Official live update of spread of COVID19

[Spongebob]

I'm still struggling with trying to understand why so many USians are refusing to wear a mask. I mean, it's not like they were being asked to wear a Nickelback t-shirt or something.

Boru

For about the same reason many people in the US are getting offended by the suggestion everybody should wear the MAGA hat. Mask is a political symbol, and not just in the US.

You've got that completely wrong.  The MAGA hat is purely a political symbol.  It has absolutely nothing to do with anything but politics and for that matter it is 99% limited to supporters of Trump.  So in some respects it isn't even political, as MAGA hat wearers don't truly endorse conservative values, only Trump values, whatever those happen to be at the moment.

Mask wearing is purely a health issue, but because Trump and his sycophants decided to politicize the pandemic, masks and vaccines, their followers, like good little Nazi's, believe that everyone on the left and everyone in medicine is trying to dupe them.  They literally believe it is a hoax perpetrated by Hillary to get Trump out of office (among other idiotic things).  Don't try too hard to make sense of it because it will only make sense for someone viewing the world through Trump colored glasses.  About the only thing that gets through to these dingdongs is when they are about to die of Covid, and even some of those go to their graves not accepting it.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I'm still struggling with trying to understand why so many USians are refusing to wear a mask. I mean, it's not like they were being asked to wear a Nickelback t-shirt or something.

Boru

For about the same reason many people in the US are getting offended by the suggestion everybody should wear the MAGA hat. Mask is a political symbol, and not just in the US.

Here in the Southern Hemisphere, we refer to what I said as a ‘joke’ or a ‘jest’. This means it is a statement or remark intended to be taken humorously, and as such does not require a serious reply.

No offense taken, as I’m sure that living as closely as you do to Eastern Europe - a place which, by all accounts, has the reputation of being the epitome of dour - jokes and jests are somewhat unfamiliar to you.

Boru

[Ranjr]

^  Casually crosses arms over Nickelback logo.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

^  Casually crosses arms over Nickelback logo.

We all make mistakes *hides his big foam parrot hat*.

Boru

[Ranjr]

LA (Lower Arkansas) is beginning to budge a little.  FYI college football fans, Fordyce is the birthplace of Paul "Bear" Bryant.

In a sports-crazed Arkansas town, football is a reason to get vaccinated

However, the birthplace of Wal-Mart is fighting to stay stupid.

3 parents sue over Bentonville school district's mask mandate

[Jackalope]

Just got word that the stepfather of one of my wife's friends is expected to die of covid.  Anti-vax and anti-mask, of course.

I feel bad for his children and grandkids, but this guy made his own bed.

He owned the libs for the last time yesterday morning.

[brewer]

According to the health alert in Mississippi:

At least 70% of the recent calls have been related to ingestion of livestock or animal formulations of ivermectin purchased at livestock supply centers

85% of the callers had mild symptoms

No one has been hospitalized due to ingestion of the drug

In Mississippi, the Poison Control Center is asking to be notified by any physicians, providers or hospitals in the state who know patients with illness related to the medication, either prescribed or livestock formulations.

https://www.wbay.com/2021/08/20/poison-c...-covid-19/

---

Most private insurers are no longer waiving cost-sharing for COVID-19 treatment

Federal law requires all private insurance plans to cover the entire cost associated with approved COVID-19 testing so long as the test is deemed medically appropriate. Additionally, the U.S. government pre-paid for COVID-19 vaccines and required COVID-19 vaccines be made available at no out-of-pocket costs regardless of whether the vaccine recipient is insured. However, while a handful of states required or created agreements with insurers to waive COVID-19 out-of-pocket treatment costs for their fully-insured plan enrollees, there is no federal mandate requiring insurers to do so.

Earlier in the pandemic, we found that the vast majority (88%) of people enrolled in fully-insured private health plans nonetheless would have had their out-of-pocket costs waived if they were hospitalized with COVID-19. At the time, health insurers were highly profitable due to lower-than-expected health care use, while hospitals and health care workers were overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. Insurers may have also wanted to be sympathetic toward COVID-19 patients, and some may have also feared the possibility of a federal mandate to provide care free-of-charge to COVID-19 patients, so they voluntarily waived these costs for at least some period of time during the pandemic. Our subsequent analysis found that several of these insurers were starting to phase out COVID-19 cost-sharing waivers by November 2020.

In the last few months, the environment has shifted with safe and highly effective vaccines now widely available. In this brief, we once again review how many private insurers are continuing to waive patient cost sharing for COVID-19 treatment. We find that 72% of the two largest insurers in each state and DC (102 health plans) are no longer waiving these costs, and another 10% of plans are phasing out waivers by the end of October.

https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brie...treatment/

[Fireball]

Just got word that the stepfather of one of my wife's friends is expected to die of covid.  Anti-vax and anti-mask, of course.

I feel bad for his children and grandkids, but this guy made his own bed.

He owned the libs for the last time yesterday morning.

Sorry, for the family.

[Rev. Rye]

I'm still struggling with trying to understand why so many USians are refusing to wear a mask. I mean, it's not like they were being asked to wear a Nickelback t-shirt or something.

Boru

For about the same reason many people in the US are getting offended by the suggestion everybody should wear the MAGA hat. Mask is a political symbol, and not just in the US.

Somehow, I got so wrapped up in how fucked up it was that deciding to not become this:

Is somehow a political symbol that I forgot to ask: who the fuck is suggesting everybody wear a MAGA hat?

[Fake Messiah]

Yeah, here is your MAGA