COVID-19 (f/k/a "the Coronavirus")

[jesmu84]

https://www.wtrf.com/news/national-news/target-costco-among-big-retailers-keeping-mask-mandate-in-texas/

Good.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Now CT opening up with no indoor restrictions!!  The TX decision is starting to open up the floodgates, whooohoo!

neanderthals in CT.

[4everwarriors]

Yeah, but it's woke to let in 100 covid positive illegals at the Mexican border. Oh, the hypocrisy, aina?

[The Sultan]

Yeah, but it's woke to let in 100 covid positive illegals at the Mexican border. Oh, the hypocrisy, aina?

I think we should be providing them with isolation space for two weeks and vaccine. 

But yeah I don't know what's going on with that. 

[GooooMarquette]

The IBM app rolling out in NY makes me think vaccine proof/confirmation for selected events in that way will be common very soon and make everything fairly seamless.

I have 4-5 different things on my phone to scan to open me to certain things when traveling abroad. This should be no different

Agreed. An electronic vaccine passport is the way to go. And people who claim that something like this is an invasion of their privacy can protect their privacy by staying home.

[JWags85]

Agreed. An electronic vaccine passport is the way to go. And people who claim that something like this is an invasion of their privacy can protect their privacy by staying home.

I'm generally adverse to tracking or stuff that could be construed as government monitoring.  But TSA precheck/Global Entry/Clear are indispensable parts of my life as a frequent traveler. I view a vaccine passport/wallet as the same sentiment and have zero issue with it

[Frenns Liquor Depot]

neanderthals in CT.

If you actually want the facts they are here

https://portal.ct.gov/Office-of-the-Governor/News/Press-Releases/2021/03-2021/Governor-Lamont-Announces-Plans-To-Ease-Some-COVID-19-Restrictions-in-Connecticut

[GooooMarquette]

I'm generally adverse to tracking or stuff that could be construed as government monitoring.  But TSA precheck/Global Entry/Clear are indispensable parts of my life as a frequent traveler. I view a vaccine passport/wallet as the same sentiment and have zero issue with it

I'm with ya. I don't think there should be monitoring for the sake of monitoring, with no attendant benefit. But in this case (as with the others you mentioned) people would submit to monitoring for the specific purpose of obtaining a privilege.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Individual health systems can add their own tracking (most probably do, others should), but beyond that health system the record is virtually impossible to track.

WRT vaccinations, many companies are working on creating digital passports. Here is one: https://www.ibm.com/products/digital-health-pass

My company is also working on this. We've figured out how to do it, but aren't sure there is an employer market to sell this to. If digital proof of vaccine records become required (to board flights, for instance), there will certainly be demand from individuals, but in our instance we are B2B, not B2C.

[GooooMarquette]

Pretty sure Cuomo is done this time.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/04/nyregion/cuomo-nursing-home-deaths.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20210304&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta&regi_id=88591053&segment_id=52823&user_id=a4394b6a5672354a123af665691a6f2d

Top aides to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo were alarmed: A report written by state health officials had just landed, and it included a count of how many nursing home residents in New York had died in the pandemic.

The number — more than 9,000 by that point in June — was not public, and the governor's most senior aides wanted to keep it that way. They rewrote the report to take it out, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The New York Times.

———

Misleading the public about the details of the pandemic is inexcusable. Even if it did not affect the total death numbers, there is no justification to falsify such a significant report.

[pbiflyer]

A better idea would be some sort of national registry where participation is voluntary and venues could use to verify your status.

Wisconsin has an immunization registry. Sadly, there is no consistency from state to state.

[jesmu84]

Pretty sure Cuomo is done this time.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/04/nyregion/cuomo-nursing-home-deaths.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20210304&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta&regi_id=88591053&segment_id=52823&user_id=a4394b6a5672354a123af665691a6f2d

Top aides to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo were alarmed: A report written by state health officials had just landed, and it included a count of how many nursing home residents in New York had died in the pandemic.

The number — more than 9,000 by that point in June — was not public, and the governor's most senior aides wanted to keep it that way. They rewrote the report to take it out, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The New York Times.

———

Misleading the public about the details of the pandemic is inexcusable. Even if it did not affect the total death numbers, there is no justification to falsify such a significant report.

He should be done. Just gross all around. Covering up deaths. Allowing liability shields for his donors.

NY state legislators had to go to the UN for crying out loud.

[tower912]

Cover ups never end well.

[rocky_warrior]

WRT vaccinations, many companies are working on creating digital passports. Here is one: https://www.ibm.com/products/digital-health-pass

My company is also working on this. We've figured out how to do it, but aren't sure there is an employer market to sell this to. If digital proof of vaccine records become required (to board flights, for instance), there will certainly be demand from individuals, but in our instance we are B2B, not B2C.

The problem with "distributing" vaccines is that there's no money in it.  Actually, it's just lost money - because the US government has said that we all get them for free.  Which is also great and necessary - but you're not going to sell many vaccine tracking systems for $0.  This is also why Biden has needed to setup FEMA sites for distributing vaccines.  There's no surprise Walgreens/CVS/Walmart are also scrambling, other than currying favor with the USG, there's no money in this for them.

I don't doubt the product you have is a great idea, and is probably needed.  But at this point there's no market for it.  Vaccines are only hemorrhaging money for companies.  Those employees could be doing other money-making things, or not be employed. 

This is largely why vaccinations stumbled after healthcare workers.  Hospitals were happy to get them for their employees.  After that, it didn't make much sense to keep trying to handle them except for charity.

