Coronavirus

[Ragitsu]

 

[Lord Liaden]

It isn't just that people think such things, and say such things. That's always been part of humanity. What sickens me is that in the present day, this kind of talk has become socially acceptable.

[Pariah]

Not just socially acceptable, it's become a badge of honor among certain factions.

[unclevlad]

I agree with Mr. P.  This has gone FAR beyond "socially acceptable" in that crowd.  Unless, LL, you specifically refer to the "we'll be there Monday with guns" part;  that's harder to read.  

 

Oh, BTW:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/virginia-school-board-gun-threat-face-mask-dispute/

 

She has been saying, oh, I misspoke, I didn't mean, you know, GUNS, guns...yeah, right.

 

And hey, even if threatening violence isn't the norm...we have to add "yet" to that.  There's just far, far too much  instigation going on, so "socially acceptable" is still much too mild.  It's well past that, even limiting it to the notion of using violence.  

[Cancer]

From Nature: Evolution of omicron and other strains of COVID

 

More questions than answers at this point, but interesting.  Makes the point that omicron was first detected in South Africa, but (1) Johannesburg has the largest airport in Africa, and (2) South Africa has by far the best viral monitoring of any African country.  So, really, we have no secure idea where that variant originated.  And, it need not have originated in humans; the omicron variant infects a considerable variety of animals.

[Lord Liaden]

On 1/26/2022 at 10:02 PM, Pariah said:

Not just socially acceptable, it's become a badge of honor among certain factions.

 

On 1/27/2022 at 12:04 AM, unclevlad said:

I agree with Mr. P.  This has gone FAR beyond "socially acceptable" in that crowd.  Unless, LL, you specifically refer to the "we'll be there Monday with guns" part;  that's harder to read.  

 

 

I believe my remark may have been misconstrued. I wasn't referring to what's acceptable to "that crowd/faction." Obviously, many of them have wholly embraced those attitudes and publicly proclaim them. I was referring to American society as a whole. Time was, anyone even whispering such sentiments where the wider public could hear them would have been pilloried. Mainstream media would all take them to task. Politicians of every stripe would denounce them. If the speaker was a politician, his/her career would be ruined.

 

Now, while one side vociferously cheer them on, the other side roll their eyes, shrug their shoulders, and pass off those remarks as one more example of the decline of discourse in America. There are no consequences, no accountability, and no expectations of them. People -- at least prominent people -- can deceive, slander, and impugn with impunity. Even when that can easily be proven, it not longer seems to matter.

[Ragitsu]

19 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

Now, while one side vociferously cheer them on, the other side roll their eyes, shrug their shoulders, and pass off those remarks as one more example of the decline of discourse in America.

 

It is a widespread example of societal alarm fatigue. Beyond voting in politicians that rise above the encouragement of demagoguery, there's only so much the average Joe can do other than to rebuke such individuals in their day-to-day lives.

[Cygnia]

The great gaslighting: how Covid longhaulers are still fighting for recognition

[death tribble]

Poland and Mexico both through 5 million cases

[Cygnia]

A Faulty Immune Response May Be Behind Lingering Brain Trouble After COVID-19

[Cancer]

Meanwhile, I tested positive yesterday.

[Cancer]

I'm sick, but no more so than the colds I've had in the past when I went too long a time on too little sleep and too much stress, and that "too long on too little sleep and too much stress" describes the last two or three weeks.  As I am obliged to, I have reported the test result to my employer.

 

So I'm dropping back to Zoom lectures, I've arranged for others to take my two lab sections and proctor the two exams I'm giving in the coming week, and I'm doing my best to get caught up.  I will need to take a trip to campus today retrieve a piece of essential equipment (I have an external webcam clamped on a large broad-blade screwdriver which is set in a ringstand; the webcam points straight down at my scratchpad and that's my blackboard proxy).  I find the whiteboard apps all but unusable.

[tkdguy]

Get well soon, Cancer.

[Cancer]

If anything, I feel better than I did yesterday.  It's just massively inconvenient for lots of reasons, and more so for people around me.  I think time really is going on wildcat strikes intermittently, ducking its responsibility to keep everything from happening all at once.

[Pattern Ghost]

Many people think time is linear, but . . .

 

[Lord Liaden]

11 hours ago, tkdguy said:

Get well soon, Cancer.

 

I very much share that sentiment, but I can't be the only person who sees the irony in this.

[unclevlad]

2 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

I very much share that sentiment, but I can't be the only person who sees the irony in this.

 

What irony?

 

Everyone wants a cure for Cancer.....

[Cancer]

Admittedly there is debate over whether they prefer a salt-honey bacon sort of cure, or just a simple smoke cure...

[Cancer]

Not sure where to put this, but it is COVID-related...

 

Sneezing hamsters and an outbreak in Hong Kong

[Cygnia]

[unclevlad]

Whereas down here there appears to be a slow but steady increase of the non-maskers.  <sigh>  

[Cancer]

Masks are annoying, but the disease is more annoying, AS I AM NOW IN A POSITION TO ATTEST PERSONALLY.

 

I still take off the mask while driving because it inevitably makes my glasses fog up and you really don't want to be driving with an avoidable impairment like that.  But otherwise, meh.

 

What I'd like to do is take an anti-mask diatribe and do the edit command :1,$s/mask/pants/g and inspect the result.  Maybe :1,$/mask/bath/g would be more effective in demonstrating the point to be made thereby.

[Cancer]

And on the up side, the other three people who live in the same house I do tested negative today.

[archer]

7 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Whereas down here there appears to be a slow but steady increase of the non-maskers.  <sigh>  

 

I noticed several watch-parties of families of US Olympic athletes shown on TV that were very crowded and no one wearing masks.

 

I also noticed a couple with everyone masked and a couple with mixed levels of masking.

======

 

One thing that's depressing to me is that the free masks from the government are now available locally. But even in stores where they're giving those masks away for free, I didn't see anyone wearing a N-95.

[unclevlad]

1 hour ago, archer said:

 

I noticed several watch-parties of families of US Olympic athletes shown on TV that were very crowded and no one wearing masks.

 

I also noticed a couple with everyone masked and a couple with mixed levels of masking.

======

 

One thing that's depressing to me is that the free masks from the government are now available locally. But even in stores where they're giving those masks away for free, I didn't see anyone wearing a N-95.

 

Family watch-parties are private.  It is at least plausible that everyone was vaccinated and boostered.  Still not as safe as you'ld like, but that's different.  Masks are still required in stores, so that isn't personal choice, they're breaking the law.