Fear and Loathing, a Rat Flu Odyssey

**Benny Profane** · 12-09-2021, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by The AD

It was there before, but Covid certainly increased the popularity of food delivery for any kind of food you could possibly want. I wish we could just ban fast food entirely. I see commercials on TV for places like Domino's and Pizza Hut and can't even believe that shit can be characterized as food.

Oh, yeah, for sure, it was there before, but that delivery industry has been forced to grow and compete in the past few years at a massive scale, and it seems to me that it's been pretty damn successful at it. My local Whole Foods is almost a food warehouse now, with racks full of outgoing stuff where there used to be a lot of tables for lunch, And I feel like I'm competing with all of their shoppers and private shoppers for whatever is on their shelves. Same for even smaller local supermarket chains. I don't think all of that is going away, like a lot of work from home.

Pizza commercials gross me out too, but, that's how 'Murica eats.

**Harry** · 12-09-2021, 11:24 AM

Anti-Mask Senators & Congressman grandstanding at Bob Dole’s funeral.

Assholes.

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**riser4** · 12-09-2021, 11:27 AM

Originally Posted by Harry

Anti-Mask Senators & Congressman grandstanding at Bob Dole’s funeral.

Assholes.

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Dafuq?

**XXX-er** · 12-09-2021, 11:31 AM

Originally Posted by Benny Profane

Starbucks that are inside other properties suck. Service and quality of product. I am always amazed at the consistency and high quality of standalone Starbucks in general in my travels, especially the cheery service. How they do that in this day and age of sullen, depressed youth is remarkable. But, I think the training slacks off when it comes to Starbucks in box stores or supermarkets.
.

It been awhile but as I remember it the stand alone stores are 100% corporate and the counters you see in a safeway are called a different thing but they did have some connection to head office

SB would rent or lease store front space, get the initial construction done usually by a crew who has constructed SB stores before, load up a 4 ton truck with everything needed to open a store and they could have another SB location ready to go in 6 weeks

SB do train everybody in the store at least in the corporate stores, since they have so many locations they just swap experianced personel from other stores into the new location

I won't even go into other Fast food outlets but SB was always pretty good to deal with as corporate POS/ retail goes, I still remember the helpdesk ph# 1 800 23latte

**bennymac** · 12-09-2021, 11:58 AM

Those sous-vide egg bites you can get at Starbucks are great. The cold brew is passable.

I hope as a society we continue to wash our hands this much. The absence of the common cold in my life is fantastic.

And if people/kids are getting fat and anxious during all this - do we blame the policies or do we blame ourselves for this failure?

**Benny Profane** · 12-09-2021, 12:01 PM

Dominoes.

**old goat** · 12-09-2021, 12:07 PM

It is amusing to find businesses going whole hog on the disinfecting thing and ignoring the mask thing. I was in MN recently (not by choice) and the difference in masking from CA is striking. Probably didn't help that the hotel had a convention of football coaches. No wonder that MN has high covid compared to CA--except that the SE, including FL also is low right now.

On an encouraging note--I was in Kaiser today and the line for Covid shots was impressive.

On a discouraging note--if omicron is sufficiently different from Delta, rather than displacing it, why couldn't there be two parallel pandemics going on? People could even have both at the same time. Pure speculation.

**Mofro261** · 12-09-2021, 12:11 PM

Originally Posted by old goat

On a discouraging note--if omicron is sufficiently different from Delta, rather than displacing it, why couldn't there be two parallel pandemics going on? People could even have both at the same time. Pure speculation.

Why can't we all get along, evolutionarily?

Increased fitness amongst survival of the fittest.

**Mofro261** · 12-09-2021, 12:14 PM

Om nom nom split into 2 lineages....

**chaka** · 12-09-2021, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by TBS

It appears that Covid loves fat

The Coronavirus Attacks Fat Tissue, Scientists Find
The research may help explain why people who are overweight and obese have been at higher risk of severe illness and death from Covid.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/08/h...t-obesity.html

**Meadow Skipper** · 12-09-2021, 01:03 PM

Originally Posted by old goat

It is amusing to find businesses going whole hog on the disinfecting thing and ignoring the mask thing. I was in MN recently (not by choice) and the difference in masking from CA is striking. Probably didn't help that the hotel had a convention of football coaches. No wonder that MN has high covid compared to CA--except that the SE, including FL also is low right now.

Depending on where you are in CA. I was in Siskiyou County over Turkey Day and most stores/restaurants I went to not even the staff were wearing masks. Though that area identifies as the State of Jefferson rather than California.

**MagnificentUnicorn** · 12-09-2021, 04:07 PM

Originally Posted by Benny Profane

And, ironically, this shutdown has added tons of fat to an already obese population. Especially kids, I read that childhood obesity has increased by something like 18%. Not a good way to go into adulthood. And we already had a childhood/adolescent mental health epidemic. So, in a little while, we're going to have a lot of fat, depressed, and anxious kids walking around. Eating more from anxiety. And the pandemic has created an entire industry of easy and fast food delivery to fuel all that.

