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Mrs Whiggins

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I'm starting to not give a shit about herd immunity.  I'm fully vaccinated, my wife and kids will get dose 2 by the end of April, and we'll get boosters as deemed neccessary.

Anyone who won't get vaccinated does not have my sympathy if they get sick and die.

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17 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I'm starting to not give a shit about herd immunity.  I'm fully vaccinated, my wife and kids will get dose 2 by the end of April, and we'll get boosters as deemed neccessary.

Anyone who won't get vaccinated does not have my sympathy if they get sick and die.

I keep saying this.  As Drago once said, "If they die, they die."  Why should we care?

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34 minutes ago, mdmost said:

The problem is the messaging. The CDC was running ads saying if we want to get back to normal you need to wear a face covering. Then it was get the vaccine. Now you have people with the vaccine which is supposed to be getting us back to normal saying you really shouldn't do anything normal yet. That's not going to help people who are hesitant about getting the vaccine be moved to getting it. Neither is pausing a vaccine option because 6 out of 7 million people got blood clots. A segment of society is tuning this out because the goalposts keep moving over and over. I'm not going to isolate inside when my 2nd dose is received next Tuesday. If I was, why did I bother getting the vaccine in the first place?

This.  ^^^

Gottlieb is the only talking head that's been saying this and it should be noted that he's been a public health official and understands the balance between science and what is a reasonable ask of people.  The whole fucking point of buying 700M doses is that we can get back to normal.  

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1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

I'm starting to not give a shit about herd immunity.  I'm fully vaccinated, my wife and kids will get dose 2 by the end of April, and we'll get boosters as deemed neccessary.

Anyone who won't get vaccinated does not have my sympathy if they get sick and die.

You shouldn't give a shit about herd immunity because it's next to impossible to achieve given the sociopolitical environment.

But in addition to being vaccinated, I plan to continue masking and social distancing through the winter. Why unnecessarily expose myself when the reports are suggesting a worldwide surge in infections? I don't fear death, but there are fates far worse than death if infected by Coronavirus.

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I have worn masks prior to COVID--I work with some nasty chemicals and I'd just as soon not inhale them. I also occasionally have pollen reactions so I wear one when mowing. Adding one to go out was inconvenient at first, only because I couldn't remember to get in the car with it. Once it became a habit, like grabbing a phone, it ceased to be an issue. So, I'm going to keep wearing it because I am free to do so and I don't give a fig at the people who say, "aw, you're scared" or particularly care what they think or do. Actually, I'm thinking more like @UDontKnow, why not wear it since I don't mind, and give a variant another tool to mutate once more?

We have issues with antibiotics because morons abused those to no end or didn't take them correctly, and viruses are opportunistic in the same way.

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1 hour ago, Aqua Buddha said:

This.  ^^^

Gottlieb is the only talking head that's been saying this and it should be noted that he's been a public health official and understands the balance between science and what is a reasonable ask of people.  The whole fucking point of buying 700M doses is that we can get back to normal.  

 

37 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

I have worn masks prior to COVID--I work with some nasty chemicals and I'd just as soon not inhale them. I also occasionally have pollen reactions so I wear one when mowing. Adding one to go out was inconvenient at first, only because I couldn't remember to get in the car with it. Once it became a habit, like grabbing a phone, it ceased to be an issue. So, I'm going to keep wearing it because I am free to do so and I don't give a fig at the people who say, "aw, you're scared" or particularly care what they think or do. Actually, I'm thinking more like @UDontKnow, why not wear it since I don't mind, and give a variant another tool to mutate once more?

