The Politics of Covid 19, mask wearing and the vaccination process

[Smoove_B]

This is just one photo of someone protesting the NJ Governor today. The idea that someone is likening DeSantis to Superman while FL is currently imploding...there is no point discussing anything with these people; they are delusional.

[malchior]

My friends are convinced Murphy will lose now. I'm like...he is up 15-20% against a 2-time loser and most people still don't even know his name. One of them has a mother who is SUPER MAD. Like frothing at the mouth mad and thinks Murphy is a child abuser. Luckily she is a teacher.

[Smoove_B]

And yet his political opponent wasted no time in commenting:

“Let me be clear, I oppose Gov. Murphy’s mask mandate for students. The science is clear: nearly all children who contract COVID-19 are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic and wearing masks for children is terrible for their social and emotional development,” Ciattarelli said in a statement.

“Bottom line, whether a child wears a mask should be decided by parents, not government,” he said. “If someone wants to have their child wear a mask, they should feel free to do so, but it’s not something that should be forced on children, nor should their learning be inhibited in any way.”

Absolutely no regard for how individual choices influence community outcomes. Or the potential for chronic issues in children exposed. I don't understand how 18+ months later, this is still a point of contention.

[Daehawk]

These people are weeding themselves out of the gene pool.

Texas GOP Official Mocked COVID Five Days Before He Died of Virus

A GOP official from Texas who regularly espoused anti-vaccine and anti-mask views online has died from COVID-19, five days after posting a meme on Facebook questioning the wisdom of getting inoculated against COVID.

Dickinson City Council member and State Republican Executive Committee member H. Scott Apley, 45, died in a local hospital around 3 a.m. Wednesday morning, according to a GoFundMe page set up to help Apley’s family with expenses. He was admitted to the facility in Galveston on Sunday with “pneumonia-like symptoms,” and was hooked up to a ventilator as his condition worsened. His wife was also infected, the family said.

I hope no one actually gives them any money.

[Zaxxon]

Absolutely no regard for how individual choices influence community outcomes. Or the potential for chronic issues in children exposed. I don't understand how 18+ months later, this is still a point of contention.

Properly weighing individual choices vs community outcomes has never been a particular strength of the GOP, or of America in general over the past few decades.

[Isgrimnur]

I’m waiting on the outcome of Phil Valentine.

https://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00174807.html

[malchior]

FFS. Joe Rogan is such a dumbass.

https://twitter.com/feraljokes/status/1 ... 9148873731

[malchior]

https://mobile.twitter.com/TeaPainUSA/s ... 8847521796

[LawBeefaroni]

This is just one photo of someone protesting the NJ Governor today. The idea that someone is likening DeSantis to Superman while FL is currently imploding...there is no point discussing anything with these people; they are delusional.

At this point it's the equivalent of rampant fanboyism. There is no rationalizing.


I also have to wonder if the disproportionately distributed fatality rate among minorities in the early going gave them (the amti-maskers and anti-vaxers) a false sense of security and possibly even the desire for more spread.

[Zarathud]

That would make masks and COVID-19 kryptonite to DeSantis. Or DeSantis a Bizarro.

[Smoove_B]

FFS. Joe Rogan is such a dumbass.

I don't listen to Rogan (I know, big surprise), but was he conflating the recent warnings that partial vaccinations and booster shots while so many in the world haven't seen a single dose potentially encourages variants that are better equipped to work against vaccines? Or am I being too generous here and he's really a moron?

[malchior]

You are being too generous. Here is a flavor of the idiocy yesterday. I don't have the segment being referenced at my fingertips but it is representative. Everything he says here is just wrong. From the history to vaccine mandates. It is just fact free babble.

https://mobile.twitter.com/mehdirhasan/ ... 3580617729

[Smoove_B]

Oy. I 100% believe now that history books will show how this all happened using the lens of "freedom", demonstrating what happens when people believe their individual rights trump all.

I also didn't think of this angle for what's happening in FL:

https://twitter.com/HC_Richardson/statu ... 8605210630

I knew it. This was always a way to drain money from the public schools into private schools. A straight line from the segregation academies to where Florida is now.

Kyle Griffin
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida approves private school vouchers if parents say children feel bullied by a district's mask-wearing rules.

[Blackhawk]

So cluster all of the anti-maskers into one place separate from the safe people.

Can we do that here, too? How about we just implement a 49-state mask mandate, then give everyone who feels bullied a voucher for Florida?

[Pyperkub]

So cluster all of the anti-maskers into one place separate from the safe people.

