Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

This is truly awesome. Harvard has Apoorva Mandavilli from the NYT's talking about misinformation. It would be like having Trump talking about being faithful in marriage. This person wrote that 900k children had been hospitalized with covid when the real number was 63,000 and that 4,000 died from MISC-C when the real number was 68. She was a huge reason schools stayed shut down as well.

NYT reporter explains how federal missteps opened door to COVID misinformation – Harvard Gazette

 

Thanks - That was Big Schloss. It gets about 20 times the traffic of the one I fell on which was Little Schloss, it is across the valley. Little Schloss isn’t nearly as well maintained either. But one I’ve done many times. Just bad luck.
Thanks for the tip on the satellite phone. Starting with version 14, IPhones have that feature now too, if you are not in cell range it was call the nearest 911 via satellite for your So I will do an upgrade here soon. Me being me, I still have an iPhone 8. Also still drive my 2011 Acura, and have bought one new iPad in 6 years. And that was because the charging unit died on the last one. But I’ll suck it up and somehow scrape together the daunting $30 or so a month for the phone.

 

This is one of the dumbest analogies out there from multiple levels. That said you have a much higher chance of having a side effect from the shot than you do from a seat belt which does not cause harm by wearing it. And while you are going to get covid regardless of whether you take a shot or not...you may never be in a car accident.

 

But there will be some level of harm from the seat belt if you get in an accident, yes? Maybe a sore shoulder or bruise? Except that won't be as bad as the consequence of not having that additional safety measure.

Don't blame me if you can't grasp an analogy even when we make it sesame street level for you.

 

There is no harm from wearing a seat belt. There can be harm from taking a shot. A shot that does not protect you from the disease (accident).

 

So your claim is that nobody has been injured by seat belts? Because that is absurd. Plenty of people have been.

 

Your seatbelt saves me! So buckle up!

 

I hike and bike occasionally in remote areas and use a Garmin In-Reach that uses satellite tech. You can't call from them, but you can text and send emergency signals via satellite and it pairs w/ smart phones so that you can text using your phone. It also allows people to track you if needed.

Might provide a more affordable option compared to upgrading an iphone.

Prices range from about 300 for their mini to about 600 for their top model.

 

Plenty of injuries happen that are caused by seat belts. And they certainly don't prevent accidents from happening. But overall, seatbelts cut the risk of death and serious injury by about half.

The COVID vaccine can cause mild irritation, like all vaccines due such as fatigue and fever, but these are the common side effects that show the vaccine is working. And nothing to worry about. But like seat belts, the COVID vaccine prevents serious illness and death.

 

Thanks, I was being sarcastic about the money. Getting a new phone would be a rounding error for me and I should get a new one anyway, I’m out of space on this one and the charge isn’t what it once was. I’ve just never been a spender, always been a saver (financially insecure childhood that lingers I suppose). Sometimes I wonder if I’m really smart or really cheap lol. So it was kind of a self deprecating comment.

 

"valid request" What does that even mean?

Simply asked for where you got your information from so I could understand the context.

I had you in mind when I posted it.

For starters, this is much less fringe fare that you normally post.

It provides some context. At-home death numbers come from the CDC's Wonder data collections. Wonder data, however, are not a measure of excess mortality per se since they don't provide expected number of deaths. OTOH, they do include deaths by place and a full listing of deaths by type that go beyond disease (i.e. include accidents, homicides, suicides, drug deaths etc).

Based on the Wonder data, the increase in at home deaths was less than 2% in 2020 & 2021 compared to 2019, or about 450k. At home covid deaths comprised about 1 in every 8 of those additional deaths while covid deaths in medical facilities accounted for over 90% of additional deaths in medical facilities. This makes obvious logical sense.

Anyway, the argument isn't that effects of the pandemic didn't lead to other deaths or harms in various ways. That was going to happen because the fear of a deadly contagion is a rational one, except among the crowd holding cockamamie beliefs about the non-existence of viruses and/or those who think that vaccines aren't really vaccines and are deadlier than the virus.

 

By putting a seat belt on and wearing it? No one gets hurt. Get in an accident...of course. I know you are better than this at reading comprehension. It was clear the point being made was in regards to the bad analogy. Wearing a seat belt = Taking a shot. Wearing a seat belt will not harm you by just doing so. In an accident it is a completely different thing. Taking a shot can harm you by just doing it. And this shot does not protect you from the disease.

 

I hear you. I try to be like you. I won't upgrade my iphone until I have to.

The in-reach is a good option to have, at least for me it is. So I figured to share that with you and others

Hope you're feeling better!

 

Not a perfect analogy. But then you consistently overstate the danger of the vaccine. Again, normal, common side effects that occur in all vaccinations are not harmful, and aren't safety signals. Take those away, and what harm are you left with? Myocarditis, which again, the risk is higher seen with infection without vaccination.

And the shot does protect you from disease. Just not at levels people at hoped for. The last bivalent shot had a 48% disease prevention, which is just 2% from a minimum desired 50%. Again, all vaccines also have breakthrough cases, and disease prevention isn't the only metric used to determine vaccine efficacy. Still, even if you have a breakthrough case, the vaccine is helpful. Those with breakthrough cases clear the virus (recover) much quicker, and shed a lot less viral lode than unvaccinated. Quicker recovery time/less shedding means less viral particles in the air to infect others.

 

Another great post.

Maybe not a perfect analogy, but in thinking about it, I'd say that the type of people who are likely to eschew seatbelts are likely to be more careless drivers- and thus are a danger to others.

Sounds a lot like antivaxxers.

 

No such thing as infection. Only OUT-fection. Ex: your body is attempting to expel harmful vaccine adjuvants. This registers as ‘being sick.’

 

I remember hearing about a purported accident when I was a kid wherein a collision supposedly resulted in the back of the car/trunk being caved in so much that it sliced through the back seat passenger, who was pinned to the back seat. I guess the implication was that it was better to not use a seat belt in the back seat so your body could fly around. Sounds silly now but I'm still not good about wearing a seat belt in the back seat lol.

 

When I was a child it was Mom’s arm reaching across that protected you from grievous injury.

 

I distinctly remember riding down the road in the back bed of my grandfather's old pick up truck. There wasn't that much traffic back then where I grew up at least lol.

 

Got bitten by people, dogs, snakes, feral cats and even a monkey. Answer was always wash with soap and water.

Amazing we survived.