PlagueWatch 2020-23 - Coronavirus

[rsvman]

After 10 days of attempting to get registered for the COVID vaccine here in Georgia, I finally got through their website and am scheduled for next Monday afternoon. Unsure which version I will be getting, but considering the way my county rolled out the program, my vaccine will probably be for rabies.

On the plus side, rabies is 100% fatal and the vaccine flat-out works.

[Kdogg]

I am not sure I completely understand this idea that the vaccine is inherently unsafe. Can somebody please explain this to me? Do you think it is a general mistrust of the medical profession or scientists in general, or do you think it is more specifically aimed at this particular vaccine?

Vaccines are taken for granted. Most people don’t remember smallpox or polio or a half dozen other debilitating diseases. Heck some might not remember chickenpox even. Why? Because vaccines worked. My wish is that these vaccines remind the ignorant that science is real.

[Skydog]

I am not sure I completely understand this idea that the vaccine is inherently unsafe. Can somebody please explain this to me? Do you think it is a general mistrust of the medical profession or scientists in general, or do you think it is more specifically aimed at this particular vaccine?

I know you were asking about skepticism about this specific vaccine, but it grew in a very fertile environment. The rapid growth of the anti-vaccine movement is one of the many unintended consequences of our modern information wild west of social media where anything and everything goes, and does so largely unchecked. The anti-vaxxers quickly learned how to slickly package content for the more "learned" reader, and found it alarmingly easy to build an online cult. Not only an easy path but also a heavily incentivized path to profit, power and fame. And Twitter, Facebook and Youtube all created algorithms to help build cults - they ensured that any platform user who stumbled on even a single anti-vax video or read a single anti-vax thread was fed more and more of the same.

Prior to the turn-of-the-century explosion of social media every every extended family had their were own vaccine skeptics and general conspiracy theorists. But, unlike viruses, these pre-2000's fringe theorists didn't have an easily accessed vector to spread worldwide. If you wanted to build a cult you had to do it the hard way - write a book and/or travel the country holding conspiracy promulgating seminars for fun and profit. But these were labor intensive endeavors with relatively small audience reach. And they didn't benefit from the multiplier "hive" effect of mutually reinforcing fringe belief driven communities that have become so commonplace in modern social media.

I know I'm a broken record on this - but until society solves the "unfettered social media is societal poison vs big brother solutions are dangerous potential paths toward totalitarianism" dilemma then anti-vaxxers (and white supremacists and election deniers and secret gov't cabals of pedophilia believers) are going to be a growing contingent of our population.

I just found this out personally. I have a very smart friend who went to Duke law school and I was telling him last week how lucky I was to get the vaccine. He, who had zero history of fringe beliefs, started telling me how dangerous this new vaccine was. I said "what?" and he started forwarding me texts he got from his friend (also a Duke graduate and former sorority sister of Melinda Gates) in the vein of "Why would Bobby Kennedy give up his environmental work for vaccine risk awareness, which he said was 10x worse than enviro issues?" and "the allergic reactions to the PEG in the lipid nano particles leads to a a 1 in 43 chance of injury." His friend writes for the "Childrens Health Defense Fund" which looks legit and scientific until you google and find their Bill Gates and 5G conspiracy beliefs. So that's a long-winded personal example of how a very educated, very smart friend just this year fell victim to the anti-vax movement.

[rsvman]

Interesting. Bobby Kennedy Jr has been a raving anti-vax lunatic for a very long time. As far as I can tell, he's an idiot.

[Jeffrey]

Interesting. Bobby Kennedy Jr has been a raving anti-vax lunatic for a very long time. As far as I can tell, he's an idiot.

Bobby knows shooting heroin is safer...

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/18/us/robert-kennedy-jr-admits-he-is-guilty-in-possessing-heroin.html

[wavedukefan70s]

Stupid is as stupid does.

