The Politics of Covid 19, mask wearing and the vaccination process

[Lorini]

Watching the video of the press conference for covid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZAHzpV9w9o the concern was voiced that marginalized communities would be given the J&J vaccine over the other two. The physician said that all the vaccines would be presented to communities equitably.

So we now have a single dose vaccine that can be simply refrigerated. While at the moment there are more of the other vaccines, when the supply evens out, does it make sense not to prioritize the easier vaccine?

Thoughts?

[LordMortis]

Watching the video of the press conference for covid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZAHzpV9w9o the concern was voiced that marginalized communities would be given the J&J vaccine over the other two. The physician said that all the vaccines would be presented to communities equitably.

So we now have a single dose vaccine that can be simply refrigerated. While at the moment there are more of the other vaccines, when the supply evens out, does it make sense not to prioritize the easier vaccine?

Thoughts?

Detroit is packed full of marginalized communities and and has been provided with many doses of Moderna and Pfizer. And I don't know if they are going to waste or somehow leaving the city, so as not to go to waste. Either way. Whatever is going on for distribution, shots aren't getting in to arms.

These numbers include the fact the Detroit is packed to the gills with hospital systems... downtown... as is the center they dedicate last week. very much away from the residential areas, which may as well be deserts.


https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirus/0, ... --,00.html

As of 2/25 250k shots have gone to Detroit but only 73,000 have gone into arms. This is to say nothing of surrounding communities which cannot be broken down any further than "Wayne" county, which is by no means an equitable look the area. Wayne (my county) is more of a stew than a melting pot and that stew definitely not provide the same level of access to all communities.

With longer hold time so J&J, I dunno if that helps the situation for access and gets more shots in arms or not. I'm not eager to take the J&J over Moderna or Pfizer but if that's what's up, then I guess that's what's up and I'll get stuck with what they give me. (See what I did there. Get stuck. Get it. Because needles. I kill me.)

[malchior]

This is dumb - but the chain of dumb here goes all the way back to the Japanese health ministry releasing a statement for god knows what reason.

[YellowKing]

My father-in-law passed away last Saturday from a brain hemorrhage, a couple of weeks after getting his second dose. There was certainly some finger-pointing from some of the more extreme members of the family.

No, I don't put any stock in it. When you have millions of people over the age of 65 getting the vaccine, some of them are going to die. My father-in-law was 83 and had been in declining health for years.

[hitbyambulance]

shots in arms

i never want to hear this phrase again

[YellowKing]

It's the new "boots on the ground."

[stimpy]

My father-in-law passed away last Saturday from a brain hemorrhage, a couple of weeks after getting his second dose. There was certainly some finger-pointing from some of the more extreme members of the family.

No, I don't put any stock in it. When you have millions of people over the age of 65 getting the vaccine, some of them are going to die. My father-in-law was 83 and had been in declining health for years.

91 year old Mom gets first shot tomorrow. She gets around better than me and is still sharp as a tack.
No matter what anyone or any study says, I will worry about her.

[coopasonic]

Apparently Texas is throwing the doors wide open next week. 100% capacity, no mask mandate.

https://www.kltv.com/2021/03/02/watch-l ... cement-pm/

Effective Wednesday, March 10, all businesses of any type are allowed to fully reopen. “This must end,” he said before also ending the statewide mask mandate.

“Removing state mandates does not end personal responsibility,” he said.

If COVID-19 hospitalizations rise above 15 percent for seven consecutive days, the county judge can put orders in place. But under no circumstances can a county judge put someone in jail for not following those orders.

[YellowKing]

My cousins recently moved from Florida to Texas. Talk about out of the frying pan into the fire....

[malchior]

Apparently Texas is throwing the doors wide open next week. 100% capacity, no mask mandate.

My co-worker in Houston mentioned this today to me. To paraphrase, "I grew up here. My family is here. But I don't know if we can stay. They are trying to kill us in so many different ways now."

[coopasonic]

The options for warm and blue are limited. CA is expensive.

[$iljanus]

Apparently Texas is throwing the doors wide open next week. 100% capacity, no mask mandate.

https://www.kltv.com/2021/03/02/watch-l ... cement-pm/

Effective Wednesday, March 10, all businesses of any type are allowed to fully reopen. “This must end,” he said before also ending the statewide mask mandate.

“Removing state mandates does not end personal responsibility,” he said.

If COVID-19 hospitalizations rise above 15 percent for seven consecutive days, the county judge can put orders in place. But under no circumstances can a county judge put someone in jail for not following those orders.

