Coronavirus ~ COVID-19

[homoe]

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday answered one of Tucker Carlson’s skewed questions about the COVID-19 vaccine, briefly inoculating viewers against the Fox News host’s anti-vaccine fearmongering.

As part of his right-wing channel’s apparent campaign to sow doubt about vaccine safety and effectiveness, Carlson has been raising what he presents as deal-breaking questions that actually have verifiable answers. Which, of course, he fails to acknowledge.

But on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” the nation’s top infectious disease expert entertained one of Carlson’s leading queries.

After people on the street asked Fauci questions, Kimmel noted one more guy had one. He cut to a clip of Carlson asking why college students should get the vaccine because “young people are not at risk of dying from COVID” and many have been infected already.

“No one has explained that,” Carlson said.

Kimmel let Fauci take it away.

“One, you want to protect yourself,” the White House task force doc replied. “But also you don’t want to be part of the propagation of the outbreak. Because if you get infected, even though you’re young and healthy ... you could pass it on to someone else who could have a severe outcome. And when you get infected, you are propagating the outbreak. You’re not being a dead stop. You’re allowing the virus to continue from you to someone else.”

Got that, Tucker?

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dr-fa...b09cce6c24a3a4

[FireSignFemme]

Emmergancy Broadband Benefit enrollment begins today for more information about the program - https://www.fcc.gov/broadbandbenefit

There is a link to fill out sign up form on that page but it's not working. I found another place and was able to fill in form but system wouldn't allow me to verify as required in order to activate. Hmm gotta love our government bureaucracy BS inefficiency right. So I went to my electric/utility company home page, found out about the program and applied, successfully, there. Um not my internet service provider but okay whatever it worked, was able to sign up there. Which I guess is to say don't give up if at first you don't suceed... Anyhow

Don't dismiss this as a program only for the poorest of the poor as others (as described in boldface below) may qualify

Who Is Eligible for the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program?
A household is eligible if a member of the household meets one of the criteria below:
Has an income that is at or below 135% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines or participates in certain assistance programs, such as SNAP, Medicaid, or Lifeline
Approved to receive benefits under the free and reduced-price school lunch program or the school breakfast program, including through the USDA Community Eligibility Provision in the 2019-2020 or 2020-2021 school year
Received a Federal Pell Grant during the current award year
Experienced a substantial loss of income due to job loss or furlough since February 29, 2020 and the household had a total income in 2020 at or below $99,000 for single filers and $198,000 for joint filers or
Meets the eligibility criteria for a participating provider's existing low-income or COVID-19 program.

[FireSignFemme]

Forgot to add program is only as long as supply lasts so if interested be sure and sign up as soon as you think you might be. If accepted into program it will pay a portion of your internet bill each month for six months after the president announces end of pandemic. Then you have to notify service provider and begin paying as usual before pandemic. It will also give money towards purchase of phone but only 20 bucks so how anybody is going to be greatly helped by that I don't know, maybe one of those prepaid cell phones or unless they mean monthly? Still 20 bucks is 20 bucks and it's a simple form.

[BullDog]

Wow, I didn't know anything about Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett and how the Moderna vaccine was developed until tonight. She was on Laurence O'Donnell's special tonight. She explained how COVID vaccine research has been going on for years and she was able to figure out the basis for the Moderna vaccine over a weekend!

I'm so glad I got the Moderna vaccine now that I know this - had my second shot on Tuesday!

They should plaster the airwaves and internet with PSAs and campaigns with her in them. She is a highly articulate 35-year-old viral immunologist who is one of the main people who developed the Moderna vaccine. So impressive.

Here is an article about her:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00338-y

[Gemme]

The CDC says fully vaccinated people can go without masks indoors now. I'm not loving this because it puts me in a position at work to ask for someone's "papers" so to speak if I see them without a mask. I feel icky about that.

Hopefully, my company will continue to require indoor masks as a part of their health and safety protocol, especially since a large portion of my indoor customers are older and/or are immunocompromised.

[nhplowboi]

I hate to admit this but I caved at the store. When Biden made his announcement yesterday, we pulled all our "masks required" signage down. I wish we had gotten another month of vaccinations under our belt but once that announcement was made, it was going to make shop keepers lives hell. My employees have taken so much grief recently that the thought of dealing with the "Are you vaxed?" question was going to be nothing but problems. At this point I feel like those who have not gotten vaxed are on their own and deserve what they get.

[BullDog]

Yeah, it's good news that those of us who are fully vaccinated don't need to wear masks based on the data and I think they are trying to also use it as an incentive and reward. Unfortunately, those who have no intention of getting vaccinated don't wear masks and are really obnoxious to people at stores and in other public places needing to enforce masking.

A few weeks ago a man over the age of 65 was making fun of me for wearing a mask. Really, dude, you are the one who is way more at risk than me. Maybe he got vaccinated, but I doubt it.

It's kind of weird because once my 2 weeks are up I won't need to wear a mask but other people around me aren't going to know whether or not I am vaccinated, so it's kind of a strange situation.

I agree with nhplowboi that it shouldn't be up to people like Gemme, him, and his staff to protect the vulnerable since they were first in line to have access to the vaccine. Maybe they should have waited a bit since it does take time to get through both shots and 2 weeks after that but they are also saying the evidence has been here for a while and it's overdue.