“If you take 10 million people and just wave your hand back and forth over their upper arms, in the next two months you would expect to see about 4,000 heart attacks. About 4,000 strokes. Over 9,000 new diagnoses of cancer. And about 14,000 of that ten million will die, out of usual all-causes mortality. No one would notice. That’s how many people die and get sick anyway. But if you took those ten million people and gave them a new vaccine instead, there’s a real danger that those heart attacks, cancer diagnoses, and deaths will be attributed to the vaccine. I mean, if you reach a large enough population, you are literally going to have cases where someone gets the vaccine and drops dead the next day (just as they would have if they *didn’t* get the vaccine). It could prove difficult to convince that person’s friends and relatives of that lack of connection, though.”

— Derek Lowe (In The Pipeline)

Interesting “vaccine tool” from the New York Times.

“Based on (my) risk profile, we believe you’re in line behind 118.5 million people across the United States. When it comes to Missouri, we think you’re behind 2.4 million others who are at higher risk in your state. And in Cole County, you’re behind 31,000 others. If the line in Missouri was represented by about 100 people, this is where you’d be standing:”

Tell me again why I should care when a virus denier gets sick or dies. Yes, I understand they endanger health care workers and friends/neighbors. I get that. I’ll grieve for them. But if you refuse to wear a seat belt and die in a crash… or refuse to wear a helmet and die in a motorcycle crash (no others harmed)… why am I supposed to care? I’ve only got so much grief to go around and I’m now rationing.

Americans revive spirit of first Thanksgiving by carrying disease to new areas

“I was watching a PBS special about the Pilgrims,” one American said, “and they spent their entire first winter in Massachusetts before Thanksgiving just watching their family members die. They carried them out to the woods, propped them up against trees and left them there to give the illusion that the settlement was guarded. That wasn’t something we incorporated into our Thanksgiving before, but it’s never too late to start a new tradition.”

From a delightful piece in the Washington Post. Behind their pay-wall, I think. But here’s the link.

I like pumpkin pie as well as the next guy but let’s face it: Thanksgiving –and Xmas for that matter– are made-up holidays. Like Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day and all the rest. Mostly about selling stuff. So putting family at risk for some cranberry sauce? Just selfish. I’ll celebrate “thanksgiving” on the day people start getting vaccinated.

A South Dakota ER nurse says her Covid-19 patients often “don’t want to believe that Covid is real. Their last dying words are, ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real.’ And when they should be… Facetiming their families, they’re filled with anger and hatred.”

Dying words: “This is not real!”

“I’ll sometimes ask people why they’re not wearing a mask, a risky proposition in itself. Here in the Bible Belt, many say they’ve put everything in God’s hands. But the gift of free will was predicated upon an assumption of intelligent life.”

The pandemic doesn’t care about your personal freedom