oldmanfan

Smallpox. Polio. Measels. Mumps. Diptheria. Tetanus. Whooping cough. Just to start.

Because a ton of people had to die to get there. You honestly believe we should go back a century and ignore all the advances made in science and medicine since. That is frighteningly misguided.

We should have done a lot more, and had less people die.

First, you are calculating mortality rates incorrectly. You calculate mortality rates based on the number infected, not the general population. The current mortality rate in the US is around 3.2%. But let's just take your approach for a minute. If you do it by the total population, then 550,000 Covid deaths out of a population of 330 million gives you a mortality rate of around 0.16%. sounds low right? well, let's compare it to the leading cause of death in the US, cardiovascular disease, which kills around 650,000 per year in the US. That gives you a 0.19%. So by your logic, can I assume you want to close down all the cardiovascular floors in hospitals, cath labs, stop selling statins, tell the cardiologists to switch to dermatology? Or maybe because Covid and cardiovascular disease kill mainly the elderly, perhaps to reap the most economic benefit we should just kill off the old folks before they get sick. Would save a ton in the long run. What age do you want to select to start? You mention suicide and depression, and I agree that this has been a tough, tough, year. I took the liberty of looking at suicide rates (https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/annual/measure/Suicide/state/ALL) and it appears that suicide rates are not that much higher than previous non-Covid years. What struck me is that the rates seems to be highest in the Rocky Mountain states, which are among the ones lower in Covid infection if I'm not mistaken. Whether this is due to the economic impact of Covid or other factors seems hard to determine, but I would caution against randomly making claims that Covid is responsible for a big surge on suicide. You talk about needless isolation of young adults and children, and ignore the fact that one of the more unique aspects of the Covid virus is that it can be carried asymptomatically by young people. You also ignore the potential long term morbidity that might be suffered by younger and older folks that will affect quality of life going forward for these individuals. I do agree that as data was gathered it became clearer that young children of elementary school age do not transmit the virus readily, and I would be right there with you that I believe elementary schools should open, especially as teachers get vaccinated. No question businesses suffered. I have a daughter that is a professional actor/singer, and that business along with restaurants and such has been decimated. No question. The issue was how to get them going again, and that could have - should have - been done by aggressively taking steps to control spread by leadership all banding together and insisting on proper mitigation strategies such as masks, instead of making it into a political football and yakking about your freedom as if wearing a mask is somehow an affront to everything holy. Laboratory and epidemiologic studies all showed the benefit of masks wearing to help prevent - not eliminate, but prevent - spread, but instead you had way too many people act like idiots. We could have this behind us by now, but no. Dr. Birx the other day said if we had doen this we could have saved over 400,000 lives, but no. When historians look back on this years from now, they will ask: why in the face of a global pandemic did they treat this like a political rather than a medical issue? One last word on your comments on the economy, where I agree with much of what you said. We are trillions of dollars in debt because the people of this country screwed up. We demanded two things that are diametrically opposed: low taxes and high government spending. And because by and large we elect gutless cowards to Congress that are more interested in re-election that doing what's right, we have this problem. We have a critical need for infrastructure, Biden knows it, he knows we need tax increase to pay for it, yet now people are complaining about that. The real debate we need to have in this country is on what the exact role of the federal government should be, and once we decide on that (should there be a lot of government programs or not) then define the tax rate to pay for it. But we're too gutless as a country and the politicians are too gutless to have that day of reckoning. And the projection you speak of is we had done nothing to prevent the spread, which would have been ridiculous.

