Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff

[Ganymede]

@silverfox

I worked in a kitchen for a little bit, and learned to follow Colette Tatou's advice: "Always keep your station clean."

It actually helps a lot. Cooking is about timing, and I've learned how long each dish takes. Staggering them means I can put certain things on the stove or in the oven, and then take time to clean. It's how I can make a 10-appetizer meal for my dozen-or-so family members without going nuts.

[mietze]

Another clean as you go person here, at least during prep time and cooking itself. Afterwards I tend to turn the cleaning over to someone else.

[Wretched]

I am BAD at cleaning, Pigpen is my spirit animal. All my life, messes just.... form around me, to the point that sometimes i think it is a superpower... or a divine curse.

[Derp]

@silverfox said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

In my household my husband does 90% of the cooking. Not because I CAN'T cook, but because of several reasons.

On the nights I do cook (like today, when there are fucking wildfire evaccuations in DECEMBER and husband must cover them...) I'm reminded of one of the major reasons why I was happy to give up the chore. Mostly because I cannot have the kitchen dirty before I cook, nor leave it dirty after I cook. So on top of the actual prep, here's an easy 20-30 minutes before and after cooking.

DOES ANY ONE ELSE DO THIS?!

I think anyone who has worked in food service for any length of time does this tbh.

[Arkandel]

[Arkandel]

I'm quite pro-vaccine but I have to agree with this Oxford scientist's opinion that we can't vaccinate the planet every six months.

It simply isn't feasible on any level. Economically, especially for less wealthy countries, the rates were always low to begin with - but since the world is a global village now there is no containing outbreaks. On top of that entire chunks of the economy can't just collapse on a regular basis; rents and mortgages are lagging behind, jobs disappear, schools close, and social services are strained to keep up.

Even socially it's getting harder and harder to get buy-in. For example Spain used to have one of Europe's highest vaccination rates but there now massive protests in the new year regarding new measures. It's understandable; this is difficult mentally as well, and there is no end in sight.

In my (uninformed, as I am not a medical professional) opinion it doesn't seem like we can eliminate coronaviruses in general. We'll need to figure out to turn their impact into flu-like mild waves requiring a lot less urgent care. One good way to do so is the new over-the-counter pills treating infections... assuming they can work to keep relatively healthy people out of the hospital after they contact the virus.

[faraday]

@arkandel said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

I'm quite pro-vaccine but I have to agree with this Oxford scientist's opinion that we can't vaccinate the planet every six months.

I would agree that's not sustainable, but there's also absolutely zero reason to believe it's necessary.

Historically and biologically, all pandemics end eventually. The 1918 pandemic? That virus never went away. We (as a species) just got used to it and now it's part of the seasonal flu. The same will happen to covid-19 as well in time. Early indications are that Omicron is probably moving us in that direction.

The only question is how many people have to die along the way. That is what the vaccines are for--preventing serious outcomes, not for eradicating the disease. And they're working very well. Most likely we'll fall into a pattern of annual boosters for awhile, which is really what the flu shot is.

[Derp]

@faraday said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

That is what the vaccines are for--preventing serious outcomes, not for eradicating the disease.

Tell that to smallpox.

Just saying. We absolutely can eliminate viruses. We've done it before.

[faraday]

@derp said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

Tell that to smallpox.
Just saying. We absolutely can eliminate viruses. We've done it before.

from the CDC:

In 1959, the World Health Organization (WHO) started a plan to rid the world of smallpox. Unfortunately, this global eradication campaign suffered from a lack of funds, personnel, and commitment from countries, and a shortage of vaccine donations. Despite their best efforts, smallpox was still widespread in 1966, causing regular outbreaks across South America, Africa, and Asia. ... In late 1975, three-year-old Rahima Banu from Bangladesh was the last person in the world to have naturally acquired variola major.

Smallpox had already been around for centuries and was well-studied. Even then it took a concerted, world-wide effort of eradication spanning almost two decades to finally eradicate it. Also, due to its lethality and detectability, its disease profile is pretty much nothing like covid. Smallpox is also, to date, the only disease completely eradicated worldwide.

So what you're saying is accurate, but it's also not really applicable to covid-19 or most other viruses.

If you try to grade the covid vaccines against a historical unicorn of smallpox, it's only going to lead to disappointment. If you grade them against what they're actually designed to do -- reduce infections, reduce spread, reduce hospitalizations -- they perform amazingly well.

