Coronavirus, Monkeypox, and Other Contagious Diseases

[AnBr]

Unlike some quote-unquote vaccines, leeches have stood the test of time

[pnwguy]

Feb 9, 2022 23:05:58 GMT AnBr said:

Unlike some quote-unquote vaccines, leeches have stood the test of time

He'll be booked on Tucker Carlson any day now.  "Hungary has been providing this freedom-supporting treatment for months!"

[AnBr]

[Bact PhD]

Debated putting this in the “March Toward Fascism” thread, since the “take-home” from this is “You WILL comply—OR ELSE!”

www.gainesville.com/story/news/2022/02/10/alachua-county-among-districts-hit-mandating-classroom-masks/6736366001/

To the dismay of school officials, more than $2 million that was proposed to help fund Alachua County's school district has been slashed in the latest House budget proposal as punishment for defying the state’s ban on masking mandates.

The full House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved cutting $200 million from the budgets of 12 districts that defied the state’s ban on mask mandates, which includes Alachua County Public Schools.

Under the proposal, legislators would shift $200 million away from 12 school districts that required students to wear masks last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, challenging Gov. Ron DeSantis. The money would be redirected to 55 other districts that did not have mask mandates.

Alachua County is slated to lose $2,049,770 in state funds under the House budget.

The move to punish counties that defied the governor on the mask mandate came from state Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, the House education budget-writer.

Since all Florida districts would see overall increases in the $105.3 billion state budget advanced Wednesday by the House Appropriations Committee, the mask penalty won’t be that harmful, Fine said.

“It is intended to reward the 55 school districts, the overwhelming majority of which followed our state law and respected the rights of parents over the past year,” Fine said of what he called the “Putting Parents First Adjustment Deduct.”

The Senate doesn’t include the policy in its $108.6 billion state budget proposal. The budgets were approved by committees Wednesday in the House and Senate, but it’s unclear whether Fine’s idea will survive work between the two sides on reaching a consensus spending plan for 2022-23 before the Legislature’s scheduled March 11 finish.

[snip]

Alachua County School Board member Tina Certain said Thursday that she was in Tallahassee last week when Fine brought up his proposal, and he seemed to be “grandstanding.”

“As an elected board member I’m following it, but I’m not freaking out just yet because I know the Senate budget has to be in agreement," she said.

However, Certain said the budget proposal is worth following to see if it goes any further.

“I’m concerned that a representative would put forth a proposal in the budget to do such a thing,” she said Thursday. “In the end, it hurts our children.”

[snip]

“Contrary to what its supporters say, it will certainly hurt schools, classrooms and well over a million of the state’s students,” Simon said. “That includes students whose families opposed masks in schools as well as those who supported them.”

Alachua County School Board member Mildred Russell, who in August of last year was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to fill the vacant District 2 seat, said she did not support the district’s mask mandate for students last year. However, she said Thursday that she is concerned about the district losing more than $2 million because of that stance.


“That hurts our children,” she said. “Our children are our future, and to take away money from our children just to punish some people who defied the governor’s order is not professional, is not respectful. It’s very harmful.”

Alachua County School Board Chair Leanetta McNealy said Thursday that the district adopted the mask mandate to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to students, employees and their families.

Come on, when even the Supreme Emperor’s personally appointed toady thinks the proposal is a bad idea…

[LFC]

Feb 11, 2022 13:37:54 GMT Bact PhD said:

Debated putting this in the “March Toward Fascism” thread, since the “take-home” from this is “You WILL comply—OR ELSE!”

Nothing says "I LOVE FREEDUMB!" more than taking your frustrations at not being obeyed out on children.

[goldenvalley]

Speaking of COVID and money, here's a county in Arizona that turned down $1.9M in federal COVID relief money.

The $1.9 million in pandemic aid would have gone a long way in Cochise County, a rural borderland where a winter of infections swamped hospitals. There was money for tracking cases. Testing in remote ranching towns. Funds fortifying the Arizona county’s strained health department.

But the county’s Republican-controlled board of supervisors stunned many residents and health care workers by voting last month to reject the federal money, becoming one of the rare places in America to turn down Covid-19 assistance from Washington.

“We’re done,” said Peggy Judd, one of two Republican supervisors who voted against accepting the money. “We’re treating it like the common cold.”

Hear that COVID?  Get over yourself. You're a common cold now...nothing special.  And Freedom! 

