I particularly appreciate the I’M WITH STUPID arrow on his groin.
Biden’s vaccine push aligns him w/ a fed-up, vaccinated majority https://t.co/WbzN6yLVs2
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) September 11, 2021
Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths were substantially higher among unvaccinated people in the 13 US jurisdictions surveyed, indicating high, continued vaccine effectiveness against severe Covid. https://t.co/xFv5f5QST1 pic.twitter.com/Xe72f9TZwA
— Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) September 10, 2021
The US is now the least vaccinated G7 country. pic.twitter.com/2oT7qrzPYZ
— Florian Ederer (@florianederer) September 11, 2021
======
In Nairobi, Kenya, hundreds line up daily to wait for a COVID-19 vaccine. Halfway around the world in Atlanta, a clinic had only one person show up over a six-hour period Wednesday. The contrast reflects a global disparity in vaccine availability. https://t.co/PS54p3EAJP
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 11, 2021
Australia buys additional 1 mln doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine https://t.co/6dotr2XNCj pic.twitter.com/0kQER2TPgl
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 12, 2021
New Zealand buys further 500,000 COVID-19 vaccines as cluster grows https://t.co/spzeS9xD9Y pic.twitter.com/OclzkWLb03
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 12, 2021
Thousands protest new Turkish vaccine and test rules https://t.co/pINTQ8UKO2 pic.twitter.com/ufzqjUk9u9
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 12, 2021
Russia on Saturday reported 18,891 new coronavirus cases and 796 deathshttps://t.co/vG1B8Uq6Vw
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) September 11, 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic calls for urgent reform of #healthcare, #surveillance and #governance @OBShealth https://t.co/odweJvoMk2
— Equity & Health (@equitylist) September 11, 2021
Can you hear the people sing? Singing the song of unvaxxed men. It is the music of the people with the mental age of ten! https://t.co/SvC0Wdm9R8
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) September 12, 2021
Doctors, nurses and other medical workers protested in Warsaw to demand higher wages and an improvement in working conditions made more difficult by the coronavirus pandemic. https://t.co/24PRURuOR5
— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) September 11, 2021
ITS HERE! The leaders video on vaccinations and it’s great #Elxn44 pic.twitter.com/7vifE2MbUj
— Kristin Raworth (@KristinRaworth) September 10, 2021
======
Superbugs were a concern even before the pandemic
Now, overcrowded hospitals, steroid use, and antimicrobial abuse (e.g. HCQ, ivermectin, doxy, azithromycin, anti-fungals, anti-virals) are breeding drug-resistant infectionshttps://t.co/cGLHSyqmnk @marynmck
— Madhu Pai, MD, PhD (@paimadhu) September 11, 2021
2/ This is a reminder: if you have high risk folks at home who were vaccinated near the start of 2021, it is worth being extra careful around them.
Avoid high risk areas of transmission; & if you must, then please wear a surgical mask or higher grade if you have it. #covid19
— Abraar Karan (@AbraarKaran) September 11, 2021
4/ Our goal must be to reduce community transmission to levels where the chance of exposure to the virus is exceptionally low such that we don’t have to constantly worry about transmitting to those that are high risk.
Especially now when they may be due for boosters very soon.
— Abraar Karan (@AbraarKaran) September 11, 2021
Can kids get "long COVID" after coronavirus infections? Yes, but studies indicate they’re less likely than adults to be affected by symptoms that persist or recur. https://t.co/pbhli7pw1v
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 11, 2021
A study of #delta & other variants of concern—VOCs— revealed delta is linked w/ a greater need for supplemental oxygen & ICU admission. Patients also more likely to die than w/ other VOCs. Vaccination guarded against severe illness, even w/ delta infection https://t.co/l89xPQXMOv pic.twitter.com/xqj17IfQEU
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) September 11, 2021
Atlanta’s zoo says at least 13 western lowland gorillas have tested positive for COVID-19, including 60-year-old Ozzie, the oldest male gorilla in captivity. Employees said the gorillas had been coughing, had runny noses and showed changes in appetite. https://t.co/9gOA0zeRIs
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 11, 2021
======
Vaccine resisters are seeking religious exemptions. But what counts as religious?
