This is an opinion piece.

" If U.S. had fought COVID like Denmark did, hundreds of thousands of Americans would be alive "

https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-had-fought-covid-denmark-204352242.html

" Virtually nobody here wears a face mask on the street or inside shops and restaurants — a huge surprise. It’s almost as if the COVID-19 pandemic were a distant memory."

" In Denmark, 72% of the people have been fully vaccinated, as opposed to 51% in the United States, 31% in Argentina and 25% in Mexico. And by almost every standard, Denmark has done much better than the United States and most other countries in fighting the pandemic.'

" The cumulative number of COVID-19 deaths per million people in Denmark is of 442, compared with 1,904 in the United States, according to Oxford University’s Ourworldindata.org website. "

more at the link
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I'm surprised these nurses are not whining about wearing a mask.

" Cincinnati hospital poll on COVID vaccine shows a third of nurses would quit rather than be forced to take it "

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cincinnati-medical-center-nurses-survey-quit-covid-vaccine

Wait a minute...I don't understand how this happened? He performs at a show in Florida where they have some of the highest infection rates in the country and gets COVID?

He's really a great UFC ringside commentator but is a huge ignoramus otherwise. Another Anti-Mask/Anti-Vax/Anti-FACTS guy. He recently suggested that young, healthy people should not take the COVID-19 vaccine. He's one of the world's most popular podcasters, with his show being bought by Spotify in 2020 for an amount in excess of $100,000,000. He could do a lot of good with promoting the correct information. My prediction is that he will recover just fine and not be anymore enlightened or learn a thing from his experience.

According to the 19th Proclamation issued by the Governor of Hawaii, it's a mandate indoors. The verbiage in the mandate uses the word "Shall". It's an updated version as it shows that the outdoor requirement was struck.

https://governor.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2105107-ATG_Amendment-to-Nineteenth-Proclamation-for-COVID-19-distribution-signed.pdf

Probably should just reference this when you argue with folks in this thread. Ask your self, what number are they?

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Seems like Hawaii is doing great at vaccination. That there is confusion about this confuses me.

https://covidactnow.org/us

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The NBA is going to impose some strict restrictions on the unvaccinated.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32133277/nba-memo-proposes-strict-covid-19-protocols-unvaccinated-players

My wife’s medical assistant (who was a great assistant) just quit recently to avoid the vaccine mandate.

Funny thing is, the place she left to go work at just announced it’s own mandate this morning.

You mean that's not Sarah Jessica Parker?

Thanks for the additional information. I only did a cursory search on “Hawaii mask mandate” and the first hit was the official site so I went there.

I have to fall on my sword here I guess, I’m not an expert in the daily changes to Hawaiian state public policy.

Give the person in charge of ad placement an award.

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Vaccines or Slurpies?

This is America…was the answer ever in doubt?

https://khn.org/news/article/covid-vaccine-novavax-vaccination-effort-from-zero-to-not-quite-warp-speed/

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https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/01/us/coronavirus-texas-teacher-deaths-trnd/index.html

For God sake, don't mandate masks...

Karma.

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Well, that's just great. The player who will not get vaccinated gets shoveled in next to me, a lowly paid staffer.

"On flights, the memo says unvaccinated players may be required to be in a section of the plane reserved for team staffers, which could mean less-roomy seating. "

That is going to be the coming thing.

It is a tough position for a business to be in. People won't vaccinate so the they quit. OTOH, if they don't quit, those who are vaccinated may wind up with some choice job openings and they leave the business because they don't want to be hanging around with the unvaccinated.

Now, I have to figure out which business gets my business.

"Yes sir, I would like to enter your fine store and buy some furniture for my house. Are your employees vaccinated? Yes? May I see their papers? No? I see. Well, I think I will continue looking around for a bit more. Thank you for your time.

Stupid is as stupid does.

She flies into Hawaii with a fake vaccination card and got caught. Now she is all weepy. Cry me a river.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/09/02/vaccine-fake-card-hawaii-arrest-moos-pkg-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/wacky-world-of-jeanne-moos/

Man me and you are in sync. First thing I thought of also. Then I thought of Elway for some reason

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I don't listen to his podcast, but I've watched his comedy shows and I don't think he's an idiot. I think he knows his audience...

This would be funny if is was not so sad.

" Oklahoma's ERs are so backed up with people overdosing on ivermectin, gunshot victims are having to wait to be treated "

https://www.yahoo.com/news/oklahomas-ers-backed-people-overdosing-053822589.html

"An ER doctor in Oklahoma says rural hospitals in the state are clogged up by people overdosing on ivermectin. "

" Rural " the active word.

