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Topic: What's Going on in the Americas? (Read 258737 times)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1425
:) A simple slip of paper would suffice, no? Unless the purpose was actual identification of the individual... (I've heard of fake vaccination records.) In what way would a wristband do that, convincingly to "authorities" that is?
The Enigma codes were eventually broken. But what would be the purpose for breaking the code of an implanted vaccine record?


This is simple enough. To collect and sell personal information on the dark web. It's often gathered in a piecemeal basis. Throughout the pandemic I seen people (usually on the right) be paranoid about the vaccines, all but accusing Fauci if causing the pandemic, etc. But it seems they're paranoid the wrong things. If I can intercept an RFID signal coming from a chip, I'm well on my way to selling your info to a fraudster. In that context, your comment about about a simple piece of paper makes some sense.

Ps, nice to see you appearantly doing well.
 
“What kind of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter.”
― Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1426
nice to see you apparently doing well
Back at ya, Midnight.

@ersi: Some still have their panties in a twist; and their sense of proportion skewed beyond belief. Aren't you waiting with bated breath for the culmination and conclusion of The U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol? :)
For the same reason Trump's second impeachment trial failed to achieve a conviction[1], only "reliable" members were allowed to "participate" -- House Rules be damned!
Do you really think they don't know how close the mid-terms are? :)
I know, I know: You still think it was a political circling of the wagons... But the threat of putting Pelosi under oath was enough to preclude witnesses.
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"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1427
For such a partisan guy like yourself, you should know a thing or two about politics. But I get it: You are so partisan that you never deviate from partisanship towards anything sensible.

Trump was not convicted, and likely never will, because impeachment is the court of partisan opinion. When has impeachment ever worked against anyone? And certainly Democrats love their enemy the way it is now: Disgraced and weak. Why kill such an enemy and give room to a potentially stronger enemy? So Democrats keep Republicans on life support. Moreover, insofar as there seems to be a significant portion of the population thrilled about authoritarianism, Democrats are likely taking note to orchestrate something similar themselves at some point - and get away with it, if it fails. Win-win!

None of this means that Trump did not attempt a coup. He did. It is just convenient for both sides to not convict him. It is convenient for both sides to pretend that USA is a normal country.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1428
You'd make a fine Democrat, ersi: Delusional to the bitter end! :) (Bet you think Joe Manchin is the one holding Biden's Build Back Better bill up, too.)

I'm partisan, in the sense of holding certain principles -- some of which the Democratic Party rejects:

  • Federalism, limited government and subsidiarity
  • the rule of law (constitutionalism) and republicanism
  • natural rights
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"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1429
(No, the 50 Republican senators are doing that.)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1430
(No, the 50 Republican senators are doing that.)
Maybe that should only be whispered, jax... While the Democrats technically control both houses of Congress, their majority is as thin as it gets in the Senate. And the House is precarious. (Of course, you know this. They know it; I know it. ersi doesn't seem to.)

To resume the topic of SARS-COV-2 mitigation measures:
UCI professor sues for exemption from vaccine mandate due to natural immunity. (PDF) While his request for a preliminary  injunction was denied, his suit continues... (The PDF is a declaration of support for his suit by his colleagues at the university, and more than makes his case...[1] So -of course- he was fired!)

Why does the CDC (and Fauci especially, as Biden's chief advisor...) never mention natural immunity? Any guesses, anyone? (Beyond the old saw about every problem looking like a nail to one who only has a hammer...)
Its numerous links to studies on-topic are a treasure trove of information.
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1431
I'm partisan, in the sense of holding certain principles -- some of which the Democratic Party rejects:

  • Federalism, limited government and subsidiarity
  • the rule of law (constitutionalism) and republicanism
  • natural rights
Okay, let's assume Democratic Party rejects some of these. Does the Republican Party keep to any of these? (with examples and evidence please - so yeah, you fail again)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1432
UCI professor sues for exemption from vaccine mandate due to natural immunity. (PDF) While his request for a preliminary  injunction was denied, his suit continues... (The PDF is a declaration of support for his suit by his colleagues at the university, and more than makes his case...[1] So -of course- he was fired!)
Natural immunity might well all but out the window for Omicron. You can google it for yourself, but two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines apparently are not enough for Omicron and the vaccines were always more successful than "natural immunity".

