Coronavirus

(never mind, Uba got here to say the same thing in a probably nicer way while I was on "Preview")

Mods, go ahead and delete my off topic comments and any replies. It's not worth engaging and I should know that.

It sure is exhausting watching the country step on rakes over and over again a la Sideshow Bob. I'm in a college town (against my will) and the university propagandists are doing their damnest to try and skew the rapidly growing number of outbreaks among the students as no big deal (gotta gear up for that football money).

I ask my daughter what's going on with Covid at the University of Cincinnati, and what she tells me is, "Dunno." Not because she doesn't care, because she's kind of a hypochondriac, but because the administration doesn't share those numbers. At least not where they can be easily found.

Miami University (the 'Public Ivy' in Oxford OH, not The U) had a big outbreak; a thousand cases or so a couple of weeks ago. From what I could tell there's not really much to do in Oxford but drink, unless you drive to Cincinnati*. So parties off-campus are big.

Utah's own resident Trump ass-kissing senator, Mike Lee, tested positive today. Schadenfreude vibes coming in strong this October as our state's infection rate continue to skyrocket.

Just… wear a mask, everyone.

I went back to my first post here and it's still good info. I just didn't think we'd collectively be this bad at this. I hope you are all doing ok, staying healthy, and taking care of yourselves.

News from Kuwait.
No schools are open at all but I have to go in everyday to do online teaching. It's weird because I'm not allowed to meet anyone, even from my own department, and of course masks and gloves are required to enter and leave the building. I meet no one in a normal day.

Infection rates continue to rise so kids coming back to any kind of face to face teaching is unlikely before January and it's probably a wash for the entire academic year.

Many parents have maids to help them out so kids at home is less of a problem than in, say, Europe but it is still an issue. The Ministry of Education and Health are dictating the rules and there is no messing with them.

Tanya is back from Ukraine which is a great relief to my mental health. I believe that I had some kind of nervous breakdown during the lockdown but I feel much better now even though the future is uncertain.

On that note, I want to thank everyone who interacted with me during the lockdown as it, at least distracted me from the situation. I went into survival mode and stopped all interaction with school and family as I focused on being alive. It worked, but at great cost to me, my family and employer all of whom were obviously worried.

Myself and Tanya have already agreed not to talk about that time as the memories are still too painful to bring up.

I did manage to buy an apartment in central England which is now our 'bolthole' and retirement place so we won't rent it out. It will be reserved for when we go back to UK in the summer or I finish work in Kuwait.

Tanya wants to go to US in the summer as her daughter is giving birth in upstate NY. I am worried about her health but if she needs to go, I won't stop her but I won't be going to US until that arsehole is out of office.

The Fantasy Flight Event Center (and Asmodee North America) is across the street from my local post office, so I often drive past on the way home from work when I am dropping off mail. I was recently startled to see the neon OPEN sign lit up in a window of the Event Center. So I checked their website when I got home. Apparently the Event Center is only open for retail sales and food pickup, and I'm guessing the primary food customers are Asmodee employees. Also, the Event Center hours are more limited, and it's only open five days a week now.

I get discouraged lately when I think about the vaccines in development. The frontrunners pose significant distribution challenges, like delivery via two doses administered 30 days apart. Or delivery and storage at -70 degrees Celsius (-94 degrees Farenheit). And the FDA target threshold for efficacy is just 50%. Combine that with polls showing that 30% of Americans won't take a COVID-19 vaccine even if it's free, and we could be looking at immunity for just 35% of the population, well below any plausible herd immunity. Better outcome would be possible if people take multiple vaccines if available, but still unlikely to reach the 70% herd immunity for a virus of this degree of contagiousness. For comparison, measles is significantly more contagious, so the herd immunity threshold is 94%.

I think a better route than a vaccine is a reliable way to treat the symptoms.

Then it won't matter as much and normality is more likely to return.

I think we need a combination of better methods of treatment, vaccines, and for the political and social will to behave in a way that significantly reduces spread.

My understanding of vaccines is that they really work best when enough of us have had them. Or else even vaccinated people are still carrying risk of getting ill.

Only 40% of people get the influenza vaccine so I expect a similar covid vaccine rate. That % seems able to blunt the flu quite a bit and I'd expect covid to behave in a similar fashion. Hopefully older folks at least are enthusiastic about taking it.

Doesn't help when anti-vaxxer politicians poo-poo the vaccine as if only Trump could create and market it himself instead of the FDA approving it through the usual channels. But such is politics these days.

If you're in the 60% who don't normally get a flu vaccine, this year would be a great time to make an exception. If you get flu and COVID simultaneously that would be bad news.

ThirstyMan wrote: I think a better route than a vaccine is a reliable way to treat the symptoms.

Then it won't matter as much and normality is more likely to return.

That’s been the MO for HIV for a couple of decades. Treatment has turned it into a mangeable disease and there’s heavy behavior management and contact tracing. They’re still working on vaccines for it.

Just shy of 40 years later, of course.