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Post by Kapitan on Aug 4, 2021 13:26:00 GMT
Great analogy. It's so frustrating that the very precautions and mandates a segment of the population are incessantly complaining about are being reinstated or renewed because of those very people. You can make it go away by shutting the hell up and doing what is obviously best for everyone!
I actually saw a clip from some conservative media show where the "expert" was saying something very similar to "first you failed in getting us to take the vaccines, and now you want to force masks and other mandates on us (just because you failed)!? I don't think so!" Can anyone explain the logic in that? How did "you" (the government, basically, but presumably mainstream and Dems mostly) fail in this situation? How is the responsibility of that "failure" on authorities, rather than on citizens who steadfastly, stubbornly refused to accept the obviously mostly accurate, common-sense guidance? Imagine:
"First you failed to get me to stay in my designated lane on this dangerous mountain road, and now you expect me to follow the speed limit!?"
Minnesota's gubernatorial emergency powers have expired, and so we can't easily have any new statewide mandates. But Minneapolis and St. Paul have both imposed new mandates on government employees, requiring masks indoors. Some businesses are reinstating them, too. Famed First Ave is requiring proof of vaccination or of recent (e.g. 72 hours) negative test results to attend shows in all their venues. (They own several around the area; this will mean most shows bigger than bars but smaller than stadiums fall under that rule.)
I think it'll get worse again before it gets better.
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Post by kds on Aug 4, 2021 15:24:08 GMT
Sadly, it's not just far right conspiracy theorists holding up the vaccination rate. Granted, they are a huge problem, and the crap they sharing on the internet and cable news is borderline criminal. (EDIT) And what pisses me off the most about these fools are they're going to be the first ones to complain when things start shutting down again.
At least in Maryland, the worst region in terms of vaccinations is actually Baltimore City, the bluest section of the State. For whatever reason, a good portion of the African American population is reluctant to get the vaccine. The odd part is that this is also the population that seems to be the most frightened / concerned about the virus. Which is odd to say the least.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 4, 2021 15:41:47 GMT
Totally true. While my example was from the right, that's just one group of several that is hesitant.
There is a history with the government and medical profession that leads many black communities to be distrustful of them. I do understand that. It's a hurdle. But at the same time, the outreach has also been tailored for specific communities, and massive efforts have been made to get black communities to understand, believe in, and agree to vaccination.
Different histories and experiences are preconditions for every community, every person. That's life, sometimes very unpleasantly so. Even evilly so. But it doesn't change the reality of what has to happen in situations like this. We need more people to get vaccinated if we're going to loosen or eliminate these new constraints on our daily lives. It's actually very simple.
Consider this as an analogy: Food Product X is found to have a powerful carcinogen. The reality of the situation is, everyone needs to stop buying and eating it. But it is a very popular, even essential, component of one region's cooking culture. Its popularity varies elsewhere. Regardless of those cultural backgrounds, Food Product X needs to be removed from people's diets.
That is along the lines of how I look at things like this. Understanding cultural hesitation is one thing; understanding the reality of what has to happen is quite another.
Get your damn shots.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 5, 2021 17:40:16 GMT
I went for a walk over lunch and a full 3/4 of the people I saw walking around (in my residential urban neighborhood of mostly single-family homes--not a crowded commercial district or especially high density neighborhood) wore masks. A few had them on but not up, but pulled them up as they came within 15 feet or so of other people. Many just had them fully on.
That's something I don't quite understand. I think the science is pretty definitive that the odds of transmission in open spaces by simply walking within several feet of someone else are quite low, even without vaccination. And Minneapolis is well over 80% vaccinated. (I'm betting my neighborhood is closer to 90% or more, honestly.) I can't decide whether it's funny, sad, or just fine/whatever. But I'm not going to wear a mask outside in uncrowded spaces without some very serious new information to convince me (or some law that makes it a bad idea not to).
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Post by kds on Aug 5, 2021 17:50:24 GMT
I went for a walk over lunch and a full 3/4 of the people I saw walking around (in my residential urban neighborhood of mostly single-family homes--not a crowded commercial district or especially high density neighborhood) wore masks. A few had them on but not up, but pulled them up as they came within 15 feet or so of other people. Many just had them fully on.
That's something I don't quite understand. I think the science is pretty definitive that the odds of transmission in open spaces by simply walking within several feet of someone else are quite low, even without vaccination. And Minneapolis is well over 80% vaccinated. (I'm betting my neighborhood is closer to 90% or more, honestly.) I can't decide whether it's funny, sad, or just fine/whatever. But I'm not going to wear a mask outside in uncrowded spaces without some very serious new information to convince me (or some law that makes it a bad idea not to).
I still see it on my morning drive. People standing outside at a bus stop, by themselves, wearing a mask. People walking without another soul in sight, wearing a mask. My drive goes through a part of Baltimore City, the lowest vaccinated area in the State, and I'm willing to bet that these people are not vaccinated. If you're so concerned about a virus, that you're wearing a mask out in the open........JUST GET THE SHOT!!!
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Post by kds on Aug 5, 2021 18:34:42 GMT
Speaking of Baltimore City, it was just announced that they're reinstating the indoor mask mandate on Monday Morning,
So far, nothing else for the rest of the State, but the Governor just had a press conference about a half hour ago urging people to get vaccinated if they've not done so.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 5, 2021 18:45:37 GMT
Our new $100 reward seems to be doing something, with 58k doses given last week (an increase of 41% over the week before). But it's really necessary, unfortunately: our positive testing rate jumped over the past three weeks from 1.1% to 4.2%, with 5% considered the level at which the state raises the caution level; and hospitalizations for it have tripled in that same time frame from 90 to 270.
