COVID-19

[Peter B]

But now for something a little different...and funny.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-20/meet-the-creator-of-canberra-covid-19-hero-ken-behrens/100393472

A week ago today, Mr Bowey had been assigned a mammoth task — captioning the ACT's COVID-19 press conference on the second day of the territory's lockdown.

Mr Bowey explained to ABC Radio Canberra that to do this, he used voice-to-text software to transcribe most of the words, before changing any typos and fixing up any grammatical problems.

But there was one word Mr Bowey did not catch in time.

"I will admit I've had trouble with the word 'Canberrans' before," he said.

So when the ACT's Chief Minister Andrew Barr took a moment to thank Canberrans for their hard work embracing the snap lockdown, the captions suggested that Mr Barr had thanked 'Ken Behrens'.

The other funny thing is that there is a real Ken Behrens - an American wildlife photographer living in Madagascar. And he couldn't understand why he was suddenly very popular with Australians...

[Zakalwe]

Please welcome our next contender for dumb Republican state to the stage: Alabama.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08/we-are-set-on-a-path-that-looks-disastrous-alabama-hospitals-near-collapse/?comments=1

Remember Kushner and Trump's plan to politicise COVID as they thought that it would damage Democratic states more? https://www.businessinsider.com/kushner-covid-19-plan-maybe-axed-for-political-reasons-report-2020-7?r=US&IR=T    How'd that work out for you guys?

[gillianren]

Last I heard, Alabama was at negative eleven ICU beds--there were several hospitals around the state that were able to create a few more, but by and large, that's it.  They're out of spots.

My partner is angry at our state's new vaccination mandate for state employees--because it allows religious exemptions.  He understands medical exemptions, but he has no sympathy for anyone whose religion tells them not to get the shot.  Especially since the e-mail he got about it was from the school district informing us that the staff will be covered by the mandate, meaning there are people who will be working with our four- and eight-year-old who might not be vaccinated.  Our kids can't be, and we desperately want them to be.

[Mag40]

So Jarrah White has just posted a video of him getting the vaccine and telling people not to be Covidiots. I applaud him for this. Interestingly though, he is now getting a taster of what it feels like to be bombarded by conspiracy theorists who are really giving him a hard time for selling out. Crazy plandemic/antivax people are telling him how foolish he is. Ahhh the irony here.

[gillianren]

I'm not clicking on the video to be sure, but I think a certain former President just got booed by a bunch of his own supporters for saying the same thing.

[nikolai]

My partner is angry at our state's new vaccination mandate for state employees--because it allows religious exemptions.  He understands medical exemptions, but he has no sympathy for anyone whose religion tells them not to get the shot.

In a country not far from here, one of the Islamic groups declared one of the vaccines "haram", which normally means forbidden, because pork-based products are used in its manufacture.  However, it also stated that use of the vaccine is nonetheless permissible out of necessity, since there is no credible alternative.

If someone produces a vaccine that doesn't use pork-based products, but that also isn't as effective, I am not sure what they will decide.  (Maybe this has already happened?)

But the great thing about Islam is that, like Protestantism, there is no central authority, so if you don't like one group's decision, you can look for another group that decides differently.  I'm not sure if you're allowed to mix and match.

[gillianren]

Plenty of people mix and match their religious beliefs--look at American Catholics' beliefs about birth control, for example.

Meanwhile, my kids might have been exposed, but the people who might have exposed them have only told the kids, not us, and I'm not sure when they last saw the person who might be a confirmed case.

[Peter B]

My partner is angry at our state's new vaccination mandate for state employees--because it allows religious exemptions.  He understands medical exemptions, but he has no sympathy for anyone whose religion tells them not to get the shot.

In a country not far from here, one of the Islamic groups declared one of the vaccines "haram", which normally means forbidden, because pork-based products are used in its manufacture.  However, it also stated that use of the vaccine is nonetheless permissible out of necessity, since there is no credible alternative.

If someone produces a vaccine that doesn't use pork-based products, but that also isn't as effective, I am not sure what they will decide.  (Maybe this has already happened?)

But the great thing about Islam is that, like Protestantism, there is no central authority, so if you don't like one group's decision, you can look for another group that decides differently.  I'm not sure if you're allowed to mix and match.