Major denominations are essentially unanimous in their support of vaccines against Covid, but individuals who object are citing their personal *faith* for support https://t.co/nOWAmgKvl5— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) September 11, 2021
‘I am my own little god, and will permit nothing to outweigh my slightest inconvenience’ is *some* kind of religious belief, I suppose…
… Exemption requests are testing the boundaries of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, which requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for employees who object to work requirements based on religious beliefs that are “sincerely held.”
To the benefit of objectors like Ms. Holmes, the provision defines “religion” broadly. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has specified that religious objections do not have to be recognized by an organized religion and can be beliefs that are new, uncommon or “seem illogical or unreasonable to others.”
They cannot, however, be based only on social or political beliefs. That means employers must try to distinguish between primarily political objections from people who may happen to be religious, and objections that are actually religious at their core.
For many skeptics, resistance tends to be based not on formal teachings from an established faith leader, but an ad hoc blend of online conspiracies and misinformation, conservative media and conversations with like-minded friends and family members…
Online, a loose web of largely independent faith leaders has volunteered to provide exemption letters to those who request them. An independent evangelist in Texas is offering letters online in exchange for a donation. In California, a megachurch pastor is offering a letter to anyone who checks a box confirming the person is a “practicing Evangelical that adheres to the religious and moral principles outlined in the Holy Bible.”…
How Biden’s new vaccine mandate affects the NFL, MLB and other pro sports leagues https://t.co/voo2uI9edI
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 12, 2021
There have been no COVID-19 outbreaks in San Francisco schools since students and educators went back into classrooms on Aug. 16, the San Francisco Department of Public Health has announced.
About 90% of children ages 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated. https://t.co/RmRKKlJdzI
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 11, 2021
As D.C. vaccine mandate deadline draws closer, one group holds a clinic to convince the unvaccinated https://t.co/hWDeQq221n
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 12, 2021
Say it with me now: vaccines work. pic.twitter.com/BsiKfOdq4i
— Ellen Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) September 11, 2021
Alaska lawmaker who refused to follow mask mandate while flying says she can’t get to the state capital https://t.co/Ktv57iLB6A
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 11, 2021
Her colleagues don’t want her around them, either:
An Alaska lawmaker who is banned from flying on the state’s leading airline for refusing to wear a mask was excused from attending floor votes for the rest of the year after telling legislative leaders she has no way to fly to and from the state capital…
The action involving Reinbold comes as Alaska, like other states, is facing a sharp rise in infections. Average daily caseloads in the sparsely populated state topped 600 this week for the first time since the winter surge, according to data tracked by The Washington Post. Hospitalizations have jumped about 20 percent since last week, exceeding their peak in January.
Reinbold has been one of the Alaska legislature’s most vocal opponents of masking and other public health mandates since early in the pandemic. She has used committee hearings to criticize Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s pandemic rules and promotes misinformation about masking and vaccines on her Facebook page. She refused to don a mask in the legislature, instead wearing a clear shield over her face.
Her actions have turned her into something of a pariah among her fellow legislators. In the spring, lawmakers voted to remove her as chair of the judiciary committee after the governor accused her of spreading misinformation about the virus, the Anchorage Daily News reported. She was also briefly banned from most of the building for refusing to follow mask rules.
Baud
According to reddit, some military officer quit his job one year shy of his pension because of Biden’s vaccine mandate.
p.a.
@Baud: There’s almost certainly some infiltration of white supremacists, christianists, etc, so this is an unintentional but useful way to clear some out.
JoyceH
@Baud: so the vaccine mandate weeds out the Trumpists. I’d call that a win-win.
Baud
@p.a.:
@JoyceH:
Absolutely correct. The world’s greatest military just got a little bit better.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I find it hard to believe that any human being could be so stupid, but nearly every day I read of something else a GOP voter has done that I find hard to believe.
