GaryPinC

Yeah, it's confusing as hell. I think it was introduced and unanimously passed in the Senate and then went to the house where it hasn't been voted on. Your first link states in one spot it died in committee but somewhere else it says in recess so who the hell knows? That's why no journalists are writing about it!😂

It appears to me it hasn't passed or been voted on in the house yet.

There's certainly no easy answers to real time life or death situations. The thing about that Columbus girl I keep wondering is, did they have to pump 4 slugs into her? Couldn't they have tried one or two? I get the situation and support the police decision on the necessity of lethal force in that situation, but was that many shots truly necessary? Maybe with one or two she recovers. George Floyd. He allowed himself to be cuffed. He started freaking out about going in the back of the car, he wasn't directly assaulting or attacking the cops, just resisting their efforts. Not even one of them attempted to de-escalate the situation, back off on forcing Floyd, talk to him, exchange names, humanize the situation and give him the chance to calm down while working through needing to get him in the vehicle. The many good officers we are blessed with understand humanizing and de-escalating the situation then asserting authority, bad cops enjoy blindly forcing the situation under their authority. More thorough training and reassessing police protocols is needed. Then you've got jackass Lebron jumping to conclusions, demanding accountability while displaying zero for his own mistakes. We need our media (right and left) to acknowledge the gravity of the issue and find the integrity to publish all the facts, not just the ones that support a certain narrative. It's a mess and I hope everyone that wants to judge these situations do their very best to discover all the facts out there.

Yep, I've never abandoned my car but my family used to swear by AAA. Waited 2 hours one time, talked to the tow truck driver and he said AAA pays at a discount and often takes a good 90 days to get it so they put AAA calls last on the priority list. The few times I've needed a tow, I come out ahead just paying the guy on the spot instead of yearly AAA. And they get there within 30 minutes!

For the record, immunity and mutation to a less virulent form is the strong working/accepted theory. It started out in the spring of 1918 not being exceptionally lethal but went across the world thanks in large part to troop movements. It picked up it's more lethal mutation in Europe and went back around the world in large part to troops coming back home in the fall of 1918. It exists as a large part of the seasonal flu now for over 100 years. They were able to reconstruct the virus from preserved lung tissue in 1918 and validate it against a 1918-buried Inuit woman's permafrost-preserved lungs around 1998. In reconstructed form, it's 100 times more lethal to mice than seasonal flu. A bit long but easy to read article: https://www.history.com/news/1918-flu-pandemic-never-ended?li_source=LI&li_medium=m2m-rcw-history Detailed CDC article delving more into the sequencing story: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/reconstruction-1918-virus.html "What’s even more remarkable about the 1918 flu, say infectious disease experts, is that it never really went away. After infecting an estimated 500 million people worldwide in 1918 and 1919 (a third of the global population), the H1N1 strain that caused the Spanish flu receded into the background and stuck around as the regular seasonal flu." Really interesting that the Spanish flu variant was a combination of avian and human flu that we passed on to pigs in 1918 that adapted then later recombined with avian and human strains to give us the Swine flu in 2009.

Sure, you must continue your valuable work!😉 https://www.amazon.com/3M-142-5303-Facepiece-Disposable-Respirator/dp/B01HMF80O8/ref=asc_df_B01HMF80O8/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309707611836&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13199722352912629504&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9015308&hvtargid=pla-569957100225&psc=1 I use something like this, you can find them at Lowe's/HD or a hardware store. Even though bulky and ugly, they work. In your situation this is what I'd do: wear disposable gloves and mask, use a damp wiping cloth and afterwards immediately rinse down/wash the wiping cloth and hands/arms before removing mask. Definitely outdoors/open area (very important) with a fan. If I still had congestion issues, I'd shower off immediately afterwards too. Hopefully that would take care of the congestion. I'd do 6 months of max precautions then forego only the mask and see if my immune system has now desensitized to the mold. I'd minimally continue to do it well-ventilated outdoors with a damp cloth to avoid a recurrence and would probably keep the fan/gloves also. Regarding Covid, last year it quickly showed the ability abroad (and in NYC) to overwhelm health care systems. Our medical professionals had no concrete, proven ways to treat this novel virus. We were absolutely trying to slow down infectivity and unintentionally herd immunity to gain time to enable scientific and medical knowledge, and for successful treatments to become available. For me as a scientist, there are 3 scary things about this virus: 1) It utilizes the ace-2 receptor, which is ubiquitous to all parts of the body including the brain 2) asymptomatic spread 3) The number of bizarre and/or debilitating effects on people of all ages who survive and never appear in the "death" statistics. Simply put, the more Covid circulates, the more it mutates and you risk young people becoming more afflicted or these non-lethal effects amplifying in number and intensity. Might it not happen? Sure, but there is no one who can say how a freely circulating and mutating Covid will change but the warning signs are frightening. It's too bad most just fixate on past statistics.

