Covid-19

Because I live in a rugby silo...I still didn't know that we had a vaccine requirement for inbound travelers...

Once you give power to the government-- any government, from any party, in any country, at any level--it is really, really hard to get it back.

This policy is dumb as hell and everyone knows it. Leaving it in place is a pure power and "can't admit we were wrong" move by the bureaucracy. At this point we all know the vax doesn't work. We know that Djokovicpreviously tested positive for COVID already. And we all know that hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants A MONTH are crossing into the US. And that we're losing millions if not billions of dollars in our economy by having these kinds of ridiculous rules in place.

But yeah, let's keep this guy out.
 
Once you give power to the government-- any government, from any party, in any country, at any level--it is really, really hard to get it back.

This policy is dumb as hell and everyone knows it. Leaving it in place is a pure power and "can't admit we were wrong" move by the bureaucracy. At this point we all know the vax doesn't work. We know that Djokovicpreviously tested positive for COVID already. And we all know that hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants A MONTH are crossing into the US. And that we're losing millions if not billions of dollars in our economy by having these kinds of ridiculous rules in place.

But yeah, let's keep this guy out.

Stop making sense sir. Lol
 
I am going to post the following without a conclusion. I would like you all to really do a good job of putting yourself into the time and context of things we know about the vaccine and what we were told. Ok? We there? We ready?

Ok, so, a German study that was immediately viral/fact checked/deemed unworthy due to it's countner narrative stance (more perversion of the scientific method but whatevs) claimed some excess death increase in Germany, which is currently super vaccinated. Like, 77 out of every 100 folks with boosters. That smashes the world average.

I don't care to talk about the excess death rates, I don't think that part is super valuable. But here are some pretty wild statistics from some of Germany's larger companies/employers in a data set that is definitely interesting- the employee illness rates. Plain language- how many folks called in sick in a given year and why.

Statistical

From the statistical analysis and study:
  1. In Germany in 2021, 3% of folks in Barmer called in sick, as a whole, for the 'vid and other respiratory illnesses. This number jumped to 14% in 2022. *Cardi B Voice* that's weird. That's suspicious.
  2. In July of '21, only 0.9% of all sick leave was related to 'vid. In '22, that number was 20.2%- 22 times higher. Later in December of 22, 231 of 1000 employees recorded sick leave- more than doubling the year previous.
  3. 85% of the world lives outside the G7 nations; in February, G7 nations reported 17 times the number of deaths per capita due to covid. The most vaccinated populations are getting the sickest and still dying from 'rona.
  4. Other respiratory viruses are seemingly making a large comeback as well- TK, the largest German health insurance company reported an average of 1.83 sick days for colds in 2021- that number jumped nearly 5 fold to 5.75 days in '22.
Statistical analysis of sick days doesn't mean much. Reading the "fact checks" of the study, it's way more of the same- looks and feels like gaslighting, super nit-picky about seemingly unrelated items and throwing the baby out with the bathwater, etc etc etc.

I'll end with a couple questions, not statements. Why would a higher vaccinated/boosted populations be (seemingly) more effected by covid and other respiratory viruses? Isn't the vaccine supposed to prevent illness better (e.g., you'll get it but it won't be as bad)? If that's true, then what's up with not only more people reporting they're getting v it, but it's keeping them home from work?

*Ib4 the ackshually crowd*

Yes, people could realize just going *le cough gets you out of work now. Yes the flu all but disappeared during covid in 2021 (which, as an aside, was freaking insane- the UK went from millions of flu cases to zero. Literally reported zero flu cases, credited hand washing and masks) so there may be an uptick in genuine reporting.

Buuuuuuuut it certainly looks like the most vaccinated cohort we have (Germany) are reporting the most impact to population from covid and respiratory viruses.

Discuss.
 
Last edited:
I am going to post the following without a conclusion. I would like you all to really do a good job of putting yourself into the time and context of things we know about the vaccine and what we were told. Ok? We there? We ready?

Ok, so, a German study that was immediately viral/fact checked/deemed unworthy due to it's countner narrative stance (more perversion of the scientific method but whatevs) claimed some excess death increase in Germany, which is currently super vaccinated. Like, 77 out of every 100 folks with boosters. That smashes the world average.

I don't care to talk about the excess death rates, I don't think that part is super valuable. But here are some pretty wild statistics from some of Germany's larger companies/employers in a data set that is definitely interesting- the employee illness rates. Plain language- how many folks called in sick in a given year and why.

Statistical

From the statistical analysis and study:
  1. In Germany in 2021, 3% of folks in Barmer called in sick, as a whole, for the 'vid and other respiratory illnesses. This number jumped to 14% in 2022. *Cardi B Voice* that's weird. That's suspicious.
  2. In July of '21, only 0.9% of all sick leave was related to 'vid. In '22, that number was 20.2%- 22 times higher. Later in December of 22, 231 of 1000 employees recorded sick leave- more than doubling the year previous.
  3. 85% of the world lives outside the G7 nations; in February, G7 nations reported 17 times the number of deaths per capita due to covid. The most vaccinated populations are getting the sickest and still dying from 'rona.
  4. Other respiratory viruses are seemingly making a large comeback as well- TK, the largest German health insurance company reported an average of 1.83 sick days for colds in 2021- that number jumped nearly 5 fold to 5.75 days in '22.
Statistical analysis of sick days doesn't mean much. Reading the "fact checks" of the study, it's way more of the same- looks and feels like gaslighting, super nit-picky about seemingly unrelated items and throwing the baby out with the bathwater, etc etc etc.

