outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

why do i comment on stuff like this, even when i know i'm wrong

new research, by me: over 40% of the people who give good sounding excuses for why they're unvaccinated are actually just straight up lying

i know, it's wrong. i know my mom is in the <-00000000000.1% of people who are just fucking morons. everyone else has a great reason

everyone is dying, and everyone has a great fucking excuse for it. there is a policy lever that needs to be pulled somewhere

if they asked my mom that question (she's near STL), she would be in the pool of "has a good excuse". i promise you.

but yeah, she is the exception. everyone in the united states is incredibly smart

well, i did it again, didn't i.

i'm going to take on the dr morbs persona/habit of blowing up at myself and then saying "i'm out of here forever", then returning the next day

remove bookmark from this thread

kill me if i ever post ott again, please.

all of you are right

Letter writer to the editor in today's paper cited his "educated opinion about Big Pharma" as the reason he was not vaccinated. He also said nothing would change his mind. He said his freedom to choose what he put in his body was sacred. In the same letter he complained that people assumed he was "a Republican" because he flew the flag every day of the year. BFD. He's probably a registered Libertarian.

No Karl I agree with you that a certain percentage of the people who have reasons/excuses for why they didn't get vaccinated actually have objections to it that they're not admitting to. I base this on the same principle as when polled voters say they're "undecided" but they've always voted Republican and like everything on the Republican platform and it just makes them feel some way to pretend they need to be in a courted class that's too ~^*~smart*~!* to take a side.

lol yes Aim exactly that

i'm sure the blue lives folks will band together to make sure everyone is vaccinated

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/14/metro/coronavirus-was-top-cause-law-enforcement-deaths-first-six-months-2021-report-says/

The report states that 71 officers died nationwide in the first six months of the year as a result of contracting the coronavirus while executing official duties. That marks a 7 percent decrease compared to 2020, when 76 officers died of COVID-related causes during the first half of the year and no vaccines were available.

“However, this would still make COVID-19 related fatalities the single highest cause of law enforcement deaths occurring in the first six months of 2021,” the report released this summer states.

Last year, COVID-19 killed more officers in the line of duty than any other cause. Out of the 295 officers who died in 2020, 182 were COVID-related deaths, according to data from the memorial fund.

But even as the Delta variant surges around the country, some police departments are struggling to get employees vaccinated against COVID-19. While 75.7 percent of adults in the United States have had at least one dose and nearly 65 percent are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, police departments in New York and Los Angeles are reported to have substantially lower rates of vaccination.

Just 51 percent of the Los Angeles Police Department had been vaccinated as of Aug. 31, according to the Associated Press. And “an estimated 47 percent” of the New York City Police Department had been fully vaccinated under NYPD-administered programs as of Aug. 24, according to Time magazine, though that does not include those who may have been vaccinated outside of work. (The NYPD does not require its employees to self-report their vaccine status.)

More.gif

https://i.ibb.co/t4Qfpw2/index.jpg

A staff member at a Newberg, Ore., elementary school used blackface to dress up as civil rights icon Rosa Parks in protest of her school’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, CBS affiliate KION reported on Monday...

Yeah, 'cause that's the same thing

ugh, that must have been a good conversation. "yes, you did something wrong here, and believe it or not, it's not about the covid-19 thing, although...god. let's start over"

there are more kinds of folly and ignorance wrapped up in that story than I can untangle and give names to

https://www.delish.com/just-for-fun/a37663031/seth-rogen-calls-out-emmy-awards-unsafe-covid/

everyone is dying, and everyone has a great fucking excuse for it. there is a policy lever that needs to be pulled somewhere

― typo punishment 3: people shouldn't have to feel like they have ea (Karl Malone), Sunday, September 19, 2021 1:36 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is really unfair
I'm not saying those people don't exist, but there is the well documented skepticism of communities of color of the medical establishment, people who are just used to not having any heath care etcetc

In Minnesota they've done this thing where they give out $100 gift cards for getting vaxxed, they have consistently run through the 30,000, whatever amount of cards in a short time

Community events that are more like street fairs with food and entertainment and experts from the community have been highly effective

There's a lot we could do to boost numbers

If you just want to project nihilism for nihilism's sake...well .. You're in the right place actually

NZ overall death toll just went up, from 26 to 27, first death since feb 2021

their overall total is a 1/5th of the current uk daily numbers. but they do have the advantage of being an island...

