Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic

[Aleh]

You can see the graph here: https://yandex.ru/covid19/stat?utm_source=main_graph&utm_source=main_notif&geoId=213

The levels have been basically stable since February, until just ~10 days ago, and today there have been more new cases than at any single day previously.

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First off, that site's in Russian. I don't speak Russian.

Secondly, the key element is the labeling of the axes. The graph is poorly-done even in the original by that standard.

I will assume that "Число новых заражений и смертей, Москва" partially covers it (Google Translate gives me "New infections and deaths, Moscow," which does partially cover it, but doesn't really give me key information about the presentation of data). That's still not much to go on, even with the way the data-hovering thing works after I ran the entire site through Google Translate.

 

[evildice]

On the good news front, being vaccinated seems to help your survival rate quite a bit:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemima...-last-month-were-unvaccinated-analysis-finds/
Not sure how much Delta impact is being measured, though.

Delta does seem to be spreading:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/25/del...ontinue-to-wear-masks-as-variant-spreads.html
... so put your masks back on.

On that topic, MIT has made a face mask which also detects the virus, so you can protect others while you protect others:
https://news.mit.edu/2021/face-mask-covid-19-detection-0628

... but even if we do watch out for each other, the knock-on effects of the pandemic years seems to be levying a heavy toll on America:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1272206
http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/june/lifeexpectancy.pdf

Spoiler: Memes, some vaguely related

(not sure if shop)

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Nope - TA

 

[TotalAbsolutism]

Nope - TA

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Threadbanned for peddling conspiracy bullshit.

I'll remind everyone that we have a zero tolerance policy for absolute crap.

 

[evildice]

Vaccines seem to be helpful even if you've been infected: https://source.wustl.edu/2021/06/co...une-structures-critical-for-lasting-immunity/

Spoiler: Small Meme

 

[OverMaster]

The vast majority of Covid-19 anti-vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories originated from just 12 people, a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) cited by the White House this week found.

CCDH, a UK/US non-profit and non-governmental organization, found in March that these 12 online personalities they dubbed the "disinformation dozen" have a combined following of 59 million people across multiple social media platforms, with Facebook having the largest impact. CCDH analyzed 812,000 Facebook posts and tweets and found 65% came from the disinformation dozen. Vivek Murthy, US surgeon general, and Joe Biden focused on misinformation around vaccines this week as a driving force of the virus spreading.

On Facebook alone, the dozen are responsible for 73% of all anti-vaccine content, though the vaccines have been deemed safe and effective by the US government and its regulatory agencies. And 95% of the Covid misinformation reported on these platforms were not removed.

Among the dozen are physicians that have embraced pseudoscience, a bodybuilder, a wellness blogger, a religious zealot, and, most notably Robert F Kennedy Jr, the nephew of John F Kennedy who has also linked vaccines to autism and 5G broadband cellular networks to the coronavirus pandemic.

Kennedy was since removed from Instagram, which Facebook owns, but not from Facebook itself.

"Facebook, Google and Twitter have put policies into place to prevent the spread of vaccine misinformation; yet to date, all have failed to satisfactorily enforce those policies," wrote CCDH's CEO, Imran Ahmed, in the report. "All have been particularly ineffective at removing harmful and dangerous misinformation about coronavirus vaccines."

Although platforms have since taken measures to remove many posts and even remove three of the 12 from one platform, the CCDH is calling on Facebook and Instagram, Twitter and YouTube to completely deplatform the disinformation dozen they believe are dangerous and instrumental in creating vaccine hesitancy at a crucial moment in the pandemic.

"Updated policies and statements hold little value unless they are strongly and consistently enforced," the report said. "With the vast majority of harmful content being spread by a select number of accounts, removing those few most dangerous individuals and groups can significantly reduce the amount of disinformation being spread across platforms."

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[TotalAbsolutism]

Anyone curious about the report can find it here.

 

[evildice]

Not sure why this was particularly newsworthy, except this dead anti-vaxxer was well-educated (... in Law, though, not Medicine).

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/covid-anti-vax-vaccine-lawyer-dies-leslie-lawrenson-b949378.html

Spoiler: Memes containing above-average gallows humor by weight

 

[Malcolmo]

Not sure why this was particularly newsworthy, except this dead anti-vaxxer was well-educated (... in Law, though, not Medicine).

