The Spreading (And Potentially Deadly) Coronavirus Epidemic....

[Tenjikuronin | 1,716]

[GPX | 1,369]

On 9/23/2021 at 4:22 AM, darkchylde28 said:

 

If one cleans/sanitizes their hands properly, and frequently enough, the germs picked up from the environment shouldn't be of huge concern outside of to folks with some sort of phobia or OCD about such things.  Unless you're literally living in a clean room and a bubble, there's not going to be any avoiding the germs and contaminants in your own environment, so if you aren't scrubbing the skin off your hands all the time while you're at home, you really shouldn't be too concerned about what you might transfer from your hands to your mask when putting one on before going outside, where you could get more, different, potentially deadly germs and contaminants.

Yeah, people suck, but we can all only do the best we can, especially with our various levels of government basically throwing up their hands at or outright shrugging at the situation.  "Supporting each other in our own choices" means you're okey-dokey with the guy/gal with the hackey cough, no mask, and an inability to stay away from you because hey, that's their choice, and it should be respected...right?  Not every choice that someone else makes should be respected, honored, etc.  Perhaps it's somewhat different in Canada, but in the United States (and please don't take this as a 'MURICA statement, because it's really, really not), another person's rights and freedoms END the moment they start to encroach on someone else's.  So all the people refusing to wear masks, or get vaccinated, or stay at least a shopping cart/buggy/whatever the hell away from he when I'm in a store (something I facilitated long before I considered every other person not within my household a germ/toxin factory) are restricting, impeding, trodding upon, etc., the rights of others, right up to, and sometimes including, the right to LIFE.

Since you've stated you're somewhere on the spectrum, this might be an issue for you (or at least folks with OCD, phobias, etc.), but a little dirt, while not preferable, won't actually hurt anyone.  If your hands have been sanitized properly, you could have a shit smear on them, and regardless of how foul we would all consider that, you wouldn't be spreading (live) virii, bacteria, etc., just whatever dirt and debris you ended up with on your hands.  Not optimal, definitely not great in the overboard example I provided, but absolutely, positively within the guidelines of not passing along pathogens.  I'd shake hands with somebody's dirty, nasty, muck dripping hand in a heartbeat if I knew it was sanitized/sterile before I'd ever think about doing so with someone while out and about these days, at least not without them going ahead and sanitizing them right before me (most likely while I did the same, although my normal reaction these days is to go ahead and do so before and after any contact with someone outside of my household.

 

Well, now you know for the future what it looks like when you lay out/name drop "reference" in such a manner.  Also, having a "science" degree still doesn't help you in regard to that list of references, as there are plenty of sciences that have zero to do with what's going on in the world today, and thus having a degree in such would lend no actual assistance to understanding what's going on beyond what an average, reasonably intelligent, reasonable person would understand upon reviewing the same information.

My anger at this point is against any- and everyone who refuses to do the simple things that have been asked of us to help stem and prevent the spread of this disease, as well as anyone who makes excuses for them.  I myself have had some level of understanding how some people could end up uncertain about things, what with how the various governments and agencies have opted many times to politicize things versus keeping them purely factual, scientific, and for the health and good of the general public.  I still don't agree with those people, and I still think poorly of them for their indecision, which in many cases has ended up causing them untold heartache and disaster.

I have a wife with a heart condition as well as two kids who are young enough that they cannot be vaccinated.  I live in a US state that tends to be one of the world's hotspots when it comes to spread, with no vast war chest to call upon to just up and move myself somewhere "safe."  The best I can do is repeat myself again and again and again about how people should think about other people (which is absolutely hilarious at having to repeat as often as I do seeing as I live smack damn in the center of the Bible Belt, and these knuckle dragging anti-vaxxers attend church every Sunday withou fail and yet have failed in 10-20-30-40 or more years to actually absorb any of their Messiah's teachings).  And repeat factual information about what's going on, including statistics, how everyone's masks actually work, firsthand details about what people should expect from the vaccine, etc.  Yet still, this crap goes on and on, people want to argue with facts (about how they're somehow not facts, but somehow their sister's mother-in-law's hairdresser knows better than scientists), get into pedantic minutiae, etc.  I'm beyond done with it, and generally, anyone who isn't actively working, however they can, to help end this nightmare.

You’ve been posting a lot of long posts lately! But usually good points!

I think a lot of the “antivaxxers” are actually people hesitant on a decision due to too many confusing angles from the media, politicians and constantly changing policies with lockdowns, vaccination requirements, and other related uncertainties. 

