Stop blaming the un-vax’d and the kids

In a yearlong study of 621 people in the U.K. with mild Covid-19, scientists found that their peak viral load was similar regardless of vaccination status, according to a paper published Thursday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases medical journal. The analysis also found that 25% of vaccinated household contacts still contracted the disease from an index case, while 38% of those who hadn’t had shots became infected.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-28/getting-vaccinated-doesn-t-stop-people-from-spreading-delta

The vaccinated are JUST AS LIKELY to spread Delta as the unvaccinated. And, while they don’t explicitly state it, since the vaccinated are less likely to get severely sick, they’re MORE likely to be out and about thinking that all they have is a cold, which means they’re MORE likely to be “asymptomatic spreaders” than the unvaccinated.

In addition:

Although peak viral load did not differ by vaccination status or variant type, it increased modestly with age (difference of 0·39 [95% credible interval –0·03 to 0·79] in peak log10 viral load per mL between those aged 10 years and 50 years).

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(21)00648-4/fulltext

So adults, especially older adults, are more likely to be spreaders than the kids. Vaccinated or not.

I’m SO DONE with all this “some unvaccinated person gave him Covid and he died!!!”. Considering the percentage of vax’d vs unvax’d that’s been BS for a while, and this proves it.

In addition, that fabric mask on your face does shit job at filtering aerosols. Anyone who wears glasses knows this whether they realize it or not. So blaming “some unvax’d person who didn’t mask” is even bigger BS. Cause it doesn’t matter.

And yes, despite the CDC’s insistence in 2020 that Covid was NOT in aerosols they finally admitted that it is:

Infectious exposures to respiratory fluids carrying SARS-CoV-2 occur in three principal ways (not mutually exclusive):

Inhalation of air carrying very small fine droplets and aerosol particles that contain infectious virus. Risk of transmission is greatest within three to six feet of an infectious source where the concentration of these very fine droplets and particles is greatest.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/sars-cov-2-transmission.html

The only mask that will filter aerosols that small is a N95. Please note that that’s not the same as a KN95. Also, unless that N95 has been properly fit checked it is likely leaking aerosols near as badly as that fabric one. Plus every time you take it off and put it back on you’d need to do a fit check.

If you’re a person with a compromised immune system who feels that you need to continue to mask for your health you’d better be wearing an N95. All that fabric mask is doing is holding onto bacteria laden moisture from your mouth and nose and holding it close to those mucus membranes for you to reinfect yourself with.

Vaccine passports are doing shit all except for discriminating against a portion of the population. A portion of whom were told by their doctors NOT to get vaccinated. A portion of whom have a VERY healthy distrust of the .GOV just based on their race. A portion of whom have a VERY healthy distrust of the media and the PROVE-ABLE lies of many of the people who are supposed to be in charge of public health.

In addition, not only are fewer kids GETTING their childhood shots in 2020/2021 (due to their parents having been terrified into canceling appts and Drs into having virtual only appts), I have seen multiple conversations to the effect of “I never questioned kids vaccines, but if they’re bungling THIS vaccine so badly maybe I SHOULD be questioning kids vaccines”. All this whole mess is doing is creating ACTUAL anti-vaxxers. Which means that we ain’t seen nuthin’ yet when it comes to the end results of this mess.


Please tell me this is out of context

I don’t have time to go listen to the whole panel, but really??

“We’re never gonna learn about how safe the vaccine is until we start giving it. That’s the way it goes.”

Dr. Ruben on the FDA panel

Because yes, that’s going to make already vaccine hesitant parents want to give this vaccine to their children who are already at such low risk from Covid19….

The study on this age group was less than 3000 kids, meanwhile we KNOW that for teens some of the side effects risks are approx 1 in 10,000, so the study group flat out isn’t large enough to have an actual idea of actual safety. They literally just confirmed that it induces apparent antibody defense.

But meanwhile, now that the EUA has been approved for this age group, multiple states and municipalities are prepared to MANDATE it for that age group in order to just go to school. Without any actual safety data.

And if you REALLY think that giving kids this vaccine will result in less Covid restrictions you’re dreaming. They’ve used that carrot for the last year and it hasn’t been true yet.


Magnesium shortage

For a stunning wake-up call to just how concentrated the complex global supply chain is, 85% of the world’s magnesium production comes from China. Much of it comes from one town in Shaanxi province, Yulin, where the government has curbed output at 70% of all magnesium smelters this year due to energy conservation ahead of the Northern Hemisphere winter. 