With respect, I don't really see the similarity in the situations. Gillianren's partner is talking about the likelihood of people using religion as a cover for their anti-vax views, while you're talking about religious authorities making rulings very directly on the basis of their moral standards.

IMO the former are hypocritical and the latter are honourable (even if I disagree with them). Catholics have expressed similar reservations about vaccines which have ingredients which originated in cells from aborted foetuses. Articles I've read about Catholic moral objections to such 'tainted' vaccines suggest their views are similar to what you quote - take the 'tainted' vaccine because saving lives is still a moral good, but lobby for vaccines to be developed which don't include the tainted ingredient and thus reduce the moral harm.

However please correct me if you think I've misrepresented you.

[nikolai]

However please correct me if you think I've misrepresented you.

You are not very explicit on what you think I said, and trying to guess what hidden meaning you are attributing to me and then stating whether it is accurate or not is not something I should have to do.

If you want to express your opinion about which religious groups hold honourable, salutary, or otherwise respectable positions on particular issues and which do not, then I wish you would do so without framing it as somehow in opposition to my opinion.  I have not expressed any value judgement whatsoever, positive or negative, on the positions of the religious groups referenced either by Gillianren or by myself.

[Zakalwe]

So now the FDA has to remind people that they are not horses or cows.
https://twitter.com/US_FDA/status/1429050070243192839

The same people screaming about not wanting a vaccine are happily poisoning themselves with cow medicines. I wonder what shape the Venn diagram that maps MAGA idiots, COVID anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, anti-abortionists and evangelical nut-jobs would be? A perfect circle?

[gillianren]

No, there are definitely liberal anti-vaxxers.  It's one of those things that is connecting the far left and the far right.  I have a now former friend who is definitely not a MAGA idiot, an anti-abortionist, or an evangelical nut-job.  But the very far left and the very far left both have segments that distrust vaccines because they're "unnatural."  One group comes at it from a God perspective, and one comes at it from a nature perspective, and they disagree about practically everything but vaccination.  Heck, this friend keeps whining that Bernie Sanders should've won five years ago.

Meanwhile, I've had it confirmed that the kids were not exposed.

[jfb]

Yeah, the first round of anti-vaxxers were definitely not conservative Republicans - they're the ones into crystals, homeopathy, and other "non-traditional" forms of healing.  All forms of "western" medicine are bad, period, end of story. 

Instead of eating horse paste, they glue healing crystals to their steering wheel to recharge while they drive, unwittingly turning it into a claymore if they ever get into a wreck. 

[Zakalwe]

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/texas-anti-mask-covid-caleb-wallace_n_61285af4e4b0f562f3dc5224?ri18n=true

Every time I hear of these knuckleheads I can't decide if I like karma or schadenfreude the most....

[Zakalwe]

No, there are definitely liberal anti-vaxxers.  It's one of those things that is connecting the far left and the far right.  I have a now former friend who is definitely not a MAGA idiot, an anti-abortionist, or an evangelical nut-job.  But the very far left and the very far left both have segments that distrust vaccines because they're "unnatural."  One group comes at it from a God perspective, and one comes at it from a nature perspective, and they disagree about practically everything but vaccination.  Heck, this friend keeps whining that Bernie Sanders should've won five years ago.

Meanwhile, I've had it confirmed that the kids were not exposed.

Yeah, the first round of anti-vaxxers were definitely not conservative Republicans - they're the ones into crystals, homeopathy, and other "non-traditional" forms of healing.  All forms of "western" medicine are bad, period, end of story. 

Instead of eating horse paste, they glue healing crystals to their steering wheel to recharge while they drive, unwittingly turning it into a claymore if they ever get into a wreck. 

I didn't say that there aren't other anti-vaxxers or that the MAGA idiots invented anti-vax. But some of the current loudest are also Trump supporting nutjobs. It's crank magnetism at work.

Its funny how the Freedumb lovers are so anti-mask as they don't want the government dictating what they do with their bodies and at the same time are also awfully keen on telling women what they can and can't do with their bodies, sexuality and reproduction.

[gillianren]

I didn't say that there aren't other anti-vaxxers or that the MAGA idiots invented anti-vax. But some of the current loudest are also Trump supporting nutjobs.

Yes, they are, but "the Venn diagram is a circle" literally means the overlap is complete, and we're merely pointing out that it isn't.