~*Official #COVID-19 Thread of Doom*~ Revenge of Omicron Prime

[Brick]

8 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

I want them to fight for us, like monkeys, and for blood 

 

There will be no blood, but I can promise maple syrup, and poutine. 

[Jason]

10 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

I want them to fight for us, like monkeys, and for blood 

 

[Keyser_Soze]

Got back from my 4th gen booster microchip. They only have 4 tables set up these days and one of them was for the flu shot.

[AbsolutSurgen]

56 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

Polling has shown that mask mandates are widely supported in Canada if required, even if people don't want to wear masks individually. And my assertion that it was conservatives opposing lockdowns and mandates is correct; to this day, it is still the right-wing that protests for "justice" and supports the convoy.

Recent polls have support of mask mandates being ever brought back at ~50% (last poll I saw was in July 2022, and it had been falling rapidly ~70% in February '22 and 86% in November '20) -- support of vaccine passports in the future was about 25%.

It's mostly PPC supporters and Prairie Conservatives that support the convoy.  At this point, I am willing to support the Prairies separating from Canada.

[CitizenVectron]

3 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

Recent polls have support of mask mandates being ever brought back at ~50% (last poll I saw was in July 2022, and it had been falling rapidly ~70% in February '22 and 86% in November '20) -- support of vaccine passports in the future was about 25%.

It's mostly PPC supporters and Prairie Conservatives that support the convoy.  At this point, I am willing to support the Prairies separating from Canada.

 

Prairie conservatives are the base of the CPC now, so you'd better prepare for 100% Christian populist government if Poilievre wins. 

[AbsolutSurgen]

Just now, CitizenVectron said:

 

Prairie conservatives are the base of the CPC now, so you'd better prepare for 100% Christian populist government if Poilievre wins. 

There aren't enough Prairie Conservatives to form a government.  The path to government runs through the 905.

[CitizenVectron]

48 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

There aren't enough Prairie Conservatives to form a government.  The path to government runs through the 905.

 

They are the base and control the direction of leadership more than the MPs do, at this point. The base elects the leader, and the base is crazy. 

[BloodyHell]

2 hours ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

They are the base and control the direction of leadership more than the MPs do, at this point. The base elects the leader, and the base is crazy. 

 

3 hours ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

Prairie conservatives are the base of the CPC now, so you'd better prepare for 100% Christian populist government if Poilievre wins. 

Lol.

Lets not pretend PP is some extremist. He's a Rockerfeller Conservative type. He's a long, long ways away from being anything like Trump. Aside from being Christian, He's at best center right. The Canadian left comparing him to Trump is absurd.

 

 

[AbsolutSurgen]

15 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

 

Lol.

Lets not pretend PP is some extremist. He's a Rockerfeller Conservative type. He's a long, long ways away from being anything like Trump. Aside from being Christian, He's at best center right. The Canadian left comparing him to Trump is absurd at best. 

 

 

He may be centre right by US standards, but he's further right on many issues than a lot of Canadians are comfortable with.  (The religious/social conservatism is less prevalent in Canada as a key distinguisher between the parties than it tends to be in the US.)

[CitizenVectron]

5 minutes ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

He may be centre right by US standards, but he's further right on many issues than a lot of Canadians are comfortable with.  (The religious/social conservatism is less prevalent in Canada as a key distinguisher between the parties than it tends to be in the US.)

 

Yeah. He's certainly not far-right by US standards but is probably by Canadian standards. Additionally, he uses many of the Trump actions such as directly attacking the media for fundraising, etc, which is not common in Canada (and is worrying). Also directly attacks government institutions, etc.

[AbsolutSurgen]

1 minute ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

Yeah. He's certainly not far-right by US standards but is probably by Canadian standards. Additionally, he uses many of the Trump actions such as directly attacking the media for fundraising, etc, which is not common in Canada (and is worrying). Also directly attacks government institutions, etc.

Yes.  He is critical of government institutions -- that is what opposition parties are supposed to do when they disagree with how the government is running things.

