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The coronavirus

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    SpunkieSpunkie I come from downtown. Posts: 5,922
    edited January 2021
    Reading, the 4 airports only now includes the US who had more options before.

    Edit: I guess the travel restrictions aimed at keeping variants out overshadowed the fact that Massachusett's just f@cked Canada out of their Moderna vaccine timeline.
    Post edited by Spunkie on
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    dankinddankind I am not your foot. Posts: 20,827
    tish said:
    Reading, the 4 airports only now includes the US who had more options before.

    Edit: I guess the travel restrictions aimed at keeping variants out overshadowed the fact that Massachusett's just f@cked Canada out of their Moderna vaccine timeline.
    :whistle:
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    Just curious what some of your thoughts are on the media's reporting of the pandemic? I've always been pro journalism but really, what the hell is going on? Do they enjoy having this grip on peoples lives? I've noticed a trend in which you'll see days where they promote a hopefully vision, then immediately followed the next day by doomsday scenarios. Back and forth, back and forth all while the actual status of the pandemic has changed little since late November. Clearly it has become a game in which they play on peoples emotions. I think most of us understand this is going to be LONG road to recovery. Most of us wear masks, distance and have accepted things are going to suck for a while. Those in the hoax crowd are not going to change course because the news keeps beating a dead horse. Take today for instance, J&J releases vaccine trial results showing ZERO of their 44,000 participants contracted a case of Covid severe enough to be hospitalized. Great news right? Go read various headlines right now and tell me that's how it's being spun. A trial that was done in much more realistic conditions than Moderna or Pfizer. They even had the balls to go to South Africa and test it on the scariest known variant. The results come back exceptional and the media spins them as poor. Meanwhile every allergic reaction is a headline. Does mainstream media benefit if the pandemic rages on another two years? Is this the logic behind their clearly jaded reporting? As someone who drifts around the dial for various viewpoints it's become obvious the media has a stake in this pandemic. To the point where they can control the narrative, regardless of what data science actually provides us with, good or bad. 
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    SpunkieSpunkie I come from downtown. Posts: 5,922
    edited January 2021
    .
    Post edited by Spunkie on
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    oftenreadingoftenreading Victoria, BC Posts: 12,844
    Just curious what some of your thoughts are on the media's reporting of the pandemic? I've always been pro journalism but really, what the hell is going on? Do they enjoy having this grip on peoples lives? I've noticed a trend in which you'll see days where they promote a hopefully vision, then immediately followed the next day by doomsday scenarios. Back and forth, back and forth all while the actual status of the pandemic has changed little since late November. Clearly it has become a game in which they play on peoples emotions. I think most of us understand this is going to be LONG road to recovery. Most of us wear masks, distance and have accepted things are going to suck for a while. Those in the hoax crowd are not going to change course because the news keeps beating a dead horse. Take today for instance, J&J releases vaccine trial results showing ZERO of their 44,000 participants contracted a case of Covid severe enough to be hospitalized. Great news right? Go read various headlines right now and tell me that's how it's being spun. A trial that was done in much more realistic conditions than Moderna or Pfizer. They even had the balls to go to South Africa and test it on the scariest known variant. The results come back exceptional and the media spins them as poor. Meanwhile every allergic reaction is a headline. Does mainstream media benefit if the pandemic rages on another two years? Is this the logic behind their clearly jaded reporting? As someone who drifts around the dial for various viewpoints it's become obvious the media has a stake in this pandemic. To the point where they can control the narrative, regardless of what data science actually provides us with, good or bad. 

    As said earlier (maybe in a different thread; if so, my apologies), science reporting is generally terrible. The majority of media outlets don't know how to accurately report on scientific findings in a balanced way, so they naturally revert to their usual go-to of seizing on the most worrisome or outlandish aspect of a story. 

