Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Consistently wrong since 2002

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Come on, man.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Second rate reporter says what?

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

You are here: Home / Elections / Biden-Harris 2020 / Monday Evening Open Thread: Jab, Jab, Jab

Monday Evening Open Thread: Jab, Jab, Jab

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164Comments

  3. 3.

    narya

    I’m just glad that Joe got the damn vaccine. Ernst disgusts me. Let’s re-run THAT election, with just that side-by-side photo as the main ad.

  4. 4.

    germy

    GOP's 2020

    Jan: Hoax
    Feb: Hoax
    Mar: Hoax
    Apr: Hoax
    May: Hoax
    Jun: Hoax
    Jul: Hoax
    Aug: Hoax
    Sep: Hoax
    Oct: Hoax
    Nov: Hoax
    Dec: Vaccine? ME FIRST!!!

    — Burns Like Whisky ?? (@Scotch_Rox) December 20, 2020

  6. 6.

    Martin

    Any Rep that questions the election that they themselves won should not be seated in Jan. Force a ⅔ vote to have them seated.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Who’s going to be the first semi-famous public figure caught jumping the vaccine queue?

    I predict there will be tech bros, GOP politicians and TikTok influencers all jumping the line, but it won’t be until a DEM does it that anybody will hoist the cross upon which to crucify them.

  8. 8.

    dmsilev

    @Gvg: From what I read, the guidelines are that even people who had the disease should get the vaccine.

    I’m actually a bit surprised that Trump won’t do it; it’d be an easy way for him to get lots of TV coverage, most of which would actually be positive for a change. And he could boast endlessly about how it was his own singular genius that brought forth this miracle.

  9. 9.

    Mousebumples

    @Gvg: I’m not sure if this is snark or intended as a factual statement but those that have gotten covid SHOULD be vaccinated. They may or may not have gotten natural immunity from their infection (we already have a handful of people who have had multiple covid infections confirmed over the last year), and a vaccine response is hopefully more robust and long lasting.

    Note – the above applies to all that have gotten covid and is not Trump specific. I hope everyone will eventually (end of 2021??) get the vaccine but have no qualms with those who elect to defer for now, if they are given the opportunity.

  11. 11.

    germy

    It’s amazing how often I log on to find the internet absolutely savaging Dem leadership for … not getting more out of Republicans. Even supposedly nonpartisan journalists do it! Like, it’s Dems’ job to deal with sociopaths; it’s everyone else’s job to judge their performance.

    — David Roberts (@drvolts) December 21, 2020

    Normies will see headlines: “Pelosi defends $600 checks,” and they’ll think “terrible, cursed elites!” Somehow it never quite gets conveyed that Dems were fighting & fighting for more & Rs were fighting & fighting for less. That the Rs *could have done otherwise*.

    — David Roberts (@drvolts) December 21, 2020

    In US politics, Republican sociopathy is treated like a natural feature of the landscape, like a river or something. Only Dems have agency; only Dems are making choices. We all sit around & rate how well they do navigating across the river. “Ha, Nancy, you call that a boat!?!?”

    — David Roberts (@drvolts) December 21, 2020

  12. 12.

    Anne Laurie

    @Gvg: I would assume since Trump had it, he doesn’t actually need the vaccine.

    No, last I read, scientists are recommending people who’ve had it still get the jab.  There *are* cases of reinfection, although it still seems to be an open question as to whether the shot protects other people from catching his germs.

  13. 13.

    Roger Moore

    Maybe if they promised Trump a sticker, he’d get one too.

    Trump doesn’t want a sticker- unless, perhaps, it’s a gaudy gold-leaf one- but he is desperate for attention. Maybe if the news media praised his bravery in getting vaccinated he would try it.

  14. 14.

    MazeDancer

    Joe has the best arms of anyone so far.

    Lindsey and Pence had fish belly white, flabby ones.

    Pretty sure we ain’t gonna see Trumps lack of guns revealed.

  15. 15.

    Anne Laurie

    @dmsilev: I’m actually a bit surprised that Trump won’t do it; it’d be an easy way for him to get lots of TV coverage, most of which would actually be positive for a change. And he could boast endlessly about how it was his own singular genius that brought forth this miracle.

    He may be afraid of flinching or passing out on camera (I say this as someone who always warns the nurse I’m gonna look away because I’m phobic about needles.)

