4559 replies to this topic

[Bact PhD]

LFC, on 18 February 2021 - 05:03 PM, said:

Here's one major difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. Andrew Cuomo covered up data fudging on elderly patients and is being hung out to dry by Democrats. It will probably end any future political aspirations, as it should. Rick DeSantis? He fudged data on children and Republicans are talking about him running for president.

You mean Ron (not Rick; that’s Scott, the US Senator who in many respects was a proto-Trump during his governorship) DeSantis fudged data to make his case look stronger?? Say it ain’t so, Joe!!

(I’ll die of a heart attack from NOT surprised!)

[AnBr]

https://www.msnbc.co...ts-101207621902

[LFC]

Well this news makes vaccine distribution a little easier.

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One big problem with the BioNTech/Pfizer coronavirus vaccine was that it had to be kept at ultra-low temperatures to stop it from spoiling—but its manufacturers say that’s no longer the case. According to the Financial Times, the companies have discovered that the shots can now be safely stored in regular medical freezers, rather than ultra-cold storage units that kept the vaccines at temperatures “colder than an Antarctic winter.” In a statement, BioNTech/Pfizer said the vaccine can be kept for up to two weeks in temperatures between minus 15C to minus 25C—before now, it had to be kept between minus 60C and minus 80C. Ugur Sahin, BioNTech’s chief executive, said the discovery will give vaccination centers “greater flexibility,” especially in harder-to-reach rural areas. The new data has been submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

[LFC]

Florida ... again. Vaccination against COVID is just another political toy to play with. And besides people will remember ... with donations!

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On Thursday, following a press conference earlier in the week when Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) suggested he might divert vaccines to counties that don't criticize him, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the only statewide Democrat currently elected in Florida, tore into the governor for letting whiter, richer communities cut to the front of the line.

"Tonight a county commissioner in Southwest Florida admitting that she chose two of the richest and predominantly white ZIP codes in her county to receive vaccine doses," said anchor Erin Burnett. "This is pretty incredible. She is admitting all this, saying it chose two affluent ZIP codes to receive these vaccines. Then ostensibly wanted to get on the line herself. She's admitting all this."

"This is a public health crisis," said Fried. "There is absolutely no excuse for why the governor and the commissioner is using politics in order to give out these vaccines. And this is corruption at its worst. This is why people don't trust the system. And just to give you another statistic, right now in the state of Florida, 3.7 percent of the Black population has been vaccinated while 9.7 percent of the white population has been vaccinated at this point. So as the governor is rolling out the red carpet for his donors and political allies, he's pulling the rug out from the minorities from different minority communities and communities of color."

"It's outrageous," continued Fried. "It's absolutely ridiculous the fact he's using these vaccines and how they're being distributed as a political tool. There is absolutely no reason why an elected official should be using their power to put their family and their friends and political allies before the public good. That's what public service is supposed to be about, serving the public, that's the public as a whole. We're looking into it and seeing what other measures we can take to hold the governor accountable and to make sure that this vaccine is being distributed equally across our entire state. This is just outrageous and borderline illegal."

[LFC]

Bye-bye you dumb f***.

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A priest at a San Francisco Catholic church has died after contracting COVID, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The Rev. Bob Stein, a pastor at Saints Peter and Paul Church, was one of three priests and three caregivers who contracted the virus this month.

"We are deeply touched and grateful for the prayers and support so many of you have sent for those of us (clergy and staff) who tested positive for COVID," the parish website said in a statement. "We are sorry to say that Fr. Bob Stein passed away early on the morning of February 16. Please pray for the repose of his soul. We certainly will not be able to open the Church before February 23 at the earliest."

The church made headlines this summer for attempting to hold an indoor wedding, which was later moved outdoors when city officials showed up. According to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle at the time, at least eight guests later contracted the virus.

Saints Peter and Paul was one of several churches named in a cease-and-desist letter from San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera for violating COVID mandates by holding indoor services.

The church is currently holding services online.

[LFC]

Gov. Ron Duh-Santis once again proves that when under Republican controlled governance state it pays to be part of the state apparatus. Much like other fascist and authoritarian governments favors are doled out to the faithful and withheld from those who do not bow.

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About three weeks ago, Jane McPherson put her name on a standby list of older folks seeking the COVID-19 vaccine from the health department in Manatee, a county of roughly 400,000 people on the gulf coast of Florida. That list swelled to nearly 158,000 senior citizens, and the 65-year-old resident of Bradenton, the county seat, is still waiting for her shot.

“I’m stuck in the queue,” she told The Daily Beast, referring to the local vaccine lottery system. “No one has called me. I guess I need to pursue it harder.”

Last week, McPherson tried signing up for a vaccine shot at her local Publix, the Lakeland, Florida-based grocery store chain that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration picked for an exclusive pilot program to inoculate seniors at hundreds of pharmacy locations statewide.

Still no luck. Due to vaccine shipments being delayed by the brutal snowstorms that blanketed most of the U.S., Publix canceled booking windows for people to sign up for immunization appointments. In fact, Manatee County Commissioner Carol Whitmore told The Daily Beast that 5,100 doses the health department was supposed to receive last week were delayed.

