Coronavirus - COVID-19

[thelastdisciple]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...ium%3Dsharebar

Speaking of the hospital harassment that @botley mentioned, this Vancouver, BC paramedic with 30+ years of experience feels like quitting because of how bad it's become. They were transporting someone who was involved in an industrial accident, they had an arterial bleed and needed medical attention ASAP. What ended up happening? some shithead anti-vax protestors were blocking the damn driveway for the ambulance to get to the ER completely jeopardizing this person's life. Luckily the patient made it to surgery but it could have easily resulted in a loss of life. Hearing about this kind of thing happening makes my blood boil.

[allegro]

Well, and you're not wrong in viewing it that way, either, @botley .

I just tend to think of "the least of us," you know? My first thought is of people who have no other solution.
I've SEEN poor people in East Texas treat sickness with animal medicine from the feed store because they couldn't afford to see a doctor.

[allegate]

How often do gunshot victims show up at rural West Virginia hospitals?

Got me, I've been gone for so long that I don't even have the accent anymore. :/

And if that wasn’t bad enough, check THIS out:

WIN!!!

lol:

Covid makes it so you can't get it up and this sterilizes you, wow.

[allegate]

You know, I felt like a ping pong ball reading that it went back and forth so much. I did end up getting what she's saying but I think the post she was responding to is where I went off the rails. Mostly at being told that I'm being condescending for critiquing an idiot's path in life.

She's right, sometimes you get creative when you're poor. We were when our son was born and neither of us had a job and were on food stamps and other assistance. "oh WIC pays for this but not that? let's see if it works." But we didn't go out of our way like some of these people do.

[elevenism]

As for me, I didn't say it was extremely common. I didn't make any blanket statements, either.
I simply stated a fact. I lived in east Texas for awhile, and there, I saw people take veterinary versions of human drugs.
I'm not being condescending as this lady is suggesting.
It's just something I witnessed.

My MAIN problem here, though, is the journalism issue. ABC, or whatever organization it was, promoted information that there was a covid surge in my county. It scared me. I checked the numbers. There was no covid surge.
And then there was the debunked rolling stone story.

I don't like not knowing who to trust.

[allegate]

tangent here but related.

Anti-mask protesters cause lockdown at Skyview HS

Nuzzo said the protesters were turned away from the school by district security staff and administrators.

“The lockdown allows normal operations to continue inside the school. All students and staff members remain safely inside. District resource officers are onsite to help maintain safety,” Nuzzo said.

Three Washington state schools put on lockdown amid anti-mask protests

According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, Patriot Prayer, a far-right group, and other far-right activists circulated social media posts claiming that a female freshman student at the school was going to be arrested if she entered school grounds without a mask.

One high schooler compared the lockdown to a school shooter drill, and said that the protesters were harassing him and classmates, according to OPB.

“All the learning gets disrupted. We have to sit down quietly, not make noise, and we were hunkered down in our classrooms for around an hour to an hour-and-a-half,” Lucas, a 16-year-old high school student at Skyview, told the outlet.

compare that to the email from the principal who said "oh it wasn't that bad, learning proceeded apace" (which isn't verbatim and I'm making him sound intelligent, so my apologies but I can't get to my email right now).

None of these say the same thing but they're all about the same event.

side note: I spoke with my anti-vax co-worker about this and he said "Sadly amusing, the school locked down over some tubby, middle aged and older guys who prayed with one of their students on the sidewalk in lawn chairs next to it". I told him that my son was there and that's not all that happened. "I saw the video, which is what it showed. Knowing the group, that's about all they would do. What a reaction from the school. Wow."

We were texting, so verbatim this time.

I tried explaining that due to school shooting ANYONE on campus who isn't supposed to be there is grounds for a lockdown. Couldn't understand that at all, the school just over-reacted.

even when I said that the proud boys were there (which he gave capital letters to when he responded, that raised an eyebrow or two) he said they're not bad people.

This is the same guy who was on vacation the week of Jan 6th and that was the only time he was gone and didn't tell anyone where he was going.

[Jinsai]

Really though, this isn’t about whether destitute rural populations might veer close to The Hills Have Eyes territory, but it is more about that I guess than the affordability of medicine in this situation.

The vaccine is free and you can get it at any pharmacy in this country now without a wait. If the only reason people would rather try internet folk medicine at this point is because they’re sad the republicans lost an election, they need to get over being ridiculed

[elevenism]

(edit: here's the vid)


What's stupider and crazier than politicizing a pandemic is throwing in theology. I thought about this because allegate's post alluded to prayer at a school protest.

