How can there not be a COVID-19 thread?

[User.45]

Serial comma - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It's just a joke about the Oxford (or serial) comma, i.e., the one before the word "and" in a series.

Some say a serial comma clarifies status of the last item versus the previous one(s). Others say it's just excess baggage. It all depends on what's in the series and possibly on how those items are qualified. In the case of that joke, that last comma is pretty useless if you ask me. But there are cases where it does resolve ambiguity.

An apocryphal book dedication is given in the wiki explanation. The second form has the serial comma.

To my parents, Ayn Rand and God.​

To my parents, Ayn Rand, and God.​

Serial comma - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Sometimes a comma has been the focus of court cases. I'm not talking about the one in the Second Amendment either.

An Oxford comma changed this court case completely | CNN

If you have ever doubted the importance of the humble Oxford comma, let this supremely persnickety Maine labor dispute set you straight.

www.cnn.com

Ah, the english language. Sometimes I feel its main purpose is to perpetuate ambiguity.

 

[User.45]

We could also talk about how pathetic the vaccine roll out has been...but the Oxford comma is still more pleasant than the COVID coma.

 

[lizkat]

Ah, the english language. Sometimes I feel its main purpose is to perpetuate ambiguity.

I'm a huge fan of ambiguity in contexts where it's either useful, harmless or just entertaining. Oxford commas though do sometimes provide clarity where ambiguity might provide comic relief where it's not wanted.

Honestly, I’d rather talk about the Oxford comma.

We could also talk about how pathetic the vaccine roll out has been...but the Oxford comma is still more pleasant than the COVID coma.

I'd like to think the fricken Covid will become something we all talk about in the past tense in 2021 and don't have to wait until 2022-23 as some are now suggesting. But on day one of a New Year I'll stick to quoting (paraphrasing?) a now out of favor movie's Scarlett O'Hara: "I'm not going to think about that today, i'll think about that tomorrow."

Even so, I'd feel better about the lessons Covid has put on offer for us if I thought that more people in at least the USA took it seriously. Seeing how many people have decided to just do their own thing in defiance or disregard of public health guidelines makes me uneasy. The politicization of responses to Covid has been a huge step backwards: we're less prepared than ever at the level of public understanding to deal with a pandemic caused by organisms that can arrive with higher rates of both contagion and fatality. That's the real and costly legacy of Donald Trump right there.

 

[User.45]

I'm a huge fan of ambiguity in contexts where it's either useful, harmless or just entertaining. Oxford commas though do sometimes provide clarity where ambiguity might provide comic relief where it's not wanted.




I'd like to think the fricken Covid will become something we all talk about in the past tense in 2021 and don't have to wait until 2022-23 as some are now suggesting. But on day one of a New Year I'll stick to quoting (paraphrasing?) a now out of favor movie's Scarlett O'Hara: "I'm not going to think about that today, i'll think about that tomorrow."

Even so, I'd feel better about the lessons Covid has put on offer for us if I thought that more people in at least the USA took it seriously. Seeing how many people have decided to just do their own thing in defiance or disregard of public health guidelines makes me uneasy. The politicization of responses to Covid has been a huge step backwards: we're less prepared than ever at the level of public understanding to deal with a pandemic caused by organisms that can arrive with higher rates of both contagion and fatality. That's the real and costly legacy of Donald Trump right there.

I've renamed CoViD-19 to simply CoViD in April...which reflects my opinion about the persistence of this issue.

IMHO, CoViD taught me/us more about what to expect when we hit the criticality portion of climate change. An absolute fucking shit show where certain people will be busier rewriting history on their own abysmal approach to the issue, than actually mitigating it. Some politicians will twiddle their thumbs in the wait for scientists/engineers to solve the issue and the moment there's a hint of a breakthrough they'll try to take all the fucking credit and their sycophants will make attempts to name the CO2 absorbing megabuildings named after them.

 

[SuperMatt]

The USA has 4% of the world’s population and almost 25% of the COVID cases. This is due to a failure of leadership, period.

The pandemic's toll in 2020 and the difficult road ahead

Since the first reported case of COVID-19 a little more than a year ago, the pandemic has taken a devastating toll in the U.S. -- far worse than in many other developed countries. Donald G. McNeil Jr., a science and health reporter for The New York Times, joins Judy Woodruff to give some...

www.pbs.org

 

[User.45]

The USA has 4% of the world’s population and almost 25% of the COVID cases. This is due to a failure of leadership, period.

