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Post by kds on May 27, 2021 13:26:36 GMT
All Marylanders who've been vaccinated are automatically entered into a lottery to win as much as $40,000.
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Post by Kapitan on May 27, 2021 13:41:15 GMT
I'm not sure how I feel about giving reward-incentives for getting vaccinated.
On one hand, it's pretty sad to have to bribe people to do the obviously responsible thing. And it could set a bad precedent, like all you have to do is act like a brat long enough and someone will give you a prize. (It's like giving a kid candy if he'll quit throwing a tantrum.)
But on the other hand, getting this damn virus under control so we can have normalcy is an obvious priority that we all share. So part of me says, whatever it takes (within reason) is worth it.
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Post by kds on May 27, 2021 14:00:16 GMT
I'm not sure how I feel about giving reward-incentives for getting vaccinated.
On one hand, it's pretty sad to have to bribe people to do the obviously responsible thing. And it could set a bad precedent, like all you have to do is act like a brat long enough and someone will give you a prize. (It's like giving a kid candy if he'll quit throwing a tantrum.)
But on the other hand, getting this damn virus under control so we can have normalcy is an obvious priority that we all share. So part of me says, whatever it takes (within reason) is worth it.
Yeah, I have pretty mixed feelings about it too. But, I guess if it gets us closer to normal, I'm OK with it. There were some fairly clever local promotions like "Shot and a Beer" at a local brewery that's hosting a vaccine clinic this weekend. You get the shot, and you get a voucher for a free beer and appetizer for a future visit (because it's advised to avoid alcohol immediately after the shot).
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on May 27, 2021 16:54:49 GMT
With my job, I come in contact with this business (which will remain nameless) that is paying their employees $25.00 if they get vaccinated. I also deal with WalMart through my job, and a worker there told me that WalMart is offering $75.00 to employees for getting vaccinated.
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Post by kds on May 27, 2021 18:54:09 GMT
I almost feel cheated for getting the vaccine to reduce my chances of getting really, really sick.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 1, 2021 20:39:40 GMT
In a somewhat surprising announcement, Minneapolis just lifted its mask mandate, effective immediately. The state lifted its requirement a few weeks ago, leaving it to individual jurisdictions and businesses to retain their own mandates if they chose. Now after apparently having studied its own vaccination rates in more detail, Minneapolis is taking that same approach.
I almost want to walk to the grocery store or liquor store down the street and go in unmasked, just for the feeling of it ... but the news is brand-new, so I'd probably get a stern talking-to!
The news brought a smile to my face. Hopefully our march back to normalcy is a direct one, no detours.
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Post by kds on Jun 2, 2021 12:11:26 GMT
Maryland hit their 70% of adults getting at least one dose over the Memorial Day Weekend.
Unfortunately, Baltimore City is lagging behind at just over 50% going into the weekend, so the mask mandate remains in the City for the time being.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 2, 2021 12:34:37 GMT
Minneapolis found that a remarkable 78+% of adults are vaccinated! That was a big piece of what spurred them on to removing the mandate.
It's funny but I guess not surprising that the city that is the most cautious, where we see people still masked while driving alone in a car or walking around a lake with nobody within 10 feet, kept its mandate so long despite a high vaccination rate; yet you get to the suburbs and especially the rural parts of the state and you'll find that places that never wore masks in the first place have vaccination rates as low as 29% despite higher rates of infection than even the metro...
My point being, the people with the least to fear still often seem overly paranoid, while those who really ought to be careful don't give a damn.
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Post by kds on Jun 2, 2021 12:36:27 GMT
Minneapolis found that a remarkable 78+% of adults are vaccinated! That was a big piece of what spurred them on to removing the mandate.
It's funny but I guess not surprising that the city that is the most cautious, where we see people still masked while driving alone in a car or walking around a lake with nobody within 10 feet, kept its mandate so long despite a high vaccination rate; yet you get to the suburbs and especially the rural parts of the state and you'll find that places that never wore masks in the first place have vaccination rates as low as 29% despite higher rates of infection than even the metro...
My point being, the people with the least to fear still often seem overly paranoid, while those who really ought to be careful don't give a damn.
I think that's been the overall theme since COVID really hit the US last March.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 2, 2021 19:12:30 GMT
This is long, but in summary, the points they're claiming are that there is a long-established drug, Ivermectin, that was known to be at least seemingly effective both in preventing and treating COVID-19 as early as April 2020; was proposed by legitimate, prestigious academics as such; and (being long-since out from patent protection) costs as little as $3 per treatment as compared to $3000 per dose of a prominent, recommended drug; but that it was somewhere between ignored (by major medical institutions and mainstream media) and suppressed (by YouTube, etc., in their quest for "accurate" information) while new, experimental, seemingly less effective, and far more costly treatments were proposed, developed, and remain in use.
