Male bees work until it's time to mate with the queen.
And then they die.
That's the entirety of their lives.
Honey.
Nut.
Cheerio.
Jun 28, 2021
AKA: Consciousness Of Guilt
Glenn Kirschner, on Bill Barr's interview in The Atlantic:
And be sure to catch the Mitch McConnell piece of it (starting at about 6:50).
These guys crooked as fuck. I'll go ahead with a blanket condemnation, saying all politicians are first and foremost concerned with gaining and keep and wielding power. The cliche is true - you can't do as much if you don't win the election.
OK fine, but when you have to stay in power in order to stay out of prison, you've taken things just a few steps too far.
Jun 27, 2021
A Very Fine Line
This is actually a really tough row to hoe.
Texas court: Facebook can be held liable for sex trafficking predators
The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that Facebook is not a “lawless no-man’s land” and can be held liable for the conduct of people who use the platform to recruit and prey on children.
The justices ruled that trafficking victims can move ahead with lawsuits because Facebook violated a provision of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, which was passed in 2009, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The ruling stems from three civil actions from Houston involving teenage trafficking victims who met the predators through Facebook’s messaging functions, according to the Chronicle. The plaintiffs sued the California-based social media giant for negligence and product liability, arguing that Facebook failed to warn about or try to prevent sex trafficking from occurring on its platforms, the newspaper reported.
The lawsuits also alleged that Facebook benefited from the sexual exploitation of trafficking victims.
Facebook’s attorneys argued the company is shielded from liability under Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which states that what users say or write online is not the same as a publisher conveying the same message.
A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement that the company is considering what steps to take next.
“Sex trafficking is abhorrent and not allowed on Facebook,” the spokesperson said. “We will continue our fight against the spread of this content and the predators who engage in it.”
The justices, in their majority opinion, wrote that “We do not understand Section 230 to ‘create a lawless no-man’s-land on the internet’ in which states are powerless to impose liability on websites that knowingly or intentionally participate in the evil of online human trafficking.
“Holding internet platforms accountable for the words or actions of their users is one thing, and the federal precedent uniformly dictates that Section 230 does not allow it,” the opinion said. “Holding internet platforms accountable for their own misdeeds is quite another thing. This is particularly the case for human trafficking.”
The lawsuits were brought by three Houston women who alleged they were recruited as teens via Facebook apps and were trafficked as a result of those connections, providing predators with “a point of first contact between sex traffickers and these children,” the Chronicle reported.
According to the Human Trafficking Institute, the majority of online recruitment in active sex trafficking cases in the U.S. in 2020 occurred on Facebook. The organization made the assertions in its 2020 Federal Human Trafficking Report.
“The internet has become the dominant tool that traffickers use to recruit victims, and they often recruit them on a number of very common social networking websites,” Human Trafficking Institute CEO Victor Boutros told CBS News earlier this month. “Facebook overwhelmingly is used by traffickers to recruit victims in active sex trafficking cases.”
One plaintiff said she was 15 in 2012 when she communicated with the friend of a mutual friend on Facebook, the Chronicle reported. She alleged that after the man offered her a modeling job, he posted photos of her on Backpage, an online platform that was shut down in 2018 because it promoted human trafficking. The woman claimed she was “raped, beaten, and forced into further sex trafficking,” the newspaper reported.
The second plaintiff said she was 14 in 2017 when she was contacted on Instagram, another Facebook property. The woman alleged that the man lured her with “false promises of love and a better future,” and then used Instagram to advertise her as a prostitute and set up “dates,” according to the Chronicle. The woman claimed she was raped numerous times and alleged that when her mother reported what had happened to Facebook, the company “never responded.”
The third plaintiff said she was 14 in 2016 when a man she did not know sent her a friend request on Instagram, the Chronicle reported. They exchanged messages for two years, and in March 2018 the man allegedly asked her to leave home and meet her, the newspaper reported. The man allegedly photographed the teen in a motel room and posted the images on Backpage, according to court records.
