Covid-19 Politics

[filghy2]

This reminds me of Donald Rumsfeld's famous statement about known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns.

A contingency plan that deals only with known knowns is of limited usefulness. Unfortunately, politicians never learn this lesson. The irony of Rumsfeld's insight is that he ignored it in relation to Iraq.

[Stavros]

It is more about the practicalities -if there are contingency plans, they need to be funded, there needs to be a shadow organization in place ready to step into the light when there is an emergency. The simple facts are that a) the Cameron/Osborne economic strategy did not commit to giving money to 'hypotheticals'; and b) even when the first Covid cases were reported in China, the assumption was that this was merely another Asian problem we would not have to deal with. As soon as those first cases emerged in Northern Italy and the State of Washington in the US, alarm bells should have been ringing.

Austerity and Arrogance: two knowns.

[Stavros]

Trump is at it again: re-writing history.

He claims that 'smart people' -he needs them to buttress his own credentials- but hasn't told us who they are- have praised his decision-making on Covid that saved "100 Million lives worldwide"....and then claims that the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 began in 1917 and was the reason the First World War ended...!

Evidently his 'smart people' are that ignorant, as the first recorded case was in, wait for it, Kansas in March 1918, by which time the Russian Empire had given way to the Bolsheviks who withdrew from the War and signed a peace with the German Empire at Brest-Litovsk, the same month as that case in Kansas. Did that and the failure of Germany's spring campaign in 1918 -the Kaiserschlacht - bring an and to the War, and was it the involvement of the US in that phase of the war that proved decisive? If you want an answer, best not to ask Donald, or his 'Smart Friends'.

Trump's wise decision making on Covid followed his combined determination that there was nothing to worry about, with his full frontal attacks on the first states to be affected -Washington, New York and Michigan -when he should have been supporting them as his duty as President required. Praise? Not really.

Senile? I don't think so. Permanently stupid? Sure.

As for Ms Kelly, was she advised to show some leg to make sure Trump did not get upset and Storm out of the interview?

Trump and DeSantis Trade Blows Over COVID-19 Response (yahoo.com)

[filghy2]

De Santis seems to be going all out for the anti-vaxxer vote, warning against Covid boosters for people under 65.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/0...tions-00117284

This has implications beyond Covid. We are probably going to get a resurgence of preventable diseases because an increasing portion of the population is believing scare stories about vaccines.
https://www.politico.com/tag/the-ris...ccine-movement

[Fitzcarraldo]

Make America great again; bring back polio!

[Stavros]

On the one hand, the most serious, and challenging public health crisis in 100 years, on the other hand an ignorant, dangerous fool who presided over thousands of deaths (see YouTube link below).

"MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan played Fauci footage of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) telling supporters last year that “someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac.”"
Anthony Fauci Exposes Ugly Reality Behind Ron DeSantis' Dangerous Attacks (yahoo.com)

[broncofan]

I got the original pfizer series back in 2021 and kept my boosters up to date. Last September I got the Moderna updated bivalent booster that had additional protection against omicron but still contained mrna for the original spike.

Today I'm getting Moderna's 2023 monovalent booster that is supposed to provide protection against the most recent variants. I did not choose pfizer over moderna or vice versa in any case and the decision was often made based on availability.

The vaccines have continued to provide very good protection against severe disease and mortality (markedly if you compare to someone with no exposure to sars-cov-2, which must be exceedingly rare). I have not had any major side effects and am just saddened there has been so much misinformation about the vaccines and about the original death toll. I remember in 2020 when we had 3,000 deaths a day in the US and now we have right-wing commentators who say it was like the common cold. Their followers say they always knew it was a hoax.

Anyhow, I'll let everyone know whether the side effects are mild, moderate, or bad. Usually I get a sore arm, a little dizziness about 12 hours after, and an intermittent headache for a day or two.

I haven't looked at the latest infection fatality rates or rates of long covid but obviously while the pandemic part may be over, covid continues to cause significant illness as an infectious disease. The last I read it is still more deadly than flu, though not markedly so, and much depends on a person's vaccination and infection history. Long covid is very debilitating for a lot of people, causes a host of fairly major life consequences for those who have it, and the treatments are by individual symptom, and not especially effective.

[Vladimir Putin]

As of today I have been vaccinated against RSV.

Two-weeks ago I got the updated Covid-19 vaccine. Two weeks before that, I was vaccinated against pneumonia and two weeks before that, the flu.

[broncofan]

Two weeks before that, I was vaccinated against pneumonia and two weeks before that, the flu.

I am getting flu shot in November. I had what was probably the flu (but not covid since I tested) in the week before my covid shot. I didn't feel like getting flu shot at the same time even though I did last time. I think I will be getting flu shot pretty soon though. Good luck to you!

Edit: I forgot that I said I'd say what my side effects were. Minimal. Sore arm, but that was it this time.

[Stavros]

Had my Covid booster this lunchtime, Flu jab next week. Have also been offered a Shingles jab which I shall accept as I had an attack a few years ago. I hope people reading this will get their shots.