https://www.denverpost.com/2020/12/29/new-covid-19-variant-colorado - And so it begins. New COVID-19 strain, the one originally identified in the UK, has its first confirmed case in Colorado. Looks like a young 20-year-old who has not left the country got infected with the new variant strain. The strain is allegedly 70% more infectious. So what happens now?
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I actually think Joe Biden will be a bit more reserved with expenditures. Frankly I don’t really care how much the president spends because it is just a drop in the bucket of all federal expenditures. And if we’re being honest, Trump’s golf trips probably will cost more than what Joe Biden’s Administration will ever spend.
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Wow. To be honest I actually was not aware of how large viewer base was. But still video game addiction can be a problem because these companies will purposely design their product to be addictive. Realistically it’s about the most harmless addiction there is so it’s not like it hurts anybody else. My main point was mostly about video game addiction because clearly there are some positive benefits to video games like bringing people together or a potential way to create jobs. I think addiction is an addiction I have never seen anything like harmless addictions. Frankly speaking the way UX designing has developed these days every product is designed in a way to make the consumer habitual. So wherever you get dopamine you seem to create an addiction for that thing. If we are going to see if something is good or not merely on the basis of bringing people together and potential ways to create jobs even the brothels could be justified. Even the gaming segment now has seen a sharp shift into sub-sectors like VR gaming, Mobile Gaming, and traditional Video Gaming on Console/PS/Xboxes to a whole new sector of these gaming championships. Frankly speaking we and are the main product for this sector. You're right, there is no harmless addiction. Let me rephrase, a 'relative' harmless addiction. Is playing video games better than doing meth? Sure, why not. Mobile games design some pretty addicting UI though. They make the games free, then loop people into microtransactions to progress. You have crate/chest openings which are skin to slot machines. |
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McConnell blocked the 2k checks, rightfully so. Trump jumped the gun here. He put the GA races in jeopardy because now they're put in the position of having to either support or condemn the 2k checks even though it's not up for a vote anymore. I'm curious if the house R's that voted for this knew that it would get struck down in the senate. A 2/3 majority for this shitty bill is shocking.
I mean the reason that McConnell is blocking this is because he doesn’t want to force fiscal hawk Republicans to vote on something that is very popular with most Americans and cause them an issue when they’re running for reelection. He knows that he can take the brunt of the damage without having to cause harm to other Republicans. Trump is going on the offensive against him though, telling Republicans that if they don’t pass this then they have a death wish. Seems like the GOP votes are there though, McConnell is just going to need more pressure to put this up to a vote. But still the GOP is already facing the brunt of the damage when Trump floated the idea of 2k checks per person. You can't even win here unless it would be passed, and if it was passed it'd be a disaster. Trump siding with the dem's puts each senator in the hot seat, which wouldn't be a big deal if there wasn't a special election in GA that would dictate the entire Biden administration. Trump fucked up or went rouge, not sure which. I never looked at him as a staunch conservative anyways. |
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McConnell blocked the 2k checks, rightfully so. Trump jumped the gun here. He put the GA races in jeopardy because now they're put in the position of having to either support or condemn the 2k checks even though it's not up for a vote anymore. I'm curious if the house R's that voted for this knew that it would get struck down in the senate. A 2/3 majority for this shitty bill is shocking.
