FUCKDOWN, U.S.A.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Mississippi is lifting all mask mandates and allowing states to operate at full capacity from today.

Conservatives shouting on Twitter "If you don't like you can stay home" which, aside from being a stupid argument anyway as we live in a society ignores that many people can't do that as they need to go out to work, provide care for others and go to the supermarket.

Of course this will also drive up coronavirus infections in other states as there are no border restrictions (as far as I know) between states.

I imagine the reopening in Mississippi is partly aimed at a distraction from their water issues.

Should we be adding the US to the red list of travel ban countries given the likelihood of mutations in Texas and Mississippi? I don't know how well vaccination is going in Mississippi.

Residents of Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, are still under a mask mandate. Good for Jackson mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba.

[Chedney Honks]

My oldest mate lives in Texas. Asthma to fuck.

Bye, mate. Shame we didn't have that reunion last summer. See you in hell.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Olbermann and Moore now calling for Texans to be punished for the actions of its governor:

https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/1366918063015268353
https://twitter.com/MMFlint/status/1367167700745732102

[Noodle Lizard]

Still, got to think of big business first and foremost.

To be fair, it's small businesses who are suffering the most. I think if Big Business™ were really suffering from lockdowns, there would be no lockdowns.

[Ferris]

To be fair, it's small businesses who are suffering the most. I think if Big Business™ were really suffering from lockdowns, there would be no lockdowns.

It's not the owners of Joe's Laundromat who are lobbying Abbott to remove all public health restrictions and just plow on as normal regardless of the body count.

[Noodle Lizard]

It's not the owners of Joe's Laundromat who are lobbying Abbott to remove all public health restrictions and just plow on as normal regardless of the body count.

I don't know about Texas or Misssissippi in particular, but certainly in New York and California it's been almost entirely small businesses (restaurants, nail/hair salons etc.) doing so. Those unions are the ones who've been filing all the lawsuits, to varying degrees of success.

Not to throw my weight one way or the other necessarily, it's just definitely not as cut-and-dry as Big Business being the only ones who want things to open. The bigger companies have the infrastructure and capital to operate (or even expand) during COVID, and the stock market implies many of those companies have had an unusually nice year. Basically, if there's anyone I'm worried about suffering financially from lockdowns, it's not them - it's almost everyone else.

[bgmnts]

Why would big businesses want things open more than small husinesses when their business can take the covid hit?

[Mister Six]

Because $$$ and stock prices.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Three of Abbott's four person team of medical advisors have said he did not directly consult with them before lifting restrictions.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/03/abbott-mask-order-texas-advisers/

The one expert on the team who did speak with Abbott was Dr. John Zerwas, an executive vice chancellor for health affairs at the University of Texas System and a former Republican state representative. Zerwas said to the Tribune that he told Abbott he couldn't say whether now was the right time to remove pandemic restrictions. But he advised Abbott that if he did rescind those restrictions, Abbott, "in the same breath," should "continue to emphasize the importance of the public health measures that have allowed us to continue to really kind of get past this pandemic."

[Fambo Number Mive]

Abbott is now trying to start a bullshit conspiracy theory that undocumented migrants are responsible for spreading COVID in Texas aided by the Biden administration.

Terrible human being.

The Biden Administration is recklessly releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants who have COVID into Texas communities.

The Biden Admin. must IMMEDIATELY end this callous act that exposes Texans & Americans to COVID.

https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1367243450140086274

Texas is currently a red zone state - "25+ daily new cases per 100,000 people
Indicates: unchecked community spread" - and it's not because of undocumented migrants but because of those in charge, in particular Greg Abbott.

Mississipi is an orange zone state "10-24 daily new cases per 100,000 people
Indicates: escalating community spread"

https://www.wbur.org/npr/816707182/map-tracking-the-spread-of-the-coronavirus-in-the-u-s

[Fambo Number Mive]

Meanwhile in Pittsburgh, the local hockey team the Pittsburgh Penguins has tweeted out an image of fans that was altered to make it look like more of them were wearing their masks correctly than actually were:

https://twitter.com/TaylorHaasePGH/status/1367275372212027394

[Fambo Number Mive]

More than a year into a pandemic that has claimed 523,000 lives in the United States, right-wing protesters in Idaho, including a handful of elected officials, set protective masks aflame Saturday, claiming face coverings stifle their personal liberties.
Although local, state and federal health officials are clear that masks are crucial in the fight against COVID-19, helping to prevent the disease from spreading, some 70 adults and children — none wearing face coverings — stepped forward on a downtown street corner in Coeur d'Alene and dropped masks into a symbolic burn pot containing dry ice. "U.S.A, U.S.A," they chanted.

The protesters held mask-burnings Saturday in locations across the state, where masks are strongly recommended but not required by Idaho Gov. Brad Little. At a gathering of more than 100 in the state capital, protesters tossed coverings into a flaming barrel and cheered at supportive remarks by Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, a far-right militia supporter whose relations with Little, a fellow Republican, are strained...