TriassicSands
Naturally, Biden must resign because he hasn’t been able to persuade millions of brain-dead refusers to get vaccinated. I mean what is wrong with him? Obviously, all these idiots are just waiting for someone to present them with a good reason to protect themselves and others because protecting themselves and others clearly isn’t a good enough reason.
p.a.
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s Jonestown in slo-mo, except today’s crud gleefully hurt others also.
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY: The local web site tracker is taking the weekend off.
NYS Dept of Health says 212 new cases for 9/10. These can’t be Labor Day or school cases because it hasn’t been 2 weeks since Labor Day yet and school didn’t start around here until after Labor Day. I shudder to think what the numbers will be a week from now. IIRC we had something over 600 new cases a day after Thanksgiving last year.
lowtechcyclist
Give this man a Johann Tetzel award.
lowtechcyclist
@p.a.:
It’s more like 1.5 Jonestowns every day at this point (or keeping yesterday’s anniversary in mind, three 9/11s each week), so not exactly slo-mo.
Unfortunately, the rest of your comment is right on target.
SiubhanDuinne
The whole cartoon is full of delicious little morsels. The neon sign in the window misspells TATTOOS. One of the tats on the dude’s body is NOTARY SOJAC, itself a catchphrase from the greatest of the screwball comic strips of yore, Smokey Stover. Jeff Danziger never fails to delight.
Geo Wilcox
@Baud: He not only lost his pension but also his Tricare health benefits. You only get those if you complete your 20. I am sure his spouse is VERY happy with his making such a stand. /s
If he were my husband I’d divorce his sorry ass.
Baud
@Geo Wilcox:
His spouse could be a true believer too. Maybe this will bring them closer together.
YY_Sima Qian
On 9/11 China reported 20 new domestic confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic) & 18 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Guangzhou in Guangdong Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, all associated w/ leak at a quarantine hotel for overseas arrivals.
Fujian Province reporter 20 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic) & 18 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 21 active domestic confirmed cases & 21 active domestic asymptomatic cases.
Yunnan Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 7 active domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases there. 1 village in Ruili remains at Medium Risk.
Jiangsu Province did not report any new positive confirmed cases. There are currently 4 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
Hunan Province did not reported any new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There are currently are 56 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Henan Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 4 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 18 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
Hubei Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 20 active domestic confirmed (9 mild & 11 moderate) & 14 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Shanghai Municipality did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 7 active domestic confirmed cases in the city.
Imported Cases
On 9/11, China reported 26 new imported confirmed cases (4 previously asymptomatic), 26 imported asymptomatic cases:
Overall in China, 37 confirmed cases recovered (31 imported), 14 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (all imported) & 5 were reclassified as confirmed cases (4 imported), & 883 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 740 active confirmed cases in the country (601 imported), 7 in serious condition (all imported), 396 active asymptomatic cases (353 imported), 2 suspect cases (both imported). 12,140 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 9/11, 2,142.58M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 7.34M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 9/12, Hong Kong report 3 new positive cases, all imported (from Israel, Japan & Qatar, all had been fully vaccinated).
The Thin Black Duke
@Baud: Especially when they’re buried side by side.
Mo MacArbie
I don’t want to be that “All the blog wuz rong!” guy (“Mad”, they called me. Mruh-huh-huh. Mad? Do I sound mad to you?) Hell, I was laughing along with everyone. Still, I read the religious exemption thing and think back to all the merriment over that one person who won the right to have their drivers license picture taken with a colander on their head in the observance of their deeply-held Pastafarian beliefs. Shit.
lowtechcyclist
@Mo MacArbie:
Since the ‘sincerely held religious beliefs’ exemption clearly is a big enough loophole to drive a truck through, I was wondering how great a ‘reasonable accommodation’ an employer must provide.
Suppose, for instance, that I claimed ‘naturist’ as my religion. Would my employer be required to allow me to show up at work in the altogether? Somehow I doubt it, and my naked body would not be a health hazard to others, however offensive some might find its display.