I'm not in a position to assess the accuracy of this, and honestly I don't see myself digging in to even assess it as best as I theoretically could. But it's a pretty troubling idea, if true. And I could imagine it being true, just understanding how institutions tend to work.
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Post by kds on Jun 2, 2021 19:19:16 GMT
I'll be honest, it wouldn't shock me. I also remember something going around this time last year saying that a simple combination of Zinc and Tonic Water effectively treated COVID, but the affordability of that combo lead to this medicinal cocktail being suppressed by the mainstream media. Now, I don't know if there's any validity to that, but I recall Tonic Water was one of the grocery items that was pretty hard to find for a little while. (Yes, I did buy some Zinc and Tonic Water, never used either, spent all of $8).
Edit - I meant to say it wouldn't shock me.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 2, 2021 19:29:57 GMT
I tend to be a little skeptical of everything, but try never to be a "true believer skeptic" about anything. (I just made up that term, but I hope you know what I mean: so "skeptical" of some mainstream thing that in the end one becomes a "true believer" in anything contrary to that thing about which you began being skeptical.)
To be clear, I definitely don't think there was any kind of concerted effort to let the pandemic rage just to let drug companies make more money. But that this other drug was proposed, is cheap, and has been shown to be effective in various places around the world, seems true. So it seems to rise above the urban myths we've all seen. (That doesn't make it true, especially as explained here, either.)
If there is a basic truth to the points I'd outlined (that were made in the discussion), I would suspect it's more a combination of panic, bureaucratic bungling, gatekeepers' bias, efforts to fight (rampant) misinformation, and such than Scrooge McDuck swimming through an ocean of gold coins laughing about the COVID victims he'll let die as Moderna works on its profitable vaccine.
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Post by kds on Jun 2, 2021 19:45:47 GMT
To be clear, I definitely don't think there was any kind of concerted effort to let the pandemic rage just to let drug companies make more money. But that this other drug was proposed, is cheap, and has been shown to be effective in various places around the world, seems true. So it seems to rise above the urban myths we've all seen. (That doesn't make it true, especially as explained here, either.)
If there is a basic truth to the points I'd outlined (that were made in the discussion), I would suspect it's more a combination of panic, bureaucratic bungling, gatekeepers' bias, efforts to fight (rampant) misinformation, and such than Scrooge McDuck swimming through an ocean of gold coins laughing about the COVID victims he'll let die as Moderna works on its profitable vaccine.
Right, neither do I. At the end of the day, I really don't believe that "Big Pharma" is some sort of boogeyman that would rather let citizens die than lose a few bucks. Although, if it did some to light that's what happened, I would not be overly surprised.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 2, 2021 20:03:20 GMT
I do think that the big pharma companies end up acting pretty perversely, not out of specifically evil people in charge but just the confluence of interests involved. (The opioid situation over the past few decades shows that, as does their pattern of "coincidentally" finding new drugs that will in effect extend patents just as previous patents are about to expire rather than working on more pressing issues.)
But it seems that it's just people doing what seems reasonable or best for them individually, or their team, department, group, and industry, with the various incentives, laws, and regulations we have in effect. So to make a cartoonishly simplified version of the kinds of things I doubt happened versus could have happened, imagine something like this:
Not - "Hahaha, let the suckers die until we develop a $3k-a-dose drug to extort cash from the government! All these subsidies will flow back into our coffers!"
But - "Some independent academics are claiming this old Ivermectin drug is effective...I don't know. We have enough quacks suggesting this and that miracle cure: we ought to stay the course with our development of treatments."
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 29, 2021 12:40:28 GMT
As coronavirus fades from my personal experience--things have mostly opened up here, masks aren't required almost anywhere, and I got my second shot six weeks ago--I haven't been keeping as close track of our vaccination rates. Around April, things really began picking up steam and it seemed we'd beat the July 4 goal for 70% vaccination by a mile.
It began to slow down around the time I got my second shot, early/mid May.
I checked again today, and it has REALLY stalled! We're currently at just under 52% totally vaccinated and 55% with at least one dose (of total population, statewide). That's kind-of apples to oranges because the 70% target was of eligible people, which has itself been a moving target from 18 to 16 to whatever it is now (I think they've lowered it further?). But even so, it really shows the absolute divide between those who wanted and the vaccine and those who aren't going to accept it. The vaccine has been freely and widely available in Minnesota now for about two months. (Prior to that, it was harder to get, requiring waiting lists, really hunting around, short notice drives to far-flung pharmacies, or whatever.)
The demand has really just dried up.
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