Fear and Loathing, a Rat Flu Odyssey

[Meadow Skipper]

Why People Are Acting So Weird

Regarding the people causing scenes, “I think those are assholes,” said Tom Insel, the former director of the National Institute of Mental Health and the author of Healing. “It’s so important to distinguish people who have a mental illness from people who just do egregious things.”

[riser4]

Why People Are Acting So Weird

Heh. The guy's name is incel. Heh.

[Ted Striker]

When I saw that piece on my news feed this morning, I assumed it was an April fools joke based on his name alone.

[old goat]

When the pandemic hit I stopped using nasal steroids during allergy season on the theory that the steroids would reduce in local immunity in the nose, making it more likely to get infected with covid. I can't find any study that supports or refutes this idea, but a study from the Cleveland Clinic found that among patients diagnosed with covid, those who used nasal steroids were less likely to get hospitalized and less likely to die. That doesn't tell me about the risk of getting covid in the first place but it does give some reassurance to those of us with bad seasonal allergies. But a mask works better than nasal steroids in preventing bad allergy symptoms--at least in the nose. I suppose a mask would prevent the teary, itchy eyes too, if you wore it as a blindfold.
https://newsroom.clevelandclinic.org...0In%20Practice.

[basinbeater]

Checking in...
I just got the vid. Got tested in Mexico on Thursday last week, negative, flew home Friday. Now myself, my daughter, and my wife all have the 'rona. Not atrocious. But taste is gone and I am kind of dragging. We are all vaxxed and boosted to the max.

[XXX-er]

My ski / bud MD bro checked in on me again today which is like " hey you got any beer for a deck consult ? "

in any case other then the NZ pinot grigio, buddy isnt getting paid for this

ergo I am even more impressed with the Canadian HC system

[cat in january]

Likely we will all get it at some point. Recently recovered from a mild case which is going to let me delay the second booster until the Fall

[basinbeater]

I think that is right. The boy woke up today having symptoms. So, another day in paradise working from home with two kids banging around the house.

[XXX-er]

6 days from start of symptoms covid light is over, i didnt lose taste or smell, its more like a mild cold so I had few sniffles & mild headache (take IBU) and for some reason my sore back is fixed

then my sister ( the sane one ) tells me pretty much the same happened to her & BIL, same happened to the doc & his partner, but we are all tripple vaxed and so it would seem this new variant is super easy to catch and lasts maybe a week

but I duno how an unvaxed person reacts to it ?

[SumJongGuy]

Our school district wide COVID tracker email only lists THREE confirmed cases right now. Only six months ago the totals were more like three hundred for the school system. They're still testing kids weekly, most are participating in the weekly tests so it's probably good data to extrapolate to the rest of the city. This area was heavily pro mask and pro vax all along.. Mask mandates started coming down mid March.

[bodywhomper]

One of the small school districts that my wife works at sent an email out this week explaining that all their schools have been experiencing a noro virus outbreak that started the week that mask mandates ended, there's been delays in testing to determine that the outbreak was from norovirus, that the outbreak is now past its peak, and therefore the schools will remain open. they implied that they should have shut down schools because of the extent of the outbreak and the volume of absences of students and staff.

friend's kid just returned from middle school trip to DC with many children and chaperones testing positive (in DC) on the day that they returned. currently, all home-antigen tests, which won't be recorded with the local government.

i'm imaging that you all have seen that UK hospitalization "for" covid are higher now than their original omicron wave and hospitalization for children under 5 in scotland "for" covid is the highest it's been since pandemic started.

good times

[XXX-er]

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/04/...M_WDQEoKCdpEVg

the swedish experiment

[old goat]

I saw a piece in one of the papers this morning--can't find it now--claiming that the death rate for Covid in the US correlates best not with race or political party but with poverty, and that the the US did so badly because of our wealth and income gap and our miserable social safety net.

[dunfree]

That data sounds odd, and even if true, I suspect it’s because access to quality healthcare in the usa is more income dependent than other developed nations.

[skiJ]

The same claim was made nine months ago regarding vaccination rates - that the poor did not have access to vaccination ;

I'm not sure I understand the idea of access to medical care being part of a social safety net
( it sure seems to me like there are other underlying things going on. In usofa, if one needs medical care, one can go to an Emergency Department and receive medical care. ).
my memory of the cited study last fall identified more than twenty-five criteria and poverty was not one of them, but the author somehow came to the conclusion that poverty was the greatest contributing factor, when the parameters included in the study were pretty clearly political affiliation, religious affiliation, and education.
but the author was determined to blame the underwhelming response to the vaccination program on the poor.

One thing I am pretty-sure of is the virus does not care about finances
( there is a professional basketball player in minnesota who lost six family members to covid in 2020 -
KAT's financial resources did not protect his family. )

believe what you need to believe -
there was a good statement in the other thread last week that I hope I remember -

covid is not a partisan statement ;
covid is a potentially fatal transmissible disease.

If hospitalization for covid in children under Age - Five years is rising and higher than it has been during the pandemic ,,,

yes, Good times.


