"It's been, obviously, a long two and a half years for Americans, and we understand that people want to move on," Jha, the White House COVID-19 coordinator, told ABC "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz of the virus that has killed more than 1 million people in the U.S. "The good news is people can move on if they keep their immunity up to date."
I fucking hate this piece of shit, AHHHHHH :agony-limitless:
Also a revealing quote when asked about RSV:
"RSV, for most people, [is] not a big deal. It's very mild. For the elderly, and for the youngest kids, it can be a problem," he said, recommending "basic respiratory hygiene" such as "avoiding sick contacts ... washing your hands, cleaning surfaces."
If only there was a better way to protect others and yourself, like putting a piece of cloth over your face and nose, perhaps? Nahhhhhhh
The vaxxed and relaxed mindset will continue until everyone has long COVID, sorry folks.
Crazy how the official disease policy of the country is death to America
It's crazy to me that I once thought that they were actually going to try to get rid of COVID, but alas, I was a naive :LIB:
I've lost count of the amount of times I thought I was being cynical enough, as someone who is really really cynical, and had my naivety just shoved into my face by the US.
cognitive dissonance
I found a quote recently from the NY Times, of all places, that talks about how living like the pandemic is over while simultaneously knowing it's not actually over can be really discomfiting:
Holding two contradictory ideas in mind simultaneously — the pandemic is over, we still have a problem with Covid — is intensely discomfiting, psychologists say. It is a form of cognitive dissonance, experienced when one’s behaviors or actions are at odds with the information or understanding they have.
https://archive.ph/ihwia#selection-1035.0-1035.304
The bivalent booster doesn't protect against infection, since BQ.1.1 and BQ.1 are now the dominant variants in the US as of about a week ago
I feel like I remember hearing that the vaccines used to be somewhat effective against preventing infection, but that hasn't been true at all since the Delta variant. And yeah, especially not true now with Omicron and its subvariants because COVID has mutated so much. All the more reason why this "vaccine-only" strategy is so fucking inane.
They told us it in the beginning it would prevent infection, and then gradually changed to implying it, but it never did.
The vaccine against alpha would've worked well at reducing spread of alpha but here we are two years later with vaccines for delta and early omicron when the virus is all over the place with dozens of strains each more infectious than measles.
Sadly, that was always going to be the case when we opened up before vaccinating everyone. If I remember correctly, Delta was already on the rise in the UK when we in the US started our half-assed roll out. Not to mention withholding the vaxx IP from everyone.
For the elderly, and for the youngest kids, it can be a problem
Good thing I never interact with either group or breathe the same air or touch the same public surfaces.
Both are a nightmare scenario structurally. Paediatrics is extremely specialised medicine and you couldn't put me in a PICU any more than I'd volunteer to be in one. The regional children's hospital has been repeatedly overwhelmed by RSV cases which puts unnecessary stress on staff and denies beds to children with every other illness and injury. Geriatrics is super concentrated in nursing homes that also function as surgical rehab. Everyone there is some kind of immunocompromised and many are mentally/physically incapable of taking precautions while the facility tries to provide a sense of normality through group activities. If that illness is at all serious, and due to the demographic anything is serious, they're sent to emergency where they'll immediately contract COVID.
God damn America.
:doomjak:
On the topic of RSV, my co-worker told all of us today that she got RSV from her niece right before Thanksgiving, but then her and her family decided to have the Thanksgiving dinner anyways. :agony-4horsemen:
And this same co-worker had also gotten COVID within the last few months.
I hate it here.
Completely anecdotal, but it seems like 2 out of every 5 young persons I encounter(passing them in the grocery store, mostly) has a terrible constant raspy cough. It could be the cold weather. I pray that's all it is. It just makes me sick what we’ve allowed to happen.
Last week when I rode the bus, some dude sounded like he was coughing up his lung for half of the bus ride. And he was unmasked, of course. :yea:
So either he was contagious with something or was dealing with lingering side effects of a past COVID/flu/RSV infection or some shit
Jha [heavily redacted]
move on
I hate to say it but Jha's the sort of fucker to become the CEO of EvilPharma. It holds a monopoly over certain drugs and charges on average on 4,800% mark up. We'll learn that although Jha technically "only" makes $3.7 million a year - he also has truly crazy stock options. Once he juices the stock price by 30% - he can cash in his options - which will be worth at least ~$325 million.
Enter InsulinTwo.
It's Jha pump and dump rocket. He pushes the shit out of the drug. The stock skyrockets but Jha oddly cashes in his options seemingly early. The stock is only at 31% higher when he cashes in all his options. What gives? Does he - god forbid - have insider information?
Oh! News breaks that EvilPharma "rushed" the medication to market "prematurely". EvilPharma and Jha himself will be investigated and ultimately the firm will be forced to pay a fine of hundreds of millions. The firm admits no wrong doing and neither does Jha.
Honestly, I could totally buy that he has a huge vested interest in Pfizer/Moderna. Earlier this year, this dude was so eager and happy to announce that all of the COVID treatments/tests/etc. were going to be "commercialized" in 2023.
His utter glee about making people pay for vaccinations and the other products was utterly repulsive. I still can't believe the media didn't even give a single fuck enough to ask him "Why is commercialization good?" But even if they asked him the media is so obsessed with tone and decorum that they don't actually listen to anything or think about it much.
Jha has a Ben Carson-like soporific drawl that makes anything sound acceptable to the media. At a press conference Jha could say "The Biden administration is laser focused on vaccines, making healthcare companies even more obscenely rich, and forcing the poor to become homeless because wealth is a limited resource," and the reporters might not even ask questions because they fell asleep again. This time around when he said "laser focused"
