Posts by Carol Jackson2

Rachel Richardson said:It’s especially true with children, particularly when they're little.
They simply need skin-to-skin contact—that warmth from another person (infants under six months basically think they're an extension of their mother; they don't yet perceive themselves as separate individuals 😬).

Hugging, cheering, and just enjoying each other's presence—it's fundamentally human. 😁

mellowskipper said:Brandon Allen59

It doesn't say on the PCR results—that's mostly just my own deduction, I guess—but this thing is spreading incredibly fast. A huge chunk of us caught it last week, regardless of whether we were vaccinated or not, and three people have already dealt with reinfections. For the most part, the symptoms seem relatively mild for everyone... one person didn't even show any symptoms at all, really.

Sent from my iPhone 15 using Reddit

mellowskipper said:It's probably Omicron—it seems to be spreading incredibly fast lately. I'm doing alright, I guess... though dealing with mold in the house is a whole different headache, and I honestly don't know how we're going to handle it ourselves. We might just end up painting the house or something just to stay busy while we wait things out...

Sent from my iPhone 15 using Reddit

mellowskipper said:In any other era, probably not. I mean, let's be honest—I'd basically just be sitting around at the taxpayers' expense.

Sent from my PRA-LX1 using Reddit

Matthew Jackson2 said:Sure, you can "interpret" things if you really want to play word games, but let’s be honest—a death resulting from the Omicron variant isn't some philosophical riddle; it has a very specific, very literal meaning. If you don't have hard evidence to back up your little alternative reading, then you really ought to stick to the translation that accounts for all the valid interpretations, because otherwise, you aren't just interpreting the news—you're straight-up rewriting it.

Matthew Jackson2 said:The original article actually says "with Omicron," but our media outlets always insist on translating it as "from Omicron."

Gerald Chavez7 said:It’s definitely important, but the only thing we can say with any real certainty is that it’s more contagious—likely because it manages to bypass existing immunity.

Restricting travel from Africa and ramping up active track&trace efforts makes sense as a short-term move.

Even if this just triggers a temporary surge, the booster rollout will reach several dozen million more people, which might buy us some time until spring or the next seasonal update.

Linda Harris59 said:Look, Boldano, you’re missing the point entirely. You are conflating two completely different issues here.

Duration. Mutation is fundamentally a numbers game when it comes to quantity. It’s quite simple, really: if the host's immune system is compromised or poorly defended, the virus is allowed to replicate much more aggressively and for a significantly longer duration. This prolonged period of unchecked replication creates a massive surge in the total viral load, and from a purely statistical standpoint, that higher volume inevitably leads to a greater number of mutations. It's basic biological math.

"We need much more rigorous selection processes. "In the host"—you could certainly frame it that way. At the end of the day, we’re looking at a simple matter of survival of the fittest: the mutation that proves most adept at evading the immune system is the one that eventually takes the lead. This isn't some debate about whether someone is vaccinated or not; the biological mechanism remains identical across both groups. Evolution doesn't care about our politics or our medical choices. It follows a strict, unyielding principle: those mutations that are better adapted to survive will always prevail. Plain and simple, the virus evolves.

The situation we’re seeing in Japan is actually quite a fascinating case study. You have a highly fractured landscape where one specific delta variant became so overwhelmingly dominant that it effectively crowded out every other strain. But here’s the kicker: it mutated so aggressively to maintain that dominance that it ultimately engineered its own downfall. It essentially optimized itself right into a corner. In an unfragmented population, you don't see this kind of singular, suffocating dominance from one mutation, which means there's always a diverse pool of variants left to survive and carry on. On the flip side, when we use vaccines to heavily favor one specific mutation, we end up creating a scenario where that strain looks like it's actively sabotaging its own survival by driving the evolution toward something else entirely. It's a strange, self-defeating cycle.

If we continue down this path of aggressively vaccinating against and essentially playing favorites with one specific mutation, we might witness a scenario no one actually predicted: the virus effectively committing suicide.

Linda Harris59 said:I never said that.

Let me be perfectly clear about what I actually wrote: the virus has a much higher potential for mutation and poses a greater threat to the community when it takes hold in an organism with a weakened immune system and no existing antibodies.

In vaccinated individuals, there is a significantly lower probability of mutation occurring. It's basic math—there is less virus present and it stays in the system for a much shorter window of time.

Linda Harris59 said:That is fundamentally incorrect. A virus mutates during the replication process inside the host organism. Mutation happens because errors occur while the virus is copying itself.

Transmission is merely the selection process for existing mutations. The variant that happens to be more dangerous—the one that can infect a new host more easily—is the one that will become dominant.

Linda Harris59 said:From a biological standpoint, that explanation actually holds water. When you have an organism with a severely compromised immune system, the virus is given all the time and space it needs to run wild, racking up a massive amount of mutations. That’s how you end up with variants that can bypass standard immune responses.