Two islands, really.

Last week or so I read an account, not here I don't think, of a vax wary person in Chicago who was under the mistaken impression the vaccine costs $2,000. (She heard it from a nephew, I think.) Forget the folks doing their own so-called research, I think we underestimate how many people are incapable of doing or unable to do the most basic googling to find the most basic, readily available information. I remember back at the beginning of the vaccine rollout, when people were trying to get appointments, hearing a caller on NPR asking what's the big deal, everyone has a smartphone, how hard can it be? And the expert on the panel reminded that caller that some shockingly high percentage of the elderly don't have smartphones.

On the other hand, part of me wonders if, having lived with this for a year and a half, with hundreds of thousands (here alone) dead, millions more sick, and literally every single person on Earth's life disrupted, if people are still outright ignorant of the facts, even setting aside those being fed misinformation, I don't know how many more months it would take to counter that. I'm not hopeful.

xpost I did

Think karls point was fairly clear tbh, that the reasons given are going to cover up any number of different actual causes, and whatever % of these responses will be given inaccurately out of malice and/or contempt for even the attempt to gather the information

fun fact to know and tell: one of our sister hospitals in louisiana has a *staff* vaccination rate of around 30%

staff. of the hospital.

Eech

NURSE #1: That patient died of COVID!

NURSE #2: That's horrifying.

NURSE #1: I got the vaccine, thank god.

NURSE #2: Mmmm, yeah, I dunno. I don't trust the science.

NURSE #1: I'm hungry. Let's get a taco.

we're at 97% fwiw

i have been struck by how differently things feel down here in new mex, at least wrt cultural attitudes towards vaccination/masking/etc. i've seen one person (a year ago) try to make a fuss about wearing a mask (with a 'medical exemption' card off the internet) and the situation was defused fairly quickly. i've heard of some tourists (texans) get stroppy about our regs but not really seen it, everyone tends to play by the rules in public.

i was pretty surprised when i was back in minne (twice since it was ok'd) and the general ~vibe~ felt very different, lots more ppl pointedly unmasked and looking ready to fight about it

It is mind boggling to me that people in health care professions are not required to be vaccinated against an illness that not only can they easily spread but which disproportionately harms the *very old and ill people they are caring for.* That's what I mean. If even doctors and nurses are not at 100% at this point ...

Last week or so I read an account, not here I don't think, of a vax wary person in Chicago who was under the mistaken impression the vaccine costs $2,000. (She heard it from a nephew, I think.) Forget the folks doing their own so-called research, I think we underestimate how many people are incapable of doing or unable to do the most basic googling to find the most basic, readily available information.

i mean, is it necessarily irrational for people to assume that even basic american health care is going to be complicated and expensive?

I can't really answer that, but googling "covid vaccine cost" gets you pretty clear and immediate results.

yeah I know, but I mean, this is the world we live it of course some people aren't going to do that

the fact remains, incentives esp financial have proven effective in getting the vaccine hesitant to sign up, there is a significant population of vaccine hesitant people (though obv some of those self identified may be lying but certainly not all), and we could do that if we wanted to boost vaccination rates on a national level

There should be a Tik Tok vaccine challenge, though of course we are all so stupid/doomed it would probably end with teens OD'ing on vaccines after burning down their schools.

high school teacher friend shocked me this weekend about how his (suburban, wealthy) district has a vax-or-weekly-testing mandate for teachers, and many vaxed teachers there are refusing to comply by certifying they are vaxed, bc they consider it an intrusion

Users here also seem to overestimate the number of people who have internet at home— roughly 23% of US households don't have home internet. 15% of people use the internet *only* on their smart phones.