On Twitter, I've had people tell me they caught Covid three times, and therefore have "natural immunity". The answer is that if you caught a disease three times in two years you're not immune to it, big guy.  :P 
“What kind of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter.”
― Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1433
Does the Republican Party keep to any of these?
Some do, some don't... But I don't have to vote for all of them! Can you name a Democrat who would support these few principles? :)
(Of course, these principles are quite consequential.)
But the Democratic Party itself will tell you... (You can also read the GOP's platform.)

I'll not be bothered to set up individual Republicans for your silly, partisan "debunking".  Either you're unserious or you're perverse; (I suspect were I a Democrat you'd be the same... :) )

Someone else replied while my computer was zoning. Sorry!
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1434
the vaccines were always more successful than "natural immunity
That's not what the studies I've read (or heard of...). It is what politicians, and Fauci, et al., say. But YMMV. :)
(Twitter? No shit? :) )
Natural immunity might well all but out the window for Omicron
Hm. Why would you think so?
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1435
But YMMV
YMMV considerably. If you get sick with every other wave, then what is the meaning of "natural immunity"?

By the way, already within less than a year (i.e. a year ago), the main proponent of Swedish "herd immunity" policy recognised that his awesome experiment had failed. I posted it on this forum too. It was also common sense: After more than a century of waves of flu, humans do not have natural herd immunity to it.Therefore, insofar as covid is a flu, don't expect any herd immunity for at least as long.

Does the Republican Party keep to any of these?
Some do, some don't...
Yup, you don't have a single example. As you were.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1436
YMMV considerably. If you get sick with every other wave, then what is the meaning of "natural immunity"?
What's the point of the vaccines if you get sick with each new wave? (For people at high risk, the vaccines are a sensible course. For those with natural immunity, they may even be counter-productive... For those at low risk -especially now that Omicron seems destined to be the dominant strain- a wait-and-see attitude is reasonable: If it turns out that it is indeed less virulent, natural immunity offers a wider range of protection; and for much longer.) BTW: I presume you can cite authorities about the % of those with natural immunity -compared, one would hope, with the vaccinated- who've been re-infected?
(Well, maybe not, eh?)

Pfizer's "covid pill" is expected to get already has FDA approval shortly, and it's touted to do all that the vaccines (...we now all know...) do: Prevent serious illness and hospitalization. What more do you want?
Quote
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized the first pill for Covid-19, offering a highly effective defense against severe illness that will arrive as the country endures another major surge of the pandemic.

The drug, developed by Pfizer and known as Paxlovid, is authorized for Covid patients age 12 and over who are vulnerable to becoming severely ill because they are older or have medical conditions such as obesity or diabetes. Tens of millions of Americans — including both vaccinated and unvaccinated people — will be eligible if they get infected with the virus. The treatment could be available within a few days.

Pfizer’s laboratory studies indicate that its pills are likely to work against the Omicron variant, which has rapidly become the dominant form of new cases in the United States.

The treatment is meant to be taken as 30 pills over five days. Patients take three pills at a time: two of Pfizer’s pills and one of a low-dose H.I.V. drug known as ritonavir, which helps Pfizer’s drug remain active in the body longer.

A clinical trial indicated that Paxlovid was highly effective when taken soon after an infection. In a final analysis of a key study conducted while the Delta variant was surging, Pfizer’s drug reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 88 percent when given to high-risk unvaccinated volunteers within five days of the start of their symptoms.

