COVID-19 Non Political Thread

[moonslav59]

Multiple newspapers looking at news from different perspectives is IMO the only way to actually give yourself a decent shot.

Network News used to be pretty decent, now corrupted by the 24/7 News Channels which are a travesty.

The simple truth of it is that there has never been more than about 2 hours of National and International News every day. 24 hour news channels are not only stuck with the same 2 hours of worthwhile news but all of their ad dollars had to come from broadcasting news 24/7. So they have to make money from news....unheard of before they came along. Whereas the Network News programing always lost money. It was baked into the formula. The Networks considered news a public service that they used in order to further justify their FCC licenses. The big break for the 24/7 News Channels (most particularly CNN) was the first Iraq War and you know what we watched hour after hour after hour???......Reporters standing around on top of buildings in Baghdad waiting for something to happen.

At any rate, now all of video news media tells you the story they want to tell you. They edit the audio so you hear what they want you to hear. They crop the video so you see what they want you to see. A few of them will actually take a complete pass on important stories and substitute a "Man bites dog piece" for real news just to fill the time and completely avoid a piece they don't want to broadcast at all. IMO its all garbage. Since they can only keep repeating the same two hours of actual news in every 24 hour cycle, they had to come up with something to fill half the day and their talking head pure entertainment television programming was born. These are nonsense shows that are simply pure entertainment and bias....nothing more. Tucker Carlson, Hannity and Ingraham on Fox. Lawrence O'Donnell on MSMBC. Almost all of CNN from about 5:00PM on, pure entertainment television. A few of the other 24/7 News Channels are better than the big three. But they are all stuck with the same problem. There is not more than 2 hours of broadcast news of interest in any 24 hour cycle. So what do they fill the rest of the time with after repeating the same stories for 12 hours......12 hours of pure garbage to follow their 12 hours of half garbage.....thats what.

All you can do is buy multiple newspapers and learn the proper way to read a newspaper. Reading a newspaper is not like reading a book or even a magazine. In my case, I have to take the NY Times. Its not a matter of whether I agree with their editorial positions or not. There is simply no way to avoid the NY Times, not these days. Wall St Journal almost as necessary. You don't have to take WAPO if you have the Times and you don't have to take the Boston Globe either unless you want local Boston News. I really miss the Globe for its Sports Section. Best in the country for many years IMO. But I had to give up something and Sports Journalism is not as important to me as other content.

I am fortunate in that the biggest newspaper in my state is one of the oldest staunchest conservative papers in the country syndicated with other conservative papers and that is where I get my conservative slant on national news and MY local news.

Nice post.

In the grand scheme of things, our media works to protect the system and the powerful who run it.

I try to read at least 3 articles from conservative sites everyday. RCP does a pretty good job of providing articles from both sides, but sometimes I have to right to the source. What I've found is that most articles have a grain of truth in them, some a few grains, but you need to know how to filter out the fluff, the bait and switch, the deflection and diversions and even some grand illusions.

When I lived in Maine, my best friend was a very well read Duke grad who was about as conservative as anyone I know. I'm not sure we agreed on anything, but we never got heated or antagonistic. (Oh yeah, he did agree with me on one thing, the SCOTUS decision to hand the election to GW over Gore was political and went against the conservative's normal "state's rights" position.)

I loved the Globe Sports section way back when, too. It got bad at some point, and I stopped even bothering to buy the Sunday Globe.

[a700hitter]

Arizona Daily New Cases, Daily New Hospitalizations and Daily Deaths:

[jacksonianmarch]

I'd like to hear Jacko's opinion on 70% vaccinated and herd immunity.

70-80% immune is the number I’m seeing for herd immunity. The problem is, we honestly don’t know covid’s number. It’s incredibly contagious, so we may need more. You won’t know the percentage until it’s already over.

Here’s what we run into. If the vaccine does cause antibodies (proven last week) yet the illness doesn’t cause them to be long lasting, we should assume the same for the vaccine. So we would need those 70-80% to get the vaccine in the same time frame. There are people who get the virus and don’t have antibodies after recovering, which means you’ll have some vaccine non responders (if having the disease doesn’t cause antibody formation in some people, assume the same for the vaccine). So if the number for herd immunity is 70-80% immune, you’re going to need to immunize more than 70-80% in a short time frame to gain immunity.

I’m not a big fan of mandated care. Not at all. But I am a fan of mandated care for public interaction. Here’s the way to do it. Shelter in place order for everyone who doesn’t have a vaccination within the last 3 months. Enforce it. You don’t get a medical exemption. $1K fine for breaking the order. You get your shot, you get a card. That card allows you to break the shelter in place order.

[jung]

70-80% immune is the number I’m seeing for herd immunity. The problem is, we honestly don’t know covid’s number. It’s incredibly contagious, so we may need more. You won’t know the percentage until it’s already over.