You see, this is why we need the Metaverse

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**dunfree** · 12-09-2021, 04:12 PM

Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper

Depending on where you are in CA. I was in Siskiyou County over Turkey Day and most stores/restaurants I went to not even the staff were wearing masks. Though that area identifies as the State of Jefferson rather than California.

also depends where you are in MN - geographically and culturally.

**old goat** · 12-09-2021, 06:35 PM

Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper

Depending on where you are in CA. I was in Siskiyou County over Turkey Day and most stores/restaurants I went to not even the staff were wearing masks. Though that area identifies as the State of Jefferson rather than California.

Originally Posted by dunfree

also depends where you are in MN - geographically and culturally.

Yeah, my generalization is probably useless. Kindly ignore if you haven't already.

**Benny Profane** · 12-13-2021, 08:46 AM

I wish we would finally get to a place where we can break down the death and severe illness results from this virus relating to age and other factors, especially underlying health conditions, rather than the simplistic overall positive test and death numbers controlling the discussion. I know it's verboten to talk about, but, this thing is still killing old people, primarily.

As U.S. Nears 800,000 Virus Deaths, 1 of Every 100 Older Americans Has Perished https://nyti.ms/33f0cFQ

"Seventy-five percent of people who have died of the virus in the United States — or about 600,000 of the nearly 800,000 who have perished so far — have been 65 or older. One in 100 older Americans has died from the virus. For people younger than 65, that ratio is closer to 1 in 1,400."

And this article just hints at the fact that most of the younger old dying have underlying conditions that helped kill them, even if vaccinated. Sure, younger people are getting pretty sick and dying, but, what kind of shape are they in? We should all know this, if we want to live longer and healthier. But, we're all being fed simple fear as we stare at the flat screen eating a bag of chips.

There have never been so many old people in America and the world. You can thank many innovations for that, including, heh, vaccines. Now we should go beyond the simple numbers and improve the defenses even more with some real time education.

**old goat** · 12-13-2021, 09:12 AM

#oldlivesmatter

**::: :::** · 12-13-2021, 09:31 AM

Originally Posted by bennymac

And if people/kids are getting fat and anxious during all this - do we blame the policies or do we blame ourselves for this failure?

It’s not the media, nor the policy

It’s us

We are teaching them grievance as public policy instead of resilience

**jono** · 12-13-2021, 09:45 AM

Benny, if the demographics are shifting with recent variants, looking back at the whole period is just a distraction. You're right that more granular stats will be more inciteful, but do you figure the mass market media is going to give you that? Even at a 10th grade reading level (and what, 8th grade math?) the NYT audience isn't ready.

**old goat** · 12-13-2021, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by jono

Benny, if the demographics are shifting with recent variants, looking back at the whole period is just a distraction. You're right that more granular stats will be more inciteful, but do you figure the mass market media is going to give you that? Even at a 10th grade reading level (and what, 8th grade math?) the NYT audience isn't ready.

I'd say we have more than enough incite. What we need is more insight. : - )

**jono** · 12-13-2021, 10:37 AM

I believe both statements are true.

**Benny Profane** · 12-13-2021, 11:23 AM

Originally Posted by jono

Benny, if the demographics are shifting with recent variants, looking back at the whole period is just a distraction. You're right that more granular stats will be more inciteful, but do you figure the mass market media is going to give you that? Even at a 10th grade reading level (and what, 8th grade math?) the NYT audience isn't ready.

Read the comments though. It's all about fuck the unvaccinated, all stupid Trump derangement anger, when, in reality, nobody is admitting that this is a culling of the herd.

Here, here's the top liked comment:

"Much of the fault lies with our former president for the cavalier public tone he showed about the virus. Had he set a responsible example, we never would have seen resistance to masking and vaccines and support for quack cures becoming badges of right wing identity.".

Jezuz, people are blinded by this bullshit. I mean, stated clearly in the article is the fact that most seniors are vaxxed. It's not a vax resistance issue. It's simply old age and pre existing conditions.

**Bunion 2020** · 12-13-2021, 11:33 AM

Jezuz, people are blinded by this bullshit. I mean, stated clearly in the article is the fact that most seniors are vaxxed. It's not a vax resistance issue. It's simply old age and pre existing conditions.

.

**jono** · 12-13-2021, 11:43 AM

Originally Posted by Benny Profane

Read the comments though. It's all about fuck the unvaccinated, all stupid Trump derangement anger, when, in reality, nobody is admitting that this is a culling of the herd.

Here, here's the top liked comment:

"Much of the fault lies with our former president for the cavalier public tone he showed about the virus. Had he set a responsible example, we never would have seen resistance to masking and vaccines and support for quack cures becoming badges of right wing identity.".

Jezuz, people are blinded by this bullshit. I mean, stated clearly in the article is the fact that most seniors are vaxxed. It's not a vax resistance issue. It's simply old age and pre existing conditions.

If you have a way to track where the vaxed catch it then this could be a worthwhile discussion. Otherwise, the presumption that most transmission goes through the unvaccinated (and vaccines aren't 100% effective) is a stronger explanation for that perspective than "TDS." Exponential growth means the early mistakes will always share blame. If that's important.