Octopus Overlords

"She tested positive, but they sent her home and then her husband meanwhile was home with a positive test for COVID, so they both were quarantined downstairs in their bedroom in their basement," he explained. "To lose both parents at one time you know for an 11-year-old, it's really tragic."

The St. Louis County girl was an only child.

Smoove_B wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 12:49 pmWe're going to blow this in the 4th quarter, mark my words.

The latest science, Walensky said, suggests that fully vaccinated people can congregate indoors with other fully vaccinated people, without wearing face coverings or practicing physical distancing, the agency said. What's more, fully vaccinated people may gather with a small group, such as another household, even if that household has not been vaccinated.

"For example," the CDC wrote in a statement, "fully vaccinated grandparents can visit indoors with their unvaccinated healthy daughter and her healthy children without wearing masks or physical distancing, provided none of the unvaccinated family members are at risk of severe COVID-19." Those at high risk include people over age 65, or those with underlying health problems such as heart disease or cancer.

For everyone else, "this is very welcome guidance," said Dr. Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a former acting director of the CDC. "This opens the door for grandparents to meet with their children and grandchildren without masks, indoors, for a nice group hug."

The new guidelines do not, however, suggest that fully vaccinated people can go back to life as it was in 2019.

In public or around others who are vulnerable to Covid-19 complications, mitigation measures should remain status quo, the CDC said. Keep up with hand washing. Wear masks in public places, and continue to adhere to physical distancing guidelines. Avoid crowded areas. Seek out Covid-19 testing if symptoms develop.

stimpy wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 12:45 pm I thought Biden had a plan to get distribution more organized and accessible?
It's a clusterfuck of disorganization. Where's the direction from our Leader?
All I've heard him crow about was ramping up production.
BFD if the system to actually....ya know....get the shot is so f-ed up.
Hard to believe he's been in office for a couple of months, had many more months to sit back and get a plan together before taking office, and the system is as broke as ever.

stimpy wrote: ↑Mon Mar 08, 2021 11:45 am
I thought Biden had a plan to get distribution more organized and accessible?

It's a clusterfuck of disorganization. Where's the direction from our Leader?

All I've heard him crow about was ramping up production.

BFD if the system to actually....ya know....get the shot is so f-ed up.

Hard to believe he's been in office for a couple of months, had many more months to sit back and get a plan together before taking office, and the system is as broke as ever.

Smoove_B wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 1:05 pm I can't keep track of these threads! Reposted here:

Ok, I'll take this as it hits me right in the profession.

stimpy wrote: ↑Mon Mar 08, 2021 11:45 am
I thought Biden had a plan to get distribution more organized and accessible?

He does. And federal distribution has increased by some insane % since January 21st. The accessibility element is trickier for reasons I'll cover below, but in short it was also covered by increasing funding to state and local health agencies.

It's a clusterfuck of disorganization. Where's the direction from our Leader?

I'm not sure I follow this one entirely. I don't know if you're confusing state and local response with federal response.

All I've heard him crow about was ramping up production.

We're set to deliver 100 million doses in (checks calendar) 47 days. That's significantly better than the original promise of 100 million doses in 100 days.

BFD if the system to actually....ya know....get the shot is so f-ed up.

Right - that's definitely an issue. I've mentioned repeatedly over the last year (and a few times before) that the state of public health in the United States is terrible. It's a field that's been slowly starved for the last 2+ decades. Funding cuts, brain drain, resource depletion - it's a trend happening everywhere. What you're seeing (in part) is what happens when you dismantle and underfund and entire profession for decades and then expect them to suddenly spring to life and deal with a once-in-a-century public health emergency; it's not possible.

The overwhelming majority of problems *right now* are at a state and local level in distribution. Public health is (and always has been) a state issue. What you're seeing in your state is different than mine is different than Texas. There's no uniform delivery of service and then add in the political take on COVID-19 and you have a complete nightmare.

Biden has released money to state and local agencies to hire more people, but that's happening *right now*. Why did it take so long? As Congress.

