Coronavirus 6: The Plague of Delta

[Alisamer]

Pfizer vaccine fully approved by the FDA today!

For ages 16 and older, 12 to 15 are still under emergency use authorization. Still, I hope that some holdouts using "it's not approved" as their excuse will go get the vaccine now. 

[Ali]

21 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

Pfizer vaccine fully approved by the FDA today!

For ages 16 and older, 12 to 15 are still under emergency use authorization. Still, I hope that some holdouts using "it's not approved" as their excuse will go get the vaccine now. 

I am already seeing, "How much did Pfizer pay them?" The crazy is strong with these people.

[Cartmann99]

[treehugger]

I find so bizzare that the same people that are freaking out about vaccine side effects are pushing ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine hard, when the side effects of those two drugs are well studied and can be severe.  It just doesn’t make sense.  Just like big pharma is evil when it comes to vaccines, but the above mentioned drugs are apparently not made by big pharma? 

Edited August 24, 2021 by treehugger

[Cartmann99]

‘Tainted’ blood: Covid skeptics request blood transfusions from unvaccinated donors

Quote

The nation’s roiling tensions over vaccination against Covid-19 have spilled into an unexpected arena: lifesaving blood transfusions.

With nearly 60% of the eligible US population fully vaccinated, most of the nation’s blood supply is now coming from donors who have been inoculated, experts said. That’s led some patients who are skeptical of the shots to demand transfusions only from the unvaccinated, an option blood centers insist is neither medically sound nor operationally feasible.

“We are definitely aware of patients who have refused blood products from vaccinated donors,” said Dr. Julie Katz Karp, who directs the blood bank and transfusion medicine program at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia.

Emily Osment, an American Red Cross spokesperson, said her organization has fielded questions from clients worried that vaccinated blood would be “tainted,” capable of transmitting components from the Covid vaccines. Red Cross officials said they’ve had to reassure clients that a Covid vaccine, which is injected into muscle or the layer of skin below, doesn’t circulate in the blood.

“While the antibodies that are produced by the stimulated immune system in response to vaccination are found throughout the bloodstream, the actual vaccine components are not,” Jessa Merrill, the Red Cross director of biomedical communications, said in an email.

So far, such demands have been rare, industry officials said. Dr. Louis Katz, chief medical officer for ImpactLife, an Iowa-based blood center, said he’s heard from “a small handful” of patients asking for blood from unvaccinated donors. And the resounding answer from centers and hospitals, he added, has been “no.”

“I know of no one who has acceded to such a request, which would be an operational can of worms for a medically unjustifiable request,” Katz wrote in an email.

 

[thoughtful]

1 hour ago, Cartmann99 said:

“I know of no one who has acceded to such a request, which would be an operational can of worms for a medically unjustifiable request,” Katz wrote in an email.

Well, then they'll need the Ivermectin.

 

[Howl]

Sunday a friend told me about a free COVID antibody survey here in Texas.  I completed the easy forms online Sunday evening and had my blood drawn yesterday at 2 pm.  I was in and out in under 10 minutes.  The study tests blood for antibody levels from vaccination and will also show antibodies from any COVID infection.  They'll text me the results!  Link here: https://sph.uth.edu/projects/texascares/

This was fantastic because I'm in a vaccine study, got my 2nd dose in November and I've been wondering exactly how vaccinated I really am at this point; when I get the results I'll know how to move forward.  If my antibodies are high, I'll stay in my vaccine study.  If not, I'll leave the study and get a booster.  If they are really low, I'll probably start the Moderna two-shot sequence. 

Elsewhere in Texas, the little (population 1200) town of Iraan in west Texas is suffering from COVID.   They have a 14-bed hospital, but the closest hospitals with ICU are in Midland and San Angelo -- each 100 miles away.  ICU beds are extremely scarce in both of those places, with people having to wait for a bed to open up to be admitted. 

