[reader50]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

I got a flu shot and a Pfizer covid the other day. One in each arm. One arm went slightly numb for a few hours, the other one ached for a day. Otherwise nothing to report.

Which one caused the numb arm?

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by reader50 

Which one caused the numb arm?

I'm reasonably sure flu was the numbness though it was a small area and didn't last long. Maybe a day. The ache was more noticeable and lasted a day and a half. Maybe two.

[reader50]

On Friday evening, I got the bivalent booster (Pfizer) and flu shots. Different arms for each. No overt reactions to report after 3 days. Super mild ache in the booster arm - only detectable if I lifted it overhead. Nothing detectable at all in the flu arm.

I do usually get shots in the evening, so I can sleep through any symptoms. Maybe that helped.

[MacNNFamous]

Got boosted a month or two ago, was tired that day but no soreness or anything.

[ghporter]

Last Friday, our son got his first booster - he had the two original shots back when “not elderly or chronically ill people first were authorized. And the booster kicked his kiester for several days, basically the whole weekend.

He needed a vaccination record for his new job and couldn’t find his original. I advised him to go to a local pharmacy for the booster, and they would at least give him a new record with the booster as the first entry. Instead, they looked up his records electronically and created a new record complete with his original two shots and the booster. And his new record is sitting safely in our document safe, along with his birth certificate and Social Security card…. Thus several birds were smote with a single stone.

[subego]

Illinois is surprisingly not bad on this front. The Department of Public Health has digital vaccination cards. They have the mother of all QR codes on them, which I assume is for for verification, and it can be used with Apple Health/Wallet.

[OreoCookie]

Got another close Covid impact: a colleague of mine with whom I spent half day yesterday discussing (masked with the exception of lunch) tested positive for Covid. This is the third time this happened to me, and I know my luck will run out eventually. I will get tested now and I will retest in a few days.

Also, I found out that Japan's Covid tracking app service was shut down last week! (I checked earlier this week and when I launched it today, it informed me that was shut down. WTF.)

[Spheric Harlot]

Several countries are making the discovery that even when dropping isolation and masking requirements, incidence is actually *dropping*. Probably at least in part because, due to less testing, infections simply aren’t being reported — but certainly also (anecdotally verified) because infections are increasingly difficult to distinguish from just regular seasonal colds. I know that my second round just felt like an annoying cold.
Add to that lower virus counts for those reïnfected and thus a fair likelihood of tests not actually revealing an infection (my second infection was a very faint positive line on a single test over a week), it’s simply starting to feel a bit less urgent.

What happens when we get new variants that are more severe, I don’t know, of course.

[Waragainstsleep]

Variants tend to get less severe as time goes by. We think of viruses as an enemy that wants to kill or hurt us but in evolutionary terms success for a virus looks like maximum transmission, minimum harm to the host. A virus that kills its hosts quickly won't spread. A virus that makes its host horrendously ill has a host that doesn't travel much and gets avoided by other potential hosts. These are dead ends. New variants are emerging that can dodge the tests and the vaccines but they don't seem to be killing people or causing the same long term issues like the earlier ones did.

[OreoCookie]

I agree with you. However, Japan is behind. My employer won’t let me go to the office until Thursday — even if I test negative. My wife, daughter and I have tested negative. My wife’s PCR test also came back negative. I’m still waiting for mine. Funnily enough, our as-of-yet unvaccinated daughter had some Covid antibodies. (Our Covid rapid test checks for antigen and antibodies). It seems she has been exposed to Covid at some point.

[MacNNFamous]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

Variants tend to get less severe as time goes by. We think of viruses as an enemy that wants to kill or hurt us but in evolutionary terms success for a virus looks like maximum transmission, minimum harm to the host. A virus that kills its hosts quickly won't spread. A virus that makes its host horrendously ill has a host that doesn't travel much and gets avoided by other potential hosts. These are dead ends. New variants are emerging that can dodge the tests and the vaccines but they don't seem to be killing people or causing the same long term issues like the earlier ones did.

TEND TO. Not always. Could go the other way any day now. And I really, really want it to. So sick of all these selfish fucks that didn't give a shit about anyone else, or denied the data anyway. It's still killing people at an UNDEREPORTED amount of 300+ a day.

For perspective, 9/11 was 3000. So every 10 days, we lose a 9/11s worth of people. But keep going into work. Keep going out to eat. Keep spending money. It's only the first winter where everyone will be inside, everything will be open, and nobody is masking. What could go wrong. Please go wrong. Fuck most people.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by MacNNFamous 

TEND TO. Not always. Could go the other way any day now. And I really, really want it to. So sick of all these selfish fucks that didn't give a shit about anyone else.

