GaryPinC

Thanks for your good thoughts also and I definitely appreciate keeping it apolitical. Definitely our federal agencies got caught flat-footed but we haven't had a true pandemic since arguably 1918. We had no meaningful capacity to contact trace, no way it was going to happen effectively in the 3-6 week window we had to control this thing last year. Plus, Americans are very wary to sacrifice personal freedoms even temporarily, so asking them to do it proactively was virtually a non-starter. It's part of what makes us great, but not this time. So I would in all fairness say, other than the Chinese and some smaller countries, the entire world got caught flat-footed. As far as variants, I don't have a good idea how fast they can turn around the science on them. You can do a genomic sequence on a virus in less then a day, but there's the analysis as viruses are constantly undergoing changes. I'm also unsure if diagnostic clinical labs do this type of study, I think there has to be priority, protocols, and funding for formal studies which require designs, applications to federal agencies, IRBs, analysis, peer review just to name a few. Just anecdotally, I remember them discussing suspicions that there was a more mild strain and a more virulent strain (that hit Europe) when things got rolling last year. This fall was the first the they actually put some science behind it with actual variants. The biggest issue is can we do better next time?

Yah, I missed him answering it above. And I have seen him engage and discuss at times, other times he just enjoys obstructing a discussion. Same as Tibs. I'm still willing to attempt to engage but yes, we'll see if I end up drawing your same conclusions👍.

I hear ya, the problem is this (the science) has always been and continues to be a complex situation developing in real time. There's more grey than black and white at play here. We've learned much but there's still a lot of unknowns that simply need time and further study to figure out. Will certain areas see another rise and will vaccination/natural immunity be able to squash it or prevent others? Best data we have may be Israel, otherwise it's a guess. We're only a little over a year out on trying to get a handle on this novel, unusual virus. That's nothing, barely a blink of the eye in science terms. But honestly, the science that has gone into the Western vaccines and turning that around in a year is truly breathtaking to someone like myself. Really super job. The Russians did very well also, just not sure you can rely on their mass production quality. The problem with the people that "know" is that they have to take in to account the risks of what they don't know, which is substantial in this case. They also tend not to discuss things they know but there's not enough formally analyzed data yet. For example, I can tell you in my discussions with the Ohio department of health last fall, they're much more willing to discuss and give guidance based on trends they're seeing well before the CDC changes its formal guidance. My leading guess would be one or more of the variants is contributing to NYC as it has such a global footprint. But it's probably a number of factors and just because you can chart the rise, you might not be able to fully explain it for another year. WRT the variants, no one can say for sure, but based on my research I would guess if South Africa or Brazil become dominant here, cases would rise but the hospitalizations would be muted to some degree. I do believe the vaccines will be effective in preventing the most serious cases (ICU) but beyond that ???

Nope. I'm a scientist, bachelor's degree biochemisty. Are you a teacher?

Honestly, I don't have an opinion as to how they structure your salary. I hope it works for you. Teachers have a huge, huge amount of time off as I mentioned in my earlier post. If I were a teacher I would deeply appreciate that. Teaching is a difficult job, not here to tell you otherwise. Simply that the things teacher's standardly complain about (taking work home, long hours, crappy administration/bosses, micromanagement,etc), well it's a bad look to most of us in the working world as we have more than our share of that too. We just don't B word like some teachers feel compelled to do. And thank you for the passion and effort you put in to teaching. Easy to tell that you're one of the good ones. As far as my son's second grade teacher, I believe she was late 30's early 40's. I was googling her and found her salary in a public document. I believe here in Ohio teacher's salaries are public info though I've never tried to look them up for other teachers. That's my only context, unfortunately.

The thing that's difficult in all this is you can't just simply stare at numbers and charts. There are too many factors that they don't capture. Mask and protective mandates are only so good as people are willing to follow. There's no charting compliance. People, especially young people get burned out. Variants. It's not like European countries wanted to shut down again, the British variant forced it. Look at Michigan, the British variant is thought to be influencing their rise, but we won't have the proof until a month or more. Seasonality. Not a lot of definitive words, but it seems logical that the virus doesn't spread as easily outdoors and so time of year influences. WRT Florida and Texas, their biggest outbreak was over the summer during air conditioning season, so we will see. Vaccine. Now it's going to impact these numbers and hopefully innoculations are high enough to squash any future outbreaks. But variants may blunt this effect, we just don't know for sure. You've got many other influencing factors, such as how long does natural immunity last and asymptomatic infections but this post is long enough. Precautions work but are far from foolproof. Health officials and leaders look at the strain on the healthcare system and set precautions accordingly. I've advocated caution but certainly won't wear a mask forever, as some panic whores like to imagine. Looking forward to mask-free dinner with my now-vaccinated family this weekend! https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/humans-not-animals-likely-took-the-covid-virus-to-wuhan-contrary-to-chinas-claims/ar-BB1eYwfF?li=BBnbfcL Really good non-political article IMO implicating accidental release from Wuhan Virology Institute as the source of outbreak.

