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jammerbirdi
Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 21046
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Posted: 06/03/21 3:17 pm ::: |
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But ya know, for us laymen, the public, a string of Roman numerals or other scientific names are just impossible to keep track of. These country names work better for the masses. They stick in the mind and they’re understood. This one might be more contagious but no more deadly and this other one the opposite. And the Vietnam variant is the new kid on the block.
But science is science. It’s not fashioned to be easily understood by everyone and it shouldn’t be. But if the WHO is successful in getting the news media worldwide to drop country names (completely, they could and probably will still use both) then people aren’t going to be able to track the conversation around variants at all. Does that matter? I think it probably does but who knows?_________________ Every woman who has ever been presented with a career/sex quid pro quo in the entertainment industry should come forward and simply say, “Me, too.” - jammer The New York Times 10/10/17 |
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pilight
Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 67050 Location: Where the action is
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Posted: 06/03/21 3:33 pm ::: |
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People love the country names as long as they're named after other countries
_________________ I'm a lonely frog
I ain't got a home
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jammerbirdi
Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 21046
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Posted: 06/03/21 5:20 pm ::: |
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pilight wrote: |
People love the country names as long as they're named after other countries |
Have you determined this to me empirical fact? Sources?_________________ Every woman who has ever been presented with a career/sex quid pro quo in the entertainment industry should come forward and simply say, “Me, too.” - jammer The New York Times 10/10/17 |
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FrozenLVFan
Joined: 08 Jul 2014 Posts: 3518
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Posted: 06/03/21 7:41 pm ::: |
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jammerbirdi wrote: |
But ya know, for us laymen, the public, a string of Roman numerals or other scientific names are just impossible to keep track of. These country names work better for the masses. They stick in the mind and they’re understood. This one might be more contagious but no more deadly and this other one the opposite. And the Vietnam variant is the new kid on the block.
But science is science. It’s not fashioned to be easily understood by everyone and it shouldn’t be. But if the WHO is successful in getting the news media worldwide to drop country names (completely, they could and probably will still use both) then people aren’t going to be able to track the conversation around variants at all. Does that matter? I think it probably does but who knows? |
I agree that numbers, either Arabic or Roman, and certainly scientific names are difficult to keep track of compared to a common name. Witness the evolution of car names (Mustang vs SQ5, anyone?) But people should be able to sort Alpha vs Delta. Once the variant has entered a country, it doesn't really matter where it started but whether it's more contagious or less lethal.
Not only has the media been throwing around geographic names for foreign variants, they've been largely ignoring the ones that originated in the US. The California variant is 20% more infectious than the original virus and at one time was responsible for 50% of new positive tests in California. How much play did that get on the evening news? Would people have been more diligent about wearing masks if it had been discussed more? (It's now the Epsilon variant.)
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/health/coronavirus-variant-tracker.html
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tfan
Joined: 31 May 2010 Posts: 9711
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Posted: 06/04/21 3:27 am ::: |
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As long as most countries like the USA do nothing to stop the variants from traveling freely around the world and throughout their countries, it wouldn't matter to the public if they gave them "names" based on emoticons. And it would make Fauci more tolerable if he had to mutter that we are monitoring the new 'kissing heart' variant and have concerns that the 'slightly smile face' variant is now the dominant one in Southern California.
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Howee
Joined: 27 Nov 2009 Posts: 15754 Location: OREGON (in my heart)
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Posted: 06/04/21 11:05 am ::: |
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FrozenLVFan wrote: |
The California variant is 20% more infectious than the original virus and at one time was responsible for 50% of new positive tests in California. |
A (very!) tangential note but....who calculates the math here? I just find it to be richly spurious that we have an even 20% MORE infectious variant: how is that exactly determined?? How is a variant determined to be MORE deadly? Are the various co-morbidities factored in? Maybe it gives the (generally) virus-ignorant masses some talking points, but how provable is it? It's all a bit mind-bending, when one really tries wrap their head around it all.
