What is going ON out there???
 

[url=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-30/dodger-stadiums-covid-19-vaccination-site-shutdown-after-dozens-of-protesters-gather-at-entrance]Dodger Stadium's COVID-19 vaccination site temporarily shut down after protesters gather at entrance[/url][quote]Dodger Stadium's mass COVID-19 vaccination site was temporarily shut down Saturday afternoon when about 50 protesters gathered at the entrance, frustrating hundreds of motorists who had been waiting in line for hours.
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A [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=485d0NgREAY&feature=youtu.be]livestreamed video[/url] of the gathering shows a group of protesters on a sidewalk as cars navigate cone-lined lanes toward the stadium, which served as a COVID-19 testing site for months. A Times photographer witnessed much of the incident.

Protesters carried signs that read "Save Your Soul TURN BACK NOW," "CNN IS LYING TO YOU," "RECALL GAVIN NEWSOM" and "TAKE OFF YOUR MASK." Some handed out pamphlets to motorists who had their windows down. Some cars blared their horns as they drove by.

Protesters spoke through bullhorns: "Turn back while you can," one man said. "You're a lab rat."

Public officials swiftly weighed in, expressing frustration.

"We will not be deterred or threatened," Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted. "Dodger Stadium is back up and running."[/quote]The [url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/01/30/anti-vaccine-protest-dodger-stadium/]WAPO story[/url] mentioned something (my bolding) that should have somebody up on felony charges:[quote]Los Angeles-based singer Adam Michaelson, who brought his 81-year-old mother to the stadium for her first dose of the Moderna vaccine, estimated the demonstration delayed them for about an hour.

"It's just disappointing," Michaelson said in an interview. "I realize there are people who have been anti-vaxxers for a while but to take this extra step of trying to prevent other people from getting it just to me seems like a whole new level of evil."

Michaelson said he and several other drivers nearly left the site when [b]one protester who was dressed as a police officer directed them out of line.[/b][/quote]

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;570546]I can think of a number of viral diseases which are generally spread by mosquitoes rather than person-to-person like colds, flu, or COVID-19.[/QUOTE]

I've had both Dengue and Chikungunya. Neither an enjoyable experience...

Thankfully, the latter has largely exhausted itself (herd immunity). But, my Gods, did it ever have a massive (negative) effect on my life!

I nominally type at 80 words a minute. For the first two months after infection, I was ordered by my doctor to not type at all.

I of course ignored that advice, but still couldn't sustain more than ten words per minute, for only about ten minutes per hour.

Dengue is still a serious issue and results in a much more intense headache. But a least you know once you take the damage (and survive; or not) there aren't going to be /too/ many long-term effects.

[B][I][U]Importantly[/U][/I][/B], if you suspect Dengue *do* *not* take anything without consulting medical advice.

Dengue is also known as "hemorrhagic fever" for a reason.

Take the wrong drugs for the pain, and you could bleed out internally.

YMMV.

[QUOTE=chalsall;570595][B][I][U]Importantly[/U][/I][/B], if you suspect Dengue *do* *not* take anything without consulting medical advice.

Dengue is also known as "hemorrhagic fever" for a reason.

Take the wrong drugs for the pain, and you could bleed out internally.

YMMV.[/QUOTE]Hmm, I'd read that it's also called "breakbone fever."

[Google Google] Sure enough, a severe form is called "Dengue hemorrhagioc fever." Huh. Couple of other things I didn't know in this article (my emphasis):

[url=https://www.aappublications.org/news/2020/05/01/mmwr050120]Dengue fever on the rise in United States[/url][quote][b]Dengue fever is the most frequently occurring arthropod-borne viral disease in the world.[/b] Dengue is transmitted through the bite of Aedes mosquito vectors (Aedes aegypti and less commonly, Aedes albopictus or Aedes polynesiensis), which are distributed widely in subtropical and tropical areas and are present in about half of all U.S. counties.

Dengue is caused by a Flavivirus with four different serotypes (DENV-1 to DENV-4), which are endemic throughout the tropics and are common causes of acute febrile illness of travelers. Symptoms of dengue typically begin three to 15 days after being bitten by an infected mosquito. Clinical manifestations can range from an asymptomatic or mild febrile illness to a life-threatening, hemorrhagic fever syndrome.

Human infection with one serotype is believed to provide serotype-specific lifelong immunity. However, subsequent infections (secondary infections) with another serotype increase the risk of developing a more severe disease.
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[b]Dengue vaccine[/b]

In May 2019, the Food and Drug Administration approved use of Dengvaxia, a live attenuated tetravalent vaccine, in 9- through 16-year-old children and adolescents who have laboratory-confirmed prior dengue infection and live in endemic areas (the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands).

