Future Timeline

Yuli Ban wrote: ↑Wed Dec 01, 2021 5:24 am If it causes severe long term neurological symptoms, then there is a definite possibility of this pandemic being a potential existential threat to humanity. Who knows! Perhaps a pandemic is the Great Filter. Of course that's just doomer thinking on my part.

I'd say the great filter is less specific. It's more than likely something along the lines of a species can identify the mutual hazards of unsustainable growth, industrialization, and the challenges caused by moving from nationalist intrests to a global mindset; and adjust their growth and consumption in such a way to ration the resources toward the best Return On Investment toward expanding and spreading themselves out through their solar system such that their burden in any one place is much less, while building biomes that expand the symbiotic ecosystems they depend on with them.

and no I don't think we are doing particularly well at navigating this filter

Yuli Ban wrote: ↑Wed Dec 01, 2021 5:24 am If it causes severe long term neurological symptoms, then there is a definite possibility of this pandemic being a potential existential threat to humanity. Who knows! Perhaps a pandemic is the Great Filter. Of course that's just doomer thinking on my part.

Someone in this thread keep us posted on when that paper drops. I'm not on any social media so you guys are often my only lens into these places these days.

weatheriscool wrote: ↑Wed Dec 01, 2021 4:55 am A federal judge blocks Biden's vaccine mandate for U.S. health workers.

By Azi Paybarah and Reed Abelson
Nov. 30, 2021 Updated 8:53 p.m. ET

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday to halt the start of President Biden's national vaccine mandate for health care workers, which had been set to begin next week.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/30/worl ... ocked.html

Another victory for freedumb.

Now that we're almost two years into this pandemic, longer-term impacts are starting to become known.

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Severe Covid infection doubles chances of dying in following year, study finds

Wed 1 Dec 2021 09.25 GMT

Patients who survive severe Covid are more than twice as likely to die over the following year than those who remain uninfected or experience milder virus symptoms, a study says.

The research, published in Frontiers in Medicine, suggests that serious coronavirus infections may significantly damage long-term health, showing the importance of vaccination.

The increased risk of dying was greater for patients under 65, and only 20% of the severe Covid-19 patients who died did so because of typical Covid complications, such as respiratory failure.

“We conducted a previous study that showed that patients with severe Covid-19 who recovered were at significantly greater risk of being hospitalised in the subsequent six months,” said ProfArch Mainous of the University of Florida, the lead author of the study. “This new study extended that to investigate mortality risk over the next 12 months.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... year-study

Republicans Threaten to Shut Down Government Over Vaccine Mandates
December 1, 2021

https://www.axios.com/gop-government-sh ... 3608e.html

Introduction:

(Axios) Conservative Republicans in the House and Senate are planning to force a government shutdown Friday to deny funding needed to enforce the Biden administration's vaccine mandates on the private sector, according to Politico.

Why it matters: Congress has until the end of the week to pass a stopgap measure to extend funding into 2022, though objection from a small group of Republicans could shut down the government.

• President Biden's vaccine mandates on employers with 100 or more workers and health care workers at facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid have already been challenged and halted by multiple federal courts.

What they're saying: “I’m sure we would all like to simplify the process for resolving the CR, but I can’t facilitate that without addressing the vaccine mandates,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) told Politico.

• “Given that federal courts across the country have raised serious issues with these mandates, it’s not unreasonable for my Democratic colleagues to delay enforcement of the mandates for at least the length of the continuing resolution.”

It's here in the States!

Did Omicron originate in the Netherlands?

Huh. Omicron is descended from an much earlier variant, one theory is that it's a human > animal > human zoological mutation, and the Dutch had to cull off their minks from last year when they found a mutant Covid-19 virus in their mink farms.

I think this is the mink SARS we were worried about from last year.

It make sense. The writers couldn't just leave that huge plot hook alone, they had to just bring that back to bring the ratings back up again