Raccooon posted:

My work requires me to take off my N95 mask and put on a surgical mask they provide when I come in.

Cup Runneth Over posted:

https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/1468493647247294465

sorry, what was that?

HazCat posted:

Thread moving fast, but this is what I meant, yes.

It came up earlier in this thread that the failstates of an N95 mask (wrt covid protection) are:
1. Too clogged to breathe through
2. Too deformed to make a good seal
3. Straps too stretched (or broken) to maintain a good seal

Obviously err on the side of replacing as often as possible (as assessing seal checks can be difficult), but no one should be buying surgical masks instead of N95s based on a 1:1 cost comparison (and most people are doing exactly that, in my experience).

mod sassinator posted:

it is so so bad and the media is silent, lmao i just can't even comprehend what's about to happen

like the fact we have LESS ICU BEDS PERIOD than last year should be a loving months long story and media narrative in itself!! what in the gently caress happened to tens of thousands of ICU beds and nurses and doctors in the last year hmmmmmmmm!!?????????

Raccooon posted:

Are you saying that with TB its not considered close contact until you have been next to a positive person for 15 hours?


Covid has been known to infect a person with like 1 second of contact lol.

quote:

LTBI prevalence increased with increasing exposure duration, with an incremental prevalence increase of 8.2% per 250 exposure hours (P < .0001). For contacts with <250 exposure hours, no difference in prevalence was observed per 50 exposure hours (P = .63).

Thoguh posted:

My totally uneducated guess is that being boosted will still mostly protect you from ‘severe disease and death’ so they’ll just continue to latch on to that as being the only outcome worth caring about and consider you crazy if you care about any other outcome. Also they’ll continue to pretend that breakthroughs don’t exist so if you care about breakthroughs you are just a doomer.

Platystemon posted:

Thoguh posted:

hosed around.

https://twitter.com/nbcsportssoccer/status/1468936465115668487?s=2

found out

Raccooon posted:

My work requires me to take off my N95 mask and put on a surgical mask they provide when I come in.

Spoondick posted:

maybe it's something very unimportant we can safely ignore like covid spreading amongst rat populations

Judakel posted:

talk about an own goal

Raccooon posted:

Liberal’s ideology doesn’t allow for the necessary steps to end the pandemic so they must act like its not that big a deal or there isn’t anything that can be done. They will never do a Covid Zero policy like china did so we will be stuck in rotating variants forever.

Spoondick posted:

maybe it's something very unimportant we can safely ignore like covid spreading amongst rat populations

NeonPunk posted:

Lol my coworkers told me that they appreciate the Auras I gave them but they all dislike it because they all said the same thing: it felt too tight on their face and it's very uncomfortable.

NO loving poo poo! Y'all keep using those lovely cloth / surgical/ crappy cheap n95 that hang loosely off your face. Those masks doesn't loving work!

Frosted Flake posted:

I’m married to a Senior Policy Advisor who worked at Wilson and CATO, and I still don’t quite understand How Liberals Think. My SO was on the Coronavirus Task Force last year, I can’t talk about any of the specific work, but I suppose I saw part of the Canadian Government response up close, and if anything I’m more confused by it.

There was a week in early 2020 where it looked like they were going to do something, if you know what I mean. Just to speak in generalities, there were meetings with General Dynamics, BAE, various government and defence contractors, estimates on their capacity, tooling, poo poo like that.

Idk, when SNC-Lavalin and Bombardier were involved and she was reading books about the Canadian Pacific Railway shops building Valentine tanks, I thought there was going to be a crash program to build ventilators or something. Maybe I was grasping at straws and she’s just really interested in Lend-Lease. I got the sense there was this massive effort underway to mobilize Canadian industry - but then nothing happened.

That’s what’s causing me the most confusion I suppose. I don’t know how to articulate this, but it seems like the state response has become less active, the public messaging more unconcerned, as the crisis deepens, when you’d think it would be the other way around. Talk about “living with the virus” and relaxed public safety measures in March 2020, call major industries at all hours to assess their emergency production capacity now.