[LFC]

Feb 11, 2022 16:29:16 GMT goldenvalley said:

Speaking of COVID and money, here's a county in Arizona that turned down $1.9M in federal COVID relief money.

This is the Republican party. Getting their perceived grievances stroked is more important than their physical needs. It's why they're so willing to vote against their own self-interest. It's easier to sabotage yourself and then play the victim than take the help but then have to accomplish something with it.

[AnBr]

[LFC]

Excess deaths cleared 1,000,000 and confirmed COVID related deaths cleared 900,000.

US Reaches More Than 1 Million ‘Excess Deaths’ In Pandemic

The U.S. has seen 1,023,916 deaths above normal since the pandemic started, the CDC reports.

• Most of those “excess deaths” were caused by COVID-19, the CDC said. The rest were due to heart disease, hypertension, dementia and other illnesses exacerbated by the pandemic.

• 920,000 people have died from COVID as of today, according to the CDC’s tracker.

[goldenvalley]

A challenge to United Airlines vaccination rules went to the federal Court of Appeals where the enforcement of the rules was stopped by an unsigned opinion.  LGM quotes the dissenting opinion in a format I can't copy and paste.  If you want to see a judge take down his colleagues for a result oriented, completely unsupported by any legal precedent, decision, read this.

[pnwguy]

Feb 18, 2022 15:40:58 GMT goldenvalley said:

A challenge to United Airlines vaccination rules went to the federal Court of Appeals where the enforcement of the rules was stopped by an unsigned opinion.  LGM quotes the dissenting opinion in a format I can't copy and paste.  If you want to see a judge take down his colleagues for a result oriented, completely unsupported by any legal precedent, decision, read this.

I'd expect any Dumpster-appointed judges to be like this.  Those appointed in the Reagan era at least had adherence and reverence for law and precedent.

[goldenvalley]

Here is good reason to get vaccinated against COVID even if you don't think you're in a high risk category...sort of like making sure to get vaccinated against chicken pox to prevent shingles in later years.  Viruses can have long lasting effects on the human body.

A pivotal study that looked at health records of more than 153,000 U.S. veterans published this month in Nature Medicine found that their risk of cardiovascular disease of all types increased substantially in the year following infection, even when they had mild cases. The population studied was mostly White and male, but the patterns held even when the researchers analyzed women and people of color separately. When experts factor in the heart damage probably suffered by people who put off medical care, more sedentary lifestyles and eating changes, not to mention the stress of the pandemic, they estimate there may be millions of new onset cardiac cases related to the virus, plus a worsening of disease for many already affected.

“We are expecting a tidal wave of cardiovascular events in the coming years from direct and indirect causes of covid,” said Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, president of the American Heart Association.

In February 2021, the National Institutes of Health launched an initiative to look at the causes and possible treatments for long covid, the constellation of symptoms from brain fog and exercise fatigue to heart-related issues that some people experience well past their initial infections. In addition, the American College of Cardiology has recognized the serious, longer-term effects of the coronavirus by preparing new guidelines, scheduled out in March, for monitoring and returning to exercise after infection. But many experts and patient advocacy groups say more is needed, and are calling on President Biden and other leaders for comprehensive changes in the health care system that would provide more funding for research and treatment, financial support for people who can no longer work and address the social and emotional consequences of illness in the decades to come.

Note: if this WaPo article is paywalled you can use "incognito" or "new private window (Safari)" to see it.  

[LFC]

More evidence that Ivermectin doesn't do shit.

The antiparasitic drug ivermectin failed to treat COVID-19 in yet another randomized clinical trial, but the drug remains popular amid the pandemic thanks to Republican politics. That's the takeaway from two separate studies published Friday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Together, the studies raise yet more concerns for the use of ivermectin against the pandemic virus—as well as the reasons behind its use, which appear politically motivated.

"Political affiliation should not be a factor in clinical treatment decisions," the Harvard researchers behind one of the studies concluded. "Our findings raise concerns for public trust in a non-partisan health care system."

[goldenvalley]

Mask and vaccine mandates for kids in school?  Recent polling shows broad support for them in California.

Nearly two-thirds of California voters, including a majority of parents, support mask and vaccine mandates in K-12 schools, according to a poll conducted this month by the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley and co-sponsored by the L.A. Times.

The results of the early February poll of nearly 9,000 California voters suggest continued broad public support for policies aimed at reducing the spread of the coronavirus in schools, even as protests against mask and vaccine mandates garner public attention in school districts across the state.

“People really want the schools to get back to where they were,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Berkeley IGS Poll. “But the desire to open schools is tempered with these feelings that these precautions should still be in place.”

