Coronavirus COVID-19 Thread

[Thalstan]

I understand why people get upset. Vaccinations are NEVER perfect, but they do a heck of a lot of good. We all know anecdotally of people that either were "killed by the jab" or those that were "died because they refused the jab"

No matter which side you "support" (and each person's "truth" may or may not be the objective truth), the best we can do at any point in life is to look at what we know at that point in time and move forward. Pulling a Monday Morning Quarterback and saying "I knew I was right", isn't helpful.

My PERSONAL belief is that Covid Vaccines were very helpful. As someone who got knocked on his butt and with a spouse who NEVER gets sick getting knocked on her butt WITH the vaccines, I really don't have any desire to ever face that disease without a current vaccine. BTW this was just last year, not during the pandemic.

I also know of family that did not take the vaccine and could have easily died because it was so touch and go for a long time.

Saying people should not play politics with science is like saying we should not play politics with the economy. It's true, and playing politics with either is not good, but people can't help it. Someone writing a paper doesn't mean it's the objective truth. Many times, it's about money....especially at the PHD level. I have a lowly BS in engineering, but I was in the right place at the right time to analyze a BIG event that got international attention. When the company wrote it up and presented it at the major engineering conference put on by the international engineering organization that represents the specialty my degree is in, I was listed as one of the authors. Another person who was a PHD but only had a VERY minor part in the analysis threw a giant fit because I was named as an author and he was not. For me as a BS, it means absolutely nothing to me to be named an author. For him, it's publish or perish. Every paper he writes or contributes to as a PHD impacts the amount of money he can get as an employee or research contractor. Him not being listed probably cost him 30-40k that year as he was not an author of any other paper that year.

So yes, people DO play politics with science, because producing "science" that supports a particular point of view can be very lucrative. The objective scientist is the poor scientist for the most part.

What I said in my introduction was anecdotal evidence, not science fact. Unfortunately, too many people publish the same thing and call it science "fact" because they pick and choose their data sets...because they don't have better data, or because data is suspect, or at worst, because the data doesn't support their conclusions so they "narrow" the analysis.

The people who responded to COVID did the very best with the data they had. Unfortunately, our "leaders" played politics with that information and the media did the same all because it made them money.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Are you suggesting [Stuff]

nope not suggesting that but oooh actually, as you are in touch with the up-to-date stuff, early on in the thread there was talk of people who perished would have have copped it soon from whatever comorbidity it was they may have had and that there would be a reverse death rate where it fell below the five year average as they would not be about to keep the average up - it has been five years now, have you seen anything like that in the stats as yet?

 

[Shadow Reaper]

I haven’t seen any data on a reverse death rate but I would certainly be very interested if you stumble across that kind of data.

I’ve always been very pro-vaccine. I take the flu and pneumonia jabs each year, keep up on my tetanus, etc. I was excited about this new vaccine method from what Peter Diamondis (“Abundance” fame) had said about it. (BTW, that is a really good book.). However, the jab ravaged my family. None of us were sickly and blood clots could have killed all of us. At the same time, for purely partisan reasons the mainstream media went on a campaign against therapeutics simply because Trump answered when asked what his doctor had recommended. That’s psycho. That probably cost the lives of millions of people and the shame for that belongs squarely on the shoulders of the media. What they did was purely political and with careless disregard for the truth.

I want to agree we all did the best we could during Covid, but that is not my observation. Ivermectin has been considered a miracle drug for many years, prescribed in the billions with as close to no side effects as any miracle cure. Yet when Joe Rogan’s doctor prescribed it, CNN reported this as Rogan taking horse meds. If that’s not ill will I don’t know what is.

We need to get over the hate. I understand there is a severe divide in values now, perhaps the largest in the history of Western Civilization; but if we don’t stop the hate this is going to lead to more burning, and looting, and raping, and killing, and eventually to war.

People need to start practicing tolerance again. You don’t need to agree with someone to like them. We all have permission to like each other. It’s okay. Love your enemies and pray for them. Soon you’ll find they’re no longer enemies.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

I haven’t seen any data on a reverse death rate but I would certainly be very interested if you stumble across that kind of data.

