Zompist Bboard Again

Ares Land wrote: ↑Thu Apr 15, 2021 3:03 am The ugly: A relative of mine works in the medical sector. Counting only this week, there hasn't been a single day when she hasn't come back with some wacky, depressing rumor (there are two variants: 1. vaccines don't work! 2. vaccines will kill you!) which she got from, guess who, doctors. (Nurses are even worse.)
How are we even supposed to deal with the wave of conspiracy theory when the people feeding it are nurses and doctors?

Unfortunately, working in a science-related job is no guarantee of having a scientific mindset. One of the weirdest moments of my life was when a guy who was a respected authority in a different field of natural science seriously recommended homeopathy to me for a medical issue I had mentioned to him.

Anecdotes tend to stick more strongly in people's minds than facts and figures, probably because they feel more real.

People are not good at assessing their level of knowledge about areas they are unfamiliar, making them liable to think they know more about things they are actually unfamiliar with than they actually are.

We coined the word 'virusologist' with my wife to refer to the plague of specialists we've been infected with.

Good news, the number of cases in the UK remains low, despite the dire predictions of my virusologist friend yesterday!

Ares Land wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 10:53 am We coined the word 'virusologist' with my wife to refer to the plague of specialists we've been infected with.

Good news, the number of cases in the UK remains low, despite the dire predictions of my virusologist friend yesterday!

English already has the word virologist, but it at least historically referred to people who at least should know what they're talking about in that regard.

Travis B. wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 12:20 pm

Ares Land wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 10:53 am We coined the word 'virusologist' with my wife to refer to the plague of specialists we've been infected with.

Good news, the number of cases in the UK remains low, despite the dire predictions of my virusologist friend yesterday!

English already has the word virologist, but it at least historically referred to people who at least should know what they're talking about in that regard.

Ah, but a virusologist, with a degree from the University of Twitter or My-Sister's-Friend-Is-Dating-An-ER-Nurse College is an intellectual giant and a fount of wisdom compared to a mere virologist!

(A virusologist can have an MD of course, in which his or her knowledge is almost unfathomable to us mortals, especially if they specialize in a Covid-related field, such as gynecology, radiology or dermatology. Some nurses are very knowledgeable about virusology, especially when they work at a private practice and haven't seen an IC unit for twenty years.)

Ares Land wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 12:41 pm Ah, but a virusologist, with a degree from the University of Twitter or My-Sister's-Friend-Is-Dating-An-ER-Nurse College is an intellectual giant and a fount of wisdom compared to a mere virologist!

(A virusologist can have an MD of course, in which his or her knowledge is almost unfathomable to us mortals, especially if they specialize in a Covid-related field, such as gynecology, radiology or dermatology. Some nurses are very knowledgeable about virusology, especially when they work at a private practice and haven't seen an IC unit for twenty years.)

This is true.

Bronze tier: virusologist
Silver tier: virologist
Gold tier: iologist
Platinum tier: atorloreman

Moose-tache wrote: ↑Sun Apr 18, 2021 3:49 pm Gold tier: iologist
Platinum tier: atorloreman

Can you explain these? I get the platinum one is Anglish but where has the element 'ator' come from?

"ator" is a calque. It's the Anglo-Saxon word for poison, which is what virus means in Latin. The spelling differs from one dictionary to the next, so I went for the most ASCII-friendly one.

"ios" is simply the Greek cognate of virus, with a similar literal meaning. It doesn't mix Greek and Latin roots, hence it is pedantically superior.

Maybe this should go in "Venting", so apologies in advance.

Last week the local fire department arranged to come by my place to give everyone COVID vaccines. (I live in a women's shelter/transitional housing program.) No need to go out and queue up for it somewhere else; no complaints. On the day in question, they showed up three hours earlier than had been scheduled well in advance, with no notice of the change, and tried to get everyone vaccinated ASAP.