So it’s hard for me to envision that employers would be required to provide an accommodation that was a health hazard to others, that allowed employees to walk around the office while having a much greater potential than others of spreading a deadly virus to their co-workers.
Nicole
There’s a couple of posts today on the Herman Cain Award reddit from people who say the reddit frightened either them or someone they knew into getting vaccinated. That was… pretty nice to read this morning.
NPR ran a piece a few days ago on a (very small) study of people that had natural Covid and then got vaccinated- the 14 people looked at all had what they nicknamed “superhuman” antibodies, meaning they showed great resistance to not only the current variants but one the lab engineered specifically to get around antibodies. While it’s extremely limited, there’s some hope that as people who were never infected but were vaccinated get booster shots their antibodies will develop the same kind of flexibility against future variants:
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/09/07/1033677208/new-studies-find-evidence-of-superhuman-immunity-to-covid-19-in-some-individuals
I skimmed the Science article linked in the NPR article, and there’s encouraging speculation about increased effectiveness if vaccines are mixed (Pfizer shot, Moderna booster), and a parallel with the extremely effective shingles vaccine, which is given after natural infection.
I particularly like the use of the term “superhuman.” As someone who had Covid and then got vaccinated, I am now going to shop for my superhuman costume, and while I’m uncertain as to the amount of spandex, it will definitely have a cape. But also still have a mask. Double layered. ;)
OzarkHillbilly
@lowtechcyclist: What happens when the employer has a sincere religious belief against working with plague monsters?
Nicole
@OzarkHillbilly:
I would hope that the employer would take advantage of “free will” employment laws and tell them to GTFO.
@lowtechcyclist: And I think you’re right that the “reasonable accommodation” stops at the point where it puts anyone, including the person claiming the religious belief, at risk of physical harm. Possibly emotional harm, too. Like, I could claim my sincerely held religious belief commanded me to shout racial epithets every hour on the hour in a crowded room, but I doubt I’d be accommodated on account of the emotional damage done to the normal people I worked with.
Mousebumples
Just saw this on Twitter –
RSV doesn’t currently have a vaccine (Synagis is an antibody ish injection given for prevention) and a large portion of the country is seeing high RSV cases. Young children, especially preemies, are at especially high risk. I had heard Moderna was working on a vaccine, and here’s hoping next year (or the year after), a 3-in-1 vaccine will be available.
Thank you, science!
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 19,198 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 1,979,698 cases. It also reports 520 new deaths as of midnight, for a cumulative total of 20,419 deaths – 1.03% of the cumulative reported total, 1.17% of resolved cases.
Based on cases reported yesterday, Malaysia’s nationwide Rt is at 0.99.
975 active and contagious cases are in ICU, 435 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 20,980 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 1,721,713 patients recovered – 87.0% of the cumulative reported total.
34 new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 5,121 clusters. 1,440 clusters are currently active; 3,681 clusters are now inactive.
19,193 new cases today are local infections. Sarawak reports 5,290 local cases: 389 in clusters, 3,896 close-contact screenings, and 1,005 other screenings.
Selangor reports 2,347 case4 local: 72 in clusters, 1,393 close-contact screenings, and 879 other screenings. Johor reports 2,110 cases: 375 in clusters,1,023 close-contact screenings, and 712 other screenings.
Sabah reports 1,717 cases: 67 in clusters, 977 close-contact screenings, and 673 other screenings. Kelantan reports 1,434 local cases: 97 in clusters, 934 close-contact screenings, and 403 other screenings. Penang reports 1,309 cases: 80 in clusters, 387 close-contact screenings, and 842 other screenings. Kedah reports 1,256 cases: three in clusters, 786 close-contact screenings, and 467 other screenings. Perak reports 1,118 cases: 190 in clusters, 449 close-contact screenings, and 479 other screenings.
Terengganu reports 930 cases: 14 in clusters, 767 close-contact screenings, and 149 other screenings.
