outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

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.

8-months after the second dose, for pfizer and moderna, which puts me at the end of November. they're still working on the J&J timeline

reading comprehension/political double-speak challenge!!

first, take a look at this press release by Arizona governor Ducey:

https://azgovernor.gov/governor/news/2021/08/governor-ducey-announces-163-million-increase-pupil-funding-schools

Governor Ducey Announces $163 Million To Increase Per Pupil Funding In Schools

PHOENIX — Governor Doug Ducey today announced district and charter schools following all state laws and remaining open for in-person instruction will be eligible for $163 million in grant funding aimed at boosting per pupil spending.

“Parents have worked tirelessly over the past year and a half to keep their kids on track," said Governor Ducey. "Parents are in the driver’s seat, and it’s their right to make decisions that best fit the needs of their children. Safety recommendations are welcomed and encouraged — mandates that place more stress on students and families aren’t. These grants acknowledge efforts by schools and educators that are following state laws and keeping their classroom doors open for Arizona’s students. My thanks to legislative leadership for working collaboratively over the last couple of months to put more money into K-12 education and ensure schools are in compliance with state law.”

The $163 million, made available through the federal American Rescue Plan, will be distributed through the Education Plus Up Grant program to district and charter schools following all state laws and remaining open for in-person instruction as of August 27 and throughout the remainder of the school year. In response to the pandemic, the federal government provided additional funding to schools in need; however, the federal allocation methodology resulted in significant disparities across schools. The goal of the Education Plus Up Grant Program is to give every K-12 public and charter school the opportunity to receive up to $1,800 per pupil funding.

In order to close the federal per pupil funding gap, the Governor’s new grant program will provide supplemental dollars to schools that did not receive as much federal funding. Education Plus Up Grant funding is contingent on being in full compliance with state law, including Laws 2021, Chapter 404, the FY 2022 K-12 Budget Reconciliation Bill for the entirety of the 2021-2022 school year.

“We're making historic, targeted investments to ensure all students across Arizona have access to new opportunities, help adult students connect with jobs, strengthen literacy education in K-12 schools, enhance professional development for teachers, and expand access to high quality education,” the Governor added. “Students continue to excel in and out of the classroom as they recover from the effects of the pandemic and distance learning, and we will continue to put our resources toward helping them succeed."

did you catch what they're doing? click the spoiler thing below for a two-sentence translation

in Arizona, Ducey and his fellow murderers decided to ban mask mandates for schools. to reward those school districts that also like to murder people, he is willing to fork out some of the $163M in Covid funding from the federal government.

of course, all Arizona school districts are VERY well funded!

(thinking of Abbbottt's school district, which I believe is in AZ - she recently had to do a instagram fundraiser to help buy school supplies for her students)

all you have to do get the extra money is follow "all state laws", how hard could it be?

Dropping a Ducey on public health.

new red state governor initiative: if you just want to fucking kill yourself, we'll give you $2000! it'll be like families that died in afghanistan

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

― Marty J. Bilge (Old Lunch)

special shout out for Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/raymond-leo-cardinal-burke-catholic-ventilator-covid-19-misinformation/

St Louis Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke:

The cardinal also repeated a conspiracy theory that falsely claims vaccines could used to implant microchips. "There is a certain movement to insist that now everyone must be vaccinated against the coronavirus COVID-19, and even that a kind of microchip needs to be placed under the skin of every person, so that at any moment, he or she can be controlled regarding health and regarding other matters, which we can only imagine as a possible object of control by the state," he said.

first of all, willie mcgee is shaking his damn head at Burke. "that's no cardinal, he say". secondly, i was hoping the whole conspiratorial overload thing would be mostly confined to white evangelicals, but i shouldn't be surprised to see that catholic leaders also have an interest in making sure their followers are completely misinformed and take the wrong stance on everything, absolutely fucking everything

*
"that's no cardinal", willie mcgee says.

Hell of a read.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-08-17/vaccinated-covid-doctor-shot

Hell of a read.