"I'm so mad at all of these selfish people that are only thinking of themselves and are only doing what's best for them personally. Why won't everyone else think of me and do what's best for me personally?"

[reader50]

Originally Posted by MacNNFamous 

It's only the first winter where ... nobody is masking.

I'm still masking in stores and other public places. At least until Friday. That will be 2 weeks since my bivalent booster. I plan to try maskless in public then. That said, I don't go to a lot of public places.

[Waragainstsleep]

I have decided I'm immortal. Presumably due to my high cheese consumption.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

Variants tend to get less severe as time goes by. We think of viruses as an enemy that wants to kill or hurt us but in evolutionary terms success for a virus looks like maximum transmission, minimum harm to the host.

Over generations, on average.

If you look at influenza, that's been around for millennia. But every once in a while, there's another strain that's WAY worse than others have been in a long time, and it wipes out a sizeable percentage of infected. And we really don't know the potential of SARS-CoV-2 yet.

[OreoCookie]

So I dodged the Covid bullet again. My PCR test also came back negative. I will retest tomorrow, but none of us are showing symptoms.

On the other hand, I was unable to dodge my son’s bronchitis — win some, lose some.

[reader50]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

I have decided I'm immortal. Presumably due to my high cheese consumption.

Gotta highlight this. Cheese is important.

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by reader50 

Gotta highlight this. Cheese is important.

There was a study a few years back that correlated cheese consumption against life expectancy. Turns out there is a statistically significant correlation between eating more cheese and being less susceptible to dying for any reason at all. Including getting hit by buses etc. So I figure if you eat enough cheese...

[reader50]

Do you have a link to this study? I hadn't heard of it - it sounds promising.

or secretly paid for by pizza delivery companies...

[Spheric Harlot]

It was actually the consumption of cheese vs. death by becoming entangled in bedsheets:

https://tylervigen.com/view_correlation?id=7

95% correlation.

Other marvellous Spurious Correlations here: https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations

Also: "Study" gnihihihihi

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by reader50 

Do you have a link to this study? I hadn't heard of it - it sounds promising.

or secretly paid for by pizza delivery companies...

Maybe Polish pizza companies

https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0828085914.htm

[ghporter]

“That which does not kill me mutates and tries again.” Just sayin’. So far, my wife and I have had FIVE shots; the original two-shot Pfizer start, then three boosters (so far).

Oh and we got our flu shots yesterday, and had no noticeable issues. Yay us.

[MacNNFamous]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

"I'm so mad at all of these selfish people that are only thinking of themselves and are only doing what's best for them personally. Why won't everyone else think of me and do what's best for me personally?"

I hope half of humanity is in the ground next year. We could have unified and stopped this but MUh FREEDUMBS. All these people who barely passed high school are now experts in the microbiology field, as well as smarter than doctors, scientists, geopolitical scholars, etc etc etc.

Fuck them. They are asking for it and I'll be celebrating.

[MacNNFamous]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Coronavirus...rd_less_sperm/

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by MacNNFamous 

I hope half of humanity is in the ground next year. We could have unified and stopped this but MUh FREEDUMBS. All these people who barely passed high school are now experts in the microbiology field, as well as smarter than doctors, scientists, geopolitical scholars, etc etc etc.

Fuck them. They are asking for it and I'll be celebrating.

[Waragainstsleep]

Well now I finally have covid. This displeases me. Clearly I've not eaten enough cheese recently.

[reader50]

If you're up-to-date on your shots, it should be no big deal. Typical cold symptoms at worst.

If you've had no shots, believe in Trump, and own a pickup with dual flagpoles at the back, we will miss you.

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by reader50 

If you're up-to-date on your shots, it should be no big deal. Typical cold symptoms at worst.

If you've had no shots, believe in Trump, and own a pickup with dual flagpoles at the back, we will miss you.

Yeah its not that bad. Just feel bleh.

[MacNNFamous]

We are currently in the 4th highest wave since this started, according to this article:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ge-complacency

[Laminar]

Several people at work got hit last week, luckily I steered clear. I need to check and see how long I should wait before getting boosted again.

[andi*pandi]

The schools are having a rise in rates, but nothing is cancelled. Masks are kind of vaguely suggested.

[MacNNFamous]

Please mutate... please mutate....

[Thorzdad]

Originally Posted by andi*pandi 

The schools are having a rise in rates, but nothing is cancelled. Masks are kind of vaguely suggested.

The MAHFREEDUMZ!!!! crowd has unfortunately cowed schoolboards into submission when it comes to masks and vaccinations.

[reader50]

Kids are more subject to peer pressure than we are. If masks aren't strongly recommended, then kids will follow the crowd. No masks, maximum disease spread. It's the rare kid who can hold out against peer pressure (and possible bullying) to keep a mask on when they're alone.