Facebook’s attorneys argued that Congress used “very broad terms” to preserve free speech, guard against censorship via threat of litigation and avoid inconsistent liability standards.
“When Congress decided to amend Section 230 to combat the scourge of online sex trafficking, it did so with a scalpel, not a hammer -- carefully enumerating precisely the types of claims that would be exempt from Section 230,” Facebook’s attorneys argued in a September 2020 brief to the court. “The balance Congress struck is embodied in the language it used. Congress is free to alter that balance by amending that language. But this Court doesn’t sit as a super legislature to rewrite the statute under the guise of divining legislative ‘purpose.’
“But regardless of what plaintiffs contend Facebook should have done about that third-party content -- prevent it, block it, remove it, edit it, flag it, or warn about it -- the purported duty to take action that undergirds plaintiffs’ claims derives from (Facebook’s) role as a publisher, which is why these claims are prohibited by Section 230.”
I have no love or sympathy or any regard in any sense for Facebook, except that they should be more or less free to do their thing as long it doesn't directly harm anyone, or facilitate harm to anyone.
And that, I think, is at the heart of this:
KIRO-TV7 (Seattle)
Texas court: Facebook can be held liable for sex trafficking predators
The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that Facebook is not a “lawless no-man’s land” and can be held liable for the conduct of people who use the platform to recruit and prey on children.
The justices ruled that trafficking victims can move ahead with lawsuits because Facebook violated a provision of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, which was passed in 2009, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The ruling stems from three civil actions from Houston involving teenage trafficking victims who met the predators through Facebook’s messaging functions, according to the Chronicle. The plaintiffs sued the California-based social media giant for negligence and product liability, arguing that Facebook failed to warn about or try to prevent sex trafficking from occurring on its platforms, the newspaper reported.
The lawsuits also alleged that Facebook benefited from the sexual exploitation of trafficking victims.
Facebook’s attorneys argued the company is shielded from liability under Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which states that what users say or write online is not the same as a publisher conveying the same message.
A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement that the company is considering what steps to take next.
“Sex trafficking is abhorrent and not allowed on Facebook,” the spokesperson said. “We will continue our fight against the spread of this content and the predators who engage in it.”
The justices, in their majority opinion, wrote that “We do not understand Section 230 to ‘create a lawless no-man’s-land on the internet’ in which states are powerless to impose liability on websites that knowingly or intentionally participate in the evil of online human trafficking.
“Holding internet platforms accountable for the words or actions of their users is one thing, and the federal precedent uniformly dictates that Section 230 does not allow it,” the opinion said. “Holding internet platforms accountable for their own misdeeds is quite another thing. This is particularly the case for human trafficking.”
The lawsuits were brought by three Houston women who alleged they were recruited as teens via Facebook apps and were trafficked as a result of those connections, providing predators with “a point of first contact between sex traffickers and these children,” the Chronicle reported.
According to the Human Trafficking Institute, the majority of online recruitment in active sex trafficking cases in the U.S. in 2020 occurred on Facebook. The organization made the assertions in its 2020 Federal Human Trafficking Report.
“The internet has become the dominant tool that traffickers use to recruit victims, and they often recruit them on a number of very common social networking websites,” Human Trafficking Institute CEO Victor Boutros told CBS News earlier this month. “Facebook overwhelmingly is used by traffickers to recruit victims in active sex trafficking cases.”
One plaintiff said she was 15 in 2012 when she communicated with the friend of a mutual friend on Facebook, the Chronicle reported. She alleged that after the man offered her a modeling job, he posted photos of her on Backpage, an online platform that was shut down in 2018 because it promoted human trafficking. The woman claimed she was “raped, beaten, and forced into further sex trafficking,” the newspaper reported.
The second plaintiff said she was 14 in 2017 when she was contacted on Instagram, another Facebook property. The woman alleged that the man lured her with “false promises of love and a better future,” and then used Instagram to advertise her as a prostitute and set up “dates,” according to the Chronicle. The woman claimed she was raped numerous times and alleged that when her mother reported what had happened to Facebook, the company “never responded.”
