December 14, 2021

NFL Covid Numbers Skyrocket: After several LA Rams players went into Covid protocols shortly before the team's MNF contest against the Arizona Cardinals, the number of players testing positive league-wide rose to 75 over the last two days. The Rams and Browns have been hit particularly hard, while the Dolphins now have only one available running back left on their 53-man roster.

Stay safe, friends

posted by The_Black_Hand to football at 10:39 PM - 6 comments

First: T_B_H, thanks for getting back into things around here and posting some quality FPP's. It's noticed and appreciated by this long-time SpoFite.

Second: It sure would be nice to see more data than "positive tests." My understanding is that most of the players are vaccinated and we might never have known they were COVID-positive but for regular pre-emptive testing. I'd sure like to know who is actually sick and who was just exposed. The reason I think we need to know is to increase the public's understanding of the risks involved.

I'm far from a zealot or a COVID denier. I understand 100% that this is a dangerous public health issue that is not to be dismissed. I don't dismiss 800,000 dead Americans and counting. I'm 100% pro-vaccination, and have always believed that we should take every advantage of the amazing scientific and medical discoveries of the times. But there is a serious public policy question that we have to answer, and that is "When are we prepared to live with this virus?" When can we acknowledge that those who can be vaccinated have made their decision, and those who refused it have made theirs? Essentially, "you buys your ticket, you takes your chances."

I'm not necessarily advocating any specific answer to my questions, other than "sooner or later, we have to." But when should that be?

posted by tahoemoj at 02:47 PM on December 15, 2021

I don't know that the question as a matter of public policy will ever get answered at the Federal level. It's playing out on such a balkanized state by state basis.

It will also depend on how many more variants appear in the pipeline and how virulent and infectious those variants are.

What it won't depend on is whether voters at large eventually have a light bulb moment about the true facts and issues at hand. There's little hope at this point that a significant percentage of the population will ever come to a meaningful point of realization. They're dug in too deep amid the trench of disinformation.

Rand Paul is a committed opponent of disaster relief legislation and his state just got leveled by a hellacious tornado system. We can assume that nothing is wrong enough with that picture among his constituents to keep him from being re-elected to another term in 2022. That's the disconnected state of things we're up against at this point. There's no apparent limit to the amount of unwitting self-inflicted punishment people are willing to sign up for.

posted by beaverboard at 03:27 PM on December 15, 2021

When the virus first hit, this 80-year-old basically cowered in terror. When the vaccine came out, I relaxed somewhat, but I am still careful. I try to live much as I had in the past, but there are concerns. I have 2 underlying conditions that worsen the problem. It makes little or no sense to wear a mask outdoors. Perhaps in a crowd, but with ordinary spacing between people, there seems to be not much of a danger. My son had the virus about 2 months ago. He quarantined, and his symptoms were no worse than a bad cold. He's 33, and had asthma as a kid. He is experiencing shortness of breath from the virus still.

Vaccination is the way to go, but those in political power seem to disregard the reality of natural immunity after having had the virus. Also there is a small number of people who will experience harmful side effects from the vaccine (cardio myopathy, dysmennorhea among women are the 2 I have heard of the most). Those who object on grounds of infringement of liberty, while they might have what is to them an important point, need to take some measures to protect others. Mask wearing is primary. When I lived in Japan, long before Covid-19, masks were a common sight. The people wearing them were trying to protect others. A mask does little to protect the wearer but much to protect others.

This thing will take time to abate, but it will eventually subside. The example is the influenza epidemic of 1918-19. No vaccines, but it went away, or at least it turned into something a lot less deadly. Vaccines help, especially those that work against known variations of virus, non-Covid. Draconian enforcement of a vaccine mandate only causes many people to resist just for the sake of resisting what they see as tyranny.

Final word: Protect yourself and protect others, but don't expect things to get better anytime soon.

posted by Howard_T at 09:32 AM on December 16, 2021

When the virus first hit, this 80-year-old basically cowered in terror. When the vaccine came out, I relaxed somewhat, but I am still careful. I try to live much as I had in the past, but there are concerns. I have 2 underlying conditions that worsen the problem. It makes little or no sense to wear a mask outdoors. Perhaps in a crowd, but with ordinary spacing between people, there seems to be not much of a danger. My son had the virus about 2 months ago. He quarantined, and his symptoms were no worse than a bad cold. He's 33, and had asthma as a kid. He is experiencing shortness of breath from the virus still.