Well, sounds like you didn't enjoy teaching, did the smart thing and got out. Congratulations, glad you truly found a career that better suited you. Like most jobs, I don't think teaching's easy, but if you love it you find a way to lighten the negatives. But, so terrible you had to do work at home! Yah, that's so unique in the working world. Not! And so freaking terrible you actually had to come in like normally expected for in-service days while your students get a day off. 🙄 Oh, and so terrible when mild winters deny your snow days! Spending this entire spring teaching my stepson wasn't hard, it was just a lot of time in addition to my regular job (which I was fortunate to still have!). He's Chinese and is just learning to speak English, so it worked out because I got him caught up where his regular teachers couldn't give him enough attention and were cutting him a break on his responsibilities. My other kids are in high school, so other than routinely checking in with them it was luckily easy. There's teaching and there's teaching effectively. Between my years of coaching and the couple friends I have who enjoy teaching, the key is being astute, humble, creative and open enough to learn what works with the kids to become an effective teacher. Looking at you trying to cry me a river, if I chose it, my guess is I would be more successful at teaching than you because of a difference in focus, perspective, and adaptability. The real problem is most teachers haven't stepped out of the classroom enough to realize many of their gripes (including yours) are not unique to the working world.

All I know is if I were a teacher I would be so deeply appreciative to have all the school holidays, 2 week winter break, one week spring break, and 10 weeks or so off every summer while still getting 10 days or so for sick/personal time and all while earning a good living. You'd never hear me complain to non-teachers no matter how hard the students, job, etc. are. Back in 2014 out of curiosity, I found my son's second grade teacher, in Ohio with a master's degree, was paid 86,000 a year. So count me as one who believes they get paid plenty. Then there's things like the second Covid dose this year. School did it on Wednesday, gave everyone Thursday off for any side effects. Of course early Thursday afternoon get a call from the district that too many teachers, bus drivers, staff felt they'd be too sick to work Friday so we took that day off too. Wouldn't schedule that on Thursday or even Friday because it might bleed into their weekend.

You know the funny thing to me was that, for all the railing DR did about other posters being paid schills, he was in fact the most likely to actually be one. I mean, I poke around PPP infrequently, but always just marveled because many times during his heyday I'd look at the topic list and his avatar was last response on every one. Every freaking one. He definitely was trying to affably suffocate this board. Now, I can believe he was a writer because he is certainly gifted there. But when he was tgreggy he was much more liberal, but supposedly he "saw the light", became this right wing conspiracy poster and changed his name to "Deranged Rhino". Which I always wondered if it was a double-entendre for R.I.N.O. ? 😂 Anyways, just some semi-relevant musings. Cheers!

Not too confident that he can shield himself from the legal battles but he's almost certainly going to push 2024 and try and raise money off it. It was his entire point of fighting the election results so long. I know a few intelligent supporters that fell for his dog and pony shows while failing to look up what an incompetent travesty his court filings were. Dupe the fans, line his pockets. But don't underestimate his supporters. It's less about him and more an expression of what they feel is wrong with America. I only hope that between his attempts to usurp our governmental election processes, the Jan 6th Capitol storming he enabled, and Sydney Powell fessing up that our most conservative citizens start to realize while Trump did some great things early on, in the end his ego went into light speed that makes him too dangerous to hold such power again.

Moderna, 1st shot little arm tenderness like any vaccine. 2nd shot chills/transient fever, other miscellaneous mild virus-type symptoms about 12-18 hours after. Fine the next day.

Happy to see Milano signed. Let's say Epenesa puts 10-20 lbs of muscle back on his frame. Both Ep and Milano appear to me to be very intelligent during live action. Ep also showed some burst at his trimmed down weight, he definitely needs to develop his game but if it happens quickly next year what does that mean for our pass rush? Now you have Star eating up the middle, freeing Ed Oliver, Harrison Philips up to a much greater degree. If Ep develops, with Milano you'll have two smart, quick, high-motor wily defenders that can get to the QB. You'll also have Hughes on the other side, not smart, but still high motor and reasonably quick. I see our pass rush becoming very effective by mid-season with scheme and varying alignments. The big question mark is Edmunds. I totally want the kid to succeed but haven't seen it consistently on the field despite his Pro Bowls. All the tools with no instincts, slow to react, constantly playing catch-up and I think this affects Milano. Milano has to cover extra space because of Edmunds which can put him in a poorer position to make tackles and expose him to more injuries.

