How bad is the pandemic? Look at hospitalizations.

[Jolly]

@jon-nyc said in How bad is the pandemic? Look at hospitalizations.:

@Jolly said in How bad is the pandemic? Look at hospitalizations.:

Gonna be some tough decisions on who gets the Trump vaccine,

Last time I was in the cleaning aisle at the store they had gallons and gallons of the Trump vaccine.

It’s the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that are going to be hard to come by.

Nah, you don't get off that easy. Trump's watch, Trump's vaccine. I've been in the medical biz forty years and I've never seen the FDA move this fast.

Of course, if that bothers you, you can refuse to take any of them

[jon-nyc]

The thing is the approval isn’t stopping distribution.

I’m sure the first stick will come later if we approve the 11th instead of the 3rd but within a few days the constraint will still be supply.

[jon-nyc]

Well you know Jolly there was a pandemic and 30% unemployment. That might well have spurred the FDA as much as any nasty tweet.

[Doctor Phibes]

He made them move almost as fast as the terrible NHS.

[Jolly]

@jon-nyc said in How bad is the pandemic? Look at hospitalizations.:

Well you know Jolly there was a pandemic and 30% unemployment. That might well have spurred the FDA as much as any nasty tweet.

Bullshit. Pure partisan bullshit.

Remember, toots, I was dodging feces from AIDS patients when you were still trying to figure out how to depth-charge a beer in college. Or maybe that was high school. Did you know tests were available on automated platforms, platforms that were being used in the U.S., but the FDA would not let us have the tests? The Europeans were running them by the hundreds of thousands, by the millions, and all we could do was grit our teeth. Safety you know. Protocol must be followed. There are rules, you know. Wonder how many died because of that?

I was around for Swine Flu, too. Saw some foot dragging there, too.

Not to mention various other maladies.

So give credit, where credit is deserved.

[jon-nyc]

You missed the point entirely. I didn't say the FDA didn't speed things up, I said there was a lot more motivating them than Trump.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Jolly said in How bad is the pandemic? Look at hospitalizations.:

@jon-nyc said in How bad is the pandemic? Look at hospitalizations.:

Well you know Jolly there was a pandemic and 30% unemployment. That might well have spurred the FDA as much as any nasty tweet.

Bullshit. Pure partisan bullshit.

Remember, toots, I was dodging feces from AIDS patients when you were still trying to figure out how to depth-charge a beer in college. Or maybe that was high school. Did you know tests were available on automated platforms, platforms that were being used in the U.S., but the FDA would not let us have the tests? The Europeans were running them by the hundreds of thousands, by the millions, and all we could do was grit our teeth. Safety you know. Protocol must be followed. There are rules, you know. Wonder how many died because of that?

I was around for Swine Flu, too. Saw some foot dragging there, too.

Not to mention various other maladies.

So give credit, where credit is deserved.

Do you remember President Trump implying they should do less testing because it was making the numbers look bad?

You can't try and seriously claim there wasn't some seriously mixed messaging coming out of the WH.

[Doctor Phibes]

...and I've said over and over I don't particularly blame DJT for the Covid situation. I'm not going to praise him effusively over something like the FDA acting almost as quickly as the UK, either.

[Loki]

@Doctor-Phibes said in How bad is the pandemic? Look at hospitalizations.:

...and I've said over and over I don't particularly blame DJT for the Covid situation. I'm not going to praise him effusively over something like the FDA acting almost as quickly as the UK, either.

I guess we don’t trust the UK. How absurd when Americans are dying. It will amount to well over 10,000 excess deaths.

But remember how blasé we are about that. So let’s not judge what happened before knowing how little we really care.

[Copper]

@Loki said in How bad is the pandemic? Look at hospitalizations.:

I guess we don’t trust the UK.

They burned down the Whitehouse.

[Doctor Phibes]

I could say 'remember thalidomide?' The FDA saved you from the horrors of that one.

[Loki]

@Doctor-Phibes said in How bad is the pandemic? Look at hospitalizations.:

I could say 'remember thalidomide?' The FDA saved you from the horrors of that one.

For 80 year olds. What did It do to them?

[A Former User]

I can't wait to take the Biden vaccine. It will be on Biden's watch, Biden's vaccine.

[George K]

@Doctor-Phibes said in How bad is the pandemic? Look at hospitalizations.:

I could say 'remember thalidomide?' The FDA saved you from the horrors of that one.

It's a good drug, as long as you're not pregnant:

Thalidomide is used as a first-line treatment in multiple myeloma in combination with dexamethasone or with melphalan and prednisone, to treat acute episodes of erythema nodosum leprosum, and for maintenance therapy.

The bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB) is related to leprosy. Thalidomide may be helpful in some cases where standard TB drugs and corticosteroids are not sufficient to resolve severe inflammation in the brain.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Loki said in How bad is the pandemic? Look at hospitalizations.:

@Doctor-Phibes said in How bad is the pandemic? Look at hospitalizations.:

I could say 'remember thalidomide?' The FDA saved you from the horrors of that one.

For 80 year olds. What did It do to them?

Yes, I take the point. But in the highly unlikely event that a tragedy occurs, there will be a lot of finger pointing, and the cause for vaccination in general would be put back decades.

[Jolly]

@jon-nyc said in How bad is the pandemic? Look at hospitalizations.:

You missed the point entirely. I didn't say the FDA didn't speed things up, I said there was a lot more motivating them than Trump.

Point not taken. There is always something motivating them. Sometimes not for the best. But this hasn't happened before.

Ever.

Period.

[Jolly]

@Doctor-Phibes said in How bad is the pandemic? Look at hospitalizations.:

@Loki said in How bad is the pandemic? Look at hospitalizations.:

@Doctor-Phibes said in How bad is the pandemic? Look at hospitalizations.:

I could say 'remember thalidomide?' The FDA saved you from the horrors of that one.

For 80 year olds. What did It do to them?

Yes, I take the point. But in the highly unlikely event that a tragedy occurs, there will be a lot of finger pointing, and the cause for vaccination in general would be put back decades.

You're a safety guy. Is any action 100% safe? Or is there always an element of allowable risk?

Did you know that children die every year from routine vaccinations? If this vaccine, or this combo of vaccines work, what is the allowable risk?

[Loki]

I’m 70 and in the at risk category. Ask me if I want the vaccine or if I want to wait? What’s the smarter way of thinking of this for me? Vaccine now or until the FDA says so?

[Doctor Phibes]

I'd happily take the vaccine now. But I also understand the FDA taking slightly longer than the UK.

[Copper]

As a Trump voter, I should decline the vaccine.

But as a democrat, I should demonstrate fealty to my government masters.

It is a tough call.

This sort of science is never easy.