NON_POLITICAL China Coronavirus THREAD

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ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,135
2,445
126
NYC announced a vaccine mandate for all private businesses effective 12/27.

2 doses required.

5-11yo will need proof of vaccination to enter dining, entertainment, etc.

How many weeks do you give that mandate before it gets shot down in court?
 

nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
58,055
12,245
136
Most of these variants seem to be coming from places where there few people are vaccinated and the virus is running rampant. Maybe we should be more concerned about getting millions of doses to Africa and India and less about crazy Uncle Lou down the street who's refusing to get the shot?
Why not both?
Crazy Uncle Lou may still deprive someone else of hospital resources if he ends up there, when he may not have if he'd been vaccinated.
And in case you missed it, we did just commit to sending 200 million doses out worldwide over the next few months.
 

manly

Lifer
Jan 25, 2000
10,914
2,061
126
Dr. Monica Ghandi on TV news last night voiced more than I've heard from anyone on Omicron. She riffed on the data (not citing data, but obviously she's been on it, she's UCSF infectious disease honcho). She thinks the big O is having less severe outcomes, most cases are mild, especially for the vaccinated. Best news I've seen, of course it's early, but it's more than the meagre IDK stuff I've been hearing since news of the O variant emerged ~ what? Two weeks ago?
She is not the infectious disease "honcho" at UCSF, but is well-respected. She is a popular interview by general news media because her info is generally approachable for the common man. Notably she is one of the few epidemiologists from UCSF that sounds more practical than "alarmist" about COVID throughout 2021.

As an institution that highly influences public health, UCSF seems to espouse a strong philosophy that if you think that the responses taken to COVID outweigh the actual case load, that means they actually worked. As we all (should) know, the city of SF has had one of the lowest case loads of any major city in the U.S.
 
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Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,246
10,748
136
58120353_7.png


*(note this data is from 5 months ago)
 
Feb 4, 2009
34,506
15,737
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58120353_7.png


*(note this data is from 5 months ago)
Funny I think I saw something about Seychelles on the news. I believe I heard they are nearly 100% vaccinated. Not sure if this was one or two dose but they went balls out to get as many as possible vaccinated.
 

Artorias

Platinum Member
Feb 8, 2014
2,106
1,380
136
Funny I think I saw something about Seychelles on the news. I believe I heard they are nearly 100% vaccinated. Not sure if this was one or two dose but they went balls out to get as many as possible vaccinated.

It's a French republic where the 1% do their business and spend time on vacation. Also has a population of under 100K.
 

Charmonium

Diamond Member
May 15, 2015
8,787
2,297
136
Normally I wouldn't be all that concerned about which Justice was appointed by whom.But ever since Moscow Mitch took the nuclear option and only required 50 votes in the Senate, the bar has been set so low that just being in favor of overturning Roe got you on the short list. You haven't even seen some of the crazy shit we're going to see from Trump judges - and I don't just mean SCOTUS.

Eventually you're going to hear from these clown aka 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Oh wait, you already have. That's who overturned the mandate in texas based on criteria that would have been perfect - if they were hair dressers

 

dullard

Elite Member
May 21, 2001
24,998
3,327
126
I'm with Louis Rossmann on this one... it's not the HR department's job to be the vaccine police:

Then why is HR the main determinant of what medical care I can get (by selecting my health insurance options)? I'd love to get HR out of the medical business.
 
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shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
82,854
17,365
136
It's not HR's job to ensure employees are following company policies and laws applicable to businesses regarding their employees?
HR's PRIMARY job is to reduce and eliminate lawsuits. If that happens to coincide with protecting employees or obeying the law then its an added benefit.
 
Dec 10, 2005
23,990
6,793
136
HR's PRIMARY job is to reduce and eliminate lawsuits. If that happens to coincide with protecting employees or obeying the law then its an added benefit.
If you want to take the extremely cynical approach, I would say making sure companies are in compliance with locally applicable laws, at least with regards to employment, would fall under the category of protecting the company from lawsuits and the purview of HR.
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,135
2,445
126
I always thought that HR's primary job was to hire and fire people, and to help with processing of payroll changes and benefits. Although, yeah... keeping the company in regulatory compliance and/or not getting sued seems to be a big part of that now.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
37,404
8,038
136
She is not the infectious disease "honcho" at UCSF, but is well-respected. She is a popular interview by general news media because her info is generally approachable for the common man. Notably she is one of the few epidemiologists from UCSF that sounds more practical than "alarmist" about COVID throughout 2021.
I've grown to have a lot of trust in her. She's done some impressive and entertaining, long videos with zDoggMD during the pandemic. They aren't afraid to take controversial positions, they relish it and have lots of fun doing so, riffing off each other quickly and impressively.

Fauci is now saying that Omicron appears to maybe not be having as severe outcomes as other strains. But Ghandi is the first expert to come out publicly and say that, at least that I've seen.

As an institution that highly influences public health, UCSF seems to espouse a strong philosophy that if you think that the responses taken to COVID outweigh the actual case load, that means they actually worked. As we all (should) know, the city of SF has had one of the lowest case loads of any major city in the U.S.
The mayor of SF (London Breed) listens and is never in denial, which is, of course, a prerequisite for the job. However, it seems that most politicians don't. IIRC, S.F. was the first major city in the US to lockdown. They also have a very impressive head medical man, Grant Colfax.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
37,404
8,038
136
First confirmed in CT a couple days ago... I think its already spread widely.
I saw one very impressive interview, John Swartzberg, professor emeritus at U.C. Berkeley, around 3-4 days ago, in which he said that Omicron could be less severe and that historically there have been coronaviruses (e.g. late 19th century) that lost severity and morphed into strains of the common cold (~4 of which are coronaviruses) and that it's possible that covid-19 will have this trajectory or something similar.
 

pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
12,974
7,891
136
Oh Lord. Sometimes the only thing one can do is laugh (in a sort-of quietly losing one's mind, kind-of-way).



Scientists say they have identified a “stealth” version of Omicron which cannot be distinguished from other variants using the PCR tests that public health officials deploy to gain a quick picture of its spread around the world.

The stealth variant has many mutations in common with standard Omicron, but it lacks a particular genetic change that allows lab-based PCR tests to be used as a rough and ready means of flagging up probable cases.



The variant is still detected as coronavirus by all the usual tests, and can be identified as the Omicron variant through genomic testing, but likely cases are not flagged up by routine PCR tests that give quicker results.
 

dullard

Elite Member
May 21, 2001
24,998
3,327
126
Oh Lord. Sometimes the only thing one can do is laugh (in a sort-of quietly losing one's mind, kind-of-way).
Two things to clarify:
1) This "stealth" variant is still being detected as Covid positive correctly by all tests.
2) The specific "stealth" variant could be identified with standard cheap PCR tests in the future, it just means the tests need to be modified to do so. Until they are modified, the strain of Covid needs to be determined by more expensive and slow genetic sequencing.

This is the equivalent of an email spammer changing the letter "O" to the number "0" to get around a simple email filter. You still spot the spam email, but it shows up in your inbox instead of in the spam folder until the spam filter is updated.
 
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Charmonium

Diamond Member
May 15, 2015
8,787
2,297
136
I was under the impression that PCR (polymerase chain reaction) WAS the genetic test. As far as I know, the "quick" half-hour tests are looking for antigens - basically, the same types of proteins that the mRNA vaccines stimulate your muscle cells to make. Presumably not the same ones as the vaccines create or at least not ALL the same ones.