Now, some of his comments on monetary policy are.... um... troubling.

As social media has become more prevalent, traditional media has allowed opinion/news reporting to become more blurred that they historically were.  That has led, IMHO, the biases of the mostly downtown-Toronto news media to become significantly more prevalent in the English-Canada news.  Other than Postmedia, they all largely support the Trudeau Government (The Star and CBC are blatant, CTV/Global/The Globe are somewhat less so).  Once opinions become apparent to news reporting, they become political.

 

Anyways, since this isn't Covid related, I won't respond in this thread any longer, so I don't piss off @sblfilms.

[AbsolutSurgen]

 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

School closures before a vaccine was available were fine and good even when balanced against the mental health issues in kids. And most schools were fully back in person by fall 2021
 

what would have also had a negative impact on kids mental health? Greater numbers of dead teachers, dead parents and grandparents. 
 

we should be plowing money into mental health services for kids and educational services including year round schooling instead of acting like we weren’t doing the prudent thing at the time given the information we had. 

[TUFKAK]

Attn: breeders, your kids are not the most important thing on the planet and my health and my loved ones health matters way more to me than if your kids got to socialize. 
 

Some of us had VERY different pandemics.

[Guest]

Pandemic didn’t change our schooling much at all 😂

[Guest]

I also haven’t looked into it, is there any good data on the different outcomes in death rates in the adult population, controlling for other obvious variables, between school districts that went back earlier vs later in the pandemic? @b_m_b_m_b_m’s post made me curious about that question.

[TUFKAK]

1 minute ago, sblfilms said:

I also haven’t looked into it, is there any good data on the different outcomes in death rates in the adult population, controlling for other obvious variables, between school districts that went back earlier vs later in the pandemic? @b_m_b_m_b_m’s post made me curious about that question.

I’m personally not aware of any but I’ll check when I’m back to work Sunday/have access to UCs database. I’m sure our peds hospital at least has something.

[CitizenVectron]

9 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

Pandemic didn’t change our schooling much at all 😂

 

Yes but 95% of homeschool situations are fucked up, I've seen what the vast majority of home-school parents are like (hint: extremist views which make them unwilling to put their kids in public systems).

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

28 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

I also haven’t looked into it, is there any good data on the different outcomes in death rates in the adult population, controlling for other obvious variables, between school districts that went back earlier vs later in the pandemic? @b_m_b_m_b_m’s post made me curious about that question.

From a quick google search: 

Just a moment...

WWW.PNAS.ORG

 5% increase in cases isn’t a lot but it’s also not nothing. And of note that the increase was greater when teachers weren’t mandated to wear masks

[Guest]

36 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

Yes but 95% of homeschool situations are fucked up, I've seen what the vast majority of home-school parents are like (hint: extremist views which make them unwilling to put their kids in public systems).

 

I think this POV may either be Canadian centric or potentially reaching back into how things were when those of us in our thirties were in k-12. Pretty much every modern poll on the issue will have quality of education in their local schools as the #1 reason, with things like Religious beliefs being a minority reason.
 

I see this a lot in the co-op group we meet with once a week. We have some whackadoo fundies, no doubt, but we also have parents who are neurosurgeons and astronauts turned NASA administrators.

 

And given the state of American public education, do you really blame parents for wanting to give their children a better education than what the average public school is able to provide?

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Homeschooling the exclusively the purview of the wealthy or the ideologically committed (who they themselves should be committed)

[CitizenVectron]

12 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

 

I think this POV may either be Canadian centric or potentially reaching back into how things were when those of us in our thirties were in k-12. Pretty much every modern poll on the issue will have quality of education in their local schools as the #1 reason, with things like Religious beliefs being a minority reason.
 

I see this a lot in the co-op group we meet with once a week. We have some whackadoo fundies, no doubt, but we also have parents who are neurosurgeons and astronauts turned NASA administrators.

 

And given the state of American public education, do you really blame parents for wanting to give their children a better education than what the average public school is able to provide?

