1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.
  2. We've had very few donations over the year. I'm going to be short soon as some personal things are keeping me from putting up the money. If you have something small to contribute it's greatly appreciated. Please put your screen name as well so that I can give you credit. Click here: Donations
    Dismiss Notice

Coronavirus

Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by rogue49, Feb 28, 2020.

  1. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    No, then there’s a minimum that people get for it.
    Again, just like Social Security.

    The thing is, you’re never gonna to get half this nation to vote for full universal healthcare.
    There’s too much conservative opposition, too many Cowboy. Too much catering to the already established insurance industry.

    They had a hard time doing the ACA (Obamacare, a GOP name originally to mock it)
    And that WAS an idea created by a conservative think tank that the Dems adopted and pushed through.

    So, why not have the best of both worlds???
    The companies and jobs pay into your individual pool, by your pay. Minimum coverage and lagging influx is paid through already established taxes.
    Just friggin’ enforce what exists and close the loopholes.

    We’re ALREADY doing the minimum coverage with the pandemic and the friggin shots. (NOONE pays for those, ANYONE can get it…if old enough…soon that’s changing soon.

    The key is, IF you want any conservative cooperation or votes, we have to come up with any ideas that leverages people’s work & income as much as possible. That’s their mindset, nothing “for free”.

    They’re having a hard enough time to keep any non insured covered and forced to pay. That got nixed by conservative judges.

    We ALL have to play in the same sandbox.

    That’s why all the vaccinated are starting to get pissed at the unvaccinated. They’re mucking it up for everyone and making this crap go longer or at least minimize it.

    Gotta come up with a plan to satisfy ALL sides.
    Because neither party has enough push or votes.

    And IMHO, if the damn companies make so much from us, then they can damn well help and put in.
    Capitalism doesn’t have to be exclusive to profit.
    You can leverage it too.

    Same with people, if you make more, you get more
    Health insurance also. C’est la guerre. No?
    The fair is, you at least get something than nothing.
    Everyone doesn’t need to be even steven.
    They tried that…many times, it failed. Globally.

    The best insurance is the combination of all the above solutions. The ones that last. It’s dynamic, it adjusts for the situation.

    And that’s the best solution for the pandemic
    It adjusts according to what we know and what’s happening. There’s no THIS or THAT, either/or.
     
    • Optimistic Optimistic x 1
  2. connyosis

    connyosis Vertical

    Location:
    Nora, Sweden
    Yeah I don't believe that. Eventually the US will come around and join the rest of the world in having some sort of universal healthcare. Will it be easy? No, but it's going to happen at some point.
    I'm not talking about introducing communism to the US, of course not. Not everything has to be equal (And like you said, has been tried and failed).
    I'm not a political or economics expert, but I'm pretty sure there is a difference between Soviet Russia and using taxes to pay for everyone having access to proper healthcare.
    I'm not saying there can't be private healthcare. Sweden with its universal healthcare still has private doctors and clinics you're free to use if you want to. I'm sure there would be plenty of people and corporations still using those even if universal healthcare in some form was introduced so it's not like that business sector would be destroyed instantly.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  3. fflowley

    fflowley Don't just do something, stand there!

    I think the rational transition step is to start lowering the Medicare eligibility age.
    Drop it to 60 now.....then 55 in a few years.
    Give people the option of continuing their private insurer coverage or buying into Medicare.
    Let people start choosing and see what happens.
     
    • Like Like x 3
  4. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    • Like Like x 1
    • Agree Agree x 1
  5. fflowley

    fflowley Don't just do something, stand there!

    I'm feeling a little more optimistic than you are.
    If you add up the vaccinated population plus those previously infected, I think in most of the country you are reaching numbers that will slow the spread of another wave.
     
    • Optimistic Optimistic x 1
  6. pig

    pig Slightly Tilted Donor

    I think that depends on where you are. In this SouthEastern part of the United States, we are less than 50% vaccinated and we are resistant to wearing masks or other mitigation methods. We are at case transmission load of approximately 600 / 100k and our other metrics are similarly at or near peak levels. Our hospitals are slammed and we haven't hit Halloween -> Turkey -> Solstice. I think it could be not good down here in a couple of months.
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
    • Like Like x 1
  7. fflowley

    fflowley Don't just do something, stand there!

    Well as my dad used to say, "You can choose to do things the easy way or the hard way."
    You folks down in MAGAland have certainly chosen the hard way.
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
    • Like Like x 1
    • Funny Funny x 1
  8. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX
    Nobody is going to tell us ignorant rednecks what do!

    On a positive note a massive thinning of the gene pool in the southeastern USA could raise the overall IQ of the USA.

    I am embarrassed to live in a state that is part of the stubborn anti-vaccination group of states. Must mention part of the Covid-19 and Delta problem falls on our stubborn dipshit political leaders.
     
    • Like Like x 1
    • Agree Agree x 1
  9. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    What it’s going to do before any genetics
    It’s going to change the politics and voting

    I think the GOP will be in difficult surprise
    When the Dems start winning more easily

    Think about it, the vote is basically split 50/50
    The states aren’t red & blue but shades of purple.
    Things swing back & forth constantly.

    5% is a huge swing, if not less
    Enough so, that the GOP (the minority party btw, with less people) play shenanigans to swing the vote a bit. Both parties do gerrymandering to do the same…a bit.

