BF2S Forums Pandemic thread

lil_droo wrote:

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Just come to NJ. Smokers are on the list of people who are allowed to get vaccinated.

obese people too lol (at least in california)

i had the opportunity to get vaccinated weeks ago since i'm an essential worker but declined. not anti-vax just heard some stories of people getting sick from it so it doesn't seem worth the risk especially since covid isn't a risk for someone like me anyways. basically just doesn't seem necessary and i don't even get the flu shot for that matter. if it ends up being required to travel then i'll get it but hopefully by then it will be studied more and they will have safer options too.

also just not a fan of injecting random biological chemicals into my body that were rushed into production. random drugs and pills are though. fuck i'm retarded

i mean you just said it all. anti-vax but you vape and take drugs. let me tell you, the testing and regulations that a vaccine has to pass is far more stringent than anything you've put in your body for recreation and fun.

70%+ of a population have to be vaccinated for anything like herd immunity to be possible.

and, yet again, for the nth time, there is no established data for 'herd immunity' to coronaviruses. human beings have never eradicated or overcome the common cold through herd immunity. 30% of a population going about freely, without vaccination, could still be enough to incubate lethal new variants and set back the vaccination efforts of everyone else.

as said above, you get vaccinated for the sake of the vulnerable, not as a conspiracy-ridden 'lifestyle' choice of your own.

Last edited by uziq (2021-03-15 20:16:43)

KEN-JENNINGS wrote:

I know a few people who have lied to get their vaccine. Privilege at its finest.

But Ken, any self-reliant libertarian will tell you, lying to get what you want is the most sacred freedom.
Lying to yourself is the greatest freedom of them all.

So between the Trump and Biden administrations something like $200 billion was set aside to get schools to reopen. Most of it seems to have been spent on security theater. Disinfecting UV lights in classrooms, automatic bus aerosol disinfectant systems, body heat cameras. What a waste. I know it is meant to make people feel safe to return to school but we really don't need all this stuff if people just wore a mask and don't go to mass gatherings until we get enough vaccines into arms.

I just don't trust "disinfecting UV lights". Sounds like quack science. Also I don't think schools have the authority to send kids home because they failed a temperature check. Maybe that might be different now but we will see.

In other news a relative of mine might have COVID. They are late 50's so we will see how they do. They didn't take this seriously at all and recently went to a big party for their boss's wife. They have been going out and partying the entire time. They are also vaccine resistant. Said they won't take it because living is gay or something. I know you will say "you can't broadly judge yadda yadda" but I feel that a lot of people still getting sick at this point are bringing it onto themselves by being stupid. Of course that doesn't mean they deserve to die but when they recover an "I told you so" seems justified.

uziq wrote:

lil_droo wrote:

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Just come to NJ. Smokers are on the list of people who are allowed to get vaccinated.

obese people too lol (at least in california)

i had the opportunity to get vaccinated weeks ago since i'm an essential worker but declined. not anti-vax just heard some stories of people getting sick from it so it doesn't seem worth the risk especially since covid isn't a risk for someone like me anyways. basically just doesn't seem necessary and i don't even get the flu shot for that matter. if it ends up being required to travel then i'll get it but hopefully by then it will be studied more and they will have safer options too.

also just not a fan of injecting random biological chemicals into my body that were rushed into production. random drugs and pills are though. fuck i'm retarded

i mean you just said it all. anti-vax but you vape and take drugs. let me tell you, the testing and regulations that a vaccine has to pass is far more stringent than anything you've put in your body for recreation and fun.

70%+ of a population have to be vaccinated for anything like herd immunity to be possible.

and, yet again, for the nth time, there is no established data for 'herd immunity' to coronaviruses. human beings have never eradicated or overcome the common cold through herd immunity. 30% of a population going about freely, without vaccination, could still be enough to incubate lethal new variants and set back the vaccination efforts of everyone else.

as said above, you get vaccinated for the sake of the vulnerable, not as a conspiracy-ridden 'lifestyle' choice of your own.