[Ganymede]

@derp

Yeah, smallpox is a very different virus.

Coronavirus has always been endemic. This particular strain was deadly and contagious. As I said, the mutations seem to have made it more contagious but less lethal. And for viruses, this is a good thing: if you can propagate without killing the host, then you can go back once you have mutated in someone else.

Vaccinations should be regular, like the flu vaccine and other vaccines that can be taken. But the coronavirus is not going away.

[TNP]

@ganymede said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

But the coronavirus is not going away.

At least the people who refuse to vaccinate will. Eventually.

[Ganymede]

@tnp said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

At least the people who refuse to vaccinate will. Eventually.

[GreenFlashlight]

@tnp said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

@ganymede said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

But the coronavirus is not going away.

At least the people who refuse to vaccinate will. Eventually.

I get where you're both coming with this, but could we please be more careful with this rhetoric? My family's fully vaccinated, but everyone in my sister's house has COVID right now because my niece was exposed by one of her school friends, and... I dunno, I'm just not finding "ha ha they died of COVID" jokes as funny as I used to.

[Arkandel]

@greenflashlight Frustration aside, I was never comfortable with https://reddit.com/r/hermancainawards and the idea of laughing at people dying.

Yes, it was their own fault in many, many posts showcased in that subreddit. Yes, they were stupid as fuck and fell to lies fed by political predators. And yes, some of them weren't great human beings in the first place, as evidenced by openly racist posts they had made previously on social media.

But dammit they were still people. They had family, spouses, children and friends who loved and will miss them. Rubbing it in their faces, especially right after that person died and the grief is still fresh, is in pretty bad taste.

[Ganymede]

@greenflashlight said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

I get where you're both coming with this, but could we please be more careful with this rhetoric?

I understand and will adjust my hate-o-meter going forward.

[kk]

I had the same reaction as @GreenFlashlight and didn't say anything about it before, cause I already said something about that in the past ont his forum.

I am fully vaccinated before you all go rawr anti vaxxer.

These posts read like wishing death on people and it is imo messed up.

I know more people than I can count who got all three vaccines and got covid, a few got really sick. This doesn't mean that I am against vaccines. I think the vaccines likely made the cases milder than they would have been.

But....there are some of us still dealing with covid, with friends, family, co-workers, patients who have covid.

And I for one don't want to hear even on MSB people wishing covid death on other people.

I have seen too much death from covid and it not a fate I wish on anyone.

I am sure this post will piss some people off, but at this point, I don't even care.

[Ganymede]

@kk said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

And I for one don't want to hear even on MSB people wishing covid death on other people.

To be clear, I actually do not wish this. I am not sitting here praying for the demise of the unvaccinated. Far from it: I hope they decide to get vaccinated in order to better protect themselves from the virus.

Rather I struggle to find sympathy for people who elect not to take the vaccine and end up suffering consequences for it. And you will find me on the side of folks who are willing to say that the voluntarily unvaccinated have caused countless hospitalizations and deaths.

[GreenFlashlight]

@ganymede said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

Rather I struggle to find sympathy for people who elect not to take the vaccine and end up suffering consequences for it. And you will find me on the side of folks who are willing to say that the voluntarily unvaccinated have caused countless hospitalizations and deaths.

I'm right there with you on that one. I want my niece's friend to be held liable for anything that happens to anyone in my sister's household as a result of her stupid, hateful decision to endanger everyone within breathing distance of her, so I'm definitely not mad about anyone who wants those people to get what they asked for. It's just that the collateral damage has been put into even harsher relief for me than it always was.

[TNP]

@ganymede said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:

Rather I struggle to find sympathy for people who elect not to take the vaccine and end up suffering consequences for it. And you will find me on the side of folks who are willing to say that the voluntarily unvaccinated have caused countless hospitalizations and deaths.

This. And I currently have Covid myself despite being fully vaccinated and boosted. My contempt is reserved for those willfully choosing to play Russian Roulette and causing massive problems for the rest of us.

[Arkandel]

My take is pretty straight forward.

If an adult can be vaccinated but isn't then I hope they stay healthy. I wish no harm on them.

However if they get sick then I also have little sympathy for them. Less so if their choice is due to politics.