The third plaintiff said she was 14 in 2016 when a man she did not know sent her a friend request on Instagram, the Chronicle reported. They exchanged messages for two years, and in March 2018 the man allegedly asked her to leave home and meet her, the newspaper reported. The man allegedly photographed the teen in a motel room and posted the images on Backpage, according to court records.
Facebook’s attorneys argued that Congress used “very broad terms” to preserve free speech, guard against censorship via threat of litigation and avoid inconsistent liability standards.
“When Congress decided to amend Section 230 to combat the scourge of online sex trafficking, it did so with a scalpel, not a hammer -- carefully enumerating precisely the types of claims that would be exempt from Section 230,” Facebook’s attorneys argued in a September 2020 brief to the court. “The balance Congress struck is embodied in the language it used. Congress is free to alter that balance by amending that language. But this Court doesn’t sit as a super legislature to rewrite the statute under the guise of divining legislative ‘purpose.’
“But regardless of what plaintiffs contend Facebook should have done about that third-party content -- prevent it, block it, remove it, edit it, flag it, or warn about it -- the purported duty to take action that undergirds plaintiffs’ claims derives from (Facebook’s) role as a publisher, which is why these claims are prohibited by Section 230.”
My hang up is that I want Facebook kicked in the nuts really really really hard, but I don't want the Q-birds to take this as any kind of vindication that their stoopid fantasies have some tiny scintilla of rational justification.
Can't wait to hear more on that shit.
COVID-19 Update
World
USA
Booster may be needed for J&J shot as Delta variant spreads, some experts already taking them
NEW YORK, June 25 (Reuters) - Infectious disease experts are weighing the need for booster shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech (PFE.N), or Moderna (MRNA.O) mRNA-based vaccines for Americans who received Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ.N) one-dose vaccine due to the increasing prevalence of the more contagious Delta coronavirus variant.
A few say they have already done so themselves, even without published data on whether combining two different vaccines is safe and effective or backing from U.S. health regulators. Canada and some European countries are already allowing people to get two different COVID-19 shots.
The debate centers on concerns over how protective the J&J shot is against the Delta variant first detected in India and now circulating widely in many countries. Delta, which has also been associated with more severe disease, could quickly become the dominant version of the virus in the United States, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky has warned.
There is no substantial data showing how protective the J&J vaccine is against the new variant. However, UK studies show that two doses of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or AstraZeneca (AZN.L) vaccines are significantly more protective against the variant than one.
Andy Slavitt, former senior pandemic advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden, raised the idea this week on his podcast. At least half a dozen prominent infectious disease experts said U.S. regulators need to address the issue in short order.
"There's no doubt that the people who receive the J&J vaccine are less protected against disease," than those who get two doses of the other shots, said Stanford professor Dr. Michael Lin. "From the principle of taking easy steps to prevent really bad outcomes, this is really a no brainer."
The CDC is not recommending boosters, and advisors to the agency said at a public meeting this week there is not yet significant evidence of declining protection from the vaccines.
Jason Gallagher, an infectious diseases expert at Temple University’s School of Pharmacy, recently received a Pfizer dose at the Philadelphia vaccine clinic where he has been administering shots. He got the J&J vaccine in a clinical trial in November.
Gallagher said he was concerned about the UK data showing lower efficacy against the Delta variant for people who received one vaccine dose.
"While the situation has gotten so much better in the U.S., the Delta variant that's spreading ... and really quickly taking over in the U.S. looks a little more concerning in terms of the breakthrough infections with the single-dose vaccines," he said. "So I took the plunge."
Cases, hospitalizations and deaths have plummeted in the United States with 56% of the adult population fully vaccinated.
J&J said it is testing whether the immune response from its vaccine is capable of neutralizing the Delta variant in a laboratory setting, but no data is available yet.
Both mRNA vaccines showed efficacy rates around 95% in large U.S. trials, while J&J's vaccine was 66% effective in preventing moderate-to-severe COVID-19 globally when more contagious variants were circulating.
Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a researcher at the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, said on Twitter she had gotten a dose of Pfizer's vaccine this week after receiving J&J's in April.
Rasmussen, who declined to be interviewed, encouraged Americans who received the J&J vaccine to talk to their doctors about a possible second shot.
"If you live in a community with overall low vaccination, I'd suggest you strongly consider doing so," she tweeted.
Vaccine expert Dr. Peter Hotez from Baylor College of Medicine in a tweet said adding a second J&J dose or one of the mRNA vaccines might provide broader protection, "but we need data and CDC-FDA guidance."
The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is running a trial to determine the need for boosting all currently authorized shots with another dose of Moderna's vaccine. NIAID scientist Dr. John Beigel told Reuters the agency hopes to have that data by September to help inform regulators' decisions on boosters.
As long as case counts remain low in the United States, J&J recipients should wait for more data, he said.
If Delta variant-driven infections and hospitalizations increase significantly, he said, "then decisions might need to be made with an absence of data. But right now, I do think it's appropriate that they wait."
New Cases: 369,086 (⬆︎ .20%)
New Deaths: 7,543 (⬆︎ .19%)
USA
New Cases: 6,586 (⬆︎ .02%)
New Deaths: 150 (⬆︎ .02%)
Yesterday, June 26th, 2021
0 Vaccinated people
and
7,543 Un-Vaccinated people
were killed by COVID-19
178.9 million vaccinated
Including more than 152.2 million people who have been fully vaccinated in the United States.
In the last week, an average of 715.0k doses per day were administered,
which is a 42% decrease over the week before.
Still plenty to worry about as the Delta Variant tries to work its way thru our defenses.
A big concern for me is that we've gotten bored with the pandemic as a culture event, and that we've grown a little complacent, "trusting the science" to the point where we start to behave as recklessly as the Anit-Vax/Anti-Mask gang.
Booster may be needed for J&J shot as Delta variant spreads, some experts already taking them
NEW YORK, June 25 (Reuters) - Infectious disease experts are weighing the need for booster shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech (PFE.N), or Moderna (MRNA.O) mRNA-based vaccines for Americans who received Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ.N) one-dose vaccine due to the increasing prevalence of the more contagious Delta coronavirus variant.
A few say they have already done so themselves, even without published data on whether combining two different vaccines is safe and effective or backing from U.S. health regulators. Canada and some European countries are already allowing people to get two different COVID-19 shots.
The debate centers on concerns over how protective the J&J shot is against the Delta variant first detected in India and now circulating widely in many countries. Delta, which has also been associated with more severe disease, could quickly become the dominant version of the virus in the United States, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky has warned.
There is no substantial data showing how protective the J&J vaccine is against the new variant. However, UK studies show that two doses of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or AstraZeneca (AZN.L) vaccines are significantly more protective against the variant than one.
Andy Slavitt, former senior pandemic advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden, raised the idea this week on his podcast. At least half a dozen prominent infectious disease experts said U.S. regulators need to address the issue in short order.
"There's no doubt that the people who receive the J&J vaccine are less protected against disease," than those who get two doses of the other shots, said Stanford professor Dr. Michael Lin. "From the principle of taking easy steps to prevent really bad outcomes, this is really a no brainer."
The CDC is not recommending boosters, and advisors to the agency said at a public meeting this week there is not yet significant evidence of declining protection from the vaccines.
Jason Gallagher, an infectious diseases expert at Temple University’s School of Pharmacy, recently received a Pfizer dose at the Philadelphia vaccine clinic where he has been administering shots. He got the J&J vaccine in a clinical trial in November.
Gallagher said he was concerned about the UK data showing lower efficacy against the Delta variant for people who received one vaccine dose.
"While the situation has gotten so much better in the U.S., the Delta variant that's spreading ... and really quickly taking over in the U.S. looks a little more concerning in terms of the breakthrough infections with the single-dose vaccines," he said. "So I took the plunge."
