Covfefe-19 The 12th Part: The Only Thing Worse Than This New Board Is TrumpVirus2020

[cF[Authentic]]

Interesting. My info, obviously, is second hand so I'd defer to your personal experience.

I was never actually in Stockholm, so both of our info could be correct.

[Kepler]

I wonder if any economist ever looked into this model from the 80s. Just for the sake of looking at it.

I wonder if any hasn't. Reich et al have summarized the results many times.

Short answer: it's almost a dollar-for-dollar match between the amount the 1% absconded with and debt. The rest of the economy was a wash as even the slight increased economic activity was wiped out by the inefficiencies of skyrocketing inequality. It was even worse than the most alarming warnings from economists from the 70s onwards. Even they thought that there would be some gain (at the cost of the immiseration of the middle class and the erection of a new gilded age ruling class). But there wasn't; it was all grift. It was a literal unwinding of the New Deal and Great Society programs that created the American middle class.

The sole economic engine of the last 40 years has been increased productivity of labor. All the benefits of that were mopped up by tax cuts for the wealthy. Meanwhile, the revenue shortfall from the legal tax evasion of the three heists transferred into the national debt.

It was simple, clean theft and it's the only purpose the Right has to continue to exist. It is class vampirism.

[Slap Shot]

It turns out that watching “Contagion” on this work holiday while developing congestion, headache, and shortness of breath wasn’t the best choice. I’m starting to feel less hopeful that this is nothing, and more wondering if I’ll survive.

Dude yikes. Very sorry to hear about this and godspeed.

[geezer]

Dude yikes. Very sorry to hear about this and godspeed.

Thanks, it’s still pretty minor today... bad headache though... in any case I was able to schedule a test for Tuesday before I will risk going out. I can do some of my work at home.

[geezer]

I've pointed out the major fault in the thinking before- comparing giving lot of money to rich or poor- where rich people save most of their income and poor spend it all- so giving money to the poor keeps the economy going as the money is recycled multiple times; whereas the rich invests it, and it never actually gets back into the economy.

I saw a good story recently, I think in NYT, about millennial heirs of capitalist fortunes who are giving away their money to good causes. I’m sure it’s a slim minority, but the trend is that the younger they are, the more progressive economically (the rich kids are well educated so). A related positive is that the youngsters overwhelmingly moved to Biden this year. Trump’s model of fascist domination is totally unsustainable.

[Jeb2020]

I saw a good story recently, I think in NYT, about millennial heirs of capitalist fortunes who are giving away their money to good causes. I’m sure it’s a slim minority, but the trend is that the younger they are, the more progressive economically (the rich kids are well educated so). A related positive is that the youngsters overwhelmingly moved to Biden this year. Trump’s model of fascist domination is totally unsustainable.

The people that use the word Facism the most seem to have the least idea of what it is.

Some much great #Science discussion about the virus from Team #Science

#BasementForever

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

Minnesota with 9k new cases last two days.

will probably pale compared to the numbers once all the imbeciles start showing symptoms shortly

[Jeb2020]

Minnesota with 9k new cases last two days.

will probably pale compared to the numbers once all the imbeciles start showing symptoms shortly

How many do you think are actually infected?

Nice day in Minnesota, 50 degrees in late November. Going to go take a selfie with my mask on.

[leswp1]

Hockey Least down to 3 teams that are not Quarantining and so far no pause announced. This is getting silly. They are still trying to push thru. That means PC will get to play the 2 remaining teams- they are the Typhoid Mary of the League. Maybe they will wipe out the last 2 and there will be a brief pause?

[Handyman]

https://twitter.com/seattletimes/sta...98030973263873

Registered nurses gathered in Los Angeles to protest the fact that UCLA's athletic department conducted 1,248 tests in a single week while health-care workers at UCLA hospitals were denied testing.

[Scarlet]

Question on the vaccine - will this be like the flu shot in that you’ll have to get it every year?

[rufus]

Question on the vaccine - will this be like the flu shot in that you’ll have to get it every year?

Based on stories we've been hearing about mutations, I would guess yes.

[dxmnkd316]

Based on stories we've been hearing about mutations, I would guess yes.

Maybe. This isn’t a traditional vaccine. At least not the mRNA one. I’m not sure we know how long it will last until we get to phase 4.

edit: I thought I remember reading the mRNA vaccine should be fairly effective even against all but the most drastic mutations. I thought it targeted the spike or one of the receptors (perhaps those are the same?) which would be fairly ubiquitous across all SARS-CoV-2 virus strains.

There was also also an article in the NYT saying immunity from recovered cases seems to be showing signs of longer term effect than previously thought. Obviously not The Lancet, but I’d guess they cited at least one peer-reviewed paper.

[dxmnkd316]

I was exactly wrong

https://twitter.com/profshanecrotty/...665271810?s=21

.

https://twitter.com/michaelmina_lab/...049209858?s=21

[dxmnkd316]

Interesting. So the astra Zeneca vaccine isn’t an mRNA vaccine. It’s seemingly less effective in the overall numbers (70%) but that comes with a couple asterisks.

First, they tested everyone in their studies, not just symptomatic individuals. Could be hurting their numbers.

Second, there was a small sub study that showed 90% effectiveness when given a low dose first, then a high dose booster later. One of the accounts I posted above seemed to think it was basically the body’s immune system reacting strongly to the high dose blocking the effectiveness of the booster https://twitter.com/profshanecrotty/...782379009?s=21

Third, it seems to promote a longer lasting immunity. Some people are pointing to it as longer than just a few months but potentially years.

Here’s where it gets interesting. mRNA vaccines are short lived in the body. Months (maybe more, maybe less). But that actually could be fairly useful. If the mRNA vaccine isn’t as effective against a mutation later, it won’t last long enough to block a second vaccine later. That’s what they might be seeing in that High-High 70% vs Low-High 90%. So it’s more like a chalkboard than parchment. The body erases its immune response so it doesn’t block future vaccines.

That got me thinking. Could this could lead to a new approach to pandemics? Design the precision strike mRNA vaccine quickly in parallel to the vector vaccine, mass produce both to get as many people as possible. Blanket the population with as many doses as possible and come clean up the short term fixes later with a vector vaccine once we’ve had enough time to mass produce enough doses.

Infectious disease medicine has and will advance faster over this pandemic than the previous decade. Brought mRNA vaccines to the limelight and opened doors for all sorts of future research into them. Which is also where the punchline comes in. Turns out the lady who helped develop the concept of mRNA vaccines had her mRNA grants pulled years and years ago and she got demoted at Penn. She left and went to Moderna and possibly helped save the world. And probably win the Nobel in medicine and a very sizable paycheck. Sometimes the universe makes things right.