Thank you. tj

[dunfree]

If you go to an ER to get care the Hospital is gonna provide you as little care as they legally can that they will get paid for. That’s a fact. Show up at the Stanford ER without insurance or money they’ll get you the duck out as soon as they can, with insurance you’ll get better care for longer, if you are rich (many millions billions) you can get the private floor. The myth that access to healthcare in the us is $ independent is deadly

[old goat]

Combination of factors--access to health care is just one. Access to information--like how to get a shot. Lot of rural communities without internet. Poorer health to begin with--especially diabetes, because a cheap diet is unhealthy, especially if you live in a food desert. Poor access to transportation to get a shot. Living paycheck to paycheck and unable to take off any of the three jobs to get a shot. It goes on and on. And just being overwhelmed with the job of surviving from one day to the next--before the pandemic.

[summit]

COVID care was paid for by the feds so the hospitals got paid, insured or not.

Now ask yourself what comorbidities are associated with poverty? Obesity? Diabetes? Heart disease?

[old goat]

Even if hospital care is paid for for Covid how many poor people don't know that? How many don't have a doctor they can call for advice about whether to go to the ER? How many wait until too late. But I think that is less important than all the stuff that leads up to that point. And for the rural poor, how far is the nearest hospital, and how long will it take to get transferred to a hospital with the resources to care for a bad case of Covid.

[MTT]

I saw a couple stories out of China today. Interesting way to handle things

[skiJ]

respectfully, guys,
I believe this is largely a diversion - to what goal, I do not know -

yes, certainly, a combination of factors -
the strain of living check-to-check is felt not only by those in poverty.
I have friends who certainly qualify as upper-middle class, and the stress and strain they experienced in 2020 ,,, the claim can be made was every bit as great as someone in a lower economic class ;

d., no one is claiming that anyone can Walk in to 'Stanford' and get unlimited medical care. However, in usofa, if you need medical care, the law of the land requires that you be provided life-saving, stabilizing care -
do many people neglect their health and/or wait too long to seek care ? Sure - it happens every day ; it is not limited to those in poverty.

I would want to be Very careful about associating "comorbidities" with poverty without a citable Reference, even given the posters decades of clinical experience
( it is my experience that such conclusions can be just as deadly as assuming if one arrives at a hospital alive, one can be 'cured'. )

so I again question the author's sources, bias, and intent -
regarding vaccination, there was nothing ( absolutely nothing ) in the source cited implicating economic status with vaccination - but that was the author's claim and conclusion.

more recently, a column was cited critical of the childhood vaccination approval process, which was delayed because, while vaccination of six month olds to two year olds produced a "robust" antibody response, the antibody response for a two-dose series in two year olds to four year olds was deemed "not-optimal"
( a three-dose series is being trialed ).

it feels to me like this was a(nother) 'blame the poor' offering...
... another attempt to stir partisan claims to an issue that never should have been partisan, And turning it into a matter of a test of faith for others...

I would be willing to review the References - If any were offered ;
I agree with goat that this is a multi-factorial matter...

Most simply, I believe the most prevalent factor was whether or not one had covid ( covid positive ), and it is not a big step from there to whether or not one was vaccinated - and I studied that Reference last year ( see above. political association; religious association ( evangelical Christian); education. economic status wasn't even one of the defined parameters )

the poor face plenty of challenges -

I will believe death from covid is and will be for the Unvaccinated, Including those who allow their immunity to wane
( risk factors can be broadly assessed ; they are Not the same for everyone. )


Good luck. skiJ

[skiJ]

by leroy jenkins in the vaccination thread -


Meanwhile in shanghai, the sound of thousands of humans collectively wailing their isolation and anguish.

[riser4]

I am continuously amazed by people's thought processes, or lack thereof. I went to an indoor event yesterday in Jeffersonville. There's an AAU tournament this weekend in Lamoille county. Unfortunately my son's team went 1-1. Anyway, when I got there only one person was wearing a mask. I thought to myself "good on you rocking the proper KN95." The guy was probably in his 70s. And he either considered himself high risk and didn't want to take chances or he was complying with the sign on the door that said unvaccinated people needed to wear a mask. Either way, great, right? Once I got up close, not great. He was dick nosing it. Why bother at this point? Either wear it properly or don't wear it at all, especially if it's a mask designed to actually protect the wearer. People are just plain weird.

[Trackhead]

He was dick nosing it. Why bother at this point? Either wear it properly or don't wear it at all, especially if it's a mask designed to actually protect the wearer.

Perhaps the best thing to come of the pandemic is the term "dick nosing". Thank you for this valuable contribution to the urban dictionary that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

[leroy jenkins]

Meanwhile in shanghai, the sound of thousands of humans collectively wailing their isolation and anguish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-XErj0xRYQ

I'm pretty sure some of these people are locked in with their dead relatives. There's been total lockdown for a week and no food deliveries. Drones patrolling the streets, all pets are being rounded up and killed, people literally locked into their apartments from the outside by cops.

I can't see how covid is any excuse for this shit. The sound is the most haunting dystopian thing I've ever heard, and I just feel like more people should be aware.


Ahh shit, someone posted it just above me. Don't know how I missed that, I thought I looked. Ahh well, I'll leave my description.