February 26, 20214 yr 1 minute ago, Gannan said: I've been married so long, smart phones didn't exist when I was single. I had to meet women the old fashioned way. Me too.
February 26, 20214 yr 19 hours ago, DEagle7 said: The idea of going back to the dating world makes me want to vomit. JUST missed out on the dating app scene and very thankful for it. meh...the dating app scene wasn't so bad.
February 26, 20214 yr 19 hours ago, DEagle7 said: The idea of going back to the dating world makes me want to vomit. JUST missed out on the dating app scene and very thankful for it. Same here. I'm 10 years into a realtionship that I'd change some things about in an ideal world, for sure, but the prospect of actually wading through the cesspool that is contemporary dating has me all "nah, I"m good."
February 26, 20214 yr 13 minutes ago, mr_hunt said: meh...the dating app scene wasn't so bad. The problem is these dating apps are more or less just hookup scences, but they seem to have replaced dating entirely. Like, you want to hook up, fine, but if you actually want to date and get to know a person, there's no real alternative, because even if you'd rather just meet someone naturally and in-person, no one else wants to do that anymore, so you're stuck trying to find wifey by reaching into the poontang mystery bin.
February 26, 20214 yr 15 minutes ago, mr_hunt said: meh...the dating app scene wasn't so bad. Hi Carl!
February 26, 20214 yr 3 minutes ago, EaglesRocker97 said: The problem is these dating apps are more or less just hookup scences, but they seem to have replaced dating entirely. Like, you want to hook up, fine, but if you actually want to date and get to know a person, there's no real alternative, because even if you'd rather just meet someone naturally and in-person, no one else wants to do that anymore, so you're stuck trying to find wifey by reaching into the poontang mystery bin. that is true. there were a sheet-ton...sometimes literally ...of hookups...but nothing that developed into anything serious.
February 26, 20214 yr Just now, mr_hunt said: there were a crap-ton...sometimes literally ...of hookups Coprophiliac?
February 26, 20214 yr 1 minute ago, rambo said: Hi Carl! that was amazing. internet dating was entertaining as hell...oh, and i got a lot of bj's from bro-ads i had just met.
February 26, 20214 yr 1 hour ago, mr_hunt said: that was amazing. internet dating was entertaining as hell...oh, and i got a lot of bj's from bro-ads i had just met. I don't even have the energy anymore to pretend to like them enough to even go on a date for a BJ anymore lol.
February 27, 20214 yr 1 hour ago, DiPros said: More good news. Philly has more pot holes on their streets than covid cases! Kind of a low bar to reach no? Getting close to the time of year where they grate down whole streets and just leave them as one big pothole for the next 4 months.
February 27, 20214 yr On 2/26/2021 at 1:46 AM, DEagle7 said: Pretty much everyone I know who used them enjoyed it for a few months then started to hate it. It's a lot of upkeep, missed dates, weird rules etc. I'm good. Sounds like the perfect extended roadtrip type of lonngggg weekend. Do it, love it, then get out.
February 27, 20214 yr 15 hours ago, Shepard Wong said: "quite frankly, i find the bacteria on her knickers is less than on the masks ; well done well done to you"
February 28, 20214 yr After a year of trying, I was able to get Covid Test today at a Rite Aid. Still can't get an appointment for the vaccine.