We have issues with antibiotics because morons abused those to no end or didn't take them correctly, and viruses are opportunistic in the same way.

i agree with both these positions.

i went into pretty close to the deepest, darkest depression of my life last year when masks became an ubiquitous mandatory 'thing' - i mean, on top of everything else, and other things, but the masks just about did me in (and i'm sure i'm not special in that way and many people had a way tougher year than me, that's not my point)...but i have worn the damn things religiously and correctly and carefully everywhere since. i believe they work. 

we are vaccinated, and luckily everybody i love/socialize with is also vaccinated, from my nail tech to my niece in college (no pics) to my 73 year old father to our best friends.

we just got off the road after a 10 day trek thru Texas, NM, and CO (Telluride is lovely but DEAD this time of year lol) and my attitude was 'if a place of business requires a mask then i will wear a mask, but otherwise...forget it'. 

i do not feel reckless - we have been very careful and followed all the rules since the beginning. i will NEVER throw a fit b/c some place is requiring masks.  

outside of Austin, there were (surprise! lol) a LOT of places in TX that no longer required masks. and i was thrilled every time i got to the door of a place and i didn't have to say 'oh shit' and to go back to the car b/c i forgot my mask.

to quote AB again - The whole fucking point of buying 700M doses is that we can get back to normal.  

NM and CO still have statewide orders and there was definitely a difference in attitude, and we followed their rules.  

i refuse to accept wearing masks as a 'new normal'. it has nothing to do with 'muh freedumb' or 'i can't breath' or whatever...it's a visceral reaction, i can't explain it. but i have handled it for a year b/c i'm a responsible citizen and i believe in science and healthcare professionals.

some girl friends were discussing masks a few months ago, different materials and patterns, ones that were 'cute'...and i got emotional b/c just that conversation was horrid to me and made me want to scream/cry.

i also agree with @jimmyjazz above - vaccine is pretty much available on demand now - you refuse it, you get really sick or die? that's on you. we've spent a year in some ridiculous battle, choosing sides and turning public health into a political football and killing/hurting hundreds of thousands of Americans in the process. a good portion of us hoisted the mantle of protecting ourselves and our fellow citizens even when they refused to protect themselves, and we've done everything we can for 12+ months now...

if you are still adhering to some absurd belief about the virus or the vaccine, i can't help you. i've done my part, it's no longer my responsibility to make sure you are safe. 

having said all that, if someone wants to continue wearing masks...who cares?? i'm not going to fault them at all. everybody has their own risk threshhold. i've reached mine and i don't think it's unreasonable.  

  

TL/DR: i am irrationally over-emotional about masks but i will continue to wear the damn things if/when required, but i am done protecting others who don't give a shit. 

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13 minutes ago, mchookem said:

having said all that, if someone wants to continue wearing masks...who cares?? i'm not going to fault them at all.

I recall smirking in years past when I would see someone wearing a mask in a grocery store, etc., and I would always check myself and say "well, maybe they aren't overly fearful, maybe they are recovering from the flu, or maybe they have an immune system issue, or whatever".

I will no longer smirk.  It's just the new normal.  You wear a mask in a store or mowing the lawn?  I totally get it.  From now on.

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Some good news.

Quote

 

The number of Florida seniors entering the hospital for COVID dropped sharply over the past month, an indication that the vaccination campaign begun in December has been effective in protecting the group most vulnerable to the disease.

Hospitals have registered a 46% drop in admissions for COVID patients aged 70 or over since mid-February, an encouraging sign in the fight against the pandemic. And since COVID deaths are typically preceded by hospitalizations, the drop is an indication that the death rate may continue to fall.

Warning signs remain. The hospitalization rate for younger people has begun creeping upward, paralleling a drop in the age of the average person with COVID. And while most Florida seniors have been vaccinated, many have not, and they remain vulnerable to a disease that appears to be spreading as more people venture out to restaurants, clubs and social gatherings.

 

Hospitalizations for COVID plunge among Florida seniors - South Florida Sun-Sentinel (sun-sentinel.com)

Not good about the young folks, obvs.  But good that in the age range most likely to suffer serious consequences things appear to be getting better in this case.

 

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37 minutes ago, mchookem said:

if you are still adhering to some absurd belief about the virus or the vaccine, i can't help you. i've done my part, it's no longer my responsibility to make sure you are safe. 

having said all that, if someone wants to continue wearing masks...who cares?? i'm not going to fault them at all. everybody has their own risk threshhold. i've reached mine and i don't think it's unreasonable.  

