Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Sheilbh]

Separately - the Trinidadian Minister of Health has had to respond to Nicki Minaj's story about her cousin's friends testicles swelling so much after getting the vaccine that he had to cancel his wedding
https://twitter.com/KevzPolitics/status/1438183898358366208?s=20

This, I suspect, is a difference with historic anti-vax stuff.

[Zanza]

Didn't Boris Johnson have to answer a question on that sorry Story, too?

Just imagine you are that guy and now the World known you got an STD from a pre-marriage fling.

[Sheilbh]

Didn't Boris Johnson have to answer a question on that sorry Story, too?

Yep

It probably is the sort of thing you do need to address if someone with a very big platform is saying the vaccine is unsafe and will make your balls swell. But still very weird.

[viper37]

Yeah - I agree and I'd use the "religious or philosophical beliefs". So the example that springs to mind is if it wasn't halal or if it contained animal products - I don't think a Muslim or a "philosophical" vegan should be forced to get vaccinated. I don't think a religious exemption needs a pastor signing a card and certainly not for cash.

If you have vaccine passports then I think the alternative route you need for any exemptions is regular testing and a negative covid test from the last 24-48 hours.

Unsurprisingly, I'm totally opposed to religious exemptions.  I can accept medical reasons, but nothing else.  Either you stay home or you get vaccinated.

[Razgovory]

They can, but they then also opt out of discretionary activities where they could infect others.

Covid may be one of those extreme circumstances I mentioned.  This is a once-in-a-century crisis after all.  I certainly approve of mask mandates.  I come at this as a person with mental illness.  As you can imagine, mandatory psychiatrics medication would be a gross violation of human rights.

[Iormlund]

Covid may be one of those extreme circumstances I mentioned.  This is a once-in-a-century crisis after all.

I envy your optimism.

SARS-CoV-2 is the third dangerous coronavirus we've met in the past 20 years, after SARS and MERS. And that's just coronaviruses. There are many other types of pathogens.

On the one hand we've been encroaching on animal habitats for decades, ever increasing the chance of a bug crossing over. On the other we can fly around the world in hours. I find it unlikely we will not have another one of these in our lifetimes.

[Sheilbh]

I envy you optimism.

SARS-CoV-2 is the third dangerous coronavirus we've met in the past 20 years, after SARS and MERS. And that's just coronaviruses. There are many other types of pathogens.

On the one hand we've been encroaching on animal habitats for decades, ever increasing the chance of a bug crossing over. On the other we can fly around the world in hours. I find it unlikely we will not have another one of these in our lifetimes.

Yeah - agreed. In many ways covid is a lot less severe than we could have expected. And I don't think it's going to be the last pandemic in my lifetime.

Hopefully globally enough lessons have been learned to respond better, quicker to it next time.

[crazy canuck]

They can, but they then also opt out of discretionary activities where they could infect others.

Covid may be one of those extreme circumstances I mentioned.  This is a once-in-a-century crisis after all.  I certainly approve of mask mandates.  I come at this as a person with mental illness.  As you can imagine, mandatory psychiatrics medication would be a gross violation of human rights.

Gotcha.  And I agree.  Although as with the others, I think you may be too optimistic about how long we are going to have to deal with COVID.  Too many in poor countries do not have access to vaccine and too many in rich countries are choosing not to be vaccinated.  I fear we are going to be dealing with variants for years to come.

[Razgovory]

Yeah, I think we might have missed the boat on this one.  Future generations will damn us for this failure.  Let the record be clear: I do approve of mandatory vaccination in this case.  The only way out would be a medical exemption.

[crazy canuck]

Yeah, I think we might have missed the boat on this one.  Future generations will damn us for this failure.  Let the record be clear: I do approve of mandatory vaccination in this case.  The only way out would be a medical exemption.

Yeah, I think that is where we are going to end up.  vaccine passports to engage in any activity outside the home with medical exemptions. 

[Syt]

Reactions to the new mask rules in Austria are mixed. There's confusion over where FFP2 masks are mandatory for everyone and where they're mandatory for non-vaccinated people only (vaccinated people are recommended to wear FFP2 masks, but a normal mask will do).

On top of that there's been a back and forth as to who checks on whether someone with a non-FFP2 mask is vaccinated. Last week the economics minister (ÖVP) said that shops of course would not have to do checks and that there would be spot checks by police. Police said they need a mandate for that and would need to be accompanied by a health official who verifies the vaccination status. This week, the health minister (Greens) says that both police and shops would need to do spot checks which of course led to push back from all sides.

Would have been easier to just make FFP2 masks mandatory, but I guess the government was trying to find a solution to give vaccinated people a bit more leeway to entice non-vaccinated people to get the shot? It seems really confused and people are getting very frustrated.

[Zanza]

Ever since FFP2 masks became easily available last year, I wear them whenever I wear a mask. Why would I go with a mask that offers less protection? 

[Syt]

Ever since FFP2 masks became easily available last year, I wear them whenever I wear a mask. Why would I go with a mask that offers less protection? 

Of course and so do I, but there's plenty people who hate masks here in Austria who will use the lowest version they can get away with (and there's still people who just ignore the mask mandate e.g. on public transport, or have their nose hanging out etc.).

[Zanza]

Same here, I just don't get it.

[Syt]

My theory is that for a lot of the no-maskers it feels empowering, giving them a feeling of being in control and "sticking it to the man" that they crave but normally don't have in their lives.