The Coronavirus

[David Horn]

(07-26-2021, 04:57 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(07-25-2021, 03:18 AM)taramarie Wrote: Here in Slovakia it seems the dictatorship eradicating basic rights and bringing about a European apatheid is winning. On top of that i learned nasty things are in store for those who caused havoc for the government in opposition to their new illegal law. Including myself. They really want a war and they will get a digital one as like HELL will i let them remove freedoms that should be for all.

Unfortunately, this isn’t too different from what is happening in America.  Tribal thinking assumes one subgroup is superior to others in the culture.  Prejudice is developed towards other groups, which supposedly justifies oppression and violence.  The Balkans area is more ancient in their thinking, but it is essentially the same thing as America.

I just don’t see where the presence of oppression and violence helps the culture overall.  Places where you see Tribal Thinking in action are a mess.

Still, I have often noted how people don’t change their perspective.  If they start out one way, they stick to it until it utterly fails.  This happened in the Industrial Age with the loss of a crisis war, the recognition that you will have to submerge one’s values in the face of superior force.  With Gandhi, King and the suffragettes, protest and legislation opened the door to another form of change.  One can hope that works in the Balkans, but some people are awful fond of superiority, prejudice, oppression and violence.

Here in the US, we're decades into a period of magical thinking that started with the emergence of slander politics under Lee Atwater and talk radio under Rush Limbaugh. The Murdocks have spread it in the UK and AUstralia too.  That's nearly 40 years of intense programming that's only gotten more intense in the present.  It has a dedicated and mature audience that's been steeped in this stuff for nearly 40 years.  If changing course is possible, it's not likely to be by the fully engrossed.  It will hagve to be by the young and less subsumed.  

Taramarie is part of that demographic too.  The malady infesting free societies has been able to spread because we value free speech, but devalue the responsibility that goes with it.  Let's hope that this can be resolved without implementing the mindnumbing sameness of the last 1T.  Then again, it needs to be addressed regardless.

[David Horn]

(07-27-2021, 09:00 AM)taramarie Wrote: It is bigger than that in Slovakia. Not just free speech, but legally dividing basic freedoms. It is illegal what they are doing right now. On top of that they bully us with police who break peoples arms who are willing to fire upon the crowd who are peacefully protesting and it is their right to protest.

It always starts with speech and builds from there.  I tried to be part of the Freedom Rider campaign in the 1960s (luckily, I was told no).  I was part of the anti-war movement in the 1970s. Both started as speech,and got put-down hard when speech turned to action.  Today, it's BLM.  Where you are, it's opposition to dictators (plenty in the neighborhood). Success is never guaranteed.  The doesn't change things.  I wish you well, but keep your passport handy.  I assume you can both chose to escape to NZ if necessary, but only leave as a last course.

Sadly, the European West is not coming to the rescue.

[pbrower2a]

This is a Crisis Era, and ruthless people rend institutions. We had Donald Trump, and I expect to have imitators in style and substance -- maybe slicker, more dedicated, and less lazy and more competent. We Americans got complacent about the strength of our institutions and traditions necessary for democracy: Trump exposed how wrong that could be.

There is a fascism tailor-made for every nation, and wherever we are we must be wary of those who would take our freedom in exchange for contradictory promises for which the demagogues have no responsibility to seek to achieve. All that matters to the fascist demagogue is power that that demagogue can abuse as a dictator. Slovakia had a fascist regime, a Nazi puppet state, from its separation from Czechoslovakia until its dubious liberation by the Red Army.

But we Americans had our KKK, and it had most of the characteristics of Mussolini and Hitler fascism as early as 1915. Different symbols, to be sure, but it even had a left-arm salute differing only in the choice of arm from the anti-human salute of other fascists. Objects of hatred were much the same. Today it is nearly impossible to distinguish the KKK from neo-Nazis.

Times are hard. Many of the economic assumptions that people have long held, such as that making stuff is a sure way to a solid living, are no longer sure. Maybe you will see people who look very different from you at the bus station or in the store. National culture is not so well defined. You may not find that troubling, but many do.

Slovakia is not so advanced down the authoritarian road as Hungary, whose once conservative democratic party has abandoned democracy (much like the Republican Party in the United States.

The best victories against fascism are prevention.

[pbrower2a]

Draw whatever conclusion you wish.

[pbrower2a]

GAUHATI, India (AP) — The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has fully vaccinated 90% of its eligible adult population within just seven days, its health ministry said Tuesday.