So many people in this Texas town got Covid-19 that the school district shut down and then the city essentially closed

Quote

During a two-week span this month, 119 people were tested for the virus and 50 tested positive, according to Iraan General Hospital CEO Jason Rybolt. That's a 42% positivity rate.

and in the schools 

Quote

Last week, the school district shut down after only five days of classes because about a quarter of the staff and 16% of the students got infected or were exposed to Covid-19

 

 

Edited August 24, 2021 by Howl

[Cartmann99]

 

 

[Coconut Flan]

Actually, he sounds rather like a sheep to me.  Mindlessly following drivel instead of thinking it through.  

[FiveAcres]

12 minutes ago, Coconut Flan said:

Actually, he sounds rather like a sheep to me.  Mindlessly following drivel instead of thinking it through.  

He can't even get his Bible allusion correct. 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew 25%3A31-46&version=NIV

Goats are on the left hand, and destined for the Bad Place, whereas sheep go to the Good Place. 

[Coconut Flan]

Do they even pay the tiniest bit of attention to studies like this one?

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/24/cdc-study-shows-unvaccinated-people-are-29-times-more-likely-to-be-hospitalized-with-covid.html

29 times the risk of being hospitalized?  It has to be magical thinking that they won't get sick.

It was a chart from our local health department showing the rate, hospitalizations, and deaths for vaccinated and unvaccinated that convinced my mother's sister to get vaccinated.  Maybe this kind of article will pull a few in.

[Ali]

21 minutes ago, FiveAcres said:

He can't even get his Bible allusion correct. 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew 25%3A31-46&version=NIV

Goats are on the left hand, and destined for the Bad Place, whereas sheep go to the Good Place. 

They really don't understand the Bible. Jesus encouraged his followers to be like sheep. He called himself the Good Shepherd.

[thoughtful]

1 minute ago, Ali said:

They really don't understand the Bible. Jesus encouraged his followers to be like sheep. He called himself the Good Shepherd.

I hadn't seen that this was here, and just posted the video from CNN on the WTF fundies thread - sorry about the redundancy.

She's some fine example of a Christian, isn't she? Besides the fact that the goats are the ones to be roasted in Hell (hmmmm . . . wonder what roasted goat tastes like), the good sheep are good because they helped and protected other people, especially the weak and vulnerable - it's the same passage that has the "whatever you do for the least of these, you do for Me" verse!

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew 25%3A31-46&version=KJV

[Alisamer]

32 minutes ago, FiveAcres said:

He can't even get his Bible allusion correct. 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew 25%3A31-46&version=NIV

Goats are on the left hand, and destined for the Bad Place, whereas sheep go to the Good Place. 

I think that woman is right. She is a goat. Refuses to help or protect others, and destined for the hot place. In my imagination every single anti-vaxxer and mask refuser who dies shows up at the pearly gates where God says "Well, I sent you a vaccine and masks to wear. And we told you "love your neighbor". Get out of my sight!"

It's amazing how many of these people act like they are the world's best christians while doing the exact opposite of what the Bible says to do.

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, FiveAcres said:

He can't even get his Bible allusion correct. 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew 25%3A31-46&version=NIV

Goats are on the left hand, and destined for the Bad Place, whereas sheep go to the Good Place. 

I've been expecting one of the Christian conspiracy theorists to start claiming that a mistranslation occurred and that the goats were actually the ones granted eternal life.

[thoughtful]

1 hour ago, Alisamer said:

It's amazing how many of these people act like they are the world's best christians while doing the exact opposite of what the Bible says to do.

Well, it seems their whole take on Christianity is like Charlie's golden ticket to Wonka World. If you believe in the supernatural part, you go to Heaven - that's the only function of Jesus, to them; dying and being resurrected for their sins.

What he said, especially all of those pesky parts about caring for others, is just a pain in their asses, and generally ignored.

 

[Cartmann99]

A local media source in my area did a brief post about this on their Facebook page:

CDC study shows unvaccinated people are 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with Covid

Quote

Unvaccinated people are about 29 times more likely to be hospitalized with Covid-19 than those who are fully vaccinated, according to a study released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new study, published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, also found that unvaccinated people were nearly five times more likely to be infected with Covid than people who got the shots. The results are based on data from Los Angeles County between May 1 and July 25, the agency said.

