Coronavirus

[DrakeM]

I think governments and average folks are just tired of the whiners and general trouble makers and have come to the conclusion, Let them die if they want to.

There is still a cost to "average folks" for lifting all mandates. I'm double-vaxed and boosted but need some minor surgery I can't get right now because the hospitals are clogged with people who want the freedom to do what they want but depend on my taxes to fund their stupidity when they get sick. It is political poison to add a "stupidity surcharge" to hospitals like tvstrip suggests in Canada and I suspect most other countries with government-funded health care. The province of Quebec was going to do something similar but relented after the backlash. Where it might work is anywhere people buy additional health care insurance directly or through work as a benefit - the insurance companies could raise rates like they do on smokers. Basic government health care could remain free but COVID-vax status becomes a legitimate insurance risk factor. I would love to see that kind of surcharge added.

 

[tvstrip]

There is still a cost to "average folks" for lifting all mandates. I'm double-vaxed and boosted but need some minor surgery I can't get right now because the hospitals are clogged with people who want the freedom to do what they want but depend on my taxes to fund their stupidity when they get sick. It is political poison to add a "stupidity surcharge" to hospitals like tvstrip suggests in Canada and I suspect most other countries with government-funded health care. The province of Quebec was going to do something similar but relented after the backlash. Where it might work is anywhere people buy additional health care insurance directly or through work as a benefit - the insurance companies could raise rates like they do on smokers. Basic government health care could remain free but COVID-vax status becomes a legitimate insurance risk factor. I would love to see that kind of surcharge added.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the Quebec tax would have applied to anyone/everyone who wasn't vaxxed, regardless if they accessed increased health services. I could see why some people would be opposed to that - if someone is unvaxxed but doesn't cost the taxpayers (at least directly), there's the argument they shouldn't be penalized.(Not that I agree with this, I'm just saying there is at least a basis for the argument).

But at the point that you are admitted to a hospital for the very thing that you could have reasonably prevented, now there's no logical excuse. You rolled the dice and came up short, now your costing taxpayers, bumping people who did get vaxxed who do need the hospital space for non-covid surgeries and causing so much stress that people are leaving the health profession. There has to be consequences for that, and I feel that legislation like that would have more support than one that universally penalizes all unvaxxed people.

 

[Theopolis Q. Hossenffer]

I agree about extra costs for those who will not take the basic precautions. That can go to any length. Smokers, as was said, fat Diabetics, Those who drink their liver into oblivion, and of course this thing from Georgia(where else) that will open up a BIG can of worms:

https://www.11alive.com/article/new...enate/85-dabc52a2-9af8-464d-835b-ff41651725ef

When drunks get in a car wreck on the way home form the Superbowl and have to pay for most of their own car, look out Mable. Shit piled by the fan.

 

[Little Red Wagon Repairman]

When I watched the Super Bowl I thought the LA County Mask Mandate was over. That's because the fans being filmed without masks were celebrities and politicians. You can't blame ordinary people for seeing this bad example and think they are being lied to. Some of those douchebag VIPs are so hypocritical they wear masks in their Twitter profile pic.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/los-angeles-mayor-eric-garcetti-132243511.html

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1493024082341908480

 

[Little Red Wagon Repairman]

The $450,000 Crack Party probably raised a bit of unwanted attention.

‘Unemployment got us workin’ a lot’: Brooklyn gang charged with stealing $4.3 million in COVID-19 relief after flashing their cash in a YouTube music video
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/b...ash-on-social-media-11645134935?siteid=yhoof2

 

[Little Red Wagon Repairman]

Here is another leader thumbing her nose at the rules. These people have access to information we do not have. What do they know that we don't that makes them so unconcerned about COVID? At least this time they suggest we use a light mask instead of putting duct tape and aluminum foil over our mouths.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell held maskless ball after reimposing mask mandate
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new-orleans-mayor-latoya-cantrell-maskless-mask-mandate

 

[Luxman]

 

[gmase]

No definitive answer found, but three new studies point to the Wuhan market as ground zero for coronavirus.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00584-8

A raccoon dog could be the culprit:

 

[Little Red Wagon Repairman]

Hey guys, I apologize if this has already been mentioned but I heard Alicia Rio died from "complications related to Covid-19" back on January 17. She was one of my faves from the 1990s. I saw her once at a strip club in Hollywood. She was super nice and sexy. RIP.

https://www.the-sun.com/news/4542041/alicia-rio-dead-porn-star-covid-complications/

 

[Luxman]

Readers are furious with how DeSantis treated masked-up high school students
https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/20...eated-masked-up-high-school-students-letters/

'

 

[Luxman]

Gravitas | Hong Kong: Shipping containers hired to store dead bodies

 

[Pornfan99]

Yikes; the actual death toll is likely closer to 18M than 6M:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...stimates-global-toll-18-2-million/9444282002/

 

[Luxman]

Another possible covid wave is predicted for the summer or fall.
It's still the omicron variant, but with all the new infections, a new covid variant could possibly appear.
For nearly two years I've always worn a mask when I went out or was near other people.
I don't mind wearing a mask, I'm used to it, but the fucking morons who refuse to wear masks or get vaccinated will keep this pandemic going for at least a few more years.
In 1920 many more people were illiterate and uneducated, but they at least had more common sense than the disinformed anti-vaxxers of today.

Chinese government CCP corruption has caused another major wave in China.
Their cheap vaccine is not effective enough so they are starting to use the Pfizer anti-virus pills to treat covid cases.

It's been a fucked up two years so far, with any luck Putin won't start a nuclear war.

Expect the worst, but hope for the best.

Gravitas: China locks down 50 million people

Gravitas: India's fourth Covid-19 wave in June?

 

[Pornfan99]

Here comes BA.2 -- a more-transmissible strain of the omicron variant:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...aught-by-a-covid-resurgence-after-rushed-exit

 

[tvstrip]

Feels like they stopped using Greek letters because they were afraid to get to the "Omega" virus.
I mean, they were handing out new variant letters like crazy in 2021, and now they much more tight-assed about them.

 

[tvstrip]

I don't mind wearing a mask, I'm used to it, but the fucking morons who refuse to wear masks or get vaccinated will keep this pandemic going for at least a few more years.

Totally agree. At this point, we can only hope for a very deadly variant which will either force people to take this seriously or simply die from the virus.
At least in that case, we'll finally see an end to the pandemic. After all, the Spanish flu pandemic was said to have ended when literally everyone who could have been killed by the virus died out.

 

[Luxman]

BA.2 And Deltacron Variants Spreading In The U.S.

COVID-19: On the brink of becoming endemic? | DW News

Because of covid anti-contamination measures, flu infections and deaths were way lower than normal.

What happened to the flu season in the U.S.?

 

[gmase]

Jen continues the Democratic trend of catching COVID.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-biden-covid-health-europe-c68d2677aa3d9040a5772bbc80d4b84f

 

[gmase]

Hillary continues the trend -

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1506397903765581836

 

[tvstrip]

So what are the COVID restrictions like in your areas? Or are there any?

My area pretty much has lifted everything, from vaccine passports to even masks. The free disinfectant is starting to disappear too.
The crazy thing is, the actual case counts are actually higher than they were at this point last year. Seems like a perfect storm for another wave.