Shame, in was hoping as you were up to date on it all you'd have seen something.

Trump answered when asked what his doctor had recommended.

Didn't he say something about hydroxychloroquine or something? I've gotta read this thread over again.

Not sure where you're going with the rest of your post, TEST 'aint the place to seek redemption if that's what you're after, we're all drunks here

 

[Thalstan]

Shame, in was hoping as you were up to date on it all you'd have seen something.


Didn't he say something about hydroxychloroquine or something? I've gotta read this thread over again.

Not sure where you're going with the rest of your post, TEST 'aint the place to seek redemption if that's what you're after, we're all drunks here

hydroxychloroquine is used to treat RA. I know, because that’s what I have been prescribed in addition to an anti-inflammatory. However, I had to stop taking it as I got a viral infection and being on hydroxychloroquine can prevent your body from fighting off that type of virus. It also has a nasty side effect that can impact your eyes if you take it more than 5 years (not often, but often enough), so you get to go to the eye doctor more often for testing,

It may have other uses, but that’s what they gave it to me for.

Oh, and I was on it when I had Covid. Didn’t do anything for me.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

Didn't he say something about hydroxychloroquine or something?

Yes. Trump caught Covid early on and took hydroxichloroquine. Likewise, Joe Rogan took it when he had Covid. Both recovered in just two days and both were asked what they did to recover so quickly. Both were lambasted for taking horse dewormer by the main stream press. Both were following doctors instructions. Both can afford the best doctors.

So when the press and a thousand less qualified physicians came out against hydroxychloroquine, this of course urged people away from what was considered at the time a hopeful therapeutic. There are still many doctors to this day that swear they have statistics that show it works despite piles of studies that say it does not.

Since 95% of all doctors polled agree with whomever is paying them, it seems we’ll never have a fair accounting, but since it is harmless, best is take it. Just don’t take the tropical fish version as it’s dosed to treat an entire tank of water.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Yes. Trump caught Covid early on and took hydroxichloroquine. Likewise, Joe Rogan took it when he had Covid. Both recovered in just two days and both were asked what they did to recover so quickly. Both were lambasted for taking horse dewormer by the main stream press. Both were following doctors instructions. Both can afford the best doctors.

So when the press and a thousand less qualified physicians came out against hydroxychloroquine, this of course urged people away from what was considered at the time a hopeful therapeutic. There are still many doctors to this day that swear they have statistics that show it works despite piles of studies that say it does not.

Since 95% of all doctors polled agree with whomever is paying them, it seems we’ll never have a fair accounting, but since it is harmless, best is take it. Just don’t take the tropical fish version as it’s dosed to treat an entire tank of water.

I don't disagree with you about what doctors agree with it's famous the profession used to widely prescribe cigarettes to treat throat cancer for that very reason.

So, we have one first-hand account of being on hydroxichloroquine and it doing nothing to a Covid infection, thank you Thalstan, and two second-hand accounts from the two famous people you mentioned saying it did work, so... perhaps it's not 100% effective? It has been five years since the beginning of the pandemic, have you seen any studies on its effectiveness in the positive? There must have been some by now...?

I've found this reference in the Lancet from 2022:
"Ultimately, hydroxychloroquine did not have clinical benefit for COVID-19. "

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanam/article/PIIS2667-193X(22)00085-0/fulltext

And this in the Mayo Clinc in 2023:

"Over time, clinical trials showed hydroxychloroquine:

- Led to serious heart problems in some people.
- Did not effectively treat COVID-19.
- Did not prevent infection with the virus that causes COVID-19."

Is hydroxychloroquine a treatment for COVID-19?

Hydroxychloroquine does not treat coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) or prevent infection with the virus that causes COVID-19.

www.mayoclinic.org

The only therapeutic I heard of which made any difference was discovered by the international RECOVERY programme, which was a cheap steroid - Dexamethasone - improved survival rates of those on ventilators and oxygen a bit, but wasn't an outright cure.

