Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

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

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

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

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

How stupid are these people?

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Pandemic Open Thread: Now That Kids Are (More) Threatened…

Pandemic Open Thread: Now That Kids Are (More) Threatened…

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Jackson, FL mayor tries to make lemonade out of… well, some yellow liquid:

Part of a thread from a pediatrician in Houston:

Sidebar to teachers unions — I’d mute the ‘our FREEDUMBS’ yawps right now…

Reader Interactions

131Comments

  1. 1.

    Nina

    Inevitably we will get to the Mu and Nu variants. “Did you hear about the Nu variant?”

    “What new variant?”

    “Not the new variant, the Nu variant…”

  2. 2.

    featheredsprite

    I had always assumed that if covid started targeting children, the surrounding adults would come to their senses. I am really sorry that I was wrong.

  3. 3.

    dr. bloor

    My kids can’t get vaccinated, and we’re burning through the Greek alphabet. Get vaccinated or fuck off.

    Too soon to say, but Lambda might prove to be the stupid-proof motivation to get vaxxed.

  9. 9.

    debbie

    I’ve never heard of NYSUT. They’re affiliated with the NEA and AFT, but the policies aren’t the same. Does anyone know about them?

  10. 10.

    prufrock

    At work we had a period of a few weeks where those of us who were fully vaccinated were exempt from masks. That ends tomorrow because of all the dumbasses who aren’t vaxed, but are also not masking.

     

    Morons.

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    “Neonates with respiratory complications.”  Jebus.  Protect the babies, please, antivaxxers and rightwingers.

    Agree with Bradley Moss on teachers refusing vaccine.  No vaccine, no student-facing position.  Students are too vulnerable.  They can be too young to be vaccinated (or their siblings are),  or be in fragile health.

    Learn up, teachers and nurses.  And law enforcement.

  12. 12.

    MattF

    @dr. bloor: Lambda variant may be vaccine resistant… but is being crowded out by Delta. I guess we’ll just let the variants fight it outl

  13. 13.

    Martin

    @featheredsprite: Oh, like how having 20 6-7 year-olds got herded into their classroom and gunned down in a pile of carnage? And then half the country accused the parents of being actors and the whole thing a hoax?

    No, there’s an agenda that needs to be true, and we’ll dismiss any and all facts that threaten to undermine it.

  14. 14.

    germy

    So Lindsey Graham has covid?

    He was partying on Manchin’s houseboat a few days ago…

  16. 16.

    dr. bloor

    @germy: I wouldn’t put it past TFG (or Moscow Mitch, for that matter) to tell Lindsey to get infected and go party hearty with Democratic senators.

  18. 18.

    Baud

    I think a lot of unions aren’t being cool right now.  Although I think AFL-CIO is one of the good guys.

  19. 19.

    dr. bloor

    @Elizabelle: ​
     

    “Neonates with respiratory complications.” Jebus. Protect the babies, please, antivaxxers and rightwingers.

    Sorry, ma’am, they’re already born. Gotta learn how to fend for yourself sooner or later, right?

  22. 22.

    Elizabelle

    @germy:   Hey there.  I don’t like that framing WRT Sandy Hook.  In its aftermath, the public at large absolutely supported stronger gun safety measures.  Large majorities.

    It was the GOP and NRA puppets who fought that legislation down.

    Credit (or blame) where it belongs.

  26. 26.

    Martin

    @MattF: Yeah, there are no nations where Lambda has been observed (~30) where it has outcompeted Delta. My understanding is that it is more fatal than Delta but less transmissible.

  29. 29.

    dr. bloor

    @WaterGirl: Lab studies showing it might be vax resistant, and a couple of other mutations that have the potential to make it Delta+ in terms of transmission.  To soon to say what happens to it in the wild.

    That’s enough for me to move it from Bloor: Variant of Interest to Bloor: Holy Fuck.

  31. 31.

    dr. bloor

    @WaterGirl: ​
     

    Counterpoint: they are excellent at turning adults into babbling morons and filling diapers with…well, never mind.

  33. 33.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I can’t find it now, but somebody tweeted today that we all have a good chance of learning the Greek alphabet

  36. 36.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Baud: Sure but this is about how the vaccine is 90% effective, consistent with the data from the UK. Given how freaked out everybody is about Provincetown Bear Week, I’m hoping to make folks feel better about the shots :)

  37. 37.

