COVID-19 thread

[Vijay]

One of my oldest Twitter friends is mourning the death of someone (I don't know the someone) who got both vaccines.

[Linguoboy]

So the CDC just came out and said that fully-vaccinated individuals don't need to wear masks. Which--in the absence of any sort of widely-accepted "passport" which proves that a person has been fully-vaccinated--basically means that the unvaccinated can walk around maskless with even less chance of being challenged.

I am really not impressed with their response to this pandemic. For a long time, I gave them the benefit of the doubt because I knew they were being hamstrung by the previous administration, but their dysfunctional culture and poor understanding of public psychology is coming increasingly to light and it doesn't bode well for anyone.

[Raphael]

I agree with Linguoboy's post, though it's less urgent for me, what with me not being in the US.

[Ares Land]

So the CDC just came out and said that fully-vaccinated individuals don't need to wear masks. Which--in the absence of any sort of widely-accepted "passport" which proves that a person has been fully-vaccinated--basically means that the unvaccinated can walk around maskless with even less chance of being challenged.

I am really not impressed with their response to this pandemic. For a long time, I gave them the benefit of the doubt because I knew they were being hamstrung by the previous administration, but their dysfunctional culture and poor understanding of public psychology is coming increasingly to light and it doesn't bode well for anyone.

Out of curiosity, are masks typically mandatory outside in the US? Do you get fines for not wearing one?

I heard that they weren't, which sounds weird to me.

The CDC decision makes sense: I don't think you can really justify requiring immune people to wear a mask.

I'm really in favor of vaccine passports tho (well, immunity passports would be a better name) and very annoyed that they don't seem politically feasible here. People will put up with any nonsensical restriction on civil liberties our governments come up with but draw the line at the first one that actually makes sense.

[Vijay]

Out of curiosity, are masks typically mandatory outside in the US? Do you get fines for not wearing one?

I heard that they weren't, which sounds weird to me.

Please. You're talking about the country where half the population is violently anti-intellectual, people stormed the Capitol to try to reinstate Chump by means of a coup, and people protest against the very idea of wearing masks in all sorts of ways including coughing in your face.

[Ares Land]

Please. You're talking about the country where half the population is violently anti-intellectual, people stormed the Capitol to try to reinstate Chump by means of a coup, and people protest against the very idea of wearing masks in all sorts of ways including coughing in your face.

Oh, you know, leaving Trump aside, none of that really narrows the list of countries down.

[Vijay]

Please. You're talking about the country where half the population is violently anti-intellectual, people stormed the Capitol to try to reinstate Chump by means of a coup, and people protest against the very idea of wearing masks in all sorts of ways including coughing in your face.

Oh, you know, leaving Trump aside, none of that really narrows the list of countries down.

Really? Frenchies are anti-intellectual and cough in your face?

[Ares Land]

Please. You're talking about the country where half the population is violently anti-intellectual, people stormed the Capitol to try to reinstate Chump by means of a coup, and people protest against the very idea of wearing masks in all sorts of ways including coughing in your face.

Oh, you know, leaving Trump aside, none of that really narrows the list of countries down.

Really? Frenchies are anti-intellectual and cough in your face?

Pretty much, yeah. I mean we love intellectuals, but it's not that hard to be one, all it takes is a superiority complex. You don't have to hate women, foreigners, and LGBT folks but it helps.

[Vijay]

Oh, you know, leaving Trump aside, none of that really narrows the list of countries down.

Really? Frenchies are anti-intellectual and cough in your face?

Pretty much, yeah. I mean we love intellectuals

But we don't, and that's a big part of the difference.

[Ares Land]

But we don't, and that's a big part of the difference.

Distrusting all intellectuals, while not ideal, seems a bit more healthy than listening to phonies.
At the end of the day, though, we get about the same results. France and the US got similar COVID death rates, for instance.

[Vijay]

But we don't, and that's a big part of the difference.

Distrusting all intellectuals, while not ideal, seems a bit more healthy than listening to phonies.

We do both of those things all the time.

Anyway, in the US, different entities that are smaller than the entire nation get to make their own laws, so states can individually decide whether to require masks or not, cities can decide on their own terms, and businesses can make their own decisions. For example, here in Texas, the governor wanted to open up the whole state. Then the city of Austin argued that the governor has no right to force the city to open up. Businesses in any case get to decide whether they want to require their customers to wear masks or not, but I'm not sure how exactly they enforce their policies. You apparently will get fined at the airport now.

[Ares Land]

Most people in France feel better than those damn stupid, bible-thumping, gun-toting Americans but I can't work up that kind of self-satisfied pride myself. I don't feel we're somehow free of stupidity, or weird conservative hang-ups.

(Generally I feel France is more prosperous, happier and the whole the saner country now. I don't think that was true when I was a kid, though; and we're right now about at the edge of Trump-level madness.)

And, anyway, thanks for the info!

[Vijay]

Most people in France feel better than those damn stupid, bible-thumping, gun-toting Americans but I can't work up that kind of self-satisfied pride myself. I don't feel we're somehow free of stupidity, or weird conservative hang-ups.

No country is free of stupidity or weird conservative hang-ups, but I really think Americans take this to another level entirely because of how much power they have now, even worse than Europeans (despite how much power Europeans have now and used to have earlier).

Ironically, now it's Taiwan that is suddenly experiencing a huge rise in COVID cases. A former colleague messaged me on LINE to ask me how I got my COVID test before coming back just in case things got so out of hand that he would be forced to leave Taiwan. My parents think I'm very lucky to have left Taiwan just a few months before the outbreak and to have come back just a few months before vaccines became widely available. They're conveniently ignoring the fact that I also arrived in the middle of a snowstorm that left everyone in Texas without electricity or water for days on end.

[Ares Land]

Taiwan's one of those countries that managed the zero Covid strategy, though, so their 'huge spike' is our 'things are getting back to normal.'

[Vijay]

Taiwan's one of those countries that managed the zero Covid strategy, though, so their 'huge spike' is our 'things are getting back to normal.'

I know, but I still find it alarming.

[Jonlang]

Just got my first Covid vaccine this morning (Pfizer). Two hours later I feel fine, no side effects (yet).

[Raphael]

Just got my first Covid vaccine this morning (Pfizer). Two hours later I feel fine, no side effects (yet).

Congratulations and Good Luck!

[Vijay]

I got my second dose on Monday myself. My temperature rose a bit, but no real harm done (no actual fever. Nothing happened after my first dose).

[Raphael]

Good to hear that.

[Travis B.]

I wish the federal gov't would overrule the damn Republicans in state governments on vaccine passports and require documentation of vaccination for a wide variety of things (the wider the better), specifically to make life as hard as possible for the unvaccinated, in an effort to convince as many of those to get vaccinated as possible, even if they don't want to.

And honestly, the people who go "but freedom" or "but privacy" can go to hell. Going around being potentially infected by COVID (and anyone who is unvaccinated should be treated as potentially infected by COVID) is being a threat to the public simply by existing (because even if everyone else possible is vaccinated, the vaccine does not always work, and some people cannot be vaccinated due to age or medical reasons). If I had my way the unvaccinated, aside from those who cannot be vaccinated due to their age or those with legitimate documented medical reasons, after a set date by which everyone should be considered able to have gotten vaccinated by, should not be allowed to leave their houses.