I know its probably safe for most people but im just wary of shit in general, my own fault I guess. But I'm pretty sure at least 70% of the country wants the vaccine so then it doesn't matter if some don't at that point. The vulnerable should get it for sure tho. That's what I was saying. As long as they get it then they're safe

I also wonder how long the vaccine will be effective for and if this is something we're gonna have to get every year

It shouldn't have to be required. It should just be something people are willing to do for the sake of civility, and not get beaten up for. Flu kills people too.

South Korea reports three-week high of 490 COVID-19 cases
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/as … s-14397596

COVID-19 testing order on foreigners creates 'chaos' at testing centers
http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article … Idx=305544

By Lee Hyo-jin

Gyeonggi Province's mandatory COVID-19 testing order for foreign workers in the region created "chaos" at overcrowded and understaffed testing centers over the weekend, with the number of visitors exceeding testing capacity.

Amid sporadic infection clusters at companies employing foreign workers in the area, the local government issued an administrative order, March 8, enforcing all foreign workers in the region to get tested for the coronavirus by March 22.

Those who fail to undergo a test during the period could be fined up to 3 million won ($2,600), according to the order, and if an infection occurs among those who have not been tested, the authorities will demand indemnity (payment) for the cost of their treatment and quarantine.

But criticism has mounted among the foreign community on the local government's imposition of a "bureaucratic" measure without considering its lack of testing capacity, as around 85,000 foreign workers are expected to get tested during the two-week period.

Foreign nationals who received a test over the weekend shared their experiences with The Korea Times, on condition of anonymity, on how makeshift testing sites across the province were poorly organized and packed with practically no space for social distancing, putting visitors at risk of potential infection.

A U.S. citizen living in Bucheon said, "I arrived at the testing site at 9 a.m., Saturday, half an hour before it opened, but the area was already packed. I waited in the line for over two hours, during which it seemed that nobody was following social distancing measures."

continues

It makes sense to me to test foreign workers just arriving (esp. from hot spots), but to target ones who've been living in the country for like a decade, above and beyond native-born Koreans, at facilities not exactly observing social distancing seems rather unnecessary.

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

South Korea reports three-week high of 490 COVID-19 cases
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/as … s-14397596

COVID-19 testing order on foreigners creates 'chaos' at testing centers
http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article … Idx=305544

By Lee Hyo-jin

Gyeonggi Province's mandatory COVID-19 testing order for foreign workers in the region created "chaos" at overcrowded and understaffed testing centers over the weekend, with the number of visitors exceeding testing capacity.

Amid sporadic infection clusters at companies employing foreign workers in the area, the local government issued an administrative order, March 8, enforcing all foreign workers in the region to get tested for the coronavirus by March 22.

Those who fail to undergo a test during the period could be fined up to 3 million won ($2,600), according to the order, and if an infection occurs among those who have not been tested, the authorities will demand indemnity (payment) for the cost of their treatment and quarantine.

But criticism has mounted among the foreign community on the local government's imposition of a "bureaucratic" measure without considering its lack of testing capacity, as around 85,000 foreign workers are expected to get tested during the two-week period.

Foreign nationals who received a test over the weekend shared their experiences with The Korea Times, on condition of anonymity, on how makeshift testing sites across the province were poorly organized and packed with practically no space for social distancing, putting visitors at risk of potential infection.

A U.S. citizen living in Bucheon said, "I arrived at the testing site at 9 a.m., Saturday, half an hour before it opened, but the area was already packed. I waited in the line for over two hours, during which it seemed that nobody was following social distancing measures."

continues

It makes sense to me to test foreign workers just arriving (esp. from hot spots), but to target ones who've been living in the country for like a decade, above and beyond native-born Koreans, at facilities not exactly observing social distancing seems rather unnecessary.

south korea recently re-opened schools. there are several clusters that have been isolated and identified.  one is with a public baths (koreans frequent these) and the other is with a factory in the surrounding industrial cities of seoul (aka gyeonggi province).

workers in these factories are normally like phillipinos or kazakhs or something. they live in subhuman conditions, exist without documentation, and incubate covid clusters in their huge dormitories. they are basically exploited like third-world workers are exploited anywhere else. cf. the fate of asians in dubai or mexicans in cali.

forcing all foreigners to queue up and get tested is tone-deaf and dumb. enough noise has been made about it. how often does korean covid news make it to international bureaus? reuters reports on korean covid news once per month and it's always a story like this. dumb as fuck, i agree.