February 28, 20214 yr 2/21 Update from the Doc (last week's) https://www.nothingbutthetruthmd.com/2021/02/22121-covid-19-update.html PFIZER VACCINE This week Pfizer has applied to the FDA to change its storage requirements. Based on studies performed by Pfizer, the vaccine is stable at regular freezer temperatures for at least two weeks. If the FDA approves the request, after studying the data, it will allow greater versatility in the distribution of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. This will be especially beneficial to lower income countries and more rural areas. CONVERSATIONS WITH DR. HOWARD BAUCHNER Guest: Dr. Paul Offit, World Renown Vaccinologist from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Member of the Presidential Covid Advisory Committee JAMA 2/11/21 Dr. Offit is optimistic that by March or April we will witness a substantial improvement in our Covid numbers. In the last several weeks we have seen a promising reduction in the numbers of new cases and hospitalizations despite all the angst over variants that the press is having a field day with. Dr. Offit attributes the decline in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths' to increasing levels of immunity in the population. He believes that the number of people already infected by the virus (based on antibody studies) may be off by a factor as high as four. We may therefore have as many as 100 million in this country who have been infected by the virus. Add to that the number of people who have been vaccinated (take out some number for those who have been both infected and vaccinated) and he feels we may be looking at as much as 35% of our population that is immune to Covid. Dr. Offit refers to the history of Polio, which is primarily a summer disease of children, with asymptomatic spread and infectivity similar to Covid. When immunization reached a level of around 35%, a noticeable drop became apparent in Polio transmission. The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices along with the CDC have been carefully tracking safety data on post vaccinated people and the safety record is very impressive. During the clinical trials there were 7 cases of Bell's Palsy temporally related to vaccination, causation was not proven however. There were also the allergic reactions that were causally related to vaccination. Now, with well over 100 million doses world wide, there has been no causally linked adverse complications (besides the allergic reaction) noted as yet to the vaccine. When you consider that this is the first commercial application of this technology it appears amazingly safe. In addressing the issue of variants, Dr. Offit opines that we will need to be worried (as opposed to concerned, which is his constant sate of existence) when some individual who has been previously been infected or has completed a vaccine series (he thinks that the booster shot is important) becomes infected and needs to be hospitalized. There have been a number of reports of carefully investigated cases proving a reinfection with Covid after a previous infection with Covid but none have required hospitalization. The South African/Brazilian variants, which for all intents and purposes can be considered as one, because they are so similar, have yet to cause serious infection in a patient who has been vaccinated with the J&J or mRNA vaccines, which is the goal of the vaccinologists. They do not care about symptomatic disease that does not rise to the level of acuity as to require hospitalization. The invitro studies have implied a decreased efficacy of the vaccines for these variants but invitro studies are missing important elements of the immune response that are found in vivo studies. Dr. Offit is confident that the vaccine manufacturers are already looking at the sequences of these new variants (our sequencing capacity has increased dramatically) and are preparing to construct new mRNA vaccines to deal with the variants (if it becomes necessary) which will not have to go through the same lengthy approval process as the parent vaccine. We were previously only sequencing (elucidates the structure of the virus) about 5 per thousand infections. Increased sequencing makes possible an increased surveillance for new variants. It is important to understand that the phenomena of variants is not unique to Covid-19. Experts who have studied the great Spanish Flu pandemic are certain that variants were responsible for the various phases of that pandemic. Although there were vaccines, none of them worked, and the natural immunity that developed to infection by the Spanish Flu virus was sufficient to rid the world of the Spanish Flu despite its variants. More recent surveys of vaccine acceptance have seen increasing numbers of people now willing to receive the vaccine. Manufacturers are also expanding clinical trial to include children down to age 12. Dr. Offit believes that eventually we will have clinical trials that involve children down to the age of six but no lower. It was a welcomed change of pass to listen to this interview which was confidently reassuring. This is the third or fourth time Dr. Offit has been a guest with Dr. Bauchner for an audio stream. His information and advice have always been solid, and unlike so many other "experts" he seems to consistently hit the target. It should come as no surprise to anyone that we have to wait for a sufficient supply of vaccine. Not sure why