Hard to believe he's been in office for a couple of months, had many more months to sit back and get a plan together before taking office, and the system is as broke as ever.

I mean...that's one take, sure.

stessier wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 1:02 pm

stimpy wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 12:45 pm I thought Biden had a plan to get distribution more organized and accessible?
It's a clusterfuck of disorganization. Where's the direction from our Leader?
All I've heard him crow about was ramping up production.
BFD if the system to actually....ya know....get the shot is so f-ed up.
Hard to believe he's been in office for a couple of months, had many more months to sit back and get a plan together before taking office, and the system is as broke as ever.

Addressing this in the right forum - my state has received double the amount of doses it was receiving under the previous administration (with the exception of one spike where Trump decided who needs a stockpile??) - see this cool site. That is what the federal government can do. It can't fix the states distributing them. Well, it can cajole and threaten and maybe set up some National Guard posts, but that's about it and it would do little to fix the big problems.

stimpy wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 1:05 pm I just think at this point production is not the issue and the Federal government should see that and step in to get it to us citizens in a more orderly and cohesive way.

stimpy wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 1:05 pm I just think at this point production is not the issue and the Federal government should see that and step in to get it to us citizens in a more orderly and cohesive way.

stimpy wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 1:20 pm A big part of my frustration comes from personal experience of trying to get an appointment for my 91 year old Mother.
She has a great attitude about the whole thing and can take or leave getting the shot.
Of course, us kids are trying to take the frustration and burden off of her plate by trying to schedule an appointment somewhere, anywhere, to get her in.
We keep think we're making progress only to consistently be notified that vaccines are not available.

And for the record, I'd be screaming about this no matter who was in office.

stimpy wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 1:37 pm I honestly feel like the fact that she is extremely healthy (knocks on wood) is a disadvantage with this.
It's as if having no ailments or disabilities is working against her when trying to get in line.
It's part of the reason she is so nonchalant about whether she gets one or not.
I know we are blessed, but we still worry and want to see her protected.

stimpy wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 1:20 pm A big part of my frustration comes from personal experience of trying to get an appointment for my 91 year old Mother.
She has a great attitude about the whole thing and can take or leave getting the shot.

Smoove_B wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 1:52 pm I can relate as getting my parents their vaccine appointments was a nightmare. My recommendation to anyone is to try and speak with someone over using an online registration system. I don't know where your mother lives, but I'd be calling the local or county office on aging (sometimes called senior services) to see if they're coordinating vaccinations for elders.

Plenty of parents continue to worry for their children’s health amid the pandemic. But the primary concern from a public health standpoint has been the role that children and young adults might play in transmitting the disease to others. A growing body of evidence suggests that younger children are the least likely to transmit the virus, but that as children grow older, their capacity for transmission approaches that of adults.

This has posed a conundrum from early in the pandemic: How much should children be prevented from doing outside the home, to keep them from contributing to community transmission of a highly contagious virus? Or to put it more broadly: How much of normal youth should they be asked to sacrifice? It has been a difficult balance to strike, on both a societal and family level.

As many of these experts have noted, the cost of restrictions on youth has gone beyond academics. The CDC found that the proportion of visits to the emergency room by adolescents between ages 12 and 17 that were mental-health-related increased 31% during the span of March to October 2020, compared with the same months in 2019. A study in the March 2021 issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, of people aged 11 to 21 visiting emergency rooms found “significantly higher” rates of “suicidal ideation” during the first half of 2020 (compared to 2019), as well as higher rates of suicide attempts, though the actual number of suicides remained flat.

Doctors are concerned about possible increases in childhood obesity — no surprise with many kids housebound in stress-filled homes — while addiction experts are warning of the long-term effects of endless hours of screen time when both schoolwork and downtime stimulation are delivered digitally. (Perhaps the only indicator of youth distress that is falling — reports of child abuse and neglect, which dropped about 40% early in the pandemic — is nonetheless worrisome because experts suspect it is the reporting that is declining, not the frequency of the abuse.)