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What you hadn't noticed there's been a full court press in the media to find and then post about any case of someone who spoke against the vaccine and died?

 

[evildice]

What you hadn't noticed there's been a full court press in the media to find and then post about any case of someone who spoke against the vaccine and died?

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Yeah we're seeing hundreds of thousands of deaths of anti-vaxxers and barely a hundred such articles.

There is irony value I guess but ... in terms of scale, if anything it's being under-reported.

 

[Malcolmo]

Yeah we're seeing hundreds of thousands of deaths of anti-vaxxers and barely a hundred such articles.

There is irony value I guess but ... in terms of scale, if anything it's being under-reported.

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Considering the average quality of the articles in question I doubt you want it. Some of them read more like fanfiction then anything worth a damn.

 

[OverMaster]

Some of them read more like fanfiction then anything worth a damn.

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That's pretty much all press nowadays, period, but it still doesn't mean the anti-vaxxing is correct.

 

[TotalAbsolutism]

So, New Zealand has returned to full Level 4 Lockdown. That means no contact, essential work only, schools closed, stay at home.

Reason for this was a community case located yesterday; Govt. decided that since every case we've caught at the border in the last three weeks was Delta it was better to be safe then sorry. There were nay-sayers, of course, you know. "Locking down the whole country for one case" complaints.

As of this morning there are four new cases including a fully vaccinated nurse. Vindication sure is sweet.

 

[bryanfran36]

Got my first jab of Moderna yesterday.

God I feel like shit today with a minor fever and listlessness today.

 

[Malcolmo]

So, New Zealand has returned to full Level 4 Lockdown. That means no contact, essential work only, schools closed, stay at home.

Reason for this was a community case located yesterday; Govt. decided that since every case we've caught at the border in the last three weeks was Delta it was better to be safe then sorry. There were nay-sayers, of course, you know. "Locking down the whole country for one case" complaints.

As of this morning there are four new cases including a fully vaccinated nurse. Vindication sure is sweet.

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One question, is your job considered essential?

 

[TotalAbsolutism]

One question, is your job considered essential?

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Neither myself nor my partner are essential workers, so we're at home. Income supplements are kicking in 'cause it's a full seven day lockdown, but likely to be extended.

It's up to ten cases as of this evening. Delta be scary.

 

[Malcolmo]

Neither myself nor my partner are essential workers, so we're at home. Income supplements are kicking in 'cause it's a full seven day lockdown, but likely to be extended.

It's up to ten cases as of this evening. Delta be scary.

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Bear in mind that you and everyone else is going to wind up paying that back in taxes or inflation at some point. There's no such thing as free money.

 

[Purplepurple]

Duh. The same as for roads, military, sewer lines, welfare in general...

 

[Prince Chrom]

Bear in mind that you and everyone else is going to wind up paying that back in taxes or inflation at some point. There's no such thing as free money.

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Most people from countries that do this not only already know this, we don't care. It is the better system, and the people who end up paying are mostly those who can most afford to pay.

 

[Malcolmo]

Most people from countries that do this not only already know this, we don't care. It is the better system, and the people who end up paying are mostly those who can most afford to pay.

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You'll forgive me for being skeptical that that's actually the case, for either of those assertations. There have been no referendums as to whether or not people actually believe that, and that's ignoring how a depressingly large number of people do not in fact understand how government spending works. As for inflation, no it does not in fact get paid more by the rich, it's the poor who get hit hardest by it because they have less to spend and the goods they have no choice but to buy are all going up in cost and if you actually think rich companies will be hit harder then you, you haven't been paying attention for the last few years.

 

[TotalAbsolutism]

Bear in mind that you and everyone else is going to wind up paying that back in taxes or inflation at some point. There's no such thing as free money.

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We would be paying for this regardless.

New Zealand is a fairly heavily socialist country with a graduated tax scheme. We have a large number of social welfare programs including a fairly extensive set of unemployment benefits and a single payer socialised medical system. If we didn't lock down the country and stop the spread we'd end up paying for it in hospital costs instead.

This alternative is preferable.

 

[Malcolmo]

We would be paying for this regardless.