anyone thought that several billion doses of vaccine would suddenly materialize when vaccines were proven effective. The press have been singularly unhelpful along this vein and for the most part have chosen to agitate the public rather than be rational and advise patience. They thrive on blaming someone, (anyone) for something that was inevitable. If someone dropped a dose, or the wait time was long, you have read about it. I have yet to read a story about how well a vaccination center has performed. I am just happy that, for the first time in recorded history, we actually have an effective treatment for a viral pandemic. People like Paul Offit have made this possible. Some months ago I promised (for those of you who have been reading for months) that I would never again write about masks. The next article in fact is about masks and I have opted to discuss masks again because as we wait for the doses of vaccines to be manufactured the science shows more clearly than ever, that masks can save you until you get your chance at vaccination. The use and utility of wearing masks during respiratory illness is nothing new. In October and November of 1918 the use of masks is credited with the steep decline in San Francisco cases of the Spanish Flu. Compliance was greater than 90%, but it could not be sustained. "Masks were uncomfortable, inconvenient, fogged up ones spectacles, and, claimed some irate citizens, brought on attacks of neuralgia. Others of a more thoughtful cast, called masks a humiliating and unconstitutional interference with personal liberty" (Americas Forgotten Pandemic, 1989) I feel certain, despite being born 33 years after the event, that I have met some of these folks. In more modern times, masks are credited with helping to eradicate SARS which did not have an asymptomatic transmission component. MASK WEARING FOR COVID-19 PREVENTION - SUMMARY OF CDC DATA John T. Brooks, MD Chief Medical Officer of the CDC's Covid-19 Response Team JN Learning 2/10/21 Studies that investigated masking during the H1N1 Epidemic occurred near the end of the epidemic and were relatively small. Providing 50% of the study population with masks and the other 50% with no mask, the end results were minimally suggestive of benefit. Early in the Covid-19 Pandemic, Dr. Fauci and others, were not sure masks would work, when they reversed their positions about the benefit of masks they were soundly criticized by those opposed to masks. It is difficult to understand how some of these experts, many who have been around for quite some time, ignored/forgot some very old data that proved that masks would decrease contaminants from the source. The idea that infection may be related to inoculum size did not seem to merit consideration. There is now compelling evidence that community masking will reduce the spread of Covid-19. On Friday, the CDC released data on the Weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report website confirming the utility of masking. This website is open to the public, for those who would like to read the source material. Masks: 1. prevent an asymptomatic Covid patient from exhaling the virus (called the source control) 2. filter the air breathed in, but not as efficiently as it effects exhalation from the source control When the source and the receiver are both masked, protection is about 75% from regular cloth masks. Protection is more complete from higher quality masks such as surgical masks or N95 masks, approaching 100%. This was an audio stream which can be accessed for those interested in the specific investigations that have led to the recommendations that Dr. Brooks puts forth. NUMBERS VACCINATIONS - 61.3 million vaccinations have been performed. 17.9 million have received two vaccinations. This was not a great week for vaccinations. This week we only received around 6 million doses from manufacturers. From various sources that I have read this is not surprising and we should see an increase in vaccine delivery as we enter into March. DEATHS - 497,568, this week 13,149, down from 21,968 last week, a great improvement HOSPITAL BED UTILIZATION - 58,222 down from 69,283 the week before WEEKLY NEW CASES - up 1.7% but down from 2.5% the week before CASE FATALITY RATE - 1.39 % up from 1.36% from last week (this number is calculated from data published since 10/15/20) The trend for Covid transmission, hospitalizations and deaths is definitely on the decline and I expect this to continue. The greater the compliance with masking and distancing and continued administration of vaccines, the sooner this pandemic will come under control. I hope the restaurants and bars are prepared for the flood of people who are looking forward to patronizing these establishments again. Have a great day!! Live safer Be Well