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Wow. To be honest I actually was not aware of how large viewer base was. But still video game addiction can be a problem because these companies will purposely design their product to be addictive. Realistically it’s about the most harmless addiction there is so it’s not like it hurts anybody else. My main point was mostly about video game addiction because clearly there are some positive benefits to video games like bringing people together or a potential way to create jobs. |
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From my understanding the participants can’t have their information disclosed without consent from the individuals themselves. What was surprising is that there wasn’t any reports of allergic reactions in the trials. I tried to look up the exact profiles of the groups of people they got to experiment with and it’s a bit tough to get that information. But in my inquiry search nowhere did I find anything about allergic reactions which is why it’s so weird to see them now. I’m not actually anti-VAX but I think that if you are someone young and healthy, getting this vaccine is probably useless. If you have any underlying conditions like obesity and diabetes or something similar then getting the vaccine is in your best interest because you have a greater chance of dying from COVID-19 opposed to some adverse reaction from the vaccine. |
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Video games are harmless, but I fear the new incoming generation is getting heavily dependent on them so they lack social skills, or the will to even go outside. Perhaps the unspoken benefit is the population will naturally go down because they won't get laid.  I think you are a bit misinformed. Gaming became much more accepted over the last few years. Actually there are a lot of girls in gaming these days. A good friend of mine is married to a gamer girl that is still streaming. Also the demand for gaming gear is high than ever with a lot of different styles and colors for all sexes. Of course they're more accepting of gaming. Doesn't mean it isn't taboo to stay inside playing video games all day. I'm sure some woman would find that to be a bit off putting? But to each their own. Also, video games are distracting, if they get out of hand. Why bother doing work or studying in school when you can play world of warcraft all day  |
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Video games are harmless, but I fear the new incoming generation is getting heavily dependent on them so they lack social skills, or the will to even go outside. Perhaps the unspoken benefit is the population will naturally go down because they won't get laid. |
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It will mutate for sure if they keep messing with it. They're already modifying it genetically to find out if how it will react. I'm fairly certain that somebody somewhere is also trying to weaponize it.
That's...not how virus mutations work... Viruses mutate randomly because of errors in viral replication (meaning when they replicate their DNA/RNA). It's not like you got some guy in a lab coat that begins poking COVID with a stick and magically you end up with some mutated version that kills grandmothers at 50x the rate. |
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Well, this isn't too outlandish when you think about it. The common cold is a type of coronavirus and there's no vaccinating for the common cold so that obviously happens year round. The flu is a type of virus that spikes every winter. If you reach the threshold for herd immunity, having isolated cases of coronavirus shouldn't be an issue as long as most people are protected.
The only concern would be if the virus were to mutate into something unrecognizable by the immune system.
The thing with herd immunity for the flu or the corona virus is that it doesn't work. Every year we notice a mutation of the flu which makes it necessary to get a different vaccine each year. Something similar is happening with the corona virus. As far as I read it the immunity through the vaccine is only supposed to last for one year. So getting a new vaccine each year sounds like a nightmare right now. I hope they can find something else. That's not true. Herd immunity does work if you have a single disease with a low mutation rate run its way through a population. The percentage you need for herd immunity varies though. For COVID, you need like an 80-90% population with antibodies. |
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Well, this isn't too outlandish when you think about it. The common cold is a type of coronavirus and there's no vaccinating for the common cold so that obviously happens year round. The flu is a type of virus that spikes every winter. If you reach the threshold for herd immunity, having isolated cases of coronavirus shouldn't be an issue as long as most people are protected.
The only concern would be if the virus were to mutate into something unrecognizable by the immune system.
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Mutations are organisms best way of combating the various antibodies and vaccines available through series of replication and improvement on its genetic coding. I'm only getting to hear about these newly evolved or mutant strains (VUI202012/1) now and its got me asking myself some questions,,,
1. Could this mutant strains be as a result of tested vaccines
2. Could it be linked to the long period of stay in infected humans, especially the youths as its not lethal to them hence, the body becomes some sort of vegetative stage or growth phase?
3. Could it be linked to the various individuals that were later found out to be susceptible to the infection after 6 months or more of recovery?
This calls for a more accurate vaccine production and i believe those saddled with the task are putting in their best but accuracy would help a lot in preventing any further damage.
Londoners need to be more corporative with the government and the rules. If the £1,000 fine doesn't seem like much considering an individuals status and raising the fee might help and more attention should be given to the airways that seems to be operating normally as well.
Viruses aren't living things so they aren't going through mutations necessarily like you described similar to some bacterial strain that might mutate because of a selection mechanism, like antibiotics for example which cause some bacteria to develop a resistance. But to your point - the vaccines shouldn't cause a selection mechanism where the viruses that are "resistant" to the vaccine will continue to spread rendering the vaccine useless due to the fact the vaccine creates spike proteins, the same ones found on the surface of the virus. So when you think about it, the only way for the vaccine to force a super resistant COVID strain would be if a new COVID strain developed without the spike proteins studded on the surface. Not really sure about your other points, but the vaccine and mutations aren't two concepts that go together. |
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anyway all the news about the london strain is showing that more people are getting infected due to londoners disobeying the rules.