Statewide, the poll showed that a significant number of Latino and Black parents — populations that have been disproportionately hit by the pandemic — did not feel their children were safe from COVID-19 at schools.

Most supported masks; a smaller majority supported vaccine mandates.

It seems the antis are predominantly Republican in political identification.

The numbers also point to deeply entrenched political divides — about 70% of Republicans were opposed to mask and vaccine mandates for schools while about 85% of Democrats supported them.

I wonder if other states are seeing similar polling results.  

[LFC]

Feb 24, 2022 17:43:51 GMT goldenvalley said:

Mask and vaccine mandates for kids in school?  Recent polling shows broad support for them in California.

Once again an angry, loud, motivated minority is driving the conversation. They need a group to band together and just as loudly tell them to sit down and STFU. Call them "kid murderers" just for a bit of equal treatment.

[pnwguy]

Valuable instruction in life saving

[goldenvalley]

www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/health/pfizer-vaccine-kids.html

The coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech is much less effective in preventing infection in children ages 5 to 11 years than in older adolescents or adults, according to a large new set of data collected by health officials in New York State — a finding that has deep ramifications for these children and their parents.

The Pfizer vaccine is the only Covid shot authorized for that age group in the United States. It still prevents severe illness in the children, but offers virtually no protection against infection, even within a month after full immunization, the data, which were collected during the Omicron surge, suggest.

The sharp drop in the vaccine’s performance in young children may stem from the fact that they receive one-third the dose given to older children and adults, researchers and federal officials who have reviewed the data said.

[LFC]

DeSatanist continues to be a complete and total piece of shit.

Democrats labeled Gov. Ron DeSantis a “bully” after video surfaced of him curtly asking a group of students to take off their masks before a press conference in Tampa.

“You do not have to wear those masks,” DeSantis told the students as he took the podium at the University of South Florida on Wednesday. “Please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything. We’ve got to stop with this Covid theater. So, if you want to wear it, fine — but this is ridiculous.”

Some of the students, visiting from a local Hillsborough County high school, took off their masks at the governor’s urging while others opted to keep them on their faces.

It really is all about Republican virtue signaling. Republican virtues are, of course, anything but virtuous.

[LFC]

43% sounds like an awful lot. Of course it's not Trump's neutered CDC so I have a bit more faith.

An estimated 140 million people in the US—around 43 percent—have had COVID-19, according to the latest analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention using data from the end of January.

The estimate of people infected with COVID-19 is nearly double the CDC's cumulative tally of cases reported at the end of January, which totaled around 74 million. These numbers are expected to differ because many COVID-19 cases are not detected or reported—i.e., people may not get tested at all, or they take a home test that is not reported. That means official case counts are expected to be a significant undercount of actual infections. However, case reports can also include infections in people who have tested positive multiple times, effectively counting some people more than once.

The CDC has been estimating actual infections over time, which provides more insight into the recent tsunami of cases from the ultratransmissible omicron variant. Based on data from the end of November, the CDC estimates that about 37 million people became infected with the pandemic coronavirus in December and January. The number of cases reported to the CDC during that time frame was around 26 million.

The infection estimates stem from a nationwide seroprevalence surveillance program, which tested nearly 72,000 blood samples from late December to late January. The program uses blood samples sent to commercial labs for non-COVID-19 related testing, such as routine medical screens. The samples were surveyed for antibodies specifically from a SARS-CoV-2 infection—not vaccination.

[goldenvalley]

Now that the CDC has made mask wearing optional for some people in some places, what are you seeing out in your necks of the woods?  

I see most people in my area wearing masks in supermarkets and general shopping.  Of course my area was not a big anti masker place anyway.  But parts of my county to the north and east were more anti mask than my part and I have been seeing masks in those areas as much as ever.  

[andydp]

Mar 3, 2022 21:51:15 GMT goldenvalley said:

Now that the CDC has made mask wearing optional for some people in some places, what are you seeing out in your necks of the woods?  

I see most people in my area wearing masks in supermarkets and general shopping.  Of course my area was not a big anti masker place anyway.  But parts of my county to the north and east were more anti mask than my part and I have been seeing masks in those areas as much as ever.  

I agree.  Though we're more mask friendly in our area there are plenty of backwoods to harbor the anti maskers.