Cases, hospitalizations and deaths have plummeted in the United States with 56% of the adult population fully vaccinated.
J&J said it is testing whether the immune response from its vaccine is capable of neutralizing the Delta variant in a laboratory setting, but no data is available yet.
Both mRNA vaccines showed efficacy rates around 95% in large U.S. trials, while J&J's vaccine was 66% effective in preventing moderate-to-severe COVID-19 globally when more contagious variants were circulating.
Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a researcher at the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, said on Twitter she had gotten a dose of Pfizer's vaccine this week after receiving J&J's in April.
Rasmussen, who declined to be interviewed, encouraged Americans who received the J&J vaccine to talk to their doctors about a possible second shot.
"If you live in a community with overall low vaccination, I'd suggest you strongly consider doing so," she tweeted.
Vaccine expert Dr. Peter Hotez from Baylor College of Medicine in a tweet said adding a second J&J dose or one of the mRNA vaccines might provide broader protection, "but we need data and CDC-FDA guidance."
The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is running a trial to determine the need for boosting all currently authorized shots with another dose of Moderna's vaccine. NIAID scientist Dr. John Beigel told Reuters the agency hopes to have that data by September to help inform regulators' decisions on boosters.
As long as case counts remain low in the United States, J&J recipients should wait for more data, he said.
If Delta variant-driven infections and hospitalizations increase significantly, he said, "then decisions might need to be made with an absence of data. But right now, I do think it's appropriate that they wait."
More:
- Delta variant challenges Germany, Italy, Portugal and South Africa
- Outbreak tears through students partying in Mallorca
- In a remote West Texas town, vaccine hesitancy is plain to see
Jun 26, 2021
Today's Eternal Sadness
It's next to impossible to tell a good guy with a gun from a bad guy with a gun in a heated situation, so the scenario we've always warned about unfolded almost exactly as we feared it would.
In my old hometown.
Police Killed A "Good Samaritan" Who Fatally Shot A Gunman Who Had Killed A Cop
Johnny Hurley "undoubtedly saved many lives" when he killed a shooting suspect, only to be fatally shot himself by police responders in Colorado.
A "good Samaritan" shot a man who ambushed and killed a Colorado police officer, likely saving other lives, only to be fatally shot himself by responding officers, officials confirmed Friday.
"We lost two heroes," Arvada Police Chief Link Strate said in a video message Friday, acknowledging that Johnny Hurley "undoubtedly saved many lives Monday afternoon" before he was shot and killed by a responding officer.
The incident occurred at about 1:30 p.m. on Monday, June 21, in Arvada, Colorado, where Officer Gordon Beesley responded to a report of a suspicious person.
Beesley, a school resource officer, was walking to the area when the suspect, 59-year-old Ronald Troyke of Arvada, parked his truck and started to run behind him.
Troyke, police said, was armed with a 12-gauge semiautomatic shotgun.
Video of the shooting released by police shows Troyke running behind Beesley while holding a firearm and wearing a hat and face mask.
Officials said Troyke yelled out to Beesley, who is seen suddenly turning around in the video.
The video does not show the shooting, but police said Troyke then shot Beesley twice, killing the 19-year veteran.
Troyke continued to fire his weapon, police said, shooting out the windows of patrol cars. Video shows witnesses running and looking for cover in the parking lot after the shots were fired.
According to police, Troyke left behind a document, which stated that he had intended to target police officers in a deadly rampage.
"My goal today is to kill Arvada PD officers," the document reportedly stated. "We the people were never your enemy, but we are now."
The note contained several other statements targeting police, including "This is what you get, you are the people who are expendable" and "Hundreds of you pigs should be killed daily."
"Gordon was targeted because he was wearing an Arvada police uniform and a badge," Strate said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Troyke returned to his truck at one point and changed weapons, picking up an AR-15. As he was walking back to the busy commercial area, police said, Hurley confronted him.
