Languishing

[bae]

(and whee we hoarded the global supply of vaccines! ).

Did we actually hoard the supply?

The way I heard it, contractual arrangements with the vaccine producers forbid the US government from providing the emergency-use-authorization vaccines outside the US, as the manufacturers required the liability shield that comes with the emergency-use regulations. I also understand that if another country offers to establish similar liability protections, that contract requirement can be lifted. As happened with Mexico and Canada, and thus our "loan" of doses.

We also speculatively purchased lots of doses of the various types, before even knowing if even one would pan out, who knew all the bets would pay off?

It seems a more complicated situation than "Scrooge McDuck is hoarding all the doses under his bed". And as usual with such things, lawyers are involved :-)

[jp1]

Only two policies really worked against the pandemic it seems: zero covid (yea, we didn't do that ), or vaccines (whee, we've got vaccines!). Otherwise there is going to be an epidemic, but sure not wearing a mask will help even more get infected before they can get vaccines (and whee we hoarded the global supply of vaccines! ).

You forgot the third. Not getting together with people not in your household indoors any more than us absolutely necessary.

[LDAHL]

One thing this disease seems to have done is give free rein to some of our less noble instincts. Mask scolds and mask deniers clash. We decry gatherings we disapprove of as super spreader events, while dismissing the impact of those we do. The well-off who can easily work from home lecture the people who don’t have that luxury about the primacy of public health over economic survival. Celebrities in mansions the size of Lichtenstein feel in a position to inspire the masses with tweets about “we’re all in this together”. Conspiracy theories blossom. Data is feverishly mined to condemn various jurisdictions based on ideology.

The political elites flout the rules they impose on the commoners. They jump the vaccine line to serve as an example to the masses. They dismiss the virus early on, or claim credit for the work done by others later. The media puts a Governor on a pedestal until his behavior exceeds their ability to spin it away. Then they feverishly work to manufacture specious evidence of a villain in another state. CNN produces “experts predict spike” on nearly a daily basis to improve their bottom line. Everyone cloaks themselves in “the science”, at least as far as expediency will allow.

It is disheartening.

[ApatheticNoMore]

What has ACTUALLY been disheartening to a lot of people is to see even the most basic public health measures like masks resisted and become political (of all things, yea that's political somehow). And so people were not only mostly left to their own devices to try not getting the disease as clearly the government simply didn't contain it, almost all government institutions failed spectacularly in the moment of crisis (except for eventually helping get a vaccine), even communications were bad, but not only did *institutions* fail (but community come together), but in actual fact one had to suspect everyone around them of deliberately trying to spread the disease as well! The number of people disheartened and demoralized by that is a gash, a source of trauma on top of the pandemic itself. A thing people describe as not being able to unsee. It's widespread.

Now the very institutions that failed use this strategically to try to deflect blame for their failures and get people to blame bad individuals instead. It's all about individuals. No, it's not all about individual actions that's for sure. But .... we can also see the pressure institutions themselves faced from individuals (and businesses) fighting them for the right to spread the virus as well (public health people trying to do their best lost jobs over this).

Now we can say that is only a few people, a way too vocal minority, and maybe feel better if we want to (perhaps a bit delusionally but). Or we can not unsee it.

And I don't see masks as being able to stop the pandemic by themselves or something, in theory, yea theory is fine, but I'm way to enamored of actual working examples. Did any country use masks as their only measure and succeed? So I don't see not wearing a mask as why we have a pandemic. I can see if one has to be around people who refuse to wear masks (coworkers or customers at work say) getting really annoyed they aren't taking basic measures to reduce spread and prevent oneself from getting infected though! Of course.

[Gardnr]

(and whee we hoarded the global supply of vaccines! ).

Purchasing enough for our population is not hoarding. Is it?

[bae]

Purchasing enough for our population is not hoarding. Is it?

I got accused the other day of "hoarding" housing, because I'm only using one bedroom in my home, and I could surely rent out the other 2-3 bedrooms for a reasonable rate to people who are having trouble manifesting housing.

[ApatheticNoMore]

The hoarding comment was a bit of a joke. I mean the only way the U.S. ever was going to get out of this was vaccination/treatments and it's happening. And yes zero covid not being on the table and requiring border controls, we were either going to get out of it via vaccination or treatments or natural herd immunity (but that would take many more years than people anticipate, as it can be a high threshold, plus what about mutations or immunity waning).

I certainly took the vaccine.

There are ethical issues to global vaccine distribution but they are beyond my pay grade. I mean much of the world is still dying for lack of a vaccine and it's not really because they aren't manifesting hard enough.

[LDAHL]

I got accused the other day of "hoarding" housing, because I'm only using one bedroom in my home, and I could surely rent out the other 2-3 bedrooms for a reasonable rate to people who are having trouble manifesting housing.

You are stealing those rooms from the housing-disenfranchised. Come the revolution in 2022, the Article 25 Harris presidency or a progressively recalibrated SCOTUS, this injustice will be rectified.

[frugal-one]

You are stealing those rooms from the housing-disenfranchised. Come the revolution in 2022, the Article 25 Harris presidency or a progressively recalibrated SCOTUS, this injustice will be rectified.

Whatever you are spewing is not registering. Where I live there is a survey if we want to add mega low cost housing to our small community. We are not on a bus line to a large city or have the resources so... NO. There are not enough jobs to warrant building all this. People would forever be relegated to poverty. I would think low cost housing should be where people can easily shop or find work. I believe people would languish here. Am I missing something?

[Gardnr]

I got accused the other day of "hoarding" housing, because I'm only using one bedroom in my home, and I could surely rent out the other 2-3 bedrooms for a reasonable rate to people who are having trouble manifesting housing.

LOL. how dare you own a home and not sub-lease specific rooms