New Zealand is a fairly heavily socialist country with a graduated tax scheme. We have a large number of social welfare programs including a fairly extensive set of unemployment benefits and a single payer socialised medical system. If we didn't lock down the country and stop the spread we'd end up paying for it in hospital costs instead.

This alternative is preferable.

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Don't be so sure you're not going to also be paying in hospital costs with this route regardless. The whole "no non essential hospital usage" route has a bad tendency of resulting in the worsening of pre existing conditions as a result of lack of treatment or not detecting issues before they get bad. Which as you might guess costs more to treat later on assuming the person doesn't die as a result (which I suppose has the dubious benefit of only requiring the costs of funeral preparations to be paid for). You are going to see deaths and financial costs regardless.

 

[MadGreenSon]

Bear in mind that you and everyone else is going to wind up paying that back in taxes or inflation at some point. There's no such thing as free money.

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Pay more taxes or get a potentially killer virus. Tough call. Personally, I'd rather be in relatively good health and paying more taxes.

Besides, there's nowhere in the world where being poor doesn't suck.

 

[Malcolmo]

Pay more taxes or get a potentially killer virus. Tough call. Personally, I'd rather be in relatively good health and paying more taxes.

Besides, there's nowhere in the world where being poor doesn't suck.

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Poverty and unemployment can kill just as much and just as badly as a virus can. Don't make the mistake of thinking that paying more taxes and losing more money to inflation will mean you and others are guaranteed to walk out of it unscathed.

 

[Amazon Climber]

Poverty and unemployment can kill just as much and just as badly as a virus can. Don't make the mistake of thinking that paying more taxes and losing more money to inflation will mean you and others are guaranteed to walk out of it unscathed.

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Considering the fact that 11% of the US Population has had a confirmed case of COVID, and less than a tenth of a percent of the New Zealand population has? I think maybe their approach has some merit to it.

 

[Malcolmo]

Considering the fact that 11% of the US Population has had a confirmed case of COVID, and less than a tenth of a percent of the New Zealand population has? I think maybe their approach has some merit to it.

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.....
You do realize that the reason why New Zealand was able to barely have Covid cases was because it's a small island that could quite simply shut it's borders near indefinitely while the US could not right? Shockingly, when you can prevent anyone coming in nigh indefinitely your case totals will be smaller then a country which can't.

 

[Prince Chrom]

.....
You do realize that the reason why New Zealand was able to barely have Covid cases was because it's a small island that could quite simply shut it's borders near indefinitely while the US could not right? Shockingly, when you can prevent anyone coming in nigh indefinitely your case totals will be smaller then a country which can't.

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Everywhere that had a competent leader shut their borders. The USA didn't have problems because of its size, but because the people in-charge were fucking stupid and refused to lock down.

 

[Amazon Climber]

.....
You do realize that the reason why New Zealand was able to barely have Covid cases was because it's a small island that could quite simply shut it's borders near indefinitely while the US could not right? Shockingly, when you can prevent anyone coming in nigh indefinitely your case totals will be smaller then a country which can't.

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Which explains why Hawaii has a 3% infection rate instead of 11%. And yet, not why it doesn't also have a less than 0.1% rate.

Oh well. Who needs actual data when you can just arbitrarily declare it's invalid because of reasons, and therefore we must accept your pure speculation?

 

[MadGreenSon]

Poverty and unemployment can kill just as much and just as badly as a virus can. Don't make the mistake of thinking that paying more taxes and losing more money to inflation will mean you and others are guaranteed to walk out of it unscathed.

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I can get food without spending money. I can't get better lungs. I already have lung issues so I'm taking no chances with respiratory diseases, especially since I live in Florida, where the retard governor apparently wants to make us the number one in Delta infections.

 

[evildice]

Poverty and unemployment can kill just as much and just as badly as a virus can. Don't make the mistake of thinking that paying more taxes and losing more money to inflation will mean you and others are guaranteed to walk out of it unscathed.

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Inflation is a tax on wealth, poor people don't lose money to normal inflation -- creditors lose money to inflation, which is why the ruling class dislikes inflation.

If you have any debt, and if your income exceeds your capital gains, then normal inflation is to your benefit.

Competent governmental response to this virus would also be to your benefit.

NZ seems competent; sadly competence is not universal.