Mundane Moments

Kennedy has a lot of ideas but they seem to be aligned with the pharma company that is going to pay him. He is also on testosterone so he is essentially mental right now. All you have to do is watch the Charlie Sheen documentary on netflix and Sheen will admit that not only was he on crack cocaine he was on insane amounts of Testosterone that drove him to madness.

under Kennedy he wants to ban all childhoods vaccination which ended up with the ousting of the CDC director who said, "what are you fucking crazy", or some words to those effect. The Covid vaccine isn't even available in most states unless you are a vunerable individual and or over 65. So it's safe for them but not the general population? How interesting. Illinois (where i live) told the government to go swivel, which is now devolving into battles within the CDC and health and human services and some states themselves. They were also looking at other. vaccines that they want to take off the market to evaluate. Sounds awfully like the situation with Disney and ABC with Jimmy Kimmel where some companies will have to make concessions in order to make money.... (or pay someone off - wink wink...)

Welcome to Putin's America.

Chicago: Paying the price (as in it cost me to have my shots...poor people are fucked...)

We live in shit times here in the states

Presumably the argument is that the benefit outweighs the risk for those groups?

As a fit and healthy 50 something, I haven't been vaccinated for covid or flu since 2021 because my doctor hasn't suggested I ought to be.

I get a covid and flu shot every autumn when they come into stock. Because I can.

My work provide flu and/or covid shots for those that want them.
I’ve put myself down for the flu one, but not the covid, unless they’re going to ignore the 3 days off sick I’ll take after the covid shot. They put me on my arse good and proper.

Pussy.

Never had a reaction ever. Although i have never had Covid either which could very well be a factor...

Chicago: Superhuman.

Welcome to the world of Peter Thiel human Statistics.

Chicago: Statistic.

I thought one of the major strengths of vaccines was getting the vast majority protected so those who can't get the vaccine and/or have compromised immune systems can benefit from reduced spread.

Yes that was the thought behind it when people actually cared about others. Now it's all politics which in itself is insane...

Chicago: Currently suffering from Brain ache.

"Protected" meaning "vaccinated" in this case. Because "herd immunity" means losing all the vulnerable people in order to reach the relevant proportion (not a doctor, virologist or epidemiologist), and the covid virus is still mutating.
Vaccines don't cure (again...), but with some viruses, they can be carried with a high payload and cause no symptoms, making them excellent spreaders. Vaccines mitigate this, as I understand it. So it's not necessarily your immune system, but just genetic coincidence. So it's still "better" overall, nation-level picture, to get vaccinated.

If vaccinated, or immune, then the payload doesn't build up as high in the first place. If the immune system has to learn then it takes time. No-one in this conversation believes that vaccines stop infection.
And the benefit of vaccination is not just for yourself (because, as has been shown, sometimes you get lucky). It's to society and, specifically, those people who aren't protected by a strong immune system or are specifically vulnerable to a particular virus.

I got the first Covid jab relatively early (March 21, they offered it to teachers) and it was a drive up. Jab instantly hurt and I felt ropey for days afterward.
Had two or three since and they’ve been fine. Some people I know felt fine on the first, rough on the second.
The second time - of two that I’m aware - I tested positive (sometime in early 23?) I was close to taking myself to hospital it messed me up so much, whereas the first (early 22) I felt relatively okay.
Really seems to be a crapshoot for some.
Felt like I’ve had something similar in the years since but it could also just be aging/other bugs/ennui, so who knows?
I do feel much, much more tired day to day in general but that might be the state of the world as much as anything. Getting up at 5:20 every day doesn’t help.

Resident Alien: Not a morning person

Have always self-insured with pets.. a pair of indoor moggies is as low risk as it gets.

So, all in, when we lost one of them to heart failure it cost about $8k in tests and emergency care to find out he was definitely going to die.. and now the other one has bronchitis, and around $7k sunk to find that out (but at least with her, we’re improving and extending life).

Self-insuring still was, and is, the rational choice. But that is all gonna sting for a fair while.

Second day in a row of finding a dead pigeon in the back garden. Think there must be a new cat in the street.