Corona(virus)? ITS NOT EVEN BEER DAMMIT!!!

[Pham Nuwen]

The venting begins.

We started doing trachs on patients starting Sunday for ecmo. War time is near ....

[Warren]

What are 'trachs'? What is 'ecmo'?

[Jennifer]

Damn, Pham, that sucks. But if it's any consolation, the White House science office says the pandemic has ended. It's one of Trump's accomplishments.

[Hugh Akston]

What are 'trachs'? What is 'ecmo'?

Geez Warren, these are jargon terms that anyone working in healthcare knows. Get a medical degree wouldja?

[Pham Nuwen]

Is google not a thing anymore? Do I have to type in entire wiki articles for you guys? Why are you so bad at being an adult, Hugh? Why?

[Pham Nuwen]

Damn, Pham, that sucks. But if it's any consolation, the White House science office says the pandemic has ended. It's one of Trump's accomplishments.

I did not click your link. Fuck you. I'm in a bad mood I admit but fuck you.

[Pham Nuwen]

Oh man fuck you Hugh! I just googled ecmo and trach! It's literally the first fucking thing for both!! Worthless shithead with a shitty chip on your shoulder. Just mute me or whatever the fuck the mute thingie is for the gryll. I fucking try at least.

[D.A. Ridgely]

Pham, man, calm down. You're under way too much stress, friend. I mean, yeah, we're mostly assholes but we're still your friends.

[Pham Nuwen]

I've been drinking. I apologize for nothing.

[Jennifer]

Sarcasm and snarkiness aside, Pham: I can only imagine the stress of your job these days, especially combined with the knowledge that things will get worse before they get better. If your Inner Asshole needs to fart out some steam, better you do it here than with your family -- but, seriously: much as you'd like a stiff drink after a shift, alcohol is NOT a good thing to consume when you're mad or unhappy, not just for the possible long-term ramifications but because in the short term, it makes you feel worse rather than better.

[Pham Nuwen]

Looks like war time has arrived. I've got to help trach a covid patient tomorrow. And got an email today that a confirmed covid case with symptoms from my boys' school today. Yay.

[Ellie]

As much of a bummer it is that things at my friend's farm didn't work out, seems we left at just the right time. Her husband is a manager at a produce warehouse. They had been enforcing pretty strict protocols, but now are discouraging people from getting tested in case they have to quarantine for two weeks; instead, they started just telling people to come in as long as they're asymptomatic regardless of exposures. Needless to say, this led to a bunch of people being out sick with Covid and my friend's husband getting told to work more and more hours to cover for all the absences. She's pretty much given up hope and started prepping for everyone in the household to end up getting it. I am VERY glad not to be around there right now.

[dead_elvis]

They had been enforcing pretty strict protocols, but now are discouraging people from getting tested in case they have to quarantine for two weeks; instead, they started just telling people to come in as long as they're asymptomatic regardless of exposures.

JFC. We're never getting out of this as long as people are going to be so stupid and selfish.

The extent to which people in our country are actively sabotaging efforts to curb the pandemic is maddening.

[Jennifer]

JFC. We're never getting out of this as long as people are going to be so stupid and selfish.

The extent to which people in our country are actively sabotaging efforts to curb the pandemic is maddening.

Seriously. I'll turn in my decoder ring and say "The government needs to step in and apply some rules which, in pre-pandemic conditions, I would decry as horribly draconian and an unforgivable affront to liberty, not to mention needlessly expensive." Because obviously, there are FAR too many stupid irresponsible assholes, like the owner of the produce warehouse where Elie's friend's husband works.

Just last night, I was going through the antivaxxer thread looking for something, and in May 2019 we were debating whether or not certain vaccines should be made mandatory in order to protect those members of the population who cannot be vaccinated, either due to immune-system issues or because they're just too young, and I found this thing which Eric said:

I admit that mandatory vaccination as a thing makes me cringe. As does forcible quarantine.

But serious, communicable diseases are a situation where I agree it's necessary to say, "OK, accept getting the rather damn innocuous procedure or let the armed men lead you to the quarantine ward."

I mean, dang. If communicable diseases didn't exist, they'd sound like some silly political thought experiment. "Through completely innocuous interactions, these 'germs' can spread through populations and debilitate or kill large fractions of them. If you let random idiots opt out of the preventative treatment, other people who can't safely have the treatment—mostly young, helpless children—will suffer. Where is your preference for consensual interaction now, libertoids???"

Now, more than seven months into Covid Changed Everything in America, it has become painfully, ludicrously obvious that "consensual" measures are not going to alleviate it, because there are far too many assholes who refuse to so much as wear a damn mask (covering mouth AND nose), or stay six feet away from people in public.

[Aresen]

I am so glad to hear that the death toll from Coronavirus in the US is "Almost Nothing."

Don Jr sat for an interview with Fox News on Thursday night during which he called critics of the Trump administration’s approach to the pandemic “truly morons” and said that deaths from Covid-19 in America right now are “almost nothing”.

[Highway]

I am so glad to hear that the death toll from Coronavirus in the US is "Almost Nothing."

Don Jr sat for an interview with Fox News on Thursday night during which he called critics of the Trump administration’s approach to the pandemic “truly morons” and said that deaths from Covid-19 in America right now are “almost nothing”.

Yeah, over 1000 people yesterday. Almost nothing. And probably almost none of those 88,000 people who tested positive yesterday will die either.

[thoreau]

A nasal spray stopped coronavirus transmission in a study of 6 ferrets.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/heal ... spray.html

Small sample size and all, but if this pans out the world owes an apology to the LP candidate who ran for Lieutenant Governor of California on a ferret legalization platform in 2002. Ferrets could save us.

[Aresen]

I missed this in the middle of all the election news: White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has virus

Yes, I'm schadenfreuding.

[Jennifer]

Apparently he was there, maskless, at Trump's election-night gathering, whiny speech and other events, all of which now have potential to be superspreader events.

The US also passed another record in terms of how many Americans came down with it -- over 100,000 in a day. And roughly a thousand people dying of it each day.

Greece and Britain are going back into lockdowns. And in Denmark, they're culling their mink herds because the mink apparently harbor a new strain of the coronavirus which can spread to humans and might be resistant to vaccines.

Meanwhile, you know Trump and his outgoing administration won't do jack about it. Though at least Biden is getting a team together to take over as soon as possible.

[thoreau]

If Trump's staffers all get infected in the final months that's cool with me.

[Jennifer]

I don't care about Trump's staffers either, but I do care about people like ordinary White House waiters, housekeepers and cleaning staff, plus the medical personnel who'll have to care for those sick people in addition to their already heavy workloads.

[JasonL]

Welp here come the conspiracy nuts:

Pfizer says early analysis shows its Covid-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective


https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/09/health/p ... index.html

[JasonL]

Markets are going fucking bananas. Dow hit all time intra day spike record at +1,600 earlier this am.

[Hugh Akston]

Welp here come the conspiracy nuts:

Pfizer says early analysis shows its Covid-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective


https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/09/health/p ... index.html

[dead_elvis]

I'm not buying the implication that whether we have a successful vaccine was dependent on who was president, and I'm not buying the "look at the monkey" to distract us from the fact that the administration couldn't handle a crisis. Sorry, a last minute score from your running back doesn't mean you are a great quarterback in the same game in which you went 2 for 30 with 6 interceptions and a safety because he ran the wrong way down the field.