“An entire generation between the ages of 5 and 18 has been effectively removed from society at large,” wrote Maryland pediatrician Lavanya Sithanandam in The Washington Post. “They do not have the same ability to vote or speak out.”

Zaxxon wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 12:52 pm

Smoove_B wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 12:49 pmWe're going to blow this in the 4th quarter, mark my words.

I am relieved to hear that we're entering the 4th quarter.

But also, yes--we're fucked.

Smoove_B wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 2:45 pm Huh. Well...I saw your PM before your post. That's, uh, something. I hope I can help.

In unrelated news, The Lost Year: What the Pandemic Cost Teenagers:

Plenty of parents continue to worry for their children’s health amid the pandemic. But the primary concern from a public health standpoint has been the role that children and young adults might play in transmitting the disease to others. A growing body of evidence suggests that younger children are the least likely to transmit the virus, but that as children grow older, their capacity for transmission approaches that of adults.

This has posed a conundrum from early in the pandemic: How much should children be prevented from doing outside the home, to keep them from contributing to community transmission of a highly contagious virus? Or to put it more broadly: How much of normal youth should they be asked to sacrifice? It has been a difficult balance to strike, on both a societal and family level.

As someone currently in charge of a teenager, this has been...a year.

As many of these experts have noted, the cost of restrictions on youth has gone beyond academics. The CDC found that the proportion of visits to the emergency room by adolescents between ages 12 and 17 that were mental-health-related increased 31% during the span of March to October 2020, compared with the same months in 2019. A study in the March 2021 issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, of people aged 11 to 21 visiting emergency rooms found “significantly higher” rates of “suicidal ideation” during the first half of 2020 (compared to 2019), as well as higher rates of suicide attempts, though the actual number of suicides remained flat.

Doctors are concerned about possible increases in childhood obesity — no surprise with many kids housebound in stress-filled homes — while addiction experts are warning of the long-term effects of endless hours of screen time when both schoolwork and downtime stimulation are delivered digitally. (Perhaps the only indicator of youth distress that is falling — reports of child abuse and neglect, which dropped about 40% early in the pandemic — is nonetheless worrisome because experts suspect it is the reporting that is declining, not the frequency of the abuse.)

Probably the best quote:

“An entire generation between the ages of 5 and 18 has been effectively removed from society at large,” wrote Maryland pediatrician Lavanya Sithanandam in The Washington Post. “They do not have the same ability to vote or speak out.”

Weren't we blowing it in the 1st through 3rd quarters as well?

We will continue to monitor the situation, but at this time we should plan to be working remotely through Friday 3/20/2020.

Smoove_B wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 3:03 pm

Weren't we blowing it in the 1st through 3rd quarters as well?

We weren't doing great, but we actually started to make progress once the vaccine rollout began. If we could have just held the line for another few months and not opened the floodgates...

Smoove_B wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 3:03 pm

Weren't we blowing it in the 1st through 3rd quarters as well?

We weren't doing great, but we actually started to make progress once the vaccine rollout began. If we could have just held the line for another few months and not opened the floodgates...

Part of the problem is the fatigue associated with living in a country/state with uncontrolled spread that started in March of 2020. People are tired (I get it) but letting our collective guard down during this last leg is...going to end badly.

Smoove_B wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 3:03 pm

Weren't we blowing it in the 1st through 3rd quarters as well?

We weren't doing great, but we actually started to make progress once the vaccine rollout began. If we could have just held the line for another few months and not opened the floodgates...

Part of the problem is the fatigue associated with living in a country/state with uncontrolled spread that started in March of 2020. People are tired (I get it) but letting our collective guard down during this last leg is...going to end badly.

Restaurants and bars may have 50% indoor dining capacity, up to 100 people. Tables must still be 6 feet apart, with a max of six people at a table. A curfew on indoor dining is still in effect, but this order bumps it back from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Smoove_B wrote: Thu Jul 02, 2020 11:27 am Where's malchior? Women's roller derby has a plan:

The roller derby guidelines put community and player health ahead of the need to keep the game going for the sake of eager fans. Meanwhile, in other sports, efforts to resume play continue even as cases turn up among players; and Covid-19 numbers are rising in the very areas where events are meant to be held. By taking local infection dynamics into account, the roller derby guidelines could end up serving as a template for how other leagues—including those for recreational, youth, and high school sports—could safely come back.

