#NOVEL CORONAVIRUS (COVID 19)

[crispy-armpit]

𝐘𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐕𝐍 𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐑𝐓 !

⭒ 𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺: 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘵𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦! 𝘢𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴, 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘶𝘯-𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥'𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦. 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘰𝘺𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥, 𝘊𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥, 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘶𝘴𝘶𝘢𝘭…

after 2 years of rotting away in the drafts, the COVID-19 DATING SIMULATOR is finally seeing the light of day!! this game was a huge shitpost created by me and my friends (Axel, Ruri, Max) for another friend who had caught covid (Callista).

the game was fully created using the limited features of GOOGLE SLIDES (!!!) and unfortunately, is unfinished. i've only decided to publicize it now, hence why some contents of the game can be very old and cringe. the cast are self-inserts, so you can find me (Adam) as an interactable character!!!

sooooo..... here it is!!

TRAILER (this is a joke)

features:

⭒ a cute, rich boyfriend!

⭒ 300+ slides of fun!!

⭒ a mystery waiting to be solved....

⭒ 3 & 1/2 in-game days!! (around 35+ minutes of gameplay)

⭒ multiple choices that can affect your friendships

⭒ 2 endings, 2 CGs

warnings: yandere behaviour, hints to violence/murder & cannibalism, character death, kidnapping

a/n: enjoy the game! reblogs & sharing with friends is greatly appreciated! :)

[iloveabunchofgames]

#JakeReviewsItch

Amelie

BIG OL' CONTENT WARNING! At the bottom of the description on the Itch page

by Two and a Half Studios

Price (US): $3.99

Included In: Bundle for Ukraine, Queer Games Bundle 2022

Genre: Visual Novel

Pitch: Aristocrat Amelie is in lockdown while the plague ravages the outside world. Her maid feels prickly about a visit from Amelie's pen-pal. A short, anime-style visual novel, retold three times from each character's perspective, with a few branching paths

My expectations: Much to my disappointment, this does not appear to have anything to do with the major motion picture of the same name. Fox Interactive's Alien: Resurrection: The Game and Psygnosis' The City of Lost Children remain the only games based on Jean-Pierre Jeunet's illustrious oeuvre. Is no one brave enough to take a chance on a Micmacs game? So anyway, I'm going to have to put that disappointment out of mind and try to focus on reviewing Amelie for what it is rather than what it is not. I'm open to a queer visual novel with "psychological horror." Two and a Half Studios released five games in this style from 2018 to 2022. Given my recent experience with prolific visual novelists, I have concerns about them being stretched too thin. They're saying Amelie is ~20,000 words (1-1.5 hours), which is relatively constrained. This could be good!

Review:

A young woman lives with her maid in an ornate manor. Her parents, infected by the plague, have left their home until they’re better. When the woman’s pen-pal arrives for a visit, the maid is livid. The pen-pal assures them that lockdowns are lifting and travel is becoming more common, but the maid insists that for everyone’s protection, this interloper must go.

Ooooookay… It’s a game from 2021, back when we still kinda took the pandemic seriously, but society at large was starting to get comfortable admitting that we’re more concerned with Starbucks and letting children be someone else’s problem for eight hours a day than we are with preventable deaths…

One possible reading of Amelie is that we have to get back to normal. Making minimal personal sacrifice to curb the spread of a case of the sniffles that’s not even dangerous if you’re young and healthy is oppressive. Women are being oppressed by life-saving courtesy.

My reading is that it’s a ghost story. Current events like the pandemic and attacks on womens’ rights influenced it, but it’s primarily a self-contained story about ghosts.

The presentation and design are uneven. The ghost story isn’t bad. Maybe a light recommendation?

+ As trope-y ghost stories go, this one is fine. I was a few steps ahead of almost everything, but even so, it had me asking questions and looking forward to what might happen next. Plus, feminism and lesbian visibility. Cool and cool. + Dig those backgrounds and special insert shots. + The developers call the music "gorgeous." I don't agree, but it is memorable and effective, both when trying to lure you in and spook you out. + Each character is distinct. Most of the time, there aren't visual or audio cues to indicate who's talking. The name of the speaker is displayed, but I could usually ignore that and still figure it out based on the written voice.