Coronavirus: Dexamethasone proves first life-saving drug

Patients should be given the cheap drug without delay, after "fantastic" trial results, experts say.

www.bbc.co.uk

Two years on: the COVID-19 treatment that saved millions

Two years ago today, the discovery of the first-ever lifesaving treatment for COVID-19, called dexamethasone, was announced to the world.

www.ukri.org

 

[Shadow Reaper]

I think it takes more time than I have to parse out all the felonious bs in most papers these days. I know this makes me sound anti-science but it’s not that. I’m anti-scientist. I no longer trust scientists to approach their studies in good faith. It’s terrible, I know; but this callous disregard for truth has been found everywhere. Western Civilization no longer holds itself accountable for truth.

I’ll share a shameful bit just because I’m incognito.

I was babysitting my niece and nephew about fifteen years ago and we played a bunch of board games. They both cheated constantly. When I gently rebuked them for this, they got angry. They had never been rebuked for cheating. It is not a part of their upbringing nor ethos.

We all saw this callous disregard for truth fifty years ago, but it was a rare sign of sociopathy. It is no longer rare. It is the commonest default setting across our culture. One of the results is we can no longer trust scientists. It’s not a failure of science that you can’t believe the average scientific study. It’s a moral failure in the scientists themselves.

Making treatment regimes into a political football based upon the politics of who recommended them is a bizarre occurrence. Rejecting a possibly life saving treatment because it has Trump’s name or Rogan’s name attached is fantastically irrational and dishonest to the core. My problem is, I no longer trust the people doing these studies and it thus takes far too long to unwrap each study from the lies within.

IMHO, this is the psychological basis for the trans movement. We’re told it is compassionate to lie when certainly it is not. Lies enslave. Truth sets us free. Yet there is this common consensus now we should all lie to accommodate imaginary magical powers like the power of identification. This crap could never have floated fifty years ago when people believed in objective truth. Note that there is no new technology that has unlocked the trans delusion. We had cross-dressers and tranny treatments like hormone therapies and surgical mutilation half century ago. What we did not have was this epidemic of men in women’s sports and bathrooms. That needed lies and fifty years ago, the average person wasn’t so willing to lie.

So yeah, we can’t trust the politicians, the scientists, the school teachers, etc. ad nausium. This is post modernism. It is always and deliberately anti-truth.

I don’t trust studies on climate science because I have seen far too many dishonest studies. I don’t trust recommendations on treatments because so many are paid off by big pharma salesmen. I don’t trust advanced propulsion studies because I have personally been burned too many times by everything from perverting influences based upon financial concerns, to delusions of grandeur.

I’m not anti-science. I’m anti-scientist. I just can’t take things at face value anymore. There are too many people who don’t believe in truth. Lies. Too many fucking lies. That friends, is what post-modernism is at its core: lies from the father of lies.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

I think it takes more time than I have to parse out all the felonious bs in most papers these days. I know this makes me sound anti-science but it’s not that. I’m anti-scientist. I no longer trust scientists to approach their studies in good faith. It’s terrible, I know; but this callous disregard for truth has been found everywhere. Western Civilization no longer holds itself accountable for truth.

I’ll share a shameful bit just because I’m incognito.

I was babysitting my niece and nephew about fifteen years ago and we played a bunch of board games. They both cheated constantly. When I gently rebuked them for this, they got angry. They had never been rebuked for cheating. It is not a part of their upbringing nor ethos.

We all saw this callous disregard for truth fifty years ago, but it was a rare sign of sociopathy. It is no longer rare. It is the commonest default setting across our culture. One of the results is we can no longer trust scientists. It’s not a failure of science that you can’t believe the average scientific study. It’s a moral failure in the scientists themselves.

Making treatment regimes into a political football based upon the politics of who recommended them is a bizarre occurrence. Rejecting a possibly life saving treatment because it has Trump’s name or Rogan’s name attached is fantastically irrational and dishonest to the core. My problem is, I no longer trust the people doing these studies and it thus takes far too long to unwrap each study from the lies within.

