Some Covid updates
There may have been no officially recorded Covid deaths Sunday, but a Ste‑Justine epidemiologist says that while a decline in deaths gives reason to hope, we need to take that figure with a grain of salt because weekend numbers are often held till later. Covid numbers are also surging globally as authorities let up on lockdowns.
One study has shown that acquired immunity doesn’t last long in asymptomatic carriers. This is not great news, as Quebecers are far readier to congregate in groups than other Canadians.
Raymond Lutz 13:09 on 2020-06-23 Permalink
Hmm, the CTV title is misleading: IgC levels fell off for some symptomatic patients too. The pertinent figure is 3e: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0965-6/figures/3 . Testing in what they call ‘early convalescent phase’ was done 8 weeks after they were discharged from the hospital. We can see also they didn’t retrace all their patients: 6 individuals (over 37) are missing in each group (asymptomatic and symptomatic) so the stats are not great. But, yeah, time to sew some N95 masks, I won’t be safe for long…
qatzelok 18:15 on 2020-06-23 Permalink
My mother smoked through four pregnancies (in the 1960s) because “doctors smoke.” This demonstrates how useless “authority” is in a money-god society like ours. Authorities are the people that corporations hire to lie for them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCMzjJjuxQI
Ian 19:55 on 2020-06-23 Permalink
My mother was also pregnant with me in the 60s but didn’t smoke.
But let’s be honest, nobody smoked because doctors said it was okay, they smoked because they were addicted, and only kept reassuring themselves – even though we all knew it wasn’t good for us – because people like your mother allowed themselves to put more faith in advertising than common sense. Or maybe she was that gullible? Talking to people of my parents’ and grandparents’ generation, nobody thought smoking was “healthy”. It was more socially acceptable, but like drinking while pregnant, people knew it wasn’t a good idea without having to read a scientific journal or for that matter, refer to ads.
It’s interesting to see that your conspiracy theory tendencies are so Freudian, though – thanks for sharing that!
MarcG 09:14 on 2020-06-24 Permalink
Damn, people are really coming out swinging in Covid Month #4, that was hilairious but harsh.
Chris 14:14 on 2020-06-24 Permalink
>But let’s be honest, nobody smoked because doctors said it was okay, they smoked because they were addicted
Those aren’t mutually exclusive. Many did think it was pretty harmless, what with everyone doing it, and yes partly because of some doctors pushing it. An analogy today would be the opioid epidemic, with plenty of unscrupulous doctors pushing pain pills (for kickbacks), leading plenty of patients to think it was safe. But in fact it’s addictive and dangerous.
>they were addicted, and only kept reassuring themselves – even though we all knew it wasn’t good for us – because people like your mother allowed themselves to put more faith in advertising than common sense. Or maybe she was that gullible?
Also reminds me of our automobile addiction. We just keep reassuring ourselves it’s ok, everyone drives, yeah, it pollutes, but hey, gotta get around. Those ads show open roads and freedom! I guess motorists are that gullible?
Ian 21:58 on 2020-06-24 Permalink
Yes, yes, you hate cars, this was not a conversation about that.
Congratulations on finding a way turn this conversation back to your bête noir. Are there any childhood traumas we should know about, or are you just the sort of person that is tiresome at parties?
Raymond Lutz 06:31 on 2020-06-25 Permalink
Geez, thanks for staying on topic… I known wandering around is the joy of freewheeling conversations but you’re just bitching each other. Freud? Authority? Advertising? Money-God? Childhood traumas?
Speaking of smoking (eh, got to play too!) I doubt people thought smoking was bad and no, it wasn’t common sense. Remember, people once used radon toothpaste.
“nobody thought smoking was healthy” is not the same as “people knew it wasn’t a good idea [was unhealthy]”.
As always I try to find a source for my affirmation (other than my grandparents), all I found for popular opinion about smoking is from Merchants of doubt: “Nowadays, even a kid could tell you that smoking kills. But this now well-known fact was not such common knowledge in the second half of the twentieth century. It’s shocking now, but plenty of people had no idea about smoking’s adverse health effects.” source.
It’s like 5G: some decades from now, everyone will KNOW that it caused COVID-19 (and you’ll tell your grandchildren it was common sense but it was so cool to watch streamed 8K on your Retina QLED iPad away from home).