– It's possible the ultimate message is that we need to stop living in fear and forget about coronavirus prevention. I'm immunocompromised. A member of my family died from COVID-19 last week. I believe it's just a funtimes ghost story, but maybe, just maybe, this is a work of COVID denial, and I'm not onboard with that. – Background/character art mismatch. – Going through the story multiple times with multiple characters and multiple outcomes? Good! Clicking through repeated dialogue but not clicking too fast because there might be something new inserted between the old stuff? Not good. Did we learn nothing from Arrested Development's fourth season? – Two and a Half Studios, you have promise, and I hope you learned some lessons. Think about how long we're going to be in these scenes, and figure out your artists' priorities—and make sure they're working together. Think about what you're saying. Are we making choices or not?

🧡🧡🧡🤍🤍 Bottom Line: If you got Amelie in a bundle and creepy ghost stuff is up your alley, sure, why not? It's nothing new or exceptional, but the ghost stuff? It's fine. For potential paying customers, here's an endless list of Itch visual novels tagged with "horror" and "LGBT". You don't need this one.

#JakeReviewsTwitch is a series of daily game reviews. You can learn more here. You can also browse past reviews...

• By name • By rating • By genre

[ace-king]

This reminds me if a spider was trying to take over the world 

Stupid is timeless.

[sighinastorm]

Official COVID-19 mortality statistics have not fully captured deaths attributable to SARS-CoV-2 infection in the United States. While some excess deaths were likely related to pandemic health care interruptions and socioeconomic disruptions, temporal correlations between reported COVID-19 deaths and excess deaths reported to non-COVID-19 natural causes suggest that many of those excess deaths were unrecognized COVID-19 deaths.

[...]

Over 30 mo from March 2020 to August 2022, 1,194,610 excess natural-cause deaths occurred in the United States (90% Posterior Interval (PI): 1,046,000 to 1,340,204). A total of 1,031,724 (86.4%) were reported to COVID-19, and 162,886 (13.6%) (90% PI: 14,276 [1.2%] to 308,480 [25.8%]) were reported to non-COVID-19 natural causes. Of the reported COVID-19 deaths, 909,380 (88.1%) listed COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death (the disease or injury that initiated the chain of events leading to death), and 122,344 (11.9%) included COVID-19 elsewhere on the death certificate.

[carlocarrasco]

Muntinlupa City Health Office says there are no local cases of COVID-19 FLiRT variants detected

Recently in the City of Muntinlupa, the city health office stated that there are no cases of the new variants of COVID-19, according to a Manila Bulletin news report. To put things in perspective, posted below is an excerpt from the Manila Bulletin report. Some parts in boldface… The Muntinlupa City Health Office said there are no cases of the new variants of Covid-19 in the city amid the start…

[covid-safer-hotties]

Reference saved in our archive

One of the biggest reasons we have to push back on the harmful rhetoric that covid is "just a cold." It's not.

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has profoundly impacted global health, affecting not only the immediate morbidity and mortality rates but also long-term health outcomes across various populations. Although the acute effects of COVID-19 on the respiratory system have initially been the primary focus, it is increasingly evident that the virus can have significant impacts on multiple physiological systems, including the nervous and immune systems. The pandemic has highlighted the complex interplay between viral infection, immune aging, and brain health, that can potentially accelerate neuroimmune aging and contribute to the persistence of long COVID conditions. By inducing chronic inflammation, immunosenescence, and neuroinflammation, COVID-19 may exacerbate the processes of neuroimmune aging, leading to increased risks of cognitive decline, neurodegenerative diseases, and impaired immune function. Key factors include chronic immune dysregulation, oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and the disruption of cellular processes. These overlapping mechanisms between aging and COVID-19 illustrate how the virus can induce and accelerate aging-related processes, leading to an increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases and other age-related conditions. This mini-review examines key features and possible mechanisms of COVID-19-induced neuroimmune aging that may contribute to the persistence and severity of long COVID. Understanding these interactions is crucial for developing effective interventions. Anti-inflammatory therapies, neuroprotective agents, immunomodulatory treatments, and lifestyle interventions all hold potential for mitigating the long-term effects of the virus. By addressing these challenges, we can improve health outcomes and quality of life for millions

[terratenshi]

Except that people did google? This article is what made the suggestion that the vaccine would be limited in who could get it.

This article repeats the claim but states that it's not set in stone yet as the CDC panel hasn't made their recommendation. Which is why this post was originally encouraging people to join the public comment period.