  

TL/DR: i am irrationally over-emotional about masks but i will continue to wear the damn things if/when required, but i am done protecting others who don't give a shit. 

That's been the attitude we've had; we wore the masks and followed mitigation measures, reduced any unnecessary activities, followed all guidelines, etc prior to the vaccines becoming available. During that time, if someone wasn't wearing a mask, I thought it was pretty foolish, but kept my distance and went about my business.

Same now except if someone is not wearing a mask, I assume they've either gotten the vaccine or they haven't, but it is still going to be me going about my business and if they choose to comment on mine, I will exercise my freedom to ignore them.

I am empathetic to your feelings, however, and that's what makes your doing what was asked early not only an act of civic responsibility wherein you rose to the occasion but also  a sign of the compassion you have for others. I hope now that you can visit places where it isn't necessary, your depression improves. That had to be very difficult and it's certainly been a difficult year for all.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/04/18/scams-coronavirus-vaccination-cards/

 

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One listing offered eBay customers an “Authentic CDC Vaccination Record Card” for $10.99. Another promised the same but for $9.49. A third was more oblique, offering a “Clear Pouch For CDC Vaccination Record Card” for $8.99, but customers instead received a blank vaccination card (and no pouch).

All three listings were posted by the same eBay user, who goes by “asianjackson” — using an account registered to a man who works as a pharmacist in the Chicago area — and all were illegal, federal regulators say. The account sold more than 100 blank vaccination cards in the past two weeks, according to The Washington Post’s review of purchases linked to it.

 

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The listings are a “perfect example” of burgeoning scams involving coronavirusvaccination cards that could undermine people’s safety, as well as the success of the nation’s largest mass vaccination effort, said North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein. Individuals might use them to misrepresent their vaccination status at school, work or in various living and travel situations, potentially exposing others to risk.

 

Quote

Stein, who led a recent effort with 47 colleagues demanding that eBay and other e-commerce platforms crack down on the scams, pointed to the FBI’s warning that anyone who makes or buys a fake vaccine card is breaking the law, and said he would consider prosecution, too.

“This is a concern that is national and bipartisan,” Stein added, saying the spread of fake vaccination cards “will extend the pandemic, resulting in more people sick and more people dead.”

 

Spoiler

At least 129.5 million Americans have gotten at least one or both doses of a coronavirus vaccine and have received a free proof-of-vaccination card with the logo of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as officials push to inoculate the nation. But that vaccination drive has pitted people like asianjackson, selling blank or fake credentials, against law enforcement officials rushing to stop them — and warning that the full scope of the problem is impossible to grasp.

 

The clash has escalated as businesses and universities say they’ll require proof of vaccination before allowing Americans to board cruises, enter some stores and even return to college classes, prompting some vaccine-hesitant people to search for false IDs or make their own. And the showdown is unfolding amid a bitter national debate about whether Americans should have digital “vaccine passports” instead of paper cards, and whether the government should be involved in credentialing such efforts.

 

For months, officials have been a step behind the scammers, who have openly discussed strategies to fake the cards on social media, sold them on sites such as eBay and pulled blank photos off state websites. Federal officials’ decision to use paper cards that can be easily photocopied or even printed off a template, rather than a digital tracking system, worsened those risks.

“This is exactly the scenario that you want to guard against. It undermines the entire effort by having falsified cards out there,” said Jennifer Kates, who oversees global health policy for the Kaiser Family Foundation and reviewed asianjackson’s eBay listings. “It certainly bolsters the argument for a digitized mechanism — which isn’t a tamper-proof system, but certainly a more secure one.”

