outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

Big Sturm Graz fan, Arnie.

haha xxp

UK media and politicians are increasingly exchanging "have received the first dose" with "have been vaccinated" - I'm sure it will be fine...

Still so many cases and so much death, but the big picture, at least, for the first time in a long time, is tentatively encouraging. "The underlying trends are moving in the right direction for most of the country."

The latest from @COVID19Tracking: https://t.co/0TKtaJEZFX

— Paul Bisceglio (@PaulBisceglio) January 21, 2021

given that LA county is responsible for a pretty significant fraction of the cases right now, and is clearly over the hump, this is not surprising to me, but it's good news.

i've been hearing way fewer sirens for about a week now now.

Letter by BMA to Chris Whitty seen by BBC calls for gap between Pfizer vaccine doses to be reduced from 12 weeks to 6. BMA claims UK strategy looks isolated internationally - also concerns over whether 12 week delay might not allow second doses of the Pfizer to be guaranteed

— Hugh Pym (@BBCHughPym) January 22, 2021

Throw Bill Gates and his family out of a helicopter

Is the Gates Foundation the biggest catastrophe that has happened to global public health? https://t.co/2YsudgAdbv

— Laleh Khalili (@LalehKhalili) January 24, 2021

Can't open source the microchip tbf.

This 12 week between jabs that the UK has decided on is a fucking massive disaster just waiting around the corner, imho.

If it's not it'll be blind luck rather than considered planning.

Fist bump from Quebec, one of the few other places in the world that's gambling with its guinea pigs.

Our government here in the UK has bungled every single stage of the pandemic so far so it's no surprise that they're also going to fuck up the vaccine rollout

distributing *anything* evenly and fairly isn't the tory way

First time I’ve ever thought, “Fuck off, The Onion”

https://i.imgur.com/JMXuUjx.jpg

I don't get the 'joke'.

Yeah me neither

enough is enough, i'm switching to the borowitz report full-time

I assume it’s just that it’s the opposite of what you’d expect from Jimmy Carter. But it doesn’t really matter - there are many people who take Onion headlines at face value because whatever, and when there’s a public health crisis it should not be playing with people’s lives like that

Xpost

This is @Illinois_Alma campus from noon today. The first weekend since bars can do indoor seating and this is what happens. pic.twitter.com/SPLT1rKLty

— Kyle Patterson 🧼👏🏽😷 (@kpatterson1216) January 23, 2021

Not feeling great about my state’s chances right now.

it must be blissful to be so not-traumatized by the last 10 months that you'll line up to go into a bar that looks like *that*

Haha, I mean, that’s my alma mater and I spent some nights in that bar, decades and many name changes ago. Weird that *this* is how I found out it still exists in that configuration despite all the new buildings around it.

I live pretty much opposite a pub and it's really weird I haven't been in there in nearly a year.

🖼

🐦[This is @Illinois_Alma🕸 campus from noon today. The first weekend since bars can do indoor seating and this is what happens. pic.twitter.com/SPLT1rKLty🕸
— Kyle Patterson 🧼👏🏽😷 (@kpatterson1216) January 23, 2021🕸]🐦

Not feeling great about my state’s chances right now.

Not always. It was almost 40 even up in Chicago the other day, so much of what we had melted.

I cannot believe that there are places open for indoor dining.

Meantime my partner spent his afternoon working in the ICU yesterday and things are as grim as ever.

It's insane to me that places are opening back up for indoor dining, absolutely insane. We drove a little ways out for a short winter hike on Saturday and drove past a packed pool hall, a packed bar and a fairly crowded restaurant.

It was disheartening, almost as much as the Q&A our city's mayor did about the vaccine. The three main takeaways were:

1. Yes, the distribution has been an absolute mess and confusing, but it's a national problem and no just for us.
2. Yes, he thinks it will get better under the Biden administration, but he's not yet seen a full plan.
3. The thing he's been most frustrated by is that the number of doses we have been getting has actually been going down week after week, the complete opposite of what he would have expected to see.

Which worries me - because if this is the optimistic public statement, things must look incredibly bleak behind the scenes. I'm not hopeful at all.

here in brooklyn i continue to be nonplussed by some of the "outdoor dining" solutions I have seen on my dog walks. E.g. yesterday on Driggs in williamsburg the japanese restaurant over near McCarren Park has erected a large structure along the curb that's basically just an enclosed shed with big plexiglas windows. It's just an additional indoor dining space. there's nothing open about the structure at all. The windows are bolted to the frame with no air gaps. wtf.

"Here, come eat in this enclosed space entirely made out of non-porous plastic — don't mind the condensation on all the 'windows,' it's fine, much safer than being inside the diner, trust us. Sign this waiver, please."

yeah, the covid sheds are amazing. there's one on my block that is accreting windows and doors and roofs every time i walk by. there's even LESS ventilation than in the actual restaurant!