The tiny country, wedged between India and China and home to nearly 800,000 people, began giving out second doses on July 20 in a mass drive that has been hailed by UNICEF as “arguably the fastest vaccination campaign to be executed during a pandemic.”

In April, Bhutan grabbed headlines when its government said it had inoculated around the same percentage of eligible adults with the first dose in under two weeks after India donated 550,000 shots of AstraZeneca vaccine.

But the country faced a shortage for months after India, a major supplier of the AstraZeneca shot, halted exports as it scrambled to meet a rising demand at home as infections surged.

Bhutan was able to restart its drive last week after half a million doses of Moderna vaccine arrived from the United States as a donation under the U.N.-backed COVAX program, an initiative devised to give countries access to coronavirus vaccines regardless of their wealth.

Some 5,000 shots of Pfizer were also facilitated through COVAX, which is co-led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation.

It also received more than 400,000 AstraZeneca shots from Denmark, Croatia and Bulgaria in the last two weeks.

“Our aim is to achieve herd immunity among our population in the shortest possible time to avert a major public health crisis,” Dechen Wangmo, Bhutan’s health minister, told The Associated Press.

Many Western countries with far more resources are yet to vaccinate such a high rate of eligible adults.

Health experts say Bhutan’s small population helped, but the country also benefited from strong and effective messaging from top officials and an established cold chain storage system.

More than 3,000 health workers participated and 1,200 vaccination centers across the country helped ensure that shots reached every eligible adult. In some cases, health workers trekked for days through landslides and pouring rain to reach extremely remote villages atop steep mountains to administer doses to those unable to get to a center, said Dr. Sonam Wangchuk, a member of Bhutan’s vaccination task force.

“Vaccination is the pillar of Bhutan’s healthcare initiative,” he said.

Bhutan’s government is also led by medical practitioners. The prime minister, the foreign minister and the health minister are all medical professionals. And frequent messaging from the government, which directly answers questions from the public about the coronavirus and vaccinations on Facebook, also helped combat vaccine hesitancy among citizens.

“In fact, people are quite eager to come and get themselves vaccinated,” Dr. Wangchuk said.

Its prime minister, Lotay Tshering, and monarch, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, were also early advocates of the vaccine, which allayed fears surrounding the rollout. The king also toured the country to raise awareness about the vaccination drive.

Bhutan is the last remaining Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas, but it has transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a democratic, constitutional monarchy.

Another crucial ingredient in the vaccine drive is the country’s extensive network of citizen volunteers called “desuups,” said Will Parks, the UNICEF representative for Bhutan. Some 22,000 citizens volunteered over the last year and a half to raise awareness, dispel misinformation, help conduct mass screening and testing and even carry vaccines across the country’s difficult terrain, he said.

Bhutan’s success is an anomaly in South Asia where countries such as India and Bangladesh are struggling to ramp up their vaccination rates. Experts say it underscores the importance of richer countries donating vaccines to the developing world and highlights just how big an impact the government and community outreach can have.

“Perhaps this little Himalayan kingdom can be a beacon of hope to a region that is on fire,” Parks said.

https://apnews.com/article/government-an...275ec5e7e0

[Eric the Green]

Vaccination rates by ethnicity in Santa Clara County
African Am. 63%
Native Am. 69.22%
Asian 99.6%
Hispanic 63.05%
Multi-race 51.81%
White 67.31%

Vaccination rates by generation in Santa Clara County
Gen Z teenagers 64.89%
young Millennials 81.97%
older Millennials 94.67%
younger Gen X 82.13%
Core/older Gen X and younger Boomers 85.47%
core Boomers 85.68%
war baby cusp and Silents 82.28%

12 and older with at least 1 dose: 83.7%
complete vaccination 77.5%
https://covid19.sccgov.org/dashboard-vaccinations

previous post July 11 http://generational-theory.com/forum/thr...l#pid77957

[pbrower2a]

If you are vaccinated from COVID-19, then you are more likely to die from:

drowning
sunstroke
dog attack
bee or hornet stings
personal violence
vehicle collisions
the flu
or even being struck by lightning.

[pbrower2a]

People are still contracting COVID-19, and people are still dying of it.


