BBC: China pneumonia outbreak: COVID-19 Global Pandemic

[Larry]

8 minutes ago, Destino said:

Conspiracy theorists are already at work in the replies either implying democrats infected him or saying it outright.  it’s incredible that mad paranoia has become so normal among Republicans.  It’s like the craziness corners of the Internet have become mainstream.
 

 

 

Hey, this conspiracy is so powerful, they can inject people with diseases that don't exist.  

 

5 minutes ago, bcl05 said:

I hope he is miserable. 

 

Assume you mean you hope he feels miserable.  

Edited December 6, 2020 by Larry

[spjunkies]

I'm honestly a bit surprised it took him so long to catch it. 

 

*One nsfw word towards the end.

 

 

[China]

Yes, some Americans may be required to get a COVID-19 vaccine but not by the federal government.

 

With two coronavirus vaccines under emergency review by the Food and Drug Administration, the nation's attention is turning to who will get the vaccine first and when.

A big question remains: Will Americans be required to get vaccinated?

 

For some, the short answer is yes, public health and legal experts say. But a mandate is not likely anytime soon, and likely not to come from the federal government. Instead, employers and states may condition return or access to workplaces, schools and colleges upon getting the vaccine and mandate it once the FDA issues full approval, potentially months later.

 

"It's much more likely that a private organization or company will require you to be vaccinated to get certain access to places," said Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine. "People worry about the president, governor, or county executive telling them what to do. I don’t think that’s going to happen."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[visionary]

 

[skinsmarydu]

16 hours ago, redskins59 said:

I just took a look at freerepublic.

Yup, as expected they want to know why Democratic leaders don't get infected. The answer is so obvious...

Infected with what?

It doesn't exist, remember?  🤔

[LD0506]

[Dan T.]

 

[China]

 

[tshile]

@Dan T.

I don’t know what it is, there’s a number of reasons probably, but stuff like that hits harder than it used to. Much harder

 

thanks for sharing that. I needed that. Even if I didn’t realize it until I watched it

Edited December 7, 2020 by tshile

[Dan T.]

14 minutes ago, tshile said:

@Dan T.

I don’t know what it is, there’s a number of reasons probably, but stuff like that hits harder than it used to. Much harder

 

thanks for sharing that. I needed that. Even if I didn’t realize it until I watched it

 

Right there with ya brother...

[Spaceman Spiff]

Not sure where to put this, but probably here.  The latest Time magazine cover features a red X for the 5th time in history.

 

 

It was first used on a portrait of Hitler in 1945.  Then Saddam Hussein in 2003, al-Zarqawi in 2006 and bin Laden in 2011.

 

That's quite some company you've got there, 2020. 

[CousinsCowgirl84]

We didn’t kill 2020 though. 

[visionary]

 

 

 

 

 

[China]

Despite promise, few in US adopting COVID-19 exposure apps

 

Six months ago, Apple and Google introduced a new smartphone tool designed to notify people who might have been exposed to the coronavirus, without disclosing any personal information. But for the most part, Americans haven’t been all that interested.

 

Fewer than half of U.S. states and territories — 18 in total — have made such technology widely available. And according to a data analysis by The Associated Press, the vast majority of Americans in such locations haven’t activated the tool.

 

Data from 16 states, Guam and the District of Columbia shows that 8.1 million people had utilized the technology as of late November. That’s about one in 14 of the 110 million residents in those regions.

 

In theory, such apps could bolster one of the most difficult tasks in pandemic control: Tracing the contacts of people infected with the coronavirus in order to test and isolate them if necessary. In practice, however, widespread COVID-19 misinformation, the complexity of the technology, overwhelmed health workers needed to quickly confirm a diagnosis, and a general lack of awareness have all presented obstacles, experts and users say.

 

“There’s a lot of things working against it,” said Jessica Vitak, an associate professor at the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies. “Unfortunately, in the U.S., COVID has been politicized far more than in any other country. I think that’s affecting people’s willingness to use tools to track it.”

 

“It won’t work great until everyone’s using it, but it’s better than nothing,” Metaxatos said.

 

In states such as Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland and Washington, as well as Washington, D.C., iPhone users don’t even have to download an app. In fact, Apple prompts users via pop-ups to activate the notification system by adjusting their phone settings.

 

In these states, adoption rates are notably higher. But even in the most successful state, Connecticut, only about a fifth of all residents have opted into this tracking. On Friday, Washington said that more than 1 million state residents — roughly 13% of its population — had activated the technology in its first four days.

 

Virginia’s COVIDWISE app launched on Aug. 5 and was the first to go live. Since then, fewer than one in ten residents have downloaded it, though the state estimates almost 20% of Virginians between the ages of 18 and 65 with a smartphone have done so. Delaware’s app downloads account for about 7% of the state’s population.