Yep, it's been crazy to see restaurants around here spend a lot of money building "outdoor dining" that is nothing but a fully enclosed space with no ventilation. But, hell, I guess they work, since I keep seeing them packed full. So maybe blame the rubes that see the words "outdoor dining available" and don't process any further than that?

I've started thinking of this cycle of COVID-related shutdowns and reopenings in terms of fire. Like, whoa, the whole city is on fire, maybe all you torch-bearing people should stay home for a little while, well okay, some time has passed and the flames seem to be dying so feel free to congregate once more with torches in hand WHOA, WHY IS EVERYTHING BURNING DOWN AGAIN ALL OF A SUDDEN, WHO CAN SOLVE THIS MYSTERY

I kinda never again want to hear human beings referred to as an intelligent species.

It's really maddening to watch play out, even in areas with better, more consistent messaging.

- The numbers start to dip just a little, "everything looks great, moving to tier what-the-fuckever, indoor dining and bars are A-OK."
- The numbers predictably rise a few weeks later, "well shit, who could possibly have seen that coming? time to lock it down again."

Rinse, repeat.

And now we've got the added layer of "well, there's a vaccine here, so no need to be so cautious", which is going to make this a really rough end of winter/start of spring. So, naturally, we can expect all these people to be absolutely baffled in a month when shit is dire again.

I have no idea when I'm going to eat a meal inside a restaurant again. As I said on Twitter last night, I now order from one particular Chinese place so frequently that the delivery guy doesn't even identify himself when he calls from the driveway, he just says, "Hey, I'm outside."

definitely remember in June when the numbers were steadily going down and you had the BLM protests dominating the news which led a lot of people to think it was over

xpost

i never graduated back to takeout/prepared food delivery even. it's still 100% instacart grocery order, set the non-perishables aside for a day before using, wash the perishables before putting 'em in fridge/freezer. I know at this point that fomites are heavily not indicated as a vector for transmission but i've gotten this far this way and I'm nervous to change it up at a moment when the numbers suck again and there's an ill-defined nasty variant at large

but i miss ordering chinese delivery so fucking much

there's a thought bubble over my head right now with a picture of a quart of pork fried rice with egg and it is steaming and ahhhhhh

I'm going to go out on a limb and say you will be fine ordering Chinese delivery.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/food-and-COVID-19.html

it never seemed like take-out was ever considered a serious vector. especially as most of what you're ordering will also be cooked, theoretically

seems like good news, though idk if this will be used for a couple months

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2021/01/25/international-team-finds-new-more-effective-drug-treat-covid-19/6673529002/

The thing is, not even when I was in college would I have made that queue for the sake of a Bud Lite or gin and tonic.

I don't make that line at Disney World.

very glad that our numbers aren't too bad and eating out is still an option

says something of my character that it doesn't bother me at all to not be allowed to go to people's homes or have guests in but i would be sad if restos weren't open

The thing is, not even when I was in college would I have made that queue for the sake of a Bud Lite or gin and tonic.

Exactly. The only reason I spent much time in that particular bar when I was a student is that it was, at that time, decidedly unhip and a line such as the one shown would have been unimaginable.

My local bookstore has an outdoor cafe where I spent my Sunday afternoons reading and writing; it's not crowded, tables are distanced, and even fellow customers who aren't eating or drinking wear masks. It's one of the places I feel safe.

I think it's time for me to just accept this way of life now and buckle-down-get-productive-again-etc-etc, not because I think this pandemic will go on forever (who fuckin knows) but just because people out there are assholes.

Minnesota officials announced Monday they have identified a person infected with a highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus that has been spreading at alarming rates in recent weeks in Brazil. This is the first report in the United States of the so-called P.1 variant.

The Minnesota Department of Health said the case involved “a Minnesota resident with recent travel history to Brazil,” and the variant was detected through genomic sequencing of random blood samples. The person, a resident of the Twin Cities metro area, reported feeling sick the first week of January, and was tested Jan. 9.

“This isn’t surprising. It’s a very difficult development, but at the same time not unexpected,” Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and an adviser to President Biden’s coronavirus response team, said in an interview.

All viruses mutate, and there are countless variants in circulation. The Brazil variant is one of three that have drawn particular global attention. The other two were first identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa. There is some overlap in the mutations in the three variants, but they arose independently and, along with other variants under review, provide a vivid reminder that the coronavirus is not a static target for vaccines and the human immune system.

I'm just going to say: why the fuck are people travelling to foreign countries?

people are just vacationing like normal, it's annoying. more annoying and infuriating is when your government is doing nothing to stop people from doing so! australia et al seem to have the right idea - making visitors isolate in a hotel assigned by the government for 2 weeks on the traveller's dime

1 - tired of this shit
2 - need to have a medical procedure
3 - need to care for a relative
4 - a million other reasons, some defensible some not

i realise the united states is big and most people don't leave it very often if at all but much of the rest of the world is not like that, and people move between countries a lot