    Heck, he may just not want the camera highlighting his pale, flabby, fat old man’s ex-biceps!

  18. 18.

    sab

    Rupert Murdoch was already at the front of the line. Granted he is really old, but he has the means to isolate, and he wasn’t living in congragate setting.

  21. 21.

    Roger Moore

    @germy:

    It is possible to get COVID twice.  There was at least one study that suggested only about 90% of people who get sick develop a strong, lasting immune response.  This is similar to the reported success rate for vaccination, so it shouldn’t be too surprising.

  23. 23.

    The Moar You Know

    I would assume since Trump had it, he doesn’t actually need the vaccine.

    @Gvg:  Not at all the case.  The number of people who have had true second infections is small, but not zero.

    I’m sure he got the shot a while ago.

  24. 24.

    germy

    The order of vaccinations should have been:

    1) Healthcare workers
    2) The elderly and medically vulnerable
    3) Essential workers
    4) People who live with essential workers
    5) Other people
    6) Squirrels
    7) Robocop
    8) Dragons
    9) The blue folks from Avatar
    10) Marco Rubio

    — Steve Hofstetter (@SteveHofstetter) December 21, 2020

  26. 26.

    jl

    Great to see. Important to remember that with vaccine on the way, even more important to double down on effective control efforts. Several experts, Angela Rasmussen, Florian Krammer and others have noted that the only effective response we have to scare mutations is to double down on control efforts to reduce prevalence and minimize spread of virus.

    The US needs something more than extreme and prolonged shutdowns, which we have managed to do in a much more ineffective way than other countries who are doing better than we are. More and better organized testing is one way, better risk assessment to better prioritize what activities are OK, versus those that need a lot of modification and surveillance, versus those that should just be shut down. As for last, fricken bars were still opened up in some places for the second California reopening, which failed immediately.

    Good news is that Biden’s covid task force has people who want to go that route. Fauci has said repeatedly that he wants massive increase in better designed testing programs. Fauci said he wants piles of rapid and cheap tests in every household. Osterholm is very big on careful risk analysis to allow at least some sustainable reopening whenever possible to minimize ‘shutdown fatigue.’ David Micheals has extensive experience in occupational safety, so maybe there will be serious effort to shut down ongoing superspreader events in large worksites.  Jane Hopkins and Jill Jim have long experience with program implementation in hard to reach and underserved communities, to go along with Gawande’s expertise in program implementation.

    But, their ideas need to be funded. How much disease control funding did we get in the new ‘stimulus’ bill? How much support for state and local public health?

  29. 29.

    Kent

    Who’s going to be the first semi-famous public figure caught jumping the vaccine queue? Tech bro? GOP politician? A TikTok influencer?

    and the answer is…..

    @debbie: Lil Marco got his last week.

  31. 31.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @jl: $8 billion, nowhere near enough, but a start, at least. Biden seems confident more can be passed after January 20.

    Winning both seats in Georgia will help that a lot.

  32. 32.

    MazeDancer

    @dmsilev:

    Michelle Obama will top him in that category once her turn comes.

    Mrs. Obama is, for sure, in great shape. So is Mr. Obama.

    And it is going to eat at Trump when Mr Obama’s biceps look toned and great.

  33. 33.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I have a crippling, lifelong needle phobia. The last two weeks have been exceptionally triggering. (Don’t @ me, I’m by no stretch of the imagination an anti-vaxxer and I will get the vaccine.) When I see photos of people getting shots, even pictures of syringes, I start getting anxiety attack symptoms — quick, shallow breathing, rapid heart  rate, clammy skin, tears, sometimes nausea. I’ve never had my ears pierced, and having blood drawn is a torment. I’m trying to desensitise myself, but it’s not working very well.

    I’m just commenting here; I’m not asking for coping suggestions or sympathy or — god forbid! — reassurance that it isn’t so bad, it lasts only a few seconds, the benefit is worse than the pain, toughen up and be brave. I know all that. Phobias, by definition, aren’t subject to rational argument.

    Forgive me for oversharing.

  34. 34.

    jl

    @Cheryl Rofer: Thanks.

    I found an interesting article that compares and contrasts the diffy Q for epidemics with chemical reactions. I was going to send it but forgot. I’ll look for it and send if I can locate it on my ‘puter.