Pahang reports 584 cases: 201 in clusters, 272 close-contact screenings, and 111 other screenings.
Kuala Lumpur reports 376 cases: two in clusters, 165 close-contact screenings, and 209 other screenings. Melaka reports 340 cases: 61 in clusters, 170 close-contact screenings, and 109 other screenings.
Negeri Sembilan reports 283 cases: 31 in clusters, 136 close-contact screenings, and 116 other screenings.
Perlis reports 67 cases: 30 close-contact screenings and 37 other screenings. Putrajaya reports 32 cases: one in a cluster, 20 close-contact screenings and 11 other screenings. Labuan reports five cases: one close-contact screening and two other screenings.
Five new cases today are imported: three in Selangor, one in Sarawak, and one in Kelantan.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 258,929 doses of vaccine on 11th September: 88,960 first doses and 169,969 second doses. As of midnight yesterday, the cumulative total is 38,260,575 doses administered: 21,290,857 first doses and 17,025,781 second doses. 65.2% of the population have received their first dose, while 52.1% are now fully vaccinated.
Nicole
@Mousebumples: Oh! I attended a Q&A on Covid protocols at my kid’s school, which is a lab school run by a university and one of the people they had talking mentioned the work being done on an RSV vaccine. She was soooo excited. I’m going to go read Moderna’s Twitter feed right now. You’re right, that’s amazing news, if they can do a 3-in-1!
Tony Jay
@TriassicSands:
It’s the eternal narrative. In any difference of opinion the person or persons designated to be ‘of the Left’ is/are solely responsible for providing arguments so convincing that they change the opinion of the person or persons designated to be ‘of the Right’. Should the person or persons designated to be ‘of the Right’ not be swayed to change their opinion, the person or persons designated to be ‘of the Left’ shall be adjudged to have failed, their arguments to be without merit, and the opinion held by the person or persons designated to be ‘of the Right’ recognised as the correct and valid one, regardless of how bananas it may appear to be.
When the roles are reversed, so is the judging criteria. If the person or persons designated to be ‘of the Right’ can’t convince the person or persons designated to be ‘of the Left’ to change their opinion, never mind, they tried Jaw-Jaw, now they’re free to show the strength of their convictions by imposing their legitimate authority on the ‘losers’.
Applies in all situations everywhere, regardless of the topic. Failure to adhere to these guidelines may cause high-pitched screeching and the rending of garments.
Cermet
This pandemic will, besides the terrible cost in lives that devastate so many, cause many infectious agents to become deadlier; the worst by far, are fungi infections. There are just a few available meds, no vaccine and when those meds are lost, the human race is in big trouble – of course, steroid use for covid issues make getting a fungi infection far easier and far deadlier. Worse still, thanks to AGW, fungi are getting heat tolerate so mammal body temp is becoming less of a defense. Welcome to the new age of AGW – it gives far more then worse weather or temps; forced migrations, famine, and far deadlier illnesses – tried of winning, yet?
WaterGirl
@Mousebumples: What is RSV?
Nicole
@WaterGirl:
Respiratory Syncytial Virus
https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/index.html
Nerve wracking this spring/early summer because there were some outbreaks of it and in kids, the symptoms are identical to Covid. And it can be quite serious on its own, anyway, for the very young and the elderly.
WaterGirl
@Nicole: thank you.
Mousebumples
@Nicole:
@WaterGirl:
I would have been excited about an RSV vaccine, even if it wasn’t 3 in 1. I believe previous vaccine attempts have failed, but mRNA tech is amazing!
And, Nicole, thanks for helping out with the RSV explanation. I kinda skipped over that part. ?
BC in Illinois
In Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District, our Representative is Ann Wagner (R – safe Republican vote).
