WDKS. Yup, of course. WDKS. Fuuuuck…
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I know that research in recent years is finally starting to uncover the way in which those predisposed genetically to develop autoimmune disorders have only a general risk marker, but which autoimmune disorder in particular ends up manifesting appears to be tied to which ‘minor’ disease one happens to catch in childhood, and when. So, for example, a viral infection at 5 might mean MS whereas the flu at 8 might start the process for rheumatoid arthritis.
It isn’t just covid that WDKS about, which is why WDKS about covid either.
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Cities throughout Japan have begun distributing the second round of economic stimulus payments (the national government is providing funds, but municipalities are responsible for distribution). The stimulus payment is 100,000 Yen (around 900 USD) per child under the age of 18, but the process of distribution has been kind of a mess.
The central government initially proposed giving 50,000 Yen in direct deposits (within this year) and another 50,000 Yen worth of coupons (next spring) to spend on things related to childcare (the government always wants to give out coupons so that people will actually spend rather than allowing the money to languish in savings accounts). However, with the press reporting on how much it would cost just to issue and distribute these coupons and municipalities busy making arrangements for the third round of vaccinations (this is also distributed by municipalities), the government caved to pressure and decided to give municipalities the option of just distributing 100,000 Yen all in cash (in either one payment or two), which most municipalities are now opting to do.
Meanwhile, there has been a disconcerting uptick in cases (and an even more worrying number of people who have been identified as having been in contact with someone who was infected with Omicron), but we are still seeing no more than 250 per day nationwide (plus another 50 or so cases being caught in airport quarantine daily). I am worried by how much people are letting their guard down. Everyone is still masking up, but that may not be enough with Omicron, and I am seeing shopping areas that are really quite crowded here in Kobe.
Some cities are also shortening the time between 2nd and 3rd vaccinations, dropping the wait time from 8 months to 6.
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Marie Curie would like a word.
Idiot. 
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It’s a good thing, they haven’t realized this, or people might be trying to cure COVID with home-derived radioactive isotopes. /s
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https://news.yahoo.com/fauci-welcomes-trumps-vaccine-support-151802263.html
“I was stunned by that,” he added. “I mean, given the fact of how popular he is with that group, … which tells me how recalcitrant they are about being told what they should do.”
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eat healthy, drive safely, be nice to your friends and family, love your thy neighbor, keep breathing
being contrary for the sake of being contrary is not a viable life plan.
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I often think of F91.3 when I see that kind of behaviour. On an individual basis, it might even fullfil the diagnostic criteria, but for a whole population of people? Does mass psychology even have diagnostic criteria for something like it?
All of this is odd. I can’t wrap my head around it.
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What? So, unlike any previous pandemic, this one will never end?
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The change will be lasting, but you’re right there are a lot more factors besides covid driving that change.
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More summary information from Public Health Ontario 
What We Know So Far About… Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
The development of these documents includes a systematic search of the published literature as well as scientific grey literature (e.g., ProMED, CIDRAP, Johns Hopkins Situation Reports) and media reports, where appropriate. Relevant results are reviewed and data extracted for synthesis. All “What We Know So Far” documents are reviewed by PHO subject-matter experts before posting.
They are a bit behind on the Omicron material, but it’s a nice series of papers.
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That’s not an argument; that’s a disagreement!
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Well, up until the modern era, the world had to contend with wave after wave of the bubonic plague. It can be treated now with modern medicine, but the Black Death was a pretty constant companion of humanity on Afro-Eur-Asia until pretty recent times.
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Let’s not forget smallpox taking children with regularity over several thousand years. I mean, it did end, but damn, over 3k years?
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Yeah, I don’t think many anti-vaxxers (or really even most people) really appreciate how revolutionary vaccines have been in human history. There are so many diseases that we just used to die of on a regular basis that we can protect against now. It’s amazing technology.
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