  37. 37.

    sab

    @SiubhanDuinne: My dad’s nurse’s aide agrees with you.

    My dad was a doctor but didn’t have live patients ( pathology). He used to give us shots, but so badly eventually he stuck us while we were sleeping. That made sleeping an issue.

    I was so glad when I grew up and and met real nurses with needles and competence

    ETA Her daughter, with same needle fear, has a tatoo. Her brothers laughed when they heard.

  38. 38.

    Mousebumples

    @SiubhanDuinne: thank you for pledging to fight through your phobia by planning to get vaccinated anyhow! (for the flu shot, depending on your age, there is a flu mist nasal spray option)

    If we can help offer suggestions, let me/us know. For now, I’ll resist the urge to help where it’s not wanted at the moment.

  39. 39.

    debbie

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    You’re not alone (I literally fainted when I got my first blood test). But I’ve gotten so many jabs over the years that it’s now mostly under control. Also, I don’t look at the needle.

  40. 40.

    trollhattan

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Whatever (very natural) aversion I have to getting jabs has gone by the wayside from allergy shots. I am, however, a connoisseur on the proper giving of the jab and when one of the less-skilled ladies is working that day I get grumpy.

    This is a different conversation than considering which injections hurt like hell and likewise, different from the person drawing blood for testing. Last one of those I had was a trainee and I got to listen to a conversation with her monitor along the lines of “You’re right there, but the vessel has folded and you need to come up.”

    Guessing I was as white as a sheet of quality printer bond.

  42. 42.

    Ian

    @narya:

    If Jodi Ernst not knowing the basics of soy and corn prices did not undue her standing among Iowa’s Finest Salt of the Earth People, I am not sure what will.

  46. 46.

    Billcoop4

    Paranoid me hopes that someone’s making sure that an air injection isn’t being done for Pres-elect Biden, Incoming Professor Dr. FLOTUS, VP-elect Harris, and future 2nd Nice Guy Doug, but I suspect the Secret Service is on it.  They’re paid to be paranoid.

    Too much Lord Peter Wimsey reading, I guess.

     

    BC

  48. 48.

    jl

    @Baud: ” Conservatives are trying to gin up populist outrage at the meagerness of the checks. ”

    How are they spinning that in a way that helps their cause with a GOP administration and GOP Senate. Are they trying to blame it all on the House? Or is it the fratricidal maniac division of the conservatives doing the ginning?

  50. 50.

    Baud

    @Ian:

    Yep.  If the Dem candidate had flailed that badly, she would have been tossed in the grain elevator.

    Everyone should stop pretending that there’s something wrong with our candidates when conservative people vote to elect conservatives.

  52. 52.

    WaterGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne: I noticed yesterday that so many of the images in the covid tweets were of needles.  My nephew shares your lack of affinity, and I wondered why the people who are choosing the images for the tweets on those articles think that showing all those needles is helping anything!

    Definitely not talking about Anne Laurie, at this point it’s hard to find articles that don’t show that.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    @jl:

    Both sides suck. The government isn’t looking out for you.  We shouldn’t be paying taxes when the government is just giving our money to businesses.

  56. 56.

    cain

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I’ve had a fear of needles too – and I used to always look away when they did their ministration – but the last few times I’ve been staring at it going in and I”m like ‘whatevahs’.

    So far it’s worked out for me. (not that I’m suggesting this to you of course)

  57. 57.

    Kathleen

    A dear friend (also my brother’s lady friend) had CoVid and is now hospitalized because of possible kidney and heart failure resulting from CoVid. Doc found blood in her urine and she may have a biopsy. She was so sick for so long and just wasn’t getting better. Her foot swelled up terribly and she’s been in constant pain. In tears as I type,

  59. 59.

    jl

    ” Who’s going to be the first semi-famous public figure caught jumping the vaccine queue? Tech bro? GOP politician? A TikTok influencer? ”

    Not a person but a famous institution…. At Stanford attending physicians who swank through clinics giving advice a few times a week, and administrators pushed themselves to the head of the line to get vaccinated with the first batch. Resident physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists who are inches away from covid patients every day did not get one shot.

    There was a protest, university president apologized and promised to fix it. We’ll see how much of that corruption transpires around the country, and if it really gets fixed.

  62. 62.

    jl

    @Baud: OK, thanks. That won’t help them with conservative voters in the GA run-off, so OK with me. Please proceed, conservatives.

