“Sturgeon’s Law: 90% of everything is crap”
Les, do you have any evidence for this?
“Non-sequitur: I live in a country where it is preferable to have more deaths in an effort to evenly distribute the deaths racially? I’m not ok with that.”
And I am not ok with that either, just don’t think that is happening.
Dr Yak - I call BS on “super-hyper-hyper-mega inflation”. What most of that money went to by all accounts was to housing, healthcare, debt payments. The only way to generate inflation would be to pay everyone $2000 a month on top of all of their cost of living (COL) expenses of around $3000 a month per person, That would be over $5000 per person before you would see any significant increases in spending driving up the price of goods and even then the extra $2000 would only have a tiny effect. For hyper inflation you would need to give everyone $10,000 above COL. For super-hyper-hyper-mega inflation you would need to give everyone a wheelbarrow full of money every month. Not Gunna Happem!
How dare the conniving elites try to create more of an even playing field here in Canada. And healthcare…don’t some people realize that sky high inflation in health care is a common good? Doesn’t bankruptcy of the middle class help everyone in the long run?
Seriously, I am not seeing much inflation here. My food bills aren’t going up. My utilities aren’t going up. Netflix is going up as Canada is going to start levying a surtax on FANG.
Deflationary forces are cancelling out inflationary forces.
I think he was being sarcastic.
Yoink! SOrry alL. It’s just that the media is cram packed with predictions of impending hyperinflation and I cracked.
jef
I have free health care. LOL It’s awesome. Don’t believe the fake news that gets reported in the US media about how it doesn’t work and is of poor quality. It is abolutely amazing.
I always forget about this year-end delicacy and then have a wonderful time reading it. What a treat. 
Metlej makes a wonderful point. One that gores a lot of oxen. That is why it is so often met with conversation stopping reactions.
I remember after the GFC I would comment that we had created such a large monetary hole that we wouldn’t see much inflation afterward. AND that we had already had a large dose of inflation via housing prices… which only register in the official inflation numbers in an indirect way. The Peter Schiff and Ron Paul acolytes would come out of the woodwork to shout me down. I was younger then, I would yell back.
Our citizenry is locked into a red/blue, liberal/conservative paradigm. It is reinforced rigidly via social media, news media, and politicians of both stripes. I say without reservation that you absolutely CANNOT understand our predicament while engaged in such a mindset. You just can’t. And the people prospering from the current policies that make them rich at the expense of everyone else know this.
Will
I could have free health care through the VA but I’d rather use my employer sponsored healthcare coverage even though there is deductibles and copays. The government run VA system is not good. It is better than nothing but definitely not my first choice…
I read an ap news article. It was how the CDC arrived at their vaccine rollout recommendation. When it became public, they started taking a lot of heat. I wasn’t the only one to be offended.
This is more or less what was discussed. Giving elderly the first vaccines saves the most lives. However, the elderly skew Caucasian. Front line workers, on the other hand skew more toward minorities. So, giving front line workers preference over the elderly, will result in more overall deaths, but fewer of the deaths will be minorities.
This was the CDC reasoning.
How is this not recognized as racism?
What ever happened to equal rights?
Here’s the thing. If the CDC had recommended prioritizing front line workers because we need them and they can’t easily isolate, I’d be 100% behind the decision. Instead they based the decision on skewing deaths racially. It’s the worst optics I can think of for the decision.
They are actually trying so hard to not be racist , they actually are.
Anyhow this is an easy decision for the roll-out. I am not going to say which life has more value , old, young, minority. I am going based totally on risk.
Highest risk – is front line.
Elderly are at risk - but they can stay safe in their homes… mostly.
The only group of elderly that are higher risk than the front line workers are those who exposed to front line workers… this would be nursing homes, assisted living and elderly or over 50 in prisons…
so for me its like this,
Community living in groups over 50 yrs of age. then front line workers, then comorbidity then elderly healthy.
People talk about vaccinating for community health and for protecting others… If this really were the case… There should be no rollout until they have enough for everyone… There are two reasons for this. First, everyone gets theirs and there is no unfairness , though additional lives may be lost. However, there is a more important reason to have only one unified roll out. To burn it out… If everyone gets vaxxed at the same time , it will burn the virus out… The rollout lets some get sick while not others… and then when they get to the others, the first can get sick again , and will need boosters… or we are back to square one…
I fail to see how racism figures into front line workers receiving vaccinations first. The fatality rate for hispanics and blacks is higher than whites, as far as I know. So it makes double good sense for front line workers to be vaccinated.
How a very practical move is cause for alarm is beyond my understanding.
Elderly have the highest death rate by far. Period. They should be prioritized. Making a race based decision not to prioritize the most vulnerable, knowing it will cost more lives, is some Nazi level racism.
If you cant see it, I suggest getting your eyes checked.
Front line workers= nurses, home care aides, nursing home personnel, doctors. A disproportionate number of those working with the elderly are hispanic. They are the ones who look after the old people and through implementing safety measure, such as they are, prevent infectious disease as well.
Let’s do a a little mathematical breakdown for you. If 10% of the elderly in nursing homes die, that’s grim.
If 10% of front line workers in these facilities get sick and have to take time off, standards slip and the fatality rate for the elderly goes way up, beyond 10%.
Does this make sense to you, Brushhog?
It’s good cop, bad cop. Only truly progressive politics which removes as much corporate influence as possible from governance will help. Is it possible in the U.S? Currently…no. Too much wall to wall propaganda…everywhere…as you say. It’s the air we breathe.
Ok, let’s talk racism. We know that darker-skinned people die more often from COVID due to vitamin D deficiency. Its not by a small amount either. Is COVID-19 racist? How about the sun? Vitamin-D generation. Racist? It all seems silly to talk about.
Instead, why not do the math? Figure out who dies most from COVID, and offer them vaccines. So older HCWs who have dark skin, all nursing home residents, anyone over 80, anyone with alzheimers, and the people with multiple co-morbidities. They get the vaccine first.
I mean, not addressing vitamin-D deficiency in dark-skinned people is simply absurd, especially in the high latitudes, since its super cheap to fix, but - if we talk about vaccines in isolation, and we pretend that vitamin-D isn’t a thing, then preferentially vaccinating darker skinned people in high latitudes does make sense. Their risk is just higher. Because: vitamin-D.
Last point. We should not be vaccinating smokers, independent of race. Why? It turns out, smoking is protective for COVID19. That is, if you smoke, your chances of getting COVID are cut by some huge percentage. No joke. In the link below, scroll down to Table 1 (n=74,439). Note that of the 74k cases tracked by CDC in March, only 1.3% of the patients were “current smokers”; this, while 17.2% of the US population smokes. This phenomenon has been seen worldwide.
They say its possibly about nicotine. I believe - more likely - it’s about niacin. (Niacin = Nicotinic Acid, which is formed during the smoking process by oxidation of the nicotine from the tobacco; about 100-300 micrograms per cigarette of both nicotinic acid as well as niacinamide). Turns out, Niacin also helps those long-haulers recover. It also reduces cytokines, it has anti-viral effects, among many other properties.
Anyhow - so - no vaccinating smokers. They’re already protected enough by their filthy stealth-niacin-providing habit.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6913e2.htm#T1_down
I particularly liked the photo of the 2020 Gynecological Exam.
Dr Yakub, are you a troll?
I and many other members of PP tribe live in Canada.
Your statements are such exaggerations. That’s why I think you might be a troll (recently enrolled as I notice)
I don’t think Dr Yakub is being sarcastic
Looking at the situation in the US from my vantage point (up north), I much much prefer our situation to the one prevailing south of the border.