Can we do that here, too? How about we just implement a 49-state mask mandate, then give everyone who feels bullied a voucher for Florida?

Sounds like the old George Carlin but.

[Daehawk]

Around here on the news you'll see one story where a music festival requires masks and proof of vaccination then the next story is school start with no masks and fully open.

[Isgrimnur]

Sovereign immunity is a hell of a drug.

[malchior]

Totally normal. A US Senator telling people to ignore public health guidance because 'they can't arrest all of us'. The man is so full of contempt and arrogance for *us*. Yet a man who is all to happy to loot *our* coffers because his state is totally dependent on *us*. Instead of defunding agencies that follow the CDC...let's defund Kentucky and see how it goes for him. FWIW - the Senate should censure him for this type of traitorous, evil rhetoric.

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/stat ... 2116718595

[LawBeefaroni]

Totally normal. A US Senator telling people to ignore public health guidance because 'they can't arrest all of us'. The man is so full of contempt and arrogance for *us*. Yet a man who is all to happy to loot *our* coffers because his state is totally dependent on *us*. Instead of defunding agencies that follow the CDC...let's defund Kentucky and see how it goes for him. FWIW - the Senate should censure him for this type of traitorous, evil rhetoric.

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/stat ... 2116718595

It's a Jan 6 proxy and trial run for the next insurgency. Just replace all the COVID language with stolen election nonsense.

[hepcat]

My god, he is one of the most loathsome pieces of garbage that has ever walked this earth.

[Unagi]

I love how he offers up, as reason for dropping mask mandates in schools: “Every staff member has either gotten the vaccine or has been offered the vaccine.” And leaves it at that, as if an adult who refuses the vaccine is (wave of the Jedi’s hand) no longer someone we need to worry about.

How a thinking human with any functioning brain can hear him say that and not be repelled is beyond me.



And regarding this ‘unmask the kids’ effort I keep seeing signs for.... with a tag line of: ‘follow the science’.
Wtf is that about. I can’t find the science they are saying they have... am I missing their argument, is there some ‘science’ they are talking about? Or do they just say : ‘follow the science’ and then leave it there.

[Zaxxon]

The latter. It leaves the impression that there might be some science that supports their views, without them having to show their work. It's the 'the GOP healthcare plan will solve Obamacare's woes' of today.

[hepcat]

In other news, Trump wonders what would have happened had Covid occurred when HE was president...but then states it did in the same breath.

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1424195207088676865

[Smoove_B]

I don't even know how to respond to what Rand Paul has said. Both in substance and that he would actually say it.

[El Guapo]

I don't even know how to respond to what Rand Paul has said. Both in substance and that he would actually say it.

I think his neighbor understood the proper response.

[Smoove_B]

Oh, I totally understand his neighbor.

I'm still trying to process that a sitting Senator is telling people "they can't arrest you all" and then following it up with a declaration that he's introducing legislation to block funding to agencies that use CDC funding while we're still in a raging pandemic.

Oh, right, it's an election year and nothing was done about 1/6, right. Now it all makes sense.

[Zaxxon]

Just dropped the kids at their first day of school. Masked, with backups and lanyards. Observed masking across approximately 10-20% of the other students. Hopefully the situation improved once they went indoors...

Is it 'mid-winter' yet?

[YellowKing]

Yeah at this point I have to believe that everything the GOP mandates is "don't believe your eyes and ears, believe only me" brainwashing. Nobody in their right mind should believe that we should not only ignore precautions against a deadly disease for our children, but actively discourage them.

This literally is a death cult at this point, just substitute COVID for Kool-Aid. Drink up, kids!

[hepcat]

I don't even know how to respond to what Rand Paul has said. Both in substance and that he would actually say it.

I think his neighbor understood the proper response.

His neighbor? Oh...you mean Superman?

[LawBeefaroni]

Yeah at this point I have to believe that everything the GOP mandates is "don't believe your eyes and ears, believe only me" brainwashing. Nobody in their right mind should believe that we should not only ignore precautions against a deadly disease for our children, but actively discourage them.

It's a religion at this point. They've certainly stolen the playbook.

[Defiant]

Haven't seen this article linked. Hopefully, it will help raise awareness of the issue.

‘This Is Really Scary’: Kids Struggle With Long Covid
Lingering physical, mental and neurological symptoms are affecting children as well as adults, including many who had mild reactions to the initial coronavirus infection.

