D&D and the rising pandemic

[Zardnaar]

First time since pandemic started a military ship has visited.

They're letting the Canadians skip qurantine. They're vaccinated and have been at sea for 17 days.

'Risk is being minimised' - Canadian navy crew allowed shore leave

The navy says it is safe to allow shore leave for more than 250 sailors from a visiting Canadian navy frigate without having to go through managed isolation.

www.rnz.co.nz

Can't see to many nations allowed to do that outside of the dominion's.

 

[Zardnaar]

Travel bubble popped. For 8 weeks.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/23/travel-suspended-new-zealand-australia-delta/

Last month or so Aussies been struggling with rising case numbers. Delta variant.

Come home in the next week is the advice for stranded travellers.

Apparently they have some AZ vaccines then switched to Pfizer but didn't secure a supply of Pfizer and mixed messaging. Eg telling people to go get vaccinated when none are available.

 

[GreyLord]

I found this humorous but relevant.

 

[Maxperson]

True, and I know that in general.

But when I see one like the MD I mentioned- someone who not only knows the dangers of the contagion, the promise of the vaccines, AND have taken an oath to act in the public interest while doing no harm- it’s hard to divine why they’d act in such a way.

I mean, op-ed pieces don’t pay. Dead patients don’t book appointments. Etc.

They seem to be realizing that. Hannity pled for people to get the vaccine, but then Carlson came on and said don't do it. Another FOX show had one host saying get the vaccine and gave not dying as a good reason to do it and then the guy next to her saying something, "But it's their choice." FOX itself requires all of its workers to be vaccinated. At least some of them are turning.

 

[J.Quondam]

They seem to be realizing that. Hannity pled for people to get the vaccine, but then Carlson came on and said don't do it. Another FOX show had one host saying get the vaccine and gave not dying as a good reason to do it and then the guy next to her saying something, "But it's their choice." FOX itself requires all of its workers to be vaccinated. At least some of them are turning.

Well, at least now I understand why so many folks say, "It's all so confusing, I just don't know who to believe!"
Of course, they never blame their media bubbles for that confusion.

 

[Umbran]

They seem to be realizing that. Hannity pled for people to get the vaccine, but then Carlson came on and said don't do it. Another FOX show had one host saying get the vaccine and gave not dying as a good reason to do it and then the guy next to her saying something, "But it's their choice." FOX itself requires all of its workers to be vaccinated. At least some of them are turning.

They are an interesting case.

Fox already won the case that no reasonable person could take Tucker Carlson seriously. So, he can continue blathering nonsense and is basically going to be untouchable. That argument probably won't hold for the rest of the organization, though.

We've been told, just before their about-face, there was some discussion between the White House and Fox News. We can only imagine what that contained.

What FOX does is covered by First Amendment rights (or enough that government intervention would be a minefield). However, that still leaves them civil liability to consider. Informing FOX of the models of future progress of the pandemic....

"We aren't going to touch you. But we are pretty sure that someone in the next hundred thousand or more deaths can make a good case you are culplable... and we will not lift a finger to stop the class action suit that results," might be very convincing.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Also, enough of their followers might wake up and/or die that it begins to affect their bottom line. By which I mean, Fox, the GOP and the states themselves.

Dead farmers don’t farm, they don’t vote, don’t watch Fox/OAN/NewsMax, and they don’t get counted in the census. If that isn’t obvious, Missouri is in the process of positioning itself to be an example to the rest.

I mean, imagine the GOP trying to explain how they not only lost certain elections, but also had some of their congressional seats evaporate due to population decline.

 

[Umbran]

Also, enough of their followers might wake up and/or die that it begins to affect their bottom line.

Huh. I hadn't thought of that. Some of the states at risk are rural, with low populations, such that loss of a statistically relevant number of voters is a possibility.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Huh. I hadn't thought of that. Some of the states at risk are rural, with low populations, such that loss of a statistically relevant number of voters is a possibility.

I'm not sure that this is likely to happen. I live in an extremely rural and conservative county in Washington State that only makes up about 3% of the state, population-wise, but we've had around 1/12th of all the Covid-19 deaths in the state (a little under 500 deaths in the county, a little over 6,000 deaths in the state), and our vaccination rate is slowing down a ton and seems to be levelling off at about 50.5% of the population here. We're also mostly opened up.

In a county that's population is over 250,000, I don't think that 500 deaths is going to affect many election results, especially since the 500ish people that died are almost definitely a mixture of Republican and Democratic voters.

It may be different in some other parts of the country, and as less and less people get vaccinated, Conservative deaths from the pandemic are likely to rise, but I don't see it becoming anywhere near the levels that would be required to make any significant population-based political difference, and even if it did, I don't see Fox and similar networks changing their "gameplan" anytime soon.

I feel the need to point out that I don't wish harm on anyone, regardless of their political leanings. I'm simply more able/"comfortable" (that's not really the right word, but I'm not sure what is) than most people are to get into the "cold, hard numbers and facts of death". If I could prevent these deaths from happening, I would. Sorry if this seems a bit callous.

 

[Maxperson]

Huh. I hadn't thought of that. Some of the states at risk are rural, with low populations, such that loss of a statistically relevant number of voters is a possibility.

My gaming group was discussing it last night and that was the leading theory for the change of heart that some of those at FOX are experiencing.