.
I’ll confess, I’m just a wee bit superstitious about the COP26 meeting coinciding with the traditional celebration of the beginning of winter. But then again, if we’re all gonna hunker down and live more simply, in hopes of surviving until a brighter spring…
The United Nations is summoning an unusual “witness” to testify to the dangers of burning fossil fuels that stoke global warming: a dinosaur. pic.twitter.com/WsmDvovSfT
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 28, 2021
Keeping it positive:
1/ What if, on Inauguration Day, I told you that in his first year, Joe Biden would cut childhood poverty in half?
“That’s a good year 1,” you might reply.
Ok what if he also got the GOP to agree to the biggest infrastructure bill in the nation’s history?
“No way!” you’d say.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) October 31, 2021
3/ He got funding for 1M new affordable housing units.
He put the biggest ever investment in anti-gun violence programs.
He cut the cost of child care by $10,000 for low and middle income families.
“Whatever”, you would scoff. “All that is impossible in one year.”
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) October 31, 2021
5/ When we pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the Build Back Better Act, Joe Biden and this Democratic Congress will have made 2021 the most consequential legislative year, with the biggest positive impact on American families, in generations.
That’s the truth.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) October 31, 2021
Also:
Psaki says she last saw President Biden Tuesday, "when we sat outside more than six-feet apart, and wore masks."
Tested negative Weds/Thurs/Fri/Sat before positive test today.— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) October 31, 2021
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone???
rikyrah
Get better, Jen??????
Baud
I caught the Today show today for the first time in a long while. Gone is the calm, matter of fact reporting of the Trump years. Everything is a crisis now and we’re all doomed. The tone is very excitable. The difference after a long absence was jarring.
YMMV.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
debbie
@rikyrah:
How’s your sister doing her first day back home?
satby
I put this in the Covid thread, maybe it’s better here.
NotMax
It’s ba-a-a-a-ack.
debbie
I listened to this BBC World service radio program last night which theorized whether another planet could be found to inhabit and probably start destroying (last bit’s my editorializing). Might explain why I didn’t sleep very well.
AxelFoley
Bleh
(did I do it right?)
emmyelle
That’s the thing about those tests. You can test negative day after day after day and then, I dunno, something happens and you test positive! I mean, what does it all mean.
You know, if we didn’t do so many tests we would not have so many cases.
(Paraphrasing former President)
*shrug emoji*
NotMax
@Baud
Program hasn’t been the same since J. Fred Muggs.
rikyrah
??⚖️ Kenneth of House Pfizer™?, 1st of His Name (@Needle_of_Arya) tweeted at 11:33 PM on Sun, Oct 31, 2021:
The “F-ck your feelings” crowd from the Trump years now seems awfully protective of the feelings of little white kids, now that it’s time to teach people the actual history of this country. Funny how that works.
(twitter.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1455030193207136261?t=WyF_UADApJ_DRR1nf9_lOQ&s=03)
rikyrah
Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) tweeted at 6:30 AM on Mon, Nov 01, 2021:
Today, the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in two challenges to the Texas abortion ban.
Abortion would immediately become illegal in at least 12 states if the Court overturned Roe v. Wade — with more likely to follow quickly — according to Axios.
(twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1455135029860999169?t=WEuT4wpE1sQm2i6Or_uzUg&s=03)
rikyrah
??⚖️ Kenneth of House Pfizer™?, 1st of His Name (@Needle_of_Arya) tweeted at 4:57 AM on Mon, Nov 01, 2021:
We need to stop acting as if “pink voters,” mildly conservative voters who’d flipped from Trump to Biden, wouldn’t in the very next cycle begin to drift back towards the GOP as soon as low-key voting for white supremacy & patriarchy was acceptable at the state level again.
(twitter.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1455111669324165126?t=RfwMppZc42e6jfY2-kJwAg&s=03)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rikyrah: Mr DAW was just reading me some comment from the lawyer defending the Texas abortion law to the effect that if women didn’t want to be pregnant, they should stop having sex.
It was clear he thought only single women have abortions, and it’s all those slutty slutty women who are at fault.
Also clear he thinks women should have no choice because HE gets to decide.
Also clear that he hates women. He may not know it, but he doe
ETA: In case you can’t tell, for some reason, this guy really infuriated me.
rikyrah
Uh huh ?
Rugged Amethyst #TexasBorn #CaliBred (@groove_sdc) tweeted at 1:24 AM on Mon, Nov 01, 2021:
Kansas Rep. Aaron Coleman arrested on domestic battery charge | The Kansas City Star t.co/jApUA4SxMc
(twitter.com/groove_sdc/status/1455058045432631298?t=FRQ8CSeJczWi9M0teS43aA&s=03)
Betty Cracker
I wish the CDC would lower the eligibility age for the booster shot already. I’ve been so careful for 18 months and change, and I will be pissed if I get COVID after all that hassle.
