Precambrian Video Games posted:

More young people are getting colorectal cancer(s), which is an ok article, but I had thoughts on Why Are Older Americans Drinking So Much?:

The article goes on but as far as I can tell does not actually answer the question in the end, perhaps because there's still no new CDC mortality data? But then why even write this, other than to meet a deadline and open with the slightly troubling anecdote about the 77-year-old with signs of dementia drinking a pint of scotch per day?

DickParasite posted:

Pre-covid the per-capita ethanol consumption was on the same trajectory so unsurprisingly the NYT is full of poo poo.

DickParasite posted:

Xaris posted:

huh, kinda surprised by this since it this does not match at all my experience the past 15+ years. I feel like wine's been on the decline for a decade largely fallen out of favor, and beer was really loving huge and growing circa ~2011 - 2019 with big microbeer and bespoke scenes popping up nation-wide; however, covid really did a number on it and feels like it's rapidly regressing, consolidating, and falling out. spirits felt like they gained a bit of popularity around 2017 but otherwise were relatively constant. it would make sense they would (and did) rise a lot during covid

Zantie posted:

Direct link to the calculator here: https://partnersplatform.who.int/tools/aria/calculator

I feel like this got missed by a lot of people so I'm adding someone else's summary. I actually find it encouraging as it means they're only using airborne transmission for their calculator.

https://twitter.com/_CatintheHat/status/1773676758882988331

edit: the link below should send you to a non-Twitter page with the whole thing laid out

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1773676758882988331.html

RoboChrist 9000 posted:

Weren't there a slew of OSHA regulations and perks for workers that were supposed to happen if COVID was acknowledged as an airborne workplace risk? I seem to recall the thread way back when saying that was one of the primary reasons that no matter what ever happened, the CDC would never admit COVID was airborne?

DickParasite posted:

Pre-covid the per-capita ethanol consumption was on the same trajectory so unsurprisingly the NYT is full of poo poo.

RoboChrist 9000 posted:

Weren't there a slew of OSHA regulations and perks for workers that were supposed to happen if COVID was acknowledged as an airborne workplace risk? I seem to recall the thread way back when saying that was one of the primary reasons that no matter what ever happened, the CDC would never admit COVID was airborne?

FORUMS USER 1135 posted:

I was trying to explain to a friend last night how the mask guidelines from OSHA and the CDC guidance were in conflict, and how the CDC guideline to not wear masks were released at the perfect time to gently caress over the OSHA draft guidelines. This was all based on some excellent posts earlier by DarkEuphoria and Lansdowne at the end of June, but I couldn’t find the posts and the info wasn’t really organized in my head. I went ahead and found the posts today, and spliced them together in time to more easily explain how things went down starting at the end of April. I thought this would be useful to have for a quick link, and if you haven’t seen their posts I would definitely go and read them: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=0&threadid=3926175&pagenumber=6162&perpage=40#post515845869
https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=0&threadid=3926175&pagenumber=6166&perpage=40#post515856329
All credit for this goes to them, I just wanted to organize it temporally, and it is kind of funny to go back and re-read this thread to see how the pessimistic posts usually wind up being the accurate ones.

April 26
OMB’s OIRA receives updated OSHA ETS (Emergency Temporary Standard – emergency regulations for workers) draft. OMB review expected to end May 10th. [DarkEuphoria, Politico]. This draft includes “grave danger” language and protections for all workers [Lansdowne, Bloomberg Law]. Note that this draft is created and reported on, but not made public.

April 29
Industry groups being weighing in on OSHA rules. At least 9 meetings scheduled through May 5th [Lansdowne, Bloomberg Law].

May 7
Talks with industry groups (and OMB-OIRA deadline) extended until May 13th. Narrative of OSHA being slow, vaccinations making regulation unnecessary begins to show up [Lansdowne, Bloomberg Law].

May 10
Minutes from OMB-OIRA meetings include letter from May 3 from Senators Marshall (R-KS), Burr (R-NC), and Scott (R-SC) discussing how additional regulations are not needed, and that OSHA should follow latest CDC guidance, and anyways it is too late for a new ETS to help (lol). [DarkEuphoria,Letter]

May 11
More manufacturing consent with color commentary:



May 13
CDC goes mask off. More letters from the OMB-OIRA agenda show dental industry groups fighting against masks [DarkEuphoria].

