August 21, 2021

I think full FDA approval is going to make a real difference.

From what I've read, a lot of employers, including health care providers, have been reluctant to mandate vaccination prior to full FDA approval. Once that excuse no longer exists, we'll soon find out who means business. At that point, I predict that we will see more and more vaccine mandates for employment, use of public facilities, etclb.

Of course, there will be some holdouts who have been using FDA approval as an excuse to avoid enacting mandates that they really don't want to have to enforce, but we'll find out who those are as well. And as vaccination becomes a requirement for more and more things, the antivaxx diehards will find that they've painted themselves into a corner that will get progressively smaller as time goes on When they find a constantly growing number of doors closed to them, only a dwindling number of the most fanatical will continue to hold out.

At least that is what I devoutly hope will happen. Time, as they say, will tell.

August 21, 2021

I suspect you would be right about that.

After all, we now know that TFG's administration deliberately screwed up the visa approval process (or whatever you call it) for Afghans who knew they were going to need to get out when the Americans left. They had all kinds of time to plan for this, but it looks like their only goals for the transition were:

1. Get out of Afghanistan.
2. Let as few of those brown Muslim Afghans as possible into the US.

Anyone who thinks the previous administration would have willingly given asylum to a single one of the afghans who helped us over there is as delusional as the Mango Maniac himself.

August 17, 2021

Ask Amy: My grandson told me he wasn't putting poison in his blood for our peace of mind

You know that dealing with irrational antivax relatives is a common problem when it starts showing up in advice columns! I saw this letter in Ask Amy recently and thought a lot of you would be able to relate.

Ask Amy runs in a lot of different newspapers. The source for this post is here: https://www.masslive.com/opinion/2021/08/ask-amy-my-grandson-told-me-he-wasnt-putting-poison-in-his-blood-for-our-peace-of-mind.html

This letter and reply are only part of the column, so i assume posting both in here will not be an egregious copyright violation.

Ask Amy: My grandson told me he wasn’t putting poison in his blood for our peace of mind

Posted Aug 09, 2021
By Amy Dickinson

Dear Amy: My 27-year-old grandson, who is getting married, called me up screaming at the top of his lungs saying I was a Republican and Nazi, that I am dead to him and to “F-off” — all because his grandfather (my husband) asked our daughter (his mother) if they got vaccinated.

This was a concern because we are flying across the country and I am supposed to officiate his wedding. Plus, his grandpa is very concerned for them. He told me he wasn’t putting poison in his blood for our peace of mind.

What the Hell am I supposed to do?

I tried calming him down to explain, but his rage was beyond any reasoning.

As of now we will still be going, but not attending the wedding.

My daughter acts like this is normal behavior and he’ll come around.

I don’t know if I will.

– Grandma H

Dear Grandma: Who talks like this? Who talks like this to his own grandmother?

If I were you, I wouldn’t wait for him to “come around.” Everything else aside, his rage does not make him a safe person to be around. Rebook your trip to a more pleasant destination.

================

I don't have anything to add, except to say I agree with Amy, and I sympathize greatly with this Grandma and anyone else who is dealing with these issues in their own famili3s

August 14, 2021

NO.

Getting "ruthless" is NOT an appropriate solution to this problem. Denying care to non-vaxxers would be a gross (in every sense of the word) violation of ethical principles doctors and nurses have sworn to uphold.

The minute it becomes acceptable to deny needed medical care to someone for a reason like refusing vaccination, where is the line going to be drawn? If you start denying care for one reason, you open the door to denying it for other reasons, and who gets to decide which reasons are acceptable and which ones aren't?

Believe me, that is a Pandora's box that none of us should ever even consider opening. The ramifications are horrifying. Anyone who thinks this is a good idea needs to read up on medical ethics. Here's a nice, succinct summary to help you get started: https://clipboardhealth.com/how-the-4-principles-of-health-care-ethics-improve-patient-care

P.S. Because of this country's refusal to adopt the principle that access to health care is a basic human right, many Americans are denied access to health care (or have to settle for substandard care) for financial reasons all the time. That is unacceptable and just plain wrong, and it needs to change. It's also a separate issue from deliberately denying care because of someone's lifestyle choices.

August 13, 2021

If only the Republican Party would just DIE already! 😡

As a political party, I mean. (Unlike Republican politicians, I have no desire to actually kill off human beings.)