  63. 63.

    The Moar You Know

    Jim Carrey just wasn’t a very good Biden. I hope he’s done on SNL.

    @Mike in NC:  He’s done everywhere.  I assume SNL was desperate.  You don’t hire Carrey for comedy anymore, which means you don’t hire him for anything.

    Last time I recall him being in the movies was the 1990s.  He got rich and comfy and lost whatever made him good.

  68. 68.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Baud:

    A good way to counter that is to just highlight what Sen. Ron Johnson said recently: “Want a stimulus? Get a job.”

    That’s the real GOP

  69. 69.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @germy:

    And he was really hilarious too as Doctor Eggman. Everybody thought the movie was going to suck, but it’s surprisingly good

  71. 71.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mousebumples:

    Thank you. It’s not so much that advice isn’t wanted as that I’ve been trying to deal with this for decades and I’d be seriously surprised if someone made a suggestion I haven’t alreadyheard and tried. I mainly don’t want to waste Jackals’ time!

    The only thing at all that eases my fear is taking a couple of Valium and inhaling nitrous oxide (laughing gas) for 15-20 minutes before the injection. That’s fine, of course, in a dentist’s office (which is how I discovered this workaround in the first place), but not in any of the locations where vaccinations are normally given.

  72. 72.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @cain: Yeah Fox is pushing anti vaxxer bullshit on a daily basis but the bossman gets to jump to the front of the line.

  74. 74.

    dm

    Listened to Biden’s post-injection remarks, and thought, but ‘Don, Jr., was telling me last night that Biden can’t “conform a complete sentence”‘.

  75. 75.

    cain

    Interesting events in our state capital in Oregon – https://twitter.com/LauraJedeed/status/1341061381076836352

    Good morning, it is entirely too early to be alive never mind awake and I am undercover in Salem, Oregon, where a bunch of far right activists have gathered to protest the state government's decision to close their legislative session to the public today.— Laura Jedeed, Space Professional (@LauraJedeed) December 21, 2020

    Right wingers tried storm the capital and the police declared an unlawful assembly – the kids gloves these cops gave them vs protesters in Portland is just astounding.

    But I can also feel some sympathy for a group of people who are desperate, lost their business, and so many other things – but they are blaming their govt – and they should – but unfortunately while you could hold Oregon responsible to some extent – ultimately it’s the feds that have to take the blame for their incompetence.

  77. 77.

    Kathleen

    @eclare: It really is. I’m so angry. And scared for her. At least she’s not testing for CoVid now. Problem is she has a lot of other health problems. Thank you,

  78. 78.

    West Texan 70

    @SiubhanDuinne: Don’t worry — there’s a lot of us out there. I’m a former small college offensive lineman who, at 60 years of age, still can’t stand the sight of needles. I too, will get the vaccination, and I get flu shots every year and have had the shingles vaccine. After it took eight people to hold me down to get a shot after a knee injury when I was 19, I decided that I needed to see a psychologist about it. It turns out that I’m not afraid to get the shots, but the mere sight of a needle spikes my blood pressure and ignites a “fight or flight” reaction. I still have that, but I just make sure that someone (usually my long-suffering wife) is with me who can guide me to the area where the shots are given out. As long as I can’t see it — it doesn’t seem to happen! :)

    My offensive line coach never could understand how I never feared getting hit by 6′-4″, 280-pound linemen fifty -sixty times a game, but a 5′-0″, 100-pound nurse with a hypodermic would make me run screaming down the hall. The mind is full of land mines …

  79. 79.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud:  When I was canvassing for Obama in December 2007 there was a big uproar because Barack had said something about farmers chewing straw people were afraid that was going to cost him Iowa.

  87. 87.

    Brachiator

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Flu shots are nothing. Barely even feel it.

    But to this day I look away from any other procedure I have had which involves needles.

    When I was a teen, I could not easily swallow tablets and pills, unless accompanied by a lot of water, juice, soda, etc.

  89. 89.

    Baud

    @cain:

    but they are blaming their govt – and they should – but unfortunately while you could hold Oregon responsible to some extent – ultimately it’s the feds that have to take the blame for their incompetence.

    They’re blaming Democrats.  They will never hold the GOP responsible for anything.

