Coronavirus COVID-19

[zkom]

2 minutes ago, Thu Zaw said:

Having been raised in parts of Asia where TB, Malaria, Japanese encephalitis, Leprosy, Dengue Fever and Meningitis are rife and take 10,000s lives a year, I'm really happy that vaccines exist and I had access to them. Clever researchers and developers. Well done.

I don't really get where all this suspicion about this particular vaccine has come from. It seems to me like a snowballing wave of mass hysteria and conspiracy theory.

It's really the western privilege of living in a world where the previously deadly and preventable diseases have been already eradicated that you can say that "no I don't want a vaccine because bill gates said vaccines are good and he was seen hanging out with a pedofile" because the personal danger of catching those diseases is not that high. But fuck everyone else like the immunocompromised who rely on the other people not to pass the diseases to them.

[thefxbip]

Anti Vaxx is a rich soccer mom worst bad idea basically lol

Nothing free thinking or rebellious about it. It's rich country disconnected priviledge if it is anything it seems to me.Just try to go to India without any vaccine and travel there for a few years.

You're probably gonna have a very bad time.

Edited May 19, 2021 by thefxbip

[brian trageskin]

17 minutes ago, Thu Zaw said:

I don't really get where all this suspicion about this particular vaccine has come from. It seems to me like a snowballing wave of mass hysteria and conspiracy theory.

i'd say it's the combination of recommendation algorithms + cognitive biases + relative scientific illiteracy and intellectual laziness. imo it mostly has to do with a relative lack of critical thinking skills combined to the negative effects of social media. 

[thefxbip]

The good old human mind tendencies for irrational fears.

Edited May 19, 2021 by thefxbip

[Soloman Tump]

Meanwhile, in India, whilst I sit here typing away from the comfort of my home.....

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-57154564

Quote

India's holiest river, the Ganges, has been swollen with bodies in recent days.

Hundreds of corpses have been found floating in the river or buried in the sand of its banks. Those who live close to where they have washed up, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, fear they are Covid-19 victims.

India has been overwhelmed by a devastating second wave of the pandemic in recent weeks. It has recorded more than 25 million cases and 275,000 deaths, but experts say the real death toll is several times higher.

The bodies on the river banks, taken together with funeral pyres burning round-the-clock and cremation grounds running out of space, tell the story of a death toll unseen and unacknowledged in official data.

[thefxbip]

What's happening in India is nothing short of a nightmare...

[logboy]

2 minutes ago, brian trageskin said:

i'd say it's the combination of recommendation algorithms + cognitive biases + relative scientific illiteracy and intellectual laziness. imo it mostly has to do with a relative lack of critical thinking skills combined to the negative effects of social media. 

i think you're pretty spot on there. there's a level of education (...low) which i would say gives people an odd confidence that their common-sense sees perfectly through the perceived flaws and complications of what are immensely-difficult fields of specialist knowledge and education that are ongoing collaborative fields. see the 'dunning kruger' effect.

in this case, the brevity and drama of social media can turn the parts of information that float around into different 'whole' conspiracies. as sites like YT and FB or twitter tend to create echo chambers and suggest to people that because they keep digging in their predetermined direction that they're actually researching, learning, improving, or worse ... confirming their preconceived ideas, they are reassured their stupid or oddball start point was right all along. it's an over-simplification of what research is, what it involves (criticism, cross-referencing ... suspicion. all kinds of things) and how easy / difficult it is to do.

with vaccines, the one(s) using MRNA were developed quickly. now ... MRNA is a system that's been under development for decades, and allows a base to be adjusted quickly for rapid creation of a version of an existing vaccine for a previously-unknown / new virus. people think the vaccine is rushed. it's flawed. it's prepared (plandemic!). and we have ... conspiracies.

 

[diatoms]

59 minutes ago, Soloman Tump said:

hope there's a jab for cure to cancer soon! Sign me up!

                                                             I've stayed in remission from cancer 28 years by taking coconut oil and cannabis

                                                                                            100's of peer reviewed scientific research have confirmed

                                                                                                                  apoptosis of cancer cells

 

                                                                                                               

[jaderpansen]

12 minutes ago, thefxbip said:

What's happening in India is nothing short of a nightmare...

At least they're dying heroically knowing they didn't succumb to pharma capitalism. *salutes*

[diatoms]

                                                               Has anyone got the flu or pneumonia vaccine this year?

[Satans Little Helper]

1 hour ago, BCM said:

 

 

so we do actually PAY for the NHS you know. i pay around £600 per month in national insurance. that's a whole lot more expensive than a private health care plan would be, and you don't get the choice to opt out. so it's not selfish to fucking use a service you have paid for (and paid a lot) for many years.

also, thankfully for the vast majority of people, the disease is mild and will not require any medical intervention. so i agree that those with co-morbidities, the vulnerable and elderly should be vaccinated, but it's still got to be a choice. how can you argue against someone having a choice as to what to do with their own body? i bet a lot of you agree with the right to die/euthanasia for those with debilitating conditions etc - those people should have a choice what to do with their own body and life. how is this different?

 

because you can still f-ing spread it. when vaccinated, the odds of the virus spreading lowers significantly. thanks to geniuses like you, this virus will keep on going. And potentially mutate into worse versions. But please don't take my word for it. You're on the lower end of getting seriously ill, so why bother being vaccinated. Brilliant logic dude. Just brilliant.

[zkom]

2 minutes ago, diatoms said:

                                                               Has anyone got the flu or pneumonia vaccine this year?

