It looks certain now that the Hilo flight’s incident was not Covid-related. They still don’t sound completely certain, but now it seems the attendant might have accidentally bumped into the passenger while collecting trash, thereby offending said passenger’s sense of honor. It makes sense, as you get that a lot in Hawaii, there’s a big macho culture here. The guy was supposed to be arraigned before a judge yesterday morning, but that had to be postponed until Monday, because the passenger, who remains in FBI custody, experienced “an episode.” That’s all they said, “an episode.” My take is someone clued him in that instead of the minor slap on the wrist he may have been expecting, he is now facing a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. That could have made him go ballistic. Asshole.
The other incident, the flight to Seattle, was definitely Covid-related. It was a lady this time, and two hours into the flight she just took off her mask and said, “I’m not putting it back on, nyah, nyah, nyah,” or words to that effect. I wish I could have seen her face when she realized they were turning around back to Honolulu just because of her.
Sorry to keep beating this since it turned out not to be Covid after all, but it’s a fascinating case. Now they’re saying the guy has had to be kept in solitary confinement all weekend due to “behavior issues.” Can’t wait to see what’s going to happen in court tomorrow.
Yesterday there were some state and municipal elections here in Austria. The head of the far-right party, Herbert Kickl of the Freedom Party (FPÖ), was so desperate to court the antivax vote that, a couple days before the election, he called a press conference for the sole purpose of proclaiming that he himself had not been vaccinated. As proof of this he exhibited the notarized(!) result of an coronavirus antibody test that he had taken at a public hospital.
Representatives of the other major parties (all of which support the vaccination campaign) were quick to denounce the stunt as irresponsible or even “sick”.
Complete official results of the elections are not yet available but preliminary results seem to indicate that the FPÖ lost about a third of their vote share in Upper Austria, going from 30.4% to 19.8%.
Interesting. I work VERY part time for a major university that has a vaccine mandate. They required me to give them permission to look me up in the state vaccine registry. And I heard via the grapevine that they’ve already fired a couple of people for failure to comply with their mandate.
(I don’t know the details of what they do for people with medical and/or religious reasons to avoid vaccination. I’m vaccinated, so I don’t know what the next questions might have been if I’d said “no”.)
The Kellys have a role in developing what could be the world’s next chance to thwart Covid: a short-term regimen of daily pills that can fight the virus early after diagnosis and conceivably prevent symptoms from developing after exposure.
“Oral antivirals have the potential to not only curtail the duration of one’s Covid-19 syndrome, but also have the potential to limit transmission to people in your household if you are sick,” said Timothy Sheahan, a virologist at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill who has helped pioneer these therapies.
Antivirals are already essential treatments for other viral infections, including hepatitis C and HIV. One of the best known is Tamiflu, the widely prescribed pill that can shorten the duration of influenza and reduce the risk of hospitalization if given quickly.
This could be interesting. I wonder what the reaction will be among those who refuse the vaccine?
Like vaccines, antivirals are by no means perfect, and there is probably a timeframe beyond which they’re ineffective. Taking Tamiflu, for instance, it has to be used within 48 hours of first symptoms. A lot of times, people miss their opportunity to take Tamiflu because they may mistake flu for a ‘really bad cold’ that they can fight off. I’m glad more research is being done for post-infection treatment but none of it replaces the vaccine - it’s vaccination that matters.
As a federal employee, I just had to upload a copy of my vax card. I don’t know procedure, if any, exists for those claim a religious or medical exemption.
I had to upload a copy of my vax card, too. But that’s not proof – that’s easily faked. And my employer didn’t just accept it. Two weeks later, after (I believe) they checked it for accuracy against the state registry, they told me they had accepted my evidence of vaccination.
I would hope that most employers would consider a falsified document that purports to provide information that is a condition of employment, to be a fireable offense. And I also hope that most are getting permission to check.