    Brachiator

    I am tired of the “don’t shame me” stuff about the vaccine and pretty much everything.

    Stop doing stupid shit.

  38. 38.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Baud: Not all those people were exposed, is the thing.

    The vaxx is really good if you’ve been exposed. This is just raw, historical odds per population type and it’s showing a 10x better response. That’s fantastic, I think.

  40. 40.

    Ohio Mom

    Yikes, just googled “Lambda variant” and found this on Reuters;

    “The Lambda variant of the coronavirus, first identified in Peru and now spreading in South America, is highly infectious and more resistant to vaccines than the original version of the virus…Japanese researchers have found. In laboratory experiments…that three mutations in Lambda’s spike protein, known as RSYLTPGD246-253N, 260 L452Q and F490S, help it resist neutralization by vaccine-induced antibodies. Two additional mutations, T76I and L452Q, help make Lambda highly infectious…Although it is not clear yet whether this variant is more dangerous than the Delta…Lambda can be a potential threat…”

    Let’s hope that what happens in test tubes doesn’t happen in people. Which very well could be — for example, a lot of the big cancer breakthroughs you read about take place in test tubes or mice but then fail to work in people.

    ETA: or what dr bloor says @28

  46. 46.

    andy

    At this point the redcaps aren’t wrong, they’re complicit. They’re trying to run up the body count because they hope it’ll make Biden and the Democrats look bad, and other people’s kids in respirators are just meat to them. The irony here is that the vaccine is free, and NOBODY likes free stuff more than these people.

  49. 49.

    Kent

    @Elizabelle: Agree with Bradley Moss on teachers refusing vaccine.  No vaccine, no student-facing position.  Students are too vulnerable.  They can be too young to be vaccinated (or their siblings are),  or be in fragile health.

    Learn up, teachers and nurses.  And law enforcement.

    Teacher here.  Trust me, at least around here at LEAST 90% of teachers are completely on board and beyond frustrated with the few remaining dipshits.  But every faculty has a few dipshit Ayn Rand aficionados who have bought into the MAGA bullshit.  The Venn diagram between these folks and social studies teachers who are coaches has a lot of overlap.  And then there are the evangelical women who are married to MAGA dipshits.  they are not uncommon in education.

  50. 50.

    Kent

    @Elizabelle: @germy:   Hey there.  I don’t like that framing WRT Sandy Hook.  In its aftermath, the public at large absolutely supported stronger gun safety measures.  Large majorities.

    It was the GOP and NRA puppets who fought that legislation down.

    Credit (or blame) where it belongs.

    So same exact situation as with Covid then?  It’s a GOP-driven minority that is bringing the country down.  Not the majority that has already been vaccinated nationwide.

  51. 51.

    Kay

    Samuel Hammond Globe with meridians?
    @hamandcheese
    · 5h
    The CTC expansion is a signature policy of the Biden administration. Our estimates are therefore surprising insofar as they show the largest relative benefits accrue to red states, as well as the rural, working-class regions typified as “Trump country.”

    Biden’s sort of admirably blunt. He should just say this over and over.

  53. 53.

    schrodingers_cat

    What is it with RWNJs they want to be respected when they are out there doing self sabotaging and society damaging stuff. I see the same tendencies among Modi supporters among friends and family.

  54. 54.

    Bluegirlfromwyo

    @WaterGirl: “Pro-life” means I’mma “let” you be born, then I don’t give a damn what happens to you until your spouse wants to end your life support.

  55. 55.

    lowtechcyclist

    @featheredsprite:

    I had always assumed that if covid started targeting children, the surrounding adults would come to their senses. I am really sorry that I was wrong.

    The only ‘babies’ they care about are the unborn ones.

  57. 57.

    Roger Moore

    @schrodingers_cat:

    What is it with RWNJs they want to be respected when they are out there doing self sabotaging and society damaging stuff.