The article specifically references the automotive industry. But in reality anything that uses aluminum is being affected. In addition magnesium is used in the creation of a variety of metal alloys, not to mention a huge list of medical applications.

That 2nd article also references silicon shortages, which also affect aluminum, as well as a bunch of other things. Like, glass, concrete, electronics (its part of the computer chip shortage problem), medical implants, toothpaste, deodorants…..


Does anyone running this have ANY clue what they’re doing to the kids??

Yes, lets have the kids eat lunch in the rain because god forbid they might be exposed to a virus thats less damaging to them than the bugs they’ve been exposed to for YEARS.

Following the negative reaction from concerned Californians, the Davis Joint Unified School district released a follow up email stating that children will be allowed to eat inside “whenever possible” and stressed that the district is facing “unique challenges as we seek to maintain our students’ health and safety and minimize the risk of COVID-19 infection.”

Following that email, Principal Bourguignon sent parents a third email reversing course and acknowledging that some people were upset with the decision to force kids to eat in the rain.

“Some parents are very happy with our decision to have students eat outside and others are concerned,” Bourguignon wrote. “Our campus is not ideal for eating outside due to the lack of a solid walkway cover. In collaboration with our District staff, we looked at all of the alternatives. If during lunchtime, we have a heavy downpour of rain it will be challenging to eat under the covered walkways. “

“During a heavy downpour, we will have a staggered lunch with one grade level at a time in our MPR for 15 minutes with all 10 doors open and 2 air purifiers running. After 15 minutes, students will be dismissed to their classrooms for inside recess. If you prefer that your child remains outside to eat please inform your teacher and we will make accommodations to support your request.”

Quote from here.

I swear to god, if today’s kids grow up to murder us all in our beds I won’t even blink.

Edited to add: The AAP, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) and Children’s Hospital Association have declared a national emergency in children’s mental health, citing the serious toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on top of existing challenges. DUH!


Supply chain woes

I get so many comments from customers at work who don’t understand why the supply chain broke the way it did. In addition I see ALOT of comments online in the same vein.

I’ve been slowly trying to come up with an analogy that explains it, but there’s no short explanation. The answer is complicated no matter what. But here’s my best try so far. Note, all numbers and many of the dates used here are made up. In some cases it’s because I don’t know the exact numbers. In others its because I DO know, but that info is likely proprietary to my job. And regardless nice round numbers are easier to work with when typing up examples.

So, I work at a local Home Depot. Lets say that in March of 2020 we’d JUST gotten in our first shipment of lawnmowers. Lets say that shipment is a grand total of 50 mowers. And that 50 mowers was expected to last us till the end of April. Instead the shutdown hit, and that 50 mowers were sold out before April 1.

So the store calls the warehouse and says that not only do we need another 50 lawnmowers a month early, we want you to ship us an additional 50 cause holy crap sales!! (ok, this is all automated, but work with me here)

The warehouse says holy crap! I can send you another 50, but we weren’t expecting you to need them for another month, so I REALLY don’t have that extra 50. I’ll see what I can get! The warehouse ordering person calls the manufacturer (again, this is all automated in RL) and says sales are through the roof, we need to at least double our order!

The manufacturer says I’d love to double your order, but we’re not an essential business so you’re out of luck till we’re allowed to run again.

So two months later, the stores and warehouses are all sold out of lawnmowers and the manufacturer is finally allowed to start running their lines again, but they have to do it with extra social distancing, which means at a slower pace, and they’re at risk for being shut down every time someone tests positive, but at least they can start building lawnmowers!

Except that they only have enough of the various parts on hand to build the originally expected orders of lawnmowers, not this more than doubled sales orders of lawnmowers. So they start making what they can, and in the mean time they call the parts manufacturers and say Hey! We need to at least double our orders!!

The parts manufacturers look at their supply of raw materials and say well, we have enough on hand to make up the parts for the originally expected orders, but we don’t have enough to do double, much less more than double! Plus we’re at risk of the same slowdowns/shut downs you are, but we’ll do our best! And THEY call the raw materials peoples and say hey! We need to at least double our orders!

And the raw materials peoples say geez people, we haven’t been able to mine the raw materials in 3 months! I don’t have it! And we’re at risk of the same shutdowns and slow downs you are, but we’ll do our best!

Meanwhile the store is sold out of lawnmowers again, and the manufacturers are dribbling them in because holy shit no one predicted anything like this mess.

And the orders just keep rolling in.

