Frankenscript
Known around here
- Dec 21, 2017
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I thought Pence did what was expected: exude smoothness and republican talking points while avoiding saying anything that will bite Trump in the a$$. He accomplished this with skillful avoidance of direct questioning on abortion and peaceful transition of power. Harris did what I expected: show energy and empathy while parroting democratic talking points. She did fine.
Given both performed to expectation, the winner of the debate would be likely the one who accomplished their mission. For Harris it was to not flub anything serious. She accomplished that. For Pence it was to change the narrative, momentum and connect with suburban soccer moms. He did NOT do that. Not only did his points not resonate with them from all reports, the optics of him talking over and interrupting the two women on stage was disastrous from that perspective. I think the debate changes nothing about the race, so Harris wins by default.
Back to pandemic topics: Your zerhohedge article is the same stuff reported by BBC yesterday; it was done in response actually to the NEJM declaration about Trump being a public health threat who should be voted out of office. Doctors aren't a monolithic group (actually, about half the doctors I know are republicans, but few if any support Trump) so it's not surprising to see a group of "doctors and scientists" who sign up for the herd immunity shtick. What they forget is that the young and healthy who are at low risk interact with / live with those that aren't. My kids are healthy; I'm not overly worried about them getting infected. But I'm 53 and (just barely) considered obese; I'm at high risk. My wife is a cancer survivor. She's at very high risk. If one of our kids brings it home from school, it's the two parents who might wind up in the hospital or morgue. Somewhere there was a review of what percentage of households have someone living there that is either old or has a preexisting condition that gives significant risk. It's more than half of multi-person households. And factor in that those of us in the workforce who are at risk need to interact with people to do our jobs (my wife works in a health care facility, for example), it quickly becomes apparent that there is no island to put the at risk people on while they are tended to by "naturally immune" COVID survivors.
We've got a couple months to go before those at highest practical risk can start getting one of the vaccines. Despite some recent talk of side effects from the Pfizer vaccine, it's likely that the safety data will look good when it can be reviewed, likely starting late November or early December. Other vaccine candidates are hot on the heels. It will take a while before we've got everyone vaccinated (who wishes to be), but there is light in the tunnel.
I have been feeling fatigue since last week (ever since the temps dropped in the Northeast). 