And yes, this is important as whether or not a vaccine is "recommended" for you can change whether or not your insurance covers it and how much they cover. So maybe don't be so dismissive of people's concerns without doing your own research?

The CDC is trying to limit the new COVID booster to only people 75+, pregnant people, and the immunocompromised.

We have two days (as of September 6th, 2023) to let them know this isn't acceptable.

Direct link to the page to submit your comments: click here!

Please, PLEASE fill this out and boost this post!

[willowreader]

This was in main stream media 4 years ago. It seems nobody cared.

Stroke surge

"Reports of strokes in the young and middle-aged — not just at Mount Sinai, but also in many other hospitals in communities hit hard by the novel coronavirus — are the latest twist in our evolving understanding of the disease it causes. The numbers of those affected are small but nonetheless remarkable because they challenge how doctors understand the virus. Even as it has infected nearly 2.8 million people worldwide and killed about 195,000 as of Friday, its biological mechanisms continue to elude top scientific minds. Once thought to be a pathogen that primarily attacks the lungs, it has turned out to be a much more formidable foe — impacting nearly every major organ system in the body."

[linghxr]

Tackling abbreviations in Chinese (简称)

Let's learn some abbreviations 简称! A common format you may encounter is ABCD -> AC. AB is one word, CD is another word, and the two can be abbreviated as AC. As a learner, these can be a bit tricky to figure out the first time, but I find that they're usually pretty easy to remember if you know both constituent words.

(1) 家庭教师 -> 家教

家教 jiājiào - private tutor 

家庭 jiātíng - family / household 教师 | 教師 jiàoshī - teacher

I mentioned 家教 in this recent post: Do you really know the meaning of a word?

(2) 环境保护 -> 环保

环保 | 環保 huánbǎo - environmental protection / environmentally friendly

环境 | 環境 huánjìng - environment / circumstances / surroundings  保护 | 保護 bǎohù - to protect / to defend / to safeguard / protection

(3) 科学技术 -> 科技

科技 kējì - science and technology 

科学 | 科學 kēxué - science / scientific knowledge / scientific 技术 | 技術 jìshù - technology / technique / skill

(4) 性别平等 -> 性平

性平 xìngpíng - gender equality

性别 | 性別 xìngbié - gender / sex  平等 píngděng - equal / equality 

(5) 限时动态 -> 限动

限动 | 限動 xiàndòng - stories (on Instagram)

限时 | 限時 xiànshí - to set a time limit / for a limited time / time-limited / limited period of time  动态 | 動態 dòngtài - movement / motion / development / trend

(6) 业务配合 -> 业配

业配 | 業配 yèpèi - writing an article or creating a video favorable to a business in return for payment from the business (Taiwan)

业务 | 業務 yèwù - business / professional work / service 配合 pèihé - to coordinate with / to act in concert with / to cooperate

(7) 客户服务 -> 客服

客服 kèfú - customer service 

客户 | 客戶 kèhù - client / customer  服务 | 服務 fúwù - to serve / service

(8) 新型冠状 -> 新冠

新冠 xīnguān - novel coronavirus (esp. SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19)

新型 xīnxíng - new type / new kind 冠状 | 冠狀 guānzhuàng - coronary / crown-shaped

Commonly see in: 新冠病毒

(9) 初级中学 -> 初中

初中 chūzhōng - junior high school / middle school

初级 | 初級 chūjí - junior / primary  中学 | 中學 zhōngxué - middle school / secondary school

高级中学 -> 高中

高中 gāozhōng - senior high school

高级 | 高級 gāojí - high level / high grade / advanced / high-ranking  中学 | 中學 zhōngxué - middle school / secondary school

And apparently 中学 itself is short for 中等学校!

(10) 国民小学 -> 国小

国小 | 國小 guóxiǎo - elementary school (Taiwan)

国民 | 國民 guómín - nationals / citizens / people of a nation  小学 | 小學 xiǎoxué - elementary school / primary school 

国民中学 -> 国中

国中 | 國中 guózhōng - junior high school (Taiwan)

国民 | 國民 guómín - nationals / citizens / people of a nation  中学 | 中學 zhōngxué - middle school

(11) 科学幻想 -> 科幻

科幻 kēhuàn - science fiction

科学 | 科學 kēxué - science / scientific knowledge / scientific 幻想 huànxiǎng - fantasy

(12) 超级市场 -> 超市

超市 chāoshì - supermarket

超级 | 超級 chāojí - super- / ultra- / hyper- 市场 | 市場 shìchǎng - marketplace / market