I keep reading that the GOP is "shattered," "crumbling," "dead," etc., etc. But it's obviously still very much here, throwing wrenches in bills Democrats are trying to pass in Congress, working feverishly in state legislatures to enact voter suppression laws, sitting in red state governors' mansions issuing edicts against things like mask mandates that might actually help stop the spread of covid, and on and on. It's become nothing but a force for authoritarianism, death, and evil, a real life troll blocking the bridges to progress that Democrats are trying to erect, and I am sick of it, especially when I remmad an article like this one.

The problem isn't that the GOP is dead. The problem is that it's taking way too damned long to die, and it's trying to take our democracy with it!

August 9, 2021

I agree.

I'm plenty disgusted with the antimasking, antivaxxing covidiots, and I understand where these sentiments are coming from, but I can't get behind them, for the reasons you've articulated.

In addition, I think these types of comments display a massive lack of understanding of how medical ethics work.

Maybe I'm a bit idealistic, but I always thought being a health care professional meant caring for those who need care, period, not just picking and choosing who to care for, based on some sort of "deservability" criteria. The minute someone is denied care because the reason they are in need of it is deemed to negate their "deserving" it, we will all be in very deep trouble. That is not a world I want to live in.

August 6, 2021

Why people are so mad in airplanes and in stores right now

A Harvard psychologist explains the rise in passengers getting violent on airplanes and customers abusing retail workers: People have reached 'a boiling point'

- Passenger violence on airplanes is spiking and retail workers are experiencing customer harassment.
- Fear and anxiety activates the fight-or-flight part of our brain, a Harvard psychologist said.
- Now, after a year and a half of being on edge, many people are reaching a "boiling point."

Violence on airplanes is spiking. Retail and fast-food workers say they're being harassed and assaulted. And small business owners report experiencing frustrated customers whose patience has evaporated.

All of this behavior is the result of a year and a half of fear and anxiety, according to Luana Marques, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

"We've been skating thin ice in the past year, and if the weight [becomes] too much, the ice cracks. I think that's what we're seeing," she said.

https://www.businessinsider.com/violence-on-airplanes-in-stores-explained-harvard-psychologist-2021-7

No comments to add, except to say I found this to be a very interesting read, and I think it makes a lot of sense!

August 4, 2021

I just don't understand this obsession of GQP governors with FORBIDDING local mask mandates.

It's one thing to refuse to enact a statewide mask mandate, but going to such lengths to prevent local governments, school systems, etc. from making decisions for their own localities seems like a whole extrw level of crazy, as well as an unnecessary power grab.

Of course, I don't understand much of anything about the way these red state governors have responded (or failed to respond) to the pandemic, but this particular aspect baffles me almost more than anything else. There's something so perverse about it. It's like these governors are saying, "I'm not just going to PASSIVELY stand by and let the people of my state infect each other with a deadly disease; I'm also going to ACTIVELY make damned sure nobody else can stop them from doing it. WTAF?

August 4, 2021

Read the damned report already.

You are making statements based on what is obviously a complete lack of information.

August 2, 2021

I would definitely freak out if that happened to me.

I have very few phobias, but one that's a whopper: being so closely confined that I can't move freely. I found this out years ago when I had to have an mri on my knee. When asked if I was claustrophobic I said "No" without hesitation. I've never had a problem with elevators or enclosed spaces where I could actually move around, which is what I thought claustrophia meant. Well, boy howdy, was I wrong! When they stuffed me in that tube, with my arms pinned to my sides and the ceiling a few inches from my face, the feeling of panic was unreal.

I felt like I was literally being buried alive. (Yes, I know that's irrational. That's why it's called a phobia!) The only reason I managed to get through it was because they were doing my knee, so I didn't have to have my head all the way inside. If I'd had to go any further, I'd have had to nope the fuck out of there. As it was, I was just barely able to tolerate it long enough to get the damned thing done. I will never have an mri again unless it's the open kind, OR if I can be fully sedated. Maybe both, lol.

I haven't been on a plane since 1992, and it was cramped then. After reading your description of what it's like to sit behind somebody with their seat reclined, DFW, I'm not sure I ever want to fly again, unless I win the lottery and can afford to go first class. "A fully reclined seat, even if only in coach, so really only partially reclined, still means the passenger in back of it is trapped in place and can‘t get in or out" literally sounds like my idea of torture. If American is really that much worse than all the other airlines, I will for sure avoid THEM if I do need to fly.