...

The guidelines don’t just address athletes, but also include recommendations for officials, photographers, announcers, and other volunteers. The section spelling out the WFTDA’s safety-first policy on spectators is so good, it “almost made me cry,” Binney says. “It’s so nice to see a clear, unambiguously right take.” According to the guidelines, a small live audience is permissible at tier 5, but large-scale events and audiences likely will require “the existence of commercially available vaccines.” This puts them on the conserative end of the spectrum. While pro leagues like the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball are also restarting without fans, college football, NASCAR, and the Kentucky Derby are all still planning to allow spectators, as of now.

The WFTDA is grateful for the community’s adherence to our COVID-19 Guidelines as we work together to keep our skaters, officials, supporters, and families safe. The recent development of several COVID-19 vaccines is a welcome sign in the rebuilding of the sport of roller derby, but we know the anxiety that our teams and clubs are feeling around our return can be overwhelming.

We recognize the vaccine rollout has been anything but equitable, particularly in places such as the United States and the European Union, and that not everyone will be able to get the vaccine (eg. people with certain medical conditions.) As leagues look toward reopening and/or rebuilding, we encourage them to create non-exclusionary and equity-minded policies with return to play for all skaters, officials, and supporters who feel safe to do so. Prioritize your community before competition.

To help leagues plan, we’re offering a few clarifications:

The WFTDA recommends but does not mandate vaccination: We fully support and recommend our community members getting vaccinated, if and when they are able to. We believe in science, but recognize that it can also be used to marginalize and oppress, as well as help. Additionally, vaccination rollout is inequitable at best, and that each person’s personal health needs (such as being immunocompromised or having severe allergic reaction to vaccine components) may make it impossible to get vaccinated.

Smoove_B wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 9:58 pm Wait...so they're saying that because vaccine rollout has been fraught with problems and there are issues of inequity, they're not going to require participants are vaccinated - as that would further exclude people?

I appreciate you sharing this as it's not something I'd normally see (I am not tapped into women's roller derby in any capacity). It's an interesting discussion point and I'll be curious to see how it unfolds in various states.

I can see why this might seem like quibbling, but I just don’t think it’s a trivial matter. It would be different if I thought the effectiveness of every one of those six vaccines against hospitalizations and death would really end up being close to 100 percent—or if I bought into the idea, now widespread, that they have already been shown to “nearly” or “effectively” eliminate these outcomes. There is very good reason to be encouraged by the data, but to say right now that people who have been vaccinated face zero risk of serious outcomes—that, for them, COVID-19 is no more dangerous than the common cold—is sure to influence behavior. Imagine how people in high-risk groups would feel about going to the movies, or how their employers would feel about putting resources into workplace safety, if we all assumed that vaccines confer perfect protection against hospitalization or death. Now imagine how the same people and employers would feel knowing they were 85 percent protected.

Nor is there any reason to believe that the public or the personal interest will be served by hype. People who think the vaccines provide ironclad protection may lose trust in experts if reality falls short. Trust in coronavirus-vaccine information is already a problem, and could sink even lower. Activists who are opposed to vaccination may end up turning experts’ “super-pumped” promises against them.

“The idea that people can’t handle nuance,” Jha tweeted at the end of February, “it’s paternalistic. And untrue.” I couldn’t agree more. The principle of treating people like adults is fundamental. We don’t need to exaggerate. Talking about the trade-offs between different medicines and vaccines is often complicated, but we do it all the time—and we can do it with COVID-19 vaccines too.

“The U.S. death rate increased by 15 percent last year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, making it the deadliest year in recorded U.S. history, the ⁦@CDCgov⁩ will announce, according to two senior administration officials ..”