(13) 台湾大学 -> 台大

台大 | 臺大 táidà - National Taiwan University

台湾 | 臺灣 táiwān - Taiwan 大学 | 大學 dàxué - university / college

北京大学 -> 北大

北大 běidà - Peking University

北京 | 北京 běijīng - Beijing / Peking 大学 | 大學 dàxué - university / college

(14) 国家安全 -> 国安

国安 | 國安 guóān - national security

国家 | 國家 guójiā - country / nation / state 安全 ānquán - safe / secure / safety / security

(15) 刑事警察 -> 刑警

刑警 xíngjǐng - criminal police

刑事 xíngshì - criminal / penal 警察 jǐngchá - police / police officer

(16) 官方网站 -> 官网

官网 | 官網 guānwǎng - official website

官方 guānfāng - government / official 网站 | 網站 wǎngzhàn - website

(17) 公共安全 -> 公安

公安 gōngān - public safety / public security

公共 gōnggòng - public / common / communal 安全 ānquán - safe / secure / safety / security

(18) 双重标准 -> 双标

双标 | 雙標 shuāngbiāo - double standard

双重 | 雙重 shuāngchóng - double  标准 | 標準 biāozhǔn - standard / norm / criterion

(19) 人物设定 -> 人设

人设 | 人設 rénshè - the design of a character / image in the eyes of the public / public persona

人物 rénwù - person / personage / figure / character 设定 | 設定 shèdìng - to set / to set up / to install / setting / preferences

(20) 家庭暴力 -> 家暴

家暴 jiābào - domestic violence

家庭 jiātíng - family / household 暴力 bàolì - violence / force / violent

Definitions are adapted from MDBG. I initially only planned to include 5 or so abbreviations. Then I got a little carried away...!

[mapsontheweb]

Number of novel coronavirus COVID-19 cumulative confirmed and death cases in China from January 20, 2020 to June 6, 2022

by u/StatistaFree

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 26 April 2020, workers at the Amazon fulfilment centre in Shakopee, Minnesota, walked out on strike in protest at a colleague being fired for staying home during the Covid-19 pandemic. Workers claimed that over 50 members of the predominantly Somali workforce participated in the spontaneous work stoppage after the company sacked a worker called Faiza Osman who stayed home in order to protect her two children from the novel coronavirus, despite the fact that Amazon had informed workers they were allowed to stay home. Amazon claimed that fewer than 25 out of 1,000 workers took part. Strikers were also protesting against Amazon's decision to terminate its unlimited unpaid leave policy, despite coronavirus cases being reported at over half of its 110 warehouses. Following the walkout, Osman was reinstated by the company. More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9801/amazon-workers-strike https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=615379773968575&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

[animefeminist]

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou and Transgender Cyborgs’ Experience of the Apocalypse

Content Warning: Discussion of transphobia

Around the start of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Chiaki Hirai published an article about Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, comparing the post-apocalyptic manga to the threat posed to humanity by the novel coronavirus. It was a perspective piece—and a rumination—on societal collapse as it was happening around the author, when so little was still known about the nature of the virus, and what the extent of its impact on us was going to be. Now, at the start of 2023, our world has been forever changed. While the virus continues to mutate into new strains, governments have largely chosen to ignore the ongoing effects of the pandemic in exchange for a “return to normal,” moving on with or without us. Post-apocalyptic fiction has felt closer to home, especially for marginalized readers.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (hereafter YKK) focuses on Alpha Hatsuseno, an android girl entrusted with a café by an owner who abandoned it, and her, without clear reason, leaving her to run it in a mostly uninhabited post-apocalyptic world. While most stories that imagine a post-apocalyptic setting depict a world in ashes, strewn with death and danger, YKK’s world is mostly one of peace and solitude for those survivors who remain. Cities lie silent beneath a solemn ocean; wind sifts through the stalks of amaranth sprouting from old, cracked roads. Overlooking land, sea, and sky is Café Alpha, a humble building on a hill and a relic from before “The Age of Evening Calm”—otherwise known as the end of the old world. And, for us, 2020 was our own Age of Evening Calm.

Read it at Anime Feminist!

[roseapprentice]

I think the pandemic showed that we can't handle more than two or three syllables for everyday disease names. Novel Coronavirus became The 'Rona, and COVID 19 dropped the 19. (I think rightfully.)

