  
• After reading the pre-trial briefs, cancelled oral arguments & the trial
  
• Ruled on her own prerogative
  
• Instead of ruling on the case in front of her, expanded her ruling to nationwide
  
• Due to the nature of the ruling, it went into effect immediately
  
• With no possibility of review
  

I'm afraid NoCoPilot has lost all sense that the injustices of the past few years can ever be righted.

The DOJ has decided to challenge this bonkers ruling. I wonder if a judge can be impeached for showing "poor judgment"?