I work in the health field and usually when I explain the relative risks between vaccines versus Covid19 to people who have been uncertain, usually they respond in a positive way and are more inclined to get vaccinated.

Then there are those who have strong needle phobia, severe past flu vaccination side effects, or long-time paranoid beliefs on vaccinations. These groups are unlikely to want to try the Covid19, no matter how much the persuasion. But thankfully, from my experience, these groups are a small percentage only. 

 

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

3 hours ago, GPX said:

You’ve been posting a lot of long posts lately! But usually good points!

Thank you!  I try to post shorter, but more often than not, the thought process gets away from me as it's coming out, ending up rather verbose by most standards.  I'm glad I'm still making sense most of the time, lol.

3 hours ago, GPX said:

I think a lot of the “antivaxxers” are actually people hesitant on a decision due to too many confusing angles from the media, politicians and constantly changing policies with lockdowns, vaccination requirements, and other related uncertainties. 

I work in the health field and usually when I explain the relative risks between vaccines versus Covid19 to people who have been uncertain, usually they respond in a positive way and are more inclined to get vaccinated.

Then there are those who have strong needle phobia, severe past flu vaccination side effects, or long-time paranoid beliefs on vaccinations. These groups are unlikely to want to try the Covid19, no matter how much the persuasion. But thankfully, from my experience, these groups are a small percentage only.

The ones I'm talking about so disdainfully are ones who haven't and don't put any thought into it, don't have any solid reasons for not getting it (such as confusing, conflicting information like you stated, concerns over the rapidity of its testing, release, and approval, etc., all reasonable initial thoughts and concerns), and actively campaign (either just through their personal and work contacts or actually gearing up to participate in/with actual antivax groups).

My brother isn't yet vaccinated, but I don't harbor any harsh feelings toward him for it.  Why?  Because he's looked closely at every report he can find, has sorted out the non-factual stuff, and still has had concerns about possible side effects, etc., given the medication he's on, his own health issues, etc.  He's made the decision to go ahead and get vaccinated several times, but each time something has come up (usually a work emergency, he's been working a lot of 80-90 hour weeks), then some legitimate new report about some potential issue has cropped up somewhere in the world, causing him to pause, research, and reflect again before coming back to the decision to get the shot.  All the while, since the beginning of all of this, he's essentially remained quarantined 95% of the time (he's single and lives alone), takes all mask, hand sanitizer, social distancing, etc. precautions when having to go out, etc.  I'm concerned for him and urge him to go just make time to go get the shot every time I see him, but I don't have any nasty feelings toward him because of his delay in getting it.

I reserve that for people like my mother in law, sister in law, and her youngest sister, who both have refused to even consider getting vaccinated, rarely, if ever, actually stay at home, and at least in my MIL's case (not sure about her sister as she lives ~2 hours away and I can't stand her anyway, and my younger SIL is a straight up idiot), she only wears a mask if and when someone guilt trips her about doing so, otherwise she's as out and unprotected as anyone would be had this all never happened.  While my MIL tends to keep her cards close to her chest and not say as much as the other two, she's let it slip enough times that it's clear she agrees with the others' sentiments about how being vaccinated is the mark or the beast, then having a vaccination record (something they literally all had as children and young adults, mind you, without concern or issue there) is the mark of the beast, etc.  The sister managed to get a terrible case of COVID a month or so ago and appeared to be at death's door, but beyond getting tested to find out she actually had it, she refused to seek or accept actual medical treatment, but instead sent her husband and son out on the hunt for hydroxychloriquine (presumably black market, since no doctors were involved).

My younger SIL, a nurse (supposedly RN, but I don't recall there being any ceremony for that upgrade), tested positive two weeks ago this coming Monday.  The whole time this has been going on, she's been going out any- and everywhere that she could, bars, clubs, restaurants, basically refuses to wear a mask unless her work makes her, and has treated this whole thing both as if it's not really happening and if it's some sort of Biblical event that we're all just going to pass through (she's very fast and loose with religion, it's nuts).  The claim within the family is that she got it from somebody she worked with who came to work sick, but who can say for certain?  She decided to visit my wife and MIL at the craft show they set up at the Sunday before last (the day before she suddenly felt bad and got a totally full blown COVID positive, her 50+ year old boyfriend did as well) and has vehemently denied that it was possible for her to have passed it along to both of them (as well as my other SIL's kids who she babysat the previous Wednesday) because she was asymptomatic at that time.  Also claims that the doctors (psychiatrists) who run the psych ward she works in confirmed this, despite actual scientists having reported the exact opposite for more than a year.  Thankfully she decided to actually quarantine at home with her boyfriend, but unsurprisingly, doctor shopped teledoctors until she found ones to prescribe her ivermectin.  She still thinks it's stupid for anyone to get vaccinated, is glad she didn't, etc.

