I usually just feel tired for the day.
But - I’d take it just for this benefit now!
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I can stop flossing!
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I’ve mostly avoided outside crowds, but yeah, if I’m in one, I always wear a mask.
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i like how the paprs look like something giger dreamed up.
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Two of the officers in that photo are wearing powered hood respirators. Respectfully, getting most employees to wear gear like that for the full duration of their work shift more than 2.5 years into the pandemic really is pretty hard, especially if there’s no clear endpoint.
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Immigration and biosecurity staff are likely to be at the forefront of novel [to New Zealand] viruses.
As long as we have novel and potentially difficult to vaccinate against lethal and near-lethal viruses rattling around inside the human population, especially the traveling human population, unmasked, unvaccinated or not, crowded together in pressurized planes, boats, etc., I see the wisdom in offering these staff the option of all available health safeguards.
Those who do not want to wear such contraptions could be offered other positions not at the forefront, facing the public.
Imagine having competent fully-trained employees just dying because PPE simply was not provided in the course of their duties.
Or don’t: you really do not have to imagine at all.
Because that’s basically what is happening all over the U.S., where workers are treated as fungible cogs of late stage capitalist profiteers, who cheerfully issue us workers health “insurance” that is the laughingstock of the civilized world.
ETA:
words missing
some of my brain cells probably missing too
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Yup. And we scream into the void about it all the time. Healthcare workers’ mental health is in the toilet for a reason.
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Whether it’s wise and effective is an entirely different question from whether it’s “NOT. HARD.” to get widespread compliance with these measures. That was the part I was replying to.
Few countries had stronger or more effective measures in place than New Zealand to slow the spread of this virus for about the first 2 years. But the fact that they’ve dialed them back does illustrate that even the best countries have been having a hard time keeping this up forever. They’re still better at providing mitigations than most but are currently being overrun by the BA.5 variant, just like the rest of the world.
According to Worldometer (which may not be perfect due to inconsistencies in reporting but is probably in the ballpark) New Zealand is #3 in the world for covid deaths per capita.this week. (28 per million over the past 7 days). Very sad, especially considering their earlier successes.
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If you’re older and haven’t had the shingles vax, here’s another reason to get it:
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Glad to see this problem getting more media attention, and hope it leads to more healthcare options for people struggling with symptoms:
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What’s freaking me out a bit is that ourOntario 
Science Table hasn’t published a dashboard update since about July 7th, no briefs since April, and weekly updates from Public Health Ontario haven’t been refreshed since June 15th.
It is difficult to gauge, but I get the feeling we’ve lost a key person and leadership has evaporated…
Ever since Dr. Peter Jüni quit to go to Oxford things appear to have gone more than a bit slack around here.
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The numbers are still coming in, but Japan has already passed 150,000 new daily cases for the first time (up from the previous record of 110,000 from last week). A whopping 30 (out of 47) prefectures are reporting new records and even rural prefectures are into four digits. The numbers keep doubling every week.
The government is holding firm on its policy of no new restrictions, but this is simply unsustainable.
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