outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

I mean, I prefer Biden to the destructive Trump admin for sure, but there are definitely negative after-effects of announcing a policy in advance and then indicating that it was all pending FDA review, which puts a target on the FDA's back if the FDA declines to approve boosters at the meeting. we no longer have to worry about a President rewriting reality to fit his own personal convenience, but I just wish he'd waited longer.

also I don't personally think less of anybody who individually gets a booster (how could I, I got one!) but just more looking at the collective strategy here.

This came out earlier this week.

Wow, on Wednesday, Sept. 1! Good news.

the fact that we're back up to 3000 deaths a day is insane, I can only imagine what it would be without the vaccine

to be clear, we aren't up to 3,000 deaths *per day* at this point. Yesterday's total had a data anomaly - 1,338 of the 2,987 deaths reported yesterday were from FL, and they weren't single-day totals from FL. since FL reports deaths by the date of death rather than the date they were reported, they have to technically wait for the death certificate to be issued and paperwork to be finalized/etc before recording the death, which means death totals in a given week initially show as artificially low. Then as each death gets finalized, they retroactively report the deaths in big dumps - hence the 1,338 yesterday.

This is why we can only trust weekly death totals in FL from 2 or more weeks ago, and nothing more recent.

That being said - since FL's typical daily death toll is something like 200-300, yesterday's death toll is STILL alarmingly high (something like 1,800 - 1,900). so....it's still pretty frightening.

slightly more positive news - hospital bed occupancy in FL by COVID patients has decreased by ~2,000 in the last two weeks. we'll know more at 5, but we may see 25,000 less cases reported this week (though in FL, we are drastically undercounting cases).

but with hospitalizations on the decline, this suggests a reduction in daily FL deaths will be coming in 2-3 weeks or so, hopefully.

in the interim, South Carolina seems to be emerging as a new epicenter.

where is your god

not you, neanderthal. i am cool with your god

where is the god of covid

i challenge the god of covid to face my mighty god in a trial by combat

🚨I wrote a new piece about long-COVID, its future, and what long-haulers want.

The biomedical community is paying more attention but research is slow & often disregards the vast expertise that long-haulers have amassed about their own condition. 1/ https://t.co/eosX14Uud8

— Ed Yong (@edyong209) September 1, 2021

There's definitely a lower risk of Long COVID if vaccinated, even if non-zero: https://www.statnews.com/2021/09/01/vaccination-reduces-risk-long-covid-even-when-people-are-infected-study/. This came out earlier this week.

thank you for this

one take on how much immunity is truly waning: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/09/waning-immunity-not-crisis-right-now/619965/

Good article, thanks

Such fuck ups

How to lose public confidence?
1. Announce a booster program on Sept 20 for all at 8 months post-vaccine
2. Change it to 6 months, then 5 months, then back to 8
3. Lack of agreement among leadership group
4. Have no US national data
5. Announce the program will be "scaled back"

— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) September 3, 2021

yes, but only if you're paying attention, which most people aren't

It’s a problem when they don’t have the confidence of people who are paying attention who share information (eg doctors, journalists).

https://www.thedailybeast.com/arizona-dad-rishi-rambaran-arrested-after-angry-trio-threatens-to-zip-tie-principal-over-covid-rules

If you're going to attempt to kidnap a school official, make sure to livestream it for the 'gram.

It's like they learned nothing from 1/6/21!

It’s a problem when they don’t have the confidence of people who are paying attention who share information (eg doctors, journalists).

also “they’re only massive fuckups if you’re looking at them” suggests pandemic isolation is messing with Dan’s sense of object permanence

Schrödinger's Experts.

angry dad

Rishi Rambaran, Kelly Walker and an unidentified third man stormed into an Arizona elementary school principal’s office on Thursday. https://t.co/xPRfFM75Po

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) September 3, 2021

i wonder if these angry dads voted for joe arpaio, America's Sheriff

32-year old bartender at my old regular is in the hospital with COVID pneumonia. Bartending for the last six months without getting the jab is a special kind of stupid.

one of my co-workers in Houston location just passed away. idk for sure if it was from COVID, but it seems like it was based on comments. I coached her a few years for her training classes, but never met her.

To protect and serve

https://abcnews.go.com/US/vermont-state-troopers-federal-investigation-creating-fake-covid/story?id=79884959

Such a twist in the last paragraphs:

https://komonews.com/news/coronavirus/religious-exemptions-from-states-covid-vaccine-mandate-appears-to-be-a-popular-choice

“There’s a part in the Bible in Revelation (that) talks specifically about a time when there will be ruler who at that point will mandate everyone, they have to do something,” he said.

Seems like pretty solid reasoning.

Opining as if you're just beginning to emerge from an anesthetic haze is the solid reasoning of today afaict.