Studies estimate long Covid may affect between 10 percent and 30 percent of adults infected with the coronavirus. Estimates from the handful of studies of children so far range widely. At an April congressional hearing, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, cited one study suggesting that between 11 percent and 15 percent of infected youths might “end up with this long-term consequence, which can be pretty devastating in terms of things like school performance.”

Some studies report higher proportions of older children with long-term issues. That might be because adolescents find some symptoms more disruptive or because after puberty, hormones might amplify immune responses, Dr. Nath said.

An April study by the United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics found that 9.8 percent of 2-to-11-year-olds and 13 percent of 12-to-16-year-olds infected with the coronavirus reported continuing symptoms five weeks later. After 12 weeks, rates remained significant: 7.4 percent in the younger group and 8.2 percent in the older group.

In another U.K. study, 4.4 percent of 1,734 children had symptoms more than four weeks post-Covid, over four times as high as the percentage with symptoms four weeks after non-Covid illnesses like flu. About 2 percent of Covid patients had symptoms after eight weeks.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/08/heal ... -kids.html

[YellowKing]

I have an anti-vax "friend" on FB that is constantly posting videos from random family physicians who are anti-mask or anti-vaxx, as if you can't find conpiracy theorists in any profession. She then upholds this as "proof" that we're being lied to, because hey - it makes perfect sense that thousands of doctors and scientists worldwide are trying to deceive you, but this one family practitioner from bumfuck USA knows the REAL TRUTH. I had to unfollow her because my urge to get into a screaming match was powerful, and I really don't want to blow up the relationship over her ignorance.

[Defiant]

The Pentagon will require members of the U.S. military to get the COVID-19 vaccine by Sept. 15, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press.

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news ... by-sept-15

[Skinypupy]

I have an anti-vax "friend" on FB that is constantly posting videos from random family physicians who are anti-mask or anti-vaxx, as if you can't find conpiracy theorists in any profession. She then upholds this as "proof" that we're being lied to, because hey - it makes perfect sense that thousands of doctors and scientists worldwide are trying to deceive you, but this one family practitioner from bumfuck USA knows the REAL TRUTH. I had to unfollow her because my urge to get into a screaming match was powerful, and I really don't want to blow up the relationship over her ignorance.

My “mute for 30 days” button has seen a significant increase over the past 8-12 months.

[LordMortis]

I have an anti-vax "friend" on FB that is constantly posting videos from random family physicians who are anti-mask or anti-vaxx, as if you can't find conpiracy theorists in any profession. She then upholds this as "proof" that we're being lied to, because hey - it makes perfect sense that thousands of doctors and scientists worldwide are trying to deceive you, but this one family practitioner from bumfuck USA knows the REAL TRUTH. I had to unfollow her because my urge to get into a screaming match was powerful, and I really don't want to blow up the relationship over her ignorance.

Even before the vaccine was released, COVID response by those who would be become anti mask and then anti vax was what drove me away. I feared I was going to lose complex webs of friends, not just the ones who think they are part of the elect web users who can surf more clearly than the preponderance of professionals.

[Isgrimnur]

I have an anti-vax "friend" on FB that is constantly posting videos from random family physicians who are anti-mask or anti-vaxx, as if you can't find conpiracy theorists in any profession. She then upholds this as "proof" that we're being lied to, because hey - it makes perfect sense that thousands of doctors and scientists worldwide are trying to deceive you, but this one family practitioner from bumfuck USA knows the REAL TRUTH. I had to unfollow her because my urge to get into a screaming match was powerful, and I really don't want to blow up the relationship over her ignorance.

My “mute for 30 days” button has seen a significant increase over the past 8-12 months.

They should totally start sending an anonymous notification sent to those muted.

[malchior]

Haven't seen this article linked. Hopefully, it will help raise awareness of the issue.

Don't worry - "Dr. Silver" said experts say this piece is irresponsible. "A lot of experts" is doing a ton of lifting there.

https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/statu ... 7764947973

[coopasonic]

Don't worry about long covid for children, with the climate crisis our kids are already doomed. See, no need to stress!

[El Guapo]

What do we know about Adam Gaffney? Is he known / respected?

[LawBeefaroni]

Haven't seen this article linked. Hopefully, it will help raise awareness of the issue.

Don't worry - "Dr. Silver" said experts say this piece is irresponsible. "A lot of experts" is doing a ton of lifting there.

https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/statu ... 7764947973

I think it needs to be taken for what it is, a possible issue that is currently affecting a very small number of individuals. My first impression was that it was premature and borders on sensationalism.