What I am still not used to is walking into a bank dressed for a robbery. Mask, dark glasses (needed in AZ) and latex gloves on. And not the least peep from the bank tellers.
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So far what I am seeing from Mr Biden is exactly what I had hoped for…
Sanity
Moderation
Good governance
No histrionics.
What a relief!!!
And as an old fart (I’m 71) I got to sign up, after a 4 day wrangle, for my covid vaccinations. First shot scheduled for March 5th. Until my second shot passes by a full month I am keeping to our protocols… Masks, distance, staying home whenever possible. Then and only then will i relax just a little. But the mask stays until most everybody has a double shot in their arm.
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the same concern with cycles… the covid mutants appearing in the human populations…
the current vaccines were approved without the usual long term testing, on an emergency base… lots to learn yet
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Every time a virus replicates and escapes it’s host cell there are mutations among that batch of virus. The majority are not a big deal and change nothing. But occasionally the mutation enhances some characteristic that’s an advantage to the virus. Increased lethality usually isn’t a good option as the virus needs live hosts to replicate but ease of transmission is. Mutations occur within the same host. Jumping species is not needed for that although there are viruses that do jump species easily. And not just in China either.
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Hopefully, the medical community will be better prepared when that happens.
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At least for the next four years, our leadership will not be in denial and encouraging people to wear blinders.
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Doesn’t work that way. You still need to wear the mask, until infection levels are down to ebola-like levels (near zero). The vaccines do not give you 100% immunity and you can still be contagious.
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And, only about a year ago you would have been arrested post haste for going into a bank this way.
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The virus mutating, which all viruses do, is different from there being an annual vaccination. No virus other than flu requires that, which has to do with the life cycle of the influenza virus, which ic different from corona. Corona hasn’t shown the seasonality that flu shows-it appears worse in winter, but didn’t exactly disappear during summer.
That doesn’t mean there won’t ever be a need for a vaccine to cover new variants, just that IMO as an immunologist, I don’t see annual re-vaccination as a likely scenario.
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My thinking, as a retired endocrinologist and teacher of medical students, is that the vaccination for this corona virus will impart life long memory in our immune systems for this bad boy. That isn’t to say that some variant might be able to slip by in months or years to come. So, I agree that we may not need annual shots for covid. I hope that is the case. And as you indicated the covid virus and the flu bugs are different critters entirely. Flu viruses (more than one species) are not a corona style virus. I think we are in agreement.
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Obama only got stuck with the Great Recession when he entered office. Biden has been bequeathed a once-in-a-century pandemic and a bigger recession. It is nice to see that he is focused on these two things, but it is a sea change in the structure of the US economy.
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Put another way, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make real and permanent change. Do we really want everything to go back to exactly what it was? Because a lot of that sucked.
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Good point. But it will take an investment in education and training to shift the workforce to 21st century growth fields much like Japan did after WWII.
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You may be interested in this
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I do believe a lot of that is in Biden’s plans. WaPo had a piece yesterday about some of the focus on bringing more high-tech manufacturing back home, different grants for upgrading equipment, and the like. One piece of the puzzle, lots more going on and in the planning stages.
There are some real opportunities here, and Biden looks poised to be all over them.
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I had the same feeling walking into a liquor store.
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Thoughtful and organized management of govt, it’s a nice thing to have again.
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Definitely a pattern to what happens here. Incompetents get the reign of power, destroy the economy and then here come the Lone Dems to put it back together again. If people would only see this pattern maybe we could get rid of it permanently. Yes, I’m dreaming.
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In the Covid briefing last hour, Dr. Fauci said several new studies–from Spain, Israel–show favorable results indicating that a vaccinated person who contracts the virus is probably much less likely to transmit it. He said more studies are ongoing.
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