" He told the channel that the rural Oklahoma hospitals he worked at were overwhelmed after people started consuming ivermectin doses meant for fully-grown horses, believing unverified claims that the horse de-wormer is an effective COVID cure. "

" McElyea added that many of his patients did not seem to have a problem consuming the horse de-wormer because they were familiar with the drug. "

" Growing up in a small town, rural area, we've all accidentally been exposed to ivermectin at some time. So, it's something people are familiar with. Because of those accidental sticks when trying to inoculate cattle, they're less afraid of it," he said."
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Someone needs to tell Bubba that the vaccine is provided at no cost. It is not like having to self-jerk a tooth because you can't afford to pay the dentist.

It sounds like the rewards "system" of using lotteries and other goodies to convince people to get vaccinated is having a short life. We are moving into the pitchforks and horsewhip stage of incenting people to get vaccinated.

" With more than 1,300 Americans dying each day from COVID, experts say penalizing the unvaccinated works better than incentives "

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-works-better-when-it-comes-to-convincing-americans-to-get-vaccinated-rewards-or-penalties-11630086390?siteid=yhoof2

* Delta Air Lines has imposed a $200 monthly surcharge on unvaccinated workers and says it has resulted in a five-fold increase in those getting the shot

* Ed Bastian, the airline’s chief executive, said the surcharge is “necessary to address the financial risk the decision to not vaccinate is creating for our company.” Bastian noted that if an employee infected with COVID-19 has to be hospitalized, it can cost the airline up to $50,000.

* Krispy Kreme recently announced that it is doubling its doughnut-a-day offer.

* But at a time when coronavirus cases and deaths are increasing because of the delta variant, some are suggesting it might be time to try the reverse approach. As in penalizing the unvaccinated.

*Meanwhile, rewards that are smaller or fail to offer a guaranteed payoff don’t seem to be all that effective in increasing vaccination rates. Chen cited the lottery programs that some states put into place, which offered vaccinated individuals tickets with prizes as high as $1 million. The programs didn’t really resonate, he said, because people recognized the likelihood they wouldn’t win the big prize.

* As for Krispy Kreme being an incentive, Giacomantonio said it meant nothing to her. “I’m not going to take a vaccine because someone is giving me a free doughnut,” she said.

Welp, although I knew this was highly contagious and world sweeping, I thought I'd get out of this without losing a family member but not so. I wasn't close *at all* to my uncle on my father's side, but he passed from COVID yesterday. No one is mourning him in my family due to reasons, but still, it's my father's brother.

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https://t.co/NphQbAzwmj?amp=1

It's time to start taxing the unvaxxed en masse, to help cover the financial costs they are incurring on the rest of society.

Dallas County saw 2500 positives and 10 deaths yesterday. We haven't seen numbers like these since the dead of last winter, when we were at the worst point. Guess I am pleased to have some added immunity right now, but it's bad here. It's bad here for many, many reasons, in fact. Send thoughts and nudez.

I thought of this dude.

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Slippery slope. One could say the same about drug addicts, obesity and/or smokers. Those taxes usually don't fare well.

New data out of Israel -
Even with the triple-vaccinating (26%) of their adult population, Israel just reported a new record daily COVID-19 case count (40% higher than the peak in winter). Overall they sit at 78% of all people over 12 are double vaccinated.

What is going on here - all Delta variant the vaccine can't stop? Efficacy of the vaccine dropping faster than expected?

Looks like the pfizer shot may blunt the disease overall but it is not stopping the spread for crap, and they are masked, 6ft apart etc.

Played a decent buddy Holly

As soon as a simple, painless, quick, safe, effective, and readily available vaccine exists to help reduce the financial cost of those issues on society, I’d say it compares.

Until then it’s apples and oranges. Slope not slippery.

Re: ivermectin

Lengthy article with lots of details on one of the primary positive studies that has subsequently had its paper pulled due to the high likelihood it was all faked.

My favorite bits:

“The numbers, genders, and ages of the study’s participants were inconsistent. A hospital named in the paper as taking part in the experiments said it has no record of it happening.”

“ And the researcher overseeing the project, Hector Carvallo…has declined to widely share his data — including with one of his own collaborators, emails show.”

“ Carvallo said he tried to submit the article to prestigious journals before landing on the Journal of Biomedical Research and Clinical Investigation… a new periodical that, to date, has put out fewer than 10 articles since early 2019.”

And the quote of the day from Carvallo when questioned about his funny numbers: “We are not statistical people”

(That’s kinda the whole ball game when you are trying to say a treatment is statistically significant Carvallo!)

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemlee/ivermectin-covid-study-suspect-data

So then what's your opinion as to why Hawaii and Florida's curves are so similar?

The only thing taxed harder in California than tobacco is gas.Smokers are taxed pretty hard and rightfully so .I do wonder how thats being spent.Unrelated our gas tax is over 51 cents per gallon.I would be ok with businesses having to put the percentage of employees vaccinated at the door and we can decide if we want to enter and be a customer.

Hawaii is more honest with their numbers?

