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

[Kasey Chang]

A news item prompted me to start this meme:

[Max Peck]

Nice, but it'd be even more on point if you went with ivermectin instead of regeneron.

[Kasey Chang]

Probably, I can always double down...

[Alefroth]

I think it works better with Regeneron since it's a legitimate treatment and one they'll likely receive.

[Blackhawk]

It works best if you just go with 'even more experimental treatments.' Then people will automatically fill in the blank with whatever drug is most on their mind.

[Isgrimnur]

Newsweek

John Pierce, an anti-vaccination advocate and lawyer representing people arrested for allegedly participating in the January 6 Capitol riots, has contracted COVID-19 and is reportedly on a ventilator.

When Pierce failed to appear at a Wednesday court hearing for Capitol riot suspect Shane Jenkins, his colleague Ryan Marshall told the judge, "Mr. Pierce is in the hospital, we believe, with COVID-19, on a ventilator, non-responsive," The Independent reported.
...
Pierce temporarily served as the lawyer for Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old charged with killing two men and injuring a third during a late August uprising in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Pierce was fired as Rittenhouse's attorney over a financial disagreement.

He is representing at least 17 clients who are suspected of participating in the January 6 Capitol riots. In a January 9 tweet, Pierce referred to riot arrestees as "patriotic Americans being wrongfully detained."

[Octavious]

Bummer...

[Daehawk]

Probably, I can always double down...

Well at least they wont have worms.

[Isgrimnur]

There's an anecdote that comes to mind about, iirc, Dante's Peak. They wanted to hire a volcanologist to consult, but everyone they reached out to contact had died.

[malchior]

Good for him. Massie went on to delete his idiotic tweet.

https://twitter.com/theandrewzirkle/sta ... 8349039617

https://twitter.com/theandrewzirkle/sta ... 2044282889

[Max Peck]

I think it works better with Regeneron since it's a legitimate treatment and one they'll likely receive.

Yeah, but people running on anti-vax logic seem to prefer ivermectin. Of course, they don't beg for it, they just go to the local feedstore, buy it and self-medicate.

[Kasey Chang]

I need to refine the script.

How about "Self-administers medicine meant for LARGE animals and not approved for human use" for second part?

[Zaxxon]

I'd be a fan of some form of 'those who call others sheep, probably shouldn't self-medicate with meds for sheep.'

Preferably a snappier, more witty form.

[Daehawk]

I'd be a fan of some form of 'those who call others sheep, probably shouldn't self-medicate with meds for sheep.'

Preferably a snappier, more witty form.

"Use a real medically suggested vaccine? Baa-haa-haa-haa, Ill self medicare"

[Pyperkub]

I'd be a fan of some form of 'those who call others sheep, probably shouldn't self-medicate with meds for sheep.'

Preferably a snappier, more witty form.

"Use a real medically suggested vaccine? Baa-haa-haa-haa, Ill self medicare"

Any problem can be fixed with either wd40, or duct tape!

[Alefroth]

Meme by committee.

[Smoove_B]

....I don't think this is how memes are typically created, but COVID is my lane not humor via imagery.

[Anonymous Bosch]

....I don't think this is how memes are typically created, but COVID is my lane not humor

YMMV, but I found the following mix of both amusing:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1429952755154645006

A picture of the COVID-19 pandemic, San Francisco, California, August 2021:

It's been 18 months. I'm still alive. I'm vaxxed. Everyone I know is vaxxed. I didn't get sick. I don't know anyone who got sick.

I go to a restaurant. I have to prove I'm vaxxed.

1/ I go from the host stand to my table wearing a mask. The room is full of vaxxed people. They're sitting down, so they're not wearing masks.

I sit down so it's ok to take off the mask.

Have to pee. I get up to go to the bathroom. I have to put on the mask.

2/ I return to the table. It's ok to take off the mask again.

The server comes by to take my order. If he's not vaxxed, he gets fired--despite a labor shortage. Thus, he is vaxxed.

Everyone is seated at the moment so he is the only person in the room wearing a mask.

3/ Two hours later, it's time to go. I have to wear a mask to the door. I leave the restaurant. I take off the mask. I pass a couple outdoors waiting to get into the restaurant. They are vaxxed, but they are masked.

