Coronavirus with an R0 of 3 or beyond

[Emil El Zapato]

Well, I'm officially fed up with this pandemic. We are in the midst of the fourth wave and they say a fifth is coming in January. What the actual fuck?

Lot of people sick, even at work we have two cases now, though I haven't been to the office in weeks (both of them triple vaxxed, but as we say in Hungary, it's like giving a slap to a piece of shit, completely useless).

I am actually somewhat at a loss as to what to do now. I would like to get a third shot eventually, just to be on the safe side, but I don't really trust any of the available vaccines. My least bad option was Johnson and Johnson, since they spent the longest time developing and testing it and there was very little in terms of bad publicity. Well, that's over, as the latest news is that they will stop recommending the Johnson and Johnson vaccine in the EU due to, you guessed it, blood clotting.

So that one's out of the window then. My preferred option would be a third Sinopharm shot, but you can't have it, if you already had two, you have to take an mRNA or Vector Vaccine as your third or booster shot. I'm hoping the situation will change by the time my antibody levels drop. Hungary is planning to manufacture a vaccine based on inactivated virus technology from late next year, so I'll wait for that if all else fails.

Stay safe, Chris. Just do your best to follow the non-vaccine recommendations. Incidentally, my daughter has an all-expense paid trip to a Chicago CDC conference in March. The focus? Spread on the ground education regarding the pandemic.

[Dreamtimer]

Mis- and dis- information take a heavy toll. Here is a link to the report from the House Oversight Committee on the US response to the coronavirus. It's not good. No surprise there.

Here's an assessment.

That report shows that Trump was responsible for both “critical failures” and, in what should be the first step in a criminal indictment, "deliberate efforts to undermine the nation's coronavirus response for political purposes,"

We’ve known since last year that Trump’s team repeatedly took actions, not to prevent infections, but to deliberately increase them. We already know that,

HHS political appointee Paul Alexander demanded that CDC stop publishing scientific reports he believed were damaging to Trump. CDC officials were then ordered to delete Alexander’s emails to cover up this attempt to quash vital public data.

Dr, Deborah Birx has confirmed that quack Dr. Scott Atlas was brought into the COVID-19 team specifically to reduce the level of testing across the nation, generating a false impression that case loads were falling.

The new report also shows that Trump’s team did with COVID-19 what they did with every other project while he was in charge: opened it up to corruption and “left the federal government vulnerable to fraud and profiteering.”

Lord help us, we still have millions of Americans who proclaim that Trump was appointed by God.

[Emil El Zapato]

I see there are protests going on in Brussels, Aragorn...

[Aragorn]

I see there are protests going on in Brussels, Aragorn...

Yep, and with all the usual hooliganism.

The Netherlands are in full lockdown again as well now.

[Dreamtimer]

Our son won't be traveling to visit family because of the omicron variant.

We're going to be hit hard here, especially in the areas where folks don't want to mask or get vaccinated. Our hospitals have already been overwhelmed. This winter is going to be very difficult.

Our health-care workers are already worn out and burned out.

[Aragorn]

Our son won't be traveling to visit family because of the omicron variant.

We're going to be hit hard here, especially in the areas where folks don't want to mask or get vaccinated. Our hospitals have already been overwhelmed. This winter is going to be very difficult.

Our health-care workers are already worn out and burned out.

Yes, omicron is three times more infectious than delta, and delta was already twice as infectious as the original strain. It is projected that by January, most infections over here will be omicron, whereas right now, most infections are still delta.

Still, don't put all your hopes on getting vaccinated. In spite of the propaganda, vaccinated people are getting infected, and are also getting sick. It was in the news here only one week ago that the wife of the Flemish minister-president Jan Jambon got infected, and she sure as hell had been vaccinated.

The most crucial defense is self-discipline, because it is the lack of this self-discipline that has led to the pandemic continuing on. Vaccination is fine, wearing a mask is fine, but disinfecting or at the very least washing one's hands and avoiding contact are just as crucial. And it is this which is being neglected out of complacency and hubris ─ "Ha, I've been vaccinated, so I'm safe and nothing can happen to me!".

[Emil El Zapato]

Yes, omicron is three times more infectious than delta, and delta was already twice as infectious as the original strain. It is projected that by January, most infections over here will be omicron, whereas right now, most infections are still delta.

Still, don't put all your hopes on getting vaccinated. In spite of the propaganda, vaccinated people are getting infected, and are also getting sick. It was in the news here only one week ago that the wife of the Flemish minister-president Jan Jambon got infected, and she sure as hell had been vaccinated.