IMHO, this is the psychological basis for the trans movement. We’re told it is compassionate to lie when certainly it is not. Lies enslave. Truth sets us free. Yet there is this common consensus now we should all lie to accommodate imaginary magical powers like the power of identification. This crap could never have floated fifty years ago when people believed in objective truth. Note that there is no new technology that has unlocked the trans delusion. We had cross-dressers and tranny treatments like hormone therapies and surgical mutilation half century ago. What we did not have was this epidemic of men in women’s sports and bathrooms. That needed lies and fifty years ago, the average person wasn’t so willing to lie.

So yeah, we can’t trust the politicians, the scientists, the school teachers, etc. ad nausium. This is post modernism. It is always and deliberately anti-truth.

I don’t trust studies on climate science because I have seen far too many dishonest studies. I don’t trust recommendations on treatments because so many are paid off by big pharma salesmen. I don’t trust advanced propulsion studies because I have personally been burned too many times by everything from perverting influences based upon financial concerns, to delusions of grandeur.

I’m not anti-science. I’m anti-scientist. I just can’t take things at face value anymore. There are too many people who don’t believe in truth. Lies. Too many fucking lies. That friends, is what post-modernism is at its core: lies from the father of lies.

And so we choose the lie that comforts us best, put our heads between our knees and kiss our asses goodbye...

The thing I notice about lies, the big lies, is their peddlers don't stick to them. Their done wringing the short term value out of the current one and move on to the next. The last thing a lie can afford is to sit and be studied so bam ban bam bam bam one after another after another after another after another. Today Hurd Immunity, tomorrow hydroxychloroquine, the day after that main-lining toilet cleaner, the day after that UV applied directly to the inside of the lungs. No matter what don't stop, never settle, keep the momentum up - like a stone skimming over water, slow down, stop, and they're sunk.

No one is talking about hydroxychloroquine any more. If it wasn't a lie it was super case specific and If it was a miracle cure, we'd all have been on it - hell enough people rushed out and tried it anyway - and if not word of mouth from them the makers of the compound would have made sure it became known and reaped the rewards.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

I think you’re skipping over the facts. There were thousands of people who took it including the President and celebrities like Joe Rogan. This was recommended to them by very successful doctors. Other MDs like the woman in TX recommended that and zinc, and she claims more than 300 patients, none had symptoms past 2 days.

All the while this was happening, the media was calling the treatment horse de-wormer and saying it wasn’t safe. Why under circumstances like that, would you think people would take it?

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

I think you’re skipping over the facts. There were thousands of people who took it including the President and celebrities like Joe Rogan. This was recommended to them by very successful doctors. Other MDs like the woman in TX recommended that and zinc, and she claims more than 300 patients, none had symptoms past 2 days.

All the while this was happening, the media was calling the treatment horse de-wormer and saying it wasn’t safe. Why under circumstances like that, would you think people would take it?

I think you’re skipping over the facts. There were thousands of people who took it including the President and Celebrities like Joe Rohan. This was recommended to them by very successful doctors. Other MDs like the woman in TX recommended that and zinc, and she claims more than 300 patients, none had symptoms past 3 days.

All the while this was happening, the media was calling the treatment horse de-wormer and saying it wasn’t safe.

Oh... Ah... You may want to search this very thread for the word "hydroxychloroquine"... It was debunked in April 2020 as recorded here in real-time, including people being killed taking non-medical forms and a doctor getting into trouble for touting it endlessly, with mentions going through to October 2020 in this thread...

Search results for query: hydroxychloroquine

testsquadron.com

This is one of the news articles shared in one of the posts in this thread: In a massive study of 96,000 patients around the world it was found using hydroxychloroquine had a higher mortality rate:

"The death rate among all groups taking the drugs [hydroxychloroquine or its older version chloroquine] was higher than among people who were not given them. One in six of those taking one of the drugs died, while one in five died if they were taking chloroquine with an antibiotic, and one in four if they were on hydroxychloroquine and an antibiotic. The death rate among patients not taking the drugs was one in 11."
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/may/22/hydroxychloroquine-trumps-covid-19-cure-increases-deaths-global-study-finds

 

[Shadow Reaper]

What part of “I don’t trust the scientists” are you having trouble with?

When a doctor treats over 300 patients and records none of them have symptoms for more than two days, this is not anecdotal. If you don’t believe them, then you go search out the patients and interview them.

