"Coronavirus" is the category, dangit. (COVID-19 thread)

[Lottel]

(I looked at the study linked, found it linked elsewhere, and several other studies show it has adverse affects on different animal sperm)

[Upthorn]

my brother has quit his job of like twenty years and is now trying to fraud his way into getting on disability rather than get the vaccine

how y'all doin

What a coincidence: I haven't defrauded the SSA, and have no intention to, but I just got the form from them that's like "hey, it's been three years, prove your permanent disability is still disabling".

One of the things the form wants is a contact who knows my symptoms well enough that they can confirm things on an unscheduled phone call from the SSA.

My mother has I think too much denial about things to be useful for this purpose.
My girlfriend doesn't answer random phone calls, and isn't typically awake during business hours.
My girlfriend's mom was actually the first person to suggest that I should apply for disability, and recently retired from her job as a social worker helping people with mental health problems get services, so I was planning to get her help filling out this form, and list her as a contact...

Except, just last night, her sister went back into the hospital with covid, and got put on a ventilator. So I suddenly really don't want to ask her for a favor right now.

[atog]

my brother has quit his job of like twenty years and is now trying to fraud his way into getting on disability rather than get the vaccine

how y'all doin

What a coincidence: I haven't defrauded the SSA, and have no intention to, but I just got the form from them that's like "hey, it's been three years, prove your permanent disability is still disabling".

One of the things the form wants is a contact who knows my symptoms well enough that they can confirm things on an unscheduled phone call from the SSA.

My mother has I think too much denial about things to be useful for this purpose.
My girlfriend doesn't answer random phone calls, and isn't typically awake during business hours.
My girlfriend's mom was actually the first person to suggest that I should apply for disability, and recently retired from her job as a social worker helping people with mental health problems get services, so I was planning to get her help filling out this form, and list her as a contact...

Except, just last night, her sister went back into the hospital with covid, and got put on a ventilator. So I suddenly really don't want to ask her for a favor right now.

If you're under a doctor's care for something related to your disability, that should be the person answering the phone? Unless they specifically say it has to be someone who is living with you for some substantial length of time.

[Upthorn]

Oh, I forgot that the form specifically says the contact should not be one of my medical providers, who are listed elsewhere.

[Friday]

[Thad]

With COVID out of control, Biden unveils hefty vaccine mandates

The administration is also working on a rule—to be implemented through the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration—that will require employers with 100 or more workers to ensure that their workforce is fully vaccinated or submits to regular COVID-19 testing. The rule is expected to apply to over 80 million employees nationwide. OSHA is also working on a separate rule that will require those employers to provide paid time off to get vaccinated.

For schools, Biden will require vaccination for the nearly 300,000 staff in federal Head Start and Early Head start programs. He will also put pressure on governors to get all teachers and school staff vaccinated. Last, the administration will push more schools to implement regular testing, which will be funded by $10 billion the administration already allocated to schools earlier this year.

[KingRoyal]

Good, finally

[Yoji]

I just got an email from Kiddo's school yesterday, saying that the students and staff will start getting weekly swabs starting on the 17th.

On the one hand, that seems to be the thing to do. But on the other, I wonder how he's going to tolerate it.

[Mongrel]

[Büge]

With COVID out of control, Biden unveils hefty vaccine mandates

The administration is also working on a rule—to be implemented through the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration—that will require employers with 100 or more workers to ensure that their workforce is fully vaccinated or submits to regular COVID-19 testing. The rule is expected to apply to over 80 million employees nationwide. OSHA is also working on a separate rule that will require those employers to provide paid time off to get vaccinated.

For schools, Biden will require vaccination for the nearly 300,000 staff in federal Head Start and Early Head start programs. He will also put pressure on governors to get all teachers and school staff vaccinated. Last, the administration will push more schools to implement regular testing, which will be funded by $10 billion the administration already allocated to schools earlier this year.

Uh huh. So how are they gonna enforce that on police?

Oh wait. They won't!

[Yoji]

doot doot doot, let's check on the COVID numbers today and-

Wow wow wow, wait, the chart at the front of the search for "us covid deaths" has yesterday's death toll at 3,415.

On top of that, I read on CNN that 1 in every 500 Americans have died from COVID at this point.

Is it just me, or is time a nightmare in which nothing is ever learned?

[Thad]

Is it just me, or is time a nightmare in which nothing is ever learned?

Polling shows the number of people refusing to be vaccinated is shrinking (it's currently around 22% and I expect with the mandate it's going to keep dropping). People do seem to be learning, albeit far too slowly and at far too great a cost.

[Mongrel]

As of the most recent numbers a couple days ago, the US is currently 21st among all nations in the world for deaths per capita. Most of the 20 ahead on the list include places which have been or currently are variant/breakout epicentres like Peru (#1 on the list), Italy, or Brazil, or places experiencing a dire humanitarian crisis, like Yemen.

(this is without accounting or only partially accounting for "excess deaths", AFAIK)

Meanwhile up here, Alberta, like Florida or Texas, is in the middle of the "Find out" stage of "Fuck around and find out".

[Mongrel]

There's also a sort of grim debate going on about the effect on vaccination rates in the US from the very, very real and very constant stream of deaths among prominent or vocal anti-vaxxers.

These poetic deaths, often featuring a great deal of pain and suffering and appeals for prayer, are a bit much for even my pretty low-threshold schadenfreude.

But I can't say they'll be missed. "I'm sorry you assholes had to go that way, but please... just get out of here."

[Friday]

Just like Joe Rogan, I want any anti-vaxxer with a platform to recant. Barring that, I want them dead. This is not because I think they're stupid or evil (I do) but because these outcomes save lives. For the same reason I want a serial killer to recant, but if that's not possible, to die.

Revenge or emotion does not factor into these desires. I'd have preferred that every slaver saw the error of their ways too, but blowing up every slave fort along the African coast was still morally correct.

[Mongrel]

Exactly. Harm minimization.

[mharr]

The trolley problem gets a lot easier when the victims on one track are fundraising for a second tramcar for maximum coverage.

My husband, a decorated military veteran, died 2 weeks ago from pancreatitis. Very treatable, if you can get a hospital room. He couldn’t. We searched Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. After 2 days the Tyler, Tx Urgent Care said he couldn’t stay, and he was in to bad of shape to go home. We tried calling an ambulance, there were none available. We had to put him in a pick up truck, haul him to an ER, carry him inside, and refuse to leave. We were to late to stop the systemic organ failure, and he died. A nurse told me that on any given day 96-98% of the Covid patients are unvaccinated. They hogged the medical resources and caused my husband’s death. 4 days earlier another war veteran, Daniel Wilkinson died of pancreatitis in Houston because his doctor couldn’t get him a bed. Is this the way to treat those who fought to protect us?

The civil war is live fire now, and the insurgent weapon of choice is kamikaze biological warfare. Gods help us all.

[Mongrel]

[Thad]

It's a stunt, but a pretty good one.

[Mongrel]

I thought the maximally-blunt wording combined with the attribution would have already made that clear?

I was about to accuse you of defaulting to "Mongrel is always wrong", but then I remember you live in crazyland where you do actually have to verify that this was intended to appear as it appears.