February 28, 20214 yr 2/28 Update from the Doc https://www.nothingbutthetruthmd.com/2021/02/22821-covid-19-update.html PEOPLE WHO HAVE HAD COVID SHOULD GET SINGLE DOSE, STUDIES SUGGEST New York Times 2.21.21 Apoora Mandavailli Cool, pretty exciting title. If it were true. The author primarily cites two articles that were "published" on medRxIV. This is a website that preprints manuscripts that have NOT been peer reviewed. They are NOT published in reputable scientific journals and most will never be. The way "evidence based literature" (SCIENCE) is produced is difficult, painstaking, with great attention to detail. Facts are not facts just because the author says so. Medical science is produced by sending a manuscript to a Medical Journal that has an editorial review board made up of a variety of acknowledged experts. The manuscript is then reviewed by experts in the field, all data in the manuscript is reviewed, statistics are reviewed by real statisticians. The review board then elicits feedback from the reviewers. The information must be accurate, conclusions must be supported by the data and it must add something new to the world of evidence based medicine. None of the authors of the two papers state "If you have Covid you should get a single dose." Both studies are VERY small. The paper from NYU tested 13 subjects (YES, THIRTEEN) with prior Covid-19. Two patients had had Covid within 30 days. The other 11 were six months out of their Covid-19 infection and all had antibodies. ( a simple coin toss validation would not be designed with just 11 chances) In two much larger studies that were really "published", (one by the CDC) 20 to 30% of the post Covid-19 patients had non-detectable antibody levels at 60 days post infection. How is it that all eleven patients had levels more than six months out? The subjects were young and not reflective of society at large. The patients who had Covid-19 prior to vaccination reacted to the first dose similarly to patients who did not have Covid after they received the second shot. That is, the response of the Covid patients was much greater after one shot than Covid naïve patients after one shot. In the end, both groups had similar antibody levels. Did they purposely pick patients who had levels? What happens with post Covid patients who do not have detectable levels? A small boost from a very high level of antibody (which occurred in the Covid vaccination group) is still important (1.7 X 5000 = 170 X 50) as is a large boost from a low level, which is what occurs in non-Covid-19 vaccinated patients. She also states that multiple studies suggest that the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna are about 5 times less effective against the South African strain of Covid. She fails to mention that these were in vitro studies and their relevance to humans (in vivo) is questionable at this time. These in vitro studies do not account for the role of cellular immunity, and can not account for "capacity space". Dr. Paul Offit reminds us, that to date, the mRNA vaccines remain clinically effective against the South African variant. Variants are common. Polio, is an RNA virus, it appears that with early infection with one of three types of Polio virus, mostly resulting in mild or asymptomatic infections, seemed to confer life long immunity to all three subtypes. Authors and articles like this contribute to the problems our society faces in dealing with the challenges of the Covid-19 virus. This kind of faulty reporting is not unique to Cvoid-19. In April 1954, Walter Winchell, with very sloppy investigation and lack of understanding, made a reckless charge on his Sunday Radio show, almost single handedly torpedoing the upcoming field trials of the Salk Vaccine for Polio. MONOCOLONAS - Continue to be under utilized and at risk individuals continue to die without the benefit of their administration. Starting 3/2/21 distribution of the monoclonals will transition from State distribution to a direct ordering system. They will be directly available from Amerisource Bergen. Any facility in a state capable of administering these therapeutics will be able to order directly from Amerisource Bergen. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will be responsible for alerting all stakeholders of the change. The direct ordering system will allow sites to gather additional supply and receive next-day orders as necessary. This is definitely a step in the right direction. It remains for providers to channel appropriate patients to sites capable of delivering these drugs. If you know of any at risk person (criteria can be found on the CDC website) who has recently contracted Covid-19 please strongly encourage them to seek monoclonal administration. Save a life!! If you don't know how to go about it please do not hesitate to contact me. FIRST MONTH OF COVID-19 VACCINE SAFETY MONITORING- UNITED STATES, DECEMBER 14, 2020 -JANUARY 13 2021 WMMR (CDC) 2/19/21 Local and systemic reactions were common, rare reports of anaphylaxis were received. No unusual or unexpected reporting patterns were detected. Safety monitoring for these vaccines has been the most intense and comprehensive in US History utilizing the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. The CDC has conducted descriptive analysis of safety data from the first month of vaccination, including 6354 (90.8%) that were classified as non-serious, 640 (.9.2%) that were classified as serious. A total of 113 deaths temporally related to vaccination were reported, including 78 (65%) among Long Term Care Facility residents. Half of these deaths occurred in patients who were hospice or Do Not Resuscitate patients. A comprehensive review of all medical records and interviews with medical staff occurred for each of these deaths. The resulting analysis did not suggest any causal relationship between Covid-19 vaccination and death. There were rare cases of anaphylaxis: Covid -19 (4.5/million vaccinations) Flu Vaccines (1.4/million vaccinations) Pneumococcal vaccine (2.4/million vaccinations) Herpes Zoster vaccine (9.6/million vaccinations) Dr. Paul Offit says