They didn't do a good hire with Rex. They did with McD. It is beyond sickening to blame them for bad decisions and give them no credit for good ones. The Sabres? People crow about the LaFontaine thing. he did the exact same thing with the Islanders and has not gotten a sniff at a front office position since he pulled his disappearing act with two teams. He probably held onto Regier too long, then hired two GMs that were highly regarded in the league in Murray and Botterill. They turned out bad - made bad coaching decisions and bad draft picks. Coaches? Let's look at the last several. Bylsma - Cup winning coach. Players including the boy toy Eichel tuned him out. Housley. another guy highly regarded with many thinking it was time for him to step up. Players didn't play for him. Kruger? Players lauded his selection then the players led by - you guessed it, Eichel - didn't play for him. I have said before if I'm Pegula I go out and get opinions from 5-10 guys that are well connected with a lot of experience in the league. Start by driving out to Dud's house. But for this team to go forward, you can bring in as many caches etc. as you want, but you have to start with players that have some heart and guts that want to play hockey. You saw last night, every player on that team should be embarrassed to have been on the ice the third period and OT. That was inexcusable.

I am so sick and tired of this claim that they were lucky in hiring McD. The NFL has an advisory committee to look at guys they think may be ready for a HC spot. McD was on that list, Pegula interviewed him and liked his plan and hired him. If you’re going to say he was lucky, then so was every other owner in history that hired a winner.

B word about the Pegulas all you want, but the current Sabres are a bunch of heartless, gutless players. No owner can change what’s inside a guy. They need to gut this roster and give Adams the authority to bring in guys that give a damn.

So a century later with all the advances made in molecular biology, virology, epidemiology, pharmacology and so on your answer is to let Mother Nature take her course and have hundreds of millions die. You have got to be kidding.

Some folks do not have ready access to a driver’s license bureau..

Ok, this is crap. At the beginning of the pandemic before the CDC and others had as much data on the mechanisms of spread, Dr. Fauci advised against masks to make sure that hospital personnel had enough PPE to take care of patients. As more data on cloth masks having an influence in droplet spread became available his opinion changed. This is precisely his science works. You know this, why do you insist on perpetuating a lie?

I am sympathetic with anyone with kids during the epidemic and apologize to you for getting too strident on that. I still suggest, however, that if you are telling your children this will never end you reconsider doing so.

No, he’ll get caught like Capone got caught. Tax evasion and such.

You as in the public health community genius. As far as Sweden and Florida, Sweden has a higher death rate than neighboring countries. And their citizens do much better at voluntarily wearing masks and doing other preventive behaviors instead of making a stupid political game out of it. Florida? Do we have their real data or not? I want your kids to have normal childhoods again. It seems clear to me you don’t, that you’d rather scare them by saying that it will never go away and that they’ll kill themselves.

All this crap started because Trump put it in people’s heads that if he lost it must be fraud. Absolutely no day to suggest that happened but because the Republican Party has ceded control and fealty to this guy, here we are. They’ve ceded control to a guy who lost the Executive and legislative branches. When the Republicans get beat in 2022 and 2024, because the extreme Trump supported candidates lose, we’ll get back to some sense of normality. Or until he gets arrested.

They are not all lying unless you count the former President. Vaccinations are the best way to prevent viral diseases. And if you can’t get a vaccine, like with HIV, you work like hell to find treatments to hold down infectivity. And while doing so you counsel people of behaviors to help prevent spread. Honest to God, you don’t have the first damn clue about science. The people fighting this aren’t lying and the only dupe here is you. Because your agenda is clear: you want people to continue to die and for your kids and others to suffer so you can go off on a message board. How sad.

Because some people, especially those in lower socioeconomic circumstances, may not have either a photo ID currently, nor have the ability to access one. When I am asked for an ID I either have to show my driver’s license or a passport. Some people have neither. I suggest a federal form of ID as they already do thus with a Social Security card. Maybe that’s the answer, show your SS card and say an electric bill or something to verify. My point is simple: I can see the point of an ID but then the corollary is that there should be no state laws that actively try to limit or take away someone’s access to vote. The games like limiting polling places in areas where more people of the opposing party vote, or the truly disgusting law that tells me I can’t offer a bottle of water to someone waiting to carry out their constitutional right to vote, need to disappear.