She put out an anti-Biden tweet:
In response, people asked for her plan, accused her of being pro-covid, or (most enjoyably),
evodevo
@Geo Wilcox: Yep…and if my sister (married to a career Army colonel) is any indication, they have NO idea what healthcare premiums are in the REAL world. She was complaining about something or other one time, and I said well, you don’t have to pay for yours, right? And she said “Oh, we pay, alright” I looked it up…it’s a couple hundred a YEAR and some co-pays…then I told her what WE paid when we were on COBRA, and she couldn’t believe it. I think that idiot is in for a big surprise…
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: Good, every little bit helps. Sadly, he’s now the VA’s problem.
Mousebumples
Images include info on RSV disease burden.
Per their Twitter feed, they’re also working on cancer vaccines.
Cancers often have genetic mutations that direct treatment. I have a non smoker friend, recently diagnosed with lung cancer who was so excited that her cancer had the gene mutations necessary to qualify for Tagrisso. 1 week in and she’s feeling so much better.
Chief Oshkosh
@lowtechcyclist: One of my directs very briefly tried for “religious exemption.” Thankfully, our top mgt apparently has their own ideas about that. Not sure what happened in “counseling,” but the direct is getting his shot on the 15th. I don’t know, but I think it boiled down to “We’re going to fire you on October 1st because you’re not vaccinated. Here is the paperwork to start the process of suing us over that (drops a tomb on the table). Good luck.”
Barbara
@Chief Oshkosh: I think if I were management I would ask a few simple questions, like, have you gotten other vaccines? Are your kids vaccinated? What’s different about this one, theologically speaking? Most responses won’t rise above gibberish.
Percysowner
An Alaska lawmaker who is banned from flying on the state’s leading airline for refusing to wear a mask was excused from attending floor votes for the rest of the year after telling legislative leaders she has no way to fly to and from the state capital…
Just hop on a bus, Gus; charter a plane, Jane; buy a new car Starr and get yourself there. Get on the ferry, Mary; Learn how to skate, Kate: Buy some skis, please and get yourself there. (Apologies to Paul Simon)
rikyrah
@Baud:
Oh well ?
Robert Sneddon
Scotland — There were 5,912 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday (Saturday) with no new reported deaths of someone who had tested positive (noting that Register Offices are now generally closed at weekends). Test positivity rate is 11.5%. ICU bed occupancy numbers are 88, up five from yesterday while hospitalisations are 1,019, up 34.
There were over 11,000 vaccinations carried out in Scotland yesterday with over 25% of them being first-doses. This brings the total in the adult (16+) population to 90.8% first-dose and 83.0% fully vaccinated. The first-dose vaccination rate for 16 and 17-year-olds is now 63.0%.
The press is reporting the English health services will announce a vaccination program for 12-15 year olds within the next couple of weeks. If this happens you can expect the other nations to follow suit quite quickly.
Sloane Ranger
Saturday in the UK we had 29,547 new cases . This is an increase of 5.9% in the rolling 7-day average. As this is the weekend, many admin offices are closed so this is almost certainly an undercount. New cases by nation,
England – 23,825 (up 2828)
Northern Ireland – 1424 (down 263)
Scotland – 4298 (down 2517)
Wales – Does not report on Saturday’s.
Deaths – There were 156 deaths within 28 days of a positive test reported yesterday. This is an increase of 25.2% in the rolling 7-day average. 143 deaths were in England, 3 in Northern Ireland, 10 in Scotland and Wales did not report.
Testing – not updated at weekends.
Hospitalisations – Not updated at weekends.
Vaccinations – As of Friday, 10 September, 48,395,359people had had 1 shot of a vaccine and 43,895,440 had had both. This means that, as of that date, 89% of all UK residents aged 16+ had had 1 shot and 80.8% were fully vaccinated.
General – Health Minister Sajid Javid has announced that the government has abandoned plans to require people to show vaccine passports in order to enter mass events or night clubs etc. in England. He said that this option would be held in reserve. His decision was greeted with joy by the leisure industry, which probably lobbied extensively for it (I wonder how much money they’ve paid into Tory Party coffers?), while experts are divided, with some saying it’s a mistake and others saying having vaccine passports would make only a marginal difference at best.