  90. 90.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @West Texan 70:

    That’s interesting, and thank you for sharing your particular fear. It’s certainly psychological in my case, and I’ve tried all kinds of approaches, both conventional and experimental — from traditional therapists to hypnotists to crystal-and-temple-chimes woo practitioners.

  95. 95.

    Kent

    @West Texan 70: My wife is a physician who has delivered hundreds of babies, many by C-section, and who has also done hundreds of minor surgical procedures.

    They have to chase her down the hall to get her to take her flu shot and I have to take her to the dentist or she won’t go.  She’ll just find some reason to cancel.

    Seriously

    My middle daughter is even worse.  When she was about 4 and was at my wife’s clinic for a checkup she found out she was getting her shots and escaped the exam room and found a narrow spot between some massive filing cabinets to squeeze in behind where the nurses couldn’t reach her.  They had to call a child psychologist down from another floor to coax her out.  Really.  It was a legendary story there because it was a doctor’s kid.

  101. 101.

    Sm*t Cl*de

    @Gvg:

    I would assume since Trump had it, he doesn’t actually need the vaccine.

    If the Regeneron antibody treatment worked for him, he might not have developed any immune response at all.

  105. 105.

    ColoradoGuy

    Hi Siubhan. I also have an intense needle phobia, which has led to fainting episodes in clinical settings. If it’s any comfort, the flu shot I got a few months ago was so skillfully done I didn’t feel it. The first thing I knew was the nurse putting a little band-aid on my arm and asking me to stay in my car for a few minutes before I drove off. Their trick of idle chit-chat is pretty effective as a distraction. It’s also handy to have a juice-box of apple juice immediately afterward if there’s any chance of fainting.

  106. 106.

    Feathers

    This article about concierge doctors in LA not being able to get ahold of the vaccine gave me some hope. But it did show what will be the issue. Namely, people who are in a category of people eligible for the vaccine, but really shouldn’t be first in line, being able to get the shot by pulling strings. Apparently the concierge doctors are getting fancy refrigerators so that they can claim any vaccine that might otherwise go to someone more deserving who doesn’t have the right equipment. Sigh.

    I get the Rubio hate, but members of congress getting vaccinated is a national security issue. The problem is these assholes being all anti-vax and the virus is a hoax up until now. The bigger problem is the MSM assumption that Republicans tell the truth about what they believe.

  107. 107.

    Brachiator

    @The Moar You Know:

    Last time I recall him being in the movies was the 1990s.  He got rich and comfy and lost whatever made him good.

    He got some good reviews from the very recent Sonic the Hedgehog:

    Watching Carrey is an absolute delight; his comedic genius exudes more wattage than Sonic’s moments of heated emotion — and Sonic’s outbursts cause power outages.

     

  109. 109.

    RSA

    For anyone interested, I thought this article, “Principles for allocation of scarce medical interventions,” in The Lancet (2009), offered useful, general insights into the current issue of who should receive a vaccine first. Ethical judgments and tradeoffs abound. Abstract:

    Allocation of very scarce medical interventions such as organs and vaccines is a persistent ethical challenge. We evaluate eight simple allocation principles that can be classified into four categories: treating people equally, favouring the worst-off, maximising total benefits, and promoting and rewarding social usefulness. No single principle is sufficient to incorporate all morally relevant considerations and therefore individual principles must be combined into multiprinciple allocation systems. We evaluate three systems: the United Network for Organ Sharing points systems, quality-adjusted life-years, and disability-adjusted life-years. We recommend an alternative system—the complete lives system—which prioritises younger people who have not yet lived a complete life, and also incorporates prognosis, save the most lives, lottery, and instrumental value principles.

  110. 110.

    NotMax

    Yay. Cigar reorder placed on December 10th and sent USPS Priority arrived today. Have been rationing what was in the house to stretch that supply out and would have run out probably tonight.

    Now as to the item ordered to be sent to Mom’s place as a gift for her housekeeper – ordered 7 days ago, USPS still showing “label created, not yet received.” Place ordered from showing it shipped out from them on the 16th.

  111. 111.

    Sm*t Cl*de

    @Billcoop4:

    Too much Lord Peter Wimsey reading, I guess.

    Sayers exaggerated the lethality of air embolisms. You can’t rely on a single cc of air to kill an aged relative, or so I hear from a friend.

  113. 113.