 

All other U.S. states analyzed have much lower adoption rates.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[dfitzo53]

59 minutes ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

We didn’t kill 2020 though. 

Father time will though.

[China]

In Order To Appeal To Suburban Christian Women, Vaccine To Be Distributed Through A Pyramid Scheme

 

Many people are skeptical of the coming vaccine, some due to political reasons, and others due to religious reasons or the fact that all the numbers in the vaccine's serial number add up to 666 or something.

 

But there's one group that will definitely be on board with the vaccine now: suburban Christian women.

 

That's because the vaccine is being rebranded as an empowering wellness product called VacciLife. Women can sign on as an independent VacciLife consultant just by purchasing a $200 starter kit. Then, they're able to become their own boss and control their financial future by selling the vaccine -- and, even more importantly, a great business opportunity -- to their friends and family.

 

"VacciLife is a great way to meet other women in your neighborhood or church, earn some extra money on the side, and become a real boss babe," said VacciLife CEO Dr. Ima Connor. "Women can climb what we like to call our 'triangle of success,' becoming a Senior Consultant, Sales Director, and even a Super Double-Plus Platinum Diamond Gold Titanium Steel Regional Master!"

 

"Seize your dreams, take hold of your future, and ask your neighborhood VacciLife consultant about our great business opportunity today!"

 

Before the announcement, just 19% of suburban Christian women said they would take the vaccine. Now, that number is over 99% -- which is, coincidentally, the same percentage of people that will lose money trying to work for VacciLife.

 

[China]

Nursing home staffers attended a 300-person superspreader wedding. Now six residents have died.

 

Last month, more than 300 people packed into a wedding near rural Ritzville, Wash., defying state restrictions. Authorities later traced more than a dozen coronavirus cases and two outbreaks to the ceremony — and warned the fallout would probably get worse.

 

Now, health officials say the wedding also included some guests whose job is caring for among the most vulnerable to coronavirus: nursing-home residents. At least six residents have now died of covid-19 at two nursing homes where staffers tested positive for the virus after attending the wedding, the local department announced in a Thursday news release.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Arriving in the US from Australia during Covid was like walking through the looking glass

 

As a trained epidemiologist with postgraduate qualifications in anthropology, I never thought I’d be a “participant observer” of a pandemic on two continents. But there I was, boomeranging in just five weeks from Australia to New York and back again. From a commitment to science, communitas and mateship here, to defiant disregard for public health, contempt for science and mystical faith in a super-spreader leader in the United States.

 

I was travelling to visit my mother. She has lived in New York all her life and had been locked down for nearly eight months. Nothing very unusual there. But my mother is 106 ½ years old. She lived through the Great Influenza of 1918 that took the life of her baby sister. She was married and widowed three times. As she often says, “I’m a survivor.” But for how long?

My age put me at higher risk if I contracted the virus, and no travel insurance would cover my astronomical medical expenses if I were infected in the US. Nevertheless, I made plans to travel and self-quarantine for two weeks in New York before seeing my mother, and received a negative Covid-19 test just to be sure.

 

The Australian government issued my travel exemption in record time and I managed to score a return ticket, paying only double the usual economy fare. If there was an upside, it is probably the only time in my life that economy class passengers each had a row to themselves – and on my return flight 10 or 12 rows.

 

I should have realised when I transferred to a domestic flight in Los Angeles that I had just walked through the looking glass. Congestion at security screening explained the Covid clusters among airport security staff. On arrival in New York no one stopped me to take my temperature, or to register me, and there was no information about coronavirus exposure, let alone quarantine. The usual madness at ground transport prevailed as passengers arriving from all across the globe hailed taxis or Ubers, or shouted to waiting family – perfect conditions for spreading coronavirus.

 

Meanwhile, in Melbourne, millions of people were struggling under 11 weeks of lockdown, the price that society as a whole paid to suppress the virus, and suppress it they did: as I write no new locally transmitted cases have been recorded in more than a month. But over in America, it seemed to be a riff on “Live free or die”, the actual state motto of New Hampshire. To me it looked more like live free and die. Continue congregating secretly or publicly in groups exceeding 10,000 for prayer, weddings and other celebrations? Check. Cover only your mouth, free your nose? Check. Social distancing? You gotta be kidding.

 

Once my week of hanging out with my mom was over, I prepared to leave the US just as the rate of positive coronavirus tests was skyrocketing there.