"It is clear that Mr. Hurley intervened in an active shooting that unfolded quickly," Strate said in his statement Friday. "He did so without hesitation."
Hurley shot the suspect with a handgun, Strate said, and "undoubtedly saved many lives Monday afternoon."
But when another officer arrived at the scene, the police chief said, he saw Hurley holding Troyke's AR-15 and shot him.
Strate's confirmation that police shot and killed the same man who stopped an unfolding shooting in the middle of the day contradicted his department's assertions earlier in the week that Troyke had shot and killed Hurley, who had not yet been identified.
In his statement, Strate called Hurley a hero.
"Our police department and our community's view of Mr. Hurley and his actions are heroic," he said.
On Thursday, Arvada police posted a link to a GoFundMe page that had been set up to raise money for Hurley's family.
Assume The Worst
David Pakman (from back in May)
For this discussion, "infrastructure" is the stuff that facilitates commerce - roads and bridges and other lines of communication - the stuff we use to move stuff around.
For this discussion, "infrastructure" is the stuff that facilitates commerce - roads and bridges and other lines of communication - the stuff we use to move stuff around.
But also, it's the stuff that helps people find work, get to where the work is, and do the work.
Things like childcare and elder care and broadband and renewable power and public transit and the variety of people development items (schools, VoTech training, grants and financing etc) - all of it helps people find a job, (or make their own job), go to the job, and do the job.
It's easy to think we have a Republican party that just can't extricate itself from a fantasy 1950s mindset, and refuses to stop lying to its voters about everything.
But I don't think that's it - not all of it anyway. It's not like the "party of business" suddenly doesn't know anything about economics - they do know - so what exactly is their game?
We don't do ourselves any favors by insisting they're all stupid. We're better off assuming they have a plan and that they're executing on it.
COVID-19 Update
World
USA
Federal health officials find vaccine benefits outweigh small cardiac risk for teens, young adults
They stress the advantages of vaccination despite the “likely association” between second dose and an extremely rare heart condition
Federal health officials said Wednesday there is a “likely association” between two coronavirus vaccines and increased risk of a rare heart condition in adolescents and young adults, the strongest assertion so far on the link between the two.
Data presented to advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adds to recent findings, most notably from Israel, of rare cases of myocarditis — inflammation of the heart muscle — predominantly in males ages 12 to 39, who experience symptoms after the second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Most cases have been mild and have taken place several days to a week after the second shot, officials said. Chest pain is the most common symptom. Patients generally recover from symptoms and do well.
There have been 1,226 reports of myocarditis out of about 300 million mRNA doses administered in the United States, as of June 11, according to Tom Shimabukuro, a CDC vaccine safety official. Of those, 267 were reported after the first dose and 827 after the second, and 132 reports did not indicate which dose.
Experts and health officials said the additional data needs to be understood in the broader context of risk: With virus variants increasing, and adolescents and young adults making up a greater percentage of covid-19 cases, unvaccinated teens and young adults are far more likely to contract the disease. Getting covid-19 puts someone at far greater risk of heart inflammation and other serious medical problems than the risk of getting myocarditis from vaccination, they said.
The CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services, together with 15 of the country’s leading medical and public health organizations — including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association — issued a joint statement after the meeting saying they “strongly encourage everyone 12 and older” to get the shots because the benefits far outweigh any potential harms.
“Especially with the troubling Delta variant increasingly circulating, and more readily impacting younger people, the risks of being unvaccinated are far greater than any rare side effects from the vaccines,” the statement said.
The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration plan to do a three-month follow-up of these cases, officials said. Both agencies are also updating their fact sheets for providers and patients to reflect the additional data about the condition.
“The choice to avoid an mRNA vaccine in order to avoid myocarditis ignores the fact that both covid and MIS-C [a rare inflammatory condition diagnosed in some children after covid infections] cause myocarditis, and far more commonly,” said Paul A. Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “There are no risk-free choices.”
The additional data on myocarditis is part of continued safety monitoring by federal health agencies as they consider recommending the coronavirus vaccines for younger children in coming months.
