nycman

God, I love New York!

It looks like it’s positive sooner than I thought, but the 20%-40% false negative rate makes it pretty much useless for containment or stopping spread, especially for a variant that is so highly transmissible. My main point is that I believe the tests are giving people a false sense of security, and that is paradoxically causing the tests to do more harm than good at this point. We should return to using the tests to test sick people. Which is what they are good at. Not screening the masses so they can go to cocktail parties. Which is not what they were designed for, and for which they suck.

Potato, Pot-ah-toe. But, I see your points. In practical terms though, people rarely get tested 10 minutes before their planned exposure to others. And as we both know, antigen testing sucks (maybe 80% sensitive?) and extremely few people have access to rapid PCR testing. And no one is doing PCR testing 10 minutes before their cocktail parties. From the BMJ: As you can see, yes there is the potential for detention by PCR prior to being infectious, but the "lateral flow test" (aka antigen testing) misses the beginning of the infectious phase. Not to mention, it misses 20% (this article suggests up to 40%) of all PCR proven COVID infections. So yeah, not worthless. But damn close. And as the real world example of Omicron has proven, swabbing isn’t useful for stopping spread or containment. For the nerds…..https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n208

Minor semantics correction in an otherwise excellent post: COVID tests are either “rapid antigen" or “PCR”. The above wording makes it sound like there are two types of antigen tests, either "rapid" or "PCR". That is incorrect. The PCR test looks for viral RNA. The antigen tests look for antigens that the virus presents and that you can make antibodies against. There are "rapid antigen" tests. There are "PCR" tests. There are no "antigen PCR" tests. Excellent explanation for the science nerds out there….. https://www.umassmed.edu/news/news-archives/2021/11/whats-the-difference-between-a-pcr-and-antigen-covid-19-test/ Most importantly, you are infectious for 2-3 days before any test becomes positive. And that’s why the swabbing insanity isn’t protecting us….at all.

His shorts are stuffed…..and her’s is tucked. That’s all I’m saying……grin

What can I say? My only defense is I was 12 years old….and too busy trying to figure out how to jerk off.

What did we learn? All this insane testing of asymptomatic people is misguided and useless. Negative tests are especially useless. Yes, a positive test means you should isolate. Unfortunately, as is often the case in medicine, the inverse is not also true. A negative test does not mean it’s ok to mass socialize. Massive amounts of testing at the boarders did nothing to slow Omicron from circling the globe in under 2 weeks. Think about that for a minute. Do you really think your "cocktail party swab protocol" stands a snowball’s chance in hell? I hear you….."it’s better than nothing". I’m not so sure it is. It’s giving people a false sense of security that clearly isn’t real. They are blissfully running to social gatherings with the fixed delusion that they are somehow "safe". We need to get back to just testing sick people and a blanket toning down of our social interactions. That will do more (and cost billions less) than the enormous trash heap of swabs we are creating daily.

Maybe, we can just let the political fires burn themselves out? Wasn’t that the whole point of creating a politics section in the first place? "Reporting" people in the political forum…..seems a little 4th grade. And the new "chastity" oath is even funnier. It’s nice to be civil, but politics is dirty. You know that when you walk in the door. Of course, this is coming from a man who wore a "Fuck Censorship" T-shirt through most of the 1980’s and chooses to ignore the entire politics forum, so maybe I’m not the best one to ask…..

You’d be amazed, but most "conservatives" don’t give a fuck what you do, as long as they don’t have look at it or subsidize it.

Wait…I wasn’t….his….first? Vinnie Barbarino, warthog of my adolescent dreams, say it ain’t so!

I don’t know him but every hire I’ve ever had in Zurich has been a dud.

Let’s just say, I know when I’m being cruised. If I say more than that, I risk being sued. (there’s a haiku in there somewhere, but I couldn’t make it work)

Whenever I’ve had to work to schedule time with a provider, it’s never been worth the effort.

You never lived on farm did you? In the words of my father, "The dog will eat when it’s hungry. Don’t be a moron."

It wouldn’t be the new year without the graphs! Now excuse me while I go beat off. What can I say? I’ve got a soft spot for nerds.

More "My Little Pony" than Italian Stallion. grin

The truth is it’s probably just because someone reported your post. The rules don’t always make sense around here and they’re not always applied with an even hand. Just like in real life. The moderators do their best. Although I abhor censorship, I try not to get butt hurt when a moderator steps on my toes. I just make a mental note and move on.

What is wrong with you people?…..are you fuckers blind?!?! Just kidding. I do see how most others may not like it. In fact, perhaps that’s one of the reasons I do love it so much. I can spend hours wondering the grounds and admiring the different angles. To me the building is very organic, alive, and fascinating.

He’s advertised forever. He stood me up without explanation or apology.

When I used to volunteer on the AIDS Rides the guys would come into the medical tent all night long freaking out over blood in their semen. It was a harmless side effect of their prostate getting banged by their bike seat for over 100 miles that day, but we immediately knew 2 things when they came in….. They hadn’t trained properly for the ride. (or else the would have already seen it after their 100 mile training rides). And… They were fucking their tent mate.

That’s not 100% true. Lots of mild, some moderately, ill people. Yes, even among the vaccinated. And the occasional very sick vaccinated person. Usually older with some type of immunosuppression, but they are not all “unscathed". At this point, I don’t really care what happens to the unvaccinated. Who am I to fuck with Darwin? This is very true. Compared to last year this is paradise. Even 2 months ago this was a different ballgame. If we’re lucky this will be a bright flame that burns quickly and does little real damage. I do agree that this is something we’re going to have to learn to live with and the testing hysteria that’s going on is doing little to nothing. I feel a little caution and common sense to keep our emergency and primary care providers from getting overwhelmed is warranted. Unfortunately, our media and the CDC isn’t very good at messaging either of those things Vaccinate. Mask up. Avoid gatherings. Stay home when your sick. This really isn’t rocket science people.

Sounds like a moron issue.

Are you sure you didn’t mean…. Don’t mess with my toot toot? In all seriousness, the man was astounding and he always seemed to come down on the side of humanity. "We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low." - Desmond Tutu