Coronavirus, Monkeypox, and Other Contagious Diseases

[Deleted]

It's a system of incentive and disincentive at play, alright. However, not the way you think. Then: fear of nationalization of healthcare. Now: greedy greenback grabfest.

[goldenvalley]

Tyson Foods...chicken processing company is mandating vaccines for all its employees. 

Tyson Foods, one of the nation’s largest meat processors, said on Tuesday that it would require vaccines for its U.S. workers — about half of whom remain unvaccinated.

The mandate will extend to employees in its offices and in the field. The poultry supplier is requiring its leadership team to be vaccinated by Sept. 24 and the rest of its office workers by Oct. 1. Frontline employees have until Nov. 1 to be fully inoculated, extra time the company is providing because there are “significantly more frontline team members than office workers who still need to be vaccinated,” a Tyson spokesman said.

Tyson is offering $200 to frontline workers who verify that they are fully vaccinated. The company already offered employees up to four hours of pay if they are vaccinated outside of their normal shift.

This seems like a pretty long timeline for front line employees considering that vaccines are readily available now.

[Traveler]

But a heck of a lot better than nothing at all, no? Many of those employees are in underserved areas. By job definition..

[jackd]

And it includes the front line workers unlike Walmart.

[pnwguy]

Sorry Bact, if this hits too close to home.

[Traveler]

Andy's take on Disantis.

[RichTBikkies]

Aug 5, 2021 19:25:10 GMT Traveler said:

Andy's take on Disantis.

Soi-disantis.

[Bact PhD]

Aug 5, 2021 14:49:32 GMT pnwguy said:

Sorry Bact, if this hits too close to home.

View Attachment

Aug 5, 2021 19:25:10 GMT Traveler said:

Andy's take on Disantis.

That sound you just heard was me giving a loud SIGH...

Several school districts, including my county's, have instituted some form of mask mandate to start the year¹, directly defying the Supreme Emperor of Flori-DUH. I don't need "Carnac the Magnificent" to tell me that the courts are gonna get busy -- it will get a lot uglier in these parts before things improve in any way.

¹I expect Dear Son's private school will re-institute theirs soon.

[AnBr]

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Attachments:

[pnwguy]

Future Florida Waffle House bathroom signs:

[AnBr]

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Attachments:

[RichTBikkies]

Aug 6, 2021 6:06:54 GMT AnBr said:

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100 Likes.

[Deleted]

Running low on mega-likes?

[RichTBikkies]

Aug 6, 2021 10:07:47 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

Running low on mega-likes?

I tend to swerve wildly between gush and our traditional English understatement. 

[Deleted]

Aug 6, 2021 11:56:04 GMT RichTBikkies said:

Aug 6, 2021 10:07:47 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

Running low on mega-likes?

I tend to swerve wildly between gush and our traditional English understatement. 

Like on the M6.

[RichTBikkies]

Aug 6, 2021 12:07:51 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

Aug 6, 2021 11:56:04 GMT RichTBikkies said:

I tend to swerve wildly between gush and our traditional English understatement. 

Like on the M6.    

538.282 Likes. The first time I've seen anybody name-dropping — a road!!!

That's 538.282, not 538. Just watch it, that's all. Just watch it.

[Deleted]

Aug 6, 2021 12:33:34 GMT RichTBikkies said:

Aug 6, 2021 12:07:51 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

Like on the M6.    

538.282 Likes. The first time I've seen anybody name-dropping — a road!!!

That's 538.282, not 538. Just watch it, that's all. Just watch it.

I just imagine you zipping in and out of traffic in your Aston Martin Valhalla muttering to yourself "my name is B, RTB"

[goldenvalley]

Oh lordy...people are taking an anti parasitic to try to prevent or treat COVID.

Misconceptions about the drug’s coronavirus healing abilities began to spread when a handful of studies found positive trends in patients after taking the drug, particularly one non-peer reviewed paper that said ivermectin can lower COVID-19 death rates by more than 90%.

That study has since been withdrawn from the research website following reports of plagiarism and data manipulation that “are now under formal investigation.”

Separate research published in June last year found that ivermectin reduced the amount of coronavirus in a laboratory dish by 5,000-fold after two days. Some studies showed the drug helped COVID-19 patients recover faster and reduced inflammation, while others showed no benefits or worsening of disease.

But “most of these studies had incomplete information and significant methodological limitations, which make it difficult to exclude common causes of bias,” according to the NIH, including small sample sizes, inconsistencies in the reporting of disease severity and conflicting data as patients received multiple medications at once.

“The way that [ivermectin] works is it actually paralyses the worm by attacking the nerve and muscle cells,” Speights told KAIT8. “COVID is [caused by] a virus. COVID doesn’t have nerve or muscle cells, so the mechanism in which the drug works wouldn’t work for a virus.”

A WHO group of experts analyzed 16 randomized controlled trials including a total of 2,407 inpatients and outpatients with COVID-19 and concluded that evidence of the drug’s ability to improve disease outcomes is of “very low certainty.” The group didn’t look into whether ivermectin can prevent COVID-19.

“We have a hospital with dozens and dozens of patients that have taken ivermectin that is in with COVID pneumonia. I see this every day,” Dr. Robin Trotman, an infectious disease specialist in Missouri, told FOX2now. “We have things that work. The [monoclonal antibodies] clearly work, if you’re in the hospital steroids clearly work. But this one, I wish it worked, but the evidence is pretty clear.”