    Geminid

    @cain: Some of those people at the Oregon Capitol are desperate. Others may not have been touched economically, but are using the distress of others to justify their longstanding resentment of government. And a few “organizers” are probably raising money for the cause and keeping it. But I can sympathize with the truly desperate, even if they are being used. I haven’t been hurt economically by the pandemic, but I know I am lucky.

  115. 115.

    rikyrah

    ??????

    Please please limit or cancel your holiday plans. Almost half the patients I saw on call recently were COVID+ and I’m a surgeon. Hospitals are bursting at the seams after the Thanksgiving surge. I don’t know how we’re going to get through the Christmas surge ?— Sarah Mathew, MD, FACS (@SarahMathew03) December 21, 2020

  117. 117.

    Brachiator

    @cain:

    I love how after denying all the covid shit, they use their privilege to jump ahead of line despite using all their resources to fuck people over with conspiracy theories. He should have been denied a vaccine till it was his turn.

    I can understand the argument that public officials should be a little higher in line.

    A writer on a science blog site made a very good case that prisoners and prison staff should be near the same priority as elderly folk in care homes.  Prisoners are confined in social spaces and early in the pandemic there were a number of serious outbreaks.

    There is also a case to be made for professional athletes and their families to get early access to the vaccine.  Not just the US, but other countries have relied on various games continuing, and for some athletes the choice was either to continue to play for owners and fans, or not get paid.

  118. 118.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @germy:

    I remember the ads very well, and further, I remember Jessica Mitford’s exposé of the Famous Writers School.

    She would have had a fine old time with Trump University and DJT’s countless other scams.

  123. 123.

    NotMax

    @zhena gogolia

    Disguised but made mock of in Hearts of the West. Wikipedia:

    In 1933, Lewis Tater (Jeff Bridges), an aspiring novelist who harbors dreams of becoming the next Zane Grey, decides to leave his family home in Iowa to go to the University of Titan in Nevada so he can soak up the western atmosphere. He arrives to find that there is no university, only a mail order correspondence course scam run by two crooks out of the local hotel.

  124. 124.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @M31:

    Just re-read it (also listened to Ian Carmichael’s audiobook of it) a few days ago. It really is a splendid novel.

  125. 125.

    sempronia

    Got my shot! No problems so far. Virtually painless, way better than the flu shot.

     

    Supposedly because Trump had Covid and got the monoclonal antibody concoction, he is in a special category of people for whom the vaccine is actually not recommended right now, for arcane, theoretical immunological reasons.

  128. 128.

    JPL

    @Kathleen:  How sad, and I hope that she recovers soon.   I just found out that a friend was diagnosed yesterday, but so far just mild symptoms.

  129. 129.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Gvg: I would assume that since not even fascistic, science-denying, murderous, orange, Soviet shitpile mobster trash can survive a lava bath, Dump should be thrown into a fucking volcano.

  132. 132.

    zhena gogolia

    @NotMax:

    A college classmate in Chicago area congratulated me on a book coming out and asked for me to send him a copy. He saw it in the alumni magazine. I’m in touch with four classmates including this one. One (in Pittsburgh) received the magazine. The other two (in Chicago) have not.

    ETA: My whole point was I haven’t received the alumni magazine that this guy got a couple of weeks ago.

    I don’t know where my People and New Yorker magazines are either.

  133. 133.

    JPL

    @SiubhanDuinne: There’s a CVS near me that gives good shots, although if you tense up nothing really helps.    When it’s your turn, I could meet you there.

     

    Then you could follow me back to my house, and sit outside and have a cup of tea.

  135. 135.

    Mousebumples

    @SiubhanDuinne: depending on your doctor, Valium may be doable. Laughing gas is less likely to be an option, I’d think. (and the Valium may be a take some at home before you have someone else drive you there)

    As someone who has given (literally) thousands of vaccines over the years, i try to distract people with conversations or a terrible joke. Personally, i like to watch the needle go into my arm, so I’m not surprised. (but I’m odd that way) i still remember a guy who told me he was going to faint after getting the shot (he told me before the shot), and while i was surprised to set him lose all color, i was less worried than i would have been without the warning.

    Big picture, there may be some mental health something that could help – but you might have tried that too, it sounds like. I had success with EMDR a few years back, but it wasn’t for a phobia, per se, so it might not work for that. (and mid pandemic may not be the time to try this stuff)

  137. 137.

    eclare

    @Omnes Omnibus:  I hyperventilate on a hike once and once when driving across a bridge.  I know my height limit.  Luckily not an issue here in Memphis unless I go to Arkansas.