 

As I write the hospital systems of dozens of US states are staggering under the surge of new patients. Deaths have surpassed the numbers seen at the peak earlier this year, with worse to come after Thanksgiving family get-togethers. One pathetic legacy of President Donald Trump’s dismantling of the public health reporting system is that the best publicly available, accurate and current coronavirus tracking system in the US can be found by anyone for free in the New York Times. I feel immensely sad that it’s been left to the fourth estate to do this job. Without it Americans might not have known how rapidly this crisis is intensifying.

 

Flying back to Sydney on US election day was momentous. It also felt like whiplash. The Australian governments swung into action even before we stepped off the plane in Sydney. Once in the terminal it was full-on with precise coordination across jurisdictions and levels of government – immigration, biosecurity, state health authorities, police, army, air force. It embarrassed me that an air force officer was pushing my baggage trolley as he escorted me to my room. Of course this wasn’t a courtesy: he was there to make sure that I was securely locked in my room without a key, open window or balcony for escape.

 

Both the US and Australia are responding to the same pandemic but you would hardly know it. In the US magical thinking and the elevation of individual freedom above the public good has squandered precious time. The number of deaths each day in the US quadrupled in just the four weeks after I landed in New York. Today it is up 30% in the past 14 days. Hospitals are reaching capacity and beyond.

 

Click on the link for more

[China]

Agents raid home of fired Florida data scientist who built COVID-19 dashboard

 

State police brandishing firearms Monday raided the Tallahassee home of Rebekah Jones, the former Department of Health data scientist who built the state's much-praised COVID-19 dashboard before being fired over what she said was refusing to "manipulate data."

 

"They pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at my kids," Jones tweeted shortly before 5 p.m. 

 

Jones — who launched her own COVID-19 dashboard after she was fired, and used crowdsourcing to raise money to support it — said the agents knocked on her door around 8:30 a.m. that morning, took all her "hardware and tech" after showing her a warrant based on a complaint filed by the Florida Department of Health. 

 

A video accompanying the post shows Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents in vests at the front door with guns drawn, asking who else was in the house. She said her husband and two children were inside as they escorted her out of the house.

 

"FDLE began an investigation November 10, 2020, after receiving a complaint from the Department of Health (DOH) regarding unauthorized access to a Department of Health messaging system which is part of an emergency alert system, to be used for emergencies only," Plessinger said. 

 

Jones was fired for insubordination in May after being reprimanded several times, state officials said. Her paperwork doesn't state a cause for her being fired, but she claims she was terminated for refusing to manipulate health data to cast Florida in a more favorable light. 

 

She tweeted: "They took my phone and the computer I use every day to post the case numbers in Florida, and school cases for the entire country. They took evidence of corruption at the state level. They claimed it was about a security breach. This was DeSantis. He sent the Gestapo."

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by China

[visionary]

 

 

 

 

 

[PleaseBlitz]

FWIW, my buddy who is a front-line healthcare worker said he is getting the vaccine on Monday.  

[gbear]

Former Alabama state senator last words were "we messed up" before dieing of COVID19.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-alabama-senator-dies-covid-age-78-his-last-words-n1250236

 

I don't like my initial response being, "You think so?"

 

I know it is not helpful towards the goal of making people more aware of their mistakes and changing their behaviors. It is the type of response I expect from my teens. So how do we make more people aware, if they aren't already?

Edited December 8, 2020 by gbear

[EmirOfShmo]

1 hour ago, gbear said:

Former Alabama state senator last words were "we messed up" before dieing of COVID19.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-alabama-senator-dies-covid-age-78-his-last-words-n1250236

 

I don't like my initial response being, "You think so?"

 

I know it is not helpful towards the goal of making people more aware of their mistakes and changing their behaviors. It is the type of response I expect from my teens. So how do we make more people aware, if they aren't already?

Sadly, we're not going to make people more aware. Or, we're not going change their behavior. 

Guy I know retired to Santa Rosa, FL. My wife told me he posted a pic on FB at a neighborhood party with no masks, no social distancing with ~50 people. Someone asked why no masks, etc.? "We live free." 66 ****ing years old, college degree and that's the mindset. We're not going to change it. 

 

[tshile]

1 hour ago, gbear said:

So how do we make more people aware, if they aren't already?

No one is unaware at this point. They choose their actions and risks at this point. 
 

if every reputable health expert in the world isn’t enough, then nothing is enough. 
 

it’s like climate change at this point. 
 

and the only way people will change their minds is to have to confront and experience the issue for themselves (like we’re seeing now with climate change from certain areas of the country now that their livelihoods have been significantly impacted to the degree they cannot afford to ignore it any longer)

 

they or someone close to them has to get covid and have problems. 

[TradeTheBeal!]

Update from my crazy end-timer coworker.  Like @tshile says, they’ll never learn.