_________________ Oregon: Go Ducks!
"Inévitablement, les canards voleront"
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pilight
Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 67050 Location: Where the action is
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Howee
Joined: 27 Nov 2009 Posts: 15754 Location: OREGON (in my heart)
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pilight
Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 67050 Location: Where the action is
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Posted: 06/06/21 2:07 pm ::: |
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Before the pandemic, many states had anti-mask laws on the books. Repealing them could be a challenge.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/05/us/mask-mandate-kkk-coronavirus-pandemic.html
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The anti-Klan law, which presciently included an exemption for the declaration of a public health emergency, bars “any person over 16 years of age to, with the intent to conceal his identity, wear any mask, hood or other device whereby a substantial portion of the face is hidden or covered so as to conceal the identity of the wearer.” |
_________________ I'm a lonely frog
I ain't got a home
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GlennMacGrady
Joined: 03 Jan 2005 Posts: 8248 Location: Heisenberg
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Posted: 06/06/21 5:03 pm ::: |
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pilight wrote: |
Before the pandemic, many states had anti-mask laws on the books. Repealing them could be a challenge.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/05/us/mask-mandate-kkk-coronavirus-pandemic.html
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The anti-Klan law, which presciently included an exemption for the declaration of a public health emergency, bars “any person over 16 years of age to, with the intent to conceal his identity, wear any mask, hood or other device whereby a substantial portion of the face is hidden or covered so as to conceal the identity of the wearer.” |
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I don't believe anyone will be prosecuted for wearing a surgical or N95 mask under this kind of statutory wording.
First, the mens rea requirement, specific "intent" to conceal identity, would be almost impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Accused persons would testify, unopposed, that their mask wearing "intent" was to protect against disease.
Second, I don't think surgical masks de facto "conceal identity." People are still quite recognizable when only mouth and nose are covered.
Finally, prosecutors have enough real crime on their plates that they would exercise discretion not to file such inane cases. |
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Ex-Ref
Joined: 04 Oct 2009 Posts: 8973
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Posted: 06/10/21 8:30 pm ::: |
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I haven't been paying too much attention to COVID - 19 lately. For some reason I took a look today.
596,059.
That's where we are today. The CDC tracker said that there were 396 deaths today; 2,562 in the last week. So in the next two weeks, we will pass 600,000 deaths. In a little over a year. And I'd guess that is a conservative number.
☹ 😢
Ex-Ref wrote: |
300,000.
In the next couple of days that's how many people will have died due to COVID - 19.
That's a population larger than Pittsburg, PA, Lincoln, NE or St. Louis, MO.
Not quite as large as Irvine, CA, Cincinnati, OH or St. Paul, MN.
That is very difficult for me to think about. Three hundred thousand people - dead.
And people are STILL saying that it is nothing more than the flu*. SMH.....
*CDC estimates that during the 2019-2020 flu season 22,000 people died in the US.
Three weeks later and we on the doorstep of 350,000 dead. 349,246 on CDC website today. |
_________________ "Women are judged on their success, men on their potential. It’s time we started believing in the potential of women." —Muffet McGraw
“Thank you for showing the fellas that you've got more balls than them,” Haley said, to cheers from the crowd.
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PUmatty
Joined: 10 Nov 2004 Posts: 16377 Location: Chicago
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Posted: 06/10/21 8:42 pm ::: |
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Ex-Ref wrote: |
I haven't been paying too much attention to COVID - 19 lately. For some reason I took a look today.
596,059.
That's where we are today. The CDC tracker said that there were 396 deaths today; 2,562 in the last week. So in the next two weeks, we will pass 600,000 deaths. In a little over a year. And I'd guess that is a conservative number.
☹ 😢
Ex-Ref wrote: |
300,000.
In the next couple of days that's how many people will have died due to COVID - 19.
That's a population larger than Pittsburg, PA, Lincoln, NE or St. Louis, MO.
Not quite as large as Irvine, CA, Cincinnati, OH or St. Paul, MN.
That is very difficult for me to think about. Three hundred thousand people - dead.
And people are STILL saying that it is nothing more than the flu*. SMH.....
*CDC estimates that during the 2019-2020 flu season 22,000 people died in the US.
Three weeks later and we on the doorstep of 350,000 dead. 349,246 on CDC website today. |
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Despite what people on this very thread will want us to believe, this is almost certainly a conservative estimate. And that is after the extraordinary steps taken to slow the infection rate.
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Luuuc #NATC
Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 21951
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Posted: 06/10/21 9:02 pm ::: |
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On the plus side, the death rates in highly-vaccinated places like the UK and Israel are very encouraging.
_________________ Thanks for calling. I wait all night for calls like these.
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FrozenLVFan
Joined: 08 Jul 2014 Posts: 3518
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Posted: 06/11/21 8:46 am ::: |
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PUmatty wrote: |
Ex-Ref wrote: |
I haven't been paying too much attention to COVID - 19 lately. For some reason I took a look today.
596,059.
That's where we are today. The CDC tracker said that there were 396 deaths today; 2,562 in the last week. So in the next two weeks, we will pass 600,000 deaths. In a little over a year. And I'd guess that is a conservative number.
☹ 😢
Ex-Ref wrote: |
300,000.
In the next couple of days that's how many people will have died due to COVID - 19.