There have been numerous articles about the fact that there are people who are hesitant beyond just being wary of needles or vaccines...they might have slight hesitancy on those counts, but are much more hesitant to miss work for a day or even a few hours. Simply put: blaming people instead of the systems of US capital, labor, and health care is wrongheaded.

it's both

it's people and the system

they all fucking suck

this is the nihilism thread, right?

or is it the faith in humanity thread

how can it not be all of the above, get real

EARTH, on 2021, is ALL OF THE ABOVE

everything about it

Sorry Karl, but blaming someone who, for example, is undocumented and working for a house-cleaning company for feeling hesitant about getting vaccinated is not good politics or public health policy.

i haven't read this thread in over a year (and am v grateful for the 'mark all as read' feature) but: a lot of the vaccine hesitant might be significantly less so if they, yknow, had a doctor they could afford to see regularly and trusted

i'm but a simple frontier psychiatrist and many of my patients (often poor, only have internet on their phones as table notes) will ask me for advice about the vaccine because i'm basically the only healthcare provider they see and they've "heard all kinds of stuff"

that’s not even what I’m fucking saying

If I’m not clear, then it’ll never come through

My mother is not a blameless inmigrant (my favorite category of people), and vice versa. It’s both

a lot of the vaccine hesitant might be significantly less so if they, yknow, had a doctor they could afford to see regularly and trusted

Here's a WaPo article from a few weeks ago about an Alabama doctor reasoning with his patients to be vaccinated. These are people who a) have a doctor and b) a doctor they trust.

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

Indicative snippet:

“Mr. Potts,” Lacy Smith said, greeting a man in dark slacks and a maroon T-shirt leaning on a cane. “How’ve you been feeling?”
...

Between Smith and two colleagues, there were 10 unvaccinated people on the schedule this day, and the first was Potts.

“Oh, pretty good, considering my age and the heat,” he replied as the doctor reminded herself to be patient, because the question wasn’t whether to bring up the vaccine, only how.

She asked about his garden. They discussed his vitals.

“So,” she finally said. “What are your current thoughts about the covid vaccine?”

“People getting pretty sick, aren’t they?” he said.

“Super sick, especially with this delta,” she said, referring to the variant.

“That shot I get for the shingles, that’s a vaccine too, ain’t it?” he said.

All similar, the doctor said, as she had in their three prior conversations.

“The benefits outweigh the other side, don’t it?” Potts said.

“Very much so, yes sir,” she said, letting a promising silence hang in the air.

He tapped his cane on the floor. “I believe I’ll think on it,” he said, and so the morning began with a no as the situation in Alabama continued to degenerate.

(Sorry, *her* patient. Got it confused with the Alabama doctor article that refused to treat the unvaxxed that ran the day before.)

Sorry Karl, I really didn't get what you were saying, though I get it now.

every time i see my primary dr he complains that he cant convince any of his patients to get the shot. he says that everyone who got it did so as soon as they could, and everyone who hasnt gotten it has a different excuse every time he brings it up

overall, it's crucial to start strategically looking at the difference between anti-vax people and vaccine hesitant people. there's no point in any further outreach to the anti-vax and it would be highly beneficial to put more resources towards the vaccine hesitant and underserved communities

It’s ok. It’s been a theme recently, I’m not being clear with anyone. I really don’t know why I open this thread, though. That’s my own fault. I blame the systems that get this info out to people, I blame their circumstances that are beyond their control. That’s a lot of it, a lot of the problem, and I suppose that’s the part that can hypothetically be influenced or controlled, policies, money, outreach campaigns. There are also the other people who are part of the problem. It is infuriating to hear them get a pass as people who just haven’t been talked to or don’t have the opportunity. But what are you gonna do?? It is pointless, everyone is right. But then again, along the same lines, this entire thread is pointless and life itself is pointless if we’re playing that way