Nicola Sturgeon still intends to institute them in Scotland. I suppose we’ll see if they do make a difference in real time. Having just watched my English county turn dark blue due to high case numbers, I would have thought that “better safe than sorry” should have been the watchword. Still, I suppose we must free up all nightclub door staff for their real purpose of ensuring only the coolest looking and most fashionably dressed can get into English clubs.
tern
@evodevo: Agree with you 100%. My spouse served his 20, finishing as a Sr NCO, so we are Tricare retirees. Our monthly premium is $51. Not only that, but other than occasional “small” issues in the schema of life, our care is outstanding. I broke my femur in May. I had two ambulance rides, 2 ER visits, emergency surgery, 3 days in the hospital, and a number of weeks of PT. So far, we have paid a $31 co-pay for each PT visit, prescription co-pays, under $5 for the most part, with some as low as $1.17. The highest one we filled was $16.94 and that was a one-time fill. (We even live near an Army base, so could have driven a bit further and paid nothing for the majority of the meds.) Finally, from the 2 ambulance rides, initially $3500 total, we’ve had to pay $84 – $42 for each trip. So often I have tried to explain to people that for the small amount we pay each month and overall good support, the OCCASIONAL paperwork, phone calls, delays, etc., are really minor issues, particularly when compared to what the majority of people in this country deal with. We don’t have to worry about seeing a doctor, emergencies, prescriptions, etc. Actually, Tricare is one of the reasons I support single-payer, or something similar. We spent a lot of time apart and went through a lot of hardships during the course of his career, but I try to remind myself of how very fortunate our family is, in so many ways.
sdhays
@Baud: And he kindly saved the taxpayers some money too!
frosty
The tattoo that says Notary Sojac is a nice call out to Smokey Stover.
JohnC
@Percysowner: The only ways into the capitol city (town) Juneau are air or sea – no road connections. She was also barred from the State Capitol building for refusing to mask. She is very very stupid.
They were studying road access, but the project is now “indefinitely shelved.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Canal_Highway
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@p.a.: they were killing those who refused to poison themselves at Johnston so nothing new with the cruelty.
JoyceH
I’m not sure what the religious exemption will allow, but snake handling is certainly outlawed and it’s a “deeply held religious belief”.
Nicole
@WaterGirl: Anytime. I love any excuse to google and post links. :)
mrmoshpotato
What? How can this be in the greatest country in the world?
Nicole
@Mousebumples: I’m so excited about the possibilities of mRNA for cancer treatments. I hadn’t held out a lot of hope for my own being one of the ones a vaccine would be developed for, as it’s one of the rarer mutations, but it sounds like this can be tailored to each individual no matter what the kind of cancer or mutation. That’s SO amazing. The “needle-to-needle in weeks” bit got me a little teary-eyed, not gonna lie. I imagine it’s still years away, but oh, the amount of human suffering and grief it could alleviate. Even just picturing a world where a lot of cancer diagnoses aren’t cause for terror anymore; they’re just one more thing to take care of…
VOR
@Percysowner: Per Wikipedia:
It’s several hundred miles from Anchorage to Juneau so it’s not just a simple ferry ride. I suppose there might be cruise ships stopping both places.
Any driving route to get even close enough for a shorter ferry ride would have to go through Canada, who isn’t letting unvaccinated Americans in right now.
Actions have consequences.
Miss Bianca
@Nicole: You know, I wonder how the COVIDiots who are all “experimental mRNA science means COVID vaccine DAAAAANGEROUS!” will (or will if they don’t die from COVID) jump at the chance to get mRNA cancer treatment shots? We wonders, yes, we wonders…
Mousebumples
@Nicole: I know, right? I wonder if mRNAs will be able to access brain tumors. But I’d think this could be a game changer for some of the more fatal cancers. (eg pancreatic)
Gotta wait for the trials and data, but very exciting! ?
WhatsMyNym
In other Alaska Airlines won’t tolerate your BS news – they made an unscheduled stopped in Juneau to remove 5 passengers who not wearing their masks and being unruly. The flight then continued on to Anchorage.