[The Sultan]

The problem with "distributing" vaccines is that there's no money in it.  Actually, it's just lost money - because the US government has said that we all get them for free.  Which is also great and necessary - but you're not going to sell many vaccine tracking systems for $0.  This is also why Biden has needed to setup FEMA sites for distributing vaccines.  There's no surprise Walgreens/CVS/Walmart are also scrambling, other than currying favor with the USG, there's no money in this for them.

I don't doubt the product you have is a great idea, and is probably needed.  But at this point there's no market for it.  Vaccines are only hemorrhaging money for companies.  Those employees could be doing other money-making things, or not be employed. 

This is largely why vaccinations stumbled after healthcare workers.  Hospitals were happy to get them for their employees.  After that, it didn't make much sense to keep trying to handle them except for charity.

Is this really the problem?  Locally the health care systems have done great. The problem is they simply don't have enough shots and repeatedly have said that they could ramp it up if they had more to work with. Is this the exception?

[ZiggysFryBoy]

If you actually want the facts they are here

https://portal.ct.gov/Office-of-the-Governor/News/Press-Releases/2021/03-2021/Governor-Lamont-Announces-Plans-To-Ease-Some-COVID-19-Restrictions-in-Connecticut

Just quoting our leader.

That's how this works, right?

[Frenns Liquor Depot]

Just quoting our leader.

That's how this works, right?

That's fine and maybe I shouldn't have quoted you directly.  I wasn't following the news cycle yesterday but saw a couple insinuations that CT has 'no indoor restrictions'.  And a bunch of flip "what about cynicism" back and forth. 

Good news is 74% of 75+, 59% of 65-75 and 17% of 55-65 now have at least one shot.  We get data twice a week and planned dates for when the next group can make appointments. They are tracking the wastewater across the state for covid and have pretty robust testing.   

I'm in a minority position on the board where my state govt has earned my trust on their pandemic management.

[mu_hilltopper]

Surprise!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/05/fever-scanner-flaws-covid/

TLDR: All those temperature checks are so inaccurate it's actually a detriment to public health as the feverish are often told they are fine.

Great great.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

I don't doubt the product you have is a great idea, and is probably needed.  But at this point there's no market for it.  Vaccines are only hemorrhaging money for companies.  Those employees could be doing other money-making things, or not be employed. 

Companies, including ours, are developing the proof-of-vaccine passport on the speculation that they may be required for people in the future. (Maybe they will, maybe they won't). If so there will obviously be a market for this, but that will probably be a B2C play, we think, unless companies also require the passport in order for workers to come back to their physical spaces.

If that is the case, then there is a B2B play, along with the ability for the company to have a top-down view of the status of their workforce, which is relatively simple to produce. Employers will pay for that capability, but not standalone passports for employees if their physical work location doesn't required them.

There could be exceptions: airlines, any company that needs to send its workers into the physical space of another organization (construction, or software implementation, for example), etc. If so, my hope is that this is a short term need and that we'll have this under control with annual booster shots to the point of obsoleting any need for proof of vaccination.

[Hards Alumni]

Companies, including ours, are developing the proof-of-vaccine passport on the speculation that they may be required for people in the future. (Maybe they will, maybe they won't). If so there will obviously be a market for this, but that will probably be a B2C play, we think, unless companies also require the passport in order for workers to come back to their physical spaces.

If that is the case, then there is a B2B play, along with the ability for the company to have a top-down view of the status of their workforce, which is relatively simple to produce. Employers will pay for that capability, but not standalone passports for employees if their physical work location doesn't required them.

There could be exceptions: airlines, any company that needs to send its workers into the physical space of another organization (construction, or software implementation, for example), etc. If so, my hope is that this is a short term need and that we'll have this under control with annual booster shots to the point of obsoleting any needs for proof of vaccination.

Sounds like a perfect fit for blockchain technology.

[pbiflyer]

Companies, including ours, are developing the proof-of-vaccine passport on the speculation that they may be required for people in the future. (Maybe they will, maybe they won't). If so there will obviously be a market for this, but that will probably be a B2C play, we think, unless companies also require the passport in order for workers to come back to their physical spaces.

If that is the case, then there is a B2B play, along with the ability for the company to have a top-down view of the status of their workforce, which is relatively simple to produce. Employers will pay for that capability, but not standalone passports for employees if their physical work location doesn't required them.

There could be exceptions: airlines, any company that needs to send its workers into the physical space of another organization (construction, or software implementation, for example), etc. If so, my hope is that this is a short term need and that we'll have this under control with annual booster shots to the point of obsoleting any need for proof of vaccination.

Out of curiosity, since there is no national database, how are you going to connect to the various data sources to determine status? A clearing house? Connecting to 50+ data sources?
As chick pointed out, no national DB exists and would have violent push back from certain groups of people.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

I'm in a minority position on the board where my state govt has earned my trust on their pandemic management.

I'll second this. 

[The Sultan]

I think Wisconsin has by and large done very well.

[Galway Eagle]

Out of curiosity, since there is no national database, how are you going to connect to the various data sources to determine status? A clearing house? Connecting to 50+ data sources?
As chick pointed out, no national DB exists and would have violent push back from certain groups of people.

While it's not a national database the vast majority of male health systems use Epic's MyChart program. While not a fully comprehensive list would be a good starting Data source

[pacearrow02]

I think Wisconsin has by and large done very well.

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