    It’s not enough to them that they be allowed to do as they please; everyone else must agree with them.  I think it’s rooted in a lack of confidence in their convictions.  They are worried they can’t sustain their beliefs in the face of criticism, and they read any form of disagreement, even just people who choose to live their life differently, as a tacit form of criticism.  So they read your decision to wear a mask and get vaccinated as a criticism of their decision not to do those things.  That makes them angry, because they’re deeply uncertain and react to that uncertainty by attacking the person who makes them think about it.

  58. 58.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud:  I think you have a point. I have respect for my elders but if they are going to forward eliminationist and bigoted stuff not to speak of blatant lies by dear leader Modi I am going to call them on it.

  59. 59.

    mrmoshpotato

    @featheredsprite:

    I had always assumed that if covid started targeting children, the surrounding adults would come to their senses. I am really sorry that I was wrong.

    Optimistic with all of the Trump-humping fascist trash in this country.

  60. 60.

    lowtechcyclist

    I am glad to say that the school board in my county (Calvert County, MD) just mandated masks for anyone in a school building this fall.  Students, teachers, staff, casual visitors, everyone.  No masky, no entry.

    They just sent the word out a few hours ago.  And this is definitely Trump country, so they’re gonna get a lot of flak.  I’m gonna call up in the morning to thank them for doing the right thing.

  63. 63.

    NorthLeft12

    @featheredsprite: Yeah, I remember how everyone got behind gun control after a classroom full of five and six year olds were massacred. So, of course once Covid begins to impact children it’s a no brainer that the responsible adults will step up and do what they can to protect them.

    Cue the sad trombone.

  66. 66.

    Elizabelle

    @Kent:  the Sandy Hook rhetoric always sounds like a blanket condemnation of Americans. And it was not like that. It was the minority holding the majority impotent to make change through national legislation. I am no fan of fake narratives.

  67. 67.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WaterGirl: They should pull themselves up by their own onesie straps!

    And don’t get me started about them literally sucking on teats!

  71. 71.

    Delk

    CVS just texted me that my HIV med is ready for pickup. That’s for the virus I been dealing with for 36 years. Viruses are sort of smart when it comes to self protection.

  74. 74.

    Spanky

    @lowtechcyclist: I saw an alert from the Cal Co Health Dept about the rise in Delta infections in the county. I would assume the BOE is working in concert with the Health Dept.

    And while the majority of the county voted for Trump, I don’t think he’d win today. Plus, the kids are really all right. They’re on board with the masking

    ETA: Health Dept alert here

    Edited again to post the relevant paragraph:

    The positivity rate is highest among high school-aged residents, clocking in at a very concerning 13.5%. Cases among elementary and middle school students have also jumped. If this trend continues through August, it will impact classroom learning, sports, and other extracurricular activities due to the number of students who will need to quarantine. Vaccinated students are less likely to get infected and do not need to quarantine if they have contact with an infected classmate.

  75. 75.

    Kent

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I am glad to say that the school board in my county (Calvert County, MD) just mandated masks for anyone in a school building this fall.  Students, teachers, staff, casual visitors, everyone.  No masky, no entry.

    They just sent the word out a few hours ago.  And this is definitely Trump country, so they’re gonna get a lot of flak.  I’m gonna call up in the morning to thank them for doing the right thing.

    Here in WA it is a state-wide mask mandate for schools so not something the local school boards even need to waste time debating and deciding.   Which is how it should be.

    I’m not really looking forward to dealing with all the school bullshit next month when school starts.  This has been my most-needed summer vacation ever.  But at mask debates at the school board won’t be one of them.

  77. 77.

    Kent

    @Elizabelle:@Kent:  the Sandy Hook rhetoric always sounds like a blanket condemnation of Americans. And it was not like that. It was the minority holding the majority impotent to make change through national legislation. I am no fan of fake narratives.

    I never got the sense that lack of action after Sandy Hook was ever a condemnation of Americans.  Or that was the “narrative.”  I always had the sense that when it comes to gun control the narrative has always been that it is the strangle-hold that the NRA has over the GOP in Congress that always blocked any progress.  Along with a few weak-kneed liberals like Bernie Sanders who felt the need to coddle their gun-fondling rural base.

  78. 78.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Baud:

    “Just because this thing involved a half dozen employees and our global security manager acting on the so-far-as-is-known vague request of the CEO, we’ll offer up a boilerplate defense based on claiming they were all acting ultra vires. That’s sure to scare the claimants off and wear them down while we deny access to internal communications with discovery stalling tactics.”