A presentation from the vaccine safety work group of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices noted the “likely association” of myocarditis with mRNA vaccination in adolescents and young adults.
In males 12 to 39, the risk of myocarditis after the second dose of any mRNA vaccine was 32 cases per million, or about 1 in 31,000, according to a CDC analysis of data from one of several vaccine safety monitoring systems. For females in that age group, there were 4.7 cases per million, or about 1 in 212,000.
By comparison, the estimated incidence of the rare inflammatory syndrome in children is about 1 in every 3,200 covid-19 infections — with 36 percent of cases reported in those ages 12 to 20, according to CDC data. More than 4,000 cases of MIS-C have been reported since the pandemic began.
Treatment for myocarditis is largely supportive care. CDC officials said individuals should follow the guidelines of the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, which recommend “restriction from competitive sports for about three to six months or until you can show documentation that the heart has recovered from this acute process,” said Matthew Oster, a CDC physician.
Some experts noted that the evolving data and unknowns make it harder to answer questions from anxious parents.
They also would result in four to five myocarditis cases.
For every million second doses given to males 18 to 24, vaccinations would prevent:
They also would result in 45 to 56 myocarditis cases.
New Cases: 409,686 (⬆︎ .23%)
New Deaths: 8,729 (⬆︎ .22%)
USA
New Cases: 15,537 (⬆︎ .05%)
New Deaths: 387 (⬆︎ .06%)
Yesterday, June 25th, 2021
0 Vaccinated people
and
8,729 Un-Vaccinated people
were killed by COVID-19
178.5 million vaccinated
Including more than 151.6 million people who have been fully vaccinated in the United States.
In the last week, an average of 735.8k doses per day were administered,
a 43% decrease over the week before.
Let's be really clear on this one thing: every medical thing - from taking a coupla Advil for your headache to surgery to chemotherapy to vaccinations to psychoanalysis - everything carries a risk, and you have to factor it all in.
The scary part is that the risk to teenagers is a lot higher than taking a lightning hit.
What makes it almost entirely un-scary is that the odds are about 32 in a million.
0.0032%
Your chances of being killed with a gun are still around 0.012%.
Do the math.
Federal health officials find vaccine benefits outweigh small cardiac risk for teens, young adults
They stress the advantages of vaccination despite the “likely association” between second dose and an extremely rare heart condition
Federal health officials said Wednesday there is a “likely association” between two coronavirus vaccines and increased risk of a rare heart condition in adolescents and young adults, the strongest assertion so far on the link between the two.
Data presented to advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adds to recent findings, most notably from Israel, of rare cases of myocarditis — inflammation of the heart muscle — predominantly in males ages 12 to 39, who experience symptoms after the second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Most cases have been mild and have taken place several days to a week after the second shot, officials said. Chest pain is the most common symptom. Patients generally recover from symptoms and do well.
There have been 1,226 reports of myocarditis out of about 300 million mRNA doses administered in the United States, as of June 11, according to Tom Shimabukuro, a CDC vaccine safety official. Of those, 267 were reported after the first dose and 827 after the second, and 132 reports did not indicate which dose.
Experts and health officials said the additional data needs to be understood in the broader context of risk: With virus variants increasing, and adolescents and young adults making up a greater percentage of covid-19 cases, unvaccinated teens and young adults are far more likely to contract the disease. Getting covid-19 puts someone at far greater risk of heart inflammation and other serious medical problems than the risk of getting myocarditis from vaccination, they said.
The CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services, together with 15 of the country’s leading medical and public health organizations — including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association — issued a joint statement after the meeting saying they “strongly encourage everyone 12 and older” to get the shots because the benefits far outweigh any potential harms.
“Especially with the troubling Delta variant increasingly circulating, and more readily impacting younger people, the risks of being unvaccinated are far greater than any rare side effects from the vaccines,” the statement said.
The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration plan to do a three-month follow-up of these cases, officials said. Both agencies are also updating their fact sheets for providers and patients to reflect the additional data about the condition.