Kay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Because they’re coming for contraception next.
prostratedragon
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Some of these guys are in for a big surprise when they get home.
rikyrah
@debbie:
She slept well last night. I left breakfast for her that all she has to do is microwave. I will check in with her around 9:30
Another Scott
It’s a day ending in “y”, so FTFNYT.
tl;dr – Quotes unidentified obvious GQP operative pretending to be a Democratic voter.
Grrr…
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
For all the talk of freedom, they want control over women’s sexual autonomy ??
rikyrah
@Kay:
Yell it for those in the bleachers.
They??are?? coming ??for?? contraceptives ??
prostratedragon
Lift him up: Ado Campeol of Treviso, age 93
Have some tiramisù sometime soon.
JPL
@rikyrah: That’s good.
Betty Cracker
@Another Scott: So-called Dems voting Rep is catnip to horserace reporters. If there was a similarly huge, sustained wave of stories about Trump-Biden voters over the past year, I missed them.
Quinerly
@emmyelle: have you (or anyone) read any speculation as to how she contracted it? I’m wondering if she had had a booster. I assume she has small children.
Just curious about the break through cases with people l assume are taking the utmost precautions.
Kay
@Another Scott:
Not just a Democratic voter. A “Biden to Youngkin voter” with a long, written history. They don’t even Google these people.
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
What it really confirms is how men are innocent of any consequences, regardless of what happened.
debbie
@rikyrah:
Good, rest is good.
NeenerNeener
@Quinerly: i thought I read that she was the only one in her family last week that didn’t have it, so eventually she caught it from a family member.
Kay
@rikyrah:
Well, ten years ago they objected to “late term” abortions. Will you look at that! The minute they got the chance they banned them all!
Always, always moving Right. There are too many instances where they launched a campaign on some small portion all the wise centrists decided was “reasonable” and then quickly and efficiently moved far Right to count. It happens over and over and over.
The WSJ had an op ed two weeks ago that begins with CRT panic and ends with how public schools are unconstitutional, so on this they’re already well on their way. You’ll see that lawsuit at the supreme court in 5.
OzarkHillbilly
@AxelFoley: Blech.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
UGH
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Kay: I didn’t even bother with that story. To me, it was obviously some sort of fakery.
Quinerly
@Betty Cracker: I have to think the booster situation is why so many break through cases. As l have mentioned, I was getting really antsy about my J&J from March (which l got early as a “waste” shot at a rural Nat Guard event). The reality of having little to no protection for the last few months hit me once l got the booster when the intake person asked if l had my original J&J in the last 3 months. If l had gotten Pfizer or Moderna, l would be in your situation with no booster. Let’s just give everyone boosters and move on.
germy
I guess Peters didn’t notice this cartoon Rand Paul sent to his followers.
Ten Bears
No blankets for her? Did one of the fake reporters infect her?
We can make book on it, was it:
The Catholic nutball?
The Christian nutball?
Any one of at least three NAZI nutballs?
I’m not a gambling man but I’d bet on the Dooceys, father and son …
Quinerly
@rikyrah: ?
Nelle
@Betty Cracker: CVS where I am isn’t asking questions and younger people are showing up and getting the booster. For what it is worth.
I scheduled mine for Sat morning, so I could have down time, in case of reaction. And I sure got one. Most intense headache, dizzy, big earache. I just thought, so much better than Covid. Also had a panic attack during the night, first ever. My daughter has them frequently and, while I hated it, I finally got a small glimpse of what her life can be like. Awful feeling.
Betty Cracker
@Quinerly: I don’t have any answers, but I’m curious about that too. I personally know two people who were super-cautious but had breakthrough cases anyway, and I think at least one person here was in that situation (maybe more that I missed), plus what we read in the news. It’s worrying.
The latest thing I read about the issue (in Science or Nature, I think) was that researchers believe the vaccine’s protection from infection drops from 90% to 70% after six months, but if you get it, it’s still likely to be a mild case. It just seems like there’s still so much we don’t know.
Geminid
@Kay: There were a bunch of Virginia independents who were repelled by trump and voted for Biden. Youngkin’s stategy has been to win these voters back. He’s a slick communicator, and it’s no surprise that he has at least partially succeeded.
The emphasis on fighting CRT in the schools was shrewd. That’s an issue that can rally the conservative base, but does not provoke the reaction among independents and Democrats that attacking gun control or reproductive rights would.
Kay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
The campaign is centered on wealthy suburban public schools. When it appears in rural and low income public schools it’s anti-vaxx and anti-mask, but it’s the same rationale – parents should determine what happens in public schools.
So the wealthy white kids will have the loudest and most Right wing parents banning books and the low income white kids will get measles and whooping cough. There are 14,000 public school districts and they are WILDLY different. Anyone who starts their article with “public schools” hasn’t done any work.
