The Next Pandemic: SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19

[leh-nerd skin-erd]

21 minutes ago, Big Blitz said:

 

 

 

I fully expect most of the board to think I'm insane, ridiculous or both when it comes to Covid. 

A quick review of American history (Vietnam War, Pentagon Papers, Iran-Contra, Benghazi, Keating 5, Bush’s War For Oil, Cuomo Nursing Home Deaths, Tuskegee Experiment, Trump and Russia and so many others) reveals the truth of that Bruce Springsteen said to a crowd of tens of thousands at the Meadowlands circa 1985–“Blind faith in your leaders can get you killed”.  
 

There are many, many questions to be answered with the shutdown, the spread of COVID, the financial incentives to label every possible death as caused by COVID, the Georgia and Florida experiments, no mask/yes mask/double mask, the rat-f*cking of our educational system,  and the role politics played in the great COVID lockdown of 2020-21.  The fact that most of the people who should be doing the asking are suddenly mute doesn’t change that, and in fact makes me more suspicious than I otherwise might be. 
 

I’m reminded of a couple verses from “The Rock” by Harry Chapin:

 

He went up on the mountain beside the giant stone
They knew he was insane so they left him all alone
He'd given up enlisting help for there was no one else
He spent his days devising ways to stop the rock himself
One night while he was working building braces on the ledge
The ground began to rumble the rock trembled on the edge

"The rock is gonna fall on us! Run or you'll all be crushed!"
And indeed the rock was moving, crumbling all to dust
He ran under it with one last hope that he could add a prop
And as he disappeared the rock came to a stop

The people ran into the street but by then all was still
The rock seemed where it always was or where it always will be
When someone asked where he had gone they said: "Oh he was daft.
Who cares about that crazy fool." And then they'd start to laugh

But high up on the mountain
When the wind is hitting it
If you're watching very closely
The rock slips a little bit

So yeah, it’s entirely possible you’re out there a bit, but lining up at the knee wall to pay homage to one’s betters without question often ends badly for the one who kneels. 

 

[Big Blitz]

"Sapphire noted that though the CDC determined that vaccinated individuals are able to hold small outdoor gatherings and conduct outdoor dining ......."

 

https://www.foxnews.com/health/cdc-not-making-progress-theyre-correcting-erroneous-guidance-dr-nicole-saphier

 

 

 

If you don't see how absolutely out of control bat **t (pun intended) this all is from just this excerpt I think you're really just gone.  

 

Move to China.  Go enjoy their system.  You can email us if they let you with an occasional "well... the military is necessary to help with mitigation but at least we're not dead unlike those idiots in America" updates.  

 

[Doc Brown]

2 hours ago, Big Blitz said:

 

 

 

I fully expect most of the board to think I'm insane, ridiculous or both when it comes to Covid. 

You can add self awareness as well 😀

[B-Man]

2 hours ago, leh-nerd skin-erd said:

A quick review of American history (Vietnam War, Pentagon Papers, Iran-Contra, Benghazi, Keating 5, Bush’s War For Oil, Cuomo Nursing Home Deaths, Tuskegee Experiment, Trump and Russia and so many others) reveals the truth of that Bruce Springsteen said to a crowd of tens of thousands at the Meadowlands circa 1985–“Blind faith in your leaders can get you killed”.  
 

There are many, many questions to be answered with the shutdown, the spread of COVID, the financial incentives to label every possible death as caused by COVID, the Georgia and Florida experiments, no mask/yes mask/double mask, the rat-f*cking of our educational system,  and the role politics played in the great COVID lockdown of 2020-21.  The fact that most of the people who should be doing the asking are suddenly mute doesn’t change that, and in fact makes me more suspicious than I otherwise might be. 
 

I’m reminded of a couple verses from “The Rock” by Harry Chapin:

 

He went up on the mountain beside the giant stone
They knew he was insane so they left him all alone
He'd given up enlisting help for there was no one else
He spent his days devising ways to stop the rock himself
One night while he was working building braces on the ledge
The ground began to rumble the rock trembled on the edge

"The rock is gonna fall on us! Run or you'll all be crushed!"
And indeed the rock was moving, crumbling all to dust
He ran under it with one last hope that he could add a prop
And as he disappeared the rock came to a stop

The people ran into the street but by then all was still
The rock seemed where it always was or where it always will be
When someone asked where he had gone they said: "Oh he was daft.
Who cares about that crazy fool." And then they'd start to laugh

But high up on the mountain
When the wind is hitting it
If you're watching very closely
The rock slips a little bit

So yeah, it’s entirely possible you’re out there a bit, but lining up at the knee wall to pay homage to one’s betters without question often ends badly for the one who kneels. 

