[Spheric Harlot]

Glückwunsch!

[Thorzdad]

Congrats!

[Brien]

So… omicron anybody?

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by Brien 

So… omicron anybody?

I’ll pass. I prefer to wait for pi.

[MacNNFamous]

I hope it mutates and takes out 20%, globally. Fuck these science denying fucks, I hope they all die.

[Waragainstsleep]

I bet a lot of the holdouts would cave instantly if the authorities said there was a variant that caused permeant impotence and/or penile shrinkage.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

I bet a lot of the holdouts would cave instantly if the authorities said there was a variant that caused permeant impotence and/or penile shrinkage.

Interesting you should say that.. Because COVID-19 does (in some cases) cause impotence. It has an affinity for the epithelial lining of blood vessels, such as those in the lungs, heart, and brain, and it can cause permanent damage. Surprise; that same lining tissue is in the parts of the “boy parts” that cause erection. Yes, boys and girls, getting COVID CAN cause permanent impotence.

[Thorzdad]

Trump-appointed judge blocks government Medicare/Medicaid vaccine mandate.

This is insane. My wife’s home health company has already begun notifying workers about the new requirement and had several quit. Effin’ death cult. Give me liberty orand give me death.

[reader50]

COVID is a collective threat. Like manning a wall. If one sector takes the night off, most barbarians will cross the wall where it's unguarded.

The antivax people (including judges) talk about freedom. But they never talk about duty. Their part insuring that freedom does not become freedom from life. The lives lost aren't necessarily the guards hanging out in the bar, who were supposed to be on their section of the wall that night.

[Brien]

Let ‘em quit. More jobs for the rest of us.

[Waragainstsleep]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Interesting you should say that.. Because COVID-19 does (in some cases) cause impotence. It has an affinity for the epithelial lining of blood vessels, such as those in the lungs, heart, and brain, and it can cause permanent damage. Surprise; that same lining tissue is in the parts of the “boy parts” that cause erection. Yes, boys and girls, getting COVID CAN cause permanent impotence.

Publicising this fact more seems like a sensible strategy.

[Thorzdad]

Originally Posted by Brien 

Let ‘em quit. More jobs for the rest of us.

It's unskilled home healthcare. It's hard to keep a solid staff together in the best of times. The work can be shit, and the pay is shit largely due to being based on what Medicare/Medicaid/VA and private insurers pay for the service.

[reader50]

A 50-year-old man tried to pass off a silicone arm as his own at a Covid-19 vaccination clinic in northern Italy, in an attempt to get a vaccine certificate without actually getting inoculated.

The nurse realized it was fake, and thought it was a prosthetic. That she'd gotten the wrong arm. But it turned out to be a deliberate con. He wanted a "super green pass" that gives access to bars and other dense indoor locations. Only without getting a free vaccine, and protecting those other people.

The article makes no mention of charges, but public-endangerment comes to mind. Or attempted negligent homicide (if such a charge exists). The only mention of legal consequences is:

The Biella health department has filed a complaint with the local prosecutor's office.

We'll see if anything comes of it. Unfortunately, stupidity is not illegal.

[subego]

Here’s the Google translate on the original story:

https://torino-repubblica-it.transla..._x_tr_hl=en-US

The nurse asked the guy “do you think I’m here to comb the dolls?”

What a brilliant colloquialism.

[Thorzdad]

Stripped of power, Missouri health depts abandon COVID health measures

[Thorzdad]

Sooooo...My dumbass son-in-law, the lone vaccine holdout in the family, tested positive today.

It’s not even political with him. He just decided way back when the vaccines were just beginning to roll-out that he didn’t need one. He’s thirty-something and healthy, afterall. He’s one of those “I made a decision and I’m sticking to it” guys, and the more you beg him to do something the more immovable he gets.

[reader50]

Nurses are claiming the only thing that convinces some people is a hospital check-in. When the nurses ask standard admission questions (Do you wish to be revived?) the patients finally get serious.

Early in the pandemic, some patients would shout angrily about it all being fake - they only had the flu. It took intubation for them to quiet down.

