I’m still awfully sick with a nasty ugly cold, but I showed up in class today to teach, feeling like I have no choice in the matter. Precautions taken: I wore a mask (I always wear a mask anyway), I canceled all personal appointments where I’d have to meet with students one-on-one, and I’m just generally staying away from all contact. I can’t imagine canceling class, which would have all kinds of downstream effects — canceling the second week of class? For a bad cold? Why not just abort the semester, you wimp?
I ended up just channeling my inner university administrator. We don’t care about no infectious disease, we’re about delivering product to our customers, so damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.
I was providing synchronous zoom access, and about a half dozen students were taking advantage of it. If a bunch of students come sniffling up to me in the next week complaining about feeling as bad as I do right now, I will be fully sympathetic and do what I can to accommodate them. But otherwise, I just have to follow the American model of handling disease.
I see Elon Musk is now full-on anti-vaxx https://www.alternet.org/elon-musk-2659291151/.
The whole world is going insane, as these most recent three Pharyngula posts help to confirm.
I don’t believe him.
Musk has a long history of making claims without proof.
He is in fact, in court right now for exactly this reason.
He claimed several years ago he was going to take Tesla private and had secured funding to do it.
The stock immediately went up.
The deal didn’t go through and he is now in court and in big trouble.
And here is another fact.
I have unmeasurable contempt for Elon Musk. He is just a horrible person.
I’m not the only one that has come to this conclusion either.
By pandering to the right wingnut lunatic fringes, he leaves the normal people behind.
This past weekend I re-read John Brunner’s, The Sheep Look Up.
How Brunner knew 50 years ago how American’s would handle pandemics, pollution, climate change, denial of all of that and the inevitable rise to fascism because of all that is still scary.
Not a fun read, but so little of Brunner’s work is fun. Prescient, yes. Fun, no.
By Musk’s version of “major side effects”, I had them. It was pretty typical to have a day or two of achiness and lethargy after the vaccinations. We arranged to get our boosters on a Friday, because we knew we’d need to take it easy the day after.
Those are not “major” by any means. Musk is just a whiny idiot.
Muskrat: ““I had major side effects from my second booster shot. Felt like I was dying for several days. Hopefully, no permanent damage, but I dunno,” the Twitter CEO tweeted.”
https://www.mediaite.com/news/elon-musk-claims-he-had-major-side-effects-from-covid-booster-shot-felt-like-i-was-dying/
Well I felt pretty crappy after the original shots and boosters for a day or so afterward too. I would do it again in an instant. The dying part sounds like hyperbole. I guess he did get COVID itself too at some point. I’d rather deal with COVID after having had the shot than without it. His cousin’s myocarditis is an N of 1. That’s how anecdotes work. Myocarditis is happening to a limited extent in younger adult males.
You know what actually feels like dying? Dying. From. COVID.
Now WTF with the Dildert guy?:
https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/1616904705195794432
The antivaxxers appear to be right? Really. So nothing about long haulers, brain fog, or impacts of the virus? The Omicron infected win with their natural immunity? Why not call it organic immunity? Nice adjectives. The spike focused vaccines may have their limitations but they prevent the worst outcomes with COVID. Well worth the annoying side effects. Contra Scott Adams the smartest path would be shots before infection yielding hybrid immunity if it comes to that. Infection seems inevitable though I have yet to have had symptoms leading to a test:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(22)00801-5/fulltext
“Findings
11 studies reporting the protective effectiveness of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and 15 studies reporting the protective effectiveness of hybrid immunity were included. For previous infection, there were 97 estimates (27 with a moderate risk of bias and 70 with a serious risk of bias). The effectiveness of previous infection against hospital admission or severe disease was 74·6% (95% CI 63·1–83·5) at 12 months. The effectiveness of previous infection against reinfection waned to 24·7% (95% CI 16·4–35·5) at 12 months. For hybrid immunity, there were 153 estimates (78 with a moderate risk of bias and 75 with a serious risk of bias). The effectiveness of hybrid immunity against hospital admission or severe disease was 97·4% (95% CI 91·4–99·2) at 12 months with primary series vaccination and 95·3% (81·9–98·9) at 6 months with the first booster vaccination after the most recent infection or vaccination. Against reinfection, the effectiveness of hybrid immunity following primary series vaccination waned to 41·8% (95% CI 31·5–52·8) at 12 months, while the effectiveness of hybrid immunity following first booster vaccination waned to 46·5% (36·0–57·3) at 6 months.
Interpretation
All estimates of protection waned within months against reinfection but remained high and sustained for hospital admission or severe disease. Individuals with hybrid immunity had the highest magnitude and durability of protection, and as a result might be able to extend the period before booster vaccinations are needed compared to individuals who have never been infected.”
That’s what I’m going with not dingbats like Scott Adams. I’ve had like 5 shots now and if the virus gets to me it is getting a fight from my immune system having done its own research on the ephemeral spike proteins translated from injected transcripts. The antivaxxers are not ever the winners and Adams is a dipshit.
The unvaccinated feel better? I feel fine compared to those with long COVID or those suffering a miserable hospitalization or death. If I get COVID I might not feel so good, but it should work out better than not having been vaccinated. I wonder what multiple COVID infections will yield 5 years from now versus having had the shots Adams worries about. We will find out.
Way too many who refused vaccination wound up in the wrong place. Dead. Winning?
Yeah, the vaccine gave him Arseburger’s syndrome. A disease that causes the suffer to claim that they have Autism, rather than just admit that they’re arseholes.
Can I claim that Musk has a wimpy immune system? I haven’t had a reaction to any of the COVID shots. I recently got the first shingles vaccine (thanks 117th Congress!) and a TDAP booster, both on the same day. Reactions? Nope.
OT
Another goddamn mass shooting.
birgerjohansson #8
Was that in the USA?
Yes, in California once again.
AAARGHH
Claiming you can’t catch it because you are washed in the Blood of the Lamb?
Lamb’s blood? I’ll have to find out where I can get that. Sounds safer than bleach, anyway.