On Saturday, they planned burnings in two dozen Idaho cities, equating them to the Boston Tea Party despite the fact that tea dumped into the harbor by colonists to protest British taxes in 1773 did not, like masks, help protect others from a deadly disease. Experts on extremism say that dismissing the rallies simply as antics of a fringe movement would be a mistake, much like overlooking signs of an imminent attack on the U.S. Capitol...

So did they purchase these masks in order to burn them or did they get them some other way? Be interesting to know who the elected officials were at the protest.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-06/idaho-coronavirus-mask-burning

Meanwhile, Connecticut is lifting all Covid-19 capacity restrictions on businesses.

[Dex Sawash]

The rural counties here have had poor turnout for available vaccines and have set up no appointment drive-through vaccine locations for all adults in all groups. Wife drove down to Dunn in Harnett county and got vaxxed yesterday. Seems a bit wrong.

[Dex Sawash]

Everyone at my work is vaccinated now except the parts department manager. He can't use websites or email so he'll never be vaxxed.

[monkfromhavana]

Everyone at my work is vaccinated now except the parts department manager. He can't use websites or email so he'll never be vaxxed.

How does he order parts?

[Dex Sawash]

TERRIBLE!

[Ferris]

Cases starting to rise significantly in the USA, and unlike the UK there is a significant amount of vaccine hesitancy even among people pretty seriously at risk. About a third of all adults are entirely unvaccinated, and that's ignoring kids under 18.

~45% of people who predominantly watch Fox News are "hesitant or unwilling" to get a vaccine. That rises to ~70% among people who watch OAN. Both of these demographics skew heavily 65+ and the friendly men on television with waxy hair have convinced them it's ok not to get a free vaccine.

Some states in the south have under 35% of people with a dose. Again, these states skew higher in obesity rates which is a big risk factor. Combined with healthcare availability. I think another month or two and there could be some real problems heading their way.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Not surprised really. Looking at recent baseball games, it's like Covid never existed.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Is this the Democrats answer to gerrymandering? Let those old red state cunts die. Dig those graves wide and deep.

(I know it isn't, in fact given the disproportionate impact on minorities it probably harms them)

[Ferris]

Not surprised really. Looking at recent baseball games, it's like Covid never existed.

The Phillies have a strong anti-vaccine contingency in the clubhouse apparently, and they aren't the only club. 4 of them went on the covid IL last week. Great job fellas.

Not sure if you heard the story about the NC state baseball team dropping out of the NCAA finals because of the outbreak on the team but yeah that's the end of a lot of careers before they've even started. Whoops. The coach has refused to comment whether he told players not to get their shots because "we don't want to talk politics" and that's the big problem - getting a vaccine isn't political you utter cretin.

And that's ignoring the economic reality of under-served poor people who are too busy working 2+ minimum wage jobs to make ends meet, and just don't feasibly have a spare hour to get a vaccine.

Like I say, I can see it getting bad down there. Rumour is the Canadian border opens on July 19th. God help us all.

[Ferris]

Is this the Democrats answer to gerrymandering? Let those old red state cunts die. Dig those graves wide and deep.

(I know it isn't, in fact given the disproportionate impact on minorities it probably harms them)

It'll bump off poor people and ignorant old people at an even rate I'd guess, so probably a wash.

That's an incredibly bleak thought. Sorry.

[Fambo Number Mive]

It's not on UK FUCKDOWN levels yet, but according to the LA Times LA County has seen a 124% rise in cases from two weeks ago to an average of 2,173 new cases a day over the past seven days, with statewide COVID-19 hospitalizations rising by 51%, reaching 1,484 on Sunday. Deaths around 26 per day.

"Over 99% of the COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths we are seeing are among unvaccinated individuals," county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a statement Monday.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-07-12/l-a-county-sees-new-significant-rise-in-covid-19-cases-99-involved-the-unvaccinated

I know LA County is huge with around 10 million people living there, but that data doesn't look good.

In Texas:

As of July 11, 2,100 Texans are hospitalized for the coronavirus, according to the Texas Tribune, but cases and deaths remain low:

https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2020/texas-coronavirus-cases-map/

[Ferris]

It's not on UK FUCKDOWN levels yet... 26 deaths per day...

That would mean the per capita death rate in LA county is ~7x that of the UK already? And that's pre-wave, it's just the acceptable background noise at the moment because those wacky yanks have decided covid is over. Once it gets going, who knows.

Frankly, I don't think it'd change anything if 10x that number die because the political will is gone to do anything about it. Hence my FUCKDOWN preddo.

[Fambo Number Mive]

I don't know if the US use the 28 day cutoff period, although I'm not sure how much difference that would make.

I get the impression from ourworldindata that testing is a lot lower in the US as a whole than in the UK, although I imagine it varies drastically from state to state.

[Ferris]

Well they charge for it, the lunatics, so I'm not surprised testing is low. Not just patients, doctors are charged too - for some, it costs them money to get you a covid test and as a result some look the other way.