I'll end with a couple questions, not statements. Why would a higher vaccinated/boosted populations be (seemingly) more effected by covid and other respiratory viruses? Isn't the vaccine supposed to prevent illness better (e.g., you'll get it but it won't be as bad)? If that's true, then what's up with not only more people reporting they're getting v it, but it's keeping them home from work?

*Ib4 the ackshually crowd*

Yes, people could realize just going *le cough gets you out of work now. Yes the flu all but disappeared during covid in 2021 (which, as an aside, was freaking insane- the UK went from millions of flu cases to zero. Literally reported zero flu cases, credited hand washing and masks) so there may be an uptick in genuine reporting.

Buuuuuuuut it certainly looks like the most vaccinated cohort we have (Germany) are reporting the most impact to population from covid and respiratory viruses.

Discuss.

All I know is this: I've had all kinds of flu and colds and URIs in my life and nothing was as weird as Covid. My wife and I both had it two Decembers ago. We both got vaccinated and boosted. She's still coughing. Never smoked. Still coughing. My oldest son, 32, got Covid, recovered, got vaccinated, got boosted, got Covid again.

Whatever the fuck it was, the only way I can describe it is that it felt unnatural, "engineered."

Why would a higher vaccinated/boosted populations be (seemingly) more effected by covid and other respiratory viruses?

My guess is that this thing is so weird nobody fully understands the potential of the virus or the vaccines.
 
Last edited:
The increase in sick days could be a number of things.

- Could be people realizing an opportunity for a lm uncontested sick day.
- Could be people being super conservative where normally they might have worked through it.
- Could be bosses insisting on employees taking sick days at the slightest symptom or chance of exposure (I know I was told to self quarantine multiple times if it was suspected I was exposed, even exposed to a suspected exposure)

Unfortunately, there is no way to ever know. There was too much incentive (either intended or not) to trust any data that comes out of this.

Might be sick? Take more sick days. Lost your job because of too many sick days? Take this stipend. Can’t afford rent because you were laid off because the economy shut down? Don’t worry, you can’t be evicted.

Yes, some people needed it. But some didn’t. And we can’t say what intentions people had when they took certain bailouts, so how can we say why they took sick days, or unemployment, or whatever.

We can probably argue though that fit people probably got more fit and healthy, because they had time to cook, and time for their prison gym in their garage.
 
As @JedisonsDad mentioned, a whole shit ton of non-COVID social/psychological factors could go into the increase of sick days. Hard to determine if people taking sick days is because COVID is still knocking people out, or if they're just more aware of taking time off for respiratory issues.

If you wanted to show COVID was still rampaging through Germany, wouldn't you just study COVID positive tests over that time period?

As for the G7 deaths thing, I can't find anything other than the our world in data source that's given.
That site uses data that the governments report, so I don't think it's crazy to say that G7 countries might be a little better about reporting COVID deaths than countries like Botswana, Guatemala, Thailand, etc.

It's all stuff that's worth looking at, but I don't really think it's ever something we're gonna get a picture of until we can view it retroactively.
 
My wife's employer uses this tool called Zedic, basically an app where you take a questionnaire and it determines if you should show up for work. You had to (they finally dropped the requirement about 2 months ago) take it before your shift, it is tied in to management and the local office manager so they see the results, and most importantly can be gamed like a mofo.

Have a shift you don't like? Had a day off request turned down? "Zedic out." Need 7 days? Take a "Zedication." People learned how to manipulate the questions to find the perfect amount of days off. Even outside of a stupid app, how many employers had some form of "If you have x, then stay home" policy? That runny nose or cough you'd take to work pre-COVID is now a surefire indicator that you will give your coworkers some death?

I could get behind a lot of stats for COVID, but days off isn't one of them. The US basically had a 2+ year window where a tummy ache was a guaranteed day off. A fever? 5-7 days with the Zedic app, so who knows how many companies use that or just had a self-reporting policy you can manipulate?
 
Why y'all think I got the J&J ? Yo. I saw this trash coming from a 10 klicks out.

Had Covid, all I can say is that it was weird. But was it the worst thing ever? A month later I had gastroenteritis (stomach flu, but it's not a flu as @Devildoc will tell you). From that I was bedridden and shitting water for a week.

CDC almost sorta is treating this like the flu. Because apparently it's not nearly as contagious...isolation period is 3 days now. And our psycho medical director who still wanted to spend 2M on testing last year didn't even flinch when we cancelled a pre-season game for a team going down with the Rona.

So from a practitioner perspective even some of the crazies have moved forward.
 
The second best effect is that there are rarely morning or evening traffic jams anymore.

This isn't the case here, traffic is definitely back to pre-COVID levels.

The best thing that came out of COVID is how the world has reimagined work processes, work flow, figured out what's important and what's dead wood. How many businesses have found out they are overstaffed, or don't need as many employees, or there's more efficient ways to do the work, etc. We've also figured out what doesn't work, which is just as valuable.
 
Back
Top