Coronavirus

To a huge extent this has become about Identity. There's a portion of the population that, in spite of being told by their spiritual and political leader to get vaccinated, won't do it because it would be an indication that they're not on the team. These people are dug in for good. They are Onodas.

Now, with 60%+ fully vaccinated in this country (and there is a portion that simply cannot vaccinate for health reasons or refuse to for religious reasons) it's pretty clear that a fair chunk of this group has indeed been vaccinated, and likely is not telling their friends group. But what remains is a hardened group of individuals that literally prefer risking death to getting the vaccine.

This is a harrowing tale of a physician's ordeal with QAnon idiots.
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A relevant quote: They know it is all lies. But their eqos are so huge, they can't bring themselves to admit it.

ChristopherMD wrote: Antifa is short for Anti-Fascist.

I was aware of that, it has been around in Europe longer than in the US. Of course you guys gave it your own cultural spin.

Thanks for explaining about the Capitol 'siege' being blamed on the Democrats and Antifa, I had heard about it a while ago and thought 'that's so dumb, it won't stick'. Haha. Repetition works, as usual, I guess.

hotseatgames wrote: A relevant quote: They know it is all lies. But their eqos are so huge, they can't bring themselves to admit it.

My daughter is working in a hospital (she's an Occupational Therapist) and can't go into detail for privacy reasons. But she indicates that these people are belligerent as hell and treat the hospital staff like they're hired help at a spa. Getting the disease and their need to go to the hospital for it creates a cognitive dissonance and it wigs them out. The visiting family members are the biggest part of the problem.

Sagrilarus wrote:

hotseatgames wrote: A relevant quote: They know it is all lies. But their eqos are so huge, they can't bring themselves to admit it.

My daughter is working in a hospital (she's an Occupational Therapist) and can't go into detail for privacy reasons. But she indicates that these people are belligerent as hell and treat the hospital staff like they're hired help at a spa. Getting the disease and their need to go to the hospital for it creates a cognitive dissonance and it wigs them out. The visiting family members are the biggest part of the problem.

A lot of facilities aren't allowing family members inside to prevent the spread of the disease and early on in the pandemic it made sense from that perpsective. Now I suspect its just as much to shield the medical staff from the whack jobs - which I fully understand and support. Its a sad day when you basically need a fucking bouncer to allow hospitals to function.

Nodens wrote:

ChristopherMD wrote: Antifa is short for Anti-Fascist.

I was aware of that, it has been around in Europe longer than in the US. Of course you guys gave it your own cultural spin.

Thanks for explaining about the Capitol 'siege' being blamed on the Democrats and Antifa, I had heard about it a while ago and thought 'that's so dumb, it won't stick'. Haha. Repetition works, as usual, I guess.

Fox is the most popular news channel in the United States and a major source of fake news. Fox also has a variety of commentators who undermine the legitimate news with heavy editorial spin. Several prominent serious journalists have departed Fox over the fake news, including most notably Chris Wallace and Shepard Smith.

Thanks to her fiance, my sister had been drifting right-wing in recent years... until this pandemic. She is a nurse at a hospital in Shreveport that has seen a lot of Covid cases, so she knows first-hand that this pandemic is both real and serious. As a result, she has recognized the toxic spread of misinformation by right-wing media and has turned against it. Her fiance took longer to come around, but once my fully-vaccinated sister came down with Covid last fall, he finally saw the light.

My long-term relationship officially ended in July, so I tried to start dating again after a couple of months. Out of caution, I was only willing to do outside dates at first, like a picnic or a walk around a lake. I met someone in mid-September and felt like I had gotten to know her well enough for us to start visiting each other at home instead of going out in the Minnesota cold or risking Covid exposure in public venues. However, she recently disclosed to me that she is bipolar and also very racist, so it looks like I am done dating until springtime. I wouldn't normally rule out someone for being bipolar, as long as they were managing it with meds and therapy. But she clearly went off her meds and had manic episodes a few times in recent weeks, to the point where I was sorry that I gave her my address.

Serious question.... how long did the racism stay hidden? Most people play that card quickly.

Possibly due to being bipolar, she rescheduled on every one of our five dates, so I only saw her five times in 12 weeks. She did invite me over for Thanksgiving with her mom, so I don't think that she was seeing anybody else. The racism didn't show up until three weeks ago. She lost her job 4 weeks ago because her employer shut down her whole location, so she was stressed out about that when she called me a few days later while I was at work. She went on tirade about how Black Lives didn't matter to her, she hates Joe Biden, and illegal immigrants are both taking our jobs and getting free handouts from the government for not working. That was surprising because she had previously claimed that she got all of her news from NPR, so I rationalized that she was just venting stress from her job search.

