Just got my (delayed because of a case of shingles) second booster last night, so I'm a little loopy today. If this article has been posted already, please let me know and I'll delete this.
My favorite paragraph in the piece: "In Texas and Florida, SARS-CoV-2 variants caused over 44,000 and 40,000 COVID-19 deaths respectively, more than in any other state. On a per capita basis, West Virginia and Kentucky suffered the highest number of variant deaths, with 229 and 212 deaths per 100,000 people, respectively. The findings likely reflect differences in vaccination coverage, prior immunity, use of non-pharmaceutical interventions, demographics, and social vulnerability."
To my mind, here's the money quote: “The findings reiterate a basic truth that the U.S. has tragically tried to ignore,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. “There will be no end to the pandemic here in the U.S. until there is an end to it everywhere. For our own national interest, not to mention for humanitarian reasons, we must lead the way in providing full funding for the global effort to vaccinate, test and treat everyone.”
Rats, I was just now over on Reddit HCA, reading that health workers are being coerced into working whilst Covid positive.
What hope is there for immunosuppressed people?
This is alt-Reich, Social Darwinism in action.
I believe they think that getting rid of "useless eaters" will boost the economy. Talk about dystopian!
I am ENRAGED. A dear friend reached out to me this afternoon; he's a recent cancer survivor, vaxxed and one booster (he was scheduled for booster #2 but now has had to postpone that), and he caught Covid from an unmasked coworker. The coworker and the coworker's wife both have Covid, and the wife was threatened with firing from her employer if she didn't show up at her job in a local grocery store WHILE HAVING AN ACTIVE CASE OF COVID. I called the store manager and gave him a piece of my mind, and he shunted the responsibility to the owner. I told him I would let everyone I know in that town what the deal is with the store's shitty Covid policy, and I made good on that. In the meantime, my dear friend just started Paxlovid, but I'm truly afraid for him, and I know he's scared, too. He was masked with KN95 at the office, but the coworker was coughing and sneezing all over the place. FUCKING FUCK.
But it’s just the flu!