Surgical and basic cloth masks primarily filter (trap) and slow down what is coming out of your nose and mouth. They offer little to some protection from incoming air (depending on a number of factors), which would be further reduced if you're developing an allergic reaction to the mold. Get a real sealing mask with filters and wipe them down outdoors is an open, well-ventilated area. Use of a fan, also. https://www.amgenbiotechexperience.com/seeing-not-necessarily-believing Despite its official-looking source and format, this article appeared in the journal Medical Hypotheses. This journal’s purpose (according to the publisher) "is to publish interesting theoretical papers.” They go on to say that the journal will “consider radical, speculative and non-mainstream scientific ideas provided they are coherently expressed.” When you search for Medical Hypotheses on the internet, you’ll find that it is not conventionally peer-reviewed (reviewed and fact-checked by a team of experts in the field to avoid publishing misinformation). I think this about covers it, especially if you choose to read the article. Of course the right wing tweetards will pump it as a gospel study.

I love Jerry Hughes but I'd argue he doesn't have very good instincts. So many times I watch him pushing to get to the quarterback and the ball goes right by him (sometimes WITH the quarterback). Passion and commitment can count for something, especially at a less complicated position like DE.

I think Oweh should have stayed in another year, transferred if not satisfied with his development at PSU. With so little on tape I question his motivation for the game as well as his intelligence for the game. He started football his junior year of HS and never blossomed after 3 years (albeit a shortened 3rd). That should be enough time to shine for a passionate, motivated DE, it's not overly-complicated from a schematic viewpoint. Not saying all-world shine, just some consistent "whoa" plays like Allen showed, commensurate with his raw abilities. Meh. I'm sure Bills will kick the tires and figure him out in the interview. 3rd round for me.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/rare-blood-clots-tied-to-j-js-covid-19-shot-are-similar-to-issues-with-astrazenecas-vaccine-fda-official-says-11618350086 Primarily in 18-48 year old women. Rare, but people have died. Made sure my 18 year old daughter got mRNA (Pfizer). Told her to refuse the J&J if offered. At her age and gender, the relative "rarity" of the side effect isn't worth it compared to Covid IMO. Definitely thankful for the mRNA vaccines. Yeah, I don't know how they'll handle these types of situations. My neighbor is in a similar situation. But, I think the greater point of the vaccine requirement is they worry about liability for/from the unvaccinated. While the mRNA vaccines have amazing efficacy it is not 100%. Bills/Erie county want to say they took every reasonable precaution but not get dragged down into excessive logistics (Covid tests, distancing, etc).

I understand you strive to be a pragmatic person but the minute you believe people in power were taking precautions simply to subjugate their citizens, then you are a cynic. Kneel before the science? Cynical. Actually, the biggest problem with Covid was the amount of unknown science fed into precautions to allow the science to catch up to it and until vaccines became available. Frustrated by the variable response between states like New York and states like Florida, Ohio, etc? A large portion of that rests squarely on Trump deferring to the governors rather than some firm federal guidelines. Only affects the weak or co-morbid? My neighbor is late 50's, pilot, outdoorsman, suburban house but also runs his farm in his spare time. Almost lost his life to Covid and was on oxygen for 3 months while his daughter had only mild symptoms. No one would think of him as weak. My nephew, 18, 6'4" soccer player. Skinny, perfectly healthy. Covid in January, mild symptoms. A couple weeks later, his finger tips and nail beds are dark red and purple. Better known as "Covid toes" except in his fingers. Has had to apply topical steroid daily until just recently. What happens if he contracts it again? That's an odd and disconcerting side effect. The cynical cling to the fact that this isn't the bubonic plague and therefore we should just suck it up and "virus gonna virus". The pragmatic realize that most of us luckily only suffer minor effects, but that this thing is Russian roulette and you don't want to take a chance on a bullet. And yes, age and the co-morbid suffer more but between asymptomatic spread and mutations, the best thing is to prevent spread and do everything we can to tamp it down. As the vaccines gain steam, here in Ohio events and concerts are being advertised like crazy and life is going to return to at least mostly normal this summer. And even the most cautious people will rejoice as NO ONE has enjoyed the last year +. Please everyone get your vaccine and help push normal back to stay again.