By now there must be more than a hundred very similar stories that have been presented in the media in the past couple of months, though maybe not so blunt and well written. Vaccination rates have budged up a little, but on the whole none of this seems to be getting through to multitudes.

I can forgive the unvaccinated who live so near the fringes of society, sometimes non-English-speaking, poor or homeless, living hand to mouth, who can barely make it though the day, let alone take decisive steps to seek out vaccination. Plain fools like that patient in the LA Times story, who had every chance to learn, every chance to get the vaccine, deserve no particular sympathy. It's like seeing someone get their foot stuck in a bucket and then not figuring out how to get the bucket off so they just clomp around with it on their foot until they die.

Related:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/08/18/alabama-doctor-unvaccinated-patients-valentine/

Tangential but tragic:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/18/texas-couple-declined-covid-19-vaccine-died-orphans/

Let me know if anyone wants/needs the stories cut and pasted.

The Biden administration, escalating its fight with Republican governors who are blocking local school districts from requiring masks to protect against the coronavirus, will use the Department of Education’s civil rights enforcement authority to deter states from banning universal masking in classrooms, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said Wednesday.

The move puts the department at the center of bitter local debates over how to mitigate against the coronavirus in schools, just as the highly infectious Delta variant is fueling a spike in pediatric cases. Mr. Cardona said he was acting at the direction of President Biden, who is scheduled to speak about the pandemic later Wednesday and to instruct the department to use all of its powers to ensure a safe return to in-person learning this fall.

“The president is appalled, as I am, that there are adults who are blind to their blindness, that there are people who are putting policies in place that are putting students and staff at risk,” Dr. Cardona said in an interview on Wednesday, referring to bans on mandatory masks in schools in more than half a dozen states.

“At the end of the day,” he said, “we shouldn’t be having this conversation. What we’re dealing with now is negligence.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/18/us/politics/biden-masks-schools-civil-rights.html

Next thing you know, the Republicans will be calling for the dissolution of the Department of Education.

hence why I stocked up a few days ago on ketchup, my favorite vegetable.

wasn't the dept of education one of rick perry's infamous "2 out of 3" list of agencies he wanted to dismantle?

"Commerce, Education, and the … what's the third one there? Let's see."

(EPA)

CA now requiring all indoor event attendees (for things with 1000 people or more) to provide proof of vax or negative test starting Sep 20.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ksbw.com/amp/article/ca-requires-proof-vaccination-negative-covid-19-test-for-indoor-events-larger-1k-people/37342856

A number of DC/area venues now going full vax only

Learn more about these policy updates: https://t.co/FtXGwdvqYu pic.twitter.com/Mrn5OBSjGv

— 9:30 Club (@930Club) August 19, 2021

San Francisco, thankfully, not messing around -- and the story rightly notes how much of the resistance is a small minority:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/S-F-moves-to-suspend-police-fire-and-16399089.php

The overwhelming majority of the city’s 36,000-person workforce said they are vaccinated, but there are still about 4,300 employees who have not gotten the shots.

According to city data, many of the unvaccinated are frontline workers, including at least 634 employees in the Municipal Transportation Agency, 500 in the Police Department, 490 in the Department of Public Health, 242 in the Fire Department and 190 in the Sheriff’s Department.

Also, this bit:

Meanwhile, a San Francisco firefighter sued the city last week over the requirement that all municipal employees report their vaccination status and eventually get vaccinated. In a San Francisco Superior Court filing last week, Eigil Qwist said the mandate violates the religious freedom of city employees, even though he may apply for a religious exemption.

The suit asks for an emergency restraining order against the city that would prohibit it from asking for vaccine status and requiring vaccination as a condition of employment.

The suit says Qwist objects to requiring employees to share their vaccination status because “it is our religious belief that it is important to keep said information to ourselves and not let it fall into the hands of those who do not have our best interests at heart.”

Legal experts have said employers can in fact require employees to get vaccinated.