The most crucial defense is self-discipline, because it is the lack of this self-discipline that has led to the pandemic continuing on. Vaccination is fine, wearing a mask is fine, but disinfecting or at the very least washing one's hands and avoiding contact are just as crucial. And it is this which is being neglected out of complacency and hubris ─ "Ha, I've been vaccinated, so I'm safe and nothing can happen to me!".

It is VERY easy to fall into complacency after being vaccinated, I got over that after realizing that neither vaccinated or non-vaccinated were taking precautions with masks for example. Now over Christmas I have to worry about my bonehead nephew.

[Aragorn]

It is VERY easy to fall into complacency after being vaccinated, I got over that after realizing that neither vaccinated or non-vaccinated were taking precautions with masks for example. Now over Christmas I have to worry about my bonehead nephew.

Complacency and hubris are the two hallmarks of our western society, and the main reasons why we keep on falling into one catastrophe after the other, be it social, environmental, economic or ─ as in this case ─ health-wise.

And see, this is why I advocated and still advocate a partial lockdown, and a prohibition on needless traveling. But the government here has been doing it all wrong. Whenever they put restrictions in place, they've always left the door open with senseless exemptions. And it's those senseless exemptions that are continuing to propagate the pandemic.

In a way, it's a little like the over-the-top-strict firearms regulations over here. It only ensures that good and law-abiding citizens can no longer easily acquire a firearm, while the criminals continue to acquire them through the black market, and black market arms dealers are now reaping up tons of money.

I don't mean to derail this thread onto the subject of gun control ─ I was only using that as an example, and one can just as easily substitute that example by the idiotic environmental protection legislation or some other half-assed measures we've put in place ─ but it's the enduring lack of wisdom among both the wider population and the idiots we elect in office that leads to this sort of tunnel vision, and thus, to the continued propagation of calamities.

Mankind will never learn. Never. And that's my gripe.

[Dreamtimer]

I never believed that vaccination would stop me from being sick. Because that's not how vaccines work.

The idea is that a person will get less sick, not need to be hospitalized and hopefully not have long-term damage.

I'll be getting a booster sooner than I might have due to this new variant.

We'll be getting more and more of these variants as long as the virus keeps having opportunities to spread and mutate. And it keeps getting opportunities here, more and more all the time.

[Chris]

I never believed that vaccination would stop me from being sick. Because that's not how vaccines work.

The idea is that a person will get less sick, not need to be hospitalized and hopefully not have long-term damage.

I'll be getting a booster sooner than I might have due to this new variant.

We'll be getting more and more of these variants as long as the virus keeps having opportunities to spread and mutate. And it keeps getting opportunities here, more and more all the time.

I cannot think of a single vaccination (I've had several, especially when I lived in the Tropics) that isn't designed to:
A, Stop you from Contracting and spreading the disease
B, Failing that, stop you from getting sick

That's what vaccines are for. It is quite unprecedented to have shots that are called vaccines, but don't actually protect you from either contracting the disease and then spreading it or at least from getting sick. All they do, is give you milder symptoms, at the cost of very significant, occasionally life-threatening side effects. Like I've said earlier, if it wasn't for the pandemic emergency, none of these so-called vaccines would have been given the green light. Objectively speaking they're terrible pharmaceutical products, really shoddy workmanship there.

[Wind]

Here the mentality with some people was for a while at least that let's get vaccinated and then let's get back to partying in restaraunts. Common sense, helloo? The government will be deciding on possible new restrictions today as Christmas time will sure affect things a lot.

[Dreamtimer]

Here's a healthy lung, and then a covid-ravaged lung. Major damage can occur with other organs as well.





For me, the risks of the vaccines do not outweigh the risks of Covid.

[Dreamtimer]

The US army has developed a Covid vaccine.

Within weeks, scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research expect to announce that they have developed a vaccine that is effective against COVID-19 and all its variants, even Omicron, as well as from previous SARS-origin viruses that have killed millions of people worldwide.

Unlike existing vaccines, Walter Reed’s SpFN uses a soccer ball-shaped protein with 24 faces for its vaccine, which allows scientists to attach the spikes of multiple coronavirus strains on different faces of the protein.

I had a friend come up to me at a gathering last year proclaiming "I'm not afraid of the coronavirus." I had no idea what he was going on about. Then he said, "I trust my immune system." Again, I was unsure why it was necessary to come over to me to tell me this.

I said, "Well, that's good for you, isn't it?"

After a bit he decided to explain that he's not being careless, he masks up and washes his hands and all that.

I said, "Well, that's good for other people too."

When he mentioned his immune system I told him that I don't want SARS, or MERS, or Covid. They can all stay away from me.