Good one, but not quite there for me. Twittiots was my number 2. But I have to stick with my number 1 as Tweetarded and Tweetardation are just too useful to ignore.

I hear ya, but let's be real. Not like the NY political BS just suddenly appeared with Covid.

Yes, I call them tweetards. The whole lot of them.

There's no doubt some kids have had a rough time with the lockdowns, especially states that didn't do limited openings last fall. More unfortunate when parents can't recognize the seriousness of the situation in some individuals, especially those that revel in the social structure within the schools. But speaking as a divorced father, kids are resilient. Especially when parents bury their own negativity and put in the extra effort to show their kids a positive new reality to an otherwise bleak event. There's nothing like family. Even when family is forced to change. My 18 year old daughter got her first Pfizer today. She can't believe how many adults are freaking out over the emotional toll on kids. Some of her friends have already gotten the vaccine and she says the lockdowns suck but all the kids she knows her age and younger (in high school) really want to get the vaccine and move forward to end this thing. So nice when politics doesn't kill common sense.

Berenson's pretty good at pandering to right wingers by going to legitimate information sources, picking a minor fact and blowing it out of proportion to spin a new reality while ignoring the more numerous facts that tell a different story. People at both extremes do this, he happens to be the far-right's hero.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/researchers-are-hatching-a-low-cost-coronavirus-vaccine/ar-BB1fjndQ?li=BBnb7Kz Fantastic article on the American scientist who built and continues to build a better Covid vaccine and the side effort in helping third world countries easily produce their own. Just a perfect example of how most of us scientists are wired!

Thanks for your good thoughts also and I definitely appreciate keeping it apolitical. Definitely our federal agencies got caught flat-footed but we haven't had a true pandemic since arguably 1918. We had no meaningful capacity to contact trace, no way it was going to happen effectively in the 3-6 week window we had to control this thing last year. Plus, Americans are very wary to sacrifice personal freedoms even temporarily, so asking them to do it proactively was virtually a non-starter. It's part of what makes us great, but not this time. So I would in all fairness say, other than the Chinese and some smaller countries, the entire world got caught flat-footed. As far as variants, I don't have a good idea how fast they can turn around the science on them. You can do a genomic sequence on a virus in less then a day, but there's the analysis as viruses are constantly undergoing changes. I'm also unsure if diagnostic clinical labs do this type of study, I think there has to be priority, protocols, and funding for formal studies which require designs, applications to federal agencies, IRBs, analysis, peer review just to name a few. Just anecdotally, I remember them discussing suspicions that there was a more mild strain and a more virulent strain (that hit Europe) when things got rolling last year. This fall was the first the they actually put some science behind it with actual variants. The biggest issue is can we do better next time?

Yah, I missed him answering it above. And I have seen him engage and discuss at times, other times he just enjoys obstructing a discussion. Same as Tibs. I'm still willing to attempt to engage but yes, we'll see if I end up drawing your same conclusions👍.

I hear ya, the problem is this (the science) has always been and continues to be a complex situation developing in real time. There's more grey than black and white at play here. We've learned much but there's still a lot of unknowns that simply need time and further study to figure out. Will certain areas see another rise and will vaccination/natural immunity be able to squash it or prevent others? Best data we have may be Israel, otherwise it's a guess. We're only a little over a year out on trying to get a handle on this novel, unusual virus. That's nothing, barely a blink of the eye in science terms. But honestly, the science that has gone into the Western vaccines and turning that around in a year is truly breathtaking to someone like myself. Really super job. The Russians did very well also, just not sure you can rely on their mass production quality. The problem with the people that "know" is that they have to take in to account the risks of what they don't know, which is substantial in this case. They also tend not to discuss things they know but there's not enough formally analyzed data yet. For example, I can tell you in my discussions with the Ohio department of health last fall, they're much more willing to discuss and give guidance based on trends they're seeing well before the CDC changes its formal guidance. My leading guess would be one or more of the variants is contributing to NYC as it has such a global footprint. But it's probably a number of factors and just because you can chart the rise, you might not be able to fully explain it for another year. WRT the variants, no one can say for sure, but based on my research I would guess if South Africa or Brazil become dominant here, cases would rise but the hospitalizations would be muted to some degree. I do believe the vaccines will be effective in preventing the most serious cases (ICU) but beyond that ???

