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

[fcgamer | 4,723]

Well this is the big problem that I see:

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4351475

Normal (non-Taiwanese) people can't enter Taiwan right now, but they're letting in athletes to compete in marathons.

Seriously, fuck them, covid-19 isn't a virus that only affects the plebs.

[fcgamer | 4,723]

And another fun one, poor convenience store clerk was murdered over a f'ing mask

https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202111210009

 

[GPX | 1,369]

On 11/21/2021 at 5:44 PM, fcgamer said:

Well this is the big problem that I see:

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4351475

Normal (non-Taiwanese) people can't enter Taiwan right now, but they're letting in athletes to compete in marathons.

Seriously, fuck them, covid-19 isn't a virus that only affects the plebs.

This isn’t really that outrageous. Athletes are generally more healthy and likely to survive through a Covid19 infection. Also they have general quarantine rules during competition so the spread is much easier to be contained. 

Whereas international travellers are likely to mingle with others all over the country, and if it spreads it has the potential to spread quickly and unpredictably.

 

[GPX | 1,369]

On 11/22/2021 at 2:43 AM, fcgamer said:

And another fun one, poor convenience store clerk was murdered over a f'ing mask

https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202111210009

 

I think this reflects more on the degradation of society and how some can be so mentally messed up with homicidal intent. Psychotic murderers have been existing way before this pandemic, unfortunately.

[fcgamer | 4,723]

4 hours ago, GPX said:

This isn’t really that outrageous. Athletes are generally more healthy and likely to survive through a Covid19 infection. Also they have general quarantine rules during competition so the spread is much easier to be contained. 

Whereas international travellers are likely to mingle with others all over the country, and if it spreads it has the potential to spread quickly and unpredictably.

 

That's really not the point, and besides, should we really be granting exceptions to the rules based solely on the perceived health of a particular class of people?

It's just a matter of the rich and famous being granted special privileges, while everyone else is supposed to abide by strict rules. 

I'd reckon that's a large contributing factor towards folks being fed up with the pandemic and the regulations put in place.

[GPX | 1,369]

1 hour ago, fcgamer said:

That's really not the point, and besides, should we really be granting exceptions to the rules based solely on the perceived health of a particular class of people?

It's just a matter of the rich and famous being granted special privileges, while everyone else is supposed to abide by strict rules. 

I'd reckon that's a large contributing factor towards folks being fed up with the pandemic and the regulations put in place.

But that’s where we need to understand the difference between unfair restrictions and sensible allowance. With the sporting competition, I guess this would include the recent Olympics as well, you are bringing viewership and money into the country. Furthermore, you can argue it’s also bringing in more positivity and liveliness into the country. If someone catches it during the event, it can easily be contained. 

Your concern seems to focus more on equality and human rights. Where it should be that plus maintaining a sense of normality back into the public. And to bring back normalcy it needs to be done in stages over the coming months, not just with a single point in time.

[fcgamer | 4,723]

57 minutes ago, GPX said:

But that’s where we need to understand the difference between unfair restrictions and sensible allowance. With the sporting competition, I guess this would include the recent Olympics as well, you are bringing viewership and money into the country. Furthermore, you can argue it’s also bringing in more positivity and liveliness into the country. If someone catches it during the event, it can easily be contained. 

Your concern seems to focus more on equality and human rights. Where it should be that plus maintaining a sense of normality back into the public. And to bring back normalcy it needs to be done in stages over the coming months, not just with a single point in time.

I don't give a shit about sports, to be quite frank about it, so any risk is too much risk imo.

We don't even have the regular postal service straightened out, to even be able to send to places like England, imho that should be a much larger priority. 

[Estil | 1,264]

Would you believe there were anti-vaxxers back in the 50s for the polio vaccine??  Thank God most people (then and I hope now) know better.

PS: Mr Salk, who invented the vaccine insisted that it be given out for free.

Edited November 23, 2021 by Estil

[GPX | 1,369]

7 hours ago, fcgamer said:

I don't give a shit about sports, to be quite frank about it, so any risk is too much risk imo.

We don't even have the regular postal service straightened out, to even be able to send to places like England, imho that should be a much larger priority. 