    The media benefits whenever there is a big story, and this pandemic has provided us with a story of operatic proportions, careering between dismal lows and excited highs. Get your data elsewhere.
    my small self... like a book amongst the many on a shelf
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    At this point many lives depend on the  media doing an honest job. They can't seem to, so many won't  take vaccines purely on media spin. This will kill people and prolong  this whole clusterfuck.   I'm finding  it hard to see the light
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    23scidoo23scidoo Thessaloniki,Greece Posts: 18,730
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    hedonisthedonist standing on the edge of forever Posts: 24,524
    23scidoo said:
    Heartbreaking.
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    23scidoo23scidoo Thessaloniki,Greece Posts: 18,730
    hedonist said:
    I will not be suprised if something like that comes in our countrys..
    Athens 2006. Dusseldorf 2007. Berlin 2009. Venice 2010. Amsterdam 1 2012. Amsterdam 1+2 2014. Buenos Aires 2015.
    Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
    EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.

    I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
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    dignindignin Posts: 9,304
    https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/30/health/variants-arrival-future-whats-next/index.html

    A new forecast from the University of Washington's pandemic forecasting team is frightening. Even in a best-case scenario, close to another 200,000 Americans are likely to die between now and May 1.
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    23scidoo23scidoo Thessaloniki,Greece Posts: 18,730
    Why he is laughing??

    https://youtu.be/XykHjJbwtJE
    Athens 2006. Dusseldorf 2007. Berlin 2009. Venice 2010. Amsterdam 1 2012. Amsterdam 1+2 2014. Buenos Aires 2015.
    Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
    EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.

    I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
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    23scidoo23scidoo Thessaloniki,Greece Posts: 18,730
    Athens 2006. Dusseldorf 2007. Berlin 2009. Venice 2010. Amsterdam 1 2012. Amsterdam 1+2 2014. Buenos Aires 2015.
    Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
    EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.

    I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
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    Lerxst1992Lerxst1992 Posts: 6,220
    edited January 2021
    Just curious what some of your thoughts are on the media's reporting of the pandemic? I've always been pro journalism but really, what the hell is going on? Do they enjoy having this grip on peoples lives? I've noticed a trend in which you'll see days where they promote a hopefully vision, then immediately followed the next day by doomsday scenarios. Back and forth, back and forth all while the actual status of the pandemic has changed little since late November. Clearly it has become a game in which they play on peoples emotions. I think most of us understand this is going to be LONG road to recovery. Most of us wear masks, distance and have accepted things are going to suck for a while. Those in the hoax crowd are not going to change course because the news keeps beating a dead horse. Take today for instance, J&J releases vaccine trial results showing ZERO of their 44,000 participants contracted a case of Covid severe enough to be hospitalized. Great news right? Go read various headlines right now and tell me that's how it's being spun. A trial that was done in much more realistic conditions than Moderna or Pfizer. They even had the balls to go to South Africa and test it on the scariest known variant. The results come back exceptional and the media spins them as poor. Meanwhile every allergic reaction is a headline. Does mainstream media benefit if the pandemic rages on another two years? Is this the logic behind their clearly jaded reporting? As someone who drifts around the dial for various viewpoints it's become obvious the media has a stake in this pandemic. To the point where they can control the narrative, regardless of what data science actually provides us with, good or bad. 

    The media reported that J and Js vaccine was 72% effective in the US and 57% in South Africa. There is basic math demonstrated by these facts and not sure how much is being left to interpretation. The media also reported that this vaccine has shown promise for preventing serious disease, even with this dangerous variant. The media cautioned that it may be too early to know for sure to what extent , since this variant is relatively new, and serious disease and death are lagging indicators. Since This variant is new, the first two vaccines were tested before this mutation was widely known or understood. Drawing conclusions on this reporting speaks volumes as to how difficult it will be for Americans and the world to recover from Trumps aggressive attack on facts and news.

    Americans have been subject to five years of a dangerous and what turned out to be a deadly assault on the American media. I see no harm understanding the basic facts outlined by the media of this new vaccine. Whether Americans can recover from the deadly dangers of trumps misinformation on the media remains to be seen.  

    ....