I chit-chat with friends for a bit & then say good night.

4/ I walk by the restaurant window & see the couple from earlier sitting at their table. They are now unmasked.

--

We look like crazy people.

We. Look. Like. Crazy. People.

[Smoove_B]

I can't disagree.

My answer to the above scenario is that nobody should be eating indoors at a restaurant at this time. Not people in restaurants, not kids in schools.

We absolutely look like crazy people because local, state and federal officials aren't acting like leaders. No one is willing to pay people to stay home or to come up with creative outdoor eating options while the weather allows.

Eating indoors while Delta is surging is indefensible.

[Kraken]

Eating indoors while Delta is surging is indefensible.

I plan to stop doing that in about two weeks, when two things happen: Schools reopen, and Wife goes back into the office two days a week. Covid is building again in MA, as it is everywhere, but it's still less than alarming here. I expect that to change when the kiddies go back -- although we do have a statewide mask mandate, so maybe it won't rage out of control right away.

We'll indulge in two more nice, indoor restaurant meals before switching to outdoors and takeout again. I'll reevaluate after we get our boosters, which I guess will be in December or January.

[raydude]

....I don't think this is how memes are typically created, but COVID is my lane not humor

YMMV, but I found the following mix of both amusing:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1429952755154645006

A picture of the COVID-19 pandemic, San Francisco, California, August 2021:

It's been 18 months. I'm still alive. I'm vaxxed. Everyone I know is vaxxed. I didn't get sick. I don't know anyone who got sick.

I go to a restaurant. I have to prove I'm vaxxed.

1/ I go from the host stand to my table wearing a mask. The room is full of vaxxed people. They're sitting down, so they're not wearing masks.

I sit down so it's ok to take off the mask.

Have to pee. I get up to go to the bathroom. I have to put on the mask.

I can't tell, is it a rant on what the person has to do to eat indoors in a restaurant during a pandemic, or is it a sarcastic "I can't believe this is what people are complaining about?" Because right now it sounds like complaining about first world problems in a relatively safe region, but all it takes is some unvaxxed out-of-towners to spoil the party.

[Blackhawk]

I took it as a 'the combination of precautions we're taking are actually pretty absurd' sort of thing. It's a side effect of needing to make simple, easy-to-understand rules. To do that, you have to generalize. If you can't explain it in a diagram with cartoon figures and no words, people won't follow.

[Anonymous Bosch]

....I don't think this is how memes are typically created, but COVID is my lane not humor

YMMV, but I found the following mix of both amusing:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1429952755154645006

A picture of the COVID-19 pandemic, San Francisco, California, August 2021:

It's been 18 months. I'm still alive. I'm vaxxed. Everyone I know is vaxxed. I didn't get sick. I don't know anyone who got sick.

I go to a restaurant. I have to prove I'm vaxxed.

1/ I go from the host stand to my table wearing a mask. The room is full of vaxxed people. They're sitting down, so they're not wearing masks.

I sit down so it's ok to take off the mask.

Have to pee. I get up to go to the bathroom. I have to put on the mask.

I can't tell, is it a rant on what the person has to do to eat indoors in a restaurant during a pandemic, or is it a sarcastic "I can't believe this is what people are complaining about?" Because right now it sounds like complaining about first world problems in a relatively safe region, but all it takes is some unvaxxed out-of-towners to spoil the party.

Meh. It's not a rant, it's just a wry observation of the half-assed non-pharmaceutical interventions someone experienced while they chose to eat out in the bay area. As I said, I found it mildly amusing, but YMMV.

[Combustible Lemur]

So this week I've hit my floor (thus far.)

I'm a teacher. I live in Texas. I work for an affluent engineering and science heavy suburban district with top schools. The basically official policy from the top right now is fuck it. If you want to wear a mask fine. If you test positive we'll support you stayung home. But dont make anyone feel bad for not being paranoid.
Students get free testing with an appointment during school hours at a single site with an at least day wait. There is no direct teacher testing policy openly available. The first testing site was closed. MAAAAAAYBE I can use the student appointment system. But i think i was supposed to call central HR and say i want to get tested. Advertising that im leaving work from an environment where i dont think ANYONE in admin is mask wearing.
CVS is a two day waiting period. Long story short it just took 5 days of hunting for sites and appointments during my only non class or rehearsal time in a 12 hr workday to finally get tested. I was confirmed exposed by at least three positive students within the first three days of school. That was a week ago. Im waiting 1 to 2 more days to find out if im positive. Everyone in my home (2 high risk elderly, and kerikitkat) is vaccinated. I texted this to keri earlier

Okay, tested results tomorrow or saturday. Don't think ill do it again.
Im all for the greater good. But generally speaking im hurting those close to me an with low risk to their health and protecting those won't protect themselves.