So the problems are about 3-4x worse than recently, and the positive behavior is 1.4x better. I think the cash will get us over the long-since sought 70% level, but it doesn't seem it will be enough to get us above the 80%+ some experts say might be necessary. (The UCLA study behind the $100 incentive estimated that amount would convince about 1/3 of unvaccinated people to get the shots. That 1/3 would get us up around 78% at best.)
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Post by kds on Aug 5, 2021 18:51:59 GMT
I think Maryland's positivity rate is just under %2. With the exception of Baltimore City, we've actually been doing quite well for the last six months or so.
I know schools will require masks for in person learning, and I don't think that's a bad idea considering it's unlikely vaccinations will be available for kids under 12 until 2022.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 5, 2021 18:57:28 GMT
I think Maryland's positivity rate is just under %2. With the exception of Baltimore City, we've actually been doing quite well for the last six months or so. I know schools will require masks for in person learning, and I don't think that's a bad idea considering it's unlikely vaccinations will be available for kids under 12 until 2022. Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts just reinstated their mask requirements, effective Monday. I think it makes sense, even though it's unfortunate. Far from ideal, but nobody ever promised us ideal.
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Post by kds on Aug 5, 2021 19:02:43 GMT
I think Maryland's positivity rate is just under %2. With the exception of Baltimore City, we've actually been doing quite well for the last six months or so. I know schools will require masks for in person learning, and I don't think that's a bad idea considering it's unlikely vaccinations will be available for kids under 12 until 2022. Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts just reinstated their mask requirements, effective Monday. I think it makes sense, even though it's unfortunate. Far from ideal, but nobody ever promised us ideal. My wife was speaking to a nurse about a month ago, and the nurse said one of the big concerns in the medical field is for the upcoming cold / flu season when you have people going out and about who haven't really had their immune systems tested in nearly two years. That's going to be an unfortunate side effect.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 20, 2021 12:12:41 GMT
A story about vaccination rates in nursing / long-term care facilities in Minnesota, published because of the rise in cases and the recent threat by the administration to cut Medicare/Medicaid funding to those that don't fully vaccinate staff, included a disappointing set of facts: - 34% of MN nursing home staff are not vaxxed. That is a higher percentage than of the general population, meaning people working directly with elderly and ill people are on average less safe than random people off the street. - In a subset of 55 of the worst offenders, less than half of the staff if vaccinated.
It continues to amaze me how many people in the healthcare industry are failing on the simple, basic protective practice. (I've seen similar stories about hospital staffs, for example, though I can't quote the %s.) You're in the business of healing or protecting people, yet you won't follow your own industry's expert guidance on a simple way to ensure you do heal and protect?
If you're a doctor and you choose to smoke cigarettes, well, OK. You know better, but you're only hurting yourself. But if you're choosing not to be vaxxed, you're at a higher risk of bringing a potentially deadly disease to the most vulnerable population. I don't see how it isn't selfish and thoughtless.
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Post by kds on Aug 20, 2021 12:22:33 GMT
The resistance by people in healthcare to get the vaccine might be the most baffling part of the vaccine debate to me. Small sample, but the young ladies who work at my son's pediatrician's office were absolutely ecstatic when the shots were available to them.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 20, 2021 12:30:50 GMT
I think many (most?) Americans are fed up and reached their breaking point with COVID-19, and nothing's going to keep them and their families apart for the upcoming Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas traditions and festivities this year. However, it will be depressing and deflating if we do have to revert to mask-wearing and social distancing...again...as we approach the holiday season. But, these variants...
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Post by kds on Aug 20, 2021 14:56:53 GMT
Even without vaccinations, our Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas really weren't that different last year.
We still took my son trick or treating (you get maybe 11 years of trick or treating, we weren't taking that away). Thanksgiving featured a smaller gathering. We were still able to see some train gardens and light displays at Christmas, and still had a fairly usual Christmas family gathering.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 19, 2021 12:15:41 GMT
Washington State football coach Nick Rolovich and four of his assistants were fired by the university for failing to get the covid vaccine. I guess when your salary is north of $3 million a year, you can afford to be fired every once in a while...
What I still fail to understand is the call for religious exemptions. I mean specifically: what religious convictions are there that disallow vaccines? I think Christian Scientists refuse medical treatments, and so maybe they have been anti-vax generally? But otherwise, most people using the excuse seem to be run-of-the-mill evangelical protestants. I'd imagine the vast majority of them have received numerous vaccines, since many schools (not to mention international travel, for example) have long-since required vaccination for probably a dozen things. What religion says "no vaccines to new coronaviruses, if mandated"? Which scriptures outline the process? What sermons that are more than two years old decried vaccination?
I don't doubt that these people really don't want the vaccine. But what makes that religious? It seems like a personal conviction, a strong preference, maybe a political (not meaning partisan, but just meaning to do with the nature of citizenship and power and liberty) belief. But how does religion play into it, other than that assuming God supports whatever you've decided?
www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32426315/nick-rolovich-washington-state-football-coach-refusing-state-mandated-covid-19-vaccine-source-says
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