I'm telling you, man, the actual antivaxxers are just fuckin' nuts at this point.  I stand by my previously stated opinion that they're like the damned Terminator ala Kyle Reese's quote:  "[They] cant be bargained with, [they] cant be reasoned with, [they] doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear, and [they] absolutely will not stop... EVER, untill you are dead."

[fcgamer | 4,719]

A chin masker decided to gouge the eyes out of a young convenience store worker, after she asked him to wear his mask properly.

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4302119

Schizophrenia or not, the police should have just put a bullet in the guy's brain and called it a day, he apparently had other violent incidents over the years related to his issues and refusing to take his medicine, if it were an animal it'd have been put down already, so why aren't we putting down garbage such as this piece of shit, the video was hard to watch and I feel really bad for the woman

Edited October 1, 2021 by fcgamer

[TrekMD | 1,379]

I feel so bad for this woman.  I pray she is able to fully recover from this.  Her attacker needs to be prosecuted and kept out of society.

Edited October 1, 2021 by TrekMD

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

4 hours ago, fcgamer said:

A chin masker decided to gouge the eyes out of a young convenience store worker, after she asked him to wear his mask properly.

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4302119

Schizophrenia or not, the police should have just put a bullet in the guy's brain and called it a day, he apparently had other violent incidents over the years related to his issues and refusing to take his medicine, if it were an animal it'd have been put down already, so why aren't we putting down garbage such as this piece of shit, the video was hard to watch and I feel really bad for the woman

I'm not about to click on the link, but you know, when I see/hear about things like this, my reactions turn classical Roman versus modern day society.  At a certain point, the Romans just didn't have any use for some people and that was the end of them.  How many absolute monsters like this do we feed, clothe, and shelter (not to mention providing healthcare for) most likely for the rest of their lives?  Ok, so our modern societies allow you to appeal whatever you were convicted of, fair enough.  After that point, though?  It's stuff like this that makes me occasionally truly struggle with the whole "it's better to let 100 men free than wrongfully convict/imprison/punish 1 innocent man" thought exercise.  The guy was on video, red handed, fuck him, let's revive and honor some vanishing native traditions and introduce the asshole to a volcano.

[Tulpa | 3,488]

This might be interesting. And no, it's not horse medicine.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/01/merck-to-seek-emergency-authorization-for-oral-covid-19-treatment.html

[fcgamer | 4,719]

4 hours ago, darkchylde28 said:

I'm not about to click on the link, but you know, when I see/hear about things like this, my reactions turn classical Roman versus modern day society.  At a certain point, the Romans just didn't have any use for some people and that was the end of them.  How many absolute monsters like this do we feed, clothe, and shelter (not to mention providing healthcare for) most likely for the rest of their lives?  Ok, so our modern societies allow you to appeal whatever you were convicted of, fair enough.  After that point, though?  It's stuff like this that makes me occasionally truly struggle with the whole "it's better to let 100 men free than wrongfully convict/imprison/punish 1 innocent man" thought exercise.  The guy was on video, red handed, fuck him, let's revive and honor some vanishing native traditions and introduce the asshole to a volcano.

Totally agree with you.

What upsets me even more is that the guy will get maybe five years maximum, then he'll be free, and that time might include time in a mental institution or hospital. 

If he were placed in a mental institution for keeps where people could make sure he was taking his meds, I wouldn't feel as strongly about the situation, but he'll be out in no time to hurt again.

And the poor woman, all over a stupid mask? It's really really sad, I think she was just 29.

[fcgamer | 4,719]

I wouldn't want to be the guy getting the placebo (and dying) during the testing phases.

 

[Estil | 1,261]

One of the latest COVID-19 casualties  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Powell

[Californication | 1,477]

3 minutes ago, Estil said:

One of the latest COVID-19 casualties  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Powell

Fuk that guy. One of the biggest contributors to selling the Iraq war to Americans with fake news. He can eat a bag of dicks.

[Tanooki | 4,930]

For once I'd kind of (less harshly mind you) agree with @Californication there.  Not for the same reasons, but the same level of contempt definitely.  Dude was double dealing, self serving, changed his loyalties and cares as easy as a fart in the wind.  To think he was once a very admirable, good leader in the marines...and then his post service years...ugh.