The lawyer quoted in that article is defending an “exam school”. The public schools that are essentially private schools. They’re just not in any way representative of “public schools”.
Betty Cracker
@Nelle: I am tempted to hit up a CVS then. I really worry about my husband more than myself. He works with a bunch of Trump trash, but the good news is he’s outside all day and mostly distanced from others. Still, he encounters the unvaxxed. And he smokes cigars so is likely more vulnerable to respiratory issues.
ETA: Sorry about your panic attack experience; that’s some scary shit.
Baud
@Kay:
What they want is equal to what they think they can get.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: I would think you should be able to find a sympathetic pharmacist or doctor with shots set to expire. It’s Florida; they’re not breaking the doors down to get vaccinated.
Kay
@Geminid:
Oh, I agree. I thought it would stick the minute I saw it. It has huge elite support too- hence the fancy collection of anti-cancel culture warriors making big bucks on substack. This Virginia race is their validation. It’s their social class.
It’s just dumb and lazy for the NYTImes to talk about “public schools” though. These are very specific, targeted areas, white and wealthy public schools. The lower income white public schools get the same protests, but it’s people ranting about masks and vaccines.
The panic has progressed now to actual witch hunts. It isn’t just “what’s taught”. They objected to a presentation by a school board member where she talked about the gap in test scores between white and black kids. That’s how progress is measured in the US. It’s the data they use to measure equity. They don’t have another way to measure it.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: They opened it up to preexisting conditions, obesity, etc. CVS and Walgreens are asking about your specific situation.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: I got the J&J back in March. When I went in to get the Moderna series, I had to fill out a questionnaire. They asked, “Have you already gotten a Covid vaccine?” I looked the form over. There was a line for a signature. No where did they ask if I had answered everything truthfully, under penalty of law or penalty of anything else. They didn’t even ask if I was telling the truth. So I lied, comfortable in the knowledge that the worst they could do to me was charge me for the shot when my insurance refused to pay for it.
Guess what? My insurance paid for it.
Go get the shot. Go ahead and lie. Your peace of mind is important too and I’ll bet your insurance will be very happy with how serious you are taking Covid. AND not having to worry about paying for a 3 month stint in the ICU.
Kay
@Geminid:
It just wasn’t an accident that “Parents Defending Education” launched with 3 of the 4 leaders being Virginia conservatives with an education history. The 4th is from New Hampshire but she’s a long term, paid anti-public school activist, to the extent where I recognized her name. This isn’t her first “grass roots education” venture. She makes a (nice) living attacking public schools and has for a decade. They launched in VA to win the governor’s race there.
Quinerly
@Betty Cracker: I am not trying to be doom and gloom… I’m worried too. I think so many people are dismissing these break through cases as “it is bound to happen” kinda stuff. BUT we still don’t know what long term effects of even the mild cases.
I have to admit that l have felt pretty safe this last month in Santa Fe. Every one is wearing a mask and no one seems to argue. Businesses are actively enforcing the governor’s mandate. (now if you go to certain areas of NM, some businesses aren’t enforcing. l was in Moriarty, NM to catch up with a friend for a hike, l was going to kill a few minutes in an antique mall before meeting my friend. Owner of the mall actually asked me to remove my mask. I left.)
Starfish
@Another Scott: Oliver Willis was making fun of the whole mess.
Quinerly
@Betty Cracker: doesn’t hurt to try at a pharmacy or a mass vax event. I am hearing about lots of technically not qualified folks getting a booster.
Baud
@Starfish: Heh.
emmyelle
@Quinerly: I have not seen anything. I would guess, a very good guess, is that one of the kids? She says “member of household”.
Where I work we are 99% vaxed and we doo weekly testing. We are seeing a steady number of breakthroughs, maybe 4 or so per week (5000 employees), with zero on-site transmission. There are two key things that keep coming up with the people who test positive:
I cant imagine Jen going to parties
Kay
His last “woman on the street” was also a local GOP leader. Another lawyer!
Quinerly
@emmyelle: since I have no children, l feel comfortable calling them “disease vectors.” ?
Baud
@Kay:
Jeremy knows what he’s doing.
Kay
@Starfish:
They are going to go BANANAS over VA if the D loses. Every editorial page will be 100% CRT panic. There’s going to be a lot of burned ground by the time the CRT panic subsides. There won’t be anything about race or racism in a public school for a decade, which should be interesting for schools, since they’re mandated to pull out subgroups and report scores by federal civil rights law.
Sure Lurkalot
@Betty Cracker: My niece who is 48 got her booster yesterday at a CVS in Texas. Not in any special group. She went online to make her appointment on Saturday and AFAIK, no issues when she went in to get her shot.
