Canada is "giving up" on ArriveCAN. Americans were too dumb to figure it out.
However, I saw even less masking in the Canadian Rockies this summer than I did in Seattle yesterday. Probably because they're not dumb enough to be unvaccinated.
"Idaho takes
next step down slippery
slope of abortion prohibitions"
slick it is & soon they'll Require a bible a blue-eyed Jesus sportin' a bandolier an AK-47 & a cross and a Crown of thorns over Every school in I.da.ho and Women'll KNOW their Place -- or else -- and if 'slavery' should somehow accidentally Escape the prison Industrial complex and run rampant, who's to Say I-da-ho shouldn’t Lead the Way?
Cheer us up with Jimmy Buffett? Yesterday, the 75-year-old singer cancelled his current tour because of health issues and a "brief hospitalization". Even the cheerful stuff bums me out.
Why does media always spin home prices dropping as some awful thing? Half the articles getting any clicks are about how unaffordable housing is. Rising inventory and lower prices are very good for buyers, see good news for what it is.
I've been going to Canada since July 2021. Masks have been optional on public transit pretty much the whole time (this past winter being an exception, I believe). Yet COVID deaths-per-capita are a third of what they are in the United States. (Maybe something to do with vaccination?)
Channeling Hurricane Ian: direct your course of mass destruction eastward toward the Atlantic coast, and make Mar-a-Lunatic your #1 priority. Sic 'em, boy!
@5 pat L: Thank you for a flicker of hope in an otherwise bottomless GOP induced coal mine. But if Putin starts WW3 the rest of us get wiped out, too!
Yeah, that's making some lemonade there. While we're at it, I suppose it'd get me off this dumb work documentation committee I naively agreed to participate in.
"I know quite a few people who never took the shot and have never been sick. Who should they thank?"
The people who wore masks and got vaccinated. Obviously.
OK, not "obviously" in the sense that dumb-shits can understand this, but "obviously" like the rest of us can. Seriously, I can explain this basic concept to someone in grade school and most will get it. You sound like one of those that wouldn't. Stop eating paste and pay attention, dumb-ass.
Since I guess antivaxxers only cares about anecdotal proof:
I have never yet had CoVID19! And I’m quintuple vaxxed. No side effects. No problems.
I have flown internationally 8 times and 13 times domestically since November 2020. Traveling for up to six weeks at a time. Always masked. Including to raging hotspots.
Always masked on trains, cabs and buses.
Two travel partners tested positive this June. Both hadn’t yet got boosters. I had as did three other travel partners. We were with them at least 8-ten hours a day for a week while they were positive. Usually masked (or outdoors) except at meals or cocktails. Tested every day. Never tested positive the entire time.
The workgroup (31 people) we were with in Amsterdam and about three quarters of them tested positive with in two weeks. Most of them were yet unboosted. Most never wore masks. However nobody that wore a mask tested positive.
I have no doubt eventually I will catch it as the rest of country decides no measures are needed. But the reason I have not got CoVID19 is exclusively due to distancing, vaccination and masking.
So. I have been in the world for almost three years during the pandemic. And never had CoVID19. The only people I know who ended up in ER’s were all unvaccinated. Including my 46 yo antivax sister in law who ended up with defib, stroke and blood clots as a result of covid. She is however vaxxed now.
Now for facts.
It is a scientific fact at this point that the vaccines saved millions of lives and will continue to do so.
It is a scientific fact that vaccination reduces the rate of transmission and the likelihood and severity of long CoVID19.
It is not worth arguing with antivaxers. Because the science is a settled matter.
Just a reminder that you should all get your BA.4 BA.5 COVID-19 booster (this protects against the last two variants as well as the previous one) ... NOW.
And get your flu shot too. You're going to wish you had both by the end of October.
Amazon (and Bezos) are all kinds of shitty, but if we can reject this antiquated idea of the necessity of work for people, advancements in automation removing essential work is truly a good thing.
Fuck a "livable wage", sufficient UBI for everyone.
Given the last three thousand years of down history, what is more likely:
1) Automation of labor leads to a total enlightenment of the Billionaire Owner Class to suddenly embrace social welfare leading to global prosperity and freedom from labor and poverty.