Qwist was among the nearly 200 employees who attempted to rebuff the mandate and other COVID-19-related protocols — like testing and mask wearing — by submitting identical, conspiracy-tinged letters to the Department of Human Resources. The letters suggested the city is infringing upon their “God-given and constitutionally secured” rights.

When reached by phone Thursday, Qwist said he is “fighting for choice and rights,” but declined to comment further.

idk 88% doesn't sound like an "overwhelming majority" to me, unless we're talking about a Senate vote or something

fire eigil qwist

xpost Almost nine out of ten? Dare I say presidential elections have been decided for far less.

Mr. Qwist's facebook profile has a "Studied Life Science at THE STREETS".

Lock down your aerial

Mr. Qwist is going to be pissed his suit is dismissed in 5...4...3...2...

WaPo headline:

U.S. officials reviewing possibility Moderna vaccine is linked to higher risk of uncommon side effect than previously thought

Not. Helpful.

Literally one of the last paragraphs:

The myocarditis side effect is extremely rare and even if it is more likely in people receiving the Moderna vaccine, it probably is still very uncommon. Officials want to be careful not to cause alarm among the public, especially when officials are trying to persuade more people to be vaccinated amid a surge of cases fueled by the fast-moving delta variant.

but higher risk than they previously thought!!!!

Yeah, WaPo just telling it as it sees it. Meanwhile, this is a sad tragedy in slow motion:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/19/unvaccinated-alabama/

https://i.imgur.com/usakFWG.png

by the time the conservative fascists get the first shot, it'll be time for their 5th booster

Okay here’s a result that’s not overwhelming but is a majority in any event

NEW AP-NORC poll: Close to 6 in 10 Americans say they favor requiring people to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to travel on airplanes or attend crowded public events, as well for mandates for hospital and government employees and members of military https://t.co/8TxIb9Eaow

— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) August 20, 2021

Aren't we around 60% vaxxed now, give or take? That other 40% is going to take some work.

BREAKING: Facing legal setbacks, Texas drops enforcement of school mask mandate ban.

— Andy Slavitt 🇺🇸💉 (@ASlavitt) August 20, 2021

very normal guidance

i think we've lost the plot. @_DCHealth's new guidance for @dcpublicschools says students *with a fever* should not stay home unless they also have other symptoms pic.twitter.com/qV7hWqVyod

— Rachel Cohen (@rmc031) August 20, 2021

love to send a child to school if they only have ONE of fever, diarrhea, or vomiting

ffs you weren't supposed to send kids w/ fever to school pre-COVID, now it's ok!

just a little diarear during P.E. in the morning

the lacrosse goalie purposefully pooling it in front of his net so nobody would approach and instead shoot from distance

no one came within 20 feet of the crease

Meantime

Significant —>

Most private insurers are no longer waiving cost-sharing for Covid-19 treatment, which means people seeking hospital care (who overwhelmingly are unvaccinated) will be required to pay.https://t.co/P23vYJ6nLM

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) August 20, 2021

Well fuck

my position on universal health care has evolved

Why? Do you oppose universal health care for drunk drivers? People who get into gunfights?

i can't tell which of us is joking (I am joking btw)

wow, they just want people to fucking die

Not exactly, they want them to die (or live) *owing them money.*

sure. but also, covid lasts a really long time, and there's never really a clear time when it's "too late". there's always another day you can wait on the ventilator and the ecmo, another day to let everything heal and see if things start functioning again. when people die from it, it's often a family decision. every day is expensive as fuck if insurance isn't taking care of it on some level

the insurance company + the medical community has every reason to keep the patient alive, but in that scenario, the family has to figure out how much of their last money to spend on a 10% chance that their loved one will come back

or fuck that, "loved one". their "hated one". just a person, is the point, reduced to a financial decision. how much is a human life worth? it's an old, bureaucratic question. it's important for legal reasons, for all sorts of reasons. a good study would be to ask covid families how much their hated ones' lives are worth