For now we're wearing masks in "closer" quarters.  I wear it in the Y locker room and the exercise machine area, but I take it off in the spin class

I see masks in stores and "crowded" area likely close to 50%.  I have yet to be approached and ridiculed but I think those people would rather bug some kid rather than an older guy wearing and "Army Retired" hat.  I really haven't heard of any incidents.  

[Bact PhD]

Mar 3, 2022 21:51:15 GMT goldenvalley said:

Now that the CDC has made mask wearing optional for some people in some places, what are you seeing out in your necks of the woods?  

I see most people in my area wearing masks in supermarkets and general shopping.  Of course my area was not a big anti masker place anyway.  But parts of my county to the north and east were more anti mask than my part and I have been seeing masks in those areas as much as ever.  

Mask-wearing had already dropped off significantly by mid February. Our area has always had its staunch anti-maskers, and more of us have ditched them as the case rates dropped off. Dear Son’s school had gone mask optional in January. At our church, the No mask crowd has held sway for months, even during Omicron. We had been among the last holdouts, only going without in the last couple of weeks. Now it’s down to 4 or 5 out of a group of 30. It’s about the same proportion in the stores.

[LFC]

Mar 3, 2022 21:51:15 GMT goldenvalley said:

Now that the CDC has made mask wearing optional for some people in some places, what are you seeing out in your necks of the woods?  

I see most people in my area wearing masks in supermarkets and general shopping.  Of course my area was not a big anti masker place anyway.  But parts of my county to the north and east were more anti mask than my part and I have been seeing masks in those areas as much as ever.  

Around my neck of the woods it's about 50-50. When a little further out in the sticks it's about 80% without a mask.

[LFC]

More evidence that COVID started in the Wuhan markets, not a lab.

Was it a few raccoon dogs, inside a metal cage and stacked on top of a chicken coop? Or perhaps a lone red fox, curled up in the corner of its cage. Could one of these wild animals have triggered the entire COVID-19 pandemic late in 2019?

Over the weekend, an international team of scientists published two extensive papers online, offering the strongest evidence to date that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in animals at a market in Wuhan, China. Specifically, they conclude that the coronavirus most likely jumped from a caged wild animal into people at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where a huge COVID-19 outbreak began in December 2019.

Scientists who weren't involved in the research papers are calling the new data "very convincing" and a "blow" to the lab-leak theory — that the virus somehow escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which does research on coronaviruses. In reaction to the papers, they say the newly published data is tipping the scales toward wildlife sold at the market.

"The studies don't exclude other hypotheses entirely," says virologist Jeremy Kamil, who's at Louisiana State University Health Shreveport and was not involved in this research. "But they absolutely are pushing it toward an animal origin."

Neither of the papers provides the smoking gun — that is, an animal infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus at a market.

But they come close. They provide photographic evidence of wild animals, which can be infected with and shed SARS-CoV-2, sitting in the market in late 2019 — such as raccoon dogs and a red fox. What's more, the caged animals are shown in or near a stall where scientists found SARS-CoV-2 virus on a number of surfaces, including on cages, carts and machines that process animals after they are slaughtered at the market.

[LFC]

Mar 3, 2022 15:01:33 GMT LFC said:

DeSatanist continues to be a complete and total piece of shit.

Democrats labeled Gov. Ron DeSantis a “bully” after video surfaced of him curtly asking a group of students to take off their masks before a press conference in Tampa.

“You do not have to wear those masks,” DeSantis told the students as he took the podium at the University of South Florida on Wednesday. “Please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything. We’ve got to stop with this Covid theater. So, if you want to wear it, fine — but this is ridiculous.”

Some of the students, visiting from a local Hillsborough County high school, took off their masks at the governor’s urging while others opted to keep them on their faces.

It really is all about Republican virtue signaling. Republican virtues are, of course, anything but virtuous.

Because he wasn't a big enough piece of shit now he's fundraising off of being a big piece of shit. The cruelty really is the point and bullying "the libs" is all that matters to the knuckle draggers. I think I hate this man as much as I hate Trump. He has no soul.

DeSantis Fundraises Off Yelling At High Schoolers For Wearing Masks

The Florida governor is putting out donation emails and a campaign ad touting the moment when he freaked out at high students at one of his press conferences for wearing masks, an incident DeSantis has decided to spin as him “allowing children to breathe fresh air.”

• DeSantis whines in one of the emails that “leftist propagandists in our media” are unfairly painting that moment as him bullying kids.

• Some of the kids and their parents have described that moment as bullying.

(Also, DeSantis’ ad includes clips from Family Guy in the year 2022.)