The Daily Thread

[atomtengeralattjaro]

Routines can be appealing indeed.

What about rotini?

mmmmm
I like a rotini routine
a pasta pattern
a spaghetti schedule

[Froggychum]

I'm so happy ))

Today I finally set up my brand new GOD PC ))

poggers. it's been gathering dust for 4 months.

[atomtengeralattjaro]

Congrats! Buying a good PC in the Big Chip Shortage must be expensive...
but it feels nice to have a fast machine I guess

[Ml08180]

The Great Chip Deficit has been standing between me and the parts I need for months

[Froggychum]

Once upon a time, in a far away ye olde kingdom of Norde Amarika, it has been two thousand years since the death of The Saint, and a terrible plague has spread upon thy kingdom....

The evil dragon n'Vydi-Jha'a has hoarded all of thy kingdom's magitech crystals, resulting in a kingdomwide shortage.

Only the Chosen One can stop him...

[atomtengeralattjaro]

Today I got stabbed by a syringe in my arm and that makes me happy.

[Froggychum]

that's a weird way to describe vaccinations.

accurate tho

[Greyson]

I can't wait to get the vaccine myself, but I'm not in line to receive it yet.
Eventually though!

Had plans to meet a online friend of almost 4 years but then the pandemic hit.

[Froggychum]

Damn, sorry about that. Hopefully you two can get together once you're both cleared

As for me, I am in no rush to get vaccinated. Simply because I have no plans whatsoever, not because I'm not eager to no longer have to worry about this shitty virus/disease.

Apparently though, I've heard that the majority of strains of covid are variants now, so unfortunately by the time the vaccine has been given to everyone, the virus will have fully mutated several times to be immune to the stuff.

Basically, it's starting to look like Covid will become something we all just live with forever, basically like the Common Cold or Influenza. I suppose those government assholes should have better heeded the warnings of smarter people when they warned of 'superbugs' for years and years.

I don't know much beyond that, hopefully it just means we'll all have to wear masks for the rest of human history, and not that we will never be able to leave the house ever again without possibly contracting one or more strains of the virus and killing ourselves and our families.

TL;DR - The future is grim

[Greyson]

I looked into it and supposedly the vaccine (at least the mRNA vaccines) does prove quite effective in combating the mutations as well, because the main core of the virus doesn't change (citation needed). Futhermore, even when you get down with the virus after getting your shots you are still protected from the severe to deadly symptoms.

I knew that covid19 would end up becoming endemic (that's what "the virus stays" was called in smart, right?) after it's wide spread throughout Africa. Their medical infrastructure just isn't made to deal with the problems we give them.

[atomtengeralattjaro]

The future is grim

Hard disagree there in general, but we'll see I guess.

As for vaccine efficacy, the important bit is the efficacy against severe illness / hospitalization, which is not the numbers that usually get thrown around (i know, confusing communication).

In any case, getting an imperfect shot ASAP helps slow the spread of the virus (and keeps hospitals from being overwhelmed), and maybe we'll be getting better booster shots in a year or so to completely immunize against all variants. The only sane arguments against this are based on some kind of fear of side effects that are usually just overblown nonsense. As for the insane arguments, no, the virus doesn't learn to mutate to be better against a vaccine due to vaccinations, quite the opposite. It gets to be better because we let it, by not getting vaccinated and letting it spread some more. The more it spreads, the more it can mutate.

I probably got a sub-par vaccine (it's Russian, and there is very little info about it and people have been worried, but countless countries have ordered a bunch anyway). But I'm not worried. I know it's probably not greatly effective against the South African or Brazilian variants, but it's way better than nothing for now.

[Ml08180]

I'm scheduled for my second dose next Friday, I'm really ready for it

In any case, getting an imperfect shot ASAP helps slow the spread of the virus (and keeps hospitals from being overwhelmed), and maybe we'll be getting better booster shots in a year or so to completely immunize against all variants. The only sane arguments against this are based on some kind of fear of side effects that are usually just overblown nonsense. As for the insane arguments, no, the virus doesn't learn to mutate to be better against a vaccine due to vaccinations, quite the opposite. It gets to be better because we let it, by not getting vaccinated and letting it spread some more. The more it spreads, the more it can mutate.

Absolutely this. The more people that get it, the faster the spread will end and the less likely we are to see further variants arise in the first place.

Also, just throwing it out there for any US posters: major pharmacy chains like Walgreens and CVS will let you come in and get the shot if they've had any cancellations, regardless of your state's guidelines*. When they take the doses out of the freezer, they have to be used that day, so if someone doesn't show for an appointment they'll give it to anyone that shows up. If you're one of the people worried about "taking a vaccine from someone who needs it" (which is a whole suitcase I'm not going to unpack in this post), those vaccines will be completely wasted if unused so you should look into it.

*in most states, at the time of writing this

[Froggychum]

In any case, getting an imperfect shot ASAP helps slow the spread of the virus (and keeps hospitals from being overwhelmed), and maybe we'll be getting better booster shots in a year or so to completely immunize against all variants. The only sane arguments against this are based on some kind of fear of side effects that are usually just overblown nonsense. As for the insane arguments, no, the virus doesn't learn to mutate to be better against a vaccine due to vaccinations, quite the opposite. It gets to be better because we let it, by not getting vaccinated and letting it spread some more. The more it spreads, the more it can mutate.

