outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

lol Alfred

No frogz, getting a booster in and of itself is not going to reduce your chance of passing it on as I understand it.

I'm no more of a scientist than most everyone else on here, but it feels like we are steering into very speculative and not entirely accurate declarations here

yeah, but that's the zeitgeist

Look I'm not a scientist, I do my own research

I am kind of hoping the booster would be a nasal spray as some experts have been suggesting that would therefore reduce the viral load in the nose.

one dumb talking point I'm seeing a lot amongst Republicans is the idea that the vaccine really doesn't do anything to curb the spread of the Delta variant, it only reduces your *own* symptoms and therefore, my body my choice

i feel like this is definitely not true but there isn't really a lot of good research on it yet

Alfrd shared this 5 days ago which sums it up pretty well, I think:
https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2021/08/10/what-we-now-know-about-how-to-fight-the-delta-variant-of-covid-column/

A good friend who is a Vice Principle at a private school (with lots of Trumpers) came by to vent last night. Apparently, the latest thing conservative parents have latched onto is the belief that masks cause gum disease. She's having a tough time having rational conversations with these people. I would have replied with a simple "goddamn, you're dumb" and lost my job most likely.

you mean the mask worsens their prion disease?

as I understand it, the vaccine reduces your risk of getting an infection. If you are vaccinated and get a breakthrough infection, you may be at risk of spreading it just as much as if you were not vaccinated. However, since vaccinated people are less like to get the infection in the first place, they are also less likely to spread COVID overall. Since the booster would help reinforce your body's defense against infection (among other things), it should also reduce the risk of the average vaccinated person from spreading COVID.

I think the key takeaway from that Tampa Bay article is that the amount of time a vaccinated person is infectious is less than an unvaccinated person:

The viral loads in the throats of vaccinated persons who become infected with delta rises at identical rates as in unvaccinated persons, but only for the first few days. After five days or so, the viral loads in the vaccinated person start to quickly drop whereas those in the unvaccinated person persist. This key set of observations is important for several reasons relating to vaccinated persons serving as vectors for spread

conservative parents have latched onto is the belief that masks cause gum disease.

lol, i've never heard this. but i would guess the line of reasoning went:

1. gum disease is going up
2. more people are wearing masks
3. masks cause gum disease

while ignoring the part where fewer people are going to the dentist because of covid (20%, i believe)

or: more people not going to the dentist and using COVID as excuse

tbc though: there's no real reason to think (1) is even true, right?

I should probably say: over the past year

otoh maybe these people already suffer from chronic gum disease: https://www.scientificamerican.com/custom-media/healthy-mouth-healthy-body/chronic-gum-disease-may-harm-brain-joints-and-gut/

Re Tampa Bay article: this also means that vaccinated people who are infected are less likely to spread COVID overall, even if they are equally likely to spread it at peak viral load.

The key thing in all of this is that it's a matter of probabilities, which a lot of people struggle with. If the question is merely can a vaccinated person spread COVID, then the answer is obviously yes. And without a doubt, an infected person is infinitely more likely to spread COVID than someone who isn't infected, regardless of vaccination status. But these are not particularly helpful facts. The important question is what percentage risk reduction comes with vaccination. From what I can tell, vaccination provides significant risk reduction of infection, spread, hospitalization, and death, but that reduction is somewhat less with Delta, especially wrt infection and spread.

conservative parents have latched onto is the belief that masks cause gum disease.

lol, i've never heard this. but i would guess the line of reasoning went:

1. gum disease is going up
2. more people are wearing masks
3. masks cause gum disease

while ignoring the part where fewer people are going to the dentist because of covid (20%, i believe)

― Karl Malone, Tuesday, August 17, 2021 12:05 PM (fifty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I wonder if telling conservatives that fluoride helps with gum disease will allay their fears.

http://www.cia.edu/files/cinematheques/films/detail/drstrangelove.jpg

that's what the contrails are for

is what i heard

xxposts: I guess the reasoning could be: what's the point of taking care of your teeth if nobody can see them? I bet lipstick sales are down too, for instance.

outta sight, outta altoids

A Florida school board is set to hold an emergency meeting this week to consider a mask mandate as more than 5,000 students and hundreds of employees in its district are in isolation or quarantine because of a surge in coronavirus cases and possible exposure.

