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We’reTexas

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by We’reTexas

  1. I thought NY had a pretty good vaccine passport app? CA’s has a QR code you can scan to verify, and overall it’s worked pretty well - my booster was uploaded into the system in a few hours. My understanding is France has an even better app that allows for contact tracing. I have no idea why folks are in a position where they have to carry their CDC cards (well I do but you know what I mean).
  2. That’s fair, but I was arguing that the zero-covid/prohibitionist wings had his ear (and I took his quote from a month ago as dithering on any firm direction forward). In particular, I’d point out Dr. Tomas Aragon, head of CA Public Health, who led SF through a prohibitionist approach, easily the strictest in the nation, and was often at odds with Monica Gandhi. I can’t speak for NYC/DC/etc, but while the idea of approaching COVID as endemic gains traction among public officials in CA, I have a hard time seeing that actually play out without difficulty.
  3. “I took the shitty vaccine and still had mild disease, so I don’t see any point in the vaccines - especially the stronger ones.”
  4. Yeah I saw Monica Gandhi retweet that article earlier. Monica Gandhi is head of UCSF’s AIDS research center and since May 2020 has been publicly pushing for a harm reduction approach to live with the pandemic rather than zero COVID because, well, one disease that should not take a back seat to COVID is AIDS (especially is SF). She’s pushed for a very pragmatic approach but in California is basically Greg Abbott. Anyways, she recently published a 2022 COVID plan in TIME for the Biden administration which sent a prominent progressive UCSF faculty member and others apoplectic. To your point, there’s an influential chunk of the progressive wing that has dug its heels in on zero COVID because they argue that the end of this thing is not vaccines but solving structural inequality in healthcare . That’s obviously laudable but a quixotic near-term goal. This isn’t a fringe school of thought. In CA, progressives were able to push through a health equity metric for reopening that arguably unnecessarily delayed the process, and Gavin Newsom continues to speak in terms of zero COVID. There definitely needs to be a reorientation in the thinking of many public health authorities but I think it will be a uphill battle with the progressive wing.
  5. Seriously? Remember those MoveOn.org bumper stickers that read, “If you aren’t appalled, you haven’t been paying attention”? We need to revive them: “If you aren’t appalled, you’re a fucking moron.”
  6. Diamond is basically half as “salty” as Morton’s so there’s more room for error. That’s really it. They’re the same price so might as well go for the one that makes it harder to screw up a recipe.
  7. More than you ever wanted to know about kosher salt. I’ve converted to team Diamond since discovering how much more forgiving it is.
  8. Was about to hike to Alamere Falls in Point Reyes when I got the advisory. Sheesh, that was close.
  9. Seriously? We had an outdoor mask mandate until May 2021. I don’t know how you got around that but all the more power to you. I ended up spending $30 on a spiffy Under Armour mask to go running and hiking.
  10. I’m not. But my friends who have been pregnant or have had kids over the past two years sure have been, particularly in states that decided COVID was over in summer 2020, and I’m not one to tell them otherwise. To be clear, California’s prohibitionist policies have been disastrous on young people, particularly minorities, which is a huge reason for why I was originally railing against the state’s and local authorities’ inability to embrace harm reductionist policies to prepare for the long term. But having lived most of my life in Texas, I’ve never seen its governance at the state level as much of a model for anything, and certainly not this pandemic.
  11. On the whole I’d take a state government that supports public health measures to combat the pandemic, even if I generally disagree with its approach, rather than one that at the very best is lukewarm and at worst actively opposes them. I’ve been back to Texas six times during the pandemic and observed quite a striking contrast. It’s been hard for my family and friends, especially those with young kids, to navigate things, and I feel for them.
  12. I meant having to fend for yourself in a caliphate that ceased to take any action against the greatest public health crisis of our time, emboldened the ignorant and actively stymied local authorities. Not a great choice, but I’d take the CA experience over TX any day.
  13. This. The nine Bay Area county health authorities are still stuck in April 2020. I had a mini-breakdown reading this story today as I waited to get into the office (where we are tested daily, 100% vaxxed and now have an indoor mask mandate at all times). Obviously y’all back in Texas have had it much harder on the other end up the spectrum, but I am infuriated by CA’s inability to move from zero COVID to a long-term harm mitigation approach. Sonoma County just issued a voluntary shelter-in-place order.
  14. Like, overall or distinctly New Orleanian cooking? For the former: Saint Germain is easily the best and most ambitious restaurant in the city right now, Mister Mao is the hottest among the foodie circuit, and Bywater American Bistro continues to be one of the most consistently excellent places in the city. For the latter, Peche, Brigsten’s and Clancy’s are still going strong. Personally I like Gabrielle. Haven’t had a chance to check out Miss River or Chemin a La Mer yet, but both look incredible and are getting a lot of buzz. Edit: Forgot to mention, but Saffron was the best dining experience I’ve had in NO in the past decade.
  15. Another poster was hospitalized a month ago or so. He said was did not regret being unvaccinated (because he recovered), would never get vaccinated (because they believe natural immunity lasts forever), and did not recommend that anyone else get vaccinated (muh freedoms). Dude got several hundred upvotes. They’ve had at least one poster die - a rural physician in North Texas, I believe, who caught COVID on the front lines during the winter surge. They had a whole memorial thread where everyone was posting “gig ‘em” or some aggy nonsense. Someone suggested that they honor his memory by taking the surge seriously and practice masking and social distancing. The thread turned into total uproar as though someone had just pissed on his grave. I just do not understand how they have comprehended the experience of the past two years.
  16. Yes, like 4th&Five mentioned, you just show your card and ID to the hostess or bartender once you are sat. I understand the practicalities of what LaToya is up against, but I find it amusing you only need proof of one shot (in SF it’s fully vaxxed for two weeks, and now places are voluntarily requiring boosters).
  17. There’s a vaccine mandate for bars and restaurants in Orleans parish, and as of Monday it’s for everyone over 5. It was just extended through Mardi Gras, March 1.
  18. Favorite all around uptown bar. Love their crusade to make margs the NO drink (despite being a whiskey bar).
  19. SF, LA, Seattle and Houston are all Housing First cities (Housing First is actually the official policy of California and HUD). It is a great question as to why only Houston and Utah have been success stories, but I suspect it has to do largely with the cost of housing, zoning, and NIMBYism.
  20. *guy who supported Iraq invasion*
  21. Brown people reproducing?
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