Let’s pretend they both use similar regimens and look at the current snapshot:

Hawaii
64 cases per 100k
8.2% positivity

Florida
92 cases per 100k
17.1% positivity

Doesn’t look very similar to me.

I think the only thing that can really be done is to deny entry to businesses if you dont get a vaccination.Of course unvaccinated business owners could say come here and I am fine with that just post it on the front door .

Another large study of mRNA vaccines side effects.

The tl:dr is in the link title (the vaccines are safe)

https://www.healthpartners.com/hp/about/press-releases/new-study-of-6-2-million-patients-shows-mrna-covid-19-vaccines-are-safe

Hey corona-scouts... as you've probably heard I've done a crapload of research on airflow and ventilation and all that since the pandemic hit. Just wanted to let you know my favorite air filtration system just went on sale with free shipping and code COWAYMEGA10 will stack a further 10% off that.

https://cowaymega.com/products/coway-tower-ap-1216l

Here's why you want it:

The filter lasts a whole year. Longer than most. Not expensive to replace.

It has a highly visible air quality ring which changes color depending upon what’s going on. Easily visible at a glance from across the room.

It is easy to open and clean (many are not).

It has a built in ionizer which can be turned off if desired.

It is tall, attractive, and moves a lot of air for its size.

It is easy to pick up and position anywhere.

It is less than $200.

It is not made in China by some no-name factory with questionable work ethics. Coway is in South Korea and have been in business for a long time.

It is a high-quality system, top to bottom, which is immediately evident after opening the box.

This is what it looks like:

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Here's what it sucks out of the air (HEPA filtration):

coway2 (resized).jpg

If you have this (cut expansion foam in this example) flying through the air...

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...the sensor ring will turn red...

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...then purple as it gets cleaned up...

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...and then blue again.

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I recommend putting one in every room where you spend the most time. Rated for 330sqft. when running at maximum speed.

It is much better to have multiple filtration systems distributed throughout your space rather than relying upon one huge centralized unit to sweep out the entire house or business.

Also better than integrated HVAC-filters which require the entire system to be actively pumping air in order to filter anything... and only near the registers at that.

Have had lots of friends pick up this system and are very happy with it. I like to research things. OK, now back to your regularly scheduled corona-thread...

Israel's problem was people refused to wear masks, but they fixed that by having cops write tickets up to $10,000 for people not wearing them in public. Same sort of deal, making people that won't comply with the safety standards pay for the results of their actions. They got quick compliance with those fees.

Smokers (and drinkers) are very heavily taxed.

I was on a panel about pinball and arcade collecting at PAX West today with a bunch of other collectors, arcade owners and Aaron from FAST Pinball. The convention was way smaller than usual and everyone had to be vaxxed and masked, but we still had a couple hundred people come out to hear us talk about collecting. It was about as safe as you could do a big event.

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I am looking at trends and NY Times website.

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I don’t have an opinion on why those two curves may appear similar (I haven’t compared the curves myself so I’m taking your word for it).

My suggestion to you is that something as complicated as viral transmission in one state vs another that is thousands of miles away is not something you can look at from just an infection case curve.

There are hundreds of variables at play here, masking or no masking, vaccination rates, climate, the customs of the local population, what variant is dominant there, travel from other states, etc, etc, etc.

One of the challenges in science is trying to isolate the one thing you are trying to study from the effects of all the other variables that can affect the outcome. In medicine we do this by cohort matching, we compare similar ages, sexes, comorbidities, etc.

So, my response is that it would take a full epidemiological study of the two states to really determine what the differences and similarities are and what factors could account for those differences and similarities.

To try and look at an infection rate chart and say “oh, it must be X” is a prime example of the false cause fallacy I posted about earlier.

I was just reading the requirements for PAGG (PIN-A-GO-GO) coming up October 8th. Vaccination required if over 12. Negative Covid tat required if under 12. Masks required for everyone. One warning, and then kicked out for dicknosing. Don’t agree? Don’t attend.

From their site https://www.pin-a-go-go.org/ :

Covid Notes: PAGG is concerned about the health of our attendees. To that end, we have a vaccination requirement and a mask requirement.
If you do not want to be vaccinated or wear a mask, that is fine, but please do not attend the show.

All attendees over 12 years old are required to show proof of full COVID vaccination at least 14 days prior to Oct 8th (Sept 24th or earlier). For children 12 or under, we require a negative test result from a COVID PCR test taken after Oct 5th. We will consider either your filled out vaccination card or a photo of it on your phone, along with photo ID, to be "proof".

All attendees are required to wear masks inside the building at all times. No exceptions. And "wearing a mask" means the mask must cover both your mouth and nose at all times. Acceptable masks are surgical, cloth, or (K) N95.

Gaiters, bandanas, face shields or masks with an exhalation valve are not acceptable. If you are not wearing a mask, you will receive one warning, and after that, we will cut off your wristband and you will be asked to leave, with no refund.