Soprano2
@Dorothy A. Winsor: This just reinforces my belief that the abortion “issue” is all about controlling the sex lives of single women. It’s why they’ll go after birth control as causing abortion next. They want the “slutty sluts” to quit having sex before marriage, period.
OzarkHillbilly
@Quinerly: Every teacher I know agrees with that.
trnc
Also kinda weird how hard they fight to close down places that help to prevent unwanted pregnancies and provide prenatal care to women who want to have healthy babies.
Nelle
@Quinerly: We regularly care for our granddaughters, ages 2 and 4. They are disease vectors. Simple reality. Cute enough to keep, though.
Spanky
@Baud: Exactly.
If the NYT was the official propaganda arm of the Republican Party, how would their reporting be different?
Kay
@Baud:
I was contacted by the (former) NYTimes education reporter about Common Core- the story was about whether parents and students liked it. I thought about it and declined because my youngest is gregarious and trusting and although he doesn’t know jack shit about Common Core and paid absolutely no attention to it if an adult asked him he would supply an answer. I think they’re vulnerable to manipulation, kids.
Now I wonder if it would have been “Obama supporter outraged over Common Core”- I wasn’t outraged, I have complex and nuanced views on Common Core, but maybe they were looking for Democrats :)
Soprano2
@Kay: Somewhere I saw a story highlighted about how the anti-abortion zealots are still harassing women going into Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas even though those clinics aren’t currently doing abortions. This was their excuse for camping out on the sidewalk and harassing women – “We’re trying to save the babies”, they piously cried. Well, that was a lie, because now no “babies” are in danger there and they’re still trying to keep women from going into the clinics. I suppose they’re trying to talk them out of getting birth control, because of course that’s the best way to prevent abortions *rolleyes
Baud
@Kay:
I once again bring up the Juicer whose daughter was contacted by the NYT looking for Women’s March participants who were disappointed with Biden. Their political desk is absolutely anti-Dem.
Quinerly
JoJo las Orejas and l are working on a new chapter. After almost 40 years in St. Louis, l am 99% sure of a move to the Santa Fe area. The pandemic has truly changed me… When l left the Four Corners area 3/2020 on that 6 week trip out here, l went into near isolation in St Louis for many months. Poked my head out some this past summer but so much l used to do before the world changed didn’t interest me anymore. So I hunkered back down and planned this 4 month journey that started 9/3.
Santa Fe has been calling me since my first extended trip out here 2/2011. Housing market is crazy right now. Houses on the market only one or two days. I am looking at houses 10-12 miles out of town on 1 acre plus to get a feel for neighborhoods and areas. Hoping the market cools a little in the next 6 months. Realistically, that’s my timeline to sell my home in the City of St Louis and actually move.
trnc
Of course, as with other things learned before graduating high school, birth control education is useful beyond high school and even to married people, so not teaching it is counter productive.
The next time someone says that sex education shouldn’t be taught because it teaches kids to have sex, ask that person if they needed a formal education on how to have sex, and how the world became populated in places where sex education didn’t exist until recently (hint: the entire world). For bonus points, ask why God’s sex lesson to Adam isn’t in the bible (obviously, no lesson needed for Eve since she was just supposed to lie there).
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
tee hee hee
Quinerly
@Nelle: ?
Starfish
@Kay: There are state requirements around culturally responsive education that they will try to strip away. They will also continue with all the trans-panic to persecute the trans students.
I will need someone to call in and check on me when this happens.
What they are doing to Loudon County is so gross.
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Amen
trnc
@Soprano2: I was wondering about that.
Quinerly
@OzarkHillbilly: yep. My mother was a 1st grade school teacher.
Geminid
@Baud: People at the NYT also likes horse races, and wants to give the jockey with the best horse extra weight to make it interesting. And they are personally insulated from the actual result.
leeleeFL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: NO man should be in a position to say what any woman can do about a pregnancy, unless and until ALL men are able to become pregnant. THEN, and only THEN, such men will be in a position to be affected by their opinion. Patriarchy in modern times needs to be eliminated. We now know they are not gifted by a supreme power with information Women do not have.
They may, therefore, fuck right the fuck off!
GregMulka
@Betty Cracker:
Looks like you’re getting a lot of replies but I was able to get a booster at Walgreens on Saturday. One question was about age and pre-existing conditions. The second was about potential exposure which I took to mean do you encounter humans in the course of your existence. A yes to either question qualifies you for the booster.
emmyelle
@Quinerly: Viruses looooooooove kids. A lot of viral diseases are less severe in kids, and kids can handle a much higher titer before getting sick. A virus that keeps its host mobile and interacting with a lot of people is going to be more successful than a virus that causes its host to go to bed and not see anyone,
So, yeah, kids are lovable, huggable, charming, adorable, lovely, precious viral vectors.
trnc
@Quinerly:
2 concerns about that:
Is there enough supply to handle that?
