Coronavirus

[Richie Allen]

Clement posted some things in a political discussion back in 2007 that still resonate with me to this day so, yes, minds can certainly change.

On the other hand, I'm not sure how long I would last in a place if I wasn't enjoying it.

[mikechamp]

Some very raw emotions at a Louisiana hospital, and all their comments were filmed before Ida made landfall:

[Arthur Dent]

And, that's what drive me nuts more than anything. Say what you want about the FLCCC doctors and call them snake oil salesmen along with their propensity for hyping off label medicines like ivermectin. But, there are fractions of the medical community that are at least trying to find something that is available and affordable and works while the rest of the world sits here and mocks them. What's the FDA doing? Approving remdesevir? Insisting we ram telephone poles up our noses to get a test instead of spitting in a cup?

To me, the crime is the bizarre skepticism of vaccines that have an incredibly high quality evidence base behind them while putting efforts into pushing totally speculative stuff. Completely unforgivable, imo.

But to be more charitable to what is seen as cranky viewpoints here, the FDA absolutely has performed extremely poorly. People have totally lost the plot on what useful medical regulation could do. In a crisis, of course it makes sense to use best judgement to try things out even if you don’t have the highest level of evidence to support it. Supposedly, FDA regulation is needed to shut down scammers, but in practice they can’t even actually do that! Technically checking off the bureaucratic boxes is enough for approval of incredibly expensive nonsense that barely does anything. Meanwhile, it’s illegal to give most kids vaccines that there is little doubt will work.

The Biden booster plan seems like it is probably incorrect, but the one thing about it that makes sense is that they decided to just make a judgement rather than waiting on endless months of useless process that doesn’t even result in a rational choice.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Certainly a fair point that there's more evidence/studies for vaccine efficacy than anything out there.

Re: safety. This was a good video, namely, the tasks they did starting around the 12-13 minute mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V522Hs8E6NU

Basically they're looking at how anti-vax messaging/propaganda is used to manipulate people which fall into 3 categories:
1. Identifiable victim bias: A story about a person resonates more than an overarching narrative about a larger group. So, sure, vaccines rid the world of smallpox, but Jenny McCarthy's kid got autism right after a vaccine, so it could happen to your kid. Ron Johnson's held a presser highlighting victims of people claiming they were hurt by the vaccine.

Which leads to

2. Omission bias: "Do your research. Talk to your doctor." Following step 1 of providing a story of a victim of the vax/implanting doubt, these phrases lead people to do nothing. First, doing research is difficult. Having read a ton of medical studies over the past year, and understanding about 1/100th of what is said, I don't know how people do 'research' on their own regarding medical things. Second, people avoid talking to their doctor because, well, of step 1 and step 3.

3. Misunderstanding risks: There are adverse reactions to vaccines. When people hear that, they tend to avoid the risk at all costs without understanding or calculating the relative cost/risk of that decision. I found a clip of Fauci from like 10 years ago talking about that in particular. Looking at covid, if the risk of having an adverse event after the vax is 1 in 10K (completely made up number) and the risk of dying from covid is 1 in 1K (less made up number), well, seems to be a pretty straightforward calc. But, people tend to ignore the flip side risk of not getting a vax. And, if they're worried about whatever from a vax because of step 1, no doc is going to change their mind.

Anyway, looking at the FLCCC website, it's pretty clear these strategies are being employed to some degree which is disappointing. Regardless, while the FLCCC may be profiting off the pandemic and fear, there are undoubtedly practitioners out there that are doing what they can for the right reason without profiting. And, for those people actually trying to do what is right, I have a hard time getting upset with them and tend to have a soft spot for those that continue to use their training as opposed to resting on the laurels of the overall professional community in which they practice.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

The Biden booster plan seems like it is probably incorrect, but the one thing about it that makes sense is that they decided to just make a judgement rather than waiting on endless months of useless process that doesn’t even result in a rational choice.

Agreed.

[cardsfantx]

The Biden booster plan seems like it is probably incorrect, but the one thing about it that makes sense is that they decided to just make a judgement rather than waiting on endless months of useless process that doesn’t even result in a rational choice.

Agreed.

The FDA announced the resignations of Marion Gruber and Philip Krause on Tuesday.

The pair lead the FDA office in charge of approving vaccines.

Politico and Endpoints reported that the pair left in frustration over Biden's COVID booster plan.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/2-top-fda-o ... 27868.html

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

The Biden booster plan seems like it is probably incorrect, but the one thing about it that makes sense is that they decided to just make a judgement rather than waiting on endless months of useless process that doesn’t even result in a rational choice.

Agreed.

The FDA announced the resignations of Marion Gruber and Philip Krause on Tuesday.

The pair lead the FDA office in charge of approving vaccines.

Politico and Endpoints reported that the pair left in frustration over Biden's COVID booster plan.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/2-top-fda-o ... 27868.html

Who is going to rubber stamp the vaccine approval papers now?

[Popeye_Card]

The Biden booster plan seems like it is probably incorrect, but the one thing about it that makes sense is that they decided to just make a judgement rather than waiting on endless months of useless process that doesn’t even result in a rational choice.

Agreed.

The FDA announced the resignations of Marion Gruber and Philip Krause on Tuesday.

The pair lead the FDA office in charge of approving vaccines.

Politico and Endpoints reported that the pair left in frustration over Biden's COVID booster plan.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/2-top-fda-o ... 27868.html

This is sorta odd. I guess in my mind, the FDA should be in charge of approving if the vaccines/boosters themselves are safe to use. The CDC should be in charge of the plan (e.g. schedule) for vaccinations/boosters.

Why should the FDA have any say over when the boosters should be administered?

[ghostrunner]

Thread on a mask study done in Bangladesh. You can work your way through that and there's another thread quoted within. Seems like a pretty comprehensive study - 300 villages with no intervention, and 300 where either cloth or surgical masks were distributed and effort was made to make mask wearing more widespread and consistent. People were as just as likely to use surgical as cloth masks, but the surgical masks were more effective.

Link to the site and a summary

https://www.poverty-action.org/masks

https://www.poverty-action.org/study/im ... bangladesh

[cardsfantx]

back to some good news.

people are panic buying/hoarding toilet paper again

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/sh ... 672329001/