American Politics Discussion Thread

[superdeath]

Yes continue to open up everything and not get vaccinated you stupid motherfuckers if you continue to kill you are selves

Do you realize that Florida did this a year ago, with absolutely no discernable bad results?  Florida's outcome numbers are exactly in the middle of the pack among US states.

Virus gonna virus, the same everywhere, no matter what we puny humans think we're going to do to stop it.

Florida's meth/crack heads have a completely different immune system i swear.

[civac2]

Covid has significant risk of lasting morbidities like lung, heart and kidney damage. It's not just about dying.

[darrelljs]

As for "30% long haul", that's untruth cooked up by deliberately bad statistics.  This is the right comparison: The long haul is defined by perception of symptoms like brain fog and muscle aches.  What percentage of people would claim that even in contexts having nothing to do with Covid?  Probably right around 30%.  And besides that, the long-haul claims have been debunked quite a bit anyway: surveys of antibodies found that most long-haul claimants never even had Covid in the first place.  It's all in their head, and the fake news reports it as if it's real to scare you.

Are you saying long haul isn't a real thing, or that 30% is vastly overstating the occurrence rate?

Darrell

[darrelljs]

we can confidently say the US government won't directly interfere if there are less than 61K deaths a year

The very expensive war on terror was for far fewer deaths per year.  We are not a rational people.

Darrell

[darrelljs]

Covid is killing more people in the US than cancer, and you can actually get a free vaccine to protect you from Covid right now, yet some absolute idiots choose not to! Ask those 5 million dead if "it's not gonna happen to me" is a good excuse not to take 30 minutes out of your day to get the vaccine.

Their choice, their consequences.

Darrell

[Mjmd]

Except obviously that there is still a low chance of them impacting others. Think drunk driving and second hand smoke. Sure the majority of the consequences are with the people making bad decisions, but it doesn't mean they aren't affecting others. 

I also can't stress how much I hate the attitude of "let them die, its their choice". Vaccine hesitancy is high among African Americans for good reason that the government caused (see Tuskegee experiment among other past gov controlled racial horrendousness). Feels pretty obvious some major outreach and gov effort at the very least need to go there. The other major group is obviously Republicans most of whom are getting jammed with absolute garbage from their media and politicians. I can't express the rage I felt that my father in law might die because of political power games. 

Also, again the more people with the disease the more chance it mutates and we all have to keep dealing with.

[AdrienIer]

Their choice their consequence also forgets about immunodeficient people : for some people vaccine are either less efficient, innefective or even dangerous. They may not be many, but do they really deserve to be under threat by a portion of the population that refuses to help eradicate this virus ?

[darrelljs]

I think we have enough data on the mutation rate and transmissibility to conclude we'll never be able to eradicate it without putting China in charge.

I did not forget immunodeficient people, which is why I favor different rules for unvaccinated people. Their choice, their consequences isn't just about the risk of dying or debilitation from catching it.

@Mjmd I am all in favor of educating folks and aggressively tackling disinformation (I've convinced two people myself), but I draw the line at a mandate.

Darrell

[Mjmd]

Brass tax whats the acceptable level of death?

I definitely fall on the side of liking the government contractor mandate, although I wouldn't push it farther than that. I also think increased health premiums would be a fair way to incentivize.

[Cyneheard]

I think we have enough data on the mutation rate and transmissibility to conclude we'll never be able to eradicate it without putting China in charge.

I did not forget immunodeficient people, which is why I favor different rules for unvaccinated people.  Their choice, their consequences isn't just about the risk of dying or debilitation from catching it.

@Mjmd I am all in favor of educating folks and aggressively tackling disinformation (I've convinced two people myself), but I draw the line at a mandate.

Darrell

It’s got too many animal reservoirs - including white-tailed deer (30-80% in some areas) to ever be eradicated. Even if it was eradicated in humans, there’s always a real chance of it being transmitted from animals back to humans.

For mjmd’s question, my line is “when COVID kills fewer people than automobiles”. That’s 40k/year, 110 a day. We’ve had over 400k this year and it’s not over yet.