“The weather screwed things up,” McPherson said, dejectedly. “These are scary times.”

But even as McPherson struggled to get an appointment, DeSantis funneled 3,000 extra doses to seniors residing in two targeted zip codes within Lakewood Ranch, a well-off residential community near Bradenton developed by the Uihlein family. The clan’s members include GOP and DeSantis megadonor Richard Uihlein, who gave $900,000 to the governor’s re-election effort in 2018 and 2019, according to the Florida Division of Elections. The Uihleins own Lakewood Ranch’s parent company Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, whose CEO Rex Jensen got a call from DeSantis about delivering the goods, as first reported by The Bradenton Herald. (A spokesperson for Schroeder-Manatee told the Sun-Sentinel Richard Uihlein was not himself a shareholder in the company.)

Jensen then contacted Republican Manatee County Commission Chairwoman Vanessa Baugh to help set up the pop-up vaccine site, and she gave the final word on who would get the shots, according to local media reports. She even provided a VIP list to county staff that included herself, some of her friends, and Jensen.

DeSantis is making good on his promise to f*** Manatee County for not being sufficiently obsequious as well as rewarding the areas that tend to vote and donate to him. This is current Republican fascism to its very core.

[andydp]

Back story: i get an e mail from one of my frat brothers about the occurrence of Guillain Barr Syndrome (Mad Cow disease) from the vaccine. I asked him for a reference he sent me a link to a closed (probably Anti Vaxxer) site. Told him I wanted to see something medical.

Sends me a post from someone who claims they got GBS from the vaccine. I send the posting to an MD I know. Here is his response:

As of Feb 2nd in the incident report database there has been 1 case of GBS out of 30 million doses and no way to know if that 1 is even linked
I doubt this is the referenced case. They published that study on Feb 18. So 3 day old report

Cureus | Neurological Complications of COVID-19: Guillain-Barre Syndrome Following Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine

[LFC]

andydp, on 22 February 2021 - 02:13 PM, said:

Back story: i get an e mail from one of my frat brothers about the occurrence of Gillian Barr Disease (Mad Cow disease) from the vaccine.

I got an ear infection a few weeks after my first dose. Obviously that means the vaccine causes ear infections too.

[LFC]

And the knives are coming out because the Biden administration hasn't suddenly, magically found all of the answers to all things COVID in one month. Of course they didn't bitch when Dear Leader screwed up, said really stupid things, politicized, moved goalposts, scrambled science, or any of that. Here's Meghan McCain whining about Dr. Fauci because she can't get a vaccine. (This despite the most at risk groups still not being covered. This F*** you, you entitled little bubblehead!)

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Meghan McCain, who may have been reading too many Ben Shapiro tweets Monday morning, embarked on one of her signature rants during which she both complained about not getting a COVID-19 vaccine yet—despite her position as a co-host of very important daytime talk show The View—and called on President Joe Biden to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci and replace him with someone who actually “does understand science.”

She began by sharing a clip of Fauci on CNN’s State of the Union over the weekend resisting Dana Bash’s plea to give concrete advice to vaccinated grandparents about how to visit their unvaccinated grandchildren. “There will be recommendations coming out. I don’t want to be making a recommendation now on public TV,” he said. “I would want to sit down with the team and take a look at that.”

“So I was very frustrated when I saw this clip,” McCain said, explaining she has “respect” for the pandemic that has now taken more than half a million American lives and doesn’t mean to “downplay” the tragedy.

“That being said, next week it will be a year since we left the studio and I have been very responsible in many different ways as so many Americans have been,” she continued. “And the fact that Dr. Fauci is going on CNN and he can’t tell me that if I get the vaccine, if I’ll be able to have dinner with my family.”

“It's terribly inconsistent messaging and it continues to be inconsistent messaging,” she said, comparing the U.S. response to a billboard from Israel she saw online—“Get a shot, take a shot”—that promised people they could go to bars with their friends after getting vaccinated.

And yes, after babbling like a little nitwit this airhead literally said Fauci doesn't understand science.

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“So I’m over Dr. Fauci,” McCain declared. “I think we need to have more people giving more opinions and honestly quite frankly, I think the Biden administration should remove him and put someone in place that does understand science or can talk like these other countries about how we can be more like these other places that are doing this successfully.”

Here are the Ben Shapiro tweets whining that the Biden administration hasn't cleaned up the Trump vaccine "plan" mess in 30 days. Double standard much? Of course but it's what Republicans do and I full expect them to be in full blown complaint mode for at least the next year. To be fair I have to give this little shit stain at least one smidge of credit. At least he didn't blame the lack of universal availability of vaccines on the Green New Deal. Of course it's only Tuesday morning.

[LFC]

Arrest them.