he holds his breath until the first 3 million vaccinations occur, he exhaled awhile ago, during the observation period 13,794,900 Covid-19 vaccine shots were administered. A phenomenally successful program!! SARS-CoV-2 POSITIVITY ON OR AFTER 9 DAYS AMONG QUARANTINED STUDENT CONTACTS OF CONFIRMED CASES E.J. Nelson JAMA 2-19-21 From the school district of Alachua County, Florida. Student contacts of confirmed Covid-19 cases were quarantined and offered RT-PCR testing on day to exclude students who might have been infected at the same time as the confirmed case. Testing was also offered at day 9 (sometimes delayed to day 10 - 14) Asymptomatic students who tested negative could return to school the next day. If no testing was performed 14 days of quarantine was required. Between 8-1-20 and 11-30-20 from a student body of 26,456 students, 257 students tested positive, 2189 contacts were quarantined. 134 contacts were tested on day, 14 were positive. Of 388 high school student contacts, 32 (8.2%) were positive on day 9 Of 451 elementary student contacts, 8 (1.8%) tested positive on day 9 Among 799 contacts of confirmed cases with negative tests on days 9 - 14, one became symptomatic and tested positive on day 14. His virus was genetically different than that of his contact. NUMBERS DEATHS - 511,982 (14,414, this week, up from 13,149 last week) Yes, we have exceeded 500,000 Covid-19 related deaths in the US, society owns the number. Some smart folks, early on, failing to connect the dots, mixed messages, fake news, poor leadership and a society that is willing to enforce speeding and drunk driving, but not masking and distancing, despite the fraction of morbidity and mortality associated with driving incidents compared to Covid-19 infection. Finally, failing to publicize and support Monoclonal Infusion, the only therapeutic agents with significant efficacy against early established Covid-19, resulting in preventable deaths. VACCINATION - The current pace of vaccination should not have been unexpected, if for no other reason than the supply was expectedly inadequate. When the Salk Polio vaccine was licensed for use in April of 1955, there were 9 million doses available for the public, in a regimen that required three shots per child. An inadequate supply for a highly publicized disease that effected mostly children in the summer time. As one might expect, there was a tremendous amount of finger pointing and blame liberally thrown around. Not sure why there was an expectation for the sudden appearance of an adequate supply of hundred's of millions of doses for a vaccine that was just approved the day before. (similar to today) To exacerbate the problems, doses of the vaccine produced by the Cutter Pharmaceutical were contaminated with live virus that caused many cases causally related to the vaccine, of paralytic polio, and and more than a few deaths. This became evident within the first several million vaccinations. The very good new for the Covid-19 Vaccines is that there have been over 218 million doses world wide without such causally related adverse complications. The very good news for the US is that vaccine delivery to the US will exceed 100 million doses alone in the month of March, for distribution to the states, this level of supply should continue through May. This past week we have averaged 1.65 million vaccinations per day. We now have 23.7 million people who have received two doses, and this week the government received over 21 million doses available for distribution to the states. The increased distribution will allow more vaccination sites (pharmacies for instance) to open and will offer greater supplies of vaccine to the Mega Vaccination Centers across the Country. We should be able to vaccinate two to three million folks a day. This bodes very well for a mid to late summer with minimal restrictions if any. "The resourcefulness of America, when challenged, has never failed." (HH, 1931) FDA approves J&J vaccine!! NEW WEEKLY CASES - Up 1.7%, unchanged from last week. In January we averaged 197,197 cases per day, In February about 109,511 cases per day ( a reduction of about 44%). I am hoping that by mid April we will be under 55,000 cases per day. Looking back through history, the good news is that case numbers are coming down. By 1956, as Polio cases declined dramatically, Americans thought of Polio as fully defeated and forgot how that had been accomplished. "Our main problem now, is not that anything is wrong with the Salk vaccine, but there is something wrong with the people who won't take it. (Dr. Thomas Rivers, 1956, March of Dimes) We are well aware of what happened as society ignored the science (trying to find the truth by careful observation and clear thinking) behind Covid-19 mitigation and case numbers exploded. We are so near to putting an end to this, but we need the full cooperation of everyone with mitigation just a little while longer. HOSPITAL BED UTILIZATION - 48,870, down 9,352 beds from last week CASE FATALITY RATE- continues to click up, now at 1.40% up from 1.39% last week (calculated from data generated since 10/15/20 Enjoy the rest of the day, things are looking up Live Safer Be Well
February 28, 20214 yr https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/covid-19-face-masks-community-first-update.pdf Here is an EU based study released about 10 days ago on the effectiveness of masks.
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