SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Since 99% of vaccinated do not die versus the non-vaccinated, there is a difference. Then there is the low rates of hospitalizations versus non-vaccinated. Regardless, life is an IQ test and passing is not guaranteed:

It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory. - It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory. – The W. Edwards Deming Institute​

Bob Wilson

 

i still prefer hospitalization rates, though cases are somewhat helpful since most people don't get tested unless they have some symptom

 

Curiously...the CDC doesn't report that.
Hospitalizations from Covid is the phrase that pays....or like Bob said above....the deaths from Covid.
Covid is real....as are the Delta (and: coming soon....Lambda) variants.
There has been a real-world spike in serious illness and death FROM Covid both here and abroad.

The same reason it's more contagious than the Alpha subtype in NON-masked society.
It's more contagious.

The gold standard for masks that don't come with a Racal suit seems to be the N95.....but, like the mRNA vaccines, they're "statistically" only rated at about.....you guessed it.....95%
There are reports are that vaccine effectiveness is somewhat attenuated for the Delta and Lambda variants but just as no hard numbers exist for masks, none are evident for vaccines.
We're also hearing more buzz inside this country about boosters, and outside this country about why America is hoarding all of the vaccines when there are (minority) nations with citizens who would stand in blocks-long lines for ONE dose.

Back to masks...
If you're not trained in PPE, MOPP gear, etc....you can very easily contaminate the mask when you take it off with your grubby fingers, wipe perspirations off of your nose, sneeze etc....
Even trained people get this wrong all of the time in labs where they DON'T leave doors propped open, sell lab animals for food, etc.
Cloth face masks are rated at a level that's somewhat less than 95% and come with MORE contamination vectors (N95s, properly worn, at least get thrown away daily.)
The mask Karens WILL somewhat correctly point out that they're better than nothing, but most people use them in the last year and a half to fish-slap their political opponents.

I live on free soil.
I do carry a mask with me because, very rarely, I will want to go into a store that has a sign "asking" people to please wear a mask, and the workers inside are all masked.

Back when stores demanded mask wearing as a condition for entry, I respected their right to do so, but I ALSO presumed that they're not smart enough to avail themselves of vaccinations.....causing me to reassess my willingness to give them money - most particularly if I'm counting on them to prepare food for me.

 

And the cloth masks, as well as the inexpensive "surgical" masks, most are using are much less effective.

JeffD

 

Excuse me, but you said "how about we shelter and SERVE them, from as safe a distance as possible ?" How are you going to keep me ("them" in your posting) at a "safe distance", other than locking us up?

My spouse and I are not in a nursing home yet, and don't have 'servants'. We are in our own home (you are the only person who has volunteered to shelter us, everyone else thinks we have sufficient resources to keeping paying for our own shelter), and plan to continue living independently for a couple more decades before selecting a nursing home. Even under the so-called "stay at home" orders last year, which clearly were going to last much longer than two weeks, we were still free to go outside for walking, yard work, biking, hiking in the mountains, and backpacking, and we did so extensively.

Merely saying that it can be corrected today, doesn't do squat to actually fix it. Budget hawks and anti-tax forces in Congress are a massive roadblock to fixing it. A couple recently-ex top elected officials even talked of slashing it.

These statements betray a major misunderstanding of what SS is and ever was.

As above, see your earlier conflicting "safe distance" statement.

For the green-behind-the-ears youngsters in the discussion, the original SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) happened in in 2003-2004.

The current Covid-19 is SARS2, a similar name because it is a similar virus causing a similar disease.

Delusions.

 

i would suggest that most masks do not fit properly, and more air is coming and going alongside the nose than through the material.
but more importantly, if you picture people in most crowded inside venues, the mask is only on a percentage of the time.
might just as well leave it at home.

 

i believe the death rate has hovered at .5%-2% (depending on the source) since the beginning of recording deaths for this thing. that would be 99.5-98% (depending on the source) survivability, since the beginning, even before the blessed vax , right ?

 

Finally got my first AZ shot on Tuesday after waiting weeks to get far enough up the list on our local doctor's appointment schedule, found a pharmacy that did the jab and we were in a day later ... crazy .... then on the way home, the doctors surgery rang I reckon we must have come up on the computer system that we had by-passed them
Wife was feeling a bit second hand that night, I was fine till bed time, then the headache started, then all the sore joints and aching muscles, took 24 hrs to pass to a level we could feel we were ready to return to work at our workshop ..... if that is a sample of what Covid is like, I'd hate to catch the full on version with the gasping for breath and coughing included ... you would need a strong will to live I reckon to get through it.
For anyone who isn't real sure if the vaccine is the better path for them .... it's a matter of choosing between one day of side effects and the chance of the full on version, if you are worried about the side effects, then the full on version is not for you ......