I saw a video of a lady speaking at a school board meeting, calling the people who wear masks DEMONIC, going on about how Christians don't NEED masks.
And I mean, she was PISSED. SHE looked possessed.

And after the video, the commentator says EXACTLY what I was thinking: "this woman makes me embarrassed to tell people that I have a christian faith background."

[poinoup]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmon...shaw-1.6163826

$100 incentive to get vaxxed in Alberta... as well as the lotteries and trips. Gotsta get paid for it.

Also, nurses are supposed to take a pay cut.

[Magnetic]

This cheers me up:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...ts-marraccini/

From behind the paywall:
“We will no longer subject our patients and staff to unnecessary risk,” Marraccini wrote to patients, noting that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is now fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration. “This is a public health emergency — the health of the public takes priority over the rights of any given individual in this situation. It appears that there is a lack of selflessness and concern for the burden on the health and well-being of our society from our encounters.”

[poinoup]

Texas: Where a virus has reproductive rights, but women don't.

(Stolen from a friend)

[elevenism]

Just as I suspected, Joe Rogan took EXACTLY what his top notch doctors prescribed, and floated the idea of suing CNN for claiming he took horse paste.

Furthermore, the fucking ASSOCIATED PRESS has had to issue a correction to a story claiming that 70% of recent Mississippi poison control calls were due to horse paste ingestion. The reality was that TWO percent of calls were related to ivermectin, and of those 2%, 7/10 involved animal medicine. The other 98% of calls had nothing to do with said substance.

Damn. I hate it when I have to criticize news outlets I trust, because it puts me in the company of people who are diametrically opposed to 95% of what I believe, not to mention that every false story erodes my trust a little more. I mean, good lord. CNN, Rolling Sfone, and the fucking AP? REALLY?
But I call it like I see it.
I spend a lot of time calling bullshit on right wing inanity.
If I didn't call bullshit on lies propagated by more trustworthy outlets, I'd be a hypocrite.

This sucks, and it's frightening.

[botley]

Just as I suspected, Joe Rogan took EXACTLY what his top notch doctors prescribed, and floated the idea of suing CNN for claiming he took horse paste.

Furthermore, the fucking ASSOCIATED PRESS has had to issue a correction to a story claiming that 70% of recent Mississippi poison control calls were due to horse paste ingestion. The reality was that TWO percent of calls were related to ivermectin, and of those 2%, 7/10 involved animal medicine. The other 98% of calls had nothing to do with said substance.

Damn. I hate it when I have to criticize news outlets I trust, because it puts me in the company of people who are diametrically opposed to 95% of what I believe, not to mention that every false story erodes my trust a little more. I mean, good lord. CNN, Rolling Sfone, and the fucking AP? REALLY?
But I call it like I see it.
I spend a lot of time calling bullshit on right wing inanity.
If I didn't call bullshit on lies propagated by more trustworthy outlets, I'd be a hypocrite.

This sucks, and it's frightening.

Maybe I'm more skeptical by nature, but "trust" is not something I ever place with any news media; you have to read everything with a critical eye, and exercise a bit of literacy when it comes to journalistic practices. Who did they talk to? How close were they to the source? I don't like second-guessing everything either, but you have to read widely and critically if you wanna be properly informed. Calling bullshit on sources that have an editorial slant closer to my own perspective comes just as naturally as does cursing out those controlled by News Corp, Postmedia Group, etc. etc.

[elevenism]

True, @botley .

I'll also add that I dislike media that's overly slanted in my direction just as much as I dislike fox news, and I DO check multiple outlets to understand important stories.
I should have said "generally consider to be more trustworthy," rather than "trust."
I feel like things HAVE changed over the past 20 years, though. It seemed like CNN was on the level back then, and it's been sad to see them slowly become more sensational. And it's not just CNN. Doesn't it seem like EVERYTHING has become more slanted over the past couple of decades?
Also, I've gotta admit: I DO trust the AP and Reuters. When I worked on the college newspaper, I had access to the AP wire and I used it. I DAMN sure didn't worry about fact checking those stories in 99 or 2000.
So, seeing the AP issue such a massive correction is disheartening. And it's not that I'm unaware of journalistic practices-i studied journalism in HS and college. So it REALLY frustrates me to see news outlets engage in things that go directly against what I was taught back then.