OR
Automation of labor leads to mass unemployment, poverty, and misery and a further entrenched unaccountable untouchable billionaire class.
I mean I like Star Trek, The Culture Novels, spaceships and robots too, but they are called science FICTION for a reason.
I don't read antivaxxer comments. I don't consider antivaxxer views. I don't argue with lunatics. I don't need your grandma's facebook memes or anecdotes.
The data is ample, available and clear.
The overwhelming majority of immunologists, epidemiologists, infectious disease experts, endocrinologists, public health officials and research institutions all over the world are in unanimous agreement that the covid19 vaccines save lives, help reduce the rate of infection, reduce the severity of infection and combined with masking are the only means of managing the pandemic.
For the anitvaxx community of lunatics to be "right" the worlds experts would ALL have to be wrong.
That's all the argument I need.
And if I have to take a regular vaccine a couple times of year to help save lives and maintain my own health, so what?
I pay Big Ag regularly for the food I have to eat to maintain my health. I pay Big Gym regularly for the access to equipment to maintain my health.
Heck, I pay Big Toilet Paper regularly for the ability to wipe my ass to maintain my hygiene.
Maybe antivaxxers don't do any of those things which goes a long way to explain why their cognition is so damaged.
There is no One-and-Done action or magic spell to maintain our health and there never has been one.
For most of us this is not some frightening prospect or vast conspiracy. It's part of being a responsible adult.
Shotspotter is an absolute waste of money. The city may as well flush the money down the toilet, which would provide equal value. We had it in Dallas, and no, cops won't come racing in guns at the ready. There will be no difference, because by the time the cops get to the shotspotter call, the cause of the noise is long gone. In a matter of days, cops there will have figured that out, too, and it will just be a nuisance waste of time to deal with.
"Even Canada is giving up on COVID": That mostly happened quite awhile ago. Public health is mainly a provincial thing here (and the provinces guard their prerogatives fiercely), and they all scrapped mask mandates and the like months ago. As The Beaverton (our analog of The Onion) wrote regarding this week's federal decision:
"Besides these mandates were only stopping COVID from getting into the country and since every Premier is basically letting it run rampant within our borders we figured what the hell."
@26 While what's likely is certainly an important consideration, there's a lot to be said for what's preferable.
It's also true that we're living with parts of the science fiction of yesteryear.
It's also worth noting that few of the alternatives to progress seem particularly appealing either, so there isn't much safety in not pushing towards a better tomorrow.
@22 RogertheShrubber and @23 Will in Seattle: After all the bad Boeing press made me swear I'd never fly again, I will soon be traveling by commercial air for the first time in nineteen years to and from Los Angeles to attend a convention. I have mixed feelings: I'm stoked and pumped about attending this event but am also scared shitless about possible COVID infection! As you and others so aptly point out, the pandemic is only taking on new variants and isn't done with us yet.
I still wear a mask on public transportation (buses, cabs, etc.) and in stores and medical facilities, and am, best to my knowledge and belief fully vaccinated (two Pfizers + two boosters and annual flu shots). Since the onset I have had no COVID symptoms thus far, and hope my good fortune holds out. Is there anything additional in health precautions that I need to do, other than check on current California state CDC protocol?
@23 Will in Seattle: Thank you for the reminder. I have two Pfizers (through the VA), two boosters and annual flu shots (via Rite Aid). Do I still need the latest vaccine to safeguard against the the current omicron strain?
@26 RogertheShrubber: Well said and summarized. Speaking of Sci-fi, have you ever seen "The Brain Center at Whipples", from The Twilight Zone (Season 5, Episode 33)? Rod Serling had a message to TV viewers and particularly corporate bigwigs insisting that "Automation is the wave of the future" 58 years ago (the b&w television episode originally aired on May 15, 1964). Obviously, profiteering corporations still aren't listening when all they see is cutting costs and making "record profits". Among the worst inventions from automation in use today are telephone customer service systems pre-set to only address FAQs, that are run by computers, not by actual human employees.