“Paper anything is ripe for fraud,” said Nenette Day, an assistant special agent in charge at the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general’s office who oversees whistleblower tips. Day said she has reviewed dozens of reported vaccination-card scams that range from Americans stealing blank cards to sharing tips on how to fake a card on social media. She described the trend as among the most frustrating chapters in a 20-year career that included responding to the 9/11 terrorist attacks as an FBI agent.

 

“I feel like nobody has taken this to its natural conclusion,” Day said, hypothesizing about a scenario where an unvaccinated person could illegally create a vaccination card and pretend to be immunized, using that to enter a high-risk environment such as a nursing home, then unknowingly spread the virus, potentially resulting in someone’s death. “It disturbs me, having been in law enforcement this long, this flippant attitude that people have.”

 

While e-commerce platforms cracked down on listings after recent news reports, there are already signs that the supply of the cards is bouncing back, said Saoud Khalifah, chief executive of Fakespot, a company that specializes in rooting out online fraud and that began tracking fake vaccine cards in February.

“We’ve seen ads on Facebook and TikTok and other social platforms being used to target these anti-vaxxers,” Khalifah said. “There’s demand from people who don’t want to get vaccinated, but also people who think they can use the cards to skip the line [and] say, ‘Hey, I got dose one, can I get dose two?’ ”

 

Some federal officials involved in the vaccine drive said that last summer, they had initially discussed using digital systems to track the vaccine push and to help Americans manage getting shots. CDC officials believed they could harness the nation’s dozens of immunization information systems, which track shots administeredby providers within a specific geographic area.

 

“IT/data infrastructure supports entire distribution, ordering, tracking process from end-to-end,” according to a July slide deck about the CDC’s planned vaccine rollout that was obtained by The Washington Post. The slide deck made no mention of using paper cards.

A CDC letter sent the following week, also obtained by The Post, similarly touted using IT systems to manage the vaccine rollout, including “record-keeping for the vaccine recipient,” with no mention of paper cards.

Pamela Schweitzer, a retired assistant surgeon general who helped with the coronavirus response last year, said that she and her colleagues were aware in June that the CDC was focusing on a “comprehensive IT infrastructure” to help Americans track their vaccinations before opting for paper cards as a fallback later in the year.

 

A former administration official closely involved in the vaccine effort who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations confirmed initial plans for “a digital system with digital reminders about when to get your shot, like, ‘Your library book is due in five days.’ ” But technical setbacks and time pressure forced the administration to rely instead on paper cards, which the CDC had positioned as a “fail-safe,” the official said.

“If there had been a vaccine during the 1918 flu pandemic, you could probably have used the same exact card — just with different logos at the top,” the official said, adding that the paper cards, which are passed around in health settings and potentially handled by sick patients, were not ideal for curbing safety risks. “It’s a hard, tactile object in the middle of the pandemic. It’s a pretty gross thing to have.”

 

Paul Mango, a former Trump administration official who helped oversee Operation Warp Speed, the administration’s vaccine accelerator, acknowledged that “there were many complexities, technical and otherwise, associated with digital vaccination tracking, so for exigency purposes, we fell back on vaccination cards.”

 

While state and local immunization registries do store individual coronavirus vaccination data, officials said there’s no current system that would allow businesses, schools and other organizations to easily check the databases to see if a visitor was presenting a falsified paper card.

HHS did not respond to questions about health officials’ decision to opt for paper cards and whether that increased the risk of scams. An HHS spokesperson pointed to an October playbook that instructed accredited vaccinators to provide “a completed COVID-19 vaccination record card to every vaccine recipient/parent/legal representative.”

Private-sector organizations, including pharmacies such as Walmart and Walgreens, have recently mounted a push for using digital “vaccine passports” for Americans to prove they’ve gotten shots, arguing such systems would better track vaccinations and protect against fraud. But federal officials have struggled to corral the initiatives and adopt a standardized approach, particularly as the issue has become politicized in recent weeks.

 

Even as public health officials warn about the risk of fraud, some states have inadvertently boosted it. The Post identified several states, including Tennessee and Texas, that posted blank card templates to their health department websites among their coronavirus-related resources. Some social media users have boasted that they had printed the documents to produce their own fake cards.