Crazy system.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Does Medicare cover it for people who aren't insured? The US system seems so complicated.

[Ferris]

Does Medicare cover it for people who aren't insured? The US system seems so complicated.

It does, but if I was a poor person who'd been on the receiving end of the US healthcare system before I can see why that would be a risk.

Maybe you go into a clinic and the shot is free, but there's a $150 admin fee and you pay another $80 for the nurses consultation you don't find out about until after the shot is administered. Now, I know that isn't the case but if you're skint and a few hundred bucks is the difference between feeding your family for a week or going hungry, would you risk it?

And if I've been working for 70 hours a week at federal minimum wage and I have 45 minutes to myself, do I spend it getting a vaccine if I reckon the pandemic is basically over and the symptoms might put me out of work for a day or two and I don't get sick pay? And who's going to pay for my gas or public transit to and from the clinic because there aren't any in my neighbourhood? Or do I just take the time away from work to do literally anything else? Anyway I'm under 50 and someone on Facebook says I'll be fine if I get it or maybe I had it already who knows.

The US "hesitation" in vaccination goes a lot deeper than just yahoos watching Fox News and surmising that vaccines make you a communist, but it means asking some awkward economic questions so I doubt the media will touch it any time soon.

[Fambo Number Mive]

New COVID-19 guidance from the Centers for Disease Control advising unvaccinated students and staff to continue to wear masks inside school buildings, particularly young students, won't become official policy in Arizona, where the Legislature has prohibited districts from mandating masks.

The discrepancy between the Legislature's law and the federal public health guidance has alarmed some Arizona health practitioners and parents, who argue that the growing threat from the coronavirus' delta variant, and Arizona residents' slow vaccination rates, could increase the spread of the virus this fall.

They want school mask mandates until vaccines are available for younger students or the state's vaccination rate inches up. Arizona's COVID-19 vaccine rates have been stubbornly hovering at about 50% for several weeks...

But Arizona is one of several states, including Iowa and Texas, where lawmakers have banned school districts from instituting mask mandates, essentially leaving it up to individual families to decide whether to send their students to school with or without masks.

Sen. Paul Boyer, R-Glendale, chair of the Senate Education Committee, applauded Arizona's measure because it doesn't allow school districts to dictate the choice for families.

"No kid should be traumatized by having to wear a mask if they don't want to," he said.

Instead, he pointed to federal government funding that schools could use for hand sanitizer and air purifiers to keep school environments safe...

https://eu.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2021/07/13/cdc-recommends-masks-schools-arizona-districts-cant-require/7887827002/

At least masks are still required on public transport in Arizona.

[Ferris]

The US "hesitation" in vaccination goes a lot deeper than just yahoos watching Fox News and surmising that vaccines make you a communist

Actually I did some reading on this, polling shows 28-32% of the US population is unwilling to get a vaccine. That number has been steady since December (and actually slightly increased). Every other country I looked at had hesitancy rates about half that and the numbers declined as vaccines rolled out. Not so for the Americans, who are staunchly sticking to their convictions of refusing a vaccine despite reality shifting around them.

I assumed vulnerable and economically depressed people were making up a significant part of the stragglers, but they're about 3x smaller as a cohort than people who just won't get it because Facebook memes and Fox News told them not to.

Based on their current vaccine rates I'd guess the US vaccine program is about done. It'll keep ticking up a percentage point or two but people's politics determine their vaccine status and you're not going to change that any time soon. Seems crazy but there you go. I imagine a FUCKDOWN is incoming for the south because nearly 70% of adults are entirely unvaccinated, if you take kids into consideration the vaccine coverage is almost negligible.

[MojoJojo]

Actually I did some reading on this, polling shows 28-32% of the US population is unwilling to get a vaccine. That number has been steady since December (and actually slightly increased). Every other country I looked at had hesitancy rates about half that and the numbers declined as vaccines rolled out. Not so for the Americans, who are staunchly sticking to their convictions of refusing a vaccine despite reality shifting around them.

I assumed vulnerable and economically depressed people were making up a significant part of the stragglers, but they're about 3x smaller as a cohort than people who just won't get it because Facebook memes and Fox News told them not to.

Based on their current vaccine rates I'd guess the US vaccine program is about done. It'll keep ticking up a percentage point or two but people's politics determine their vaccine status and you're not going to change that any time soon. Seems crazy but there you go. I imagine a FUCKDOWN is incoming for the south because nearly 70% of adults are entirely unvaccinated, if you take kids into consideration the vaccine coverage is almost negligible.

There's a Behind the Bastards podcast on anti-vaxers, put out before the pandemic. I need to listen to it again, but one thing I remember was that anti-vax campaigners got to the US before vaccines did. Also people refusing vaccines would be beaten and stuff.

I need to listen to it again, but it's worth realising there is some history behind the US anti-vaxers that goes beyond Andrew Wakefield.