PhineasC

Since some of you might enjoy going down a rabbit hole for a few hours... enjoy: https://xwiki.angelfire.com

Probably just swamp gas igniting or weather balloons popping at high altitude. Nothing to see here, folks!

Sounds like we don't need to keep "getting the jab" in that case.

I saw a family member this evening I haven't seen in 12+ months. She was masked-up and kept her distance, but she really wanted to see my kids and wish them a happy Easter, etc so she asked to meet outside at a relative's house. She was asking about all of the traveling we have been doing between NH, MD, and DE (including many flights) over the past 12 months, and now we are also adding FL into the mix. She asked me point blank, "Aren't you scared to catch COVID? How are you doing this?" I was kinda taken aback by it. She is double, perhaps triple masked while asking this and like 10 feet away. This is a relative I have known my whole life. It was just a surreal experience. It really drove home for me how differently I am living right now compared to other people. There really are people out there who will not travel until the CDC/Fauci say they can. I find that just crazy. I just said, "I am not scared of COVID." I couldn't think of what else to say. She seemed really concerned about this. We also talked about the vaccines, and my answers there were not compelling to her. I doubt I will be seeing her again soon. It's going to take a long time for society to heal from this.

Eh, I think there is a reason various governments are talking about UBI now. Some parts of society are fundamentally broken now and will not simply bounce back.

Some of this is definitely people who died early because they refused needed medical care due to fear over COVID. It may be a small number, but it's real. Like I said, it will take a while to untangle all of this and come up with official numbers for 2020. There is no doubt that COVID is real and had a real impact, however. At the very least, it accelerated many deaths that may have been kicked out a few more months or years otherwise.

Lagging indicator. It’s coming.

I’m still shocked that police are not mandated to get it.

Up to 116k Americans died from the 1957 Asian flu... Another 100k+ from the Hong Kong Flu. Probably much higher than that given the more primitive nature of testing and tracing back then.

The case numbers, especially when comparing to the flu, are definitely skewed. Very few people get flu tests (I'm sure someone here will have the exception to the rule anecdote -- whatever). Yet many people get COVID tests. I know some people who get tested every week, sometimes multiple times a week, for various reasons, some legit and some less so... That alone will cause the case counts to be inflated due to false positives and catching every single very mild case, not to mention just basic recording mistakes that happen. There is also some under-reporting and over-reporting of COVID deaths going on. I suspect it isn't very common for a doctor to look at a patient dying with congestive heart failure who also has a mild flu and mark the cause of death as the flu. I suppose it happens sometimes, but in most cases the doctors would consider the flu a contributing factor, versus the cause of death. This applies to pneumonia, bronchitis, etc. as well. Anyone who has been with someone in the hospital who is dying of heart failure, cancer, lung diseases, etc. knows it is very common for them to also develop secondary infections such as colds, C. Diff, and the flu. Very common. There will be studies that come out in 3-5 years that look at this and quietly revise the numbers in either direction. I would be interested to see what happen to the COVID death numbers if you remove those who had heart attacks, strokes, aggressive cancers, and serious lung disease *with* COVID.

It’s a mentality shift for people. We have had it drilled into our heads that COVID is a deadly plague. Some will not be willing to accept that cases and deaths are still out there and there is still risk (like we do with the flu). They want this to be more like smallpox or polio. The whiplash CDC messaging on this topic has been atrocious. Sometimes 100k people die of the flu in a year with millions of cases. Do you think that will be acceptable to people? Seems hard to imagine.

I hope people get over this idea that the virus can be “eradicated” and cases will drop to near zero. Not happening. Just the false-positive rate alone of the current testing regime will keep a slow burn of cases going forever.

I see @UMB WX decided to drive by the thread this morning. LOL A brave lad, for sure.

This is a reasonable post, and I can see how it would probably be interpreted a different way in VT. The fact that this tweet came out so directly from the Governor's official account was kind of shocking to me, however. He didn't even mince words. Just flat out said if you are identify as a BIPOC person please feel free to jump the line. The Federal and State governments are not supposed to be able to offer taxpayer-funded services based solely on skin color... it definitely needed to be phrased and couched differently.

It is? I admit I am not up on the latest identifiers. Black, Indigenous People of Color, right? A Chinese American is not that, for example.

So why is an 18 year old healthy BIPOC kid more deserving of a vaccine than an 18 year old healthy Asian American kid? This is why the govt isn't supposed to use straight race as a differentiator when taxpayer dollars are involved. It's always unfair.

Vulnerable people are vulnerable. Plenty of people from other races are far more vulnerable than healthy, fit African Americans. Prioritize based on real risk, not just race. I mean, I get what you are trying to say, but this is the exact same logic used to justify racial profiling by the police and airport screeners, for example. It could also be used to justify racism in plenty of other domains, such as college admissions and sports scholarships. There is a reason tons of blood, sweat, and tears were spent over the centuries to address this and get protections against it codified in law... It's crazy to me how fast we went from mandating people not see race when making decisions to mandating people see nothing BUT race in decision-making...

The tweet in question didn't stratify based on anything but "self-identifying" as a BIPOC, and even said if just one person in your family identifies as such, the whole family can come down for the vaccine and jump the appointment line. I totally understand your point from a medical professional standpoint, but that is not what is happening here. There is no rigor behind this, clearly. It's dangerous racist pandering.

Look beyond the fact that you “already received your vaccine and so this doesn’t matter.” The fact that the govt is now openly prioritizing services based on race (and patting themselves on the back about it) should concern everyone. I feel like I am shouting into the void on this stuff...

Age is strongly correlated to the “vulnerability” standard with COVID, as are other factors such as weight and other health ailments. I am OK with a more-encompassing vulnerability metric. That’s not what the VT tweet said, however. It was strictly race. An 18 year old African American should not be jumping the line over anyone in the 50 and up bracket with existing health issues. Doing so is simply silly pandering.

That doesn’t change anything. It also doesn’t matter if they are handing out free grilled cheese sandwiches instead of vaccines. The govt should not prioritize services based on race, gender/sex, disability status, etc. It’s a really bad idea to go backwards on this stuff.

Based on vulnerability and risk, not race.

Crazy. The tweet clearly refers to a racial categorization, not “vulnerability.” Every day when I think we can’t go any further off the rails...

Since when can state governments discriminate based on race? https://mobile.twitter.com/GovPhilScott/status/1377605174320099335?

Snowed well overnight and this morning. Everything totally covered. Probably 2-3 out there. Nice little farewell present as I drive off.