@29: Whoa there, lil MAGAt. Put the brakes on. That's a shitload of misinformational word salad spewing for having nothing to say. Stop hanging around Elmer, and try not to fall in when you flush. Puget Sound has more than enough toxic waste already.
@1 Max Solomon: I'm pretty much vaccinated (two Pfizers + two boosters and annual flu shots thus far with no symptoms), recently acquired my first mobile phone for work purposes, and have been trying to get my passport / enhanced WA driver's license / birth certificate and whatever else our neighbors to the north require at international border crossings (i.e.: The Peace Arch on northbound I-5 in Blaine, WA, USA, SR 9 in Sumas, WA, USA; the Vancouver, B.C., Canada train depot, Port Angeles, WA, USA Coho ferry to Victoria, B.C, Anacortes ferry to Sydney, B.C., etc.).
And now, after all my careful preparation and efforts to be a good, respectful tourist, remain healthy, and NOT spread COVID Premier Justin Trudeau and the Canadian government have thrown up their hands in resignation and said, "Oh, forget it--Americans are too stupid to know how to use it" in regards to enforcing its ArriveCan entry policy, so they're tossing it? At least now I'm more organized and in better shape to travel abroad.
Interestingly, I had no idea that ArriveCAN even existed or was in effect until staying overnight at a B&B in my hometown during the weekend of my alma mater's alumni reunion, and learning about the protocol from visiting BC tourists.
On the plus side, if Amtrak is finally reopening its international passenger train service from Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. (with stops in Bellingham!!) that will get a lot of cars off I-5.
Joe Biden handily won Colorado with over 55% of the vote by a margin of more than 13% over Donald Trump. In the 2020 state elections, Democrats retained their majorities in the state House and Senate. Colorado has a high vaccination rate. With over 82% partially and 78% fully vaccinated.
New Jersey has the 8th highest rate of vaccination.
The data is clear. Vaccination mitigates death in high risk groups substantially. Vaccination among Age populations, age being the primary risk factor above all, others proves this.
Oh. And PS. State comparisons are not as as useful as county comparisons because of issues of population density and complications in reporting standards.
But if you compare CoVID19 death rates in counties say Anchorage Municipality with King County guess what? Anchorage is way higher than Seattle (And that includes the fact that Seattle sometimes included death count data from out of state patients flown here from places like Idaho and… Alaska).
King county Death rate: 140.7 per 100k
Anchorage Municipality Death rate: 195.1 per 100k
Care to guess which has a higher vaccination rate?
@34
Dear auntie - I hope you aren’t so worried about air travel. airlines are much better at circulating and filtering the air on planes. Quality ventilation is a significant factor in reducing indoor risk for Covid.
Of course, use a high quality mask. I would also take a straw, so you can have a beverage in flight without removing your mask.
Be sure to imagine Trump getting swept away in a hurricane, while he is taking a constipated dump. This image will reduce your anxiety!
Canada is "giving up" on ArriveCAN. Americans were too dumb to figure it out.
However, I saw even less masking in the Canadian Rockies this summer than I did in Seattle yesterday. Probably because they're not dumb enough to be unvaccinated.
"Idaho takes
next step down slippery
slope of abortion prohibitions"
slick it is & soon they'll Require a bible a blue-eyed Jesus sportin' a bandolier an AK-47 & a cross and a Crown of thorns over Every school in I.da.ho and Women'll KNOW their Place -- or else -- and if 'slavery' should somehow accidentally Escape the prison Industrial complex and run rampant, who's to Say I-da-ho shouldn’t Lead the Way?
'the Nazi's are comin'?
the Nazis're
HERE
and they're
Exceedingly
Well-Heeled.
Cheer us up with Jimmy Buffett? Yesterday, the 75-year-old singer cancelled his current tour because of health issues and a "brief hospitalization". Even the cheerful stuff bums me out.
oh and you may NOT
TELL OTHER HUMAN BEINGS that
ABORTION EXISTS Under Penalty Of LAW
and we WILL
Prosecute
your Ass.
the onliest Amendment they
give A Fuck about is the
second Half of the Sec-
ond Amendment
Democracy's almost
at a Dead End.
thanks
'Republicans'
[/s]
If Putin decides to throw the nukes and start WW3, at least Fox news will get wiped out!