 

 

 

I love me some Chapin.

 

 

[Doc]

Locked-down states Washington and Oregon facing surges in cases.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pacific-northwest-faces-shutdowns-amid-173844067.html

[Big Blitz]

1 hour ago, Doc said:

Locked-down states Washington and Oregon facing surges in cases.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pacific-northwest-faces-shutdowns-amid-173844067.html

 

 

Why?

 

Aren't the masks working?   

[Jauronimo]

On 4/26/2021 at 8:25 PM, Big Blitz said:

 

Which means cities are dead.  Why would you live there?  The virtual schools?  All the mitigated indoor entertainment in winter which is a 6 month season in WNY.    

 

 

Disaster.  Everything should be full open immediately but of course no one understands why this is a coup so whatever save grandma and variants or something something.  

Because moving to the burbs so I talk about lawn care with the neighborhood cool dads and maybe hit the nearest Chili's on Fridays for date night with the missus sounds like a fate worse than never ending pandemic.

[Doc Brown]

2 hours ago, Doc said:

Locked-down states Washington and Oregon facing surges in cases.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pacific-northwest-faces-shutdowns-amid-173844067.html

Washington and Oregon are 45th and 47th as far as deaths per capita go by state.  I'd pry trust in whatever the governor's decisions are.

[GaryPinC]

Good article on Pfizer's production process:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/health/pfizer-coronavirus-vaccine.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

[SoCal Deek]

9 hours ago, Doc said:

Locked-down states Washington and Oregon facing surges in cases.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pacific-northwest-faces-shutdowns-amid-173844067.html

Thanks for posting this Doc

You may remember that I’ve regularly cited the actual numbers associated with the virus, and just a few weeks ago I noticed an interesting trend: the lowest numbers were coming from the far extremities of the country, including Maine, Vermont, Washington, Oregon and of course Alaska and Hawaii. But you’re right Doc, something is definitely afoot in Washington and Oregon. They may be taking their turn at the Covid roulette wheel. As I’ve said all along, this seems to have almost nothing to do with ANY of the preventive practices we’ve put in place. The virus simply gets into the population and then spreads. 

[BillStime]

Pathetic take - first off - Trump got vaccinated and told no one.  Second - no one is stopping Trump from sending off a fax to his favorite “media” sources.

 

And why would the Biden administration reach out to the former guy who attempted a coup?
 

 

 

[Big Blitz]

56 minutes ago, BillStime said:

Pathetic take - first off - Trump got vaccinated and told no one.  Second - no one is stopping Trump from sending off a fax to his favorite “media” sources.

 

And why would the Biden administration reach out to the former guy who attempted a coup?
 

 

 

 

 

Maybe Trump should Tweet "Get the vaccine I helped get to you in record time when they said 'impossible it will take years'  You're welcome."   

Edited April 29, 2021 by Big Blitz

[Melon]

8 minutes ago, Big Blitz said:

 

 

Maybe Trump should Tweet "Get the vaccine I helped get to you in record time when they said 'impossible it will take years'  You're welcome."   

 

Maybe he could if he didn't break the Twitter terms of service. 

[GaryPinC]

1 hour ago, SoCal Deek said:

Thanks for posting this Doc

You may remember that I’ve regularly cited the actual numbers associated with the virus, and just a few weeks ago I noticed an interesting trend: the lowest numbers were coming from the far extremities of the country, including Maine, Vermont, Washington, Oregon and of course Alaska and Hawaii. But you’re right Doc, something is definitely afoot in Washington and Oregon. They may be taking their turn at the Covid roulette wheel. As I’ve said all along, this seems to have almost nothing to do with ANY of the preventive practices we’ve put in place. The virus simply gets into the population and then spreads. 

Ohio has about 11 million people.  Oregon has about 4, and has had some of the strictest quarantine rules, on a level with NY, maybe more (I have a buddy outside of Portland).

Their worst outbreak (fall) topped out at 1,500 new cases.  Ohio's worst (fall) topped out around 11,000.  Oregon had far less cases than the population difference can account for.

 

New cases, hospitalizations and death numbers are only partly affected by precautions.  Show me the numbers on compliance, unprecautioned house parties, gatherings, apathy, etc and maybe we could draw some larger conclusions.

 

The efficacy of masks and distancing are readily apparent to those of us who have kids attending schools or work in hospitals.  While some people fantasize the precautions can squash this, we would have to replicate what the Chinese enforced.

 

Since we aren't, it's simply about slowing spread.    It always has been.  Sad that politics hides that reality.