Does it screw up the data being collected about how long each shot will last on average? IOW, does it put us on a path toward boosters every 6 months when we may not actually need them for a year? I’m pro vaccine, but anti over-medicating, so I would prefer to know what the threshold is for over medication.
emmyelle
@GregMulka: I got a booster this weekend based solely on answering yes to working in a high-exposure setting. No one asked or even verified. I do work in a setting where there is high exposure but my job doesn’t place me at risk (and I work at home about 30-40% of the time).
I’m not sure I feel bad about “lying”. I didn’t actually lie, but no one asked a single follow up questions that would have likely deemed me ineligible. No one asked me anything at all, except for my ID and CDC card.
There were a zillion available appointments. And I waited 0 minutes when I arrived at CVS for my shot.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: There’s a lot of evidence that protection against severe (hospitalization-worthy) disease and death is much more durable than six months, from all the existing vaccines. That’s why the FDA and CDC were hesitant to recommend boosters for everyone. Protection against any symptomatic infection wanes faster; protection against any infection that will cause you to test positive, faster still.
The situation WRT long COVID and infectivity is kind of murky, with a lot of conflicting studies–I’ve heard flatly contradictory results lately about whether or not breakthrough infections are as likely to pass on COVID as infections in the unvaccinated.
germy
hueyplong
@GregMulka: Was that for Pfizer or Moderna? I’m looking to get a Moderna booster when available, but am not yet 65.
NC Bar successfully lobbied for lawyers to be considered “at risk” and therefore eligible prior to lowering the age for the first two shots, back when we got them here through our county instead of at a pharmacy.
There is a part of me that hopes things are vague on purpose so the motivated people will get their shots and fuck the anti-vaxxers and the delays/inefficiencies involved in stair-stepping the boosters through various risk/age levels.
Rusty
@Kay: They are working hard to create the ground work to destroy public schools in New Hampshire. First the Republicans passed a law for vouchers (grants) for home schooling and private schools of any form. Applies to families under 300% of the poverty line (in NH that is $79K for a family of four), they get between $3k and $4K. Funded 139 grants. Just announced last week they have certified 1,600 to receive grants, and that is just the first quarter. Legislature wants to remove the income cap. No one knows where the money will come from. Are they limited to the 100+ grants, or will they fund all and take the money from somewhere else in the state education budget? No answers from the state. This is in a state that gives very little money to local schools, there are been 25+ years of various school districts suing the state for more funding. There is another big suit with a dozen districts in process. The state won’t fund the public schools, but is working hard fund home schooling, private schools, religious schools, you name it. The state has no income or sales tax, and claims poverty when it comes to public school funding. But now wants to shower money on alternatives and ultimately starve the public schools even more. The obvious long term goal is to move to an entirely voucher system, where the state is completely out of funding public schools. As a state we are probably stupid enough to keep voting in the people that will destroy education here. What a mess.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I thought the regulations were age-based OR being in a job where you have a lot of exposure to the public?
Kay
@Starfish:
They’ve already stripped them out in a lot of states. They’re gone in Ohio. It’s an old idea and it’s absolutely Right wing. It’s “color blind”- the Justice Roberts theory. It’s why he gutted the Voting Rights Act.
For public SCHOOLS though it will be profound because it implicates the federal civil rights laws that are used to measure racial disparities. They will literally be “blind” to racism. They have to pull out population groups. It’s how they measure progress on racial equity. They only know that black boys are disciplined 50% more in public schools because they’re not “colorblind” and public schools have to report. They pull out the groups. They see black boys who are treated differently than white boys and the difference is systemic- it runs thru all the states. They’ll go back to not seeing black kids.
Starfish
@Kay: I did not even think about the collection of those types of measures. I was thinking about curriculum. ??♀️
Kay
@Starfish:
John King, who was Obama’s 2nd sec of ed said the US Department of Ed is a civil rights agency. That’s true. The vast, vast majority of federal law on schools is civil rights. The thing turns on looking for differences in subgroups. It’s the reason the US Dept of Ed exists. A “colorblind” education policy eviscerates 60 years of civil rights in public education. It doesn’t end racism in public schools. It drives it back into the dark.
Kay
@Starfish:
Just the cavalier attitude of these people kills me. How reckless they are. They’re always so willing to jump on these Right wing bandwagons and there’s no thought at all to the implications and consequences.
They are absolutely going to chill or eradicate efforts to mitigate racial disparities in schools. They’re characterizing efforts to pull out subgroups as “CRT”. We’ve been pulling out subgroups since 1970. It’s the only reason we know racial disparities exist.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@germy: Peters is right about the Republican made up of an illogical collection of factions; corporate cons, religious control freaks and anarchist who make over 40k a year, otherwise known as Libertarians. That’s what an narcissistic, grifter like Trump is the inevitable result of it.
