Pandemics and Epidemiology (COVID-19, monkeypox, etc.)

Lets not get ourselves worked up over Tumblr posts, please.

Yeah, like, the very first claim (the case rate in 2023 was higher than 90% of the pandemic) is very easily proven dramatically wrong by a quick Google.

CDC plans to drop five-day covid isolation guidelines

New guidelines say it is safe to leave isolation when fever free for 24 hours without the aid of medication, and symptoms are mild and improving.

It should be noted that is not a set thing yet — the CDC is currently considering making that change.

Source: CBS radio news on my way to work this morning.

Thanks for the heads up.

Apparently measles are back as potential issue. Florida surgeon general is going against CDC guidelines, stating unvaccinated children who were exposed to measles are allowed to go to school.

In several counties, there were outbreaks of measles in elementary school. The school in the article had 6 cases in the past week. And anyone unvaccinated and exposed are given the go ahead to come to school. From my readings, it takes about 95% immunization rates to reach herd immunity. Depending on the location and source, I've seen immunization rates of 89-92%. The Florida surgeon general was appointed for being an anti-vaxx Covid nut, so I'm not surprised he pivoted to being lax on other diseases.

Unvaccinated children under five have a 16% chance of dying from measles. It's above 10% if they're between 6-12. If the kid survives, they can develop a fatal nervous system disorder that'll basically kill them in extreme agony 7-10 years later. It can also cause pneumonia or encephalitis (inflammation of the brain). It can permanently damage hearing.

The side effect of the vaccine is maybe a rash about a week later that goes away within a few days.

But who's to say which is worse?

Legitimately, if you're gonna go around saying that the vaccine is worse, you are, 1) stupid as hell, 2) probably buy into Andrew Wakefield's garbage (not only was that "study" so garbage the magazine retracted it before it was published, Andrew Wakefield himself is a monster who did things like attempt to pay children at a birthday party so he could take samples of their blood) and 3) apparently don't give a shit about more than 1 in 10 children dying horribly in various ways or being permanently disabled.

At this point it's not even about the science for Republicans. It's a cultural thing. Vaccines represent the "liberal agenda" that's trying to control them.

I long for the day Andrew Wakefield is put on trial for crimes against humanity for his work in spawning and growing the anti-vax movment.

Edited by Silasw on Feb 23rd 2024 at 8:23:55 PM

Louis Pasteur must be spinning in his grave. x_x :(

I don't think the movement can really be blamed on any one person. This is the sort of thing that always keeps popping up on the fringes, like flat earthers and intelligent designers.

No, actually, Andrew Wakefield can be blamed specifically for the antivax movement getting big. Like, genuinely. No kidding, no fooling, it really is him specifically. He also is the one who invented the idea of vaccines causing autism (it was all him) and he's the one who did the absolute garbage study that the antivaxxers all cite.

You should watch this.

He was hired by a lawyer to prove the MMR vaccine was bad so that they could sell the three vaccines separately and make more money, did a bunch of really garbage research, edited the results, lied to the people involved and the people working with him, teamed up with a guy who thinks injecting kids with his own bone marrow cures autism, asked children to give him their blood for money, is pretty directly responsible for at least one kid getting horribly crippled and is the reason the antivax movement got any legitimacy at all. If he hadn't been involved, it would have stayed in the fringes with the vast majority of people going "what the fuck are you talking about, I don't want my kid to get polio", but he made it way closer to mainstream and the current trend is still following what he did.

Edited by Zendervai on Feb 23rd 2024 at 7:39:05 AM

Once again, I'm pondering whether the sickness I got earlier this week (and am greatly recovering from) was just a regular cold or COVID. x_x

Ask your doctor to test you if you're worried.

While Andrew Wakefield is the one that made antivax mainstream as a whole, the COVID pandemic made antivax even more mainstream, especially as the far-right saw it as "liberal government/New World Order overreach".

When Donald Trump told his fanatics to get a COVID shot and they booed him, it tells you something.

I feel kind of cheesy asking this, since my dad is (or was) a doctor. ^_^;; But yeah, since you mentioned it, why do a lot of diseases share so many similarities with each other? :S

Because you're not actually seeing the disease effects, you're seeing the immune system response. And the human body only has so many immune system responses.

One thing that I'm seeing is how sustainable remote working will be .

For all things being on (steadily) the right my older brother is, he does have a point that WFH arrangements will not be efficient over time. My dad (owning a stock exchange firm) also agrees in the sense that most of the jobs at his place demands everyday interaction with clients; I recall that he chose to recruit someone else who wanted WFH arrangments.

Edited by Ominae on Feb 24th 2024 at 8:24:23 AM

It depends on the job. I work a behind the scenes job with occasional phone calls and the hour plus commute each way is completely pointless. There's literally nothing I get out of the office three days a week that isn't at home too. And since most of my team is remote (got grandfathered in) and every gets to pick which three days they do in the office, I don't see the one other person on my team with the same arrangement except maybe once a week.

I agree that it'll depend on the nature of the job/what the job description both.

My brother works in state government in California and it's not like he can do WFH since his work involves the sewer system. My dad's involved in the local stock exchange.

The work from home trend seems to have mostly collapsed already. It has made it more acceptable to do so, at least, but overall people prefer going to the office, and workplaces prefer it as well.

It’s heavily variable, for jobs where you have little interaction with others or your interaction is not office bound (multiple offices, visiting clients at sites, etc…) it should be workable from a business perspective. Though there’s still the confidentiality/security concern, but that’s largely a thing for legal, medical, financial and security based work.

There is however the non-businesses side to consider, WFH has benefits for workers but also represents businesses offloading their infrastructure costs onto staff, can have negative consequences for new workers, hurts employees who rely upon work for some of their social need and may well end up exacerbating urban sprawl due to increasing the necessary size for housing going forward.

My dad/brother says it's negative overall for the work they do at least. And that includes training newcomers remotely and needed interactions with clients.

Right, work from home isn't all positives, there are absolutely downsides to it as well.

I’ve gone back to working from the office almost all the time, as I find that I focus better there (fewer distractions) and I like having more interpersonal interactions, even with people who aren’t on my team. And I live near work, so travel time is no problem.

I have a personal desk again, which is far better than the hot-desk system.

But a lot of people like WFH, esp if it lets them live outside the city, avoid a commute, or balance work and childcare. Employers seem to have largely turned against WFH, though.

Yeah, onboarding of new employees needs to involve in-person interaction.

Edited by Galadriel on Feb 25th 2024 at 4:43:45 AM