You seem to think your emotional state is reason for me to go research something. Just so we’re clear, I disagree. Also I would point out that Fauci, and MSNBC, and CNN, and the hundreds of others who all lied to you—they have no reason to stop lying. They’re still lying.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

You seem to think your emotional state is reason for me to go research something. Just so we’re clear, I disagree.

I don't believe I've mentioned anything about anyone’s emotional state, much less my own, but I will now: I am disappointed to hear you're feeling uncomfortable.

As I'm sure I have written previously in this thread and others beyond, the intention is not to confront or fight or argue, it is simply to explore, discover, understand and make sense of the whole sorry mess. If I'm making you uncomfortable with my questions and requests for sources and information, and questions about what I find when I go looking for confirmation myself, it is entirely unintended. I only want to find out why something is not necessarily as I may have been under the impression it was, and if there is something there to be discovered, progress it.

And if I am mistaken about something I want to learn from that and progress myself, too.

But I can't learn from happenstance and hear-say because those things have no substance. I can't just take a third-party account at verbal face value as that has no foundations. I know two famous people started a huge clinical trial because they were told a compound they were treated with made them feel better in two days. I also cannot find any evidence to suggest the compound did anything, and actually found trials including one by Oxford University that suggest it has a slight detrimental effect. A third hand account of one doctor curing hundreds of people needs to be seen and experienced and known the details of. I need a source. And I want to know what that doctor then went on to do with that cure of theirs. Did they only help 300 people and stop there? Did they go on to help 30,000? 300,000? 3 million? More? Did they publish their findings for all the world to go cure people with? And if they didn't... why not...? They are a doctor, curing the sick is their lifes work...? Did their cure only work on a single very localised variant of the virus that didn't work anywhere else? I want to know the whole story if there is one, not just the headline snippet.

When you're feeling more comfortable please do look through some of those searched posts I linked. There's a super interesting bit I think you'll enjoy seeing, half way through that year when a small company called Surgisphere released a raft of data on 96,000 patents in hospitals around the world saying using hydroxychloroquine lead to substantially higher mortality rates, which was quickly criticised as being scientifically unsound in the way the information was pulled together: https://www.politico.eu/article/medical-journals-retract-two-influential-coronavirus-studies/

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? I have no memory of what is written in most of this thread and I had to go back and read those posts, see what happend, remember afresh what went on - and if you had, if you'd got there and saw that post before me, you could have ripped my head clean off my shoulders with that information because only one post ago I presented data that wasn't built on firm foundation and had little substance no matter what the eventual clinical trials found. That's the thing about science - It doesn't aim for a conclusion, it just tries its hardest to make sure the method is right, solid, sound and firm so the conclusion, the facts, write themselves. Hence my asking for examples of positive trial evidence. The whole world worked on it, if there was an agenda, one country or another would have run with the facts if they were different to what was discovered... But not one did. If it had worked, it would have been used like Dexamethasone was when it was discovered to help and was used by everyone from that point on, saving lives.

So again I ask you to help me.You don't need to research, everyone else has already done that. Just bring me the facts, a positive study on it where hydroxychloroquine was found to have saved lives in clinical observed trials and we can discuss it from a shared, firm foundation :-)

 

[Shadow Reaper]

How many times do you need to be told no?

Think about how you sound telling me I don’t need to research something but need to bring you the studies.

If you want to hire me to do a meta-analysis, a limited review is 200 hours at $450/hr deliverable in a non-exclusive white paper, within a two month period.

Otherwise, you can read the rubbish NIH publishes, which says essentially ‘some say HCQ works. Others say it doesn’t.’

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7534595/

Please understand my main point. 95% of all scientists agree with whomever is paying them. They are liars. That’s why we can’t get a straight answer from the scientific community.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

How many times do you need to be told no?

Think about how you sound telling me I don’t need to research something but need to bring you the studies.

If you want to hire me to do a meta-analysis, a limited review is 200 hours at $450/hr deliverable in a non-exclusive white paper, within a two month period.

Otherwise, you can read the rubbish NIH publishes, which says essentially ‘some say HCQ works. Others say it doesn’t.’