I disagree yet understand the desire for reopening but not requiring the simple act of wearing a mask is dumbfounding.

[coopasonic]

I believe the word is freedumb.

[malchior]

I disagree yet understand the desire for reopening but not requiring the simple act of wearing a mask is dumbfounding.

There are a lot of unserious morons running this country. This is the same guy who tried to blame the power outages on the nonexistent green new deal.

[Smoove_B]

Well, I guess every experiment needs to have an outlier. It's awful that people are going to die because of it, but maybe we'll all be convinced to do the same when the economy in TX bounces back and money starts flowing.

[Holman]

The options for warm and blue are limited. CA is expensive.

GA is trending in the right direction, at least. I could almost see myself returning to Atlanta.

[Holman]

[$iljanus]

I’m really glad my wife is finally getting her surgery done today before some North American or other variant starts feasting like it’s at an all you can eat buffet.

[coopasonic]

The options for warm and blue are limited. CA is expensive.

GA is trending in the right direction, at least. I could almost see myself returning to Atlanta.

I "stole" my wife from a bodybuilder that is currently a police officer in Atlanta. GA may not be a great choice for me. We did live in SC for a while and LOVED the humidity.

[Smoove_B]

Next week seems like super-terrific time to just open up everything 100% and dismantle the mask mandate.

Houston first major city with every major variant of novel coronavirus:

[Isgrimnur]

Gotta catch 'em all.

[Lorini]

The options for warm and blue are limited. CA is expensive.

Actually most of CA is fairly cheap. It's just when you want to live in the main cities does it get super expensive. I live outside of LA so my house didn't cost me $1M+, more like half of that, and there's absolutely cheaper housing than even that. We'll see what happens post covid and more employees are able to work from home permanently. Could mean a lot of movement in CA cities.

[Isgrimnur]

[Lorini]

Uh that chart is four years old.

[Isgrimnur]

Indeed it is.

[Isgrimnur]

[malchior]

Mississippi has jumped onto the Texas no mask back to business bandwagon.

[LordMortis]

That doesn't sound wise. Mississippi is already 14th in cases per million but also 5th in deaths per million which suggest their health care system would handle virus precaution apathy worse than most. That is unless they are already paying lip service to the EOs and scaling them back to recommendations is just posturing for show.

[Skinypupy]

Uh that chart is four years old.

If housing prices have skyrocketed in CA anything like they have here, I expect it’s far worse now.

Red states scaling back their COVID restrictions is a win/win for them. They can take a victory lap for FREEDOM while any spike in cases will be pinned directly on Biden’s “lack of leadership and complete lack of planning”.

You laugh, but most of my MAGA family is 100% on board that train. The vaccine success we’re seeing is entirely due to Trump’s heroic efforts, and we’d have even more people vaccinated if Biden wasn’t failing so badly on the rollout.

Any additional deaths due to the rollbacks are of no concern at all to them, as long as they can stigginit.

[Kraken]

The options for warm and blue are limited. CA is expensive.

Actually most of CA is fairly cheap. It's just when you want to live in the main cities does it get super expensive. I live outside of LA so my house didn't cost me $1M+, more like half of that, and there's absolutely cheaper housing than even that. We'll see what happens post covid and more employees are able to work from home permanently. Could mean a lot of movement in CA cities.

My friends in San Jose say they're going to sell their condo and move because there's a new hi-rise going in next to their building. We suggested that they might want to move out here, where they have some family and friends. Winter is a deal-breaker for them. But their condo is worth $1.2 million. That's enough to buy a very nice summer house in the Boston area AND a winter home somewhere warm.

[LordMortis]

Gotta say, I think Biden cares about his word and that give some credibility unlike his predecessor and I believe he is actually staying informed and involved. So when he says there will be enough shots by the end of May, this suggests to me we should have fully vaccinated every adult who wants to be immunized by mid July in time plenty of time for the autumn shit show. His word is going to be put to the test. I'm actually optimistic. Up until he gave the commitment, I was thinking end of October at best. But now he's actually going to have expectations.

It's funny I keep hearing about his abuse of EO (which might very well be a thing. It's nice to not have to pay attention to the daily idiocy) and this is literally the first time I'm hearing him make a claim and I will be unhappy if he is setting my expectation falsely.

