Virtual Lecture from Penn State for Career Day

Might be an interesting listen :wink:

The Department of Graphic Design is hosting two virtual lectures featuring designers from Google and Amazon, respectively, in conjunction with the Stuckeman School’s Career Day 2021 on March 3.

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That’s right at the time and date I’m scheduled for my first Covid vaccination. :expressionless:

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Lucky you.
I’m so “young,” healthy, law abiding and hard working, I get to wait until probably June or July for my covid vax at which point hopefully it will be moot.

While the talks might be interesting, I have no interest in what anyone from Google or Amazon has to say. The first you can’t avoid and still be on the internet, the second I have no use for.

BTW, it’s a full moon, it’s February and I’m feelin’ ornery

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OMG … don’t get me started on the vaccine.

I actually qualify for the do to the whole Cancer thing and a few other things going on … however I don’t want to travel 4 hours away to get it… Twice.

It seems our county is going to open up vaccination areas “soon”. No one can give a solid answer to when.

Our county is huge and takes a good hour or more to go from one end to the other so the nearest county that’s giving it out is damn near the Canadian border. I could do one in Albany, which is an hour away but with no vehicle that makes it difficult at best … and the appts are literally half a year out due to the lack of vaccine available.

Everyone around here seems panic stricken to get it and are traveling to Plattsburg, Syracuse and downstate.

What’s worse is they are making multiple appts in hopes to get a sooner date … so guess what that means when they forget to cancel. Even less people can get the appt. slots. People are sitting on the website for the moment an appt appears to swoop it up. It’s a hot mess.

So, since I go no where anyway at this point … I’ll just wait until I’m the last woman standing LOL.

I’m sure they will track me down eventually and come at me with needles in hand :wink:

I just hope I get a pretty sticker like some I’ve seen.

/sarcasm

It seems like I’ve been living like a hermit for the past year. I still get out, but avoid people, literally, like the plague. A trip to the grocery store is so fraught with anxiety that we’ve been doing the whole curbside drive-up thing. I wouldn’t even consider eating in at a restaurant or riding the light rail into downtown. All my work is through Zoom, email or Google Meet or whatever. It would just make me incredibly happy to drop by a bookstore to look around, meet across a table with a client or, for that matter, see my extended family.

A friend of mine from high school, in perfect health, caught Covid in early January. Two weeks ago, he died. I suspect the hospital bill weighed in at a half million dollars. One of my clients just got out of the hospital after a two-week stay but is still too weak to work. I had two acquaintances die from it last December. I could go on, but nearly everyone in the country has similar or worse stories.

As soon as my age group opened up here in Utah, I had three browsers pretty much preloaded and ready to hit submit at the start time. I was registered within 30 seconds. As much as I hate needles, I absolutely can’t wait to get this and the follow-up vaccination, then get back to living a half-way normal life — even if it still means wearing a mask. I think this has likely been the most psychologically Hellish year of my life (for several reasons), and I absolutely can’t wait to put an end to it.

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Same here. I haven’t shopped in a grocery store … well any store in just about a year now. I get everything online or have it delivered. As much as we can all have moral issues with Walmart I got their W+. It’s their run at competing with Amazon. But, I can have fresh groceries delivered with no additional fees. Instacart is just so expensive and Amazon’s Whole Foods is reallyyy expensive as far as food goes.

Several people I know one who is very close to me have gotten Covid. Luckily they have all recovered. But, many distant connections (friends of friends, family of friends) Have not made it.

I just want it to be over too … so we can not feel like we are taking our lives in our hands to step out the front door. Or forget and touch our face and wonder … is this how I die?

I try very hard not to be too paranoid about things … but we just went over 500,000 deaths. Some from a lot healthier people than me. So, I think I have good cause to be vigilant.

… I’m just very tired of being vigilant. Granted, I could be a Hermit forever … but even a Hermit wants to feel the sun on their face once in a while :wink:

@Just-B and @RedKittieKat

Wow - didn’t realise all that was going on too.