May 14
Almost immediately, articles start coming out showing the conflict between OSHA rules and CDC guidelines [Lansdowne, Bloomberg Law]. Also, the OMB-OIRA review still isn’t done.

May 17
OSHA says to follow CDC guidelines until further review is finished [Lansdowne, Bloomberg Law].

May 20
Major pushback on OSHA’s ability to regulate since they must prove Covid is a “grave danger” and give “due regards” to CDC recommendations [Lansdowne, Bloomberg Law]. Doubts starting to appear publicly that a standard will come at all.

May 24
Letter from Republican members of House Committee on Education and Labor send a letter stating that CDC says covid is over so OSHA can’t issue ETS [Lansdowne, Bloomberg Law]

May 26
OMB-OIRA deadline pushed back to May 28th; pushback on rules continues from lobbyists. Threats of lawsuits if OSHA requires anything significant [Lansdowne, Bloomberg Law].

June 10
OSHA rules finally released. We are also finally told that OSHA emergency rules don’t require “public input” at all, but in fact the “White House regulatory office chose to solicit opinion from a wide range of advocacy groups.” It also includes a 900-page preamble justifying why “grave danger” is only for healthcare workers [Lansdowne, Bloomberg Law].

June 28
Draft from April released allowing us to see what was in the original proposal, and that it covered all workers and not just healthcare [Lansdowne, Bloomberg Law].

Strep Vote posted:

... good luck to him and your family. 😬

Platystemon posted:

Old post, but allow me to quote Minnesota’s premiere epidemiologist on this exact topic, because we will all be hearing about it for the rest of our natural lives.

quote:

In the United States. 40 different states enacted some type of stay at home orders in March of 2020. If you look at those 40, within eight weeks, all of them were basically lifted. More importantly, many of them were basically screen doors on a submarine in terms of what they accomplished. In Minnesota, for example, the governor had in place a stay at home order except for essential workers, but 82% of our workforce was defined as essential workers. We never really had a lockdown here. There may be individual companies or organizations that decided not to have activities or be open, but it wasn't forced on it. And remember, the pandemic lasted more than three years. In that sense, this was 6 to 8 weeks at the beginning of the pandemic, when at that point, fewer than 5% of all the cases had occurred. So we get into these debates about lockdowns and what happened. This is just an emotional issue. There was never really any activity that was a lockdown as far as I'm concerned, in this country.

RoboChrist 9000 posted:

Weren't there a slew of OSHA regulations and perks for workers that were supposed to happen if COVID was acknowledged as an airborne workplace risk? I seem to recall the thread way back when saying that was one of the primary reasons that no matter what ever happened, the CDC would never admit COVID was airborne?

Oracle posted:

I vaguely recall that this was why the mask mandate dropped as abruptly as it did

mawarannahr posted:

this mf
Remarks by President Biden at a Campaign Event | New York, NY | The White House

quote:

One million people dead. Didn’t have to be that high. Didn’t have to be that.

Platystemon posted:

If I were that rear end in a top hat, I would not remind people of the number “one million”.

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1319446692236791814

Joementum posted:

my brother just tested positive for the fifth time

Joementum posted:

my brother just tested positive for the fifth time

nytimes.com - Sun, 31 Mar 2024 posted:

…
In the four years since the pandemic closed schools, U.S. education has struggled to recover on a number of fronts, from learning loss, to enrollment, to student behavior.

But perhaps no issue has been as stubborn and pervasive as a sharp increase in student absenteeism, a problem that cuts across demographics and has continued long after schools reopened.
The habit of daily attendance — and many families’ trust — was severed when schools shuttered in spring 2020. Even after schools reopened, things hardly snapped back to normal. Districts offered remote options, required COVID-19 quarantines and relaxed policies around attendance and grading.
…
Across the country, students are staying home when sick, not only with COVID-19, but also with more routine colds and viruses.

And more students are struggling with their mental health, one reason for increased absenteeism in Mason, Ohio, an affluent suburb of Cincinnati, said Tracey Carson, a district spokesperson. Because many parents can work remotely, their children can also stay home.
…
After working at a nursing home during the pandemic, and later losing her sister to COVID-19, she said, there were days she found it difficult to get out of bed. Murff was also more willing to keep her children home when they were sick, for fear of accidentally spreading the virus.