Just stop. You are being irrational and dangerous and dumb all at once. First, a primer on vaccinations and viral disease. They help prevent viruses from entering your cells, and unless they can enter your cells they can’t replicate. And they die off. That’s why you don’t die from smallpox and a host of other viral diseases now. You probably know that but choose to play dumb for some reason. The exit strategy is to get enough people vaccinated. Since the beginning of this thing that has been the case but you want to play dumb. You complain about no exit strategy and such, but here’s the deal. When you have people actually follow the science instead of claiming things like masks don’t work when they do, or that vaccines are actually a way for Bill Gates to control you (which is laughingly absurd) then it becomes harder to get to the finish line. Which, again, is getting people vaccinated. Instead of barking at the moon about what the government is doing, if you really wanted to get to the other side you’d be telling everyone to get behind the science. The science, like how as more data comes in the theories and such about how to handle things, like spacing at 3feet vs. 6 feet, change. But you’d rather play your victim card. Has it sucked for kids this year? Absolutely. I have a niece that teaches 3rd grade, and it has been challenging at very best. I teach college classes and again a challenge. My daughter is a freshman in college and it has been very hard for her. But was it child abuse? Absolutely not. And did it save even more lives from being lost, or from thousands getting Covid and having long term effects? Absolutely. You claim high schools are done and that is absolute crap. Absolute, complete, and total crap. My wife is a counselor at one, and since the beginning of this they have had both virtual and on site classes. Kids switch every day. They have already said they will be having all in person classes in the fall. Other school systems around us have already gone back to in person. So again, to put it bluntly, take the high schools are gone crap and stick it. I have refrained from calling out your nonsense for a while but I just couldn’t sit still and read your drivel anymore. Because what I suspect is really happening is this: you WANT this to continue so you can continue to complain and rail about government. You’d rather have more people die and your own kids be kept out of school and such so you can try and justify some ridiculous point about your twisted views. And that is dangerous, irrational, and stupid, to use your words.

A standard federal voter ID should be made available to all over the age of 18. And it needs to be a uniform way to get it that allow those in rural areas, or inner cities where travel is difficult, or for the elderly to have equal access.

Yes there may be some cases for years. Like there are flu cases every year. We will likely get regular vaccinations for Covid as we do for the flu. We might even wear masks at times if a big outbreak occurs at a given time. But in just over a year since the start of the pandemic, despite over 500k people dying in our country, we are seeing the end of things. Schools are opening as are stores, those that have been vaccinated are gathering again, millions are being vaccinated daily (and credit to the previous administration for Warp Speed and the current one for distribution). We are not going to live the rest of our lives in masks and such and you know it. You just want to complain to hear yourself complain. So to be blunt, shut up already. Go study how vaccinations work. Until then be quiet.

Vaccinations. And still take precautions while this is done. Schools are having in person classes again, businesses are opening up. You know this but you’d prefer to whine like a baby day after day after day with your doomsday nonsense. Pipe down.

I agree there are things in HR 1 that don’t belong

Some of the states are trying to deny people’s rights. That is my opinion. As for HR 1 and it’s constitutionality I think you’d have to compare to the Voting Rights Act back in the 60’s. That indicates there is a role for the federal government.

Will denying people their constitutional right to vote pass a challenge? Will saying I can’t give someone a bottle of water?

I have said before and will say again that I don’t have a problem with required IDs so long as every voter can easily obtain one. But, I do have a problem with actively trying to take away people’s constitutional right to vote. That is reprehensible and cannot be tolerated in this country. I am assuming some of these moronic laws that are trying to be passed will end up being overturned in court. But if through some bizarre reason they aren’t then I will stand up and fight. And I’ll start by filling my car with cases of water and traveling to Georgia when they have their next election. Think about this: a state is saying you cannot give a thirsty person water. If any of these people in support of such actually profess to being Christian while actively pursuing anti-Christlike behavior, they should burn in hell.

I’d rather keep Marlowe