Since a large number of the residents weren't around, as they were expecting the vaccination session to start later in the day, the FD had a bunch of cooling vaccines needing to be used ASAP. So they sent out an alert on some app letting everyone know to come here if they wanted to get the vaccine on the run. And to facilitate this, they propped open the back door and let people come in to get vaccinated. Meanwhile they'd urgently -- hysterically, one might say -- tasked the facility staff with trying to round up residents who were supposed to be getting the vaccine but hadn't had the foresight to show up three hours early. As a result, our management/staff (a single person at that time), was preoccupied with phone/text tag with residents and only belatedly aware of what was going on.

So far as I can gather, about a half-dozen people came in to get vaccinated. All of them male, which seems odd itself. Since there was no supervision, and free access to the rest of the building from the back door--meeting room channel, of those six(ish) walk-ins, we also got:
1) Someone going around the halls trying the doorknobs of people's rooms;
2) Someone walking past an empty bathroom vividly marked as "GUESTS ONLY", another empty bathroom labeled for residents only, and finding a bathroom marked residents only where someone was taking as shower, pounding on the door and demanding to be let in because he had a medical condition and needed to get in immediately;
[These two I didn't personally witness, though I heard some of the commotion of #2 while I did get to see...]
3) Wandering around the halls, a guy accosted one of our younger residents in the hall and badgered her for sex. He was saying 'we can just go to your room, no one needs to know', 'I'm gonna give you something for it, this is work I'm offering', and 'I'm trying to help you, you lazy bitch parasite'. I saw him repeatedly trying to touch or hold her by her arm and shoulder; he cornered her in the hallway and kept cutting her off from getting away.

A little later, the FD guy in charge of the vaccination program told us, preparing to leave, "Trying to keep people you think are men out of your spaces is not going to stop you from being raped. It's not. It's just not. So just, y'know, get over yourselves. And meantime, why aren't you just putting some of this feistiness into trying to help people?"

I'd guess that at least 90% of our residents are rape, prostitution, and domestic violence refugees. Any remainder being some severely mentally ill women who might not have been subject to sexual abuse. (Hey, that's rationally possible, right?)

Since then, the woman in #3 has been hospitalized (freakout, suicide attempt) and a shitload of others now seem to be confirmed in their suspicions that vaccines are evil and vicious. Well done, ___ City Fire Department.

Oh, also, said __FD later contacted our management to say they wouldn't come back to give us the second dose, because of our residents' 'unacceptable gender-based violence'. Sic.

I dunno. I guess I'm just not looking forward to the post-COVID return to normalcy I'm alleged to be longing for. Fuck y'all? That'll do.

What the actual fuck.

What. The. Fuck.
I can't tell how sorry I am to hear you had to go through this... shit.

That's horrific. I'm so sorry they put you through that.

I just read this. That's really, really, really messed up. Sorry.

The FD's confusion and anger at being told off by mere civilians was palpable. I think this outreach kinda program of theirs is great, and valuable. I'm just going to be very content hauling my ass up to the hospital to get my second shot, too. Anyway, thanks, all! Hope vaccine distribution is working more smoothly for y'all.

What in fucking hell...

fusijui wrote: ↑Tue Apr 20, 2021 3:18 pm The FD's confusion and anger at being told off by mere civilians was palpable. I think this outreach kinda program of theirs is great, and valuable. I'm just going to be very content hauling my ass up to the hospital to get my second shot, too. Anyway, thanks, all! Hope vaccine distribution is working more smoothly for y'all.

I haven't heard of any fuckups that bad around here but it's a big, big town and there are lots of clueless agents of the state around.

(Late, and I'm honestly not sure I can say I am surprised, but) I am, of course, sorry to hear about this as well.

The current situation in Kerala (and perhaps some other parts of India) seems to be much better than in other parts.

I'm relieved to hear that! I hope things stay that way (and even improve, in Kerala, and the rest of India.)


The situation here is... uncertain.

The epidemic is still uncomfortably high, though slowly receding. Not nearly enough people are vaccinated, which is unsurprising given how late we were. The campaign is progressing though.

The plan is now to progressively ease restrictions over the next two months.

Oddly enough, I agree with Macron on that one. This is a very unpopular opinion, but I actually think this is as reasonable an exit strategy as we can hope for.