Here’s what we run into. If the vaccine does cause antibodies (proven last week) yet the illness doesn’t cause them to be long lasting, we should assume the same for the vaccine. So we would need those 70-80% to get the vaccine in the same time frame. There are people who get the virus and don’t have antibodies after recovering, which means you’ll have some vaccine non responders (if having the disease doesn’t cause antibody formation in some people, assume the same for the vaccine). So if the number for herd immunity is 70-80% immune, you’re going to need to immunize more than 70-80% in a short time frame to gain immunity.

I’m not a big fan of mandated care. Not at all. But I am a fan of mandated care for public interaction. Here’s the way to do it. Shelter in place order for everyone who doesn’t have a vaccination within the last 3 months. Enforce it. You don’t get a medical exemption. $1K fine for breaking the order. You get your shot, you get a card. That card allows you to break the shelter in place order.

I think Lancet is supposed to publish an article on the AstraZeneca vaccine effort shortly, maybe even momentarily. I am awaiting that piece with some bit of anticipation.

[Kimmi]

I found:

43% last year

37% this year

Thank you. So it looks like we can expect about 40% of people to get the coronavirus vaccine when it becomes available.

[Kimmi]

Wow those are both huge decisions. I don't disagree with either

I agree with both decisions also. Our back to school programs draw huge crowds of parents. IMO, that couldn't be done safely.

The schools are working on a few different proposals involving playing football in the spring.

[Kimmi]

I've never gotten a flu shot, and would only get a COVID-19 vaccine if it was required for work/school

I have never gotten a flu shot either. I think I would get a coronavirus shot, but I will wait for further information on it.

[Kimmi]

Florida Daily New Cases, Daily New Hospitalizations, and Daily Deaths:

Maybe Florida has reached its peak in new cases?

That said, its daily death numbers do not look good.

[Kimmi]

I heard on the news that there may be a huge bus driver shortage in my area if schools reopen this fall. I can't say that I blame them. Think about crowding that many students into that enclosed space with no circulation. Yikes.

[Thunder]

I agree with both decisions also. Our back to school programs draw huge crowds of parents. IMO, that couldn't be done safely.

The schools are working on a few different proposals involving playing football in the spring.

For high schools, spring football would be hard, for a totally different reason than it would be for colleges. In high school, you have kids that play 3 sports a year, or at the very least, one other sport in the spring season. I'm not sure what sports are spring sports down there, but football and baseball is a very popular combination, for example. And since they would have already missed one spring sports season, the desire to play spring sports would be at an all time high. For colleges, meanwhile, the biggest gripe about spring football is that the players would have to play 2 full seasons in a 12 month span, which basically means no offseason recovery period.

And, the other thing I heard from one of the college athletic directors is that we can't bank on having a vaccine by the spring. If there's no vaccine, the spring could very well be just as bad of a time to try to play football. Just a lot of decisions to make, all of which have no right answers. It's tough, and people have to understand that.

[FredLynn]

Thank you. So it looks like we can expect about 40% of people to get the coronavirus vaccine when it becomes available.

I think more people will get the Covid vaccine. This disease is much more scary than the flu. Its going to be really important that everyone get a flu shot this year because if hospitals fill up with flu patients they will be unable to handle the expected influx of covid patients. Our healthcare system will easily get overwhelmed.

I think that we need to find a way to penalize those who make the choice not to get the Covid vaccine. Either lock them in their home (metaphorically) or they agree to be vaccinated, especially for certain professions. That is probably not necessary for certain workers who are outdoors a lot, but most professions require interaction with others so those people should be encouraged to be vaccinated. I still think that the absolute best course of action is not waiting to see if a vaccine is effective: its a near total lockdown of most areas of the country, as difficult as that would be. If we keep doing what we are doing and a vaccine does not pan out.....

[moonslav59]

Thank you. So it looks like we can expect about 40% of people to get the coronavirus vaccine when it becomes available.

I would think it would be more since many people are not afraid of the flu, but more are of Covid.

I doubt it ever gets to 70%. To me, 60% might be the best we could ever expect.

[FredLynn]

I would think it would be more since many people are not afraid of the flu, but more are of Covid.

I doubt it ever gets to 70%. To me, 60% might be the best we could ever expect.

Unless encouraging the vaccine through penalties for not getting it is adopted, I agree. Way too many people in this country are selfish and want to do whatever they want to do whenever they want to do it. Enforcement is the key.

[moonslav59]

Unless encouraging the vaccine through penalties for not getting it is adopted, I agree. Way too many people in this country are selfish and want to do whatever they want to do whenever they want to do it. Enforcement is the key.

If they won't wear a mask- they won't get a vaccine.

Just to prove a point.

[moonslav59]

Florida nursing homes show Covid surge.

Florida-nursing-homes-see-infections-surge-as-workers-spread-virus-