Why does media always spin home prices dropping as some awful thing? Half the articles getting any clicks are about how unaffordable housing is. Rising inventory and lower prices are very good for buyers, see good news for what it is.
I've been going to Canada since July 2021. Masks have been optional on public transit pretty much the whole time (this past winter being an exception, I believe). Yet COVID deaths-per-capita are a third of what they are in the United States. (Maybe something to do with vaccination?)
We need a federal ban on RepubliKKKans.
Channeling Hurricane Ian: direct your course of mass destruction eastward toward the Atlantic coast, and make Mar-a-Lunatic your #1 priority. Sic 'em, boy!
@5 pat L: Thank you for a flicker of hope in an otherwise bottomless GOP induced coal mine. But if Putin starts WW3 the rest of us get wiped out, too!
@5,
Yeah, that's making some lemonade there. While we're at it, I suppose it'd get me off this dumb work documentation committee I naively agreed to participate in.
Report #8 comments.
Total antivax disinformation.
I thought that sock puppet was familiar.
Antivax Daddy is back.
Report antivax comments.
"I know quite a few people who never took the shot and have never been sick. Who should they thank?"
The people who wore masks and got vaccinated. Obviously.
OK, not "obviously" in the sense that dumb-shits can understand this, but "obviously" like the rest of us can. Seriously, I can explain this basic concept to someone in grade school and most will get it. You sound like one of those that wouldn't. Stop eating paste and pay attention, dumb-ass.
Since I guess antivaxxers only cares about anecdotal proof:
I have never yet had CoVID19! And I’m quintuple vaxxed. No side effects. No problems.
I have flown internationally 8 times and 13 times domestically since November 2020. Traveling for up to six weeks at a time. Always masked. Including to raging hotspots.
Always masked on trains, cabs and buses.
Two travel partners tested positive this June. Both hadn’t yet got boosters. I had as did three other travel partners. We were with them at least 8-ten hours a day for a week while they were positive. Usually masked (or outdoors) except at meals or cocktails. Tested every day. Never tested positive the entire time.
The workgroup (31 people) we were with in Amsterdam and about three quarters of them tested positive with in two weeks. Most of them were yet unboosted. Most never wore masks. However nobody that wore a mask tested positive.
I have no doubt eventually I will catch it as the rest of country decides no measures are needed. But the reason I have not got CoVID19 is exclusively due to distancing, vaccination and masking.
So. I have been in the world for almost three years during the pandemic. And never had CoVID19. The only people I know who ended up in ER’s were all unvaccinated. Including my 46 yo antivax sister in law who ended up with defib, stroke and blood clots as a result of covid. She is however vaxxed now.
Now for facts.
It is a scientific fact at this point that the vaccines saved millions of lives and will continue to do so.
It is a scientific fact that vaccination reduces the rate of transmission and the likelihood and severity of long CoVID19.
It is not worth arguing with antivaxers. Because the science is a settled matter.
Just a reminder that you should all get your BA.4 BA.5 COVID-19 booster (this protects against the last two variants as well as the previous one) ... NOW.
And get your flu shot too. You're going to wish you had both by the end of October.
22
Why do you
write like
that,
anyway?
And why do
you use
capital
letters?
Amazon (and Bezos) are all kinds of shitty, but if we can reject this antiquated idea of the necessity of work for people, advancements in automation removing essential work is truly a good thing.
Fuck a "livable wage", sufficient UBI for everyone.
Given the last three thousand years of down history, what is more likely:
1) Automation of labor leads to a total enlightenment of the Billionaire Owner Class to suddenly embrace social welfare leading to global prosperity and freedom from labor and poverty.
OR
Automation of labor leads to mass unemployment, poverty, and misery and a further entrenched unaccountable untouchable billionaire class.
I mean I like Star Trek, The Culture Novels, spaceships and robots too, but they are called science FICTION for a reason.
