September 30: “Alabama is shrinking under the onslaught of Covid-19, its chief medical officer said, as deaths in the state outnumber births for the very first time.”
October 4: “18% of health care workers have quit their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, while another 12% have been laid off. Among health care workers who have kept their jobs during the pandemic, 31% have considered leaving.”
October 7: “…the model projected the risk of reinfection under endemic conditions — in which everybody has either been infected by or vaccinated against the virus. In these conditions, unvaccinated individuals should expect to be reinfected with COVID-19 every 16 to 17 months on average.”
October 21: “A WHO paper on Thursday estimated that out of the world’s 135 million health staff, “between 80,000 to 180,000 health and care workers could have died from Covid-19 in the period between January 2020 to May 2021”.”
October 25: “Sixty-eight years later, an iron lung is still keeping Lillard alive — she sleeps in it every night. While many people who had polio or post-polio syndrome either weaned themselves off the machines or switched to another form of ventilator, Lillard never did.”
The legacy of polio — and of its vaccines. (It is amazing how this went from “a constant, overwhelming threat” to “a nearly-eradicated nonissue” in, what, a generation or two?)
October 27: “It’s true that of all members of our population, 5–11 year-olds actually have the lowest risk of hospitalization due to COVID-19 according to COVID-NET data published in the MMWR. However, even if you look at this fact, based on historical estimates, COVID-19 would be the 8th leading cause of death in this age group.”
Children are at low risk, but they’re not at no risk.
“As far as the vaccine, with the pediatric dose, there are 0.06 mg tromethamine and 0.4 mg tromethamine hydrochloride. [The generic product warning antivaxxers are up in arms about] describes a 500 mL solution of tromethamine containing, in total, 18 g of tromethamine (3.6 g per 100 mL), or 60,000 times as much tromethamine.”
So if the Secret Nefarious Medical Cabal snuck this into the vaccine formula to prevent Secret Undisclosed Heart Problems…they skipped the step where they tell us to give every kid 60,000 doses.
Non-COVID-related bonus:
“Unwanted, intrusive visual memories are a core feature of stress- and trauma-related clinical disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) […] even once intrusive memories have been laid down, playing a visually-demanding computer game after reactivating the memories may reduce their occurrence over time.”
In other words, if you or someone you know get caught up in a traumatic event? Once they’re safe, have the survivor get out their phone and play Tetris for a while. It’ll make a long-term difference.
Humanist+Humorist 