T1 Terry

 

Absent any interventions, that would mean somewhere between 1,500,000 to 6,000,000 deaths before a pandemic runs its course through this country.

And far more cases of various 'long haulers' syndromes among the survivors.

And remember that this is a coronavirus. We don't yet know how long immunities will last to this one. But if it is similar to its coronavirus cousins that cause common colds, then be ready to "lather - rinse - repeat" every five to ten years. On the bright side , this would slash life expectancies each cycle, especially among the elderly, helping resolve Social Security's funding problems by slashing the number of living beneficiaries.

 

At the moment it is slashing the social security generators over this side of the world. Social security is a govt paid thing over here, so part of the taxpayer load. This latest variant is taking out the young, not the senior citizens, a 20yr old died just yesterday over here from it and another found dead at home ... the ultimate denialist I guess.
We already have a shrinking workforce still contributing to the tax revenue and the Superannuation funds input compared to those retiring and living off their stashed away funds ..... Anything that reduces the youth population is a disaster in the making ....
Anyone know much about the newest Lambda strain? Apparently the Sinovac vaccine is powerless against the delta strain and wiping out populations like Indonesia that thought they had herd immunity with so many of their population vaccinated with the stuff.

T1 Terry

 

Over here, while the death toll among the young has increased, it is still absolutely nothing like the toll on senior citizens during the first year, before widespread vaccinations were available.

And as best we know, this is related to the much lower vaccination rates of the young compared to the elderly. Though one reader here is expressing ideas that the vaccine doesn't work.

I don't believe this pandemic had that much impact on the U.S's Social Security funding sources. The long running population demographic changes swamp the temporary unemployments of the past year that briefly reduced the payroll taxes that fund the program.

 

Hummm, 1.41% house advantage at the craps table.

So reducing the house advantage to 0.5% works too.

Having a visceral understanding of probability works and entertaining.

Bob Wilson

 

There fixed it. I was tempted to replace "poster" with "poser" but that would be overkill.

Bob Wilson

 

The original strains and variants, alpha through gamma, young people seemed to have a good immunity to it, now the delta, delta+ and lambda variants are spreading, the young no longer seem to have immunity.
They have chosen not to get vaccinated in many cases, and they are now showing up as the bigger numbers in the infected and death count.
Crazy mixed messaging by our illustrious leaders over this side of the planet has had everyone unsure about risk of complications V risk of actually catching the virus, combine that with the insane nonsense dribble that comes via Farcebook etc, and people just don't know who or what to trust ..... till they start dying in greater numbers from the virus than from vaccine complications of course, that becomes a bit of a game changer ....

T1 Terry

 

oooook.... I'm just going to point to the sky and say "blue" , so you can run around saying "he said it's yellow and he wants to imprison all the old people and steal our money!"

are you passing things through Google translate, from English to blue whale and back again a few times or what ?

I'm literally 100% against restricting anyone's rights and have just advocated for congress to leave YOUR money alone... but you've somehow got the idea I want to do the opposite ?

 

hmm. there seems to be a lot of emphasis (sarcastic or not) on eliminating the elderly here. I don't get it, but I have noticed it.

 

What Andrew Cuomo and Kamala Harris said about vaccine skepticism - The Washington Post

I think there's a little bit of gaslighting (great movie!) going on with the idea that vax-deniers outside the government tend to be white, male, republicans.
Although this group is well represented, I believe that the blue-tent crowd is missing an opportunity to get some more needle jabs done in their camp by a "don't be them" campaign
ANY adult examination of the numbers will reveal the fact that either Tucker Carlson has him some deep penetration into big blue markets - or - out Fourth Estate is drinking AND sleeping on the job.

...again.

Dot.gov could also use the Charmain approach.
"We're running out of the vaccine!"

There's a school of thought that school closings are generating lots of multi-generational vectors, since somebody has to look after the little darlings while mom and dad are at work.....and this will accelerate a trend that is already in progress.

700,000 deaths in the US ain't nothing, but demographically speaking it's small taters and most of those folks were SS recipients rather than contributors.