This stuff is designed for worming large animals like horses and cattle.  What could go wrong?

[andydp]

"The GOP: where every accusation is an admission of guilt"

in case you missed it:

DeSantis rails at Biden, blames immigrants for record COVID surge

Gov. Ron DeSantis launched an angry attack on President Biden on Wednesday, joining other Republicans in claiming without evidence that immigrants are behind the surge in COVID cases and hospitalizations.

“Why don’t you do your job?” DeSantis said of the president. “Why don’t you get this border secure and until you do that, I don’t want to hear a blip about COVID from you.”

In response, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki wrote on Twitter that “23% of new COVID hospitalizations in the U.S are in Florida, and their hospitals are being overwhelmed again. We are doing everything we can to help the people of FL, and they’re stepping up by getting vaccinated – [and] we hope @govrondesantis joins us in this fight.

More here:

www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/desantis-rails-at-biden-blames-immigrants-for-record-covid-surge/ar-AAMWsZO?ocid=uxbndlbing

[goldenvalley]

Texas governor has also claimed that increase in cases there is due to undocumented immigrants.  He's getting sued by Biden Administration over orders he made.

“Until President Biden and his Administration do their jobs to enforce the laws of our nation and protect Americans, the State of Texas will continue to step up to protect our communities and uphold the rule of law,” Abbott said.
The governor has characterized his order as a response to border crossings he claimed "led to a dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases” among migrants. In a letter to the DOJ on Friday, Abbott accused the Biden administration of jeopardizing the health and safety of Texans with his policies at the U.S.-Mexico border.

[jackd]

As always, the governor doesn't seem to care about facts.

[goldenvalley]

Not just the governor of Texas! It seems some people can say anything intended to promote their partisan aims and never pay a price for lying or making up BS.

[Rue Bella]

www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2021/08/the-power-of-the-purse

A quote from the Washington Post:

The Biden administration is considering using federal regulatory powers and the threat of withholding federal funds from institutions to push more Americans to get vaccinated — a huge potential shift in the fight against the virus and a far more muscular approach to getting shots into arms, according to four people familiar with the deliberations.

The effort could apply to institutions as varied as long-term-care facilities, cruise ships and universities, potentially impacting millions of Americans, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations.

In my town they've just mandated all school employees be vaccinated before school starts this fall (or probably regular testing as an alternative). And restaurants are now advertising fully vaccinated employees. 

[Bact PhD]

Aug 6, 2021 16:39:14 GMT andydp said:

"The GOP: where every accusation is an admission of guilt"

in case you missed it:

DeSantis rails at Biden, blames immigrants for record COVID surge

Gov. Ron DeSantis launched an angry attack on President Biden on Wednesday, joining other Republicans in claiming without evidence that immigrants are behind the surge in COVID cases and hospitalizations.

“Why don’t you do your job?” DeSantis said of the president. “Why don’t you get this border secure and until you do that, I don’t want to hear a blip about COVID from you.”

In response, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki wrote on Twitter that “23% of new COVID hospitalizations in the U.S are in Florida, and their hospitals are being overwhelmed again. We are doing everything we can to help the people of FL, and they’re stepping up by getting vaccinated – [and] we hope @govrondesantis joins us in this fight.

I didn't miss it. SIGH. Observe the deflection to an all-but utter non-sequitur.

Here's the absolute latest: Did You Know that "mask mandate" = "harassment"? It does in Emperor DeSantis World (bold mine):

Students subjected to the “harassment” of having to wear masks in class would be eligible to transfer into another public or private school under an emergency rule adopted Friday by the state Board of Education.

The move is the latest thrust by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration against mask mandates endorsed by several Florida school districts on the eve of the start of school, amid one of the nation’s biggest surge in new Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations.

[snip]

But the rule adopted by the board would extend [Hope] scholarships “to instances where a child has been subjected to Covid-19 harassment.” They “will provide parents another means to protect the health and education of their child.”

The rule defines “Covid-19 harassment,” as “any threatening, discriminatory, insulting, or dehumanizing verbal, written or physical conduct an individual student suffers in relation to, or as a result of, school district protocols for Covid-19, including masking requirements, the separation or isolation of students, or Covid-19 testing requirements...."

A separate rule released Friday by the Florida Department of Health specifically demands that districts provide an “opt-out” for parents, so that their students would not have to wear masks in class.

Funny thing, if Dear Son's private school is any indication, folks are just as likely to encounter mask mandates there, too; the word came out a couple of hours ago that the students would have to wear face coverings indoors. Granted, there is an "opt-out" provision, but given what the policies were last school year, I doubt too many parents are going to avail themselves of that option. Gonna be a nightmare for the teachers, in any case.

[Bact PhD]

And the hits, they keep a-comin'! This Week in My County:

1,418 new cases = 201 per day, a record since Day One
Positivity Rate: 14.2% (actually measurably better than the statewide average of 18.5%)
373 hospitalized
    127 of the 373 in ICUs (units are 90% full)
    41 on respirators
     6 children
    91% of the 373 unvaccinated

3,060 vaccine doses administered, currently 61% of those 12+ have had at least one shot (not quite as good as the 63% statewide average)

Damn, it's depressing, as is the utter fascistic stubbornness of the Trump wannabee in Tallahassee. Any pretense of our much-vaunted "home rule" is dead.