    Edit, Wikipedia,
    The 501Y.V2 variant, also known as 20H/501Y.V2 (formerly 20C/501Y.V2), B.1.351 lineage[1] and South African COVID-19 variant,[2] is a variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The variant was first detected in the Nelson Mandela Bay[3] metropolitan area of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa[4] and reported by the country's health department on 18 December 2020.[5]

    The study of BNT162b2 (Pfizer vaccine) is a continuous-phase trial in Phase III as of November 2020

    ...

    The data reported by the media regarding the efficacy of the first two vaccines is based on phase III trials before the variant was reported by health authorities in South Africa.

    ”realistic conditions” will be subject to change for quite some time.

    it’s important to remember that this is still a novel virus and it’s still in its infancy. But media blaming is where we are at.

    Post edited by Lerxst1992 on
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    brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 40,920
    Just curious what some of your thoughts are on the media's reporting of the pandemic? I've always been pro journalism but really, what the hell is going on? Do they enjoy having this grip on peoples lives? I've noticed a trend in which you'll see days where they promote a hopefully vision, then immediately followed the next day by doomsday scenarios. Back and forth, back and forth all while the actual status of the pandemic has changed little since late November. Clearly it has become a game in which they play on peoples emotions. I think most of us understand this is going to be LONG road to recovery. Most of us wear masks, distance and have accepted things are going to suck for a while. Those in the hoax crowd are not going to change course because the news keeps beating a dead horse. Take today for instance, J&J releases vaccine trial results showing ZERO of their 44,000 participants contracted a case of Covid severe enough to be hospitalized. Great news right? Go read various headlines right now and tell me that's how it's being spun. A trial that was done in much more realistic conditions than Moderna or Pfizer. They even had the balls to go to South Africa and test it on the scariest known variant. The results come back exceptional and the media spins them as poor. Meanwhile every allergic reaction is a headline. Does mainstream media benefit if the pandemic rages on another two years? Is this the logic behind their clearly jaded reporting? As someone who drifts around the dial for various viewpoints it's become obvious the media has a stake in this pandemic. To the point where they can control the narrative, regardless of what data science actually provides us with, good or bad. 

    Journalism in general is but a shadow of what it once was.  Mark Twain once said, "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story."  So many of today's journalists probably don't see the irony in that or understand that Twain was being satirical when he said that.  Rather than a vehicle for biting criticism, they see it as modus operandi.  And so much of current journalism is poorly written, both in content and with regard to writing mechanics.  If we want to form some semblance of what is going on in the world, we need to read broadly and critically.  And then still understand that at best we are getting a vague notion of the truth.  It's a pathetic situation, for sure.
    “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
    Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.













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    nicknyr15nicknyr15 Posts: 7,922
    6 months later and my taste and smell are still slightly off.
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    bbiggsbbiggs Posts: 6,932
    I long for the days where the only variant we discuss around here is a PJ poster variant. 
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    oftenreadingoftenreading Victoria, BC Posts: 12,844
    nicknyr15 said:
    6 months later and my taste and smell are still slightly off.
    I happened to come across this article on smell training this morning. Here’s a link:
    https://apple.news/AGyraH9b5QBmCGzg4Ldtj0Q


    my small self... like a book amongst the many on a shelf
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    oftenreadingoftenreading Victoria, BC Posts: 12,844
    No pun intended, but this article on boredom, including the experience of boredom during the pandemic and what it can lead to in terms of how we think about the world, is actually pretty interesting.

    https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/jan-23-a-pandemic-of-boredom-dinosaur-s-nether-regions-a-giant-telescope-on-the-moon-and-more-1.5882533/pandemic-boredom-research-is-thrilling-and-might-even-be-helpful-1.5882556

    With people around the world under various states of lockdown, isolated at home, without their normal social contacts or entertainment options, boredom is a problem.

    "I'm absolutely noticing more people experiencing boredom," says Josefa Ros Velasco, a boredom studies researcher at the University of Madrid. "This has been the year of boredom."

    While the COVID-19 pandemic has been rampaging, people who study boredom have taken advantage of these tedious times to learn as much as they can.

