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

Major controversy with the vaccinations in Manila in tersm of mayors jumping in instead of health workers and anyone with serious health conditions. One mayor was in the spotlight after the region's chief medical officer chickened out and refused to get vaccined, so he took her place, but he got in trouble.

There's an actor who got Astra in an injection site. Government and public are pissed, but a politician said that the actor has cormobidities, but no one's busying it.

This whole business of worrying about who exactly gets the vaccinations is a distraction, though. Prioritization matters, sure, but what's way more important is getting as many people vaccinated as possible: pushing toward that 75% immunity threshold.

The Netherlands has stopped with Astra Zenica altogether, and vaccination in general seems to be going too slowly. What a mess.

That's because (AFAIK) the Philippines has trouble securing more vaccines via government reps (eg they can't get a lot due to fumbling with paperwork alledgly) that the private sector has to pitch in and do the purchase the vaccines for their companies/employees and to donate at least one dose for the Department of Health.

Dad says that the PS is doing wonder for their employees if/when they get vaccinated. They can get their loyalty in return.

I disagree, while it's certainly true that in the long run you need to achieve herd immunity prioritization is important because high-priority groups (people in at-risk categories, healthcare workers, etc) getting them is the difference between a functional healthcare system vs one that is collapsing.

It's undeniable that if you can vaccinate everyone you should, but there's still good reason to prioritize.

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Apr 5th 2021 at 8:21:41 AM

So I'm eligible to get a vaccine in two weeks in Massachusetts.

My grandmother, who lives in Kansas, hasn't been able to get a vaccine yet even though she's in a high-risk group. Granted, she lives in the middle of nowhere and is fine with staying inside, but still, it infuriates me that she hasn't gotten any information about a vaccine yet.

There needs to be a balance. Being too picky about who gets the vaccines slows things down, but you do need some kind of simple and straightforward prioritzation (health care workers and the very elderly; then younger seniors, frontline workers, and other groups that face more risk; then the general public).

And where there’s vaccine hesitancy, politicians or other prominent people getting vaccinated, to demonstrate that it’s safe and encourage others to be vaccinated, is fine and helpful.

EDIT: Looking at stats, Chile’s vaccination rate is one of the highest in the world so far (36% with one dose, including 20% with both doses) but their COVID death rates are still super high and don’t appear to be declining.

As I understand it, while they’re using several of the major vaccines, the bulk of their supply is Sinovac (China’s vaccine). Is it possible that Sinovac, er, doesn’t work?

Edited by Galadriel on Apr 5th 2021 at 11:49:48 AM

Yeah, but you can be too picky in prioritizing. Do seniors really need to be vaccinated in 5 year brackets going down from 100? That seems a bit overdoing it.

Yeah, I think that going with 80+ first, and then opening it up to everyone 65+, would be fine. As I understand it, in Canada at least, the reason for the 5-year brackets is partly to not overwhelm the phone/internet scheduling systems by having everyone call in at once.

Indeed, one reason for prioritizing is that most countries don't have enough doses for everyone right now.

Coming out of the cave: As life creeps back, some feel dread A sad article about how some don't want to return to normal, and would rather be cooped up in their homes indefinitely for fear of catching the virus. Researchers are saying it's the equivalent of PTSD.

To each their own, but I am very much looking forward to getting back to normal once I get the vaccine. I hate the feeling of isolation, not helped by working from home for the first time. In all of 2020, I got together with friends (i.e. not over Zoom, but in person) a total of five times. Not very much.

Edited by speedyboris on Apr 5th 2021 at 11:54:49 AM

How horrible! When the main crisis is over, the psychologists and social workers will be the overworked ones.

I feel some dread coming back to normal, but not for those reasons. I've dealt with agoraphobia before and staying inside has helped a lot. A lot of introverts I know have actually liked quarantine, so I wouldn't be surprised if they also slightly dread going back to normal.

Not saying I don't want to go back to normal. I'd like it, but I just have to get used to dealing with people again on a daily basis.

Edited by Scarecrow4774 on Apr 5th 2021 at 3:08:53 PM

My office is reopening for vaccinated employees only on May 3. I'm ambivalent about going in... I kind of like working from home, but I miss the personal interaction.

A lot of people have social anxiety too and got used to working at home.

Normal as in Malifaux night at the store, both my wife and I getting to run errands together, and eatting out not always being take out?

Sure, I'm all for that.

Normal as in cramming me back into that cubicle for no other reason than to fill the seat, making insincere pleasantries with coworkers, and losing time to a daily commute when I've proven that I can work from home 5 days a week with no loss of productivity?

Yeah, they can keep that.

I want things to go back to normal, but what I don't want is to lose the things I've gained over the past year that really worked for me.

I should have said that working from the office is voluntary. There is a lot of project work that we do that’s much less efficient over video calls. Sitting people in a room for six to eight hours and hammering out issues is very effective.

Also, and maybe this is our IT infrastructure, but running certain applications on virtual desktops is just not as responsive as running them on the local network, especially when those are cloud desktops.

x2 I think the genie can't be put back in the bottle when it comes to telecommuting, so I doubt things will 100% go back to the way they were before COVID. But yeah, the pleasures of life, or simple stuff we took for granted before the lockdowns/restrictions, that will be welcome to return to.

Edited by speedyboris on Apr 5th 2021 at 1:21:56 AM

A lot of employers are rather looking forward to outsourcing their office space costs to their employees. I am concerned that office space shrinkage will result in the remaining people in the office being even more cramped then before.

I will definitely miss the pandemic.

Since I work for an extremely conservative organization, they pulled all the strings possible to keep as many people working as possible in the building instead of from home. basically, I have not worked from home at all.

Coupled with the fact I hate it here and everywhere and this is why I will miss the pandemic's work from home urgency.

I will miss this perfectly valid excuse to not go out and do dumb shit.

Edited by Aszur on Apr 5th 2021 at 3:34:24 AM

I still live with my family and they love forcing me to attend church with them. I have a very negative opinion on Christianity and am generally antisocial, so I've been enjoying a year of not wasting my Sundays.

I work in the grocery department of a retail store, so WFH wasn't exactly an option unless they planned on having me control an advanced humanoid robot. Needless to say, I did not get to control a robot.

As this means I've worn a face mask for 8 hours a day 5 days a week for an entire year while working a physically demanding job^note I'm the guy who handles the heavy stuff like entire pallets of 24 packs of bottled water...I'm more then ready for the pandemic to be over and done with even though I wasn't hit too hard by the social or financial side of things.

Coincidentally, I finally have a vaxx appointment coming up. Yay.

As far as I know, my old man's willing to take any working vaccine once they're available in my local city.

Should've left Manila to do my Masters a year ago if I didn't screw up my studies for the BA.

Edited by Ominae on Apr 6th 2021 at 5:06:57 AM