COVID-19 in Boston

It's really unfortunate how Covid and it preventative measures have become so politicized into a liberal vs, conservative thing. I'm fairly conservative (whatever that really means) in my political views, but I will certainly take the vaccine when they come up with it.

I'd suspect that Massachusetts vaccination rates will be pretty high compared to some other parts of the country. It's 58% that would take it in the last poll, and I doubt that's evenly distributed.
 
I feel like those job mandates would be subjected to lawsuits. Not trying to be a debbie downer but the past year has really shown me how dedicated some Americans are to the cult of Trump and their leader's "alternate reality".

What would be the basis of the lawsuit? In a right to work state, they can fire you for pretty much any reason that is not related to a protected class. So they can fire me for wearing a blue shirt, or they can fire me for refusing to vaccinate.
 
What would be the basis of the lawsuit? In a right to work state, they can fire you for pretty much any reason that is not related to a protected class. So they can fire me for wearing a blue shirt, or they can fire me for refusing to vaccinate.
You'd be surprised. There are already lawsuits levied against schools for refusing to allow students who are not vaccinated (for mumps IIRC) and the most common reason used as the basis of the lawsuits is religious freedom, i.e. vaccination infringes their religious belief. It doesn't hold water but you know that will be a route many of them will go down
 
I'll wait and make sure the kinks are ironed out before taking it. I'm thinking 4-6 months after initial rollout, assuming it is by then widely available to the general public. I need to know what the side effects will be, and know that it does, in fact, work as a longer term solution. Supposedly, what they have right now is not a pleasant process.
 
Because polling is so accurate... we have now gone through two elections that have shown national polls to be deeply flawed.

This is a silly statement. The polls have been more-or-less as accurate as they've tended to be for decades with a few structural problems, especially how best to mitigate non-response factors by conservatives who want to pwn the media. National polls are not *deeply flawed*, they're one tool in the toolbox to understand how the public feels and responds to certain things. What is *deeply flawed* is the public's understanding of statistics.

On an issue poll like vaccine acceptance, an error even as wide as 10-12 points is still pointing to a massive portion of the public who are leaning anti-vaxx. That might change once (if?) Trump is no longer in the political scene - in particular among "no vaccine" liberals who just didn't trust Trump to safely roll out one.
 
The polls weren't conducted through social media. They were professionally conducted on a national scale. As of last month, 35-51% of respondents won't get a vaccine, and last I read, it was believed a minimum of somewhere in the 60-70 percent range is required for herd immunity. At 50% getting a vaccine, that would require ~30 million (currently at 11.4M) people in the US at a minimum getting infected with COVID and hopefully developing the antibodies themselves, and it's currently predicted that the antibioties from infection really only last about 3 months before you're at risk of infection again.

See you guys in Europe..

Herd immunity requires 70% of people to have been vaccinated. Note, that herd immunity does not mean, however, that COVID would go away at that level of vaccination. It would mean that we live "with" COVID infecting many people, just not enough to overwhelm our healthcare systems.

Other countries have been able to control COVID-19 without a vaccine. I'm absolutely gutted that this country has accepted living "with" covid instead of living "without" covid.


EDIT: Found a link to the European Union's European Council vaccination strategy. Which has information about their consideraations for prioritizing vaccines. They name the populations that should be considered, but, don't actually prioritize. An interesting thing to read: https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/files/vaccination/docs/2020_strategies_deployment_en.pdf Really, to put you to sleep.
 
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Any updated data on MBTA ridership retention?
 
Bless you and deepest thanks to you.
Oh, I'm not front line by any stretch, but thank you. That wasn't the intent of the post, merely to point out some of us legitimately won't have a choice when it comes through. Flu shots have always been "mandatory" but this is the first year they've threatened actual termination for not getting one.
 
MOD EDIT: This tangent was pulled from the Winthrop Center thread.

With 44 percent of all small businesses in Boston out of business…one cannot think [Winthrop Center] would be any more lively.
Where'd you get this number?
 
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A quick google and the city of Boston says it has over 40,000 small businesses. Do we believe around 20,000 small businesses in the city of Boston alone are out of business due to covid?
 
Walk through Downscale Crossing or financial district or North Station area…probably rate is much higher. I do believe the 44 percent number. Some closures may be temporary…but a frightful number will not be back.
 
Walk through Downscale Crossing or financial district or North Station area…probably rate is much higher. I do believe the 44 percent number. Some closures may be temporary…but a frightful number will not be back.
That's surprisingly high. My own neighborhood business district is still thriving, though I can certainly see that areas dependent on downtown office workers rather than residents would take a much larger hit.
 
Very helpful primer on their COVID countermeasures, thanks. I still believe that casinos are uniquely susceptible to suffering from viral outbreaks given all of the touching that would normally take place--high-fives, handshakes, hugs, yelling, etc., etc. But that, of course, does not mean that a casino can't be run safely during a pandemic, provided management is extremely vigilant. But is a casino inherently less "fun" if it's being run responsibly during a pandemic? I don't know...
And subways and CVS and Macy’s are safer? Was at the casino last week and I felt perfectly safe…as can possibly be these days.
 
How is this place open? This is a COVID-19 spreading nightmare
How is this not a public health crisis for allowing the casino to spread the virus throughout the area.
Encore is not a essential business and this is why these areas are so highly infected with the virus.

If a casino can be open then every other business should be allowed to conduct business accordingly to safety restrictions.
 
And subways and CVS and Macy’s are safer? Was at the casino last week and I felt perfectly safe…as can possibly be these days.

The last time I checked, neither the MBTA nor CVS nor Macy's included as a key component of their operational plan the strategy of plying their patrons with as many intoxicating beverages as possible so as to... loosen their inhibitions and... impair their judgment... in order to extract maximum revenues from them.

So, yes, I'd imagine that trio as being orders of magnitude safer, as venues.

[although I thought I remember reading that the MGC prohibited comping booze to players, so perhaps I should qualify my comparison to limit it to all casinos where booze-comping is permitted--which is still probably, what, 95%-plus in the world?]
 

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