Back in high school, we all figured that "mark of the beast" thing was everyone getting an ID chip implanted. Maybe they're counting the Bill Gates nanobots in the vaccine?

they are definitely thinking of that

the mark of the beast changes with technology.

radio, television, credit cards, the bar code, e-commerce, vaccines.

https://www.wired.com/2012/12/upc-mark-of-the-beast/

Were tamagotchis a mark of the beast, I wonder

look it's as clear as daylight if you just READ THE PASSAGE

11Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.12It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.13It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people,14and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.15And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.16Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead,17so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.18This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.
—Revelation 13:11–18

and then i told my children, yay, if you say something in a vague enough manner and with enough confidence, the fallen humans will intepret thy words amongst themselves and adapt them to their own times. and no one will be able to deny another's truth, because they will know that their own truth is founded upon the untold piles of total horseshit that thee will unload onto them, burying their hopes and dream in unending streams of heavy horseshit that cannot be seen through nor cut through, not with the most powerful telescopes nor with the sharpest machetes.

"to be marked on the right hand or the forehead,"

you might be thinking WAIT! anyone who actually believes in this shit must be taking things like this LITERALLY, right? so this is an opportunity to point out that the "bill gates vaccine" is neither the "right hand or the forehead", unless you're going to say that the blood travels through the...-

--the blood SHALL travel and pass by both the right hand or the forehead, sayeth the glossolaliac interpreter. SHOM-la-HO-la-NIGH! Shom-la-ho-la-NANE-fee-non. HI LI! hi li -la NON-fee-non lo high, amen. and if that is wrong, than we shall find another passage and interpret it so wildly that the right hand can be anything it wants or that we say, amen

This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.

these words, alone, created tens of thousands of fucking morons

I remember in the punk years I thought Marco D'Beast would be a great punk name.

none of this is related to the outbreak, sorry

but since it came up i mean personally my "theory of 666" is that john the revelator was seeing the decimal based number system of 2021 (the year of the apocalypse, sha LO lie lie), and he saw the common number .666etc, meaning exactly 2/3. john saw a secret government document confirming that exactly 2/3 of the united states (god's "right-hand man" next to israel, the also chosen people, 3rd babylon, NYC, finance, evil) had fallen to worship of the Woke Corruption. but of course he didn't recognize the significance of the decimal point, being a man from the older days, and he didn't notice the line drawn over the last two 6's in 666, indicating that the 6's continue ad infinitum. and that's why what revelations is literally true and is happening now, don't take the vaccine, bill gates

the mark of the beast changes with technology.

radio, television, credit cards, the bar code, e-commerce, vaccines.

I wish someone would extend the beast mark to qr codes. I hate those goddamn things.

Supposedly Hobby Lobby doesn't use barcode scanners because of the mark of the beast.

Real commitment to the bit to make your multibillion dollar company less profitable because a guy in the first century ate the wrong mushrooms.

Rules, we got 'em

JUST IN: President Biden's new "Path out of the Pandemic" will include six major components, as outlined below. New vaccination mandates in businesses with over 100 employees will affect over 80 million people in the private sector.

See details here:https://t.co/bpRcQ9zgE7 pic.twitter.com/6MM8X3jcYK

— Benjy Renton (@bhrenton) September 9, 2021

Yup, about time.

I've told y'all about the guy who had strange, boil-like growths on his body who was a customer in the organic grocer where I worked? He picked two of every item, had you scan one, and then took the one that hadn't been scanned and bagged it himself. He would then carefully put back the scanned duplicate products. He apparently believe the scanners were what caused his boils. Meantime, he smelled like he hadn't had a wash in week, at least most days.

i had a friend who was convinced his lawnmower was causing his mental decline.

this may have been because it was a riding mower and one day he laid down while his wife accidentally drove it over his head.

New vaccination mandates in businesses with over 100 employees will affect over 80 million people in the private sector.

the infographic in the tweet says that there is no vaccine mandate for businesses with over 100 employees

which bit do we read

Health officials have warned against using ivermectin to treat COVID-19. But recent claims online that the drug causes male sterility are unproven. The FDA says infertility in men is not a known side effect of the drug. https://t.co/fZDeMoGw0c

— AP Fact Check (@APFactCheck) September 10, 2021

oops!

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twitter: oops!

retweeters: oops!

nontweeters: what?
retweeters: oops!
nontweeters: wait what was that!?
retweeters: horse ivermectin is causing the fertility to change
nontweeters: wait what?!
retweeters: i said the horse ivermectin is not really about horses!
nontweeters: i'm like robin williams on the jay leno show in the 90s, i just can't sit down!!!
retweeters: i said the fertility of the horses is iverthecharts!! lol
ap: ivermectin is not a horse fertility
nontweeters: wait the ivermectin is doing the horse fertility now or what is
ap: we said you can't do ivermectin and get unfertile, studies say
studies: none of this can be interpreted by total fucking morons, which is the world lol
nontweeters: nothing is sweeter than a good study that you can cite
tweeters: hey now covid is bullshit, my 24-year-old weightlifting friend got it and he didn't even cough

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hyooooooooooonk

tower of babel

sarcasm undetected, sincerity interpreted as total sarcasm
bullshit alarm out of batteries

"i don't know!"

but there were 37 people in the sample! and i googled and anything above 30 in a sample is statistically significant! it's not rocket science!!!

'I gorged on fifty tubes of horse paste and all I got were these shrunken nuts!' tees will be flooding the quad this fall, mark my worms