Starfish
@Kay: Because of the cost of pull-out services, some places have been doing push-in services. Push-in services also allow for the main teacher to get help in these new oversized classrooms.
We have a number of cases of bullying a trans person or a Black person in the schools, and the bully may have issues that put them on an IEP and may or may not be suspended.
There are concerns from the victims of this stuff that it is going to happen again when the bully returns to class. The victim often wants the bully to not be in their class. I feel bad for the bullied kids, but I also feel bad for some of the bullies who probably also have issues. It seems complicated, and I am not sure what the outcomes of these cases have been.
delk
@Betty Cracker: I get my booster Friday at my doctors office. My infectious disease Dr wanted me to wait the full 6 months which was October 27th. I’m 59 with Addison’s Disease and HIV. I don’t think there is any reason not to go to CVS or Walgreens’s and at least try to get the booster. Especially in an anti-vax part of the country.
Nicole
@Betty Cracker: You can likely schedule at a CVS or RiteAid- just list that you have a preexisting condition on the form when you schedule. When I asked, my doctor told me to get the booster; I guess because I’ve had cancer, even though I’m currently free of disease, so I think my actual risk isn’t higher than the general population. But, I listen to my doctor, so I checked off “pre-existing condition” when I signed up but I was never asked what the condition was, nor did I have to provide any proof. And they only contact your doctor afterwards, to let them know you’ve had the booster. It’s unlikely you’re taking a shot away from anyone who has greater need, and if it’s not hard to get it right now, figure it’s less stress later on the health care system when boosters are opened up for everyone. The only caveat I can think of is that boosters “may” be more effective in the average person with a longer wait than 6 months, but I don’t know that it’d be enough of a difference to be worth more than the stress of worrying now.
I think breakthrough cases will become a part of life, vaccinated or no, but the outcome for most of us who stay up on booster shots will be the same as catching a cold. And that may be the best we can hope for.
Starfish
@Nicole: I agree with the above. No one is asking what your pre-existing condition is. People are widening the pre-existing conditions so theirs fall in.
I was mad at some 64-year-old who had done this before some people who I would consider more serious (like delk) got theirs, but I think it is now being opened up to more people. The vaccine supply is there for people to get the boosters.
“I am more exposed than most because I live in Florida, and our governor is a doodoo head” seems like a totally legitimate reason to get your booster.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@germy: I just can’t thinking that there is more to this anti-vaccer thing than political BS. Like wide spread abuse of some prescription drug that has serious side effects with a vaccine.
Kay
The NYTimes has a good education reporter. Her work is good. Maybe have her check the work of their shitty political reporters before it’s released?
Why does that one group- politics- lag on quality and rigor compared to a lot of their other specialists? It’s a management question.
germy
Look at the company NYT Peters keeps:
Matt McIrvin
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: What unites the religious and libertarian factions is racism and sexism–the white evangelicals largely use religion as a cover for freedom to discriminate and maintain unequal power relations, and the libertarians use abstract notions of individualism and minimal government for the same purpose. And the corporate cons are happy to exploit any money-making angle on this that they can.
Soprano2
ITA with this. The zero Covid ship sailed in April 2020. In fact, I think the idea of zero Covid was never attainable in the U.S., even if we had been perfect in managing Covid from the beginning. It’s just way too infectious. We’ve only been able to totally get rid of one disease, and that took a decades-long effort with vaccination against it being available for over 100 years!
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: They are also united by negative partisanship, their fear and loathing of the cartoon vision of the Democratic party that they believe uncritically.
PST
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
And you just know, to a certainty, that this guy also believes that married women have a duty to provide their husbands with sex whether they want to or not.
Baud
@Geminid:
Is the negative partisanship caused by Dem resolve to ending racisms and sexism though?
wenchacha
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I share your outrage. I was in my early teens when we got Roe v Wade. Voted for Jimmy Carter two times. My adult life: work, marriage, home, children, all of it, has been affected by the Reagan Revolt.
Women got some agency with birth control. The god-botherers want to take our freedoms away, and I am still incredibly pissed about it.
I wouldn’t have my two children if my husband’s first girlfriend hadn’t had an abortion. They would have been married off, and we would never have met. The little boy who is my grandchild would not exist, either. How many happy families, healthy women and children would not be here if abortion was banned?
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: Zero COVID was unattainable but existing levels of vaccination were well on the way to making it a marginal illness in much of the country until the Delta variant hit.
I think one thing that a lot of analyses missed was not that the virus was going to mutate, but how it was going to mutate. They imagined escape variants that would require new formulations of the vaccines because of a spike-protein mismatch. But Delta isn’t really that–it just fights immune resistance through brute force, by reproducing much, much faster. A Delta-tailored vaccine variant would probably only be marginally better against it than the vaccines in wide use (which is why they’re not distributing Delta-tailored vaccines today).