And the transport between raw material people, to the parts manufacturer, is clogged all to hell, cause covid, and restrictions, and no one expected to have to ship double the number of containers with no warning.

And the orders keep coming.

And the raw materials finally make it to the parts manufacturers, who rush to make the parts, and then the transport between parts manufacturers gets clogged, because now we’re not only running double the containers of raw materials but we’re running double the containers of parts, all with no warning.

And the orders just keep coming.

The parts finally make it to the machine manufacturing line, and they rush to build the actual mowers. And now the transport from them to the warehouse is clogged and backlogged all to hell, cause now we’re running double containers of raw materials, parts, AND finished machines and holy shit we don’t have that many drivers, much less chassis to put the containers on!

And the orders just keep on coming.

AND all those mowers still need to get from the warehouse to the store, with is yet ANOTHER layer of transport doubling.

And by this time the orders have continued to the point where we need to actually TRIPLE our order back here at the store. And we’re not sure THAT’S going to be enough. So go back to the beginning of this and substitute “triple” for all the word “double”.

And then do it again for the word quadruple.

Now do the same math for something like half the products that a store like Home Depot sells.

And multiply by the number of stores that Home Depot has around the country.

And multiply again by all the other stores LIKE Home Depot who found themselves stuck in the same holding pattern.

Add in that the internal USA materials transport system has been running a bit short since well before 2020 for a variety of reasons including the generalized panic over air pollution from the trucks and lack of drivers and constant added restrictions from states, counties, and towns.

Add in that when Covid hit the media did their damndest to panic the world into refusing to work and hide at home. And then the .GOV paid them MORE to stay at home than to work.

And the ones who did work found themselves burning out at an even faster rate than normal. AND not receiving that additional pay that the folks sitting at home were getting. AND doing so while dealing with the same materials shortages that everyone else was dealing with.

And the orders just keep rolling in.

And now we’re short on the parts needed to FIX the trucks and chassis and keep them on the road.

And the costs for the parts we do have keep going up.

And the manufacturers also have to have parts to keep THEIR machines going.

And people are still ordering and ordering and ordering.

This is so over simplified its not even funny, and I KNOW I’m missing out on all sorts of aspects. There’s bottlenecks all along the transport lines for various things. The ships backing up at cargo points is the one currently making news, but keep in mind it’s not JUST a matter of getting all those ships unloaded. Those containers have to go somewhere, and the ports can only hold so many at a time. And while huge portions of that process is automated you still have to have people to keep an eye on the machines. And chassis to put the containers on, and trains and trucks and machinery all need parts to run.

And people won’t stop ordering more things.

I keep seeing people saying that “if we made more things here in the USA we wouldn’t be in this problem!!!”, and while I agree with the underlying concept its not realistic. First of all a huge portion of the raw materials have to come from overseas no matter what, unless we want to open up ALOT of mines here in the USA, and trust me, you don’t want to (plus there’s things we can’t mine here, so yah). So there would still be international transport bottlenecks. Second, we shut down EVERYTHING that the various politicians decided wasn’t “essential” for 3 months. And since politicians are idiots their definition of “essential” had no bearing on reality. Plus the US public is madly materials oriented, I don’t think we could have enough internal manufacturing to keep up with demand these days. I really don’t.


My Chainmaille Jewelry site is now open

SYCMAILLE.COM

Well, I think it’s open, I haven’t actually had a sale yet, so with my luck it’ll all crash when someone actually tries to do so.

It turns out that actually loading the individual pieces up for listings is tedious as hell, so I’m still working on that part. New things are going up damn near daily because of it.

In celebration of the opening I have created a coupon code. Code nowopen2 will give you 5% off your order and is good through the end of November.


63 ships waiting to unload off CA coast

10/6/21 “The ports had 90 container ships in the port, 63 of which were waiting off the shore on Tuesday — a number far above the ports pre-pandemic average of zero to one ships at anchor.”

Ran across this site that tracks commercial ships at sea in real time.

For those of you who don’t want to click through, here’s a screenshot taken minutes before posting:

If you actually zoom in to a smaller area you can see that to some degree the congestion is actually the result of the big icons, but still, thats ALOT of ships.

On the other hand, the average consumer is actually waking up to the fact that the supply chain is a bit fucked. I had 3 different people yesterday ask me if HD had stock stuck in that cargo ship mess in CA.

Of course, one of them then proceeded to tell me that “they could unload those ships if they wanted to, they’re trying to artificially raise prices”.

*sigh*