I’m not necessarily agreeing or disagreeing with you. Just wanted to point out the fact that government decisions are based on society as a whole and not just based solely on any one individual’s opinion.

Some people may wish to focus only on health risk prevention. Others may wish to focus more on improving the economy. When the reality is that both aspects are important to consider simultaneously in order for any country to thrive.

[Estil | 1,264]

So now we have another possibly more dangerous variety to worry about...the Omicron virus.  Geez, sounds like a Decepticon...

[Californication | 1,477]

Ofcourse we all knew this could happen. We can't know for sure whether this could have been prevented or not, but we can say that the Biden administrations did almost nothing to prevent it from happenening.

U.S. companies have the vaccines, the government could have required the vaccine technology be shared with manufactures around the world and they refused, because they're pussys. 

And Bill Gates, is King asshole who did his part to block vaccines from being globalized - to protect corporate profits. 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2021 by Californication

[Tanooki | 4,933]

I'm not trying to make light, but the level of hypocrisy from Biden at the moment brings a smile to my face, he who dunked on Trump for being a xenophobe and racist for closing airports and black listing countries from travel before having all the facts.  Now you have him doing this, when his own CDC and Fauci are like, we need to know more as it's being looked into fast and furiously.  Waiting on the media to call this out, other than Fox and then the extreme right webpages, but I imagine it'll be crickets as usual.

Remember when Trump closed off travel he was a xenophobic racist, then when it appeared to be the right thing, suddenly he wasn't one of those but someone who didn't do it (despite fact) and was trying to get people killed.  Now Biden is doing exactly the same, followed up by now also re-implementing the turning away migrants at the border after having an open one for months.  Didn't take long yet again for another politician to say one thing to get elected, then go back on it.

[TrekMD | 1,401]

3 hours ago, Tanooki said:

  Didn't take long yet again for another politician to say one thing to get elected, then go back on it.

And water is wet.  In any case, I read that Moderna is already working to update their vaccine to cover this new strain of the virus.  A new booster shot will be needed to cover the Omicron strain once they've finished make the changes to the vaccine.

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

The question is will it be similar to Delta where it will rock the world of the unvaccinated? People with underlying health conditions who have put off getting the vaccine might have tough choices to make going forward. I don't envy them. 

I know a few people that were made believers after they got smacked in the face with Delta. I'm starting a new job soon, hopefully that one won't shut down for days on end from a covid outbreak too

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,013]

20 minutes ago, Kguillemette said:

The question is will it be similar to Delta where it will rock the world of the unvaccinated? People with underlying health conditions who have put off getting the vaccine might have tough choices to make going forward. I don't envy them. 

I know a few people that were made believers after they got smacked in the face with Delta. I'm starting a new job soon, hopefully that one won't shut down for days on end from a covid outbreak too

They're saying genetically it's rather different from Delta. The reason they raised it to a variant of concern is bc of the specific mutations it has. Apparently it has 10 or so of the 20 worst case scenario mutations.

I read tho that it may not end up completing directly with Delta and Delta may still out pace this variant like it has all the rest. 

South Africa is a bad reference as well. Cases are really low there comparatively speaking and only 23% of the population is vaccinated. 

Like I said 10 times in this thread already. Anyone concerned get some N95s while they're still cheap. Boxes of 50 from Honeywell for less than $40 can still be found. 

[Tabonga | 2,317]

On 11/23/2021 at 1:59 AM, Estil said:

Would you believe there were anti-vaxxers back in the 50s for the polio vaccine??  Thank God most people (then and I hope now) know better.

 

Before that it was the people that were opposed to fluoridation of water supplies:

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

[Estil | 1,264]

4 hours ago, Tabonga said:

Before that it was the people that were opposed to fluoridation of water supplies:

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

I guess they figured brushing/flossing was good enough? *shrugs*

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

19 hours ago, Kguillemette said:

 People with underlying health conditions who have put off getting the vaccine might have tough choices to make going forward.

 

Seems like a very easy and obvious choice to me...

[Daniel_Doyce | 470]

On 11/23/2021 at 3:59 AM, Estil said:

Would you believe there were anti-vaxxers back in the 50s for the polio vaccine??  Thank God most people (then  and I hope now) know better.

 

PS: Mr Salk, who invented the vaccine insisted that it be given out for free.