 

Day, the official at the HHS’s inspector general’s office, recounted an explosion of whistleblower tips related to vaccination card scams in the past month. “On any given day, it’s 40 to 50 percent of our covid-related complaints,” she said.

One report was about a woman who worked in a vaccination clinic and gave a blank card to her boyfriend. The boyfriend then detailed on social media how he had filled in the card himself and bragged about the accomplishment, Day said.

Schweitzer, who has volunteered at multiple vaccination clinics across Arizona, compared the abundance of blank vaccination cards at those sites to doctors not protecting their prescription pads.

“There’s limited control over these cards,” she said. “They’re all over the place. It’s pretty easy to get a stack.”

Asianjackson — the eBay account maintained by a man who works at a Chicago-area location of a national pharmacy chain — sold at least 110 blank vaccination cards through eBay, including 50 cards alone on April 11, according to a Post review. The Post obtained one of those cards, which was identical to the CDC vaccination cards dispensed by pharmacies, and sent from a Zip code in the greater Chicago area.

 

Law enforcement officials said they are alarmed by the possibility that eBay users such as asianjackson are taking blank cards from pharmacies or other health-care facilities where they work.

“That’s very troubling,” said Stein, the North Carolina attorney general. “That’s an instance where it’s an actually authentic card but illegally acquired and sold.”

When contacted by The Post through the full name offered on the eBay sales receipt, the man who uses the “asianjackson” account confirmed he lives in the Chicago area and works in a pharmacy, and listed other items sold through the account, such as empty boxes from luxury-goods retailers like Hermès and Chanel. But he claimed he had not used eBay this month and had no knowledge of any vaccination card sales.

“I need to get that straightened out with eBay,” the man said, claiming he had stopped using the service after his password was unexpectedly changed about two weeks ago. The Post is not identifying him because he disputes he sold the cards.

After The Post brought the listings to eBay’s attention on Thursday, the company removed them. “Our team has reviewed and taken appropriate action,” said eBay spokesperson Parmita Choudhury, who declined to disclose additional details about the account.

Pharmacies insist they have protections in place to track the blank cards they receive and would know if any cards were wrongly removed.

“Our pharmacies receive a limited number of CDC dose cards as part of the CDC immunization supply kits shipped to the stores that are receiving and administering coronavirus vaccines,” Walgreens spokesperson Erin Loverher said in a statement.

“We store and monitor the vaccination cards in our pharmacies and each vaccine card is a 1:1 match for the vaccine doses in a pharmacy’s inventory, so we would know if any are missing,” said Mike DeAngelis, a CVS spokesperson.

 

Still, scammers have had a field day, getting plenty of help from the public, not just in making fake cards but also in committing identity theft: Many Americans put pictures of their vaccination cards online, sharing information such as the day of their shot, their birthdays and other identifying details. The trend, intended to boost vaccine acceptance, has alarmed regulators. “While the #COVID19 vaccine helps protect against the virus, posting your vaccine card online opens you up to another type of plague—scammers who would use the document to steal your identity,” Ashley Moody, Florida’s attorney general, wrote on Twitter in February.

Day agreed that those pictures have helped scammers get the details right, including vaccine manufacturer and lot information. “They can fill out their cards, which would have at least some level of legitimacy, because they had the right numbers and letters for the lot numbers,” she said.

Khalifah, the Fakespot CEO, said regulators face persistent challenges because of how easy the cards are to exploit.

“Let’s speak bluntly about this. We’re talking about paper and stamps — technology that’s been around for a while,” Khalifah said, adding that some people selling cards online are involved in other long-running scams. “There’s overlap with these stores and others selling fake Gucci bags. They’ll leverage fake reviews, fake upvotes. There’s a lot of fraud.”

Officials said it’s impossible to get a true picture on the number of Americans who have faked vaccine cards themselves or have bought them online. “It’s not the kind of thing that the person buying is going to report. In some ways, they’re complicit,” Stein said.