“The choice to avoid an mRNA vaccine in order to avoid myocarditis ignores the fact that both covid and MIS-C [a rare inflammatory condition diagnosed in some children after covid infections] cause myocarditis, and far more commonly,” said Paul A. Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “There are no risk-free choices.”
The additional data on myocarditis is part of continued safety monitoring by federal health agencies as they consider recommending the coronavirus vaccines for younger children in coming months.
A presentation from the vaccine safety work group of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices noted the “likely association” of myocarditis with mRNA vaccination in adolescents and young adults.
In males 12 to 39, the risk of myocarditis after the second dose of any mRNA vaccine was 32 cases per million, or about 1 in 31,000, according to a CDC analysis of data from one of several vaccine safety monitoring systems. For females in that age group, there were 4.7 cases per million, or about 1 in 212,000.
By comparison, the estimated incidence of the rare inflammatory syndrome in children is about 1 in every 3,200 covid-19 infections — with 36 percent of cases reported in those ages 12 to 20, according to CDC data. More than 4,000 cases of MIS-C have been reported since the pandemic began.
Treatment for myocarditis is largely supportive care. CDC officials said individuals should follow the guidelines of the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, which recommend “restriction from competitive sports for about three to six months or until you can show documentation that the heart has recovered from this acute process,” said Matthew Oster, a CDC physician.
Some experts noted that the evolving data and unknowns make it harder to answer questions from anxious parents.
“We worry a little bit about, are we going to make the community nervous, or have them be more hesitant to vaccinate?” said Patricia Stinchfield, director of infectious-disease control at Children’s Minnesota, a liaison from the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners.
But, she added, the discussion “allows us to have conversations. … And the parents that I have talked to, which are numerous about this, are very appreciative of that. And [they] do go ahead and vaccinate and are very, very happy that we’re doing this kind of deep analysis, even on rare events.”
Now that many older adults have been vaccinated, adolescents and young adults — those 12 to 29 — have the highest incidence of covid-19, according to CDC data. Since the beginning of the pandemic, at least 7.7 million covid cases have been reported in this age group — with 2,767 covid-19 deaths.
Of those deaths, 316 have been reported since April 1.
In a risk-benefit analysis, CDC officials found that for every million second doses of mRNA vaccinations given to females 18 to 24, vaccinations would prevent:
But, she added, the discussion “allows us to have conversations. … And the parents that I have talked to, which are numerous about this, are very appreciative of that. And [they] do go ahead and vaccinate and are very, very happy that we’re doing this kind of deep analysis, even on rare events.”
Now that many older adults have been vaccinated, adolescents and young adults — those 12 to 29 — have the highest incidence of covid-19, according to CDC data. Since the beginning of the pandemic, at least 7.7 million covid cases have been reported in this age group — with 2,767 covid-19 deaths.
Of those deaths, 316 have been reported since April 1.
In a risk-benefit analysis, CDC officials found that for every million second doses of mRNA vaccinations given to females 18 to 24, vaccinations would prevent:
º 14,000 covid-19 cases.º 1,127 hospitalizations.º 93 ICU admissions.º 13 deaths.
They also would result in four to five myocarditis cases.
For every million second doses given to males 18 to 24, vaccinations would prevent:
º 12,000 covid-19 cases.º 530 hospitalizations.º 127 ICU admissions.º Three deaths.
They also would result in 45 to 56 myocarditis cases.
Jun 25, 2021
It's About Them
"Conservatives" aren't really worried about Critical Race Theory - shit, they don't even know what it is.
It all just adds another layer of fretfulness and heartache to their small bereft lives because they can't stand the prospect of having to explain themselves - again - when their grandbabies see this in Social Studies class and ask "What the fuck, Nana?".
But y'know what?
When you're sick of the diversity training,
and the consciousness raising,
and the kneeling and the protests -
when it all gets to be just too much to bear, remember this:
Y'all coulda picked your own damned cotton and left those folks alone.
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