I had no idea this was the truth. To be clear, I wasn't trying to dissuade anyone from getting whatever vaccinations they could; but I suppose my attitude isn't exactly encouraging, and it turns out is based on incorrect assumptions!

Thanks for the better information! I thought for sure that viruses could mutate against vaccines, so I'm relieved to learn it doesn't work that way.

[atomtengeralattjaro]

I'm no expert but I think it works that way and I've been trying to pay attention to experts. But all I have is a semi-educated guess.
So, here's my guess:

• scenario 1: the virus spreads in a population and there is no vaccine -> the virus will mutate randomly, sometimes to spread better, sometimes to be less deadly (it's not actually "good" for the virus to kill its host, at least not quickly), but it will generally get worse, and of course healthcare systems can't take that workload
• scerario 2: some people are vaxxed, while some are not, and they mingle -> the virus will mutate like in scenario 1, but it will also encounter vaccinated people and eventually evolve more vaccine-resistant variants
• scenario 3: most people get vaccinated quickly -> the virus doesn't have time to mutate into more resistant variants, and communities develop herd immunity so the virus barely gets anywhere anymore

So while I'm not sure we can eradicate the bastard, I'm sure that vaccine scientists will more than keep up with it, as viruses are pretty dumb and don't know what they're doing. And messenger-RNA is a pretty smart thing, it's basically programming for your cells that can tell your cells what kinds of proteins to build, I think that's pretty badass. We'll get through this.

[Froggychum]

nonchalantly changes topics

so whats the deal with airline food?

[removed]

deleted

[Froggychum]

what

[Shai'tan]

The future is grim

Hard disagree there in general, but we'll see I guess.

As for vaccine efficacy, the important bit is the efficacy against severe illness / hospitalization, which is not the numbers that usually get thrown around (i know, confusing communication).

In any case, getting an imperfect shot ASAP helps slow the spread of the virus (and keeps hospitals from being overwhelmed), and maybe we'll be getting better booster shots in a year or so to completely immunize against all variants. The only sane arguments against this are based on some kind of fear of side effects that are usually just overblown nonsense. As for the insane arguments, no, the virus doesn't learn to mutate to be better against a vaccine due to vaccinations, quite the opposite. It gets to be better because we let it, by not getting vaccinated and letting it spread some more. The more it spreads, the more it can mutate.

I probably got a sub-par vaccine (it's Russian, and there is very little info about it and people have been worried, but countless countries have ordered a bunch anyway). But I'm not worried. I know it's probably not greatly effective against the South African or Brazilian variants, but it's way better than nothing for now.

Yup, this is true. Also, I think the Russian variant is probably very close to the Moderna vaccine (so be aware of blod clots I guess).

I'm no expert but I think it works that way and I've been trying to pay attention to experts. But all I have is a semi-educated guess.
So, here's my guess:

• scenario 1: the virus spreads in a population and there is no vaccine -> the virus will mutate randomly, sometimes to spread better, sometimes to be less deadly (it's not actually "good" for the virus to kill its host, at least not quickly), but it will generally get worse, and of course healthcare systems can't take that workload
• scerario 2: some people are vaxxed, while some are not, and they mingle -> the virus will mutate like in scenario 1, but it will also encounter vaccinated people and eventually evolve more vaccine-resistant variants
• scenario 3: most people get vaccinated quickly -> the virus doesn't have time to mutate into more resistant variants, and communities develop herd immunity so the virus barely gets anywhere anymore

So while I'm not sure we can eradicate the bastard, I'm sure that vaccine scientists will more than keep up with it, as viruses are pretty dumb and don't know what they're doing. And messenger-RNA is a pretty smart thing, it's basically programming for your cells that can tell your cells what kinds of proteins to build, I think that's pretty badass. We'll get through this.

I saw someone doing the numbers on contagion vs deadliness, which was interesting; say the virus infects 10000 people / month, assuming 0.8% deadliness and an R number of 1.1, it will kill 129 in a month. If the deadliness was increased by 50% it would kill 193 people each month. If the contagion rate is increased by 50% it would kill 978 people in a month.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to getting my vaccine, though probably not until summer time. It's really cool what they've been able to do with the mRNA vaccines too.

nonchalantly changes topics

so whats the deal with airline food?

It's really horrible.

[atomtengeralattjaro]

I think the Russian variant is probably very close to the Moderna vaccine (so be aware of blod clots I guess).

Don't you mean AstraZeneca? (Moderna is mRNA)
Yeah, I try not to have a blood clot. I tell my blood every morning not to clot. My blood is like "I'll try!"

nonchalantly changes topics

but I wasn't done overexplaining something I have no expertise in!
(jk I was done)

so whats the deal with airline food?

I don't have much experience with airline food, I'm not much of a frequent flyer. Turkish Airlines had pretty OK food six years ago, but it wasn't much.

[Ml08180]

so whats the deal with airline food?

Being in an airplane can decrease your ability to discern tastes and smells by up to 30% due to a combination of altitude and overall dryness of the air in planes.

Today I tried spicy pickled brussels sprouts, and I give them a solid 9/10. Three points were awarded for crunch, four for savoriness, and two for sheer delight. One point was withheld for being Too Damn Hot.