95% of new daily cases from covid are community transmissions between koreans. let me tell you, from living here, people  here are living exactly as normal. there's round-the-block queues for hipster instagram-trendy cafés, bistros, and donut shops here. last weekend was 'whites day', which is some weird, fake, contrived calendar date in the same vein as valentines' day: a massive excuse for couples to go out and shop/eat, basically. i saw thousands of koreans in my neighbourhood, queued back-to-back, waiting to go into huge three-storey restaurants and eat together without masks. this country barely has any restrictions on day-to-day life.

elections in 3-4 weeks. no surprises. time to call up some foreigners and test them to please the old fogeys. korea has a giant captive voter-base who read right-wing tabloids, just like anywhere else. shock! horror! at the same time ... we're talking about a 4-week high of < 500 cases. show me a buttfuck city in idaho or arizona that can talk about having <500 cases per month. a country of 50 million+ are freaking out over a 400+ daily average. europe and the united states can't even dream of it.

this xenophobic dynamic plays out in multicultural west just as much as monocultural 'racist' korea. old tabloid-reading people are xenophobic and politicians find it expedient to blame everything on some external 'Other' beyond their responsibility. OMG! THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE!

aside from the quite evident legal/political classification of 'foreigners' and our separate treatment, i have not experienced any racism here in the last 3-4 weeks of freedom. culturally the old people might have some reservations, but nothing like a racist incident. in the west, asians encountered hate speech, intimidation, and outright physical violence. i have not experienced anything remotely like it here.

Last edited by uziq (2021-03-17 10:01:40)

I can't really tell if I'm being attacked or if uzique is just winding himself up to fling sarcasm at the clouds as a rule. It was a rather neutral post agreeing with the writer that this was concerning. I don't think I ever said that the US was doing well with covid-19 or that the culture here was particularly conducive to fighting it. Death in the family from the thing ffs. I don't really need to be told to "look to yourselves" or be lectured about the dynamics of anecdotal Asian racism. Zero chill, but not unexpected.

I get that things get inflated across the ocean sometimes. I'm glad you had an easy time of it (you'll never take that for what it is), but worried for the other people quite unnecessarily packed together for testing. Not to mention the otherwise business-as-usual attitude over there. It's too bad that you have to sling insults (or shake your fist at the sky, it's hard to tell with your perpetually exasperated posting style sometimes) over it.

I think I've been very careful in the past to emphasize that my understanding of eastern countries comes from friends there, immigrant acquaintances from there, and articles that may or may not be colored. Not from personal experience. Such a shameful thing, I know. I should go be an English teacher over there before I allow myself to formulate personal opinions with the understanding that they might not always be accurate.

You're not the reason why I ran across these articles. I did expect you to insinuate that, however. Did I not mention a small interest before? Some family by marriage, taekwondo, living near a koreatown shopping district I frequent. I see newspapers in the language when I go to replenish my dried noodles, bok choy, kimchi, and rice.

ThErE's ThiS ThInG CaLlEd a PanDeMiC.

The person who wrote one of the critical articles I linked is named Lee Hyo-jin, for the Korea Times. I didn't think for one minute that the policy has universal support, and would expect it opposed by the vast majority of medical experts.

Just please be aware that if I post anything on Korea, it's not for "I've been watching Korean news for weeks so I can get a gotcha link to pwn uzique with" reasons.

you posted a story that obviously involves me. i am a foreigner in korea and i just had to go and queue and test.

i didn't say you only posted it to provoke a response from me. it's a story that has made international news. which i stated in my first response: that this is the only sort of story you'll hear internationally because normally everything here is totally thought-out and smart. 'another well-contained church cluster in south korea' doesn't really get the phones ringing on the reuters desk.

i'm going to post my opinion on the story. the only person taking my response personally is you. stop being fucking autistic.

Last edited by uziq (2021-03-17 18:42:27)