Where I live I will need to go back to wearing a mask in public because my country has a very low vaccination rate. needless to say, it heavily made the stupid choice in the Presidential election and the vote for the Congressional .seat. That's Tim Walberg, who gets this write-up in Wikipedia:

Quote:Walberg has repeatedly invoked birther conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama, arguing that Obama should have been impeached over his birth certificate.[22]


Walberg has repeatedly voted to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[23][24]
On July 23, 2014, Walberg introduced the Senior Executive Service Accountability Act, a bill that would give government agencies tools to remove executives in the Senior Executive Service for performance issues.[25] In January 2016, the bill was referred to the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.[26]

Walberg rejects the scientific consensus on climate change.[27][28][29] On the subject, he said in May 2017, "I believe that there is a creator in God who is much bigger than us. And I’m confident that, if there’s a real problem, he can take care of it."[27]

In December 2020, Walberg was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated[30] incumbent Donald Trump. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case on the basis that Texas lacked standing under Article III of the Constitution to challenge the results of an election held by another state.[31][32][33]

[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Walberg#cite_note-33][/url]
He's Michigan's Louis Gohmert, Mo Brooks, or Paul Gosar. Maybe he is less flamboyant, but we all know where he stands. To be sure, my district isn't exactly a "brainiac" district. It has three small colleges or universities, but all in all this is the sort of district in which country music predominates . It's basically the "Oklahoma" of Michigan.

[Eric the Green]

New cases July 28, by state:

Florida 17,589
Texas 11,893
California 9,314
Georgia 4,612
Louisiana 4,414
North Carolina 3,268
Missouri 2,982
Arkansas 2,843
Tennessee 2,586
New York 2,412
Mississippi 1,908
South Carolina 1,879
Oklahoma 1,806
Pennsylvania 1,763
Arizona 1,759

New cases July 28 by country:

USA 92,485
India 44,673
Indonesia 43,479
Brazil 41,853
Iran 34,433
UK 31,117
Spain 26,689
France 25,190
Russia 23,270
Turkey 22,161
Mexico 19,028
Thailand 17,669
Malaysia 17,170
Bangladesh 15,271
South Africa 13,626

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

President Biden today required unvaccinated federal workers to get tested twice a week, wear masks and socially distance. He encouraged private organizations to do the same. He estimated that the vaccines would get full approval in early Fall 2021. (televised speech and brief Q&A)

[pbrower2a]

[pbrower2a]

We have a precedent for pushing inoculation!

Quote:George Washington's military genius is undisputed. Yet American independence must be partially attributed to a strategy for which history has given the infamous general little credit: his controversial medical actions. Traditionally, the Battle of Saratoga is credited with tipping the revolutionary scales. Yet the health of the Continental regulars involved in battle was a product of the ambitious initiative Washington began earlier that year at Morristown, close on the heels of the victorious Battle of Princeton. Among the Continental regulars in the American Revolution, 90 percent of deaths were caused by disease, and Variola the small pox virus was the most vicious of them all. (Gabriel and Metz 1992, 107)

On the 6th of January 1777, George Washington wrote to Dr. William Shippen Jr., ordering him to inoculate all of the forces that came through Philadelphia. He explained that: "Necessity not only authorizes but seems to require the measure, for should the disorder infect the Army . . . we should have more to dread from it, than from the Sword of the Enemy." The urgency was real. Troops were scarce and encampments had turned into nomadic hospitals of festering disease, deterring further recruitment. Both Benedict Arnold and Benjamin Franklin, after surveying the havoc wreaked by Variola in the Canadian campaign, expressed fears that the virus would be the army's ultimate downfall. (Fenn 2001, 69)

At the time, the practice of infecting the individual with a less-deadly form of the disease was widespread throughout Europe. Most British troops were immune to Variola, giving them an enormous advantage against the vulnerable colonists. (Fenn 2001, 131) Conversely, the history of inoculation in America (beginning with the efforts of the Reverend Cotton Mather in 1720) was pocked by the fear of the contamination potential of the process. Such fears led the Continental Congress to issue a proclamation in 1776 prohibiting Surgeons of the Army to inoculate.

Washington suspected the only available recourse was inoculation, yet contagion risks aside, he knew that a mass inoculation put the entire army in a precarious position should the British hear of his plans. Moreover, Historians estimate that less than a quarter of the Continental Army had ever had the virus; inoculating the remaining three quarters and every new recruit must have seemed daunting. Yet the high prevalence of disease among the army regulars was a significant deterrent to desperately needed recruits, and a dramatic reform was needed to allay their fears.

Weighing the risks, on February 5th of 1777, Washington finally committed to the unpopular policy of mass inoculation by writing to inform Congress of his plan. Throughout February, Washington, with no precedent for the operation he was about to undertake, covertly communicated to his commanding officers orders to oversee mass inoculations of their troops in the model of Morristown and Philadelphia (Dr. Shippen's Hospital). At least eleven hospitals had been constructed by the year's end.

