Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Georgia's university health system backtracks and will require masks for the upcoming year. I know G Tech was especially appalled by the lack of a science based approach to the original decision not to require masks.

University System of Georgia to require masks in classrooms after all

“After embarrassing media attention and a spike in cases in the state, the University System came to its senses,” University of North Georgia associate professor Matt Boedy, conference president of the Georgia chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said via email late Monday. “It is following the science, not the politics. It is listening to its faculty, staff, and students, who flooded it with pleas. Masks are essential to stopping this virus. Campuses will be safer because of this move.”

 

The range of people that have to have their heads plucked from the sand is disheartening. It spans a very broad spectrum if University systems have to be convinced to follow science.

 

‘requiring’ vs ‘strongly recommending’?
OK

 

What was funny to me is that I had last night's antagonizer on block and still knew who everyone was arguing with! Reading just one side of that conversation had me ROTFL.

 

Some here, rag on those that left for another site by calling them cowards. Said they can’t take the heat, stand up to criticism.

Isn’t putting someone on block similar?

 

I think it depends on your motivation for the block. I tend to block those folks that continuously troll and/or use bad actor tactics. Not those who I disagree with. For me, blocking makes this forum MUCH more entertaining.

In fact, I frequent this forum because it gives me an opportunity to share stuff and learn from others. Even if it's an opinion that I disagree with. There's a prominent poster here who has the polar opposite positions but I'm the better for engaging him.

 

There are a lot of the poster on here I don't agree with but I haven't blocked anyone yet. A few posters just go through putting double bacon on everything I post, clearly without even reading anything and they post 99% BS but every now and then even these posters add value.
I am forever the optimist.

 

Looking for Feedback ---


Coronavirus: Why everyone was wrong
The immune response to the virus is stronger than everyone thought

 

Sometimes the truffle just ain't worth the foraging!

 

I have some objections to the article.

a. COVID-19 is just like the common cold and will go away in the summer is demonstrably false. There's footnote claiming he was talking about Switzerland, not globally. This is insulting to the steps the Swiss took to confine the disease.
b. The loaded language and the "everyone else is an idiot" tone diminishes the persuasiveness.
c. Claiming that this is not novel because it's a coronavirus like SARS is scientific equivocation.
d. Likewise, his assertion that "we have no immunity" claims are wrong because our body has fought similar pathogens seems to be a distinction without a difference. My opinion is that our bodies are unprepared for this virus. I think our "herd immunity" was essentially nil prior to the virus's introduction. @dingyibvs ?
e. He makes the gators95 claim that young people shouldn't worry about it while simultaneously saying we need to protect the at risk people. No wonder he expressed low regards for epidemiologists.

I won't go on.

 

Another one.

Man lashes out at an elderly woman who asked him to wear a mask in Florida Costco | Daily Mail Online

 

I agree with all these points.

I am also curious (@dingyibvs ?) about the author's accusations on the overly sensitive PCR test being the reason we thought you could re-catch the virus. His logic is solid, I just don't know if his premises are...

 

Interesting & possibly good news.

Opinion | Herd Immunity May Be Closer Than You Think

Recent studies have also found that many people with mild or no symptoms who test positive for Covid-19 later don’t show antibodies when tested. Patients with mild symptoms produce a weaker antibody response than those who get more severely ill. Most antibody tests are primed to minimize false positives, but as a result are less sensitive.

These people, however, have been found to have long-lasting, potent T-cells that can ward off future infection. A small study last month from France found that six of eight close family contacts of sick patients didn’t develop antibodies but did develop Covid-19-specific T-cells. A new study from Sweden finds that moderately ill patients developed both Covid-19-specific antibodies and T-cells. But twice as many healthy individuals who donated blood during the pandemic and asymptomatic family members of sick patients generated Covid-19 specific T-cells than did antibodies.

“SARS-CoV-2-specific memory T cells will likely prove critical for long-term immune protection against COVID-19,” the study concludes. “The observation that most individuals with asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 generated highly functional durable memory T cell responses,” not uncommonly in the absence of antibodies, “further suggested that natural exposure or infection could prevent recurrent episodes of severe COVID-19.”

In short, antibody tests may significantly underestimate the number of people who have already been infected with Covid-19, especially if they had a milder strain. If so, it’s possible that some early hot spots, like New York City and northern Italy, already have a degree of herd immunity. The same may be true of other places soon.

 

A mod with the add on of admin power is my kryptonite.

 

They don't show a picture of the elderly lady but I am guessing she could have taken him.

 

Early relative to other states.

Hoping for the worst in a pandemic isn't petty, it's monstrous.

 

Of course it is the same thing. You can leave, or you can block, but neither should rip the other from some soapbox of heat resistance.

 

You cant compare other states. NC opened before NY and we should have. NY endangered weak people and stuck sick ones in nursing homes yet somehow look like kings to some right now.

Meanwhile the states that did well early on, like mine are seeing relative spikes in cases. Well of course we are, We have quadrupled testing and were so low to start with. NC has still handled this 1000 times better than NY did.

This is like saying Vandy played us tough because they scored two garbage TD's late, when we dominated the whole game.

Comparing reopening state to state is a fools errand.