“Anything that’s going to delay the end of this pandemic is incredibly unfortunate and counterproductive,” he added. “These vaccine cards will do just that.”

 

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6 minutes ago, 4th&Five said:

Or just more shots in arms. Shutting down the supply chain to quarantine truckers would make things worse. How about we put a vax site at the border and make them get a shot?

Need to get to the bottom of quantifying the risk of clotting events with JNJ ASAP and make a determination as to how to proceed.  Suggestions like the above are exactly why we need a one and done vaccine. 

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Agree--I guess the vaccines (even for the two dose) still being not approved may make it harder to enforce a requirement for entry? I understand the doc's concern though. I don't think he's fear mongering if one looks at India and some other places with these variants. Some of the younger groups are getting sicker now apparently.

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10 minutes ago, MC Fresh Breath said:

All adults in the US eligible for vaccine today.  I choose to view that as good news.

 

4 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

well, it is

It is.  We are at 50% of adults having received at least one jab, per the radio this morning.  Now....we just need to get the other 20-30% to do so....

Even Fauci said that a reasonable expectation of reaching maximum vaccine utilization on adults is July or so.  But the commentary from others continued that the battle will be to reach the vaccine-resistant, and those who have a hard time getting signed up, getting to a place to get it, etc.  That battle is going to be almost as important as getting the damned vaccines created and manufactured.

And, we need to get the approval for kids above age 12.  And for that matter, one that will work for school age kids from 6-12 or so.  Would be nice if at least one of those was cleared over the summer, before school starts.

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24 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

 

It is.  We are at 50% of adults having received at least one jab, per the radio this morning.  Now....we just need to get the other 20-30% to do so....

Even Fauci said that a reasonable expectation of reaching maximum vaccine utilization on adults is July or so.  But the commentary from others continued that the battle will be to reach the vaccine-resistant, and those who have a hard time getting signed up, getting to a place to get it, etc.  That battle is going to be almost as important as getting the damned vaccines created and manufactured.

And, we need to get the approval for kids above age 12.  And for that matter, one that will work for school age kids from 6-12 or so.  Would be nice if at least one of those was cleared over the summer, before school starts.

not exactly.  vax combined with people that had it.  We should be close.

Herd Immunity.pdf

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The CDC advises that people who have had the virus still get a vaccine with a delay for certain types of treatments that may have been used. I was on their website this morning, and happen to scroll upon that. There is plenty of supply in many areas, so people get vaxxed.

 

 

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1 minute ago, NAVY said:

Will the anti-vaccine crowd start howling when distribution opens up to migrants? 
 

They ding-dang taking muh health care now! 

They already are. They already objected to prisoners receiving vaccines. People can be stupid selfish creatures. It takes acorns to grow more oaks but the selfish squirrel who hoards them all and lets them rot cannot imagine something happening to his tree.

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I know half the country is like this now anyway, but when do you think major businesses say employees and customers no longer are required to wear masks? 

I'm curious to see what national company says yolo first, because once Starbucks or Walmart or whoever says game on, then most will follow. But at the same time, they probably are scared someone will sue if they die on the job without a mask mandate. I guess they can say employees may wear a mask if they want.

I think two months from now, when anyone who wants a shot can get one, maybe sooner. Of course there is still the kids getting shots, but that should be cleared by the fall I think. 

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56 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

I think two months from now, when anyone who wants a shot can get one, maybe sooner. Of course there is still the kids getting shots, but that should be cleared by the fall I think. 

At current rate, all adults over 18 will be vaccinated by July 2; however, we know that the admin numbers are going to fall quickly as we bump into the vax hesitant. 

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2 minutes ago, NameAlreadyInUse said:

I watched and watched and waited to see how long they would humor her.  I guess 4 minutes 50 seconds is the answer.  Longer than I wanted it to be but the end was still satisfying.

"Taze that bitch"

-me, watching that video last night. 

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