Moderator notice: Please do not ask for medical advice in this forum!
- If you are interested in Crafting, maybe try ordering a craft kit online (something substantial that would take time would be best, like a Latch hook kit
(and crochet hook if you don’t have one), a potholder loom and cotton loops, or cross stitch kit), to work on.
- learn something physical, like an instrument, how to sew or knit, etc
- a lot of museums and zoos and the like are doing virtual tours or free online classes, so keep an eye out for that as well.
- do a giant puzzle
- Join an online bookclub
- Take an online class
While the outbreak started around New Year's Day (12/31), it's picking up steam around the Asia-Pacific region especially since Mainland Chinese people tend to travel a lot.
For reference, the BNO Newsroom twitter has a special feed for any info on the coronavirus:
https://twitter.com/bnodesk?lang=en
The WHO has page about COVID-19 and any other concerns people may have. I suggest peeps go to the Q&A page to check for official details.
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
Edited by nombretomado on Jun 3rd 2020 at 3:21:48 AM
Redmess
Deja vu, much?
Actually, this new variant seems to be playing Corona's Greatest Pandemic Hits with us. Cruise ship infections, travel restrictions that don't work, spreading faster than we expected... What's next, another lockdown?
Optimism is a duty.
Our Favorite Cowgirl, er, Mare
Shhh! Don't give them ideas!
I like to keep my audience riveted.
Redmess
There's also apparently a new season of Tiger King. The Greatest Pandemic Hits continue.
Edited by Redmess on Dec 7th 2021 at 11:28:32 AM
Optimism is a duty.
Redmess
There's a story going around about an Italian guy who tried to get around getting vaccinated... by wearing a silicon arm to his vaccination.
And not just that, he wore a silicon bodysuit.
I'm disappointed, but also kind of impressed. Talk about going above and beyond...
Optimism is a duty.
Here's an NBC story about it:
A dentist in Italy faces possible criminal charges after trying to receive a coronavirus vaccine in a fake arm made of silicone.
A nurse in the northern city of Biella, Filippa Bua, said she could tell right away that something was off when a man presented the phony limb for a shot on Thursday.
"When I uncovered the arm, I felt skin that was cold and gummy, and the color was too light," Bua told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
She said she initially thought the 57-year-old man was an amputee and had mistakenly offered the wrong arm. She lifted his shirt and saw a silicone arm.
"I understood immediately that the man was trying to avoid the vaccination by using a silicone prosthetic, into which he hoped that I would inject the drug, unaware," Bua said.
The nurse said the man acknowledged he did not want a vaccine but to obtain a "super" health pass, which from Monday will be required to enter restaurants, cinemas, theaters and other venues in Italy.
He had already been suspended from work because of his refusal to get vaccinated, which Italy requires for medical personnel.
The nurse said the man was courteous and left the vaccination center after the failed attempt.
"We stopped and reflected, and we understood that this wasn’t just a surreal situation, but a real attempt at fraud," Bua said. She and others at the vaccination site turned paperwork over to superiors so they could report the case, which has been given to prosecutors.
While Italy’s vaccination rate is relatively high at 85 percent of the currently eligible population ages 12 and over, people in the the age range from 30 to 59 have proven the most resistant to vaccinations, with nearly 3.5 million still not having received their first doses.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Apparently the new trend of avoiding the vaccination is to carry around moth balls.
Remember, these idiots drive, fuck, and vote. Not always in that order.
Covid deaths are three times higher in counties that voted for Trump over President Biden.
Essentially Republican counties are way more likely to follow anti-vaxxer figures and refuse to get their shots, and an increase in deaths inevitability follows. The higher the percentage of the vote that went Trump, the higher the amount of deaths in that county as well.
Redmess
Well, that's what happens when you politicize vaccination.
Optimism is a duty.
Our Favorite Cowgirl, er, Mare
Whose idea was that anyway?
I like to keep my audience riveted.
𐀀𐀩𐀯𐀂𐀰𐀅𐀡𐀄
Appealing to an apparently large voting base, sadly.
Secret Signature
@Parable
That's a "no shit" moment. If Trump endorsed kicking puppies, you'd get a similar result of most Republicans being puppy kickers.
Remember, these idiots drive, fuck, and vote. Not always in that order.
In the name of being honest
RTHK: BioNTech offers longer protection than Sinovac: study.
David Hui, a professor of respiratory medicine at the university, told an RTHK programme on Wednesday that about 700 people participated in the study, and were tested for their antibody levels one month and six months after their second shots.
BioNTech produces a higher level of antibodies, and the antibody level of 80 percent of those inoculated with BioNTech was still up to standard after those periods of time, while only 16 percent of people who received Sinovac had a good enough level of antibodies, he said.
Hui said Sinovac recipients therefore have a more pressing need for a booster shot, noting many countries now consider three shots as “fully vaccinated” for inactivated vaccines like Sinovac.
“This matches data on the mainland, which showed that most people who received inactivated vaccines have very low antibody levels six to eight months after the vaccination. So people who got Sinovac need to get a third shot sooner,” he said.
Hui added, however, that researchers also looked at the T-cell response, and found that Sinovac did slightly better.
He said it is the white blood cell response that is important in preventing serious illness, hospitalisation and death.
As for the new Omicron variant of Covid, the expert said it looks like it’s very contagious, as it’s appeared in around 40 countries or regions in a short period of time. But he said it seems Omicron is weaker than the Delta variant in terms of causing serious illness.
Redmess
Meaning that 18,000 people are still unaccounted for.
Clearly this track and trace business is a hopeless endeavour at this point. Omicron is now spreading uncontrolled, that much is clear.
Optimism is a duty.
Especially since we don’t actually know how widespread it is as there’s now a second strain that isn’t picked up on the test that distinguishes Omicron cases from other positive PCR tests.
To clarify that for those who didn't click the link: by chance, it happens that PCR tests do something slightly different with the Omicron variant compared to most others. This makes it unusually easy to identify when someone who treats positive is infected with Omicron. That's what doesn't work with this new variant variant. This "stealth" variant is just as easy to detect as covid as any other, and just as easy to identify as the variant as every other variant except normal Omicron.
Got my booster and flu shots yesterday. The booster was fine, of course, but the flu one has me feeling like hell this morning. Not looking forward to doing finals with a headache and a stuffy nose.
The upside is that you had to be vaccinated to attend the anime convention. So at least we'll see how Omicron works when confronted with a massive resistant population.
On paper. In practice they gave up checking that because it was causing a bottleneck at the entrances.
There's a reason "Linecon 2021" was trending during the event.
"Yup. That tasted purple."
Ah, that's a bummer. One can hope then that the attendees assumed they were going to be checked before they went and were vaccinated anyway.
Redmess
Yeah,t hat is a big problem. Vaccination passes sound nice in theory, but they are a logistical nightmare at huge events like that one.
Optimism is a duty.
And yet Italy demands it since some time for mass events...
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
reluctant author, willing misanthrope
And Hawaii straight-up cards you at the door, both to get in and just about everywhere else
Edited by Cris_Meyers on Dec 8th 2021 at 1:08:51 PM
Our Favorite Cowgirl, er, Mare
It definitely caused me a headache when my father and I went to see The Magic Flute. x_x
I like to keep my audience riveted.
Redmess
I think the problem is when venues don't have the manpower or space to allow for the extra time it takes to card everyone on their vaccinations. When venues are built for constant traffic, holding everyone up for checks quickly clogs up the system.
Basically. We need a week or two to figure out the full extent of the threat Omicron poses in terms of combined contagiousness/lethality and how well the current vaccines protect against it.