Nope. I'm a scientist, bachelor's degree biochemisty. Are you a teacher?

Honestly, I don't have an opinion as to how they structure your salary. I hope it works for you. Teachers have a huge, huge amount of time off as I mentioned in my earlier post. If I were a teacher I would deeply appreciate that. Teaching is a difficult job, not here to tell you otherwise. Simply that the things teacher's standardly complain about (taking work home, long hours, crappy administration/bosses, micromanagement,etc), well it's a bad look to most of us in the working world as we have more than our share of that too. We just don't B word like some teachers feel compelled to do. And thank you for the passion and effort you put in to teaching. Easy to tell that you're one of the good ones. As far as my son's second grade teacher, I believe she was late 30's early 40's. I was googling her and found her salary in a public document. I believe here in Ohio teacher's salaries are public info though I've never tried to look them up for other teachers. That's my only context, unfortunately.

The thing that's difficult in all this is you can't just simply stare at numbers and charts. There are too many factors that they don't capture. Mask and protective mandates are only so good as people are willing to follow. There's no charting compliance. People, especially young people get burned out. Variants. It's not like European countries wanted to shut down again, the British variant forced it. Look at Michigan, the British variant is thought to be influencing their rise, but we won't have the proof until a month or more. Seasonality. Not a lot of definitive words, but it seems logical that the virus doesn't spread as easily outdoors and so time of year influences. WRT Florida and Texas, their biggest outbreak was over the summer during air conditioning season, so we will see. Vaccine. Now it's going to impact these numbers and hopefully innoculations are high enough to squash any future outbreaks. But variants may blunt this effect, we just don't know for sure. You've got many other influencing factors, such as how long does natural immunity last and asymptomatic infections but this post is long enough. Precautions work but are far from foolproof. Health officials and leaders look at the strain on the healthcare system and set precautions accordingly. I've advocated caution but certainly won't wear a mask forever, as some panic whores like to imagine. Looking forward to mask-free dinner with my now-vaccinated family this weekend! https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/humans-not-animals-likely-took-the-covid-virus-to-wuhan-contrary-to-chinas-claims/ar-BB1eYwfF?li=BBnbfcL Really good non-political article IMO implicating accidental release from Wuhan Virology Institute as the source of outbreak.

Well, sounds like you didn't enjoy teaching, did the smart thing and got out. Congratulations, glad you truly found a career that better suited you. Like most jobs, I don't think teaching's easy, but if you love it you find a way to lighten the negatives. But, so terrible you had to do work at home! Yah, that's so unique in the working world. Not! And so freaking terrible you actually had to come in like normally expected for in-service days while your students get a day off. 🙄 Oh, and so terrible when mild winters deny your snow days! Spending this entire spring teaching my stepson wasn't hard, it was just a lot of time in addition to my regular job (which I was fortunate to still have!). He's Chinese and is just learning to speak English, so it worked out because I got him caught up where his regular teachers couldn't give him enough attention and were cutting him a break on his responsibilities. My other kids are in high school, so other than routinely checking in with them it was luckily easy. There's teaching and there's teaching effectively. Between my years of coaching and the couple friends I have who enjoy teaching, the key is being astute, humble, creative and open enough to learn what works with the kids to become an effective teacher. Looking at you trying to cry me a river, if I chose it, my guess is I would be more successful at teaching than you because of a difference in focus, perspective, and adaptability. The real problem is most teachers haven't stepped out of the classroom enough to realize many of their gripes (including yours) are not unique to the working world.

All I know is if I were a teacher I would be so deeply appreciative to have all the school holidays, 2 week winter break, one week spring break, and 10 weeks or so off every summer while still getting 10 days or so for sick/personal time and all while earning a good living. You'd never hear me complain to non-teachers no matter how hard the students, job, etc. are. Back in 2014 out of curiosity, I found my son's second grade teacher, in Ohio with a master's degree, was paid 86,000 a year. So count me as one who believes they get paid plenty. Then there's things like the second Covid dose this year. School did it on Wednesday, gave everyone Thursday off for any side effects. Of course early Thursday afternoon get a call from the district that too many teachers, bus drivers, staff felt they'd be too sick to work Friday so we took that day off too. Wouldn't schedule that on Thursday or even Friday because it might bleed into their weekend.