[MacNNFamous]

I've been wearing a mask for almost 3 years at any indoor function. It fucking sucks.

So let me throw this out there: If I were a hyper billionaire George Soros type, with cheat mode bank accounts, and I recognize the writing on the wall with global warming/over consumption, AND notice trends in all developed countries where working class can no longer afford property, quality of life diving, etc... for the good of the earth, wouldn't I want to, for the sake of humanity's future.... eradicate a good portion of the population?

And... if we can say that might be a desirable thing to happen from that perspective.... how would you go about it? Wars? Kind of localized. Super inefficient. Ideally a virus would be better, self replicating, spreading, etc.

BUT.

As we saw at the outset of Covid, countries locked down, jobs went remote, indoors required masks, large gatherings were banned, society adapted to slow the spread.

But if I really believed this path was best for humanity in the long run, and wanted to be effective, you know what I'd do?

I'd release a nasty virus, not like crazy bad, but bad enough to start removing the old people, you know, get some numbers/confirmed kills to the point where it made national headlines for a while, and I'd WANT society to respond do it. Then I'd pay off half the political parties I already control to start fighting with the other half, politicize controlling the virus. Just keep funding that fight, and maybe even weaken the virus, so that even the most vigilant people started not wearing masks. I'd stretch this out for years, to the point where nobody really gave a shit anymore.

Then I'd release the real one. Society has deemed it as something we just have to live with, masks aren't being used because 'we can't mask forever', restrictions are gone, and a good chunk of the population will just refuse anything that would slow it down. Sure, it'd take out a bunch of useful people, but mainly it'd take out the labor/workers, which are easily replaced. The more educated may be more resiliant due to vaccinations/precautions, but they are rule followers anyway and we need them around to continue to advance tech/medicine/sciences.

I'm not saying that's what's happening. I'm just saying... if I had that opinion.. and I had unlimited resources... that's what I'd do. Feint it/distill the news til nobody cares, people give up caring, then the bad one. Would be way more effective than releasing it out of the gate.

Just sayin'.

[reader50]

Just what the doctor ordered ... more COVID conspiracy theories.

On a personal note, I've gone back to masking consistently in stores, etc. Tried going maskless - one session ended when I got the flu. And I'd gotten the flu shot a few weeks before. Another maskless session ended when I caught the edge of something. Whatever it was faded before it could turn into anything. But it seems a mask is needed this winter to stay healthy. I may try again when it gets hot.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by MacNNFamous 

I've been wearing a mask for almost 3 years at any indoor function. It fucking sucks.

So let me throw this out there: If I were a hyper billionaire George Soros type, with cheat mode bank accounts, and I recognize the writing on the wall with global warming/over consumption, AND notice trends in all developed countries where working class can no longer afford property, quality of life diving, etc... for the good of the earth, wouldn't I want to, for the sake of humanity's future.... eradicate a good portion of the population?

Stop. Right. There.

You do realise that "George Soros" is just code for "Jewish World Conspiracy", right?

This is "National Zionists are the real Nazis" territory you're treading.

[MacNNFamous]

No, it's a code for crazy wealthy old white guy who donates to political parties to try to control the outcome of the freeworld.

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by MacNNFamous 

No, it's a code for crazy wealthy old white guy who donates to political parties to try to control the outcome of the freeworld.

Yeah, but it is a code word rooted in anti-semitism and conspiracy theory, which is what Spheric pointed out. You can get the same point across without that.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by MacNNFamous 

No, it's a code for crazy wealthy old white guy who donates to political parties to try to control the outcome of the freeworld.

Everything you write is straight out of the Q-Anon playbook, ca. 2021, including the "Soros"/"Rothschild"-Zionist conspiracy.

The mechanism used to achieve the goal you describe has been variably ascribed to the virus itself, or the supposedly deadly mass vaccination designed to eradicate a large portion of the population (and back to the virus itself, as you suggest, once it became clear that all the vaccinated did not die in September of 2021, as predicted).

Some Q-Anon lore codifies what you describe as the "Deagel-Plan" to reduce the population of the Northern hemisphere by 25%. Or the entire world population to 500 million. Depending on who's ranting, and whether they're quoting some "drop" or the Georgia Guidestones.

The only element missing from your train of thought is the clearly defined victims and beneficiaries - you've already got the culprits, even if you claim that "Soros" means "old white man with money" and not "Jewish bankers" and "Zionist conspiracy", but for the full Deep End™, you need to delineate whom they are trying to obliterate.

In the 14th century, it was Christians.

