And you seem not to understand a thing about virology. No vaccine has to be perfect just as most vaccines aren't but they can eliminate significant viral transmission in the population if a threshold of people are vaccinated.

Yes, covid is here to stay but it need not be something endemic to the population in every community. It can be limited to rare outbreaks that can be controlled.

This is wrong. And the efforts to try would ruin life for everyone alive today. This has to end now.

Given the choice between say 2 more years of Covid restrictions, or every person over 80 years old dying tomorrow, I would prefer the latter. And I mean it.

Most 80 year-olds are vaccinated and we're not going to go back into the lockdowns and mask mandates like we did last year. Perhaps in the UK but you guys have surrendered a degree of autonomy to the state anyway. Here in most of the US outside the west coast, there would be a revolt.

I was more making a point.

There would be a revolt in the UK too, and I would lead it if necessary.

This article brings to mind our very own Pedestrian. The Telegraph has a really irritating paywall for a paper that doesn’t merit the subscription price, but you can get the gist of it:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.t...-ever-end/amp/

I was arguing for (much) lighter restrictions on the general population coupled with more stringent restrictions on the vulnerable. I still believe this would have been a better approach.

Even without the latter (for whatever legal reasons, which would have been more of an issue in the US than in Europe), there would have been a much stronger response among vulnerable to look after themselves, as opposed to the false sense of security produced in Europe and liberal cities in the US. Essentially this would have been the Florida approach, which was the best one.

Remember much of the early surge was in nursing homes. That really does not bother me all that much, at least not to the point where I support the terrible psychological and economic cost imposed on everyone else. People in nursing homes might not be dead yet, but they aren’t really living. And I stand by the view that the life of an 80-something is not as worthy of saving as the life, future or psychological well-being of a 20- or 30-something.

On a note closer to the original topic of the thread, here's a cool article I saw discussing how commercial real estate may evolve in the post pandemic world. It's not to be taken as gospel, and is simply another writer putting their thoughts down, but some cool ideas on how some buildings in major cities may change in the future.

https://realtybiznews.com/will-inves...m-by/98763255/

In the days since LA County reinstated mandatory masking, I've been to a big shopping mall/lifestyle center, a bookstore, a couple of bars/brewpubs, a couple small shops, three restaurants, and four department stores (new wardrobe after going without anything new since COVID!). In my experience so far, about 90-95% are wearing masks indoors, and the number of people out and about has stayed roughly the same as before.

That is true. There are a lot of reasons for me to hate on living in Texas but this isn't one of them. There's a shocking amount of people who want us all to 'mask up' and having rolling open ended lockdowns for the foreseeable future. The fact that so many are willing to hand over a degree of civil liberty is frightening.

Pasadena will require all city employees to be vaccinated.

The U.S. State Department issued a Do Not Travel alert for the United Kingdom:

Rt values of the G7,
Canada is really standing out being the only G7 member with falling cases. And deaths are down to an average of 7 day now

https://i.postimg.cc/fb9Nj9R2/corona...xplorer-58.png
https://i.postimg.cc/fbK6vfhv/corona...xplorer-59.png

The horror of giving up your liberty by having to pop on a mask when you run into H-E-B! Unfurl the red banners!

I find it hilarious that you talk about your liberty and then want to tell an 18 or 19 year old soldier home from Afghanistan that he can't own a civilian gun until he's 21.

The fact that we are now finding out that some vaccines, and especially those used heavily in the UK, are significantly ineffective against the delta strain (which 10023 and urban politicians said was just like the other strains) indicates that those seriously wishing to protect themselves even if vaccinated SHOULD wear masks indoors in stores and it would be ideal if everyone did since only the N95 and equivalent masks really protect the wearer to any degree (Scott Gottlieb is now advocating we all get those and wear them where masks are warranted rather than the bandanas and other simple cloth masks so many of the "cool kids" affected last summer).

^ I agree with JManc

The very reason we started any Covid mitigations to begin with was to prevent overwhelming the healthcare system.

That goalpost shifted long ago, to nobody anywhere should test positive for Covid.

For the vaccinated, who just aren’t going to get seriously ill or die from Covid in numbers large enough to post a societal threat, this is a betrayal.

Leaders are also being coy by saying “Covid cases are rising, this took us by surprise”. Really? When you end Covid mitigation, even with a vaccine, cases are obviously going to rise. We have to accept that. What matters is that hospitals don’t get overwhelmed.

We’ve completely lost sight of the reason we started any mitigations to begin with.

This is a pure, unadulterated lie. You grow more dangerous to reason the more time you spend on this forum. No wonder you were once banned here.

The vaccines work extremely well. Just having Covid in your nares and testing positive is NOT a vaccine failure. Stop being a dolt.

Once the Delta variant gets your memory immune response fired up, your body clears out the infection. It saves your life.

Unbelievable, your lies…..

I applaud the UK for relaxing their mitigations despite the Delta surge.

It reflects good leadership and sound reasoning. They are recognizing that just seeing a surge in cases, while a life saving vaccine is ubiquitously available to the public, is no longer adequate reason to impose these soul-crushing and economy obliterating mandates any longer. They long ago stopped serving their purpose because, you know, we have a damn vaccine.

That, my friend, is true leadership. I’m guessing many US States don’t have that same leadership and I really wish I lived in Texas or Florida right now the way fucktard Pritzker is talking.

London is still requiring masks on public transportation, which includes taxis (though it can only be enforced by the driver and if you’ve ever met a London cabbie you know they don’t care). On the tube there have always been exceptions and so I had stopped wearing one weeks ago.

Private businesses remain able to “request” that customers where masks, but they can’t enforce, and so it’s really just putting a sign up. They don’t even bother asking you to put one on.

I still see maybe 1 in 3 people wearing a mask and it’s probably going to become very political here like the US. But so what. I’ve had both doses of vaccine, and Pfizer not AZ. This is as good and safe as we’re going to get so life needs to go back to normal.

[QUOTE=Pedestrian;9345822]

^ Just whom are you having a conversation with right now? Literally. No one. Is saying “gee I wish we were Canada right now.”

I’d rather sacrifice my left nut than to live in the authoritarian hellhole that you live in, all to just keep cases of the Common Cold as low as possible :haha:

[QUOTE=the urban politician;9345857]Look at this authoritarian hellhole

• Video Link

^ What does that have to do with anything?

This is factually incorrect. They are effective against serious illness and death, and that’s all we need.

I’m not wearing a mask to keep myself from getting a bit sick, just as I never have during cold and flu season (I’ve always washed my hands frequently, which may be part of why I’m almost never sick).

Masks are NOT going to become a normal part of life. Nor should they, given now much they fuck up normal human interaction.

Btw I was in Formentera last week and you would love the see-through masks that the Spanish and Italians (it’s mostly Italian tourists) are now wearing. You can see the person’s teeth and smile through the mask. But hey, it complies with the stupid rule.