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Delta variant and all future global variant surges (all are free post)
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The reason the mRNA vaccine targets the spike protein is that it what the virus uses to "unlock" the cell wall and enter the cell to infect it. The spike protein has to "fit" the cell wall's molecules very closely in order to get through it. So it can't mutate that much without becoming incapable of infecting the cell. That is why the vaccine has been working against all of these various mutations. As long as the mutations occur in the virus body and not the spike protein, the vaccine will work. If the mutation happens in the spike protein, it would need to be pretty subtle in order to still be able to get through the cell wall. Which means the vaccine will probably still work against it but not as effectively (e.g. the Delta variant). If it mutates the spike too much, it just basically makes the virus unable to infect us at all and no vaccine is needed.
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Originally posted by Mountain Man View Post
Like I said, the TDS left is as bad (and there definitely are some nutty Qanoin folks out there) as the Qanon crowd. It's a trip to see them lecturing to others about delusion.
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Originally posted by oxmixmudd View Post
... And continues to propagate the lie the election was stolen, continues to feed division and unrest in the country, continues to subvert the election process which is key to our stability and function. He is a very evil and dangerous man, and while I agree there are a lot of problems with the Democrats and their political positions, they are not a cult of one pushing for an autocracy subservient to that one, which means that in spite of their problems, they are the only one of our two parties that still respect our system of government and its principles.
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The Chicago chief of police has called on officers that don't want to get the vaccine to ignore Chicago's vaccine mandate that is going into effect Friday.
Under the mandate, officers would be placed on a 'no pay' status until they bend the knee and get the vaccine. As a reporter asking Lightfoot points out, what will the city do when half the police force is effectively fired for refusing to take the vaccine? The chief predicted that the no-pay status will not last long when a good chunk of the force sits out The city has been struggling to maintain a police force since the BLM riots, with large attrition rates of people retiring early, or just plain leaving the force due to liberal behavior wrt BLM riots.
And he's right. Time to see more people start to resist, across the country. We already got a taste of that in the airline industry this weekend.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/chicago-p...205300781.html
The Chicago police union chief called on officers to ignore the city's vaccine mandate set to take effect on Friday.
In a video posted to YouTube, Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara told officers, “Do not fill out the portal information."
“I’ve made my status very clear as far as the vaccine, but I do not believe the city has the authority to mandate that to anybody — let alone that information about your medical history," Catanzara said.
The city's vaccine mandate will place officers who do not submit proof of vaccination by the deadline on a "no pay" status. The police union is preparing a lawsuit against the city of Chicago.
“It’s safe to say that the city of Chicago will have a police force at 50% or less for this weekend coming up,” he added.
Catanzara also instructed officers to file for an exemption from the mandate but not to confirm the vaccination status with the city.
“I can guarantee you that no-pay status will not last more than 30 days,” he continued. “There’s no way they’re going to be able to sustain a police department workforce at 50% capacity or less for more than seven days without something budging.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot addressed speculations about police non-compliance with the vaccine mandate during a press conference Wednesday.
"What will the city do if over 50% of cops go into work and get sent home this week?" a reporter asked Lightfoot.
"I don't expect that to happen," the mayor responded. "And again, I'm going to be focused on the positive ... that all our city employees ... do their duty and make sure that they get vaccinated."
"I've been very clear," Lightfoot added. "The only way that we can maximize safety in our workplace is to get people vaccinated."
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Originally posted by Gondwanaland View PostThe Chicago chief of police has called on officers that don't want to get the vaccine to ignore Chicago's vaccine mandate that is going into effect Friday.
Under the mandate, officers would be placed on a 'no pay' status until they bend the knee and get the vaccine. As a reporter asking Lightfoot points out, what will the city do when half the police force is effectively fired for refusing to take the vaccine? The chief predicted that the no-pay status will not last long when a good chunk of the force sits out The city has been struggling to maintain a police force since the BLM riots, with large attrition rates of people retiring early, or just plain leaving the force due to liberal behavior wrt BLM riots.
And he's right. Time to see more people start to resist, across the country. We already got a taste of that in the airline industry this weekend.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/chicago-p...205300781.html
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Originally posted by Gondwanaland View PostTime to see more people start to resist, across the country. We already got a taste of that in the airline industry this weekend.Some may call me foolish, and some may call me odd
But I'd rather be a fool in the eyes of man
Than a fool in the eyes of God
From "Fools Gold" by Petra
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I know a lot of people want to see vaccines mandated. So far, the court cases seem to be more running against mandates. I just saw one order in a case that United can't put unvaccinated workers on leave. NY has a case that so far a religious exemption has to be provided.
