A Concerned Scientist @BE@qoto.org

@tofugolem @augieray

I'm 100% not going to turn another person's COVID thread into a carbon emissions thread, but I'll gladly agree that it does depend on whether you believe that the US(~13% of emissions, but the highest per capita) should lead the way toward a more green future, or whether you believe that China(26% of global emissions, but 4th per capita) should.

@maximusnoobus @augieray

There's certainly both vaccines available as well as masks/ventilation. Unfortunately the vaccine's not sterilizing and only lowers your chances of long COVID about 15%.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01453-0

However, yes, to your point, vaccines(hopefully better ones down the road) as well as masks and ventilation would make a huge difference if everyone used all of it. People would largely rather assume nothing bad will happen to them and then wait for science to fix it once it does, though.

@augieray

Couldn't be more spot on. I say that to people all the time, too!

@zerocovid

Every one of Sophie Cannon's "articles" seems to be paid for advertising. I'm guessing Armbrust paid for that spot...but, good for them in getting it out there.

For the record I did buy a sampler pack of masks from them once and it was very helpful in finding ones that fit well for each member of the family.

@augieray

A child born today, with today's lack of precautions in school and daycare would have to be expected to contract COVID upwards of 40 times by college, right? I don't see how that child survives that.

Seems like a lot of people are just waiting for the magic science pill that makes it all go away....which is really no different than people who are "concerned" about climate change but believe scientists will solve the problem any minute now without them having to do anything. Scientific wishful thinking.

@edwardchampion@universeodon.com

Also anecdotal, but, "XBB" "COVID symptoms" and some other expected google searches have been particularly high in the entire NE(particularly Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire) over the last few weeks.

@sdeibel

Your account of your long COVID is excellent and I'd encourage you to re-do it now as a proper thread so that people can read about your experiences.

@augieray @billseitz

Yeah I was going to comment on this but saw you were already discussing it. What's the point of saying "Countries should consider recommending that passengers wear masks on long-haul flights" when the most dangerous part isn't the actual in the air part? I mean, I'm glad they're saying something, but why the half-assed policies all the time? How much more simple is "Wear a mask" than "In these situations you might want to calculate your risk and think about wearing a mask."?

@mackayim2022

I'd be wary about promoting a piece that uses Jake Scott as the main, minimizing, source seeing as how he parrots Monica Gandhi and promoted Hydroxycloroquine going back years, including just a few months ago in October.

@jakichantler49

I seriously can't believe that I didn't know about this until right now.

@mindstalk @cadenza @DiverDoc @mathew1927 @ZeroCovidColin @gemelliz

Last I knew there were 11 nasal vaccines left in various phases of clinical trials, but the link I had that kept track of them quit working. I believe just 2 of them were based on live, attenuated virus. The rest were not.

This one tracks all COVID-19 vaccines in development and is updated regularly:

https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines

It's showing 14 nasal, 1 aerosol and 2 inhaled candidates right now. You can check the tabs across the top to see which is which. It doesn't have all of the data that I used to be able to see elsewhere, so if anyone knows a better tracker please share.

@mloxton

It always kind of had the connotation of a failed public health response. Like, "You want to go visit where? So and so disease is endemic there." Now it's celebrated.

@notes @TheDailyEdge

Already did. Crazy, isn't it?

@MartinFarrent

Really appreciate the answer, and I think I would have answered my own question about the same way that you just did.

@mindstalk @DiverDoc @cadenza @mathew1927 @ZeroCovidColin @gemelliz

The "cholera vaccines" section here is interesting.

https://www.nature.com/articles/nm1213

I'm in the camp of nasal vaccines. Even if they're not super long lived, and the data seems to suggest in that article and elsewhere seems to indicate that 6 months wouldn't be out of the ordinary, you're hitting the key point with no needles. A nasal vaccine could, conceivably, be distributed for self-administration semi-regularly.

Is there political or public health will for this? I kind of doubt it, but, it's the best, realistic, biomedical solution I see out there.

@shrinkthinks

I also read that this morning and started to comment on it....I had a whole thing about how depressing I found it....and then deleted it. I just can't.

"We just need the resources to fight this next battle."

OK, well, you don't have them, so what's your next plan?

@shrinkthinks

"Endemic" was simply rebranded from a failure to stop something at the door and therefore being forced to let it live amongst you, to a victory where you allow it to live with you peacefully. It was pure marketing.

It's a failure of both our population's education that the public at large didn't know better and actual public heath that didn't push back against it. Honestly, when someone cheers "endemic" I just use it as a simple mechanism to know that they're not to be listened to about the subject.

@MartinFarrent

So what't the bottom line answer as to what's reliable and good and what's not anymore?

As a news consumer I made the choice to cut the cable and stop piping that junk into my house a long time ago. To use your COVID example I quit taking advice from WaPo and NYT because they keep platforming the likes of Wen and Tufecki.

I don't consider the NYT or WaPo to be Fox or OAN, but I also can't consider them to be reliable sources consistently.

I guess my question is, where does that leave us? What's "right-wing" and what's "mainstream" and where's the cutoff?

@catladyactivist@ohai.social @noyes @TheSeege

I think it's important to note that in the US the CDC estimates flu deaths in a way that encompasses more than "acute" flu deaths:

"CDC does not know exactly how many people die from seasonal flu each year. There are several reasons for this. First, states are not required to report individual flu illnesses or deaths among people older than 18 years old to CDC. Second, flu is infrequently listed on death certificates of people who die from flu-related complications. Third, many flu-related deaths occur one or two weeks after a person’s initial infection, either because the person may develop a secondary bacterial co-infection (such as bacterial pneumonia) or because flu can aggravate an existing chronic illness (such as congestive heart failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Also, most people who die from flu-related complications are not tested for flu"

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/faq.htm

Whereas the US pretty much does the exact opposite for COVID, relying on excess death data to capture it all.

@TopWKone@eightpoint.app @augieray

Could agree to put aside COVID case data because some countries test, some don't, etc.? Even within the US various states test at widely varying rates making case comparisons useless. Excess deaths is the far more reliable number, in the end.

Anyway, Japan does not get COVID at the same rate as the US.

https://pandem-ic.com/japan-and-us-are-worlds-apart-on-pandemic-mortality/