Corona-zona

  Here are updates on three recent Corona-zona posts for your reading enjoyment. Florida School Walks Back Vaccination Quarantine Policy Last week I blogged about a private school in Miami  that established a policy saying kids must be quarantined for a month after a COVID-19 vaccination. They claimed the policy was a result of careful deliberation even though this apparently included no research on whether COVID-19 vaccines can cause "virus shedding" (they can't). Yesterday there came word that they changed their mind after receiving notification from the Florida Department of Education that their policy was being investigated. Wait, a Florida government agency is actually doing something to promote vaccination and public health?!? Somebody tell DeSantis—he must put a stop to this immediately! Florida Surgeon General Nominee is a Mask-hole Too Last Saturday I blogged about an appointment by Governor Ron "Florida Man" DeSantis of an anti-vaxx doctor to be the ...

  To be honest, I thought (and hoped) I would be running out of things to blog about by now. But damn, interesting/important news just keeps coming.  Here are three brief items for your reading enjoyment. If You Have a Fake Vaccine Card, Don't Do This Dumb blonde, Tik-Toker, and Anti-Vaxxer, and Biden hater @notsamantharose17 thought it would be cool to troll the libs by showing off her fake vaccine card . She proudly did so while lip-synching the song What You Gonna Do About It? Only one problem. Her actual identifying info was plainly shown on the card she was displaying. Oops! A user named @thatdaneshguy (whose hobby is apparently reporting online criminals ) decided what he would do about it is report her to the FBI. Having a fake vaccine card is a felony . YouTube Bans Top Anti-Vaxxers—Too Little Too Late YouTube has  banned top anti-vaxxers like Joseph Mercola and Robert Kennedy Jr. and deleted 30,000 of their videos.  Good move guys, but you should have ...

  I know I've said this before, but just when you think people can't get any crazier, they find a way.  According to a story by NBC , there is a movement afoot among anti-vaxxers to convince people that hospitals are killing their loved ones on purpose . Or at least the hospitals are keeping them from getting life-saving "miracle cures."  Naturally, they're organizing on that cesspool of social media, Facebook. Groups have sprung up urging people to get their loved ones out, and providing advice on how to do so. Once out, they can receive treatments like ivermectin horse paste , iodine gargles , and (a new one to me) inhaling nebulized hydrogen peroxide. A physician quoted in the article calls this "vigilante medicine," and it's an apt metaphor.   The vigilantes are trying to science-up this course of treatment by calling it a "protocol." Any day now I expect injections of disinfectants and powerful lights inside the body to be added to the...

  You may recall that in February 2020—just when the Apocalypse was getting started—there was a huge outbreak  of COVID-19 in nursing homes in Washington State, leading to many deaths.  An epidemiological study concluded: Long-term care facilities are high-risk settings for severe outcomes from outbreaks of Covid-19, owing to both the advanced age and frequent chronic underlying health conditions of the residents and the movement of health care personnel among facilities in a region. In many states, nursing home personnel have disappointing vaccination rates, as shown in this August 29 data from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services : The Arizona figure is 60.88%.  That's about 10% higher than overall vaccinations in the state, and it puts us in 30th place among states (interestingly, the same rank as for overall vaccinations). But nursing homes aren't the only facilities dealing with residents of "advanced age" who have "frequent chronic underlying h...

Just when you think things can't get any crazier. The Daily Mail reports that a group of veterans formed a group and was mulling armed attacks on vaccine centers and employees. Because the vaccinations are causing...what harm? Veterans 4 Freedom (V4F) is made up of more than 200 douchebags who used to serve in the military.  They pretended to be a peaceful group while using the encrypted messaging app Telegram to discuss violent insurrection. They were infiltrated by a reporter. One member said they were "bringing the fight to the people sticking the needle in." The Daily Mail piece caused the leader of the group, someone named Bellzaac, to call off the group's operations.  Talking out of both sides of his mouth, he said in public on Twitter, "basically we were a peaceful group and have been labelled with being something we are not. We wanted to do this legally & lawfully."  On the other hand, in private on Telegram he was saying "we are fucking ...

  Here are some updates on previous Corona-zona posts. Toilet Aerosols…Ewww Previous posts have discussed how the virus spreads, mostly focusing on how masks stop transmission of aerosols emitted from one’s mouth. Now there’s a new potential source.   It has been known for some time that SARS-CoV-2 can infect one’s gut and be expelled with feces. Those feces (hopefully) go into a toilet, and guess what happens when you flush the toilet.   You get aerosols, lots of them .   According to a scientist quoted in the article: Both the toilet and urinal generated large quantities of droplets smaller than three micrometers in size, posing a significant transmission risk if they contain infectious microorganisms. Due to their small size, these droplets can remain suspended for a long time. As the article points out, there are no documented cases of COVID-19 being spread this way. But it is a possibility. Gnome Shortages Back in January, I did the first post abo...

  Busy work day, so just a short post today to commend to you an essay on the toll the pandemic has taken on health care workers.  It's a collaboration between The Guardian and Kaiser Health Foundation, and it's entitled  12 Months of Trauma: More Than 3,600 US Health Workers Died in Covid’s First Year .  If you're pressed for time or would rather have an audio experience, there is an NPR summary here . More than 100 journalists contributed. Among the sobering findings: More than half the victims were under 60. One-third were from outside the US Nurses and support staff died at higher rates than physicians Twice as many died in nursing homes as in hospitals Image by Guardian/KHF