The pandemic's toll in 2020 and the difficult road ahead

Since the first reported case of COVID-19 a little more than a year ago, the pandemic has taken a devastating toll in the U.S. -- far worse than in many other developed countries. Donald G. McNeil Jr., a science and health reporter for The New York Times, joins Judy Woodruff to give some...

www.pbs.org

That's testing, and Trump isn't absolutely wrong about that...
...But USA also contributed 19% of the world's COVID deaths.
Now THAT IS NOT A TESTING ISSUE.

 

[SuperMatt]

That's testing, and Trump isn't absolutely wrong about that...
...But USA also contributed 19% of the world's COVID deaths.
Now THAT IS NOT A TESTING ISSUE.

Funny how the deaths due to the disease match the reported cases pretty closely, eh? But sure let’s buy Trump’s BS that we only
APPEAR to have more cases because we did so many tests.... what a crock of .

 

[User.45]

Funny how the deaths due to the disease match the reported cases pretty closely, eh? But sure let’s buy Trump’s BS that we only
APPEAR to have more cases because we did so many tests.... what a crock of .

Don't get me wrong, the testing argument is false, but it takes much more effort to disprove it from the testing angle than from the angle of mortality.

Imagine wanting to observe icebergs. The tip is mortality, the rest of the cases are below the water. You don't have to dive in to point out what a huge iceberg is sticking out of the water.

 

[SuperMatt]

The Trump supporters have found a whole new level of when it comes to his COVID response. Saw on a conservative forum somebody saying he did a ”stellar” job of handling the virus. When somebody pointed out the data indicating we actually handled it worse than any other country, here’s the response:

We can put that on Biden. He has the master plan. He’s had it this whole time. Unfortunately, he isn’t sharing the plan until he’s inaugurated. He’s a worthless POS.

Now THAT impresses me. Props to that guy for stretching the limits of human stupidity.

 

[JayMysteri0]

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1345060660707794945/

 

[JayMysteri0]

Bruh...
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1345081841464840193/

 

[User.45]

Bruh...
https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1345081841464840193/

I watched the whole thing Is it just me or these people really don't know how to partey. Reminds me of the cringy medschool parties, except that the company was at least nice at those.

 

[Clix Pix]

I wonder how many of those people will be seriously ill or even dead within the next three or four weeks? Not to mention all the innocent people that they will infect, too....

 

[JayMysteri0]

It comes down to mindsets. When some are more into their feelings over anyone/anything else we have to hear the phrase, "This is why we can't have nice things"

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1345679483597189121/

 

[User.45]

It comes down to mindsets. When some are more into their feelings over anyone/anything else we have to hear the phrase, "This is why we can't have nice things"

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1345679483597189121/

The headline could have been: Malevolent pharmacist has basic understanding of pharmacology.

 

[Eric]

It’s not that complicated.

It's also pointless. And (and or) implies the break so whey is there a need for an additional comma? Seems unnecessarily duplicative.

 

[Eric]

I have been having dreams where I am around other people in public without masks on and no fear of it. It feels bizarre to be dreaming about something like that.

 

[Clix Pix]

I notice now that when I'm looking at a photo and see people without masks, I immediately think, "ack, where's their masks?" and then realize that I'm looking at a photo from the "before times," the days when few people in the US ever thought of using a mask.....

 

[User.45]

I notice now that when I'm looking at a photo and see people without masks, I immediately think, "ack, where's their masks?" and then realize that I'm looking at a photo from the "before times," the days when few people in the US ever thought of using a mask.....

The thing is, I'm starting to believe that the mask work vs don't work argument really boils down to
1) people actually wearing them, not just claiming they do (yes, Mr. Newsom I'm looking at you)
2) people actually wearing them correctly. I glimpsed at an NFL game where the coach walks to the ref, pulls down his mask to talk to him, and pulls it back on his face once he's done talking. WTF. Don't even get me started on noses sticking out.

I suspect this is one of the reasons is suspect East Asian countries are doing much better.

 

[SuperMatt]

The thing is, I'm starting to believe that the mask work vs don't work argument really boils down to
1) people actually wearing them, not just claiming they do (yes, Mr. Newsom I'm looking at you)
2) people actually wearing them correctly. I glimpsed at an NFL game where the coach walks to the ref, pulls down his mask to talk to him, and pulls it back on his face once he's done talking. WTF. Don't even get me started on noses sticking out.

I suspect this is one of the reasons is suspect East Asian countries are doing much better.

I saw an older guy in the store today (grocery run) who felt it necessary to put his mask below his chin so he could look at a box of something. Was he going to lick it? Pissed me off, but I just stayed far away from him. Somehow every other person in the store managed to do things correctly.