Today, it's everybody, presumably, who isn't part of the WEF orchestrating the Great Reset and the New World Order (starting in 202…5, I believe, is the current prediction).

[MacNNFamous]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

Yeah, but it is a code word rooted in anti-semitism and conspiracy theory, which is what Spheric pointed out. You can get the same point across without that.

But that's literally what he does/is. Crazy wealthy. Donates to things to control outcomes of elections/future of humanity.

Not sure how that's a conspiracy when it's a fact? I have no idea what religion he is.

POINT IS...... release virus big enough to get attention, drag it out so people let their guard down, THEN RELEASE THE BIG ONE.

True or not? We'll see, I guess. But with all the developed countries struggling for younger people which could lead to revolution or some weird enslaved peasants vs nobles, idk. That's what I'd do.

[andi*pandi]

Taking out the soros topic, yeah your scenario is how a bond villain would do it, sure. However most movie villains have to have a benefit/profit motive, unless they are Thanos and just want to watch the world burn.

[reader50]

I don't see a profit angle to this. So your proposed super-villain would have to be motivated by altruism - mass killing for the good of the species. I'm having trouble thinking of an example villain, even in fiction.

[subego]

Ozymandas from Watchmen.

[MacNNFamous]

Originally Posted by subego 

Ozymandas from Watchmen.

Nailed it. Actually he's exactly who I was thinking about, this isn't a terrorist attack for financial gain, it's for the good of the species. However, I don't find either of them entirely selfless; they want to live in a world that is decent and they're at the top of it. With over population/destruction of our planet without a viable alternative right now, they might want to help out humanity as a species to maintain control of it; after all what good is maintaining control of a sinking, burning ship? Might be able to steer it a while but it's still sinking and going to the bottom of the ocean, and we don't have the tech yet to build a different long term ship yet.

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by MacNNFamous 

yeah see that's where I disagree with the anti-vax nuts and fall more in line with Bill Burr on the Anti-vaxxers.. They have it all wrong. We get the motive; too many people, right?

The issue is that your thought processes grab onto the same motifs as other conspiracy theorists, which makes you susceptible to basically any conspiracy theory out there.

A common theme is that certain people or small groups (often Jewish) have “too much influence”. It might not matter to you that Soros is Jewish, but you can easily get unwanted bedfellows. Ditto for other dogwhistles like “globalists”.

Originally Posted by MacNNFamous 

The group that has been anti-mask, anti vaccine, and so far successful in staying alive? That group? Largely uneducated, threatened by education/science to the point where they just do the opposite of what experts suggest, and generally.... basic labor. Factory workers. Tradespeople. Retail. Etc. That entire workforce is basically replaceable, it's easy to get more labor. So yeah, eliminate a good chunk of people, they'd go for the unskilled laborers vs the educated/useful. Trades would suffer, but that can be easily learned, it's not rocket appliances.

It sounds as if you are missing basic empathy for fellow human beings. Converting frustration into aggression, anger and contempt isn't healthy — for you and those around you.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

Right now, I don't see him playing the victim. He was floating a narrative that is completely lifted from old Nazi and new Q-Anon storybooks, and we took him up on it.

Because it all ties back to how Covid affects him because he has someone close to him who is immunocompromised.

Originally Posted by MacNNFamous 

I've been wearing a mask for almost 3 years at any indoor function. It fucking sucks.

If that weren't the case, NO ONE believes he'd be pro-lockdown, pro-mask, pro-"caring about other people." Selfishness has always been his #1 driver, in this case he pretends his holy war is about protecting other people, when in reality it's (as it always has been) all about him.

[MacNNFamous]

Definitely all about me. I am my main character.

Back to covid tho... I'm still waiting for the 'big one'. If it got released now, years after the uneducated idiots largely 'won', what would happen? Denial til the very end. Keep masks off kids in school. Keep going to the office. Wonder why hospitals are overloaded then complete supply breakdown then ... riots? Idk. If it turns bad, it'll get REAL bad now since people no longer respond to viral protocols anymore.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by MacNNFamous 

Definitely all about me. I am my main character.

Back to covid tho... I'm still waiting for the 'big one'. If it got released now,…

Oh wait — you weren't just floating this thought for discussion, but actually BELIEVE that SARS-CoV-2 was engineered and purposely distributed to eliminate a portion of the population?

And that the SIXTY-TWO strains we've had so far were all just to let the uneducated survivors believe they're invincible, so that the NEXT one (#63? #65?) that they release will kill of the uneducated, easily replaced unskilled workers?

As well as a billion others worldwide who may be educated but just not have access to proper healthcare?

yeah…that checks out.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by MacNNFamous 

Definitely all about me. I am my main character.

Yes, Disney Princess Syndrome in full effect.