Muh Muh Muh My Corona (virus)

That's interesting but two reasons why it won't be as effective if we did it that way
1) the biggest reason for the shutdowns is to show the spread to reduce the strain on medical facilities. If we do this in reverse order, the people most at risk of going to the hospital and maxing out facilities will still be in they boat. But wouldn't inoculating the healthiest slow the spread enough that wouldn't happen?
2) the effectiveness of one dose is about 50/50 or 60/40 (about the same as the flu vaccines). That means there's still enough of it going around to hit those who were going to have problems will get it.

Actually giving it to those who need it most first means we can start relaxing the most strict of regulations without it being a strain on hospitals.

 

I can't really say it's a hoot so much as it's a source of worry. Teachers are seen as expendable resources instead of degreed professionals. Even before the pandemic, it was maddening to read and hear some of the things that have been said about educators.

 

That was essentially the crux of the WaPost story I posted the other day. There were stories of people who were a combined $5K behind on rent and utilities and that once the moratorium was up, they were going to be out on their ass. One woman already had three eviction notices posted on her door. It also went into how this will destroy said peoples' credit for years to come, and they were going to have trouble getting anyone to rent to them in the future because of poor rental/payment history. It's a fine mess, for sure. And yes, I see the landlord angle as well.

 

I think there are still plenty of eviction moratoriums at the local and state level, but I worry that this all spirals out of control even as the vaccine circulates.

 

I don't know as I'd get too worried about this (seeing as there are so many other things one might worry about) ...

NMHC Rent Payment Tracker

"Behind on rent" numbers don't strike me as all that out of whack.

 

it’s easy to mistake cumulative choice for inevitability when you’ve never lived outside of it

 

LOL ... some people dream of things that never were yada yada ...

 

Let's hope.

 

From "Life, the Universe, and Everything," by Douglas Adams:

"Oh well," he said with resignation, "I was just hoping there would be some sort of reason."

"Do you know," said Prak, "the story of the Reason?"

Arthur said that he didn't, and Prak said that he knew that he didn't.

He told it.

One night, he said, a spaceship appeared in the sky of a planet which had never seen one before. The planet was Dalforsas, the ship was this one. It appeared as a brilliant new star moving silently across the heavens.

Primitive tribesmen who were sitting huddled on the Cold Hillsides looked up from their steaming night-drinks and pointed with trembling fingers, swearing that they had seen a sign, a sign from their gods which meant that they must now arise at last and go and slay the evil Princes of the Plains.

In the high turrets of their palaces, the Princes of the Plains looked up and saw the shining star, and received it unmistakably as a sign from their gods that they must now go and set about the accursed Tribesmen of the Cold Hillsides.

And between them, the Dwellers in the Forest looked up into the sky and saw the sigh of the new star, and saw it with fear and apprehension, for though they had never seen anything like it before, they too knew precisely what it foreshadowed, and they bowed their heads in despair.

They knew that when the rains came, it was a sign.

When the rains departed, it was a sign.

When the winds rose, it was a sign.

When the winds fell, it was a sign.

When in the land there was born at midnight of a full moon a goat with three heads, that was a sign.

When in the land there was born at some time in the afternoon a perfectly normal cat or pig with no birth complications at all, or even just a child with a retrousse nose, that too would often be taken as a sign.

So there was no doubt at all that a new star in the sky was a sign of a particularly spectacular order.

And each new sign signified the same thing - that the Princes of the Plains and the Tribesmen of the Cold Hillsides were about to beat the hell out of each other again.

This in itself wouldn't be so bad, except that the Princes of the Plains and the Tribesmen of the Cold Hillsides always elected to beat the hell out of each other in the Forest, and it was always the Dwellers in the Forest who came off worst in these exchanges, though as far as they could see it never had anything to do with them.

And sometimes, after some of the worst of these outrages, the Dwellers in the Forest would send a messenger to either the leader of the Princes of the Plains or the leader of the Tribesmen of the Cold Hillsides and demand to know the reason for
this intolerable behaviour.

And the leader, whichever one it was, would take the messenger aside and explain the Reason to him, slowly and carefully and with great attention to the considerable detail involved.

And the terrible thing was, it was a very good one. It was very clear, very rational, and tough. The messenger would hang his head and feel sad and foolish that he had not realized what a tough and complex place the real world was, and what difficulties and paradoxes had to be embraced if one was to live in it.

"Now do you understand?" the leader would say.

The messenger would nod dumbly.

"And you see these battles have to take place?"

Another dumb nod.

"And why they have to take place in the forest, and why it is in everybody's best interest, the Forest Dwellers included, that they should?"

"Er ..."

"In the long run."

"Er, yes."

And the messenger did understand the Reason, and he returned to his people in the Forest. But as he approached them, as he walked through the Forest and amongst the trees, he found that all he could remember of the Reason was how terribly clear the argument had seemed. What it actually was he couldn't remember at all.

And this, of course, was a great comfort when next the Tribesmen and the Princes came hacking and burning their way through the Forest, killing every Forest Dweller in their way.

 

I think the common perception is that the surge in cases is just due to idiots being morons and not giving a crap, but is there something more behind the surge? Does the cooler weather depress our immune systems and ability to ward off the virus? Or allow the virus to linger indoors longer? I mean shoot - people are just being dumb.