mtutiger

It's really not hard: people look to the CDC and the FDA for guidance on the vaccine. At the time, Robert Redfield, CDC Director, said (accurately) that the vaccine would be ready in early 2021. Donald Trump goes out, refutes that, and says that it will be ready in 'late October' (ie. before the election). In light of that, it's not exactly surprising that people wouldn't find Trump a trustworthy source on the vaccine. My standard on taking the vaccine always came down to buy-in from experts.... and for whatever reason, people just sort of gloss over how a politician (Trump) attempted to interfere with that process for political ends. And how that may have damaged trust.

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/09/16/913560563/cdc-director-says-covid-vaccine-likely-wont-be-widely-available-until-next-year In light of Archie's Earth 2.0 prognostications, it's worth revisiting (again) one of President Trump's actions during the Fall of 2020 and how it probably wasn't all that helpful if the goal was to get as many people vaccinated as possible. Specifically tying vaccine distribution to the election (contradicting his own CDC Director) was a serious mistake made by Trump. For whatever reason, people just seem to gloss over it and forget about it.

After that take of his that curdled faster than a turd in the sun, maaaaybe Brit should grab some bench....

End of the line for Boris?

Is this based off any particular article? All the buzz I've seen has been either right or left coast for Suzuki

That aged about as well as a glass of milk on a 100 degree day

Not surprised in the least.

Looks like Roger really took advantage of that second chance afforded to him by Trump.

Just a normal day of tours on Capitol Hill, folks!

'Seditious Conspiracy'

It really gets back to the fact that this system of electing Presidents is just absolute garbage. It's not gonna change, obviously, but it's just terrible and creates more problems than it solves. If someone wanted to design a well functioning democracy from scratch, would they ever look at our system and think, "yeah, that's totally the way to go"?

My understanding is that the OSHA rule being debated doesn't prevent someone from returning from work but requires them to submit to weekly testing and for companies to have a program in order to carry that out. In theory I'm OK with it, but in terms of implementation, it puts a lot of pressure on a company to carry out tasks that they may not be well equipped to carry out. And I worry that will cause more problems than it solves.

This makes sense. At the end of the day, all of this stuff falls in the "YMMV" department.

Pretty much the same story for me. Quite a few family members as well whose mind I will not be changing lol

On the discussion of trasmissibility, while things seem to change significantly day-to-day with COVID, my understanding is that there still is less transmissibility among the vaxxed. I buy that it has been overplayed (especially with this new variant), but has there been science that has said that there isn't any difference? EDIT: Ed beat me to it.

This seems pretty in-line with everything I've heard.

If the vaccines are causing illnesses to be milder, then the vaccines are working. Hospitalization / mortality data seems to suggest this. So yes, seems pretty clear the vaccines are working.

I'm sure someone will be along shortly to talk about how substitutes don't do anything. But either way, this seems like too low a bar.

Yeah, that doesn't add up at all.

Part of why it may appear milder may be the high vaccination rate tho - certainly if one looks at the hospitalization / mortality numbers, there has been evidence that outcomes with the unvaccinated are a lot worse. Even with the new variant.

See, it reminds me way more of President Trump. He keeps going on about the election being stolen from him for so long (despite all evidence against) and won't stop lying about it.

Basically correct. I don't think the average person is thinking about the big debates on policy - they are looking at the COVID situation and aren't thrilled. It's not good if you're in a position of power - as other leaders in the free world could attest right now as well. A lot of his standing comes down to the COVID situation and inflation.... assuming no additional variants, COVID is probably the first kidney stone to pass. Inflation is a bit trickier.... there's a lot of belief among economists that we may be close to the peak. If not, the midterms will be rough.

I mean, Biden's drop in approval during his first year in office isn't too far off Trump's during 2017. But as with Trump, a drop in approval doesn't necessarily mean that voters wouldn't vote for them again.