Well, yeah, I can believe that, actually. The rollout of Salk's Cutter vaccine in 1955 was arguably the greatest medical disaster of the 20th century, so much so that another polio vaccine wasn't widely available until Sabin's in 1961.

The miracle vaccine that protected almost the entire world from polio was from Sabin's team's, not Salk's. I say "almost" because, unbelievably, there are still areas in the Muslim world that believe the polio vaccine is a great conspiracy to sterilize Muslims.

"PS: Mr Salk, who invented the vaccine insisted that it be given out for free."

Salk didn't release it because he was some great humanitarian; he did so to help rehabilitate his reputation and because it was financially worthless. And it worked - Jonas Salk is a household name, and Albert Sabin is known by very few people nowadays.

 

 

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

3 hours ago, Andy_Bogomil said:

Seems like a very easy and obvious choice to me...

If you have underlying health conditions that simply the vaccine may hospitalize you or worse, I'd wager it's a tough choice. Cancer patients, pregnant women, etc.

[TrekMD | 1,401]

34 minutes ago, Kguillemette said:

If you have underlying health conditions that simply the vaccine may hospitalize you or worse, I'd wager it's a tough choice. Cancer patients, pregnant women, etc.

None of those are contraindications to the COVID vaccine.  In fact, cancer patients risk far more by not taking the vaccine.  As for pregnant women, there is already data showing it is safe and protective to the baby and the mother. 

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

14 minutes ago, TrekMD said:

None of those are contraindications to the COVID vaccine.  In fact, cancer patients risk far more by not taking the vaccine.  As for pregnant women, there is already data showing it is safe and protective to the baby and the mother. 

Fair enough. Good info, thanks!

[Tanooki | 4,933]

I'm starting to wonder with all this evolution bs going on now into this for a second year, this is going to end up long term being repeatedly overblown, fear mongered, playing suckers during election years, the works.

And for what... a very low (big picture) death rate, on something that will never go away and ultimately will probably in the public mind be watered down to an optional shot to get much like the yearly flu vaccine.  The flu shot isn't a cure either, it just ranges from protection to lessening the blow of the flu.  It's seeming that these current vaccines for this virus seem to largely do the same, you're either good, get hit notably less, or either way you're dead in that sliver of a sliver of the population.

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

16 hours ago, Kguillemette said:

If you have underlying health conditions that simply the vaccine may hospitalize you or worse, I'd wager it's a tough choice. Cancer patients, pregnant women, etc.

I thought people with underlying health conditions were more likely to get vaccinated? Not sure about cancer patients, and I'm guessing you're right about pregnant women, but every person I know with underlying health conditions had vaccine priority in Canada and they're currently recommended for the booster while the general public is not currently. 

 

 

[twiztor | 850]

On 11/28/2021 at 7:49 PM, Tanooki said:

I'm starting to wonder with all this evolution bs going on now into this for a second year, this is going to end up long term being repeatedly overblown, fear mongered, playing suckers during election years, the works.

And for what... a very low (big picture) death rate, on something that will never go away and ultimately will probably in the public mind be watered down to an optional shot to get much like the yearly flu vaccine.  The flu shot isn't a cure either, it just ranges from protection to lessening the blow of the flu.  It's seeming that these current vaccines for this virus seem to largely do the same, you're either good, get hit notably less, or either way you're dead in that sliver of a sliver of the population.

i agree with your larger point, but "a very low death rate"? really? It's currently measured at anywhere from 1.6% to 3.4%, which is quite high for a virus that we know how to stop/slow the spread of. 

Here's what my state requires children to be vaccinated for before entering school, along with their mortality rate (percentages courtesy of Wikipedia):

the person’s minor children residing in the state are adequately immunized against diphtheria (~[5-10]%), pertussis/whooping cough (~1%), tetanus (50%), poliomyelitis (~0.1%), rubeola/measles (~[1-3]%), rubella/german measles (~[1-3]%), and varicella/chicken pox (0.001%), according to recommendations provided by the department s 

and for good measure, here's some other diseases that have a lesser mortality rate:

Malaria 0.3%

Smallpox 1%

Mumps ~1%

1918 Spanish Flu 2.5%-9.7%

 

Edited November 30, 2021 by twiztor
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