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Affluent people in Los Angeles who aren’t yet eligible for the coronavirus vaccine under California state rules have reportedly found a workaround—using secret computer codes given to poorer, largely Black and Latino communities to help them get priority appointments. California has been trying to improve vaccine availability for the hardest-hit communities by giving out special access codes that can be used to book vaccine slots. However, according to the Los Angeles Times, those codes have fallen into the hands of wealthier people working from home in Los Angeles. It’s not known how they gained access to the codes, but the state has been forced to cancel appointments made with some codes after the Times reporters asked about unfair use. According to the Times, people sharing the code appeared to believe it was a pilot scheme open to everyone, and didn’t know they were taking appointments from poorer people. “Nobody thinks they’re doing something wrong,” said one woman, who said she had been sent three different codes.

[andydp]

Good photo to use:

[Rue Bella]

 LFC, on 22 February 2021 - 02:20 PM, said:

I got an ear infection a few weeks after my first dose. Obviously that means the vaccine causes ear infections too.

I scratched my arm while pruning an orange tree 2 weeks after getting my first shot. The scratch was on the arm in which I got the jab!!!! There must be a correlation! I'm going to lawyer-up! (I hear Giuliani is now available.)

[golden_valley]

What science forgot about airborne pandemics.

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A few years ago, when I still had confidence in our modern ability to fight viruses, I pored over a photo essay of the 1918 flu pandemic. How quaint, I remember thinking, as I looked at people bundled up for outdoor classes and court and church. How primitive their technology, those nurses in gauze masks. How little did I know.

I felt secure, foolishly, in our 100 additional years of innovation. But it would soon become clear that our full-body hazmat suits and negative-pressure rooms and HEPA filters mattered little to Americans who couldn’t find N95 masks. In our quest for perfect solutions, we’d forgotten an extremely obvious and simple one: fresh air. A colleague joked, at one point, that things would have gone better in the pandemic if we still believed in miasma theory.

Miasma theory—discredited, of course, by the rise of germ theory—held that disease came from “bad air” emanating from decomposing matter and filth. This idea peaked in the 19th century, when doctors, architects, and one particularly influential nurse, Florence Nightingale, became fixated on ventilation’s importance for health. It manifested in the physical layout of buildings: windows, many of them, but also towers erected for the sole purpose of ventilation and elaborate ductwork to move contaminated air outdoors. Historic buildings still bear the vestigial mark of these public-health strategies, long after the scientific thinking has moved on.

Years ago my mother in law showed me a child rearing book from pre-Dr. Spock days that recommended that babies be bundled up and put out side on the balcony for hours a day. It was said to help develop lungs and all internal organs. It was aimed at city parents I suspect.

[golden_valley]

Some thinking on the various responses to Coronavirus in various countries. The good, the bad, and the embarrassing in America's Covid-19 response.

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...It seemed so finally, depressingly American—a mistrustful, poorly led, decentralized, and historically libertarian country that couldn’t even put on a cloth mask without making a national political fight about it.

[LFC]

golden_valley, on 25 February 2021 - 01:02 PM, said:

Some thinking on the various responses to Coronavirus in various countries. The good, the bad, and the embarrassing in America's Covid-19 response.

This makes me sad. I am definitely not proud of my country in this moment.

[golden_valley]

LFC, on 25 February 2021 - 01:36 PM, said:

This makes me sad. I am definitely not proud of my country in this moment.

In response to not knowing what to do when faced with an unusual situation, the response seems to be denial that the situation exists and a fight to the death not to admit it.

[Traveler]

The funny thing is, the EU seemed to have had just about as hard a time as the US, but with more apparent distancing. Something to think about. Any ideas why?

Having actually read the article, plenty of answers there. The timing of the response seems to be a major factor. And we are not Asian. Taiwan is remarkable.

Edited by Traveler, 25 February 2021 - 04:38 PM.

[golden_valley]

Traveler, on 25 February 2021 - 04:29 PM, said:

The funny thing is, the EU seemed to have had just about as hard a time as the US, but with more apparent distancing. Something to think about. Any ideas why?

Having actually read the article, plenty of answers there. The timing of the response seems to be a major factor. And we are not Asian. Taiwan is remarkable.

America's basic individualism "you can't tell me what to do!" ethos makes the people who live here disinclined to consider the good of the many. The general success of modern medicine in preventing communicable disease from killing vast numbers of Americans and the preaching of complete individual responsibility for one's health has robbed us of an understanding that good health is a public benefit and concern.

[AnBr]

Traveler, on 25 February 2021 - 04:29 PM, said:

The funny thing is, the EU seemed to have had just about as hard a time as the US, but with more apparent distancing. Something to think about. Any ideas why?

Having actually read the article, plenty of answers there. The timing of the response seems to be a major factor. And we are not Asian. Taiwan is remarkable.

Perhaps not as hard of a time. Things are starting to surface that there was a huge amount of under-reporting of cases and deaths in the US. Not surprising given tRump's attempts to sweep Covid statistics out of sight and keeping data from reaching the CDC.

[LFC]

Traveler, on 25 February 2021 - 04:29 PM, said:

And we are not Asian.

Speak for yourself. I identify as Asian. As a Ninja, in fact.