"These infection and hospitalization rate data indicate that authorized vaccines were protective against SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19 during a period when transmission of the Delta variant was increasing," the agency wrote in the study.

The data is in line with comments from federal and state health officials, who have been saying for weeks that millions of unvaccinated Americans have been putting themselves at serious risk of the delta variant, the most contagious coronavirus strain yet.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday the data shows that "if you are not yet vaccinated, you are among those at highest risk."

First comment was someone complaining about the media source's "communist agenda."

[Ozlsn]

 

2 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

I've been expecting one of the Christian conspiracy theorists to start claiming that a mistranslation occurred and that the goats were actually the ones granted eternal life.

A mistranslation?! In the 1611 KJ?!? The divinely inspired and uniquely perfect Word of God? That's impossible! Also I'm pretty sure the translators knew what both sheep and goats were.

[Ozlsn]

Scientific American article looking at excess deaths from covid-19.

The official U.S. death toll from COVID has surpassed 600,000, but the true number is likely much higher. In a preprint study, global health professor Andrew C. Stokes of Boston University and his colleagues found that in 2020 in U.S. counties with significant excess deaths (deaths beyond the expected number), only 82 percent of them on average were attributed to COVID.* Some of the biggest gaps were in rural counties, particularly in the South and West. These gaps may reflect COVID deaths that were misattributed to other causes or indirect deaths resulting from the pandemic's social and economic impacts.

One thing I found interesting is that some counties had negative excess deaths - ie fewer than expected deaths - probably because people were staying home and so not dying in things like car crashes.

[Cartmann99]

41 minutes ago, Ozlsn said:

A mistranslation?! In the 1611 KJ?!? The divinely inspired and uniquely perfect Word of God? That's impossible! Also I'm pretty sure the translators knew what both sheep and goats were.

I would pay to watch Team Bible Inerrancy and Goat Lady have a debate.

[47of74]

An Iowa venue has decided to mandate either vaccines or a negative covid test

Quote

The Iowa Events Center in Des Moines will require proof of vaccination for several concerts in the near future.

This applies to next month’s Michael Bublé concert.

Ticket holders must be vaccinated or show a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of the show.

They say this is not the same as a vaccine passport.

Probably before too long Covid Kimmy and her GQP enablers will do some more dumb fuck laws to keep businesses from even doing stuff like this. 

[Howl]

On 8/24/2021 at 6:20 AM, Howl said:

Sunday a friend told me about a free COVID antibody survey here in Texas.  I completed the easy forms online Sunday evening and had my blood drawn yesterday at 2 pm.  I was in and out in under 10 minutes.  The study tests blood for antibody levels from vaccination and will also show antibodies from any COVID infection.  They'll text me the results!  Link here: https://sph.uth.edu/projects/texascares/

Well, the study did text me my results in less than 24 hours.  So, the good news is I've not had COVID.  But the 2nd  test they run for antibodies (SARS-CoV-2 TOTAL AB INDEX) returned a value of 0.1, but still working on trying to understand the significance of that low score. 

I have a friend who should get her results today and we'll compare.  She had the Pfizer two-shot series in February. 

Mask up, stay safe and healthy, everyone. 

 

[CTRLZero]

I haven’t been paying too much attention to booster shots, other than I’ve read that they are being made available to certain groups and I’ll be eligible towards the end of the year.  We were surprised that two of our neighbors, one who is 90 and another aged 37 (autoimmune condition) have already received boosters.

I haven’t received any official notifications on the topic of boosters, like I did with the initial vaccination.  Has anyone here gotten any notifications?  Just curious.  I know it’s too early for a booster in my case. 

[47of74]

Yikes.  Glad I got the vaccine last spring. 

I wouldn't mind losing another 70 pounds but not like that.

[clueliss]

Meanwhile in Missouri the AG has filed suit against the Columbia MO public school system and I think the superintendent or school board president for having a mask mandate at the school.