Last week, she made it clear that she was a racist. It started with her complaining about the Kim Potter trial (black motorist shot to death by very experienced cop who confused her taser with her pistol), then escalated to saying that she considers black people to be closer to apes than humans. She also said that she considers white people to be the only oppressed minority group. These were voicemail messages, so I can replay them and hear her making racist statements beyond any possible doubt. I hate ghosting and don't normally do it, but her final message acknowledged that I probably wasn't talking to her because of her beliefs about race. I took that as permission to ghost her.

I think that she knew enough to keep her racism out of sight for a while, because the Twin Cities are still pretty liberal overall. But last month, she asked me a few questions about my ex, and I happened to mention that my ex was a woman of color. All of the racist remarks came after that point, so I think it really bothered her that I had been in a mixed-race relationship.

Ugh. Yeah, I'd let that one goose step on down the road.

Shellhead wrote: I hate ghosting and don't normally do it, but her final message acknowledged that I probably wasn't talking to her because of her beliefs about race. I took that as permission to ghost her.

Were it me I'd close the relationship off with a clear message indicating that that was the case. But I'm a 57 year old man.

Sagrilarus wrote:

Shellhead wrote: I hate ghosting and don't normally do it, but her final message acknowledged that I probably wasn't talking to her because of her beliefs about race. I took that as permission to ghost her.

Were it me I'd close the relationship off with a clear message indicating that that was the case. But I'm a 57 year old man.

Ok, boomer.

(I'm 56.)

By Josh Marshall
December 22, 2021 9:10 a.m.

Back on December 9th we discussed the quickening hunt for a Sarbecovirus vaccine. This is basically a vaccine that wouldn’t target this or that variant but the whole class of SARS-related coronaviruses. Basically the idea is you go upstream in the viral family tree to cover the whole class of contagions and potential future ones. Last night Army researchers at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research say they’ve developed just such a vaccine, or at least one that cover all current and potential variants of COVID19.

I was a bit confused by this when I read it last night since this is, to put it mildly, pretty big news if it bears out. And it ran first in a military trade publication, Defense One. Defense One is a highly respected publication. But I’d expect to hear news of such magnitude in like the Times or the Post. The article says Walter Reed researchers plan to make a full announcements “within weeks.” It’s also not ready to be used. It still has two levels of clinical trials to go through. But they say the initial trials show it is effective.

According to the article, these initial trials took longer than expected because they had to find a population of people who were both unvaccinated and had never had COVID. There’s not a huge population of those people. But they found them.

In any case, it puts me a bit on guard that I still haven’t seen write ups on this in the big publications, even following the Defense One piece. I think that suggests a healthy caution about just what’s being reported. But it’s like it’s fake. I hadn’t been aware of this Walter Reed project. But even a cursory review shows it’s been a subject of rather low key reporting since relatively early in the pandemic. I suspect reporters are trying to get a clearer read of just what they’ve been able to demonstrate in those early clinical trials.

Certainly bears keeping an eye on.

Original article here -- www.defenseone.com/technology/2021/12/us...ars-variants/360089/

Hi All. Have been offline for quite a while for no particular reason but relatively healthy.

Went to UK in the summer and found out they won't recognise my doubly Pfizered vaccine status from Kuwait so I thought I'd better just go to a drop in clinic and tell them I had never been vaccinated simply to get on the NHS App especially as they are talking about COVID passes for large events. Everything, of course, is done by app linked to the NHS. So now I'm triply vaccinated and treated the UK shot as a booster.

Back in Kuwait and I'm called for my booster. So that's four shots. I hope this is sorted out by the summer or I will have to get another two shots in the UK just to update my COVID passport in the UK.

Anyway schools are half in and half out with a view to returning to normal in February 2022 assuming that Omicron has not infected Kuwait by then. Ministry of health will be carefully watching infection rates as people return from the Christmas break. In this country the MOH are supreme, overriding concerns from all other government departments.

People here are relatively well behaved except for some older Kuwaitis who insist on not being told what to do regarding mask wearing inside malls. Very few people are travelling this Christmas as they don't want to be trapped in a country and unable to return to Kuwait as conditions change in Europe.

Looking to return to UK soonish as I'd like to spend the last 6 years of working life, before state pension kicks in, living in the UK and getting used to it. As a result, we have a small two bed apartment in central England to go to which is fully paid for and currently being renovated with a good project manager overseeing everything from there (worth her weight in gold). Will be ready in the summer to move into and we have no intention of renting it out. When the UK pension kicks in (7 years time) it will provide us with about $300/wk (index linked) and, of course, free medical care. With no mortgage or rent, this should be achievable. Well, that's the plan anyway. Only moving back if I can get a job in the UK close to the apartment. If not, we'll stay here as the golden handshake on leaving is continuing to accumulate (having worked here for 20 years).