    Boredom itself is a relatively niche area of study, even though it's a universal issue that happens in cultures around the world. "It's played, I guess, second fiddle to other emotions that we've studied," said James Danckert, a professor and boredom researcher at the University of Waterloo.

    "But that's rapidly changing."

    Busy doesn't cure boredom

    Contrary to popular belief, boredom doesn't mean you have nothing do to.

    "Boredom is this unfulfilled desire for satisfying activity. It's this desperate urge and feeling where we want to be engaged, but we can't be engaged," said John Eastwood, head of the Boredom Lab at York University and Danckert's co-author on Out of my skull: the Psychology of Boredom.

    "I can sometimes feel bored when I'm very busy, like if I'm doing a lot of stuff, but none of it is just really engaging me. I'm going through the motions."

    During the pandemic, Eastwood's lab has been looking at some of the emotional triggers for boredom, and found that people who had suffered traumatic experiences ended up being more boredom prone. "People who went through difficult events during the pandemic and had difficulty controlling and regulating their emotions, reported more boredom later on."

    Previous research has found that people who are more prone to boredom are people who struggle with self-control issues, narcissism and anxiety. "Boredom is really a self-focused feeling state. You are thinking about yourself and what's missing for you right now," said Danckert.

    He adds that during the pandemic-related lockdowns, focusing on what's missing instead of what's possible can increase feelings of anxiety and boredom.

    Ros Velasco suggests that what she calls "fast entertainment" — like streaming services or social media — might have been fine as a time-filler pre-pandemic, but people find them unsatisfying now because they've become their main form of entertainment.

    "With the overabundance of free time, this kind of entertainment fails, and people demand more meaningful activities to fill their time," she said. "The problem is that we have spent so much time without having to worry about our boredom and what we really like to do, that now we don't know what to do when Facebook or Instagram [turns out to be] boring."

    Eastwood agrees that while technology hasn't increased our boredom, it perhaps has made us less able to deal with it.

    "People are not more bored now than they were before, but they're more afraid of boredom," he said. "And so we may have a greater sense of, I don't know, entitlement to not be bored, or a greater sense of frustration, or even anxiety, when we do become bored."

    Pandemic causing boredom, and boredom affecting the pandemic

    "At the beginning of this pandemic, I reached out to my adviser, like, 'are you doing something to research this time?'" said Yijun Lin, a grad student at the Social Cognition and Emotion Lab at the University of Florida. "She said no, so we quickly put together the pandemic study."

    Lin reached out to fellow students to find out how boredom was affecting their pandemic response, and found that students who were more prone to boredom were more likely to move back to campus, despite recommendations to stay home.

    Danckert's lockdown studies found similar results. "Boredom prone people were more likely to break the rules of social distancing, also more likely to say that they believed COVID to be a hoax."

    Previous studies had also shown that when some people were made to feel bored, it was such an unsettling experience that they were more likely to develop stronger political views to feel more secure.

    "They try to deal with that uncertainty or that lack of meaning by clinging to their own world views and maybe becoming more extreme in their world views," said Eastwood.

    Ros Velasco also jumped into action, moving forward with a project she had been incubating for several years: founding the International Society for Boredom Researchers as a way to collect all of these studies together. "This society will be a place for researchers to meet each other and to share our research and our papers, just a means to be connected worldwide."

    She was also able to continue her research from before the pandemic, looking at boredom among seniors in nursing homes — which suddenly had an even greater sense of urgency.

    "Many old people are having to spend days, weeks, even months isolated in their bedrooms without having contact with their families, caregivers, roommates," she said. In turn, boredom can lead to increased mental health issues, behavioural problems and sleep disorders.

    Boredom as a benefit? Not quite

    Boredom may not be a pleasant feeling, but its universality suggests it probably has some evolutionary value — perhaps motivating us to action. 

    "Boredom is only an emotion we experience; it's not good or bad," said Ros Velasco. "What we have to do is to learn to live with it, to deal with it, and not to try to avoid at all costs."