[Thorzdad]

As of this morning, dumbass has lost his sense of taste.

[reader50]

Any change on his vax position?

[Thorzdad]

Beats me. Probably not. He keeps talking about how he’s going to beat this. The taste loss has been the only “serious” symptom so far. No respiratory issues. He’s quarantined in a spare bedroom, away from everyone.

[ghporter]

Loss of smell and/or taste seems to be related to longer recovery times. Plus there’s the whole thing about how the virus can attack certain “special” tissues - which could be related to loss of smell. You might pass on this link,. Then this one. Sort of sobering for a thirty-something, and maybe even attention-getting.

[Thorzdad]

Given that my daughter seriously wants another kid, I think those links would be like starting a firestorm in Dresden.

[andi*pandi]

Omicron is ramping up and cases are exploding exponentially. Indoor masking is back as a least resort.

At the high school, cases from last week to this week have jumped from 14 to 40. Enough of the wrestling team is sick that they've cancelled events. Not other sports yet though.

There was apparently a Senior Social last week. The school had cancelled it, but some parents went ahead and had it anyway at a private venue.

[subego]

We’ve had indoor masking since like August or something.

Kind of a blur at this point tbh.

[Thorzdad]

Originally Posted by andi*pandi 

There was apparently a Senior Social last week. The school had cancelled it, but some parents went ahead and had it anyway at a private venue.

Thank god the parents stepped-in and made sure their kids’ freedums weren’t trampled by the tyrant school officials.

[andi*pandi]

High school number now 48. Basketball and band are cancelled.

I get the desire to preserve special senior events, but they could have done it differently (require masking at least) or done an outdoor ice skating party etc. When my kid was a senior all of the special senior events in spring were cancelled so it did make graduation (in july!) seem anticlimactic.

[andi*pandi]

61 today. people pulling their kids out of school tomorrow. Deciding.

[subego]

Why are any of these discussions happening?

[MacNNFamous]

Here in Wisco, nothing is changed, no masks required, large gatherings and concerts okay, brunch, bars, etc, all open for business.

Meanwhile the hospitals are literally 100% full with not a single ICU bed available. And that's just Delta, not omicron yet...

It's fucked.

[andi*pandi]

As of last night, high school is up to 74. High school ~ 1600. Kid has friends with older siblings who went to Senior Social so kid is home today. Many staying home. Feels a bit like opening barn doors after horses are running loose in the field.

Our city got free tests from the state, and after distributing them to the most needy there were 2000 left for everyone else. There was a line and people are cranky... even cvs/walgreens sold out of tests.

MA mayors etc trying to reinstate mask mandates etc but of course resistance from the "masks don't work why bother" crowd.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by subego 

Why are any of these discussions happening?

Because it’s just about people dying.

If it were about rich people losing money, there wouldn’t be any discussion. It would just end.

[ghporter]

Sadly, there’s a disconnect between “losing trained and experienced staff to an avoidable illness,” “paying out disability and/or death benefits” and actually staying in business.

This particular “freedumbs” issue is one reason that domestic supply chains are borked.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

Because it’s just about people dying.

From huge dick.

[subego]

Got the booster yesterday. Enhanced owie response.

[reader50]

I got my booster a couple weeks ago. Curiously, the symptoms were different from the 2nd shot, and generally less intense.

However, I did choose to cross-boost. Pfizer for 1st and 2nd shot, Moderna for 3rd (booster).

[subego]

I’m triple Pfizer.

My memory of the original jabs is hazy, but I’m calling the booster less blah, equal fatigue, more pain.

[ghporter]

My Pfizer booster made me feel tired for the afternoon. That’s it.

On a related subject, my wife and I are switching from paper “procedure” masks to N95s. There seems to be a benefit from a closer fitting mask, and with this latest variant being characterized as causing “milder” cases, we plan to avoid contamination by the “infected but in denial” idiots.