That's a population larger than Pittsburg, PA, Lincoln, NE or St. Louis, MO.
Not quite as large as Irvine, CA, Cincinnati, OH or St. Paul, MN.
That is very difficult for me to think about. Three hundred thousand people - dead.
And people are STILL saying that it is nothing more than the flu*. SMH.....
*CDC estimates that during the 2019-2020 flu season 22,000 people died in the US.
Three weeks later and we on the doorstep of 350,000 dead. 349,246 on CDC website today. |
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Despite what people on this very thread will want us to believe, this is almost certainly a conservative estimate. And that is after the extraordinary steps taken to slow the infection rate. |
I don't think our steps were anywhere near extraordinary. If we had banned travel and gatherings over the winter holidays, we could have cut that number in half.
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pilight
Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 67050 Location: Where the action is
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Posted: 06/11/21 11:10 am ::: |
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GlennMacGrady wrote: |
pilight wrote: |
Before the pandemic, many states had anti-mask laws on the books. Repealing them could be a challenge.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/05/us/mask-mandate-kkk-coronavirus-pandemic.html
Quote: |
The anti-Klan law, which presciently included an exemption for the declaration of a public health emergency, bars “any person over 16 years of age to, with the intent to conceal his identity, wear any mask, hood or other device whereby a substantial portion of the face is hidden or covered so as to conceal the identity of the wearer.” |
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I don't believe anyone will be prosecuted for wearing a surgical or N95 mask under this kind of statutory wording.
First, the mens rea requirement, specific "intent" to conceal identity, would be almost impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Accused persons would testify, unopposed, that their mask wearing "intent" was to protect against disease.
Second, I don't think surgical masks de facto "conceal identity." People are still quite recognizable when only mouth and nose are covered.
Finally, prosecutors have enough real crime on their plates that they would exercise discretion not to file such inane cases. |
It will be enforced selectively, which is to say a disproportionate number of those busted for wearing masks will be minorities. It will serve as another excuse for cops to hassle people, then shoot them if they get to uppity about it.
_________________ I'm a lonely frog
I ain't got a home
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FrozenLVFan
Joined: 08 Jul 2014 Posts: 3518
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Posted: 06/11/21 8:35 pm ::: |
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Remember the Wisconsin hospital pharmacist who tried to destroy 500 doses of vaccine by taking them out of the fridge and leaving them on a counter? He was just sentenced to 3 years in jail for 2 counts of tampering with a consumer product (max was 10 yrs and $250K per count, so he got off pretty easy.) He was a vaccine conspiracy theorist who believed the vaccines contained microchips as well as a lot of other paranoid stuff.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/952900?src=wnl_edit_tpal&uac=369619HT&impID=3435883&faf=1
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Ex-Ref
Joined: 04 Oct 2009 Posts: 8973
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Posted: 06/14/21 9:38 pm ::: |
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OK, so this article says that according to Reuters we've reached 600,000 COVID deaths. The CDC website shows 597,393. I have no idea how Reuters did their tally. Maybe they took them from what each state is saying their number is??
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It took 113 days to go from 500,000 total U.S. COVID-19 deaths to 600,000 – the second slowest 100,000-death jump since the pandemic began. The nation went from 400,000 to 500,000 deaths in just 35 days. |
_________________ "Women are judged on their success, men on their potential. It’s time we started believing in the potential of women." —Muffet McGraw
“Thank you for showing the fellas that you've got more balls than them,” Haley said, to cheers from the crowd.
Last edited by Ex-Ref on 07/17/21 4:01 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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tfan
Joined: 31 May 2010 Posts: 9711
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Posted: 07/02/21 6:39 am ::: |
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pilight wrote: |
It will be enforced selectively, which is to say a disproportionate number of those busted for wearing masks will be minorities. It will serve as another excuse for cops to hassle people, then shoot them if they get to uppity about it. |
I would say it is a gross mis-characterization to say that cops shoot people because they get too uppity. They shoot people who resist arrest or otherwise defy them. Although there probably are some judges who would throw out a charge of resisting arrest thinking that it was just a little uppitiness.