Vaccination is the way to go, but those in political power seem to disregard the reality of natural immunity after having had the virus. Also there is a small number of people who will experience harmful side effects from the vaccine (cardio myopathy, dysmennorhea among women are the 2 I have heard of the most). Those who object on grounds of infringement of liberty, while they might have what is to them an important point, need to take some measures to protect others. Mask wearing is primary. When I lived in Japan, long before Covid-19, masks were a common sight. The people wearing them were trying to protect others. A mask does little to protect the wearer but much to protect others.

This thing will take time to abate, but it will eventually subside. The example is the influenza epidemic of 1918-19. No vaccines, but it went away, or at least it turned into something a lot less deadly. Vaccines help, especially those that work against known variations of virus, non-Covid. Draconian enforcement of a vaccine mandate only causes many people to resist just for the sake of resisting what they see as tyranny.

Final word: Protect yourself and protect others, but don't expect things to get better anytime soon.

posted by Howard_T at 09:32 AM on December 16, 2021

When the virus first hit, this 80-year-old basically cowered in terror. When the vaccine came out, I relaxed somewhat, but I am still careful. I try to live much as I had in the past, but there are concerns. I have 2 underlying conditions that worsen the problem. It makes little or no sense to wear a mask outdoors. Perhaps in a crowd, but with ordinary spacing between people, there seems to be not much of a danger. My son had the virus about 2 months ago. He quarantined, and his symptoms were no worse than a bad cold. He's 33, and had asthma as a kid. He is experiencing shortness of breath from the virus still.

Vaccination is the way to go, but those in political power seem to disregard the reality of natural immunity after having had the virus. Also there is a small number of people who will experience harmful side effects from the vaccine (cardio myopathy, dysmennorhea among women are the 2 I have heard of the most). Those who object on grounds of infringement of liberty, while they might have what is to them an important point, need to take some measures to protect others. Mask wearing is primary. When I lived in Japan, long before Covid-19, masks were a common sight. The people wearing them were trying to protect others. A mask does little to protect the wearer but much to protect others.

This thing will take time to abate, but it will eventually subside. The example is the influenza epidemic of 1918-19. No vaccines, but it went away, or at least it turned into something a lot less deadly. Vaccines help, especially those that work against known variations of virus, non-Covid. Draconian enforcement of a vaccine mandate only causes many people to resist just for the sake of resisting what they see as tyranny.

Final word: Protect yourself and protect others, but don't expect things to get better anytime soon.

posted by Howard_T at 09:32 AM on December 16, 2021

When the virus first hit, this 80-year-old basically cowered in terror. When the vaccine came out, I relaxed somewhat, but I am still careful. I try to live much as I had in the past, but there are concerns. I have 2 underlying conditions that worsen the problem. It makes little or no sense to wear a mask outdoors. Perhaps in a crowd, but with ordinary spacing between people, there seems to be not much of a danger. My son had the virus about 2 months ago. He quarantined, and his symptoms were no worse than a bad cold. He's 33, and had asthma as a kid. He is experiencing shortness of breath from the virus still.

Vaccination is the way to go, but those in political power seem to disregard the reality of natural immunity after having had the virus. Also there is a small number of people who will experience harmful side effects from the vaccine (cardio myopathy, dysmennorhea among women are the 2 I have heard of the most). Those who object on grounds of infringement of liberty, while they might have what is to them an important point, need to take some measures to protect others. Mask wearing is primary. When I lived in Japan, long before Covid-19, masks were a common sight. The people wearing them were trying to protect others. A mask does little to protect the wearer but much to protect others.

This thing will take time to abate, but it will eventually subside. The example is the influenza epidemic of 1918-19. No vaccines, but it went away, or at least it turned into something a lot less deadly. Vaccines help, especially those that work against known variations of virus, non-Covid. Draconian enforcement of a vaccine mandate only causes many people to resist just for the sake of resisting what they see as tyranny.

Final word: Protect yourself and protect others, but don't expect things to get better anytime soon.

posted by Howard_T at 09:32 AM on December 16, 2021

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