Woodrow/asim
This is the biggest part of the situation.
I’m mindful that the NYTimes Magazine side of the house published the 1619 Project which, arguably, was Ground Zero for all of this CRT backlash (in a similar way that the astroturfed GamerGate situation showed the Alt-Right how to organize online via inciting harm towards Women and People of Color).
I’m mindful of it because, sometimes, the Times and other publications do amazing work. I’m reading that WaPo long-form article on the Insurrection, and it’s a top-notch piece of reporting.
But it’s not the bread-and-butter stuff, the stuff news agencies feel they need to publish to get people to read, and stay reading, on the daily. The reporters and editorial stuff working that seem to be the core of the issues we have, the bubble that traps even good ones in cycles that feel too much, to me, like the issues we have with police.
The desire/need to compete with 24-hour news, as especially the toxic influence of Fox News, seems to have driven even good “day-to-day” reporting off a cliff. Add to that, that too many reporters seem to have drifted into grifting in order to make a bit more money and/or rep (hell, even Couric just fell into that hole!), and we have a serious problem with our mass media.
I’m not yet at the point where I think they all need to, um, Go Away. But I do think we need to speak about the news with awareness that there’s some serious and real problems, as well as some real work that’s important, and — as a stopgap to getting real fixes in place — supported, when news agencies do the right thing. Otherwise, I fear they’re just responding to naught but negative incentives, external and internal.
Kristine
@Betty Cracker:
I talked with one of the clinical staffers during my study visit last month. He said that all these questions we have would’ve been answered during regular clinical studies. The public would’ve then been presented with a finished product, with no exposure to all the scientific and medical sausage-making behind the scenes. Instead, because pandemic, we’re all seated in the front row watching vaccine development in real time. Throw in misinformation both unintended and intended and well, here we are.
wenchacha
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I share your outrage. I was in my early teens when we got Roe v Wade. Voted for Jimmy Carter two times. My adult life: work, marriage, home, children, all of it, has been affected by the Reagan Revolt.
Women got some agency with birth control. The god-botherers want to take our freedoms away, and I am still incredibly pissed about it.
I wouldn’t have my two children if my husband’s first girlfriend hadn’t had an abortion. They would have been married off, and we would never have met. The little boy who is my grandchild would not exist, either. How many happy families, healthy women and children would not be here if abortion was banned?
bluefoot
@Baud:
I got one of those – asking if “I knew then what I know now, would I have voted for Biden.” Um, yeah? I like (translation: have deep contempt for) how the question is worded to actually form/influence opinion.
No follow up after I responded of course with a tone of “what are you, some kind of moron.”
Kristine
@Soprano2:
I believe they want to ban contraception, period, even for married women. All the babies God sends–if you don’t want to get pregnant, don’t have sex.
Men, of course, will be free to do whatever. Natural order and all that.
Matt McIrvin
@wenchacha: I always say “aren’t you happy your mother didn’t abort you?” isn’t an argument against legal abortion, it’s an argument against traveling back in time and altering history.
Anyway
@Nelle:
My 66-yr-old fully vaccinated former neighbor tested positive and has mild symptoms after spending unmasked time with a 3-yr-old. She had been spending a few hours a week with the kid all year and was careful about masking. The kid’s day-care reported a positive case last week — the one weekend they both slipped up and were unmasked. I guess they also gave up on distancing.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
“Yes, but I’m unhappy your mother didn’t abort you.”
Kay
@Woodrow/asim:
It’s too big a job for national news org to replace local news and they’re doing that because they’re peddling subscriptions. They won’t ever do it well – it’s too big, too diverse a market, too much detail and background for them to ever cover well, but it’s all we’ll get.
It is guaranteed to be less specific, less fact based, less context. They get bamboozled by local GOP operatives because they don’t know anything about these thousands of places they’re covering. A local reporter would check the county GOP, or even perhaps know the players.
The local reporter here calls me on “turnout” (in an annoying way- he’s openly wingnutty) but he knows I’m a Democrat, so he doesn’t quote me as “Trump voter disastisfied with Trump”.
Nicole
@Starfish:
That’s an excellent point. Rates of infection based on where you live are, in my opinion anyway, a totally legit thing to factor in when deciding if it’s time. I liked that analogy on the news a couple of weeks ago re: breakthrough cases- that vaccination is like wearing a really good raincoat. You’re likely to stay totally dry in a sprinkle, but in a hurricane you may still get wet, though not as wet as someone wearing a cheaper one or without any raincoat. The precipitation, of course, being the rates of infection in your area. In a hurricane, I’d like to acquire a heavier raincoat, too, please.