Yeah, I got the flu shot early this year mostly because influenza could be potentially fatal to my mother but I've also had a bad case of it in the past and never want to experience it again.

[dcom]

7 minutes ago, diatoms said:

Has anyone got the flu or pneumonia vaccine this year?

Influenza jab, every year for as long as I can remember. Never had anything more than transient pain from the needle.

[usagi]

3 hours ago, BCM said:

drome has many completely valid points and is right to be concerned. there is no reason to castigate and vilify him as some kind of "UNBELIEVER!!" (pitchforks out). why are you so against a healthy debate and sharing of ideas and concerns? surely it's OK to question this? like, does none of it seem just a leeetle bit suspicious to the fervent vaccine proponents? you can't see anything in all of this that makes you slightly worried? i mean, jesus christ guys, i thought this place was supposed to be frequented by free thinkers? something very very odd is happening to lots of you - e.g. many of you would associate with the left side of politics and would position yourself as generally against big business, hyper-capitalism and government control etc. but by and large you're pushing for everyone to imbibe a product produced in a novel way, sidestepping many of the usual checks and balances, by big pharma, which is going to hugely increase their revenue and power. do none of you see the hypocrisy in this? i feel like i'm taking fucking crazy pills!

it does sound like you've been taking crazy pills, brother. what I find particularly weird about you expressing these views is that historically when it comes to various social or global "issues" discussed here over the years, your position has usually been "everything will be fine, stop worrying so much". but now you're worrying about something that makes no sense, and I think personally, is simply due to the triggering a specific mix of deep-seated irrational paranoias in certain types of people susceptible to them. that's what "free thinker" means in this context, and there's nothing like a global crisis to bring out that sort of fear in people. big business will of course turn a profit over this because we've made sure that that's our system, that doesn't justify fears about getting the jab.

[Himelstein]

2 hours ago, Thu Zaw said:

Having been raised in parts of Asia where TB, Malaria, Japanese encephalitis, Leprosy, Dengue Fever and Meningitis are rife and take 10,000s lives a year, I'm really happy that vaccines exist and I had access to them. Clever researchers and developers. Well done.

I don't really get where all this suspicion about this particular vaccine has come from. It seems to me like a snowballing wave of mass hysteria and conspiracy theory.

In some ways, it’s amazing that we have advanced this far to make a vaccine so quick.

Edited May 19, 2021 by Himelstein

[zero]

6 hours ago, drome said:

You’re a pusher, a peddler. Pushing experimental drugs on the world populace

hey did anyone else immediately think of Curtis Mayfield when they read that? now that fuckin song is stuck in my head

[usagi]

I thought of Squarepusher smashing his Eventide Orville with one of his bass guitars while screaming about the moon men invading our bodies at night while we're asleep.

[Himelstein]

54 minutes ago, zero said:

hey did anyone else immediately think of Curtis Mayfield when they read that? now that fuckin song is stuck in my head

I seriously did

[ignatius]

6 hours ago, BCM said:

so we do actually PAY for the NHS you know. i pay around £600 per month in national insurance. that's a whole lot more expensive than a private health care plan would be, 

actually.. not really. the cost for health insurance in the USA is about that give or take a few $$$ depending on the actual plan a person buys. a family of 4 can expect to pay around $1500-$2000 a month for a private insurance plan in the USA. there are subsidies so if a person falls within a certain income bracket they get reduced cost. My insurance plan w/o subsidies would be around $585 a month. and that doesn't mean i don't encounter other expenses. I pay $10-$20 per prescription, $20 copay for doctor visits and when i have tests and other things i get a bill in the mail for a fraction of the cost. 

If i'd picked a less expensive plan then my out of pocket costs would be higher. 

worth mentioning that prior to the affordable care act, commonly referred to as Obamacare, i was denied insurance by EVERY major provider because i have 'pre-existing conditions'.  they could deny coverage to anyone they wanted. the ACA made that illegal. pre-existing conditions cannot be considered when applying for insurance. so, this way i could pick from any number of providers.

a lot of people get insurance through their employer so cost is lower because everyone who works for that company is in an insurance pool which helps average costs for the insurance provider. but this varies widely. small businesses often can't afford to do this and the size of the pool matters. 

[ignatius]

regarding the speed the vaccine was made.. this is technology at work. in the near future medical advances will happen rapidly and this will become normal. the only problem is people will have to learn that it is normal and the technology works. 

i think the fear that we're all going to get "Cronenberg'd" is a bit ridiculous. 

 

[dcom]

3 minutes ago, ignatius said:

regarding the speed the vaccine was made.. this is technology at work.

Quote

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

-- Arthur C. Clarke

 

[thefxbip]

Got my first Moderna jab a few hours ago.

Straight up felt muscle aches and fever after not even a hour in. (including a hilarious leftcheek ass ache) Nothing too bad tho.Muscle aches seems to be already resorbing.We'll see how things go tomorrow.

Armed with Tylenol, Water and Internet.

Edited May 19, 2021 by thefxbip

[ignatius]

 

[zero]

34 minutes ago, thefxbip said:

(including a hilarious leftcheek ass ache)

wait, did you get the shot in your ass? 'cause that'd be pretty gangsta if you did...

"which arm"

"nah, just shoot it right here"

*drops trou*

[zkom]

Got my first jab of Pfizer, the next one is in August due to the Finnish vaccination strategy of distributing the first shots to as many people as possible as early as possible.