    Now they’ve encouraged their base to do something that will more likely make them die. Or not be healthy enough to vote. It’s killing more older people, who’re more likely to be conservative.
    The antivax are going to be more likely infecting their friends and family, also more likely conservative. (tribal tendencies and all)

    This is going to swing the vote a lot more than they think.

    Last year, everyone was affected. Dems & GOP
    It was the start of the pandemic and the vaccines were just coming out. It was even Steven.

    Now you’ve had the Winter surge…and another.
    The adoptions of masks more vs resistance to them.
    The red states are getting slammed and more GOP are impacted. First due to their resistance, second the Dems stayed away more.

    This is not absolutes, this are percentages.
    Shades of purple, slowly going bluer from red.
    Bit by bit.

    That changes a lot.
    I think many pundits will be surprised this November
    Even more so by January when seats change.
    IMHO
    But we’ll see…
     
    • Optimistic Optimistic x 1
  10. pig

    pig Slightly Tilted Donor

    rogue, I'll be honest, i really haven't thought through the numbers on that split and what impact it might have. We've lost 10,000 in SC. I just checked out vote totals in 2020 - the difference here was about 300,000 votes. I guess that does other of magnitude scale to somewhere potentially in the 2-3 % if a majority were Republicans and all of them were voters. I do think there are some disenfranchised Republicans as well who will vote for a guy like Biden because of this. Maybe not on a national stage - maybe not in SC - but we could have a Democratic Governor. Georgia could go Democratic again. North Carolina. Florida.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  11. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    • Agree Agree x 2
  12. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX

    I didn’t agree with Colin Powell on several fronts,
    but always respected him.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  13. fflowley

    fflowley Don't just do something, stand there!

    I've seen it reported elsewhere that he was suffering from myeloma.
    Myeloma is a cancer of the bone marrow cells that make our antibodies.
    Even fully vaccinated he may not have had an adequate enough immune response to protect him.
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
  14. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    • Like Like x 2
  15. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX
    Is Alaska a leader in Covid-19 cases because rural healthcare is inadequate, or is there a higher level of stubbornness and contrarianess? I'm not surprised, given the very high percentage votes for Trump in 2020.
     
  16. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    @redravin would have a good perspective on this.

    ———————
    Meanwhile…
    The goalposts keep getting moved.
    http://www.fark.com/goto/11859838
    NTTAWWT…because the more you get the better you are (within reason, of course…let’s not go crazy and over shoot ourselves)

    Hard part is, the rules, availability and logistics are different for each state.
    So we gotta wait until OUR state figures out how
    Then executes, then makes it available
    Then we gotta schedule it, etc

    I just went through this for a whole set of heart tests
    (I’m normal, just standard stuff, btw)
    It’s ridiculous the juggling we go through

    *sigh* :rolleyes:
    * not that I’m complaining…
     
    • Like Like x 1
  17. redravin

    redravin Cynical Optimist Donor

    Location:
    North
    When Covid first hit the governor actually followed scientific advice and the Anchorages mayor was a 'liberal' so the same thing happened here.
    Outside of Anchorage it was a really mixed bag, in the Mat-Su district the mayor was selling fake Covid cures.
    As time went on politics made things a lot worse though.
    Anchorage had an election where a right-wing populist Trumper won so now the city assembly and the mayor are fighting about safety policies.
    The governor was always a right wing nut job but he is getting closer to re-election now and is afraid of losing his base so has decided to embrace the anti-vaxxers.
    He forced us state employees to come back to work without Covid protocols and got rid of Covid leave.
    The rural healthcare does suck but they have made vaccination mandatory in some of the villages, something the village corporations can get away with.
    It's largely stubborn, stupid white people.
     
    • Like Like x 2
    • Informative Informative x 1
  18. spindles

    spindles Very Tilted

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    • Funny Funny x 1
  19. redux

    redux Very Tilted

    Location:
    Foggy Bottom
    Dr. Deborah Birx, who was Trump's Coronavirus Response Coordinator, met earlier this month with the House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis and an excerpt of her interview was released today.

    Highlights
    • When asked whether President Trump did everything he could to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus and save lives, Dr. Birx was unequivocal: “No. And I’ve said that to the White House in general, and I believe I was very clear to the [former] President in specifics of what I needed him to do.”

    • As cases started surging in Fall of 2020, Dr. Birx stated that she repeatedly raised the alarm within the Trump Administration that “more mitigation, more treatment” were needed. Among other things, Dr. Birx advocated for aggressive surveillance testing, increased masking, greater availability of treatments, and a comprehensive communications plan explaining the critical elements of key mitigation measures. Dr. Birx noted that her recommendations were not implemented “at the level that I felt they were needed.”

    • According to Dr. Birx, more than 130,000 American lives could have been saved after the first wave of the pandemic if the Trump Administration and certain states had followed the science and implemented proven mitigation measures. She stated: “I believe if we had fully implemented the mask mandates, the reduction in indoor dining, the getting friends and family to understand the risk of gathering in private homes, and we had increased testing, that we probably could have decreased fatalities into the 30 percent less to 40 percent less range.”
    Select Subcommittee Releases Initial Findings from Transcribed Interview of Dr. Deborah Birx

    Dr. Birx was initially restricted, then limited, from testifying by Trump while he was in office
     
    • Like Like x 2
    • Informative Informative x 1
  20. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX
    We will probably never know how many people in the US died (an exact number would be impossible to calculate) because of Conman Trump's incompetence, ego, and contraryiness.
     
    • Like Like x 2