Of course, these cases are far from resolved and the OSHA guidance is not yet out. I expect the OSHA guidance will be challenged immediately on being issued. Its going to be awhile before we know what can be mandated.
Also, while the mandates may be good for stopping the spread (no, I'm not going to debate that), so far they are having a negative impact on health care (as Mountain Man just noted and others have also noted) and not helping the economy any. Balancing health and the economy is proving to be tough and I'm not sure breaking the economy for the benefit of health care is going to work."For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings." Hosea 6:6
"Theology can be an intellectual entertainment." Metropolitan Anthony Bloom
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Joe Rogan puts CNN medical spokesman on heat-seat for lying about Ivermectim (CAUTION: it's Rogan so there is the F-bomb). I actually feel for Gupta. He seems like a nice guy who legitimately wants to report the facts, it's just that he's trying to balance that delicate line of fact and trying to keep a lucrative job with an abysmal news network at the same time.
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There have been a total of 5,649 vaccine breakthrough deaths in the U.S. up to October 4, 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-1...ugh-cases.html
There were a total of 109,247 Covid deaths from June 1, 2021 to October 4, 2021. If we assume every vaccine breakthrough death occurred on or after June 1, that means that 103,598 of the 109,247 Covid deaths (94.8%) were in unvaccinated people.
This shows that even during a time when most adults were vaccinated and the delta variant was prominent, vaccinated people are dying at a much lower rate than unvaccinated people.Find my speling strange? I'm trying this out: Simplified Speling. Feel free to join me.
"Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do."-Jeremy Bentham
"We question all our beliefs, except for the ones that we really believe in, and those we never think to question."-Orson Scott Card
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Originally posted by stfoskey15 View PostThere have been a total of 5,649 vaccine breakthrough deaths in the U.S. up to October 4, 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-1...ugh-cases.html
There were a total of 109,247 Covid deaths from June 1, 2021 to October 4, 2021. If we assume every vaccine breakthrough death occurred on or after June 1, that means that 103,598 of the 109,247 Covid deaths (94.8%) were in unvaccinated people.
This shows that even during a time when most adults were vaccinated and the delta variant was prominent, vaccinated people are dying at a much lower rate than unvaccinated people.
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Originally posted by stfoskey15 View PostThere have been a total of 5,649 vaccine breakthrough deaths in the U.S. up to October 4, 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-1...ugh-cases.html
There were a total of 109,247 Covid deaths from June 1, 2021 to October 4, 2021. If we assume every vaccine breakthrough death occurred on or after June 1, that means that 103,598 of the 109,247 Covid deaths (94.8%) were in unvaccinated people.
This shows that even during a time when most adults were vaccinated and the delta variant was prominent, vaccinated people are dying at a much lower rate than unvaccinated people.Some may call me foolish, and some may call me odd
But I'd rather be a fool in the eyes of man
Than a fool in the eyes of God
From "Fools Gold" by Petra
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Originally posted by seanD View PostJoe Rogan puts CNN medical spokesman on heat-seat for lying about Ivermectim (CAUTION: it's Rogan so there is the F-bomb). I actually feel for Gupta. He seems like a nice guy who legitimately wants to report the facts, it's just that he's trying to balance that delicate line of fact and trying to keep a lucrative job with an abysmal news network at the same time.
Geislerminian Antinomian Kenotic Charispneumaticostal Gender Mutualist-Egalitarian.
Beige Federalist.
Nationalist Christian.
"Everybody is somebody's heretic."
Social Justice is usually the opposite of actual justice.
Proud member of the this space left blank community.
Would-be Grand Vizier of the Padishah Maxi-Super-Ultra-Hyper-Mega-MAGA King Trumpius Rex.
Justice for Ashli Babbitt!
Justice for Matthew Perna!
Arrest Ray Epps and his Fed bosses!
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Welp, looks like a bunch of states wasted a whole bunch of money (close to 100 million) with their 'covid lotteries'.
States spent at least $89 million on COVID-19 vaccine lotteries. None of them worked, new research suggests.
In the spring, when Ohio announced it was holding a $1 million lottery to encourage residents to get vaccinated for COVID-19, many governors' ears perked up. Could incentivizing people to get shots – rather than mandating them – actually work?