Variola raged throughout the war, devastating the Native American population and slaves who had chosen to fight for the British in exchange for freedom. Yet the isolated infections that sprung up among Continental regulars during the southern campaign failed to incapacitate a single regiment. With few surgeons, fewer medical supplies, and no experience, Washington conducted the first mass inoculation of an army at the height of a war that immeasurably transformed the international system. Defeating the British was impressive, but simultaneously taking on Variola was a risky stroke of genius.

References:

Fenn, Elizabeth. Pox Americana: the Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82. New York: Hill and Wang, 2001. 370 p.

Gabriel, Richard, and Karen Metz. A History of Military Medicine. New York: Greenwood Press, 1992. 2 v.

https://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/GW&smallp...ation.html

[pbrower2a]

2 rare Sumatran tigers recovering after catching COVID-19
By EDNA TARIGAN 
August 1, 2021


[/url]

1 of 2
In this photo released by Jakarta Province Government, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan visits one of the two Sumatran tigers that contracting COVID-19 at the Ragunan Zoo in Jakarta, Indonesia, July 31, 2021. Two rare Sumatran tigers at the zoo in the Indonesian capital are recovering after being infected with COVID-19. (Dadang Kusuma WS/Jakarta province Government via AP)
[url=https://apnews.com/article/health-environment-and-nature-coronavirus-pandemic-tigers-95ce1a1a3a41ab85de09657ceb9078e7/gallery/0cbd5552f5694894a97cdff1eb257829]JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Two rare Sumatran tigers at the zoo in the Indonesian capital are recovering after being infected with COVID-19.

Nine-year-old Tino became ill with shortness of breath, sneezing, and a runny nose on July 9. He also lost his appetite.
Two days later, 12-year-old Hari was showing the same symptoms.
Swabs were taken and results came back positive for COVID-19, Suzi Marsitawati from the Jakarta Parks and Forestry Agency said in a statement on Sunday.
The tigers were immediately treated with antibiotics, antihistamines, anti-inflammatory drugs and multivitamins. They were getting better after 10-12 days, and have now recovered under close observation at Jakarta’s Ragunan Zoo.
“Their condition is good now. Their appetite has returned and they’re being active,” Marsitawati said.
Sumatran tigers are the most critically endangered tiger subspecies and are under increasing pressure as their jungle habitat shrinks.

Marsitawati said the Jakarta government is trying to find out how the tigers were infected, because the zoo has been closed as part of coronavirus restrictions. There was no infection among the caretakers and other zoo staff, she said.
Indonesia has become Asia’s hot spot with a record number of coronavirus cases in the region.

https://apnews.com/article/health-enviro...7ceb9078e7

...Tigers are basically overgrown house-cats, so if you cherish your kitty and aren't vaccinated yet, get vaccinated.

[Eric the Green]

Vaccination rates by ethnicity in Santa Clara County
African Am. 63.86%
Native Am. 70.23%
Asian 100%+
Hispanic 63.96%
Multi-race 52.39%
Pacific Is. 100%+
White 67.87%

Note: Whites, Asians and Hispanics are by-far the largest of these groups in Santa Clara County.

Vaccination rates by generation in Santa Clara County
Gen Z teenagers 66.24%
young Millennials 82.75%
older Millennials 95.39%
younger Gen X 82.63%
Core/older Gen X and younger Boomers 85.89%
core Boomers 86.02%
war baby cusp and Silents 82.52%

Note: older groups tend to be more white; younger groups more diverse, in Santa Clara County.

12 and older with at least 1 dose: 84.3%
complete vaccination 78.2%
https://covid19.sccgov.org/dashboard-vaccinations

previous post July 28 http://generational-theory.com/forum/thr...l#pid78107

Hospitalizations in CA: https://public.tableau.com/views/COVID-1...VizHome=no
Santa Clara County is now 10th in the state. Hospitalizations rose by about 30 today to 116. LA has 1138. Its full vaccination rate is only about 52%.