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7534595/

Thanks for the link, yep that's what it says alright that's a good summary - unfortunately this paper was published in 2020, it has been five years since this was released. I've shared articles from 2022 and 2023 with you which have since said it doesn't work, can you find anything between 2020 and now which is contrary to that?

Ah! Can see you have edited, to respond to:

Please understand my main point. 95% of all scientists agree with whomever is paying them. They are liars. That’s why we can’t get a straight answer from the scientific community.

I see where your angle, if someone is paid to make a research paper on bioengineered computer chips there is a risk they may fabricate results to justify the investment. That would indeed be dishonest and counterproductive. I don't know if the number is as high as 95% but yes there is that risk.

This is where peer review and unconnected establishments of learning like Universities are an integral part of science and the practice of peer review - until a paper gets reviewed and results recreated by peers copying the test in it, no you're right really don't trust it. Don't trust any paper that hasn't been reviewed. Other scientists will review by testing the hypothesis and the test in the paper and will report their findings. A classic example is the claim vaccines increase the risk of developing autism. It has been proven multiple times over by legitimate review to be false.

This is Sciences strength. 3rd parties in the same field not paid by the first party try out the findings and if they can't recreate the findings, others try and it gets debunked or amended if found to not be correct... I'm pretty sure you know this though, you do believe in science but not the people doing it... but the peer review is the ultimate safeguard I'd say, unrelated unpaid experts vetting experts vetting experts...? It's almost like the final part of the cake, the actual cooking of it. Until that's happened it's still raw and unpalatable.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

I agree what ought to be, but thirty years ago sitting in a doctor’s office; I read an article in his professional journal talking about the tremendous fraud in the medical sciences. They’ve known about this problem forever and have chosen not to fix it.

I dunno how to fix this problem apart from Jesus doing it Himself.

 

[Jolly_Green_Giant]

I had GPT summarize the thread to make it relatively easier to navigate.

Quick Retrospective: Four-Year COVID Journey in One Post
(Pulled from 5,400+ replies across 275 pages – use the page jump at the top of the thread to dive in.)

1. Spark – Feb 2020
   • 26 Feb 2020: @Jolly_Green_Giant opens the thread after Wuhan reports go global.
   • Early replies focus on China’s data lag, cruise-ship outbreaks, and first U.S. cases.
   
2. “It’ll blow over…right?” – Late Feb → Mar 2020
   • Daily BNO tracker links and mask-supply jokes.
   • @Montoya warns against pump-and-dump “vaccine stocks”;
   • Resident pharmacist @Glum explains why Phase-I trials ≠ ready vaccine.
   
3. First Global Surge – Jun → Aug 2020
   • 27 Jun: “COVID Catharsis Corner” nightly data drops start (world > 10 M cases).
   • 1 Jul: U.S. sets a new single-day record; furlough talk kicks in.
   • 23 Jul: U.S. blasts past 4 M cases.
   
4. The Long Autumn – Sep → Nov 2020
   • Thread breaks 3 k replies.
   • 6 Nov: world passes 49 M; first million-case day logged.
   • 11 Nov: debates over UK “fire-break” vs. Swedish laissez-faire.
   
5. Vaccines & Second Wave – Dec 2020 → Jan 2021
   • 14 Dec: first Pfizer shipments noted; world at 72 M cases.
   • Early Jan: UK’s 3rd lockdown; U.S. > 21 M cases.
   • Forum weighs side-effects vs. “jab & go.”
   
6. Roll-out & Variants – Feb → May 2021
   • 23 Feb: U.S. crosses 500 k deaths.
   • April: India’s explosion and B.1.617 flagged “variant of concern.”
   • 14 May: WHO warns Year-2 may out-kill Year-1.
   
7. Delta Summer – Aug 2021
   • 3 Aug: world > 199 M / 4.24 M deaths; herd-immunity politics, vax-hesitancy wars.
   
8. Living with COVID – 2022 → Now
   • Thread rolls past 5 k replies.
   • Latest posts look at booster fatigue, long-COVID research, and whether the pandemic ever really “ends.”