Id never forgive myself if i killed a kids' family member but do i feel guilt for them walking in front of a train of which I'm just one car? Especially when it takes 5 days to pull the brakes? And more mass is added every hour.

I mean the answer is obviously yes. But I don't know how i feel with how against my own and the departments self interest it is.

Ten days quarantine would impact a years worth of work and dozens of students who are getting exposed on a minute to minute to minute basis. I get it. Fuck the unvaccinated. But who the fuck are we as a culture? Is letting your neighbor die the natural state? Are we weak for not just saying let them make their own choice? And moving on. Political shills forcing it are one thing, but how much shame do we take on in fucking up our own lives to preserve the lives of those that wont preserve themselves?

Work is both awesome and shitty right now.

To be clear we vaccined immediately last spring. Did all the things. Quarantined all year, masks religiously. (until the great vacinated unmasking). But they've been back on during the resurgence. We even did the grocery sanitizing for months till it became clear that was pointless.

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[Daehawk]

I dont give a shit about those who can get the shot but wont. More power to them if they die. Im all for helping them on their way with a virus.

I do worry about those who want the shot but cant get it like immune compromised and such. Also children who cant get it or their parents that wont let them have it. I also worry about getting it myself. Im fully vaxxed but I live alone and Im not sure how bad I could get it . I might not be able to care for my dog if it got worse.So I still mask for the most part. Sometimes I forget. Sometimes if its a bigger open store with few people I dont if Im just going in and out. Smaller stores or more people or me being inside a while I get my mask on for sure.

[Kraken]

I took it as a 'the combination of precautions we're taking are actually pretty absurd' sort of thing. It's a side effect of needing to make simple, easy-to-understand rules. To do that, you have to generalize. If you can't explain it in a diagram with cartoon figures and no words, people won't follow.

Yeah, restaurant protocols are hygiene theater. Masking the staff makes sense because they're the ones circulating. But asking customers to put on a mask to walk from the door to a table is pointless enough to get an even from me.

[Pyperkub]

I took it as a 'the combination of precautions we're taking are actually pretty absurd' sort of thing. It's a side effect of needing to make simple, easy-to-understand rules. To do that, you have to generalize. If you can't explain it in a diagram with cartoon figures and no words, people won't follow.

Yeah, restaurant protocols are hygiene theater. Masking the staff makes sense because they're the ones circulating. But asking customers to put on a mask to walk from the door to a table is pointless enough to get an even from me.

It is and it isn't.

In that situation I try to follow the rule of staff

If the staff are masked, mask up when you can.

It isn't necessarily efficient in dining /drinking establishments, but it is polite, and that can be in short supply these days

[Victoria Raverna]

I took it as a 'the combination of precautions we're taking are actually pretty absurd' sort of thing. It's a side effect of needing to make simple, easy-to-understand rules. To do that, you have to generalize. If you can't explain it in a diagram with cartoon figures and no words, people won't follow.

Yeah, restaurant protocols are hygiene theater. Masking the staff makes sense because they're the ones circulating. But asking customers to put on a mask to walk from the door to a table is pointless enough to get an even from me.

Pointless until an unmasked customer cough or sneeze when walking between the door to a table.

[Carpet_pissr]

I took it as a 'the combination of precautions we're taking are actually pretty absurd' sort of thing. It's a side effect of needing to make simple, easy-to-understand rules. To do that, you have to generalize. If you can't explain it in a diagram with cartoon figures and no words, people won't follow.

Yeah, restaurant protocols are hygiene theater. Masking the staff makes sense because they're the ones circulating. But asking customers to put on a mask to walk from the door to a table is pointless enough to get an even from me.

This was my take as well (COVID theater) and I get it 100%.