The vaccine is not approved for use in people who had not been infected previously by any dengue virus serotype or for whom this information is unknown because they may be at risk of developing severe dengue if they contract the disease after being vaccinated.

The vaccine is administered as three separate injections, with the initial dose followed by two additional injections given six and 12 months later, respectively.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has not yet issued recommendations for Dengvaxia use in the U.S.
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[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;570602]Hmm, I'd read that it's also called "breakbone fever."[/QUOTE]

That's because of the absolutely unbelievable pain one experiences for the first 24 or so hours.

If I May please share, I actually consider myself lucky with my personal experience. I had no knowledge (nor much advice) of this domain before my interaction with it.

I woke up with an intense headache. But also freezing cold (being said by a Canadian in Barbados).

Rather than facing the cold going to the medicine cabinet for painkillers (many of which also thins the blood), I instead pulled on a T-Shirt and wrapped myself in a blanket and shivered in bed.

This choice, made when I was mostly asleep, might have saved my life.

Seriously. :chalsall:

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;570531][YOUTUBE]ZMGWLLDSA3c[/YOUTUBE][/QUOTE]
I found most of their arguments that the virus "came from a lab" unconvincing.

For example, they claimed that natural epidemic viruses tend to become less virulent over time, while lab-produced viruses become more virulent. I would ask, "Over what time frame, and based on what previous examples of lab-produced epidemic viruses?" The COVID-19 virus has been out for just over a year.

Their argument that the fact that the COVID-19 virus spreads better indoors than outdoors indicates it's made in a lab, seems utterly ludicrous. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't [i]any[/i] virus that infects people and is spread person-to-person, especially through the air, spread better indoors than outdoors? That certainly seems to be the case with colds and flu.

Another argument was that COVID-19 was both able to jump from another species to humans, and also able to be transmitted human-to-human, indicate it came from a lab. So I guess any number of flu viruses were made in labs too, right?

One point they made does mark the COVID-19 virus as highly unusual, and that is its capacity to attack more than just the respiratory system.

And, as they said, and was pointed out at the beginning of May in this very thread, "gain of function" virus research [i]was[/i] (and for all I know still is) going on at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

[URL="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-wales-55904369"]Novel therapeutic treatment.[/URL]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;570531][YOUTUBE]ZMGWLLD SA3c[/YOUTUBE][/QUOTE]
And WHO has made a statement after an investigation:
[url]https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/02/09/965814241/who-very-unlikely-coronavirus-leaked-from-lab-more-study-needed-to-trace-source[/url]

[url=https://apnews.com/article/ap-norc-poll-3rd-adult-skeptical-vaccine-3779574a6d45d38cfc1d8615eb176b2d]AP-NORC poll: A third of US adults skeptical of COVID shots[/url][quote]NEW YORK (AP) - About 1 in 3 Americans say they definitely or probably won't get the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new poll that some experts say is discouraging news if the U.S. hopes to achieve herd immunity and vanquish the outbreak.
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The poll of 1,055 adults, taken Jan. 28 through Feb. 1, provides insight into the skepticism.

Of those who said they definitely will not get the vaccine, 65% cited worries about side effects, despite the shots' safety record over the past months. About the same percentage said they don't trust COVID-19 vaccines. And 38% said they don’t believe they need a vaccine, with a similar share saying that they don't know if a COVID-19 vaccine will work and that they don't trust the government.
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So, the data are in:
In the good ol' USofA, flu cases are way-way down, because people are doing what they have always been told to do to stop the spread (stop spraying droplets and wash up).

[URL="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-19-coronavirus-precautions-flu-respiratory-infections-cases"]https://www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-19-coronavirus-precautions-flu-respiratory-infections-cases [/URL]
[QUOTE]Instead, positive flu tests reported in December are a little less than [B][U]one one-hundredth[/U][/B] of all of those tallied in December 2019, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. RSV’s drop in reported cases — to [B][U]one two-hundredth[/U][/B] of those a year earlier — is even bigger.[/QUOTE]
[attach]24311[/attach]

So, that has been having an effect on the graphs that I have been producing. Knocking out of the all of those flu deaths has skewed the data lower and the apparent COVID effect is less pronounced. The winter flu peak flu deaths has pushed the weekly death rate up to 6000 to 17000 above the summer low in the last few years. With those taken into account the graph graph is really bad.
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Notice by a bottle of hand gel at the entrance to a building:
"Please satanise your hands here."

[url]https://imgur.com/gallery/idohX2s[/url]