But yes, man: your post is full of good points, as usual.

[thelastdisciple]

Just as I suspected, Joe Rogan took EXACTLY what his top notch doctors prescribed, and floated the idea of suing CNN for claiming he took horse paste.

Did they ever explicitly claim he took the version of the drug for horses? CNN i mean (i don't know about other networks).. i guess by omission of information it could be implied.

I'm not sure about other anchors, I don't know what Acosta said. What i did notice is for example i was watching an Anderson Cooper segment and he'll say the drug is "more often" used for deworming horses, he didn't say that was it's "only" use. I didn't really hear anyone else like Brian Stelter or Dr. Leanna Wen say Joe actually took the horse version either. To me they spoke more broadly and related it to the result of people who were actually taking the wrong kind. I think the main issue is that they absolutely should have put more effort into distinguishing between the horse and human versions to avoid confusion but i would say the same can be said for Joe and i would assume that to have been some of the media's main contention. At worst they were being sloppy (and sensationalist but that's nothing new) but I would say the substance of their discussion was valid. I'm not sure that Joe Rogan really has grounds to sue anybody here? (even if he was mostly joking)

On a separate somewhat related note, GOOD LORD.

[elevenism]

Did they ever explicitly claim he took the version of the drug for horses? CNN i mean (i don't know about other networks).. i guess by omission of information it could be implied.

I'm not sure about other anchors, I don't know what Acosta said. What i did notice is for example i was watching an Anderson Cooper segment and he'll say the drug is "more often" used for deworming horses, he didn't say that was it's "only" use. I didn't really hear anyone else like Brian Stelter or Dr. Leanna Wen say Joe actually took the horse version either. To me they spoke more broadly and related it to the result of people who were actually taking the wrong kind. I think the main issue is that they absolutely should have put more effort into distinguishing between the horse and human versions to avoid confusion but i would say the same can be said for Joe and i would assume that to have been some of the media's main contention. At worst they were being sloppy (and sensationalist but that's nothing new) but I would say the substance of their discussion was valid. I'm not sure that Joe Rogan really has grounds to sue anybody here? (even if he was mostly joking)

On a separate somewhat related note, GOOD LORD.

Dude I'm not 100% sure. I've been going through all manner of eerie bullshit here lately.
I know a SOME news outlets specifically said he'd taken animal medicine. Also, a news outlet SAID that CNN explicitly said he'd taken animal medicine: I saw THAT yesterday. But I've no way of knowing if THAT reporting was bullshit. And I'd imagine the CNN suit remark was hyperbole/jest.
Honestly, at this point, I'm ABOUT sick of the news and sick of it all in general. I'm about ready to just turn it all off.

And, fuck me, I can't watch anymore of Alex screaming insanity. It makes me sad. I miss the Alex who gave me extra reasons to hate George Bush and filmed Bohemian Grove and appeared in Linklater's Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, and was just a zany anti establishment Texas oddity who I never DREAMED would evolve into a far right lunatic.

Also, I'll be damned. I just looked up Linklater to make sure I had the right director in mind, and he seems to feel exactly like I do about AJ.

[Jinsai]

Yeah but fuck this, Rogan is still baiting the “you don’t need to get the vaccine guyz” bullshit trap ultimately, and I don’t care what form of Ivermectin he may have taken, fuck this anti-vaccine idiocy

[Haysey_Draws]

Something i have defiantly noticed in recent years regarding new outlets is people are less and less likely to listen to what they have to say and more and more put trust in what individual influencers say. This is why the likes of Podcast hosts are being used by people to decide whether they get a damn life saving vaccine and it's so fucking stupid! And what makes it worse is most of these hosts have NO accountability, back in the 90's people had to follow the rules of network TV but since the birth of YT and soical media that's gone out the window, they can do and say whatever they like and people will listen to them because they "trust" their opinion over actual doctors. And the shit cherry on the cake is most news outlets now try to paddle to this demographic as it gets the clicks rather then being responsible.

Some influencers do take their position seriously, but most unfortunately either don't care or feel they are above everyone else...shits fucked is what i'm saying.

[Demogorgon]

Honestly, as far as the virus goes, if i don't read it directly from an established medical journal or other medical outlet of some kind, then i don't believe a word of it. CNN, FOX, all of them are guilty of muddying the waters.

