There was deeper dive on this topic upthread, but yeah, that’s the gist. Viruses automatically get less deadly. Smallpox, polio, HIV and several others would like a word.
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…hantavirus, Marburg[shudder]…
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Marburg is just an ex-pat Ebola. Good thing Reston never took off, though.
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I had to flatten something last week that had come rolled up in a tube, so I grabbed the biggest heaviest books within reach, and realized that two out of the four were “The Coming Plague” by Laurie Garrett and “Gun, Germs, and Steel” by Jared Diamond. Guess it’s the universe telling me it’s time to re-read them both, huh?
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In general, once a kid with lice has had one treatment, they should go back to school. That’s what’s so insane about this - lice are not even remotely as transmissible as this fucking virus, and typically far, far, far from as consequential.
But you can see the cooties, so keep them far away! (/s for the second clause)
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sometimes it is possible to cause harm by freaking out, and sometimes it’s also possible to cause harm by not reacting enough
i for one wouldn’t trust anybody who hasn’t freaked out at least a little bit during these our plague years.
hang in there. it’s still going to take a bit, but there will be an end to this eventually ( i think )
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It may not help, but it’s an entirely understandable reaction: anyone who judges you for freaking out a little in the midst of all this «waves vaguely everywhere», they need to get over themselves.
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Which reminded me of:
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In a technical note published yesterday, a secretary of the Ministry of Health says that the vaccines against the Covid-19 aren´t effective, but hydroxychloroquine has effect against the Coronavirus. According to the document, the hydroxychloroquine is safe and demonstrate effectiveness against the virus. Moreover, the same document states that the vaccines aren´t safe and seem not to work.
The note contradicts all the knowleged gathered in the last year and goes against the directives of the SUS ( Brazilian Publicly funded health care) and ANVISA (Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency) that said the antimalarial drug shouldn´t be used in patients.
Regarding these guidelines, the secretary listed 28 reasons for barring them, pointing out “several inadequacies, weaknesses, ethical and technical risks and inconsistencies capable of negatively compromising the process and recommendations”.For secretary Angotti Neto there is “uncertainty and incipience in the scientific scenario in the face of a largely unknown disease”. So, the trials were biased and unfair as the “Hydroxychloroquine underwent more rigorous evaluation than that performed with different technologies” concludes the secretary.
Now, the document will be sent to the Minister of Health, who will adopt “actions that he deems appropriate”.
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Oh, hell, that’s awful. Like the assholes need more ammo…
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The government last year trumpeted that this drug was a cure for Covid. They imported pills from India, had Army labs produce a very large amount of the drug, and accepted a massive donation from Mr. Trump.
Unfortunately, Hydroxychloroquine is not used to treat the Coronavirus and almost 700,000 people have died in the country.
The drug was duly discarded by health authorities and scientists.
But the new wave of antivaxxers is resurrecting this unburied corpse. Which is funny, because the president’s acolytes and even his children like to tell anyone who wants to listen that if it weren’t for Mr. Bolsonaro, we wouldn’t have so many vaccines in Brazil.
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Is this just something coming out of Bolsonaro’s coterie, or are there a lot of Bolsonaristas out there simultaneously believing that vaccines don’t do anything, and that vaccines will kill you, and that Bolsonaro should be thanked for providing all the vaccines?
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Also:
Covid is a hoax. Nobody died of Covid, only people with comorbidities died. The vaccine kills, but only people with comorbidities.
They are plenty of “answers” to rational questions. There are a lot of crazy conspiracy theories floating around, but yet the population choose vaccinating. So they have to boast they are vaccinating the citizens and they are also fighting the evil plot to kill people with vaccines.
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@anon61221983 maybe today is a day for those gifs with people yelling and breaking things
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According to polls, the president’s popularity has been falling, but he still manages to maintain a very loyal base, about 30% of voters. He can’t afford to lose that support, but he still has to cater to everyone else who, for example, wants the vaccine and rejects conspiracy theories. Hence this double speech.
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Hmm, that seems like something I’ve heard from somewhere else…
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The problem, at least for those who can reason, is that if vaccines kill and he is proud to have bought them, He could be considered a murderer. At that´s when the “spin doctors” appear with the most bizarre excuses: He was forced to buy it, but he didn’t force anyone to take it, for example.
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Such as…
Or maybe…
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The numbers are reported by the health officials in each prefecture (as well as larger cities in each prefecture) directly to the public (media) each day, so I do not think that there is a concerted effort to keep the numbers low.
What I do think is happening is this: many people will get sick and will try to ride it out without getting tested because they want to avoid the stigma of having COVID-19. In particular, Japan does very thorough contact tracing, meaning that everyone whom you have spent time with from four days before the onset of symptoms until the positive test result will have to be tested and quarantined for ten days (14 days if not vaccinated), so you can imagine the peer pressure not to get tested.
ETA: There is a widespread belief here that the numbers were fudged in the lead up to the Olympics and this is something that I am not so sure about…the government got pretty weird about the Olympics last year.
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