Coronavirus week 45: Local COVIDIOTs, gummint ties? And more about the British variant, and mask battles

The first half of the header relates to the photo above. I was at the Gainesville Tom Thumb Saturday; it had BOGO on Peet's coffee. It wasn't until I was in line ... and shifted from an express line I thought would be slower to one I thought would be faster (and was wrong) that I noticed the person in front of me in the new line was maskless. And, by the time I got to the checkout, I also noticed that people in what was now the line on my right were maskless. And, it was crowded due to Snowmaggedon panic buying. Anyway, I couldn't get my smartphone out quickly enough, then turned from "selfie" lens to "you" lens, to get a pic of the person in front of me, who was with another person, until after they were checked out and out the doorway. And, I try not to be too blatant when I do this; I didn't want to shoot pix of people in the next line while I was checking out.

Anyway, I saw the car this pair of ladies got in, and I shot the picture above while the passenger was in it. The driver had parked their shopping cart and was coming back, and saw me and yelled at me for taking a photo. I yelled at her for her passenger being maskless. Worse? While the plate may be California, the driver had on a City of Gainesville Parks and Rec Department sweatshirt. AFAIK, the driver doesn't work for the city's Parks and Rec Dept. I don't know if they work for the city at all or not.

As for Tom Thumb? I know they're busy. I also know that COVIDIOTs are kind o rampant here. Bad enough in Denton two weeks ago, at least at Winco. That said, I gave Tom Thumb a shot again two-three weeks ago after not going there since November. I haven't gone to Wally at all. And, they're going to be boycotted again for a couple months.

• This all plays out under the shadow of Texas passing 40,000 coronavirus deaths.

• The so-called British variant? Per Wired UK, maybe we should call it a mega-variant, as it picked up 17 genetic changes at once in its first big change. (Remember that it has since picked up some of the changes that originally distinguished the South African variant.) It appeared to have acquired these all at once, inside a COVID "long hauler," which in turn offers cautions about evolutionary changes in other long haulers, I would think.

• The battle for masks in the main city in the worst-hit county in the worst-hit (and most stubbborn) state: Read about the fight for COVID sanity in Minot, North Dakota.

• Instagram has banned RFK Jr for being an antivaxxer COVIDIOT.

• Childhood vaccines may be here by fall.

 

• A week ago, I wondered if metropolitan areas had overworried school closings. Now, the CDC has issued guidelines for opening.

• Especially if you're a worker in a right-to-be-fired state like Tex-ass, your boss or company can boot you if you refuse the vaccine. That said, SHOULD it? Skeptical Raptor looks at broader ethical and public policy issues. That said, 10 states, including some with high woo factors, are considering state laws to override the EEOC.

• The first COVID cases in China, it now appears, were actually in October 2019, not December. The question now is, how much did Beijing, or at least Wuhan and WIH, know this all along?

• Collin College has a president who is a COVID minimalist at best, as well as hating the First Amendment. That said, if the fired instructors were "instructors" (ie, adjuncts) and not tenured profs (likely, as community colleges use primarily adjuncts and Collin is at 62 percent) they're likely SOL on getting reinstated. Even if not adjuncts, community colleges generally don't have "tenure track" faculty the same way four-year or four-year plus graduate colleges and universities do. And, since Tex-ass is a "right to get fired" state ...

• Texas Monthly touts DIY coronavirus testing stations and notes that many of them have served minority populations and others that have been underserved. Problem? Story doesn't look at accuracy rates of these mom-and-pop testing shops.

• Much as #BlueAnon likes to tout Lina Hidalgo at the helm in Harris County, at least at the national level, having a woman as leader doesn't lead to better COVID outcomes. (Hell, Kristi Noem shows that.) Rather, it's the macho, or lack thereof, in the SOCIETY. And we all know about the posturing of Der Grüppenführer.