  80. 80.

    Jeffro

    @germy: I was gonna say the same thing.

    It’s almost like…like we need a 24/7 propaganda network, complete with “BREAKING NEWS” gongs going off every 20 minutes and shit…one that tells people all day every day that the GQP is out to kill them and their kids.

    Because, essentially, that’s what they’re about.

  83. 83.

    Jeffro

    @andy:the redcaps aren’t wrong, they’re complicit. They’re trying to run up the body count because they hope it’ll make Biden and the Democrats look bad, and other people’s kids in respirators are just meat to them.

    All of this is true.  The trumpies just want Covid to kneecap Biden & Co (despite the fact that he and his team were focused on it from Day One.  Day Minus One, if you want to count the Obama-Biden pandemic response ‘playbook’) because to do the right things is to admit that trumpov was a fucking moron who didn’t give a shit and didn’t do jack squat about the pandemic.  In face, his super-spreader rallies and “let’s open the churches for Easter!” and mocking mask-wearing has made it infinitely worse.

    It’s all part of their ‘burn it down’ mentality, and I wish they would just hurry up and jump into the flames.

  86. 86.

    Tim C.

    Not sure I know anything about NYSUT,  but my local is asking for a mandate for Teacher’s and eligible students.    We won’t get it, the board has a 4-3 spreadneck majority,  but we are hoping to push the needle the right direction when they set a policy.

  87. 87.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Baud:

    From Techdirt:

    This week saw the manager of eBay’s global security team Philip Cooke plead guilty to the charges in court. At his sentencing hearing, Cooke insisted that it was eBay’s “drinking culture” that was apparently responsible for his atrocious judgement:

    “A former eBay security official who pleaded guilty for his role in a cyberstalking conspiracy has asked for leniency in sentencing while blaming his actions in part on a “drinking culture” at eBay that contributed to his alcoholism.

    “eBay had a bar on campus that opened at 3:00 p.m., and drinking was part of the culture, with alcohol present throughout the office space where it was typical to take morning shots of alcohol with co-workers,” a sentencing memorandum for 56-year-old defendant Philip Cooke said yesterday. It was filed in US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.”

  92. 92.

    Another Scott

    ObOpenThread – TheVerge:

    Twitter’s verification process is notoriously slapdash, but you’d expect the company not to fall for the exact same fake twice, right? Wrong!

    In 2012, Twitter verified an account supposedly belonging to illustrious author Cormac McCarthy, which was in reality started by an unpublished novelist. Now, in 2021, it’s done the same thing again, briefly verifying a second McCarthy fake under the handle @CormacMcCrthy.

    “We need higher quality Algorithms.” – Kay, potentially.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  93. 93.

    Elizabelle

    @Another Scott:   It’s Stage One, and does not seem to have been there a year ago when they did a lung scan because she thought she might have Covid.

    KG says she may not need chemo or radiation, just surgery.  I hope that takes the cancer out, forever.

  98. 98.

    Citizen Alan

    @lowtechcyclist:

    This is not true. They don’t care about fetuses either except as a means to impose suffering on the mothers. If they cared about the unborn, they would do something about this country’s abysmal infant mortality and miscarriage rates, and none of them give a shit.

  99. 99.

    James E Powell

    @Kent:

    The Venn diagram between these folks and social studies teachers who are coaches has a lot of overlap.

    LOL because it’s true, but would add that most schools I’ve worked at had a least one radical libertarian math teacher.

  100. 100.

    James E Powell

    @Elizabelle:

    Hey there.  I don’t like that framing WRT Sandy Hook.  In its aftermath, the public at large absolutely supported stronger gun safety measures.  Large majorities.

    Hey, those large majorities were just, like their opinions, man. The Republican ones continued voting for Republicans. The low participation ones continued not doing anything about anything.

  101. 101.

    Citizen Alan

    @Kent: Honestly, I genuinely think it’s a moot point. I really don’t there’s any meaningful form of gun control that could survive SCOTUS scrutiny. Well, I mean, I guess if you could write a law that allowed unlimited gun ownership but only for white people while banning it for everyone else, maybe SCOTUS would be okay with that.

