Covid-19 pandemic

[ursus arctos]

Four major nonprofits that rose to prominence during the coronavirus pandemic by capitalizing on the spread of medical misinformation collectively gained more than $118 million between 2020 and 2022, enabling the organizations to deepen their influence in statehouses, courtrooms and communities across the country, a Washington Post analysis of tax records shows.

Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., received $23.5 million in contributions, grants and other revenue in 2022 alone — eight times what it collected the year before the pandemic began — allowing it to expand its state-based lobbying operations to cover half the country.

Another influential anti-vaccine group, Informed Consent Action Network, nearly quadrupled its revenue during that time to about $13.4 million in 2022, giving it the resources to finance lawsuits seeking to roll back vaccine requirements as Americans’ faith in vaccines drops.

Two other groups, Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance and America’s Frontline Doctors, went from receiving $1 million combined when they formed in 2020 to collecting more than $21 million combined in 2022, according to the latest tax filings available for the groups.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/02/21/covid-misinformation-earnings/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9. eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzA4NTc4MDAwLCJpc3 MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzA5OTYwMzk5LCJp YXQiOjE3MDg1NzgwMDAsImp0aSI6Ijc1NDdmMWJkLWYxOGItND Y1OS1iMzliLTA2MWM3NDhmODlhMSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8v d3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9uYXRpb24vMjAyNC8wMi 8yMS9jb3ZpZC1taXNpbmZvcm1hdGlvbi1lYXJuaW5ncy8ifQ.D 6S9chkyfYHgYaDOI5boCCkkUvhGPyemrryN7vmOVGg&itid=gf ta

(should be a gift article)

[blameless]

Bloody hellfire, I've caught the fucking bug again.

But then again I live in a country where the ringpieces that run the place have taken a "don't take any precautions, it's all gone away" attitude, and where I've not had access to any booster jabs since 2022; so I was right in the crosshairs for another dose.

[Lang Spoon]

I really thought folk wpuld maybe wear a mask if they had a cold and had to use public transport post pandemic, but nah, its cough into the air again, dont even cover your mouth. A culture of selfish ignorant shitebags. A mask is somehow a hellish encumberance on liberty.

[Janik]

Most of us will probably get it again at some point in our lives. For some, it will be part of what eventually kills us, as well.* It's endemic now, absolutely and for the decades to come - quite possiblyy for the entire future of the human species.
There is an argument to be had about whether this was avoidable at all. And if it was potentially avoidable, which is dubious, whether the measures required to eradicate it would have produced a greater amount of suffering than not doing so. But proving any of the viewpoints will be difficult - everything but the situation we actually have is speculation about a very complex situation. We are where we are, and this is what it is and will be from now on. Covid isn't going away, it has become part of the standard infectious disease set that humanity lives (...or not...) with.

* - According to the UK Health Security Agency 128 death certificates issued over the last 7 days to 22nd March mentioned Covid-19.

[ursus arctos]

I still haven't had it.

On Jamie's point, I think that there is a real question as to whether eradication is still possible given societal/political attitudes and the mobility of populations.

[steveeeeeeeee]

A work colleague of mine died last month, I believe from COVID related complications, he was in his fifties. He was becoming a world leader in his field of work, but most importantly, he was one of the loveliest people you could hope to work with, the type of person who constantly offered praise and made you feel like anything could be achieved. A massive loss and another wake up call to me after my own brush with ill health at the same time.

I'll be getting my booster jab in the next couple of weeks.

[Capybara]

Bloody hellfire, I've caught the fucking bug again.

But then again I live in a country where the ringpieces that run the place have taken a "don't take any precautions, it's all gone away" attitude, and where I've not had access to any booster jabs since 2022; so I was right in the crosshairs for another dose.

How do people know they have it these days? I mean people in the UK, especially England, that is, given that you actually have to buy tests now and any left over from when they were free are likely to be out of date by now.

[Wouter D]

The expiration date printed on the box is estimated conservatively, so 'expired' tests may not be actually expired. There seem to be some resources online for investigating the true expiry date of your tests.

Tests that are past their real expiration date are not instantly useless:
- the further a test is beyond its expiration date, the higher the probability becomes that it throws a false negative. You can fight the risk of drawing a false conclusion by testing more than once.
- the probability of false positives does not change over time.

So if you feel under the weather, and have an expired test in the house, you can take one. Is the test positive? Now you know that you have Covid. Is the test negative? Proceed with caution, and perhaps repeat the experiment to reduce uncertainty.

[Janik]

Which obviously works if you have symptoms. But we know Covid can be infectious but asymptomatic. We also know more about other respiratory diseases this is true of as well (asymptomatic transmission is now better appreciated to be an important vector for ‘flu, for instance), which is why I’m very dubious that an eradication programme, on either Covid of ‘flu, can ever work.

Obviously the people coughing and snuffling in public are more likely to have been the spreader than someone apparently perfectly healthy. But one cannot be certain of that - it could be anyone who shared an enclosed space with blameless that passed it on to him.

[blameless]

RE tests, personally speaking I bought some last year when I was struggling to get hold of free ones - even after yesterday, I've still got 3 tests left out of the box of 10.

[Sits]

Sorry about your colleague steveeeeeeeee and I hope blameless has a light or asymptomatic dose. This is another jurisdiction in which the powers that be proceed as though the virus doesn’t exist. If we test positive, nothing prevents us doing what the fuck we like, or going where the fuck we like. Home tests were never free, even in the darkest days of Delta, so now people buy them by choice or bury their heads in the sand. Masks elicit funny looks. Boosters are readily available but there is no official messaging about actually getting them.

It seems pot luck whether someone’s dose is asymptomatic or really nasty. A young, otherwise healthy colleague got it in January for the first time and was badly sick for a month. I’ve noticed she is constantly clearing her throat since. My daughter - who has potentially higher susceptibility to infection - got it for the first time in November and was asymptomatic and all clear inside six days.

[blameless]

I'm not in any danger (I know from experience that Covid doesn't ruin my lungs or give me a heart attack, unlike some horribly unlucky folk), but it does feel like I've got a nasty case of flu - hence my rant upthread.

[Patrick Thistle]

One of my nieces ended up in hospital this week, pretty poorly. After she got home the hospital phoned to say she also tested positive for covid.

[steveeeeeeeee]

A young, otherwise healthy colleague got it in January for the first time and was badly sick for a month. I’ve noticed she is constantly clearing her throat since..

I've only stopped doing this in the last couple of weeks, which would be 4 and a half months after catching COVID. I'd say I'm fully recovered now, although I still suffer from pain in my ribs after fracturing them as a result of severe coughing fits. I imagine that will last for some time.