  139. 139.

    Elie

    @dmsilev:

    I read somewhere that Trump has always been paranoid about being poisoned. One of the notions he has, I read, is why he likes fast food as opposed to prepared food.  Cant remember the source.

  144. 144.

    RedDirtGirl

    @West Texan 70: As an avid Doonesbury reader, this puts me in mind of Joanie Caucus, pregnant at 40, getting an amniocentesis. After it’s over she says to the doctor, “Who designed that thing, the Defense Dept?”

  146. 146.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Elie: Michael Wolff mentioned it in Fire and Fury, in the broader context of Trump’s germophobia and general paranoia:

    In the first days [in the White House] he ordered two television screens in addition to the one already there, and a lock on the door, precipitating a brief standoff with the Secret Service, who insisted they have access to the room. He reprimanded the housekeeping staff for picking up his shirt from the floor: “If my shirt is on the floor, it’s because I want it on the floor.” Then he imposed a set of new rules: nobody touch anything, especially not his toothbrush. (He had a longtime fear of being poisoned, one reason why he liked to eat at McDonald’s—nobody knew he was coming and the food was safely premade.) Also, he would let housekeeping know when he wanted his sheets done, and he would strip his own bed.

    At the time, a lot of news agencies and outlets picked up on the “fear of being poisoned” tidbit, and ran story after story on it, mostly in January 2018 when the book was first released.

  147. 147.

    jl

    @rikyrah:

    ” They have a $1 COVID test in Senegal

    $1 ”

    Africa, as far as I know, has the only continent wide, and very cost-effective and efficient supply chain for PPE, testing, therapeutics.

  151. 151.

    chopper

    @ColoradoGuy:

    it helps that these days the flu shot comes in a needle that’s so small you can barely feel a thing. it’s real easy with that shot for the nurse to distract you with idle chit-chat.

  152. 152.

    MoCA Ace

    @The Moar You Know:  He got rich and comfy and lost whatever made him good.

    Assumes facts not in evidence.  Was Jim Carrey ever good?  He has one thing and it was “old” halfway through Pet Detective.

  154. 154.

    MoCA Ace

    @Kathleen:  So sorry for your dear friend.

    I am beginning to fear for my own humanity when, these days, my first inclination is to rage and swear vengeance against the monsters who have done this to good people.   I eventually get around to sympathy.

  155. 155.

    MoCA Ace

    On the good news front, my son got his jab today.  He’s a health care worker at Mayo.  Not on the COVID front lines so I thought he might have to wait a bit.  And he likely had it in April when it swept through a nursing home where he was employed… no test because he was young and it was mild.

    I’ll probably be waiting until June.

  156. 156.

    Amir Khalid

    @dm:

    ‘Don, Jr., was telling me last night that Biden can’t “conform a complete sentence”‘.

    Oh, yeah? Well, Don Jr should go check a dictionary!

    /That was obvious pedant-bait, but I couldn’t help myself.

  158. 158.

    Amir Khalid

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    It’s common practice for McDonald’s national franchise-holders around the world to localise at least part of the menu. Here in Malaysia you can get bubur ayam and nasi lemak, albeit not quite as good as you’d get from more local purveyors.

  159. 159.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Sm*t Cl*de:

    That one line — “Mithridates, he died old” — was my introduction to A Shropshire Lad. I’ve always been grateful to Sayers for that (as for so many allusions and entire bodies of knowledge).

    They put arsenic in his meat
    And stared aghast to watch him eat;
    They poured strychnine in his cup
    And shook to see him drink it up:
    They shook, they stared as white’s their shirt:
    Them it was their poison hurt. —
    I tell the tale that I heard told.
    Mithridates, he died old.

  160. 160.

    Bill Arnold

    @Brachiator:

    A writer on a science blog site made a very good case that prisoners and prison staff should be near the same priority as elderly folk in care homes.

    If the vaccine provides sterilizing immunity (and so the vaccine recipient can’t spread the virus), then a case can be made for vaccinating probable superspreaders first, e.g. loud, extroverted, hyper-social anti-masker COVID-skeptics. That’d be fun for the press (especially the right-wing press) to explain to everyone. :-)

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