The virus is unlikely to spread after the lockdown. The people of England are educated and humane. Anecdotally, I've seen plenty of people here in the UK flouting rules, not wearing masks in shops and public transport, not social distancing, travelling to other areas. People in the UK are no better or worse than people elsewhere, they've just people. Some obey the rules, some don't. Some actively try to not spread the virus, others couldn't care less. Given what we've seen here so far, I would expect the 'tier 4' lockdown to be only partially effective. There are also people who are angry that other countries won't let people from the UK in... but if we had a more responsible attitude, the UK should be pre-emptively closing its borders to stop this variant from getting out. WOW! I was told it was just the fat Americans that couldn't abide by lockdown regulations for 2 weeks effectively extending this pandemic and then killing over 200k people. A bit crazy how that works! Lockdowns do absolutely nothing when the spread is out of control and I'm rather shocked the UK is focused on lockdown despite a strain that is more transmissible is floating around. Locking down will not stop the spread at this point -- focus on protecting the elderly instead of trying to destroy people's livelihood. I mean... If the spread is out of control enough, a temporary lockdown is not a bad idea. It allows for local officials to look at what is going on and more effectively plan for what they're doing for the future in terms of what businesses can stay open, regulations regarding the amount of people, if they're going to have county / state officials check in on things at establishments and so on and so forth. Obviously you don't want to keep this lockdown going for that long, but as long as needed to ensure the spread is at least under control. Unless you literally chain people to their bed post, lockdowns won't do much except delay the inevitable. When you have people going to grocery stores or going out in public, it defeats the purpose of the lockdown. So, what you end up getting is a destroyed local economy, kids missing out on their vaccines, women missing breast cancer screenings, increased domestic abuse, depression, ect. in order to *attempt* to slow down the spread when in reality it does nearly nothing. My view from the start has always been protect the most vulnerable because it's a strategy that's feasible oppose to trying to chain a 22 year old and stop them from going out. Kids these days hardly ever listen, and the hard right boomer population act the same way. |
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anyway all the news about the london strain is showing that more people are getting infected due to londoners disobeying the rules.
The virus is unlikely to spread after the lockdown. The people of England are educated and humane. Anecdotally, I've seen plenty of people here in the UK flouting rules, not wearing masks in shops and public transport, not social distancing, travelling to other areas. People in the UK are no better or worse than people elsewhere, they've just people. Some obey the rules, some don't. Some actively try to not spread the virus, others couldn't care less. Given what we've seen here so far, I would expect the 'tier 4' lockdown to be only partially effective. There are also people who are angry that other countries won't let people from the UK in... but if we had a more responsible attitude, the UK should be pre-emptively closing its borders to stop this variant from getting out. WOW! I was told it was just the fat Americans that couldn't abide by lockdown regulations for 2 weeks effectively extending this pandemic and then killing over 200k people. A bit crazy how that works! Lockdowns do absolutely nothing when the spread is out of control and I'm rather shocked the UK is focused on lockdown despite a strain that is more transmissible is floating around. Locking down will not stop the spread at this point -- focus on protecting the elderly instead of trying to destroy people's livelihood. |
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Once a pandemic is out of control, flight bans hardly do anything. They're mostly a mitigation effort used to control the initial spread while countries get their shit figured out. Once you get vaccine rollouts, people will feel more comfortable to fly so why not allow flights to come in?
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I'm a bit disappointed Snowden wasn't pardoned.
Snowden is a hero and should definitely be pardoned. I'm disappointed but not remotely surprised that the Democrats are remaining silent on the matter. How any of his actions can be construed as criminal is utterly beyond me. It's probably more than a democratic issue honestly. Republicans are not whistlerblower friendly considering a lot of conservatives are cozied up with the intel community and CIA/NSA. No DC politician is pro whistler blower except for maybe Tulsi Gabbard. |
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