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toad455
Joined: 16 Nov 2005 Posts: 22477 Location: NJ
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Ex-Ref
Joined: 04 Oct 2009 Posts: 8973
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FrozenLVFan
Joined: 08 Jul 2014 Posts: 3518
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Posted: 07/13/21 10:35 am ::: |
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Americans need to make a choice in order to avoid a Covid surge, expert says
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With Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations increasing in communities with low vaccination rates, an expert says Americans face a choice: get vaccinated or continue dealing with the impacts of the pandemic. "We can't have it both ways; we can't be both unmasked and non-socially distant, and unvaccinated. That won't work" |
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/13/health/us-coronavirus-tuesday/index.html
With an uptick in Covid-19 cases, there is growing alarm. 'We've seen almost an entire takeover in the Delta variant
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The US has surpassed 20,000 new Covid-19 cases for the fourth day in a row as the highly contagious Delta variant persists in its track in being the most common form of the coronavirus in the country...."You don't want to see two separate Americas, one that's vaccinated and protected and yet another that's unvaccinated and very much at risk," Fauci said. |
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/10/health/us-coronavirus-saturday/index.html
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Ex-Ref
Joined: 04 Oct 2009 Posts: 8973
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Posted: 07/17/21 4:02 pm ::: |
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It's been a month since we crossed 600,000 deaths. We're now at 606,000. That would rank as the 30th largest city in the US. Well ahead of Milwaukee (587,000) and just behind Louisville (616,000).
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_casesper100klast7days
https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities
Posted June 14 -
Ex-Ref wrote: |
OK, so this article says that according to Reuters we've reached 600,000 COVID deaths. The CDC website shows 597,393. I have no idea how Reuters did their tally. Maybe they took them from what each state is saying their number is??
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It took 113 days to go from 500,000 total U.S. COVID-19 deaths to 600,000 – the second slowest 100,000-death jump since the pandemic began. The nation went from 400,000 to 500,000 deaths in just 35 days. |
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_________________ "Women are judged on their success, men on their potential. It’s time we started believing in the potential of women." —Muffet McGraw
“Thank you for showing the fellas that you've got more balls than them,” Haley said, to cheers from the crowd.
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FrozenLVFan
Joined: 08 Jul 2014 Posts: 3518
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Posted: 07/18/21 1:41 pm ::: |
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Two posts up, I quoted a news report saying cases had exceeded 20,000 cases/day. It's 4 days later, and now the number is up to 40,000 cases/day. The seven day moving average is up 135% from 2 weeks ago and 69% from last week. Hospitalizations are increasing as well, and ICU's are full in parts of MO and AR.
This time around, a disproportionate number of cases are in children because the vaccines aren't approved yet for kids <12 years old.
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tfan
Joined: 31 May 2010 Posts: 9711
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Posted: 07/23/21 7:11 am ::: |
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I was reading about the Delta variant and it was said to be 60% more transmissible than the UK variant which is twice as transmissible as the original . I think that makes the Delta 3.2 times as transmissible as the original. But even worse to me, they said the Delta has mutations that make it better at re-infecting people. Which means that herd immunity via vaccinated + infected might not work for Delta. And it is also better at 'breaking through" as they call it, some percentage of vaccinated folks.
Saw a sad thing where people in the hospital and getting ready to be intubated are asking to be vaccinated. And they have to tell them it is too late (presumably to do any good for this infection). It's one thing to be leary of a vaccine that was pushed through without normal procedures. But after tens of millions of people have had it, why think it is a worse risk than COVID-19?
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Ex-Ref
Joined: 04 Oct 2009 Posts: 8973
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Posted: 07/23/21 7:54 am ::: |
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tfan wrote: |
I was reading about the Delta variant and it was said to be 60% more transmissible than the UK variant which is twice as transmissible as the original . I think that makes the Delta 3.2 times as transmissible as the original. But even worse to me, they said the Delta has mutations that make it better at re-infecting people. Which means that herd immunity via vaccinated + infected might not work for Delta. And it is also better at 'breaking through" as they call it, some percentage of vaccinated folks.
Saw a sad thing where people in the hospital and getting ready to be intubated are asking to be vaccinated. And they have to tell them it is too late (presumably to do any good for this infection). It's one thing to be leary of a vaccine that was pushed through without normal procedures. But after tens of millions of people have had it, why think it is a worse risk than COVID-19? |
I read that. A doctor had posted it to her facebook page. She tells the families to get vaccinated.
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“They cry. And they tell me they didn’t know. They thought it was a hoax. They thought it was political. They thought because they had a certain blood type or a certain skin color they wouldn’t get as sick. They thought it was ‘just the flu,’” Cobia wrote.
“But they were wrong. And they wish they could go back. But they can’t. So they thank me and they go get the vaccine. And I go back to my office, write their death note, and say a small prayer that this loss will save more lives,” she continued. |
https://abc7chicago.com/alabama-doctor-brytney-cobia-vaccine-coronavirus/10902541/
_________________ "Women are judged on their success, men on their potential. It’s time we started believing in the potential of women." —Muffet McGraw
“Thank you for showing the fellas that you've got more balls than them,” Haley said, to cheers from the crowd.
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