The lesson here is simple: a virus has much more opportunity to mutate and becomes far more dangerous to the public when it finds a host with a weakened immune system and zero antibodies.

Bottom line: immunocompromised and unvaccinated individuals essentially act as breeding grounds for dangerous new mutations.

fadedranger162 said:Well, maybe here, but if I recall correctly, it spread through Europe a good couple of months before that.

That’s my point—the second they see a hint of a new strain, they need to be developing and testing so we actually have a vaccine ready by late summer. That way, high-risk folks get protected before winter hits. Instead, they just keep pushing the same old shot and praying it works, then start begging for lockdowns when everything inevitably goes south.

Oral vaccines might actually be the better, safer bet, but for the last six months, I've only heard about two manufacturers that even stand a chance at getting them registered.

Charles Howard74 said:About 24% of the population in South Africa has been vaccinated, and according to one source, "allegedly" they tracked down the mastermind behind it all. This guy actually had HIV, so his immune system was basically non-existent. Then he caught COVID, and man, that virus tore through him like a wrecking ball in a glass factory. He just took that whole chaotic hacking style and started applying it to everyone else.

In London, you get about 700 passengers arriving daily from Africa.

wiredseal7 said:The Greek letter nu didn't sound quite right, so we just skipped over it 😬

variant tree:
https://www.wsws.org/asset/18622bf9-...tion=image1280

If those red ones are actually an Omicron branch—which they look to be—then we’re looking at a massive headache for vaccines still stuck in the Alpha era. Who knows what kind of cocktail went through that African incubator to rack up this many mutations.

fadedranger162 said:If this thing were 3.14 times more contagious, they really should have just called it the Pi variant. 😁

By the time we actually got moving with the Alpha shots, the Delta variant had already started spreading like wildfire. And honestly? It doesn't even matter how many people we vaccinate at this point—Delta is going to tear through every single state regardless. It’s just going to circulate everywhere, period.

They really ought to be getting a head start on developing a vaccine for this version right now. If they play it smart, they'll have something ready by the end of summer so the high-risk folks can get jabbed before fall and winter hit. It’d be a total disaster if we ended up back at square one, shutting everything down just to start the whole grind all over again. 🤦

Ashley Vaughn79 said:I guess there is one story about work-life balance that I will remember for the rest of my life.
It isn't a pleasant memory. 😁

I was pretty new at a job back then, and maybe because I wasn't experienced enough, I kept trying too hard to prove myself professionally. That ended up leading to a massive amount of overtime and working through weekends.
That Saturday was no different.

As luck would have it, my parents had organized a big family dinner back in my hometown, and I fully intended to be there. But by that afternoon, I realized I wouldn't make my train, which meant missing the dinner entirely.

I called my mom to let her know I was stuck at the office, and the conversation basically ended with her saying, "Oh well, don't worry... there will be other dinners." 🙂
Life can be cruel, I suppose, because that actually turned out to be one of our last big family dinners; my mom passed away toward the end of that year.

It was just awful... like something out of a bad movie. 😁
The pay wasn't great either, since the company was struggling financially and my paycheck wasn't even consistently on time. 😁

Staying late didn't do me any favors, and missing that family dinner was even worse.
At least I developed that famous backbone of mine, and over time, I learned how to set boundaries so people couldn't manipulate me with the whole "we have so much work" excuse.

It's not that I'm not responsible—I always try to do my job correctly—but I started looking at why the overtime was piling up and why the stress was happening in the first place. Now, I just push that aside or stand my ground. I might ask, "Where was this data until now if it's such an emergency?" There is no such thing as an emergency if the info was available a week ago; it isn't my fault they dropped it on my desk so late. 🙂

I mean, sure, emergencies happen in extreme cases, but I stopped trying to fix everyone else's mistakes at the companies I worked for.

I take a fairly casual approach now, though I guess it's mostly just a defense mechanism.

I really can't stand companies that reward people just for staying late.
Because if you aren't staying late, they assume you aren't doing anything and aren't a good worker (or so my former colleague used to say).

Actually, it just means you know how to manage your time and finish your tasks in eight hours, whereas they are actually the ones who are incompetent. 😬

But, well... I just won't tolerate it.
Luckily, at my current job, I don't have to.

And I wouldn't go back to working for those massive corporations again... a smaller family-run business would always be my preference.

They are just... warmer. 🙂

stormygull36 said:Honestly, this feels like you're totally underselling mental labor—all that concept development and problem-solving you have to scramble through right before a deadline hits, which just makes everything so much more stressful.

For me, doing something physical after work or even on the weekends actually feels like a way to unwind... and sometimes I think, man, life must be easier for people in manual labor. Like, they're told to dig a trench, lay some pipes, cover them up, level things out, pave it over...
There isn't a ton of deep thinking involved; it's mostly just mechanical stuff.
I'm speaking from my own experience with my job, obviously, but I'm sure there are plenty of office roles out there where the workload and the responsibility aren't nearly as intense.