[allegro]

Honestly, as far as the virus goes, if i don't read it directly from an established medical journal or other medical outlet of some kind, then i don't believe a word of it. CNN, FOX, all of them are guilty of muddying the waters.

Even medical journals aren't totally trustworthy unless you read ALL of the data. My doctor and I have discussed this, and he says one study isn't conclusive enough; you need SEVERAL, and then you need to consider the data, the size of the sampling, who conducted it, etc. So I generally run the info by my doctor before doing anything.

Because I'm not qualified to discern information in medical journals, really.

There are memes on Twitter about how ivermectin "won the Nobel Prize in 2015 for human treatment."

Except it DIDN'T; two GUYS won the Nobel Prize.

[versusreality]

today was the first day back in the classroom with students.

I will be shocked if we are not back to remote by the end of the month. it was a disaster.

[allegate]

This afternoon, President Biden announced several important and aggressive steps to continue our efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 in our country, including requiring that all Federal employees and contractors be vaccinated.

Oh man, I know at least two people who are going to have a fit about this.

Combine that with the information that one of the two has sat down with the director - with a slideshow! - about why he isn't getting the vaccine and that apparently she's rather annoyed at him for this - shock - and is complaining in meetings with the chiefs, one of which is my boss. So I may be doing some hiring shortly.

[Magnetic]

Even medical journals aren't totally trustworthy unless you read ALL of the data. My doctor and I have discussed this, and he says one study isn't conclusive enough; you need SEVERAL, and then you need to consider the data, the size of the sampling, who conducted it, etc. So I generally run the info by my doctor before doing anything.

Because I'm not qualified to discern information in medical journals, really.

I didn't stay in science, but I'm 100% glad that I have my training. I have received a good handful of journal articles that friends have sent to me and asked for my take. BUT! I also know where my limits are, and that I'm not a medical doctor - and I try to point this out to people. Doesn't stop me from having the urge to bang my head against a wall with two stupid in-laws who are anti-vaccine and hype a lot of bullshit they find online.....with a high school education, max. Thankfully, they're not blood, and I have absolutely no issue cutting them out of my life. My partner can deal with them.

[elevenism]

I don't wish to sound as though I'm placing desire for political power over people's lives, but I've got to say this:

I worry that these sweeping mandates will galvanize republican midterm voters.

Biden said that this "isn't about personal choice." Tens of millions of people on the right disagree, I'd reckon.

[Jinsai]

well, sometimes you have to do what's right, even if people will take advantage of it and try to do a touchdown dance on the fallout. I'm not being a cheerleader for Biden, but I can't worry about the political fallout at this point. The best way to correct the past four years is to NOT think about yourself and how it might make you look, or what might happen politically as a result, and just do what's right.

[elevenism]

well, sometimes you have to do what's right, even if people will take advantage of it and try to do a touchdown dance on the fallout. I'm not being a cheerleader for Biden, but I can't worry about the political fallout at this point. The best way to correct the past four years is to NOT think about yourself and how it might make you look, or what might happen politically as a result, and just do what's right.

Dude, I'm not sure.
I don't want to live in a dystopian theocracy.
Make no mistake: that's what these awful bastards are shooting for.

[allegro]

I don't wish to sound as though I'm placing desire for political power over people's lives, but I've got to say this:

I worry that these sweeping mandates will galvanize republican midterm voters.

More than 3/4 of the American population is vaccinated. This includes Democrats and Republicans. They have been demanding more action.

Biden has faced constant pressure to “DO SOMETHING” because the Covid numbers are heavily increasing.

Federal employees are already subject to random drug tests. “A job isn’t a right; it’s a privilege.”

Dig up Ronald Reagan and ask him about how he fired all those Air Traffic Controllers.

The OSHA rule does not force people to get a vaccine; it gives them the option to get tested weekly.

This actually HELPS businesses stay in business, and remain open (vs. shut down due to a rampant Covid outbreaks).

Businesses have been hesitant to implement these mandates; now, implementation is easy.

This avoids shut-downs, ESPECIALLY with the Mu variant approaching.

By December, we will have more than a MILLION Covid deaths.

This mandate gave people choices. But it’s time to think of your country, and not just YOU.

Fuck these fake Patriots.

[Erneuert]

Got first Pfizer jab a couple of hours ago. Second shot on October 5.

[wampa]

Got first Pfizer jab a couple of hours ago. Second shot on October 5.

nice one dude!

[allegate]