(per NYT)

Your understanding of natural immunity is -I fear- woefully inadequate. BTW: No variant of SARS-CoV-2 is a flu... Re-apply your logic! :) Herd immunity is a goal. Natural immunity is a verifiable fact! (Serologic testing...not exactly new.)
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1437
What's the point of the vaccines if you get sick with each new wave?
Scientists say that you need new shots against new variants. The earlier waves did not have omicron, so there. You pretend that you care about the science, but you are not fooling anybody.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1438
Scientists say [...well, a lot of stuff!]
If you will, read something out of your wheelhouse this once! You won't regret it.

Fauci (now famously) said, essentially, "I am science!" Apparently, he's forgotten what science is... And he's my president's chief advisor. No wonder I'm skeptical about "official" pronouncements:
Show me the data, show me the studies! I'm retired and have lots of free time... :)
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1439
You have been consistently ignoring the studies and the data. Fits your tagline too.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1440
You have been consistently ignoring the studies and the data.
What studies and what data have I ignored? Official pronouncements and media reports, certainly: I view such with a jaundiced eye. (Even media that I trust, I verify.) I mean peer-reviewed, published studies (which would include the data). The "everybody knows" or "common sense" justification for conclusions -especially those that lead to policy recommendations- leave me unconvinced. And press releases aren't worth my notice, unless I know the scientist...
You have, I take it, a different standard.
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1441
The "everybody knows" or "common sense" justification for conclusions -especially those that lead to policy recommendations- leave me unconvinced.
Facts are what they are regardless if you or anyone else is convinced or not. There's a pandemic. Pandemic absolutely requires a policy response. Nobody cares if you are unconvinced.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1442
There's a pandemic. Pandemic absolutely requires a policy response.
You can't be that obtuse: What you call facts -at least, what I'm used to seeing from you- are mostly your opinions, mostly reinforced by the opinions of others.
Do the powers that be (or you) care what convinces me? Of course not! :) But what's the point of intellect and curiosity, if not to communicate? Hard as you may find it to believe, man is a social and sociable animal! :)
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1443
There's a pandemic. Pandemic absolutely requires a policy response.
You can't be that obtuse: What you call facts -at least, what I'm used to seeing from you- are mostly your opinions, mostly reinforced by the opinions of others.
You have a different opinion? In your opinion, there's no pandemic? Or, if there is, it does not require a policy response?

Fantastic to share opinions with you. It feels great to be social.

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1444
Don't just sit there! Do ... something! Even you'll admit, sometimes doing little or nothing at all is more appropriate? But for all our sakes, O Powers That Be (and their functionaries), don't keep doing the things that haven't worked.

I don't expect bureaucrats and their masters to be angels. But, as an old saying has it, they needn't be fools! Or do they? Admitting error is not the end of the world.
(And Axios writers say it ain't that big a deal...)
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1445
the vaccines were always more successful than "natural immunity
That's not what the studies I've read (or heard of...). It is what politicians, and Fauci, et al., say. But YMMV. :)
(Twitter? No shit? :) )
Fuck the politicians. But from the get go, ALL the objective studies indicated that vaccines well outperformed "natural immunity" in offering protection against Covid-19. That's not a surprise, since that's what vaccines do for every disease that one is available for.

To further address your claim of seeing studies showing natural immunity of being on par or superior to vaccination I've been shown "peer reviewed studies" showing the opposite (again on Twitter :p), so I do know what you're talking about. But when you do five minutes of checking on the "peer review" for these publications, it isn't really peer review and that the publications accept just about anything as long is it sounds scientific and isn't outright a copy/paste job. Simply put, peer review is not created equal.

To be obnoxiously glib, "natural immunity" is what we had when the human life expectancy was ~30.

Quote
Why would you think so?


Numerous studies have been coming out similar to this one:
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/232698/omicron-largely-evades-immunity-from-past/


Quote

Reinfection rates
To assess the impact of Omicron on reinfection rates the researchers used genotype data, since even prior to Omicron, reinfection was correlated with negative S gene Target Failure data, likely due to random PCR target failure caused by the lower viral loads associated with reinfections.

