SARS II: Respiratory Boogaloo

But the fact that Roberts dissented should give us pause.

His reason for dissenting was basically because he thought the case was now moot since New York had already changed the rules.

So the churches should be closed?

Absolutely they should.

But my understanding (only superficial, I admit) was that at the time the case was brought before SCOTUS, New York had a patchwork of inconsistent rules about what could be open and what could be closed.

from the analysis I've seen, it was: similar types of venues - long term gathering with relatively large groups with the potential for a lot of vocalization (theaters, concerts, political rallies, churches, etc - all under the same restrictions. Short term (5-10 minutes or less) in mobile passing encounters with a lower degree of vocalization (grocery store, parts place, liqueur store etc) a more permissive standard.

There's some argument about how bars fit, and I think the church folks are right that bars are closer to the first group than the latter, but that's an administrative debate not an "OMG they are targeting religion!!!" thing. Basically we just got introduced to aworld in which SCOTUS will let you do whatever you want so long as you explain it by saying "Because Jesus!"

It was a patchwork as it was based on infection rates of the local populations. If Long Island has high rates you don't have to close Rochester.

Bzzt.

https://news.psu.edu/story/141291/2...mals, pain studies have,as well," Graham adds.

Get back to me when any man can tolerate transitional labor.

Never thought you'd be one for transphobia, but ok.

Somebody want to explain to this guy what "transphobia" means?

DAMN! Those air traffic controllers are really earning their money!

And I'm still seeing FB posts claiming this is just like the flu? Fuckin' a...you can call it anything you want. The fact is that our hospitals are being overwhelmed, our medical workers are being worked to death and the economy is on the brink. If it makes them feel better to call it the flu I guess that's okay, but that doesn't change what it's doing to our health system and our economy. Of course those same shitheads refuse to wear masks and probably won't take the vaccine...

Too bad they're not the only ones to die; the national IQ would go up by about 20 points.

Maybe things vary from location to location but haven't many hospitals already stopped performing surgeries because of COVID-19 months ago? I know my hospital did. Unless it's seriously life-threatening you can pound sand! Then again it's a military hospital and they are super careful about COVID getting out-of-hand. The army will quarantine soldiers or have them work from home at the drop of a hat. Not so much for contractors like myself.

@GhostEcho agrees!

Wife, the nurse, and her coworkers are behaving the same as the general US population: disregarding safeguards and questioning the safety of vaccines when they're available. I'm a bit nonplussed.

What are you talking about? I'm a social distancing / mask wearing supporter.

Yabut...

There's no "yabut". All of these things are factual.

This caption is wrong. The map shows the number of copies of the piss tape currently in transit to US households (hence the yellow).

Estimates, but good enough.

The problem is you are missing key facts when you tout that figure.

Having a mortality rate of X does not, by itself, tell you much about the wider risks of a disease. Given the R of COVID under urban conditions that translates to X per cent of an awful lot of cases, hence it also being a fact that it has now taken more lives in your country than any single war you've ever fought.

Would you play down the impact of WW2? Suggest the War of Independence had no significant impact on the future?

Add to that we have no idea about how long immunity lasts, how effective any of the vaccines will be long term, what side effects may have slipped through the accelerated process, how many mutant strains will appear and (possibly worst of all) the long term consequences of infection and surely it's clear that you're understating this?

bottom line we will be "in the shit" for a while - got it. Next slide! *

* "next slide!" is an often heard term in military briefings. If you don't hear the HMIC say that at a fast enough rate, you might be in the briefing for a while.