Hillsborough County Public Schools, which includes Tampa, said Monday that 5,599 of the district’s students and 316 of its staff were either in isolation because of a positive test or in quarantine after coming into close contact with someone who tested positive.

The meeting Wednesday comes as the district’s case count, which stands at around 730, is nearly 20 times higher than it was at the same time last year.

“We’re at that place,” the board’s chair, Lynn Gray, told the Tampa Bay Times. “It’s unavoidable.”

roffles

Breaking: Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has tested positive for COVID-19.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 17, 2021

a fox nation wonders: will he be tempted by the forces of darkness and government regulation during his great trial, or will he instead be like trump and return stronger than ever, ripping his mask off and posing in the balcony

A Florida school board is set to hold an emergency meeting this week to consider a mask mandate as more than 5,000 students and hundreds of employees in its district are in isolation or quarantine because of a surge in coronavirus cases and possible exposure.
Hillsborough County Public Schools, which includes Tampa, said Monday that 5,599 of the district’s students and 316 of its staff were either in isolation because of a positive test or in quarantine after coming into close contact with someone who tested positive.

I would guess a lot of school districts are gonna say "our current policy is messing up school completely as thousands of students are forced to be home because of positive tests triggering quarantine, so we have to regretfully drop the testing and quarantine requirements"

Abbott is not a fat fuck in his 70s like Trump and he was instantly put on hyperexpensive treatment, he is going to sail through with minimal symptoms and emerge even more convinced that it's fine for everybody else in Texas to get sick unblunted by vaccine

Did he take a vaccine?

Apparently, yes. Though he is in a wheelchair, but I don't think that puts him any more at risk for serious illness. Reported that he is in good health, asymptomatic and getting special treatment. But hey, maybe he'll just keep getting it!

me, dancing about the house, singing: I HOPE YOU DIE, GREG ABBOTT, I HOPE YOU DIE!!!

wife: He's vaccinated, he's not going to die.

me: DON'T GET IN THE WAY OF MY PRAYERS DIE, GREG ABBOTT, MOTHERFUCKER DIE!!!

Indoor mask mandate reinstated for Chicago effective Fri. And we're not getting hit nearly as hard as some of these places where people are all COME AT ME, COV' (and then dropping dead).

its nice that the vaccines greatly reduce the risk of death but it sucks that it also means the people you really want to die probably wont

is that true though? is that really true?

lol I didn't know until this moment that Abbot suffered a spinal fracture or whatever

massive brain damage too, or I assume so

xpost Yeah, iirc a tree fell on him. Act of god, etc.

Made his fortune with a lawsuit and then his political career with tort reform

Dickhead reportedly got a third shot, too.

Made his fortune with a lawsuit and then his political career with tort reform

the american dream

I understand the schafenfreude, but the majority of people in this thread will probably get COVID sooner or later

No one in this thread is signing laws banning mask mandates though.

I get the schadenfreude and I actively want people in power who are banning mask mandates to die choking on lungfuls of mucus, sorry if that makes me a bad person

Old Lunch always otm

Made his fortune with a lawsuit

Greg Abbot looks like some sort of cursed horror movie character where he's on the verge of crying and thick black liquid is going to flow out of his weirdly sclera-less eyes

this is how you do a headline

Come With Vax Proof or Get Shot On-Site: Raiders Set COVID Rules for Fans https://t.co/x3YDmE39DM

— NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) August 17, 2021

looooool

things are really escalating here in the U.S. lately

finally someone is taking appropriate action against antivaxxers

who is ready to get boosted?!

The Biden administration will begin offering coronavirus booster shots Sept. 20, top health officials announced Wednesday, after concluding that a third shot is needed to fight off waning immunity.

In a joint statement from top public-health and medical experts, the administration confirmed that it is developing plans to begin offering the booster shots after reviewing a wide array of data. The plan, which applies only to the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, calls for Americans to get a booster shot eight months after receiving their second doses. The officials said they expect that a booster shot will be needed for people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but they are still reviewing data and will announce plans at a later date.

“The available data make very clear that protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection begins to decrease over time following the initial doses of vaccination, and in association with the dominance of the Delta variant, we are starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease,” the statement says.