Controlling for vaccine status, age, sex, ethnicity, asymptomatic status, region and specimen date, Omicron was associated with a 5.40 (95% CI: 4.38-6.63) fold higher risk of reinfection compared with Delta. To put this into context, in the pre-Omicron era, the UK “SIREN” study of COVID infection in healthcare workers estimated that prior infection afforded 85% protection against a second COVID infection over 6 months. The reinfection risk estimated in the current study suggests this protection has fallen to 19% (95%CI: 0-27%) against an Omicron infection.


“What kind of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter.”
― Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1446
Quote
The study finds no evidence of Omicron having lower severity than Delta, judged by either the proportion of people testing positive who report symptoms, or by the proportion of cases seeking hospital care after infection. However, hospitalisation data remains very limited at this time.
Gonna dive a little deeper, read the actual report... (Mind you: I've good reason to be skeptical of Imperial College modeling... BBL)
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1447
Don't just sit there! Do ... something! Even you'll admit, sometimes doing little or nothing at all is more appropriate?
If you were honest, you'd admit that it is not at all appropriate to do nothing in a pandemic. But I will never expect any honesty from you.

Remember - I do - that the pandemic and the corresponding policies started under Trump. You did not worry about it at all back then. But now that the president changed, the exact same policies are unscientific and whatever to you, even though, if "more studies are needed" as you say, then the objection "unscientific" cannot apply.

It was under Trump that the "do something" policy started. I don't think you have a short memory. Just a very partisan memory. So partisan that you have nothing of value to say. You are not fooling anybody.

And Merry Christmas  :psmurf:

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1448
But I will never expect any honesty from you.
For what it's worth, I sometimes give you the benefit of the doubt...
Remember - I do - that the pandemic and the corresponding policies started under Trump.
Yes: Even Biden himself mentioned just the other day his gratitude for Trump's Warp Speed initiative. (Begrudgingly, but what more can one expect? Remember: Both Biden and Harris wanted none of that "Trump vaccine" during the campaign!) I still recall[1] finding out that the news of a vaccine was held back until after the election... Curious how things work out, eh?
Yes, Trump's administration did something, when there was something to do. Suppose you tell me what you think he did -regarding the pandemic- that was wrong?
I'll be happy to tell you what I think the Biden administration is doing wrong. (I admit to having a bias... For instance, I find Chicago's Lightfoot and San Francisco's Breed to be disingenuous: They've both recently come out for better funding of their police, and more policing! (Lightfoot is even willing to have federal troops help...) :) ) Your delusion that it's partisanship that dictates   my opinions is as facile as your logic...trapped in the web of your rhetoric.
I'm more interested in what my governor is doing, and how my county and city are responding to that. But Biden is of the same ilk as Gavin Newsom (Gavin the Craven): A hack politician committed to nothing more than his party.
(I'll admit that neither had much to do with their party's avalanche to the left... Biden was only a by-stander and Newsom was just following the path to power available to him.)
Biden has embraced and enhanced the Obama playbook. (Phone-and-pen "executive" legislating.) And his contested mandates have already had serious deleterious effects. Why you think this is a partisan issue is something I've long understood about you...
But had Trump attempted such things I'd have been opposed to them, and vocal about my opposition!

Still, we are in the midst of a pandemic. We know a lot more than we did when it began, and -by your leave- we'll learn more.
Whether you'll excuse me or not, I have no regrets about focusing as much time as I did on recovering from a stroke. Chatting on DnD didn't seem as important, however amusing it had occasionally been...
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: What's Going on in the Americas?

Reply #1449
Biden has embraced and enhanced the Obama playbook. (Phone-and-pen "executive" legislating.) And his contested mandates have already had serious deleterious effects.
Such as? (to be followed by no examples from you)

Good job at saying nothing notable at all this year! Of course, perfectly in line with your entire career here.