 

Also in all fairness, I'm not buying the covid had a damn thing to really do with it.  I think it's more of an easy spin to blame that because it helps puff up the numbers to scare sheep.  He was already in poor shape suffering from white blood cell cancer and was ill on top of that, had the vaccine in him too, but his immune system was so in the shitter you could have potentially sneezed in his face and did the guy in.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

15 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Also in all fairness, I'm not buying the covid had a damn thing to really do with it.  I think it's more of an easy spin to blame that because it helps puff up the numbers to scare sheep.  He was already in poor shape suffering from white blood cell cancer and was ill on top of that, had the vaccine in him too, but his immune system was so in the shitter you could have potentially sneezed in his face and did the guy in.

Everything you say explains exactly why it was so easy for him to die of COVID-19.  He had a blood cancer and the treatment of it to keep him alive basically fried his immune system, so when he managed to pick up COVID despite being vaccinated (because, you know, his immune system was fried), he couldn't fight it off and external intervention by Walter Reed couldn't do enough to change that.  It's what gets you over the finish line into the realm of death that counts as the cause of death, not other (significantly) contributing factors.

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

On 10/18/2021 at 7:15 AM, Californication said:

Fuk that guy. One of the biggest contributors to selling the Iraq war to Americans with fake news. He can eat a bag of dicks.

One of many war criminals associated with that administration. 

[Tanooki | 4,930]

6 hours ago, CodysGameRoom said:

One of many war criminals associated with that administration. 

Eh pick an admin, most of them are war criminals so I think people(enough) are getting fed up with the endless crying about how somehow the Bush one is worse?  Yeah, no... business as usual.

[Estil | 1,261]

You guys hear about the now EX Washington State football coach Nick Rolovich and some of his assistant coach gang getting fired for not getting their vaccines?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Rolovich#Washington_State_(2020–2021)

I mean dude, losing your job and ending up in the media spotlight for it is bad enough but if he and his now ex assistants aren't careful they'll lose much worse than their job...  

[Tulpa | 3,488]

I got my booster.

 

[MrWunderful | 2,926]

18 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

I got my booster.

 

Gonna try to get mine too. Wife got hers already. 

[Tulpa | 3,488]

I got mine at the Rite Aid around the corner.

Their appointment system is a little too inquisitive, and the pharmacist happened to be going on his lunch right as my appointment started, so that sucked, but I'm glad I got it taken care of.

Next time I'll just go to my doctor's office if I need another booster.

[spacepup | 2,404]

I got my booster a couple weeks ago through Walgreens, and it was a super easy, simple process.  I didn't have to face an inquisition or sign a blood oath.

I was a bit fatigued the next day, but nothing horrible, and overall no significant negative side effects so far.  

[Kguillemette | 1,543]

Just got my booster yesterday and feel like I've been hit by a truck.

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

Getting my booster Thursday!  

[MegaMan52 | 2,440]

I tested positive in September, and was sick for two weeks. Had fever and chills for a few hours, then vomited for most of one night. After that, I was coughing and had nasal congestion. That's it. I didn't need to go to the Hospital. I recovered because my immune system is strong (and therefore was able to fight the virus), since I drink plenty of water, eat lots of fruit, and am not overweight (I'm only 160 lbs). I'm not vaccinated and don't plan on ever getting the shot, yet I'm still alive and am feeling normal. You might think I'm a jerk for not getting vaccinated, but I still wear a mask, use sanitizer, and keep my distance without complaining. I'm also still allowed inside certain non-essential places, such as my local game store.

Despite being sick, I still dominated the Mario Kart VGS game night in September.

[Californication | 1,477]

I already got three shots so am going to hold off to spread out the immunity?

Is anyone mixing vaccines? 

[Tulpa | 3,488]

29 minutes ago, MegaMan52 said:

I'm not vaccinated and don't plan on ever getting the shot, yet I'm still alive and am feeling normal. You might think I'm a jerk for not getting vaccinated, but I still wear a mask, use sanitizer, and keep my distance without complaining.

There's more to stopping the spread than just the mask, etc. I mean, you did all those precautions and still caught it, right?

It's not that the precautions are useless, it's that we need to work all the angles (vacs, sanitizing, etc.) in order to get this thing under control and go back to "normal."

It's your choice to not get vaccinated, but you're probably going to face increasing restrictions in the near future.

Edited November 2, 2021 by Tulpa