Why This Thread Matters

• []Crowd-sourced history: daily case counts + first-hand reports from NA, EU & AUS members.
  []Tone shift archive: skepticism → panic buying → fatigue → hope → “new normal.”
• Lots of hard-to-find context (supply-chain notes, local policy changes, personal anecdotes).

How to Skim Quickly
• Pages 1–20 = Initial shock & data uncertainty (Feb–Mar 2020)
• Pages 120–160 = Second wave + vaccine-trial buzz (Oct–Dec 2020)
• Pages 190–210 = Global roll-out, variant chatter (Jan–May 2021)
• Last 50 pages = Endemic-era reflection & booster debates

Huge shout-out to everyone who logged numbers nightly – especially “COVID Catharsis Corner” posters – and to the mods for letting this living archive run for four straight years.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

I had GPT summarize the thread to make it relatively easier to navigate.

Quick Retrospective: Four-Year COVID Journey in One Post
(Pulled from 5,400+ replies across 275 pages – use the page jump at the top of the thread to dive in.)

1. Spark – Feb 2020
   • 26 Feb 2020: @Jolly_Green_Giant opens the thread after Wuhan reports go global.
   • Early replies focus on China’s data lag, cruise-ship outbreaks, and first U.S. cases.
2. “It’ll blow over…right?” – Late Feb → Mar 2020
   • Daily BNO tracker links and mask-supply jokes.
   • @Montoya warns against pump-and-dump “vaccine stocks”;
   • Resident pharmacist @Glum explains why Phase-I trials ≠ ready vaccine.
3. First Global Surge – Jun → Aug 2020
   • 27 Jun: “COVID Catharsis Corner” nightly data drops start (world > 10 M cases).
   • 1 Jul: U.S. sets a new single-day record; furlough talk kicks in.
   • 23 Jul: U.S. blasts past 4 M cases.
4. The Long Autumn – Sep → Nov 2020
   • Thread breaks 3 k replies.
   • 6 Nov: world passes 49 M; first million-case day logged.
   • 11 Nov: debates over UK “fire-break” vs. Swedish laissez-faire.
5. Vaccines & Second Wave – Dec 2020 → Jan 2021
   • 14 Dec: first Pfizer shipments noted; world at 72 M cases.
   • Early Jan: UK’s 3rd lockdown; U.S. > 21 M cases.
   • Forum weighs side-effects vs. “jab & go.”
6. Roll-out & Variants – Feb → May 2021
   • 23 Feb: U.S. crosses 500 k deaths.
   • April: India’s explosion and B.1.617 flagged “variant of concern.”
   • 14 May: WHO warns Year-2 may out-kill Year-1.
7. Delta Summer – Aug 2021
   • 3 Aug: world > 199 M / 4.24 M deaths; herd-immunity politics, vax-hesitancy wars.
8. Living with COVID – 2022 → Now
   • Thread rolls past 5 k replies.
   • Latest posts look at booster fatigue, long-COVID research, and whether the pandemic ever really “ends.”

Why This Thread Matters

• []Crowd-sourced history: daily case counts + first-hand reports from NA, EU & AUS members.
  []Tone shift archive: skepticism → panic buying → fatigue → hope → “new normal.”
• Lots of hard-to-find context (supply-chain notes, local policy changes, personal anecdotes).

How to Skim Quickly
• Pages 1–20 = Initial shock & data uncertainty (Feb–Mar 2020)
• Pages 120–160 = Second wave + vaccine-trial buzz (Oct–Dec 2020)
• Pages 190–210 = Global roll-out, variant chatter (Jan–May 2021)
• Last 50 pages = Endemic-era reflection & booster debates

Huge shout-out to everyone who logged numbers nightly – especially “COVID Catharsis Corner” posters – and to the mods for letting this living archive run for four straight years.

It's a cool rundown, I went and took a look at some pages it's quite the social history document isn't it?

 

[Jolly_Green_Giant]

It's a cool rundown, I went and took a look at some pages it's quite the social history document isn't it?

I think is great. I remember back in the day i would just sit here for a while skimming the pages. We had a great conversation about covid, it was a daily discussion almost and like GPT said, theres a ton of hard to find context in here.