[Eric the Green]

Most new cases in US states August 3, 2021

Florida 17,001 (to be fair, FL doesn't report to worldometer every day; this may be a multi-day total)
Texas 14,873
California 10,010
Georgia 9,197
Louisiana 4,753
Illinois 2,682
Tennessee 2,677
Missouri 2,640
New York 2,636
Arkansas 2,343
North Carolina 2,188
South Carolina 2,091
Arizona 1,974
Ohio 1,769
Kentucky 1,756
Minnesota 1,665 (I wonder if Classic Xer got the shots)
Wisconsin 1,598
Indiana 1,589
Mississippi 1,574
Oregon 1,565

Most new cases by country Aug 3, 2021
USA 104,758
India 42,566
Iran 39,019
Indonesia 33,900
Brazil 32,572
France 26,829
Turkey 24,832
Russia 22,010
UK 21,691
Spain 20,327
Thailand 18,901
Malaysia 17,105
Bangladesh 15,776
Argentina 14,850
Iraq 11,644
Cuba 9,629
South Africa 8,988
Morocco 8,760
Vietnam 8,429
Japan 8,332
Kazakhstan 7,481
Philippines 6,879

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

[pbrower2a]

[pbrower2a]

Telling, isn't it? A majority of the inoculated fault those who did not get inoculated for spreading COVID-19. That is consistent with the obvious fact that one cannot become a great reservoir for viruses if one is inoculated. Trump and "conservative" media get fault, but the inoculated recognize that those do not have the power to keep people from getting inoculated.

International travelers, whether Americans traveling overseas and returning or foreigners, get some blame... likely too much by both sides. The unvaccinated are worse informed or more disinformed... and surely they have a more derogatory view of anything exotic. Foreign travel was largely shut down fast, so even if it was a big contributor early it is not so for recent infections.

[Eric the Green]

(08-04-2021, 12:56 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: Most new cases in US states August 5, 2021

Florida 20,133 (voted for Trump and DeSantis)
Texas 14,173 (voted for Trump and Abbott, and has lots of hispanics who have low vax rates)
California 11,725 (blue, but still has lots of crazies in So.Cal., and lots of hispanics who have low vax rates)
Georgia 5,806 (Republican ruled)
Louisiana 5,468 (voted for Trump)
North Carolina 4,331 (voted for Trump)
Missouri 3,946 (voted for Trump, Republican ruled)
New York 3,390
Tennessee 3,292 (voted for Trump)
Mississippi 3,164 (voted for Trump)
Illinois 3,048
Washington 2,911
South Carolina 2,835 (voted for Trump)
Arkansas 2,777 (voted for Trump)
Oklahoma 2,342 (voted for Trump)
Arizona 2,289 (Republican ruled)
Kentucky 2,157 (voted for Trump)
Ohio 1,969 (voted for Trump)
Indiana 1,900 (voted for Trump)
Wisconsin 1,797
Virginia 1,761
Pennsylvania 1,691
New Jersey 1,466
Oregon 1,372

Most new cases by country Aug 5, 2021
USA 120,945 (formerly misruled by Trump, lots of Republicans and other crazies)
India 45,001 (misruled by Modi)
Brazil 40,054 (misruled by Bolsonaro)
Iran 38,674 (misruled by the Ayatollah)
Indonesia 35,764 (too close to India)
UK 30,215 (misruled by Johnson and Tories)
France 26,460 (lots of crazies protesting vaccine mandates)
Turkey 24,297 (misruled by Erdogen)
Russia 23,120 (misruled by Putin)
Spain 21,387
Thailand 20,920 (misruled)
Mexico 20,685 (close to USA)
Malaysia 20,596 (close to India)
Japan 14,211
Argentina 13,786 (close to Brazil)
South Africa 13,646
Bangladesh 12,744 (close to India)
Morocco 12,039
Iraq 11,871
Cuba 8,399 (misruled)
Philippines 8,127 (misruled by Duterte)
Kazakhstan 7,792 (close to Russia)
Botswana 7,354
Vietnam 7,244 (close to India; misruled?)
Italy 7,230
Columbia 6,540

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

[pbrower2a]

The other "one percenter". It kills over 1% of those that it successfully infects.

[Eric the Green]

10 worst states in the Delta surge. All 10 voted for Trump in 2020, 9 are deep red states. Here are the new daily infections per 100,000 people as of Aug.6 and this Forbes report, and the percent of people vaccinated, in these states.
1. FL 132.2 less than 50%
2. LA 96.6 37.2%
3. OK 79.4 40%
4. AR 69.5 41.8%
5. MS 68.1 34.8%
6. AL 56.6 34.6%
7. MO 48.5 41.8%
8. AK 48.5 45.8%
9. SC 44.7 40.9%
10. TN 40.5 39.4%



https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowa...ta-variant

[Eric the Green]

(08-08-2021, 09:36 AM)pbrower2a Wrote:





The other "one percenter". It kills over 1% of those that it successfully infects.

They might as well put up welcome and directional signs for covid to come to their rally. Step right up, right this way, dig right in! Libertarians! Yum Yumm!