Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Typically anti vax "leaders" are selling something and their followers have no problem forking over money for the "real cure." For some reason they aren't driven by money though......

 

I have no opinion on the claimed linkage between Desantis and the med. It may very well be hyperbole.

But it does strike me as odd that out of the blue the governor gets up and starts touting this med, which I think has been widely used for 8-10 months? It's usually administered at the hospital, correct? What is the point of this side show? It just seems like blatant political pandering. As a conservative he can't champion the vaccine, as his base won't like that, so he finds a drug used at the hospital, that seems to work, and has also been endorsed by Trump. He's trying to make it look like he is doing something while the disease ravages the state, but stay away from vaccinations and masks/social distancing.

Why not champion the cheap anti inflammatory meds that seem to have a great impact?

I guess I should give him credit for championing something that may work vs something the doesn't like hydrochloriquin or probably doesn't work like ivermectin.

 

First of all no, it's not just given at the hospital. In fact, the idea is to get it to keep you from having to go to the hospital. And until recently it wasn't as readily available or known about but now has been more widely distributed and is easier to get than it was before. That's why he's been touting it. He's saying, "Hey, we now have this drug more available so if you meet the criteria you should be getting it."

And where the hell has he said to "stay away from vaccines"? While I'm not in agreement with telling private businesses that they can't have mask or even vaccine requirements, I think that he has been pro vaccine from the start and did things correctly by making sure the elderly got them first and encouraging everyone else to do so.

It's apparent that the liberal media has it in for him just as it is apparent that they protected liberal governors from their deadly mistakes that killed tens of thousands.

 

Partisan hack takes right here with zero facts. Good job. Early candidate for most partisan take of the day. Congrats.

 

If we weren't ever going to reach herd immunity, it was because we have a bunch of people swimming drowning in the muddied waters of disinformation. That said, even if we don't in the technical sense of the term, having upwards of 90% of the population vaccinated would absolutely mean that we could return to a much more normal life than we have now.

Being obese does not put others at risk to catch obesity like having a highly contagious and deadly infectious disease does. Same with smoking--although we've outlawed where people can smoke in part because of the dangers of second-hand smoke in getting others ill.

 

Not being obese requires discipline and a more restrictive way of living. Same for wearing N95 masks. You can wear an N95 and you don't have to worry about getting COVID (vaccinated or not). People who are obese will eat whatever they want...people who get COVID will go wherever they want. There are some similarities in that regard. Obesity isn't "contagious," but you ever notice how kids tend to follow the path of their parents? There is definitely some spread capability there. Plus you have the marketing aspect with which people have to compete against (back to the discipline angle).

However, one thing I'd like to see everybody tie together is the increase in insurance rates. We've talked about unity on other threads, but what if we could bundle grouping "unvaccinated" (or) "obese" (or) "smoker" on the same insurance ticket and give those who don't match ALL THREE a break. Would this be a productive measure for society? Just a thought.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

I got regeneron mixed up with remdesiver.

If this is anywhere close to true, then I absolutely agree, shout it out from the rafters.

"Regeneron announced in March that patients who received its drug within 10 days of developing symptoms or testing positive for COVID had a roughly 70% reduced risk of being hospitalized or dying compared with patients who were infused with a placebo."

So no, I have no problem with him advocating for this.

When I say Desantis and "stay away from vaccines", what I was saying is it is probably best for him not to talk about them or advocate for them, as his base is against them. I didn't say he literally said to stay away from them.

 

Requires a discipline in a society in which we get bombarded in every which way by people selling high calorie consumption. The joy of modern capitalism. And forget it if one has a familial inheritance of not so great metabolism. But part of our obesity problem isn't only about too high caloric intake, but about not enough physical exercise, which is the flip side of that caloric intake equation.

I am not sure about insurance. I get the thinking and am perhaps open to trying some mechanisms, yet I also see some pitfalls since there are a lot of people who might not be obese or smoke but who eat like **** and perhaps engage in other high risk activities that are harmful to one's health. We might end end up a situation where we're punishing outward appearances more than behavioral differences.

 

I agree that the behavior might not be the most nuanced, but I also wonder, are we unique as a species in terms of the outwards appearance not being reflective of a healthy diet/activity balance?




Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

You still don't get it do you? I'm bet you don't even know that Pfizer is part owner of the Wuhan lab in China.

 

Same with your vaccinated neighbor.

 

GA Governor deploying National Guard to help overwhelmed hospitals deal with Covid. Extra morgues, National Guard, $125M extra for GA hospital staffing.
But, you know, all good.

Gov. Kemp deploying Georgia National Guard to hospitals amid COVID-19 spike

 

Now we know who the real super spreaders are...

Study: Fully Vaccinated Healthcare Workers Carry 251 Times Viral Load, Pose Threat to Unvaccinated Patients, Co-Workers

 

Don't know, think it might depend on species. But outward appearances of health don't necessarily mean healthy. I had a colleague that passed away several years ago before he reached 50yo. Found out later that he was a functional alcoholic, which to me might explain his several health episodes that I knew about before his death (including two bouts of pancreatitis). But he also worked out and looked like he kept himself in good shape. And that's kind of my point and my concern about insurance. It's easy to look at the obese and say they're unhealthy. There's no doubt a truth to it. Though health isn't only about appearances, as my example shows.

 

Keeping in the mind that the Defender, the source of the article, is the online publication of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s anti-vax organization. The organization has a definite agenda and it's not the dissemination of objective medical literature.
Here's an article about a film produced and distributed by the same organization.
An Anti-Vaccine Film Targeted To Black Americans Spreads False Information
And here's another article about Kennedy and his organization.
How Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Became the Anti-vaxxer Icon of America’s Nightmares
And one more.
The Anti-Vaccine Propaganda of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

 

Did you even have to look at the source to know it would be crap?
I was going to reply to his ridiculous post about wuhan and Pfizer but I will throw it here, his post is too silly to respond to.

 

There is a reason this takes time. Doctors know that trying to turn this thing into what it needs to be will be a process. Unfortunately the job being done is not a good one. We need to be onto the second generation of vaccines. Which I am confident is happening. But throwing a second generation vaccine out there this quickly with vaccines that were rushed to market is not going to be something that is easy to do. From testing to not having decades of clinical data to work with.

But yes these drugs are not working well helping to slow the spread right now. In fact I think it is likely they are hurting the spread as many who are vaccinated have a false sense that they cannot get covid. Just like many unvaccinated have a false belief that this virus is not real in a meaningful way.

How to redesign COVID vaccines so they protect against variants (nature.com)

 

Blaming vaxxed healthcare workers who can carry a higher viral load as a threat to unvaxxed is absurd thinking. If the unvaxxed were vaxxed then they would be much less likely to be in the hospital in the first place driving vaxxed healthcare workers higher viral load.

As for unvaxxed healthcare workers--no excuse for their foolishness. They shouldn't be in healthcare.

 

This study doesn't mean what you think it means.

 

Well you just wait till we get our 3rd booster...you'll be eatin them words!