Geminid
@Baud: There is a connection, just as the image of the Democratic party that conservatives propogate is an exaggeration and distortion of real aspects of the party.
The few people I know who voted for trump did not like or respect the guy, and would rather have been voting for Jeb Bush or John Kasich. But they really believe that the Democrats are dominated by the “radical left.”
Nicole
@Soprano2:
Not to mention, other mammals can carry Covid-19, too. I think once a virus is established in more than one species it’s just about impossible to eradicate; we can’t vaccinate every mammal on the planet. It’s really an extraordinary achievement of science and the human condition that we went from identifying to developing a very effective vaccine for a previously unknown virus in less than two years.
Kay
Victims of the CRT panic. The “free speech defenders” whp spent the last year moaning about cancel culture are culling all the dissenters.
Kohler spoke out publicly, said she knew there would be “consequences” because she’s a Republican, hence the extra push from DeWine to get rid of her.
Our board will be pure – cleansed of any mention of race or racism in public schools. Forbidden speech.
Baud
@Geminid: I wish the radical left believed that. Might boost turnout.
@Kay: Maybe it’s time for a disparate array of intellectuals to pen a joint letter on the subject.
Kay
@Baud:
This is anti-cancel culture:
The Moar You Know
@Betty Cracker: probably already said, but if you’re near a CVS they absolutely do not care. They will ask you two questions: for your vax card and which arm. That’s it.
Kay
@Baud:
Oh, yes, our esteemed “public intellectuals”. Jesus, just to self-identify like that was probably a tip off.
We’re not getting quality. Whatever the “merit based” system they think they’ve risen in is, it isn’t working. We’re getting junk.
The Moar You Know
@rikyrah: eventually. The two that they are going to come hard for next are:
VA vs. Loving
Brown vs. Board of Education
Baud
@Kay: I don’t understand that tweet, but I personally have never been anti-Establishment when the Establishment is the morally correct one.
Woodrow/asim
@Kay: Truth. Although I’ll say that I was mostly talking about (and wasn’t clear in saying this) the “original” reporting of national-level news in “big news” newspapers like the NYTimes, WaPo, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, etc. Specifically — it’s reporters/editors/mgmt from those places that set the pace for what news seems to value, these days, and (part of) how we talk about Federal-level politics and related issues.
But, again, I wasn’t clear on that, so your point certainly stands!
Kay
Just signed Tim Ryan’s petition to get on the ballot. That’s a well-managed campaign. I don’t know if we can win Ohio but we would lose if he hired fuck up grifters, so good so far! :)
Matt McIrvin
I belatedly learned that there was a weird kerfuffle in Northern Virginia over the past few days: an “ISIS terrorist attack threat” on shopping malls that led to a bunch of event cancellations, law-enforcement warnings and massive police presence, that apparently turned out to be a completely unsubstantiated email/social-media rumor. No legit warning from the feds or anything kicking it off.
Of course it led to a lot of people fulminating on Twitter about how Halloween was ruined because Biden let in Afghan refugees. Seems like masterful election-season trolling.
kalakal
@Betty Cracker: Walgreens here in Pinellas weren’t asking questions, people just turn up and ask for a booster
Kay
I did a paper in law school on panics and how they distort laws. I’ve been interested in them ever since.
About a decade ago there was a panic about juvenile sex offenders. I knew it would be a disaster because it’s a really complicated issue- juvenile sex offenders can be treated successfully, a vanishingly small number are predatory- and the “debate” was so dumb. Just blind mob fear.
It was a disaster. Ohio was the only state that adopted the panic-driven law whole, and we were labeling 15 year olds 25 year tier two sex offenders. It was a godammned tragedy. Finally Ohio judges sued on sep of powers (leg had taken their authority for discretion) and won, so the panic subsided and the panic merchants moved on to fuck something else up, but we snared hundreds in this dragnet. We doomed them at 13, 14, 15. I wonder sometimes how they’re doing.
That’s how I knew CRT in schools would be a panic. They all look the same. The dumb laws will have dumb consequences and they’ll end up not being enforced or being overturned but in the meantime they’ll snare thousands of people and eradicate real discussions of racial disparities in schools.
It’s all such a waste.
GregMulka
@emmyelle: They didn’t even ask for my ID.
kalakal
@Betty Cracker: just do it
the cdcs guidelines, along with the over 65s etc have this
If anyone asks ( and they didn’t ask me) go with that
catclub
@The Moar You Know:
yeah, I figure I could go in every week and get a shot at walmart
Miss Bianca
@Kay: I don’t even have to click the link to guess. A blonde lady with a blond dog? Yeah, I’ve been staying in VA for the last few days…
Miss Bianca
@Quinerly: let me know if you score a place in the Santa Fe area. It’s calling to me too – always has, ever since my late sister moved to Pecos 20+ years ago.