The Coronavirus Thread

[Svartalf]

There is no down, the turtle is swimming in it

[Brian Peacock]

The Turtle Abides.

[laklak]

All things serve the Beam.

[Scot Dutchy]

Yes Scot. Everything is political, and anything political is corrupt.

That's life I am afraid. Corruption is so evil and everything political is corrupt.

[Tero]

Omicron seems to have produced an odd result. Republicans now WANT to get this milder virus so they can "show us" and undo all we have done.

Red alert
Tucker Carlson could do it. So could Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin or Donald Trump himself.

One of these conservative figures could go on the air and explain that the Omicron variant has placed much of their audience in grave danger. They could remind people that they have been skeptical of vaccines at times — but that Omicron is different. It is so contagious that it may quickly sweep the country.

As they issued this warning, they could still take their usual swipes at the political left, mocking panicky liberals for wearing masks outdoors and forcing children to sit apart in cold schoolyards. Conservatives don’t need to do any of that; they just need to take a Covid-19 vaccine — the “Trump vaccine” that could save their life.

I don’t have any illusions about how likely this scenario is, but I do think that unvaccinated Americans — who are disproportionately Republican — are now in even more danger than a few weeks ago. Omicron seems to be qualitatively more contagious than any earlier variant.

The fact that many of conservative pundits are vaccinated themselves would make a pro-vaccine message from them even stronger. It would surely be more persuasive than anything that President Biden, Anthony Fauci, Rochelle Walensky or a New York Times journalist could say.

Biden, at the White House yesterday, tried his best, saying, “We are looking at a winter of severe illness and death if you’re unvaccinated.”

David Leonhardt NYT

[Sean Hayden]

The aliens are working overtime to get these nanobots into us. Did you ever think to ask why Tero?

[JimC]

It may well be that the omicron infection is an unstoppable wave. Those who survive (which will be most fully vaccinated people) should have a very good immunity level when they recover...

[Joe]

Until the Omega strain appears

[Svartalf]

we have the Andromeda one already, don't we?

[Joe]

I guess that would come after. We will have exhausted the Greek alphabet with Omega.

[Woodbutcher]

Got my booster shot today!

[Brian Peacock]

6G coming in strong?

[Tero]

Biden gets to force vaccination
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/12/17/fed ... ndate.html

[L'Emmerdeur]

Tyranny! Communism!!!

[L'Emmerdeur]

It's amazing to me--these people are actively trying to get faithful viewers killed by the COVID. The Fox News viewer demographic tends to be older folks, who are statistically more vulnerable to the bug. The American right-wing fixation on 'natural' immunity does nothing but encourage people to roll the dice, and inevitably some of them are going to get snake eyes.

'Fox News Host Advises Viewers Against Boosters as COVID Rages'

As the Omicron variant rips through the country and New York City experiences a record surge in COVID-19 cases headed into the holidays, public health officials have one big message for all Americans over 16 years old: Get your booster right now.

But Fox News viewers got a very different message when they tuned in to The Five on Friday afternoon. According to the channel’s self-described comedy host, you’re better off with “nature’s vaccination.”

“If you urge a booster for Omicron, does that mean you are actually going to end up preventing a more effective kind of vaccination, ‘nature’s vaccination,’ which would raise the natural immunity,” Gutfeld said, adding that this would be “in a safe way” despite the clear increased risk for people who contract the virus without a booster.

Studies have already found that a third dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines significantly reduces the chance of symptomatic infection from Omicron.

Suggesting without evidence that the boosters “may not be that effective,” Gutfeld asked, “Why would you get a booster against what is, effectively, could be a booster,” referring to Omicron itself. “Call me a quack, I don’t care,” he added with a shrug before turning the entire thing into an attack on President Joe Biden.

“That’s what makes Joe Biden kind of a despicable non-leader,” he said. “He hears of Omicron, high-transmission, low severity, and instead of trying to help America regain its sense of normalcy, he redefines it as a ‘winter of death.’”

As of Friday, with the Christmas holiday still a week away, cases were up 31 percent nationwide and deaths were up 23 percent, averaging over 1,200 per day and adding to the more than 800,000 Americans who have died from the virus since it first emerged.