Coronavirus

Sorry to hear this Chris.

I think that vaccine hesitancy is a real world example of how easy misinformation is spread, particularly assisted by social media and big media companies who are chasing every "click". It seems the dissenting voices are greatly magnified - 20 or 30 years ago they would have been a very small minority. I know a few people who would not be your standard "anti-vaxxer", who are greatly against these specific vaccines and who seem to be heading down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, which just seems to harden their position.

 

Thanks to everyone for your condolences, they are appreciated.

There were many complicated family dynamics at work. Unfortunately covid denial and anti-vac stubbornness were part of it.

Sis2 has now lost two of her three children, lung cancer and covid-19 respectively.

 

And this is why we need Universal Health Care.
Fuck insurance companies so hard.

 

This is also why I worry we will never see it. I don't know what they do in other countries, but unless we have 'tribal' based care, there will be too many people who don't want to pay for others who don't live like they do.

 

I suspect the USA is far too capitalist to ever do it. It is a shame - Australia has an amazing health system and you can easily survive without having health insurance at all. To be fair, there are situations where we can get things faster through our private hospital system, but a visit to hospital should not be a cause to bankrupt someone.

 

It is insane. On the other hand, maybe it opens up beds for other vital treatments like life saving surgeries for heart and cancer patients.

 

They aren't like most people. The people who make up The 2016 Perfect Storm of Discontent are now being influenced by the conspiracy nuts..

Some of the misinformation being spread in the firearms community is scary.

 

My sister and BIL are still the last holdouts amongst their families. My BIL's parents' next-door neighbor just died of COVID at age 37 with a wife and 1 year old at home. He was a rabid anti-vaxxer. I'm hoping that proximity might get my sister and BIL to get their heads out of their asses and get vaccinated. FFS, they just had the kids get flu shots last week!

The guy I started seeing was exposed last week and got tested today. My BIL has a sore throat and also got tested today. I'm hoping I don't have to go through that whole process again, but I do at least know that I have the emergency PTO available at work to safely quarantine for 2 weeks without losing any income.

 

My understanding is this week there will be a large increase in the number of people getting fired because they refuse to get vaccinated. I hope the courts uphold the firings.

The far right loudmouths are getting more vocal in criticizing the Biden administration over Covid-19, the Delta variant, vaccinations, and boosters. They conveniently forget it was Trump who refused to develop a national plan, and passed the buck to the states.

 

I mean the answer is pretty simple, in other countries healthcare is funded by taxes. The US seems to be allergic to any sort of tax increases though so I imagine it'll take quite a while before the US sees something like that.
I get it, it sucks seeing a large chunk of your pay being taken away. Knowing that I or my family members can get care and not going bankrupt in the process is worth it IMHO.

We all got a massive cold in the family last week. My wife went down to the local health clinic, picked up a covid test from a box outside and did the test at home. Dropped it off and got the results later in the day (Negative thankfully). Cost nothing and we didn't have to deal with any health insurance bullshit.

 

Most working age Americans get their health insurance through their employer.
They are already handing over a large chunk of their pay to the insurance company, and getting pretty poor insurance and care in exchange.
If the government ran the system, that same chunk would come out, it would just end up somewhere different.
There wouldn't be a big change in what people took home in their paycheck.

 

I believe you. I guess it's the idea of the government instead of a business taking your money feels worse for some reason.
I don't know, the idea of your healthcare being tied to your employment is crazy to me.

 

It's an idea, but it doesn't solve anything for someone being unemployed does it? Or someone having a low paying job where whatever the employer would put in that pool wouldn't cover medical expenses anyway.
I just really feel that being able to get healthcare should not depend on whether you have a job or not, or how well that job pays. It should be a right to get decent healthcare and not have to worry about costs.