[BillStime]

2 hours ago, Big Blitz said:

 

 

Maybe Trump should Tweet "Get the vaccine I helped get to you in record time when they said 'impossible it will take years'  You're welcome."   

 

But Trump didn't... Pfizer brought the first released vaccine on their own - had ZERO to do with Warp Speed.  I know facts are inconvenient for you.

[reddogblitz]

26 minutes ago, BillStime said:

 

But Trump didn't... Pfizer brought the first released vaccine on their own - had ZERO to do with Warp Speed.  I know facts are inconvenient for you.

 

NPR tells a different set of facts.

 

Quote

When the Department of Health and Human Services released Pfizer's $1.95 billion coronavirus vaccine contract with Operation Warp Speed last Wednesday, the agreement revealed that the Trump administration didn't include government rights to intellectual property typically found in federal contracts.

 

The drugmaker has downplayed its involvement in Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration's more than $10 billion program to make a coronavirus vaccine available in record time. Although Pfizer didn't receive government funding this spring toward research and development of the vaccine, it nevertheless received one of the largest Operation Warp Speed supply contracts to date on July 21.

 

That's July 21, 2020.

 

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/11/24/938591815/pfizers-coronavirus-vaccine-supply-contract-excludes-many-taxpayer-protections

 

[BillStime]

Just now, reddogblitz said:

 

NPR tells a different set of facts.

 

 

That's July 21, 2020.

 

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/11/24/938591815/pfizers-coronavirus-vaccine-supply-contract-excludes-many-taxpayer-protections

 

 

Yeah, exactly. The United States government BOUGHT doses from the supplier.  What do you think a CONTRACT is?

 

Pfizer’s role in Operation Warp Speed misconstrued online

 

Pfizer has distanced itself from Mr. Trump and Operation Warp Speed. In an interview on Sunday, Kathrin Jansen, a senior vice president and the head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer, said, “We were never part of the Warp Speed,” adding, “we have never taken any money from the U.S. government, or from anyone.”

 

 

[reddogblitz]

5 minutes ago, BillStime said:

 

Yeah, exactly. The United States government BOUGHT doses from the supplier.  What do you think a CONTRACT is?

 

Pfizer’s role in Operation Warp Speed misconstrued online

 

Pfizer has distanced itself from Mr. Trump and Operation Warp Speed. In an interview on Sunday, Kathrin Jansen, a senior vice president and the head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer, said, “We were never part of the Warp Speed,” adding, “we have never taken any money from the U.S. government, or from anyone.”

 

 

 

Do you think we'd have it today In its current supply if Pfizer didn't have a $2,000,000,000.00 standing order from the US government in July 2020?

[SoCal Deek]

3 hours ago, GaryPinC said:

Ohio has about 11 million people.  Oregon has about 4, and has had some of the strictest quarantine rules, on a level with NY, maybe more (I have a buddy outside of Portland).

Their worst outbreak (fall) topped out at 1,500 new cases.  Ohio's worst (fall) topped out around 11,000.  Oregon had far less cases than the population difference can account for.

 

New cases, hospitalizations and death numbers are only partly affected by precautions.  Show me the numbers on compliance, unprecautioned house parties, gatherings, apathy, etc and maybe we could draw some larger conclusions.

 

The efficacy of masks and distancing are readily apparent to those of us who have kids attending schools or work in hospitals.  While some people fantasize the precautions can squash this, we would have to replicate what the Chinese enforced.

 

Since we aren't, it's simply about slowing spread.    It always has been.  Sad that politics hides that reality.

That's an interesting take but certainly doesn't tell the full story. It's widely accepted that if you impose/suggest really strict lock-downs that you'll SLOW the spread from person to person.  Obviously!   But...you won't STOP the spread short of sending people 'away' once infected.  What the numbers have proven is that if you sample long enough and over a large enough population that the numbers come out pretty much the same over time. Put another way, it all evens out. The virus has been in the blood stream for over a year now, circulating amongst a population of over 330 Million people. State by State the mortality rate has more or less averaged out, regardless of the many weather, policy, and population differences. The States that have SLOWED the spread more than others are all in the cul-de-sac extremities of the country where by virtue of their geographic location there's bound to be less person to person spread from the core of the 'body'. 

[Chef Jim]

13 hours ago, Jauronimo said:

Because moving to the burbs so I talk about lawn care with the neighborhood cool dads and maybe hit the nearest Chili's on Fridays for date night with the missus sounds like a fate worse than never ending pandemic.

 

Living in SF was a fate worse than the pandemic.  Up to now my wife and I have emerged unscathed from the pandemic.  Our health living in the city?  Let's just say I was scared to death for a certain three months living there my wife was going to die.