After a visit from her school district, and starting therapy herself, she has settled into a new routine. She helps her sons, 6 and 12, set out their outfits at night and she wakes up at 6 a.m. to ensure they get on the bus. If they are sick, she said, she knows to call the absence into school. “I’ve done a huge turnaround in my life,” she said.

But bringing about meaningful change for large numbers of students remains slow, difficult work.

The Ypsilanti school district has tried a bit of everything, said the superintendent, Alena Zachery-Ross. In addition to door knocks, officials are looking for ways to make school more appealing for the district’s 3,800 students, including more than 80% who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. They held themed dress-up days — ’70s day, pajama day — and gave away warm clothes after noticing a dip in attendance during winter months.

“We wondered, is it because you don’t have a coat, you don’t have boots?” Zachery-Ross said.

Still, absenteeism overall remains higher than it was before the pandemic. “We haven’t seen an answer,” she said.

mawarannahr posted:

these mfs...
Why school absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

quote:

What causes myopia, and why are cases surging now?

For years, scientists thought genetics alone dictated whether one developed myopia. Now, the debate has been muddied — one's environment clearly made an impact, given the rise in recent cases, but the exact factors weren't clear, Wong explained.

The consensus now is that exposure to natural sunlight likely plays a big role, he said. Studies suggest certain wavelengths of natural sunlight can stimulate dopamine release inside the organ, potentially protecting against nearsightedness as the eyes develop.

"As more and more people are becoming educated, their kids are (spending more time) indoors reading, and not being into outside play as much," he said. This was intensified during the pandemic lockdowns, when kids were kept away from sunlight at a time when they needed it most, Wong continued.

"The recommendation is kids really should be getting a certain amount of light, about 90 minutes to 120 minutes of light a day outdoors," he continued.

Jones noted this issue is compounded by our collective screen addictions — bad enough for adult eyes, but far worse for those still growing.

"There's this dependency on digital devices for entertainment. Kids have iPads, they have cellphones … and everything's being watched up close," she said. "So our big recommendations are to limit non-academic screen time and to go spend more time outside."

Kawawada said she felt "dismayed" when her daughter Penelope, now 14 (the Star is identifying both by their middle names for privacy reasons), was diagnosed as myopic near the start of the pandemic. Her youngest, Lillian, now 11, following suit a couple of years later.

"I have been trying to ensure that they got a lot of outdoor time, and I was trying to limit their screen time and stuff," Kawawada, who works in communications for the University of Waterloo, said. But it was difficult when both grew to be "bookworms" like their mother, and especially during the pandemic when they were "shut up in the house with nothing to do but stare at a screen.

"I'm sure that's where the problems started," she said.

Joementum posted:

my brother just tested positive for the fifth time

Gunshow Poophole posted:

Myopia? In America??

Soap Scum posted:

does he take pax every time or does he just tank it

Precambrian Video Games posted:

Young children are facing an epidemic of vision loss, experts say. What's behind the surge in myopia?

Wasn't someone compiling a list of all the health problems caused by lockdowns? Well anyway now that the pandemic is behind us surely people should be healthy than ever?

Joementum posted:

he took pax a couple of the times, but for the others he's had very light symptoms or none at all and hasn't


he works in entertainment and has to test multiple times a week which is why this has happened

The Oldest Man posted:

when kids were kept away from sunlight?

the covid lockdown oubliette strikes again

mawarannahr posted:

quote:

Murff was also more willing to keep her children home when they were sick, for fear of accidentally spreading the virus.

After a visit from her school district, and starting therapy herself, she has settled into a new routine.

Precambrian Video Games posted:

quote:

"As more and more people are becoming educated, their kids are (spending more time) indoors reading, and not being into outside play as much," he said. This was intensified during the pandemic lockdowns, when kids were kept away from sunlight at a time when they needed it most, Wong continued.

quote:

To put the finding of the New England Journal of Medicine study into perspective, I estimate that a three-point downward shift in IQ would increase the number of U.S. adults with an IQ less than 70 from 4.7 million to 7.5 million – an increase of 2.8 million adults with a level of cognitive impairment that requires significant societal support.

yellowD posted:

https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/1774852620084969752