I can understand people not getting a vaccine (flu, shingles, pneumonia) because they didn't know about it, or if they couldn't afford it because they didn't have health insurance, but that's not the case with Covid-19, because unless you live under a rock or have dementia and don't understand, nobody can say they don't know about Covid-19 or that there is a vaccine, and that there will no charge for it, being paid for either by your health insurance or by the government for those without insurance.

Sorry to be un informed but i had no idea they even had a pneumonia vaccine.
Until i just read it.i have not heard of the shingles vaccine either until a while ago on this forum.
Why hasnt my physician said anything to me .maybe it was age related .
Im 50 .maybe he figured if i wanted it i would ask.
Humm

[LasVegas]

Sorry to be un informed but i had no idea they even had a pneumonia vaccine.
Until i just read it.i have not heard of the shingles vaccine either until a while ago on this forum.
Why hasnt my physician said anything to me .maybe it was age related .
Im 50 .maybe he figured if i wanted it i would ask.
Humm

The pneumonia vaccine is 65 and older unless you have certain medical conditions or smoke.

[sagegrouse]

Sorry to be un informed but i had no idea they even had a pneumonia vaccine.
Until i just read it.i have not heard of the shingles vaccine either until a while ago on this forum.
Why hasnt my physician said anything to me .maybe it was age related .
Im 50 .maybe he figured if i wanted it i would ask.
Humm

You should get both pneumonia and shingles vaccines.

[wavedukefan70s]

You should get both pneumonia and shingles vaccines.

Definitely going to ask at my next appointment.

[devildeac]

Family reports about 8 hours after second shots:

Wife (Pfizer)-minimal arm soreness and headache; will take 500 or 650 mg acetaminophen at bed time

Son (Moderna)-moderate arm soreness without any other symptoms; no analgesics reported

[sagegrouse]

Some good news for a change. The seven-day average for new cases is falling sharply -- down 23 percent in the past nine days to the lowest seven-day average since December 31.

Reported deaths are down eight percent in the past week -- but soared today to a near-record 4,374.

[budwom]

Interesting. Bobby Kennedy Jr has been a raving anti-vax lunatic for a very long time. As far as I can tell, he's an idiot.

When I was a lad I once drove Bobby Jr plus his mom and dad around in a car for about 15 minutes which was interesting primarily because I didn't have a driver's license, but that's how things go sometimes.

[sagegrouse]

When I was a lad I once drove Bobby Jr plus his mom and dad around in a car for about 15 minutes which was interesting primarily because I didn't have a driver's license, but that's how things go sometimes.

If I read this correctly, you were a middle teen driving around RFK, Ethel Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy Jr.

Details! We have to have details!

[devildeac]

About a 21 hour update:

Wife-arm a bit more sore, mostly relieved with acetaminophen; a good night's sleep on the books

Son-(probable) fever and chills with rigors overnight, very sore arm-can hardly raise it, didn't sleep well and pulse in the 70s instead of the 40s (he's a runner); he's headed for a nap this afternoon with his 26 month old . He has zero regrets.

[bundabergdevil]

The new administration released its national COVID strategy.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcar...onavirus-fight

[Jeffrey]

When I was a lad I once drove Bobby Jr plus his mom and dad around in a car for about 15 minutes which was interesting primarily because I didn't have a driver's license, but that's how things go sometimes.

I can appreciate why they chose you to drive, instead of a family member.

[Rich]

Time to change the name of this thread to "PlagueWatch 2020-2021"?

[Tripping William]

Time to change the name of this thread to "PlagueWatch 2020-2021"?

Aside: This thread will turn a year old on Saturday. *sigh*

[OldPhiKap]

We're also way past the "watch" part.

Maybe Virus Vigil is more apt.

But since Troublemaker started it, I would defer to him and leaving it as-is is fine too.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

We're also way past the "watch" part.

Maybe Virus Vigil is more apt.

But since Troublemaker started it, I would defer to him and leaving it as-is is fine too.

How about Covid Covfefe? Not to make light of it, but we could all use a little humor in our lives...

I think the votes of the medical professionals who have been providing incredible information count extra.