Needless to say, reading this thread is really disconcerting, similar to how I had to take a break from the Doomsday Econ thread because I’m married to an economist. I’m not trying to make this an E/N issue, only saying that I don’t understand if the state and media are pretending everything is fine or if they genuinely believe it.

tl;dr - Even if the disease did become less deadly eventually, I don’t understand not acting now, and I especially don’t understand the 70 hour weeks, emergency briefings, research papers and everything else that went into doing nothing.

Does that make sense? It was a tremendous amount of work to do nothing but project calm and optimism.

Frosted Flake posted:

I guess that’s where I’m getting stuck.

I have no idea what these reports and briefings concluded. It’s not 1940 anymore, maybe they couldn’t start making ventilators, masks or PPE on a crash basis. Certainly it took a while for distillers to begin making hand sanitizer, and I don’t know if that was state mobilization or 💫The Market✨ shifting production. I just feel as if you don’t pour over books on wartime emergency production if there’s no steps that can be taken. They studied an industrial response, and couldn’t have concluded it was impossible, right?

So does that mean that they believe it’s no big deal? Are all of these briefing notes opening with “COVID remains a marginal risk” - in which case any policy recommendations that follow are what you’d expect - or are they reading notes every day that stress the severity of the risk, presented with policy proposals based around that risk, and then… well, again, this is where I get stuck.

Someone mentioned the military earlier. Can you imagine going into Battle Procedure and then ignoring the analysis, or opting to low-ball any of the factors?




Speaking of, you’ll never guess what was added to the Reports and Returns binder this year:

NeonPunk posted:

Lol my coworkers told me that they appreciate the Auras I gave them but they all dislike it because they all said the same thing: it felt too tight on their face and it's very uncomfortable.

NeonPunk posted:

So I think I'll have to take some Excel online classes because I'm pretty sure that I'll have some major openings at work. Anyone have any good suggestions for picking up some tips on Excel?

quote:

It’s your first family reunion in two years. Have your uncle’s views on LGBTQ people changed? Is an aunt campaigning for another questionable politician? Will your grandmother think you’re rude for not eating lechon because you’re vegan?

Family reunions in the Philippines have always been tricky. But the fact that many extended families in the country haven’t been able to reunite since the pandemic started, combined with the abundance of topics up for heated debate (healthcare and an upcoming election season, for example) makes this impending holiday gathering all the trickier.

“It’s going to be a different reunion compared to what happened perhaps two years ago,” Michael Jimenez, a Filipino psychologist based in Manila, told VICE, explaining how they will be different in two ways: physically and emotionally.

They will be different in a physical sense because COVID-19 may still be keeping some family members on their toes about safety precautions. “Are you going to hug your grandparents? Are you going to ‘mano po’ (the traditional pressing of an elder’s hand on one’s forehead as a sign of respect)?” asked Jimenez.

Because of this, Jimenez said that people have to prepare for the possibility that some family members just won’t be as physically affectionate as expected, wanted, or as they used to be.

“You shouldn’t take it personally, and you should not compare other people,” he said, adding that while someone’s grandmother might be down to hug, that doesn’t mean their aunt will be too.

The reunions might be different emotionally, Jimenez said, especially for those who have lost family members to COVID-19. “Perhaps there are people who they saw two years ago who won’t be able to make it this year. There will be [chairs] that were once occupied, but because of COVID, are now empty.”

These physical and emotional differences set the stage for the next family reunion. It may be daunting and even a little anxiety-inducing, but Jimenez said one way for people to prepare for it is to simply remember why they’re there.

“You have to be aware of your purpose. That’s the very first thing you have to ask yourself: What’s the purpose of attending the reunion?” Jimenez said, adding that whatever that purpose is will direct one’s behavior throughout the event.

For many people, the purpose of a reunion is in the name itself—to reunite, to reconnect. These events may not be the best time to get into strong arguments about things like politics, as those often lead to conflict instead of connection, but surely, these sensitive topics will come up. Jimenez said it’s best to prepare in advance for how to react.

He explained that when faced with opposing views on sensitive topics, people usually react in two extreme ways: getting aggressive or ignoring the topic altogether. Getting aggressive will cause conflict, while ignoring the topic simply ends the conversation without resolving much, so Jimenez pointed to a middle ground.