What I'm seeing from lab studies is that the mRNA vaccines that modified the spike protein (pfizer, moderna) are effective against UK, Brazil but lose something like 12 fold effectiveness for the S. Africa variant. J&J, Novavax have even more S-protein modifications so they may perform better against S. Africa. Keep in mind that current Russia, China, Astra Zeneca vaccines use the non-modified spike protein and may have decidedly less efficacy. Supposedly Moderna or Pfizer has already sent FDA a modified vaccine dose they feel will be more effective against the variants. Not sure if this is different from their next-gen vaccine of the receptor binding domain (RBD) already in clinical trials. Sorry, no citations, saw this in browsing articles last night and this morning.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41577-020-00480-0/tables/1 Fantastic article discussing the major vaccines and this table 1 link really highlights how the US/Europe has the best ones. Truly impressive Pfizer and Moderna took the extra scientific steps to design a more effective spike protein antigen in such a short time. Please everyone get the vaccine, I got Moderna, nothing too bad but mostly some transient chills/fever 13-18 hours post-second dose. This vaccine is nothing more than an mRNA surrounded by nano-lipid (fat) molecules. Side effects are consistent with a viral immune response and I think Moderna pushed the dose level given the urgent need. Side effects I take as a sign the vaccination was successful the first dose.

Great cover 1 article Yolo, thanks for posting. The future's bright for AJ, he's a tireless worker and I think his specialty is getting inside effectively from that DE position. In college, he used his strong hands and arm thrusts at a heavier weight to be effective in the big 10. In the NFL he needs to be effective on the outside and use it and more burst to set up his inside game. But he's very intelligent and tireless. The next two years will be fun to see where he ascends. I expect him to be a disruptor and you get Ed Oliver upping that part of his game, it should create havoc for offenses.

I hope you don't let it bother you too much. Abused dogs carry quirks and emotional scars and sometimes nothing can change that. Sometimes you can work around those and other times you can't.

There is most definitely an endgame. We are going to vaccinate Covid-19 either to obscurity (polio, smallpox) or to a manageable level in society (influenza). My guess is somewhere in the middle of this spectrum, either several years of adapted vaccines or a paradigm similar to influenza but maybe less often. Right now, even though the MSM will be histrionic about mutated Covid, it does appear Covid mutates faster than previously thought. Not as fast as influenza though. And while the vaccines may have some degree of reduced efficacy, they are far from impotent against the mutants. We are all tired of the precautions, so start by getting vaccinated at first opportunity. Natural immunity and vaccinated immunity are critical. We are privileged to have the finest vaccines here in the US and if anyone prompts me I can explain why. As the numbers change, so do the restrictions. We need to use the vaccines to reduce the spread and concurrent natural mutations, then the numbers and science will dictate what kind of long term vaccine plan is necessary. In fact, once the numbers and epidemiologists determine vaccine and natural immunity have reduced spread of the virus enough it will be critical to remove precautions to assess the long term health plan to prevent Covid from ever threatening our health care system again.

Schools are open. Not everywhere, but in very many states, including mine (Ohio). Classes are masked and socially distanced. Part of how they managed to do this is because a significant number of parents CHOSE to keep their kids virtual. Sports are being played. What the science says is that kids 15 and under are less likely to be infected and spread Covid. Kids under 12 especially. The science also says that primary school kids are far more likely to be mild or totally asymptomatic. The science also says that infected kids above 15 spread the virus akin to adults, thus the risk to teachers. The science is also showing in open schools with Covid precautions there are very few spreading events. Hence the CDC and everyone pushing for schools with proper precautions to be open. The science also shows that some kids do better at virtual classes, others better in-person. See the entire science instead of just the parts you like.

Well, congratulations you're both correct!

Yep, only reason I am rooting for Tampa is KC's defense got away with a ton of holding against us and happy to see it called right this week.

Sums it up even nicer in that if Edmunds hadn't bit hard on the play fake he's one step closer to Hill to make that play or even defense the pass.

Your logic is extremely flawed. It's relatively simple. It'll be over when the hospitalizations, deaths, and new cases decrease and stabilize. As vaccinations come up and cases go down precautions are relaxed. If everything stays stable we continue to relax precautions until we're done with masking and distancing. How soon is difficult to predict but we know it'll happen a lot quicker if everyone gets vaccinated. Personally, somewhere between end spring and fall for a return to normalcy seems reasonable right now. It's not about stamping it out. It hardly ever was. It's about having it under control.

It's already been explained to you, weeks ago. But you are so steeped in your own ignorance any further effort seems pointless.

community health centers opposed the Trump administration plan. “The executive order was a slap in the face because we were already a low-cost alternative to high prescription drug prices. The executive order just created massive red tape. It’s not a good rule.” See my post from yesterday for the rest of your answer. But I've copied the important part here to hopefully help your reading comprehension.

Ah, subjective judgement from your own brainwashed politics of idiocy.👌