It wasn't until the Monday after that I realized that he was aping Trump. I guess that was his point. To show me that he'll ape the orange one.

But at least he washes his hands and wears a mask.

Because his immune system won't repair the damage done by the virus.

[Dreamtimer]

"There is an imbalance in the 'creation'." Related to that, "The love of money is the root of many evils, and can cause much misery."

How are they related? What do they have to do with the pandemic?.

If the virus originated in the marketplace: They weren't handling the food correctly because they wanted to sell it as fast as possible without thought or care or love for effect.

If it was made in a lab, it was done for money without thought or care or love for effect.

Without thought or care or love for effect.


This is not my phrase. I did not write it. And it speaks volumes.

We chase money and power without regard for the result, without thought or care or love.

Most people might leave out the word love. But it is in fact the most important of the three.


Why are people playing on fears and hawking alternate treatments? To make money without thought or care or love. No-one who loves you will tell you to nebulize H2O2 or bathe in borax.

How has our 'spiritual' response been? Some are indeed acting out of love and thought and care.

And some are being incredibly selfish. No masks. No jabs. Coughing in peoples' faces. Wanting their rights to matter without care for others. Forcing 'alternate' care on others.

These are not things of love and thought and care.

These are things of anger and fear.


This spiritual take came from John Davis. He's in the most recent video I posted on the NDE thread. He did a video addressing the question of the spiritual meaning of the pandemic.

He gave the more accurate biblical quote about money. If you want to watch his video about this it's about 26 minutes.


John was part of Hack & Slash, a comedy sword-fighting duo. They did six USO tours to Iraq. On one tour they had to wait for three hours for a helicopter to take them to their next show. Their pilot was livid. When they asked why the pilot explained that he'd spent the last three hours taking oil executives up to the north of Iraq to make deals with warlords. They were supposed to be there to oust a dictator and find weapons of mass destruction. Which weren't even there.

We ended up with two 20 year wars and not a whole lot to show for it other than some oil execs getting even more rich.

I guess I can understand the devotion to Trump who made those oil execs even richer and able to pay even less in taxes. I guess the MAGA people really do love money more than people. They practice, among other things, the prosperity gospel.

They believe the con-artist grifter has been blessed by God because he has money.

Without thought or care or love for effect.

[Emil El Zapato]

"There is an imbalance in the 'creation'." Related to that, "The love of money is the root of many evils, and can cause much misery."

How are they related? What do they have to do with the pandemic?.

If the virus originated in the marketplace: They weren't handling the food correctly because they wanted to sell it as fast as possible without thought or care or love for effect.

If it was made in a lab, it was done for money without thought or care or love for effect.

Without thought or care or love for effect.


This is not my phrase. I did not write it. And it speaks volumes.

We chase money and power without regard for the result, without thought or care or love.

Most people might leave out the word love. But it is in fact the most important of the three.


Why are people playing on fears and hawking alternate treatments? To make money without thought or care or love. No-one who loves you will tell you to nebulize H2O2 or bathe in borax.

How has our 'spiritual' response been? Some are indeed acting out of love and thought and care.

And some are being incredibly selfish. No masks. No jabs. Coughing in peoples' faces. Wanting their rights to matter without care for others. Forcing 'alternate' care on others.

These are not things of love and thought and care.

These are things of anger and fear.


This spiritual take came from John Davis. He's in the most recent video I posted on the NDE thread. He did a video addressing the question of the spiritual meaning of the pandemic.

He gave the more accurate biblical quote about money. If you want to watch his video about this it's about 26 minutes.


John was part of Hack & Slash, a comedy sword-fighting duo. They did six USO tours to Iraq. On one tour they had to wait for three hours for a helicopter to take them to their next show. Their pilot was livid. When they asked why the pilot explained that he'd spent the last three hours taking oil executives up to the north of Iraq to make deals with warlords. They were supposed to be there to oust a dictator and find weapons of mass destruction. Which weren't even there.

We ended up with two 20 year wars and not a whole lot to show for it other than some oil execs getting even more rich.

I guess I can understand the devotion to Trump who made those oil execs even richer and able to pay even less in taxes. I guess the MAGA people really do love money more than people. They practice, among other things, the prosperity gospel.

They believe the con-artist grifter has been blessed by God because he has money.

Without thought or care or love for effect.

My daughter has omicron courtesy of her cousin, who was known to be covid positive and no one bothered to tell my daughter. She had N-95 masks etc with her. They even let the cousin visit her ailing grandfather in a nursing home. Selfishness? Stupidity? Callousness? All of the above, I would say and very characteristic of her mother's family. They aren't all bad ... just very self-centered and petty., a common ailment.