I propose a new convention for numbering. Use only the final digit of the year. If the number's name doesn't fit, use a Latin form, or just a consonant or two.

Squish things around until they flow, and squish them differently if the elements repeat. If we'd had one COVID in 2009 and another in 2019, they could be COVIDIN and COVINON, or CODINOV, etc.

Since repeat numbers would be a decade apart, you'd know you're getting old if you start mixing them up.

[darkmaga-returns]

In summary, COVID-19 response measures were largely ineffective or harmful:

Lockdowns failed to control COVID-19 while causing severe health, economic, and social damage

Face masks proved ineffective and caused various health issues

Vaccines:

Initially provided temporary protection against severe illness

Failed to prevent transmission

May have contributed to variant evolution

Potentially weakened population-level immunity

Martin concludes that a manageable seasonal illness was transformed into a crisis through government overreach and public panic, with interventions likely causing more harm than good.

What an incredible reference for future historians, given that no contemporary politician or mainstream journalist would dare acknowledge it?!

Abstract

In the autumn of 2019 a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, began to circulate widely, embedding itself within a high proportion of the population but lying dormant. In March 2020, as the influenza season in the Northern Hemisphere subsided, due to viral interference, SARS-CoV-2 activated and became the dominant respiratory virus, and COVID-19 spread from China around the world, suppressing influenza, whilst leaving the other human-infecting coronaviruses undisturbed. The vast majority of countries reacted to COVID-19 by imposing non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as lockdowns and face mask policies and, later, vaccination programmes.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

David Badash at NCRM:

Independent presidential candidate, anti-vaxxer, AIDS denialist, and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has suspended his campaign and is backing the Republican Party’s nominee for President, Donald Trump, despite RFK Jr.’s vice presidential running mate saying the ex-president must first apologize for the COVID vaccines developed when he was in the White House. More than 1.2 million Americans have died of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Trump’s Operation Warp Speed led to fast development COVID vaccines that saved more than one million lives in the U.S. alone, past his presidency, according to a December 2021 estimate. “The hesitation we have right now in joining forces with Trump is that he has not apologized or publicly come out and said ‘Operation Warp Speed was my fault, a failure, and I let it happen,’ ” Nicole Shanahan told right wing podcaster Adam Carolla.

But in a Pennsylvania court filing Kennedy announced he planned to drop his presidential run and endorse the convicted ex-president’s re-election bid, NBC News reported.

In a late and lengthy Friday afternoon press conference, Kennedy blasted the Democratic Party, noting his father, the late U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy, had been a Democrat. Kennedy also complained about the process to get on the ballot, despite numerous candidates having done it during every presidential cycle. During his remarks Kennedy declared he is suspending his campaign and is endorsing Trump, claiming he “has asked to enlist me in his administration.” Critics panned RFK Jr.’s move.

“The fact that RFk Jr sold his endorsement to the highest bidder is going to dramatically undermine his ability to convince his supporters to follow him to Trump,” former Obama senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer wrote. Kennedy reportedly had reached out to both campaigns, but the Harris-Walz Democratic ticket did not respond. The Washington Post reported Kennedy was seeking a Cabinet position from Harris. The Harris-Walz campaign mocked RFK Jr., posting a CNN video from Friday during which the reporter says, “Now, you might be wondering exactly why Trump’s team would want RFK’s endorsement, given the fact that his campaign has been really plagued by scandal after scandal.” “He admitted that a parasitic rain worm had entered into his brain and died there,” the reporter added, “and caused brain fog. In a Vanity Fair article he essentially evaded questions about allegations of sexual assault, but from a former nanny, and then obviously we saw what happened when he admitted that he left a [dead] bear cub in Central Park.”

As expected, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sold out the Kennedy name by endorsing Donald Trump today, furthering proof that RFK Jr.’s run for the Presidency was just a MAGA grift.

See Also:

The Guardian: Robert F Kennedy Jr suspends US presidential campaign and endorses Trump

[carlocarrasco]

Bivalent COVID-19 vaccines for general population allowed

More patients around the country can avail of the bivalent vaccines for COVID-19 as a result of the Department of Health’s (DOH) revision of its guidelines, according to a Manila Times news report. This developed as less than 50% of the initial batch of bivalent vaccines have been used on patients limited to health care workers and senior citizens. To put things in perspective, posted below is…