“Acknowledging the topic is very important,” he said, suggesting that if one’s relative starts campaigning for a politician they wouldn’t vote for, they can acknowledge the choice, then respectfully ask the relative to explain why. Of course, this can be difficult to do amidst the rich cast of typical Filipino families.

“You will always have that one family member who will be intrusive, who will be provocative,” Jimenez said, adding that it may not be a bad idea for other family members to brief these provocative ones about things they shouldn’t do. This includes sharing problematic political views, but also microaggressions like pointing out weight gain and asking why couples don’t have kids yet. When these things are brought up, younger family members are usually expected to still act respectfully.

“As far as the Filipino culture is concerned, we hear of doting mothers, doting uncles, doting aunts, and usually the reaction of their nieces and nephews is to be silent about it, or rant about it on social media.”

These non-reactions are usually driven by wanting to keep the peace at gatherings. Sometimes, it may be good for people to simply let the unhelpful comments roll off their backs. The reunion won’t last forever, after all, and those difficult characters will be out of sight in a few hours. But other times, Jimenez said, you need to express your emotions and stand up for what you believe in. “If you think that the comment is already something that is aggressive, something you cannot be grateful for, then you have to be honest.”

He advised communicating this in a four-part statement: First is to point out the hurtful comment or action, then say what it caused, followed by how it made you feel, and lastly to ask the speaker of the comment or the doer of the action to not say or do it again. For example: “Uncle, when you told me I was fat, everybody in the room laughed. I felt really sad. Please don’t do it again.” Perhaps the person really did not mean to be hurtful, so this is a way to start a conversation without being disrespectful.

Jimenez acknowledged that it may not be easy to do, but it’s a good way to communicate even outside reunions.

“It takes courage to say that, but I hope that that’s how people communicate with each other not just during reunions, but every time a person gets hurt, feels annoyed, feels that their rights have been violated—that they will have that courage to tell the other person,” Jimenez said.

The seemingly tactless actions of older family members may just be well-meaning but confused responses to the unfamiliar behaviors of younger members.

Jimenez explained that older family members tend to feel like their past experiences of being teenagers and growing up afford them the right to instruct and advise the youth of today. While this may be true to an extent, the problem is that today’s youth don’t necessarily want to be identified with and limited by the lives of older generations.

In this situation, Jimenez said that older generations should accept that younger generations are trying to create their own identity instead of having it be dictated to them. The key, he said, is an openness to ideas.

“Older generations should be open to their nephews coming with boyfriends or their nieces coming with girlfriends,” Jimenez said, noting gender and sexuality as examples of ideas older generations would do well to be open to at their next family reunion.

The younger generations, on the other hand, should remember that new ideas will elicit different reactions from different people. These reactions can vary from unconditional acceptance to downright rejection, and they should learn to manage that. Jimenez said they don’t need to explain, convince, or apologize, but neither can they change people’s reactions.

“They can only calibrate how to respond to other people’s reactions. They may want to mingle with those people who approve of their convictions, or perhaps listen to those who are on the opposite side to understand where they’re coming from. Either way, they get to widen their perspective as they appreciate different mindsets and viewpoints.”

Physical limitations, new emotions, difficult characters, and sensitive topics aside, Jimenez said that holiday family reunions—especially the first one in two years—are occasions to come together and celebrate.

“A reunion should be filled with positive emotions, wherein you cultivate joy, interest, inspiration, serenity, gratitude, and curiosity, instead of being a critic.”

gradenko_2000 posted:

Raccooon posted:

My work requires me to take off my N95 mask and put on a surgical mask they provide when I come in.

cr0y posted:

Testvan posted:

The gov't saying Omicron is mild but you need a booster for it.
Why the gently caress would someone get a booster for something mild?
Great messaging, only our best folks running things.

cr0y posted:

Imagine if two years ago we just started building a lot of infrastructure for a lot of different poo poo.

Even tens of billions of dollars in spinning up manufacturing for masks, tests, ventilators, PPE, etc would have been a rounding error in terms of money already spent/lost.

cr0y posted:

Imagine if two years ago we just started building a lot of infrastructure for a lot of different poo poo.

gradenko_2000 posted:

just put a surgical mask on top of your N95

it can't make the seal any worse, and people are dumb enough to think that all you're doing is layering-on MORE protection