CNBC has Scott Gottlieb(?) on every other day and I don't dispute him his knowledge and I thought his expert insight was both something that was right because it confirms my bias and off because it goes against my feelings. He stated that you have to build a road map toward normalcy. The people of the US have been very accommodating for a year. That won't hold if they don't see a path away from the restrictions. (This must be true) but he also said that 20,000 cases per day today isn't as bad as it was a year ago because a year ago we were more vulnerable to spread. (This can't be true) From where I sit, if the vectors for spread are ever decreasing (which I accept) and we're spreading 20,000 cases per day then things are worse than they were a year ago not better. The only "better" thing is we've already killed off or crippled a good chunk of vulnerable people and have adapted better treatments so 20,000 per day is killing less people than it did a year ago.

[Jeff V]

According to a calculator on NPR,

"You will be eligible as early as May 31, 2021."

That seems to indicate that while there might be vaccine available, deployment will lag greatly.

And AFAIK, no vaccine is approved for kids, so quarantine must continue...

[stimpy]

According to a calculator on NPR,

"You will be eligible as early as May 31, 2021."

That seems to indicate that while there might be vaccine available, deployment will lag greatly.

And AFAIK, no vaccine is approved for kids, so quarantine must continue...

My thoughts exactly.
You can buy all the shots you want.
Having a cohesive distribution plan is a whole other thing.

[malchior]

CNBC has Scott Gottlieb(?) on every other day and I don't dispute him his knowledge and I thought his expert insight was both something that was right because it confirms my bias and off because it goes against my feelings. He stated that you have to build a road map toward normalcy. The people of the US have been very accommodating for a year.

Frankly this is a generous assessment to say the least. The United States has been all over the map on this. Some places are more accommodating than others. I can't help but wonder what he is talking about with all the anti-maskers/anti-vaxxers out there. That is the type of assessment that finds me not trusting his motives. It also doesn't help that he is a Republican who sits on the board of Pfizer. Though to level set anything I see on CNBC I tend to scrutinize at the highest levels because its always going to be a high-spin zone.

That won't hold if they don't see a path away from the restrictions. (This must be true) but he also said that 20,000 cases per day today isn't as bad as it was a year ago because a year ago we were more vulnerable to spread. (This can't be true) From where I sit, if the vectors for spread are ever decreasing (which I accept) and we're spreading 20,000 cases per day then things are worse than they were a year ago not better. The only "better" thing is we've already killed off or crippled a good chunk of vulnerable people and have adapted better treatments so 20,000 per day is killing less people than it did a year ago.

It is higher than 20K per day. The rate plummeted fast but it appears to have hit bottom near where we were in the fall before the uptick. It's significantly better than the devastating winter we just had but it isn't great yet.

[Smoove_B]

The CDC is set to release new guidelines on Thursday for Americans who have been fully vaccinated that say it’s OK for them to gather in small groups indoors with other people who have also been fully vaccinated, without wearing masks.

I hope they communicate clear guidelines and clarifications for people with kids.

[ImLawBoy]

The CDC is set to release new guidelines on Thursday for Americans who have been fully vaccinated that say it’s OK for them to gather in small groups indoors with other people who have also been fully vaccinated, without wearing masks.

I hope they communicate clear guidelines and clarifications for people with kids.

Grandparents are already starting to ask if we can get together once all of the adults are vaccinated. We've been saying we'll follow the guidelines - I too hope they are clear.

[stimpy]

The CDC is set to release new guidelines on Thursday for Americans who have been fully vaccinated that say it’s OK for them to gather in small groups indoors with other people who have also been fully vaccinated, without wearing masks.

I hope they communicate clear guidelines and clarifications for people with kids.

How do we know who has been vaccinated and who hasn't?
Isn't easing of guidelines counterproductive until that can be determined?

[Smoove_B]

How do we know who has been vaccinated and who hasn't?
Isn't easing of guidelines counterproductive until that can be determined?

This is guidance for families, not general gatherings. If you can't trust your extended family members to be honest about whether they're fully vaccinated or not, wear a mask.

EDIT: They're trying to cover scenarios (for example) like my parents (who will be fully vaccinated the first week of April) looking to hang out with my aunt (who will be fully vaccinated the first week of May). These guidelines would allow the three of them to hang out indoors (have dinner, socialize) on Cinco de Mayo with confidence the risk is low for them.

However, if I were to then send my 15 year old daughter over there, the guidance would no longer apply as she's unvaccinated.

[stessier]

There appears to be a growing number of people who think getting vaccinated spreads the disease (or maybe I'm just becoming more aware of it). In the past week, 4 different people from different parts of my life have brought it up. I'm not sure how you fight that one.

[ImLawBoy]

Maybe they're getting confused about the uncertainty over whether those vaccinated can still be carriers and spread the disease?