"known history"
I don't read antivaxxer comments. I don't consider antivaxxer views. I don't argue with lunatics. I don't need your grandma's facebook memes or anecdotes.
The data is ample, available and clear.
The overwhelming majority of immunologists, epidemiologists, infectious disease experts, endocrinologists, public health officials and research institutions all over the world are in unanimous agreement that the covid19 vaccines save lives, help reduce the rate of infection, reduce the severity of infection and combined with masking are the only means of managing the pandemic.
For the anitvaxx community of lunatics to be "right" the worlds experts would ALL have to be wrong.
That's all the argument I need.
And if I have to take a regular vaccine a couple times of year to help save lives and maintain my own health, so what?
I pay Big Ag regularly for the food I have to eat to maintain my health. I pay Big Gym regularly for the access to equipment to maintain my health.
Heck, I pay Big Toilet Paper regularly for the ability to wipe my ass to maintain my hygiene.
Maybe antivaxxers don't do any of those things which goes a long way to explain why their cognition is so damaged.
There is no One-and-Done action or magic spell to maintain our health and there never has been one.
For most of us this is not some frightening prospect or vast conspiracy. It's part of being a responsible adult.
Shotspotter is an absolute waste of money. The city may as well flush the money down the toilet, which would provide equal value. We had it in Dallas, and no, cops won't come racing in guns at the ready. There will be no difference, because by the time the cops get to the shotspotter call, the cause of the noise is long gone. In a matter of days, cops there will have figured that out, too, and it will just be a nuisance waste of time to deal with.
"Even Canada is giving up on COVID": That mostly happened quite awhile ago. Public health is mainly a provincial thing here (and the provinces guard their prerogatives fiercely), and they all scrapped mask mandates and the like months ago. As The Beaverton (our analog of The Onion) wrote regarding this week's federal decision:
"Besides these mandates were only stopping COVID from getting into the country and since every Premier is basically letting it run rampant within our borders we figured what the hell."
(https://www.thebeaverton.com/2022/09/liberals-drop-covid-restrictions-now-that-keeping-people-alive-no-longer-polls-well/)
@26 While what's likely is certainly an important consideration, there's a lot to be said for what's preferable.
It's also true that we're living with parts of the science fiction of yesteryear.
It's also worth noting that few of the alternatives to progress seem particularly appealing either, so there isn't much safety in not pushing towards a better tomorrow.
@22 RogertheShrubber and @23 Will in Seattle: After all the bad Boeing press made me swear I'd never fly again, I will soon be traveling by commercial air for the first time in nineteen years to and from Los Angeles to attend a convention. I have mixed feelings: I'm stoked and pumped about attending this event but am also scared shitless about possible COVID infection! As you and others so aptly point out, the pandemic is only taking on new variants and isn't done with us yet.
I still wear a mask on public transportation (buses, cabs, etc.) and in stores and medical facilities, and am, best to my knowledge and belief fully vaccinated (two Pfizers + two boosters and annual flu shots). Since the onset I have had no COVID symptoms thus far, and hope my good fortune holds out. Is there anything additional in health precautions that I need to do, other than check on current California state CDC protocol?
@23 Will in Seattle: Thank you for the reminder. I have two Pfizers (through the VA), two boosters and annual flu shots (via Rite Aid). Do I still need the latest vaccine to safeguard against the the current omicron strain?
@26 RogertheShrubber: Well said and summarized. Speaking of Sci-fi, have you ever seen "The Brain Center at Whipples", from The Twilight Zone (Season 5, Episode 33)? Rod Serling had a message to TV viewers and particularly corporate bigwigs insisting that "Automation is the wave of the future" 58 years ago (the b&w television episode originally aired on May 15, 1964). Obviously, profiteering corporations still aren't listening when all they see is cutting costs and making "record profits". Among the worst inventions from automation in use today are telephone customer service systems pre-set to only address FAQs, that are run by computers, not by actual human employees.
@29: Whoa there, lil MAGAt. Put the brakes on. That's a shitload of misinformational word salad spewing for having nothing to say. Stop hanging around Elmer, and try not to fall in when you flush. Puget Sound has more than enough toxic waste already.