Next month we are going on a cruise. We were supposed to cruise to Barcelona in April 2020, but that got nixed. Then the substitute Western Caribbean cruise got nixed. We’ve been looking forward to this cruise for a long time, and we’re not going to let idiots, brainwashed fools, or “it can’t happen to me” deniers get in our way.

[subego]

48 hours later, arm still smarts.

[Thorzdad]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Next month we are going on a cruise. We were supposed to cruise to Barcelona in April 2020, but that got nixed. Then the substitute Western Caribbean cruise got nixed. We’ve been looking forward to this cruise for a long time, and we’re not going to let idiots, brainwashed fools, or “it can’t happen to me” deniers get in our way.

You might want to check this site beforehand.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

You might want to check this site beforehand.

Useful stuff there. I think we’re OK though; the cruise line is staying ahead of things, we’re both fully vaccinated - and boostered - and we’re OK with wearing masks in public. They require a negative test within 48 hours prior to boarding, and they screen everybody before boarding as well. Sure, somebody could be unsymptomatic and have a false negative test, but we’ll be ok. As long as they don't’ cancel the whole thing on us. Again.

[reader50]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

You might want to check this site beforehand.

That page appears to show ALL Corona cruise ships to date. Example: the Diamond Princess is still listed. It was the first one, in early 2020. Surely it hasn't been reinfected recently. The page does show it at Cyprus rather than japan.

I didn't see any page control to limit it to currently-infected ships.

[Laminar]

Got my booster a week ago Tuesday. Same as the other shots - sore arm, sleepy, no other issues.

[ghporter]

The CDC’s surveillance of cruise ships (shown on this page) indicates that my ship is being monitored, possibly because someone became positive AFTER leaving the ship and reported it to the cruise line.

The CDC’s criteria for this monitoring are pretty strong, and combined with the line’s rules (and our own less-than-sociable tendencies lately) we should be OK.

[MacNNFamous]

My christmas wish was that we got a new variant takes about 20% of the population, did it come true yet?

[Laminar]

Found out last week my neighbor died of Covid, in her 50s, mother of 7 kids ages 5-24. Unvaccinated.

And someone in my office died last night, not sure if he was vaccinated or not, but odds around here are not. I know of plenty of people that have died of Covid (including family), but this is probably the first "see them every day" person.

[subego]

My great aunt who’s in her 90s and triple-vaxed still caught it in the nursing home anyway.

Last report is she’s not in the hospital, so that’s good, but it shows how communicable it is at the moment.

[Waragainstsleep]

Anybody seen Don't Look Up? Its an odd film but I'm on board with the message.

[ghporter]

We went to our local military hospital for some routine stuff this morning. There was a very, very long line of cars that appeared to be exclusively for the drive-through COVID testing. I don't know if the size of the line was because everything at the hospital was closed yesterday, because tons of people want to be tested before traveling (DoD says leisure travel isn’t a valid purpose for this testing), or what. Kinda scary.

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by subego 

My great aunt who’s in her 90s and triple-vaxed still caught it in the nursing home anyway.

Last report is she’s not in the hospital, so that’s good, but it shows how communicable it is at the moment.

The probability that Covid is serious in her age cohort is quite large. If memory serves about 20–30 % of the people in that age group who are hospitalized die. (My numbers are probably out of date, and I am doing this from (my rather shoddy) memory.) So I reckon the vaccination has protected her.

[ghporter]

Longish, worth the read…

I got a jury summons last week. The process is that you Zoom for the selection process, then report in person if selected. The start time was set at 8:00 AM on Tuesday, Jan 4.

I’ve been getting email reminders about the start time for the Zoom thing. I got one yesterday at about 10:30 AM that included the Zoom link and more instructions. Then at about 11:15 AM yesterday, the presiding judge sent out an email suspending jury service because of COVID. Wow.

This won’t count as having been summoned, which puts you lower on the list. But it’s like it never happened, either. “If you have received a summons, you should disregard it and do not have to appear in the courthouse or by Zoom. You do not need to reschedule your jury service as it is canceled.” So I’m not tied to my laptop all day Tuesday, but just wow.