  103. 103.

    Another Scott

    @Citizen Alan: Yup.  Their stand on abortion is just a tool for political power that divides natural Democratic constituencies.  They were explicit about it (see Jill LePore’s “Birthright” article).  They don’t care about fetuses.

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  104. 104.

    NotMax

    @Citizen Alan

    For starters, adjust licensing fees and make them renewable by payment annually (as is done for vehicle registration)..

    Second gun, license costs 2× the cost of the first’s license. Third gun costs 3×, and so on.

    Exemptions to multiplicative costs for collectors who can certify a gun on display has been rendered inoperable.

  110. 110.

    debbie

    I’m looking forward to the shitshow tomorrow that will be the special election for Steve Stiver’s seat. Only 11 candidates! However will they decide? If you want to root for injuries or for a loss, Carey is the TFG-endorsed candidate.

    I also just learned 10 and possibly more white cops are planning to file a discrimination lawsuit against the city of Columbus. Oy.

  111. 111.

    mrmoshpotato

    @debbie:

    I also just learned 10 and possibly more white cops are planning to file a discrimination lawsuit against the city of Columbus. Oy. 

    Got anymore details on this?

  112. 112.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Andrew Solender @AndrewSolender 10m
    Confirmed: a fourth officer who responded to Jan. 6 died of suicide. MPD officer Kyle DeFreytag, who was assigned to the 5th district, was found dead on July 10, MPD spoxes tell me.

  115. 115.

    Steeplejack

    Always interesting how commenting seems to go off a cliff when the cache goes into late-night snooze mode.​

  122. 122.

    Ruckus

    @Cameron:

    I’m not sure they actually care about fetuses either, what they really care about is winning the war on abortion. It is about control and women having agency. Women fall behind men in the order of control, it goes:

    white republican men

    white republican women

    white republican children

    white democratic men

    white democratic women

    white democratic children

    white fetuses (they can grow up to be republicans doncha know)

    minority fetuses (they can grow up to be low paid workers)

    minority men (they can work the jobs that WRM won’t do)

    minority women

    minority children. (they just require tax money to educate so they can work for low pay)

    I know it sounds callous but I didn’t make up the rules….

  123. 123.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:

    Stop doing stupid shit.

    You want them to stop being republicans? Damn man, that’s harsh. I mean how will they get their hate and control on if they stop being republicans?

  125. 125.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @andy: They’re trying to run up the body count because they hope it’ll make Biden and the Democrats look bad,

    Yes, but I don’t think it’s some plan to take power back, I think this is more of a childish tantrum because Trump sucked. “Well Biden sucks too, everyone sucks, so there” kind of thing like them refusing to take the vaccine. The polling is showing a lot of despair out in MAGA land.

  126. 126.

    206inKY

    My son is starting 1st grade and open house was tonight. School starts later this week. No teachers were masked and very few parents or students. Total nightmare. We were hyper-vigilant through the pandemic, and now it looks like another year of homeschooling. Can’t express the despair.

  129. 129.

    Gvg

    @206inKY
    My sympathies. My very social nephew has had a year and a half of homeschool including starting middle school. Now our part of Florida leads the nation in delta covid cases and the Governor and legislature have mandated no mask and in person school with penalties to districts that try. School starts in 9 days. My sister is a hospital doctor who is just beside herself. She feels it is inevitable he’s son gets Covid. A week ago an older doctor she admires died of it. So she is talking with grandparents about maybe another 9 weeks of home school. Guessing it will have peaked by then. Grandparents also very disappointed their hoped for summer travel couldn’t quite happen.

    the homeschooling plus mom is doctor in a hospital means nephew has to live with grandparents and mom can’t see him for weeks at a time. She knows nurses who have died too but has to try to stay calm and pleasant to anti vaxers and other idiots.

  131. 131.

    206inKY

    @Gvg:  I’m so sorry—that sounds incredibly hard. I’m lucky to be able to work from home, so homeschooling is feasible even though my wife lives and works in another state and has to go back next month after 18 months of remote work. School was the glue that made the logistics of our professional lives possible, but it’ll be okay for as long as our son is back in school by the time my own ability to work from home comes to an end.

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