I guess I’ve had a contrarian view on this (relative to the board) for several months now: it’s way past time to stop coddling the unvaccinated. We have made massive efforts to provide access to the vaccine, and begged, bribed and threatened people to various degrees.

If you haven’t gotten it by now (kids under 12 excepted), fuck you.

That ridiculous restaurant situation above only supports the unvaccinated’s opinion of the situation: absurd theater.

People wearing masks while driving alone in cars probably doesn’t help either. It’s those ‘we’ve gone too far’ situations that help fuel the assholes’ convictions who won’t get their shot.

It’s not the sole reason/impetus behind their stubbornness, but those MANY, little kind of examples we see everywhere just keep supporting their wrongheaded ideas.

[Combustible Lemur]

I took it as a 'the combination of precautions we're taking are actually pretty absurd' sort of thing. It's a side effect of needing to make simple, easy-to-understand rules. To do that, you have to generalize. If you can't explain it in a diagram with cartoon figures and no words, people won't follow.

Yeah, restaurant protocols are hygiene theater. Masking the staff makes sense because they're the ones circulating. But asking customers to put on a mask to walk from the door to a table is pointless enough to get an even from me.

This was my take as well (COVID theater) and I get it 100%.

I guess I’ve had a contrarian view on this (relative to the board) for several months now: it’s way past time to stop coddling the unvaccinated. We have made massive efforts to provide access to the vaccine, and begged, bribed and threatened people to various degrees.

If you haven’t gotten it by now (kids under 12 excepted), fuck you.

That ridiculous restaurant situation above only supports the unvaccinated’s opinion of the situation: absurd theater.

People wearing masks while driving alone in cars probably doesn’t help either. It’s those ‘we’ve gone too far’ situations that help fuel the assholes’ convictions who won’t get their shot.

It’s not the sole reason/impetus behind their stubbornness, but those MANY, little kind of examples we see everywhere just keep supporting their wrongheaded ideas.

The problem is once we do that we own the hospital collapse. The heart patient without a bed. The 1 kid in ten thousand who dies who didnt have to.
Is it worth it to show choices have consequences? Maybe, I'm leaning that way fast. But it means we own that child/ loved one dying a painful prolonged miserable and lonely death, so we can feel smug about the 100 dipshits who also died.

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[LawBeefaroni]

Eating indoors while Delta is surging is indefensible.

Is it?


COVID is endemic. I'm not a fatalist but this is probably our default state now. Are we just just done with indoor dining?

[malchior]

Eating indoors while Delta is surging is indefensible.

Is it?


COVID is endemic. I'm not a fatalist but this is probably our default state now. Are we just just done with indoor dining?

If locally they are still dealing with medical systems strained to capacity...endemic isn't the point is it? Folks still need to do what they can to reduce pressure on the system. Still, I'm more in the middle myself still. If the area doesn't have a surge of delta going on then maybe it is an unnecessary.

[Smoove_B]

Is it?

Yes

COVID is endemic.

No, it isn't. It's currently in a pandemic state and Delta is surging nationwide. Rabies? Rabies is endemic. I would guess most people spend about 10 seconds year thinking about rabies. SARS-CoV-2 is circulating at high levels in 50 states right now; it should be on the forefront of everyone's mind.

I'm not a fatalist but this is probably our default state now. Are we just just done with indoor dining?

Not at all. But while it's surging and there are millions of people unvaccinated (for various reasons)? Absogodamnlutely. The sentiment you're expressing is overwhelmingly becoming more popular in certain circles - "Eh, what are you going to do, it's here and we did all we can." Completely not true It's how we're treating the Global Warming issue and any number of other problems - shrugging our shoulders and just dealing with this new level of social chaos. It's beyond frustrating because as I've pointed out elsewhere, there is still so much we could be doing. It really is like a switch was flipped back in May and no matter what's happening right now, everyone is just collectively ignoring it - like we're in some type of mass denial of reality.

[Blackhawk]

"Eh, what are you going to do, it's here and we did all we can." [snip] ...there is still so much we could be doing.

Part of the problem is word 'we.' We (meaning conscientious individuals) did all we could, and most of us are continuing to. But 1) the second 'we' isn't us. It's people with power and authority who aren't. And 2) it's frustrating when the first 'we' do everything in our power only to have it undermined by the rest.