At first, the answer seemed to be yes. In Ohio, the vaccination rate spiked 33% in May, with 119,394 people age 16 and up receiving the vaccine in the week after the lottery was announced. That's compared to 89,464 shots given the week prior, an Associated Press analysis found.
Before long, more than a dozen states had announced their own versions of Ohio's "Vax-a-Million," including "VaxCash" in Maryland and "Vax and Scratch" in New York.
But that early trend didn't seem to hold. Research published in JAMA Health Forum on Friday suggests that none of the states' lotteries were effective at raising vaccination rates.
To reach that conclusion, researchers analyzed state-level COVID-19 vaccination data between April and July 2021, when shots were widely available and while 19 states were running vaccine lotteries. Their results indicated that the association between those states' announcements and their respective vaccination rates was "very small in magnitude and statistically indistinguishable from zero."
"There's a lot of hype around these programs, and we can't find any evidence that they helped," Andrew Friedson, a coauthor of the research and associate professor of economics at University of Colorado Denver, told Insider.
That's despite huge sums spent on these programs.
"Each state's doing several drawings, and these drawings are around a $1 million a pop, although some of them are less. With 19 states, you're looking at a large amount of money that's been spent on this," Friedson said.
The researchers only included cash lotteries in their analysis, leaving out non-cash items like drawings to win a hunting license, which was a vaccine prize in Arkansas. They also didn't take into account private sweepstakes, such as the $1 million cash prizes that Kroger awarded to five people who got vaccinated in Kroger supermarkets.
Nor did the paper calculate exactly how much money states cumulatively spent on lottery programs. So Insider combined Friedman's estimate of lottery spending in 11 states ($50 million) with data provided by six additional state health departments ($39.4 million).
The rough grand total: At least $89.4 million.
Two states — Massachusetts and Maine — not included in Friedman's estimate did not respond to Insider's request, so that total is likely an underestimation. Additionally, a spokesperson for North Carolina's health department pointed out that the state's lottery money came from federal coronavirus relief funding.
"No state funds have been used to pay for the prizes," she told Insider.
'This may not be the first innovation we want to reach for'
Friedson called the results of the paper disappointing, since many people were rooting for these programs.
"There's an opportunity cost to spending money. Every dollar that you're spending on a lottery, you could have been spending on something else. That's the really economist-y answer," he said, adding, "so to the extent that we have policies that could have helped people, that we could have been spending money on, these were not a great use of funds."
Still, it's a learning opportunity, Friedson said: "Sadly, this is not gonna be the last time we're going to have a national public-health campaign."
Whenever the next public-health emergency arrives, whether it's a campaign for COVID-19 booster shots or another pandemic, it's important to know what doesn't work as well as what does.
"With regard to policies to try to raise vaccination rates, this may not be the first innovation we want to reach for," Friedson said.
So which incentives, if any, do work?
As an economist, Friedson said, suggesting an alternative approach that would work is beyond his purview. For the scientists focused on that, it's a process of experimentation.
"The short answer is, we don't know until we try these things," Friedson said.
Previous research may hint at an answer.
A review of scientific literature about interventions to address vaccine hesitancy, published prior to the pandemic, did not find strong evidence that monetary rewards have much effect on vaccination rates. But those campaigns largely focused on children, not adults.
That said, Nichole Lighthall, an assistant psychology professor at the University of Central Florida, told ABC News in May that guaranteed cash rewards, such as the $100 savings bonds that West Virginia offered residents for getting vaccinated, may work better than lotteries.
"People like to gamble, but people love to get money for sure even more," she said.
There's a possibility, though, that Americans' beliefs about COVID-19 vaccines are too deeply rooted for a reward to be effective, in larger part because of the way some leaders and groups politicized them.
"If you buy into the idea that vaccines are dangerous – and I can't stress enough that that this idea is wrong – but if you believe that there's something sinister going on with this vaccine, it's unlikely that a payment is going to convince you, regardless of how big it is," Friedson said.
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Originally posted by Gondwanaland View PostWelp, looks like a bunch of states wasted a whole bunch of money (close to 100 million) with their 'covid lotteries'.
https://www.businessinsider.com/stat...t-help-2021-10
Still, it's a learning opportunity, Friedson said: "Sadly, this is not gonna be the last time we're going to have a national public-health campaign."
Whenever the next public-health emergency arrives, whether it's a campaign for COVID-19 booster shots or another pandemic, it's important to know what doesn't work as well as what does.
While the public looks at it as creepy, they see it as a opportunity to learn how to best fine tune their propaganda tactics.
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