@31 Morty: I'm glad you're back among the comment threads! You were missed, and I appreciate your consistently spot on viewpoints.
@1 Max Solomon: I'm pretty much vaccinated (two Pfizers + two boosters and annual flu shots thus far with no symptoms), recently acquired my first mobile phone for work purposes, and have been trying to get my passport / enhanced WA driver's license / birth certificate and whatever else our neighbors to the north require at international border crossings (i.e.: The Peace Arch on northbound I-5 in Blaine, WA, USA, SR 9 in Sumas, WA, USA; the Vancouver, B.C., Canada train depot, Port Angeles, WA, USA Coho ferry to Victoria, B.C, Anacortes ferry to Sydney, B.C., etc.).
And now, after all my careful preparation and efforts to be a good, respectful tourist, remain healthy, and NOT spread COVID Premier Justin Trudeau and the Canadian government have thrown up their hands in resignation and said, "Oh, forget it--Americans are too stupid to know how to use it" in regards to enforcing its ArriveCan entry policy, so they're tossing it? At least now I'm more organized and in better shape to travel abroad.
Interestingly, I had no idea that ArriveCAN even existed or was in effect until staying overnight at a B&B in my hometown during the weekend of my alma mater's alumni reunion, and learning about the protocol from visiting BC tourists.
On the plus side, if Amtrak is finally reopening its international passenger train service from Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. (with stops in Bellingham!!) that will get a lot of cars off I-5.
Colorado is a “red” state? Hahahahaha.
Joe Biden handily won Colorado with over 55% of the vote by a margin of more than 13% over Donald Trump. In the 2020 state elections, Democrats retained their majorities in the state House and Senate. Colorado has a high vaccination rate. With over 82% partially and 78% fully vaccinated.
New Jersey has the 8th highest rate of vaccination.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/these-states-have-the-best-covid-19-vaccination-rates
The data is clear. Vaccination mitigates death in high risk groups substantially. Vaccination among Age populations, age being the primary risk factor above all, others proves this.
https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/covid-19-deaths-among-older-adults-during-the-delta-surge-were-higher-in-states-with-lower-vaccination-rates/
And death rates are highest where vaccination rates are lowest.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-in-republican-counties-have-higher-death-rates-than-those-in-democratic-counties/?amp=true
You couldn’t even be bothered to research your own idiotic claim before it gets immediately shattered to pieces.
I mean Jesus. You claim you want “deep analysis” and then just make up a bunch of un-cited bullshit.
Deeper analysis indeed.
Will someone beam up Scottie (@7? He's showing no signs of intelligence, and hellbent on givin' MAGAt stupidity all he bloody well CAN, Cap'n!
Oh. And PS. State comparisons are not as as useful as county comparisons because of issues of population density and complications in reporting standards.
But if you compare CoVID19 death rates in counties say Anchorage Municipality with King County guess what? Anchorage is way higher than Seattle (And that includes the fact that Seattle sometimes included death count data from out of state patients flown here from places like Idaho and… Alaska).
King county Death rate: 140.7 per 100k
Anchorage Municipality Death rate: 195.1 per 100k
Care to guess which has a higher vaccination rate?
Do your own comparison:
https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/coronavirus-data/covid-death-rate#active%5B%5D=53033&active%5B%5D=2020&chart_type=line
@34
Dear auntie - I hope you aren’t so worried about air travel. airlines are much better at circulating and filtering the air on planes. Quality ventilation is a significant factor in reducing indoor risk for Covid.
Of course, use a high quality mask. I would also take a straw, so you can have a beverage in flight without removing your mask.
Be sure to imagine Trump getting swept away in a hurricane, while he is taking a constipated dump. This image will reduce your anxiety!
hey antie Gee
there's two vaxxes
two Boosters and now
a Third Booster some sorta
RNA/Combo or some such &
I think that's The Latest but I'm IN
or Will be
soon as it gets
to my Zip Code.
stay masked
to and fro
but Enjoy
the Trip
regard-
less!
Waaaaaah. Why can't I be antivax and spout total bullshit all the time waaaaah.
Go back to facebook.