Around here, being conscientious with COVID is like being a blue voter in a red state. You vote, but everyone else counters it, and it ends up not making much of a difference except to you personally. It's like being outside watering your flowers while being careful not to accidentally spray your neighbor's car. In the middle of a rainstorm. But hey, it's the thought that counts!

Still, I keep voting. And I keep masking. And I keep avoiding certain situations. I haven't given up, but I have to admit that it's been made to feel pretty damned useless.

[Zaxxon]

Our local paper this am...



Title: "All the learning isn't happening in the classroom."

[malchior]

This ended up being a pretty hard to watch video for me. While watching it illustrated to me that I've become quite hard in my viewpoint on this issue. The first person asked in the video about why they didn't get vaccinated says something along the lines of, "I'm a libertarian and don't like being told what to do". And the doctor had indicated he has a low chance of survival. And my thought unfortunately was - maybe this is a good outcome. Ideally I'd wish the guy could go on living his moronic existence in fantasy land with his fellow idiots. Instead he is lying in a bed dying and maybe our nation and society is better for it. Maybe he'll be an example that pushes someone else to take this seriously. He isn't walking around right now killing other people. He isn't influencing other people to be selfish and reckless. So when he says he doesn't like being told what to do...well the virus is certainly telling him to die. And maybe that is good.

https://twitter.com/nytopinion/status/1 ... 3497181184

[LawBeefaroni]

"Eh, what are you going to do, it's here and we did all we can." [snip] ...there is still so much we could be doing.

Part of the problem is word 'we.' We (meaning conscientious individuals) did all we could, and most of us are continuing to. But 1) the second 'we' isn't us. It's people with power and authority who aren't. And 2) it's frustrating when the first 'we' do everything in our power only to have it undermined by the rest.

Around here, being conscientious with COVID is like being a blue voter in a red state. You vote, but everyone else counters it, and it ends up not making much of a difference except to you personally. It's like being outside watering your flowers while being careful not to accidentally spray your neighbor's car. In the middle of a rainstorm. But hey, it's the thought that counts!

Still, I keep voting. And I keep masking. And I keep avoiding certain situations. I haven't given up, but I have to admit that it's been made to feel pretty damned useless.

Yeah, I'm sitting in a restaurant on my day off, getting a proper breakfast for the first time in months. There is one other table with 2 guys, the rest of the place is empty. I'm wearing a mask sitting here. 99% chance that everyone here is vaccinated.

Yet I know that in Florida or Tennessee or wherever, hell, southern Illinois, that there are 20 dudes crowded around a diner counter, unvaccinated, sipping coffee and carrying on.


"We" can't stop it because "they" don't want to. It gets tiring being the drop of water in the ocean.

[YellowKing]

I think a lot of us have grown tired of pulling all the weight in this group project (still the best analogy I've read).

The vaccinated ones are being asked to continue to stay home, continue to not go to concerts, continue to not travel, continue to not go out to eat. For what? For absolutely nothing to change? So that those who don't give a shit can continue to go do fun stuff?

I mean as bad as it sounds, I'm getting very close to "I'm looking after me and mine, and the rest of you can go to hell." You obviously don't care about my family or my kids, so why should I care about yours?

And I'm really sad and frustrated to be driven to that point, because it's exactly the mindset the Republican party wants me to be in. I've become what I hate.

[Smoove_B]

https://twitter.com/AaronParnas/status/ ... 6413394969

BREAKING: FLORIDA JUDGE RULES THAT GOVERNOR DESANTIS’S ANTI-MASK EXECUTIVE ORDER IS UNLAWFUL!

THE PARENTS WIN!

[Paingod]

Maybe he'll be an example that pushes someone else to take this seriously. He isn't walking around right now killing other people. He isn't influencing other people to be selfish and reckless. So when he says he doesn't like being told what to do...well the virus is certainly telling him to die. And maybe that is good.

Maybe he won't be able to vote to keep other morons like him in power, too.

I'm intensely curious to see if/how COVID reshapes the political map when so many "Blue" people are working to stay alive while so many "Red" people are fighting to kill themselves.

Florida Man: Elected
Sane People: This is the end of the Republican party
COVID: Hold my RNA. I got this.