 

It could be due to national differences in quality of education. In our province, homeschooled kids still have to follow the provincial curriculum, and their parents have to be in an association which meets with the local school board every so often. The meetings are...disturbing. Vast majority are racist, religious pieces of shit that don't want their kids in public/separate school systems because they are afraid of minorities (Indigenous people) or are afraid of the gay agenda. Generally speaking our education system is really good and private schools don't really exist/aren't needed, so I don't think many parents pull their kids out for that reason, which, as you imply, would mostly leave the crazies as the main source of homeschooling. 

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Homeschooling the exclusively the purview of the wealthy or the ideologically committed (who they themselves should be committed)

I definitely don’t co-op with the poors

[Brick]

I know a girl who was homeschooled. Nice girl, but she certainly isn't the brightest. 

[AbsolutSurgen]

7 hours ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

School closures before a vaccine was available were fine and good even when balanced against the mental health issues in kids. And most schools were fully back in person by fall 2021
 

what would have also had a negative impact on kids mental health? Greater numbers of dead teachers, dead parents and grandparents. 
 

we should be plowing money into mental health services for kids and educational services including year round schooling instead of acting like we weren’t doing the prudent thing at the time given the information we had. 

Some doctors are now arguing that the schools being closed for the better part of 2 years had no impact on children's mental health.  Not that it was a better option, but that it had no negative impact.  The last time my kids had their schools closed was January 2022.

[CitizenVectron]

2 hours ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

Some doctors are now arguing that the schools being closed for the better part of 2 years had no impact on children's mental health.  Not that it was a better option, but that it had no negative impact.  The last time my kids had their schools closed was January 2022.

 

"Some doctors." Okay...are they important? Making decisions in high places? I don't think anyone here agrees with them.

[AbsolutSurgen]

7 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

"Some doctors." Okay...are they important? Making decisions in high places? I don't think anyone here agrees with them.

David Fisman for example.  Who was on the Ontario Covid Science Advisory Table (the most influential scientific group in Canada during the pandemic), also had lots of media gigs in Canada as a talking head.  They were the ones who convinced the government to keep closing the schools here -- and actually argued against the government reopening them when they did in January.

It's been getting lots of chatter among many of the leaders in the Canadian health community over the last few days.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

There’s been cases where schools have closed down for a couple weeks for the flu being so bad. Covid is going to be the same. 
 

If there’s dispute on the mental health aspect I’m for erring on the side of caution and getting kids help (and besides covid it’s probably good anyway)

[skillzdadirecta]

Evidence suggests pandemic came from nature, not a lab, panel says

WWW.SCIENCE.ORG

---

New report takes sides in debate over COVID-19’s origins

 

[CitizenVectron]

The new variants that are spreading in Europe appear to have improved immune escape (meaning prior infection or vaccination will mean less). I suspect we'll see another big wave here in North America this winter around Xmas time. Less deaths than the Delta wave, but probably similar to the first Omicron (that is, still a lot of deaths). 

[Brick]

Goddammit

[Guest]

56 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

The new variants that are spreading in Europe appear to have improved immune escape (meaning prior infection or vaccination will mean less). I suspect we'll see another big wave here in North America this winter around Xmas time. Less deaths than the Delta wave, but probably similar to the first Omicron (that is, still a lot of deaths). 

Maybe not. Part of the decreasing death rate of waves is a pretty obvious one: the low hanging fruit already got picked.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

48 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

Maybe not. Part of the decreasing death rate of waves is a pretty obvious one: the low hanging fruit already got picked.

 

This is pretty much where I'm landing as well.

 

In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if this year's "flu season" has a higher mortality rate than this year's "COVID season".

[AbsolutSurgen]

The most respected epidemiologists aren't making projections -- they say there are too many unknowns.  There isn't any solid evidence yet of a variant that can outcompete BA.5.

 

The fact that there are so many people who will reportedly choose not to get the flu vaccine this year is troubling -- one poll I saw suggested that many people will choose not to get vaccinated because they felt masking was so effective.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Yeah masking works well against the flu but no one’s masking anymore