    Although the internet may be full of lists of tasks to cure boredom and advice on ways to harness it creativity, Danckert said those won't really solve the problem.

    "The idea that boredom will make you creative, it won't. Creativity is a complex thing," said Danckert. "If you have fostered and developed creative outlets in your past, then turn to them when you're bored, by all means. And that's a great thing to do. But don't hope that boredom will make you creative."

    Danckert says that boredom should be thought of as a signal, similar to how pain is a signal that something is wrong and needs to be fixed.

    "It's a call to action, so when we're feeling bored, it's telling us that whatever we're doing right now is not engaging us," he said. "Rather than thinking about the things that we could be doing that might be negative or against the restrictions, think about choosing activities that we can do, within the constraints, that will be satisfying."

    For Eastwood, the key to preventing boredom is to stay calm and find meaning in the little tasks.

    "Don't panic. Boredom is a normal feeling. It serves a purpose. Listen to its message. It's telling you that you need to embrace the world [with more agency] and look at it as an opportunity to rediscover who you are and what matters to you."


    Produced and written by Amanda Buckiewicz.


    my small self... like a book amongst the many on a shelf
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    josevolutionjosevolution Posts: 28,427
    nicknyr15 said:
    6 months later and my taste and smell are still slightly off.
    Damn that sucks! 
    jesus greets me looks just like me ....
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    nicknyr15nicknyr15 Posts: 7,922
    nicknyr15 said:
    6 months later and my taste and smell are still slightly off.
    I happened to come across this article on smell training this morning. Here’s a link:
    https://apple.news/AGyraH9b5QBmCGzg4Ldtj0Q


    Thank you !
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    nicknyr15nicknyr15 Posts: 7,922
    nicknyr15 said:
    6 months later and my taste and smell are still slightly off.
    Damn that sucks! 
    Yes it does! 
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    I saw a good video on the smell and taste  it was to do with the cells in the  nasal area that are first to encounter  covid. They get damaged can take a long while  to repair. I assumed it was zinc being depleted.  I have a friend  who has same issue it may drift back but then goes. Pain in the ass 
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    this song is meant to be called i got shit,itshould be called i got shit tickets-hartford 06 -
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    23scidoo23scidoo Thessaloniki,Greece Posts: 18,730
    Athens 2006. Dusseldorf 2007. Berlin 2009. Venice 2010. Amsterdam 1 2012. Amsterdam 1+2 2014. Buenos Aires 2015.
    Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
    EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.

    I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
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    23scidoo23scidoo Thessaloniki,Greece Posts: 18,730
    edited February 2021
    ...
    Post edited by 23scidoo on
    Athens 2006. Dusseldorf 2007. Berlin 2009. Venice 2010. Amsterdam 1 2012. Amsterdam 1+2 2014. Buenos Aires 2015.
    Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
    EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.

    I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
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    "Mostly I think that people react sensitively because they know you’ve got a point"
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    mace1229mace1229 Posts: 9,042
    23scidoo said:
    hedonist said:
    I will not be suprised if something like that comes in our countrys..
    A full lockdown like that in the US? No way. If they tried, no chance they'd be able to enforce it. Mob mentality, an armed mob mentality, would take over and get food to feed their families. We wouldn't just sit inside and let ourselves be starved. 
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    F Me In The BrainF Me In The Brain this knows everybody from other commets Posts: 30,795
    Most of the idiots in the USA wouldn't do what was to benefit anyone other than themselves for longer than 10 minutes.

    The love he receives is the love that is saved
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    mace1229mace1229 Posts: 9,042
    Most of the idiots in the USA wouldn't do what was to benefit anyone other than themselves for longer than 10 minutes.

    Maybe, but that's not why locking people inside without food won't work in the US. It wont work because its wrong to starve people like that and people wouldn't put up with it here. It also wouldn't be enforced on the same level, which is a big difference too.
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    F Me In The BrainF Me In The Brain this knows everybody from other commets Posts: 30,795
    Doesn't make sense to even talk about it.
    We won't even agree to wear masks.  

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