Half a million dollars for a covid hospital stay? Yikes!

Where I am the hospital treatments are free, and the vaccines are rolling out to the most vulnerable first and frontline workers.

My wife has the full innoculatoin as she works in a hospital it was mandatory for all hospital staff to receive the treatment.

I work from home full time. I have no underlying illnesses and I go out to the shop, or different places. Each have hand washing station and most/all people wear a mask in shopping areas.

I don’t do the online shopping as I’m capable of getting to a shop - so I leave the online shopping slots for those that need them. The last time I looked there is up to 1 week for delivery.

In fairness, there’s a supermarket within walking distance so me getting deliveries makes no sense.

I get clothes and things delivered as clothes shops are not open. Nor are restaurants or anything like that.

The only thing that is open is take-away foods and shopping - nothing else. Pubs/restaurants/shopping malls all that stuff is closed.

Most people are good - but there have been times standing a queue when I someone stands directly behind me - there’s spots on the ground for people to stand on to keep their distance. I’ve had to ask people to stand back on their spot on more than one occasion.

My wife was telling me that even though she is innoculated she can still get Covid - but has the tools to beat it off quicker and efficiently. So in theory she can still pass on Covid too. I don’t think people realise that - once you have the innoculation doesn’t mean you can’t get the disease and spread it on.

Hopefully, enough people will have the vaccine and it’s likely something we’ll just have to live with.

I don’t want to get political, so I’ll just state the facts. Many people in the U.S. equate free medical care with socialism, which they tend to see as a bad thing. This is despite our roads, water systems, education system, federal retirement income, national parks, national forests, police forces, etc., all being socialist programs.

Most people in the U.S. get insurance through their work, and those over 65 get socialized medicine (that for another bizarre reason very few people complain about) called Medicare. Self-employed people need to buy their own medical insurance, which starts at about $600 per month and goes up from there last I checked. Lose your job and come down with a serious illness, and you can easily lose everything.

The U.S. just reached a half million deaths from Covid. It’s been pretty bad, but it’s been decreasing quite rapidly since about the first of the year, which is hopeful.

The trials and subsequent results from the mRNA vaccinations so far, indicate about a 94% efficacy — meaning that 94% of people exposed who would likely get Covid, either do not get the disease or show no symptoms. The remainder who get the disease, supposedly only get a mild case of it. The more traditional Covid vaccines are reporting lower efficacy — down in the 60–75% range. The jury still seems to be out on whether or not some vaccinated people become infected without showing symptoms and can still pass along the disease to others. I read a preliminary report just last week that was optimistic about recent preliminary evidence on that, but it seems uncertain — at least as far as I’ve read.

I don’t know what it’s like in Ireland, but we also have another phenomenon over here regarding people who are referred to as anti-vaxers. These are people who believe that vaccines are dangerous and should be avoided. Some of these people believe they’re part of a vast conspiracy to take away our freedoms and turn us all into subservient drones. Others just believe that they’re inherently dangerous and cause things like autism or genetic damage. This isn’t really a fringe crowd either — there are enough of these people who will refuse to get vaccinations that it just might ensure that the Covid epidemic sticks around circulating among these people for years. The U.S. has gone nuts — seriously.

Yes - I only read the actual factual sites - I’m glad I’m not on many social media -mostly Twitter but I’ve blocked trigger words there so I don’t get misinformation.

That’s our official source here. And I pretty much go by that.

So until someone says definitely that you can’t pass on the disease once inoculated I’lm going to be cautionary and still wear a mask and wash my hands regularly, along with going in and out of shops etc.

My wife is innoculated and still continues to wear a mask - she’s in the hospital daily with Doctors who advise their teams directly. And who am I to question that sort of direct information.

In saying that - there are some people in my wife’s team that don’t wear a mask. Don’t believe in Covid or the damage it can cause.

Some don’t care if they get it the ‘my body my choice’ - but that’s just selfish, it’s not just your body - it’s the fact that you can pass it on to someone even if you’re asymptomatic - someone vulnerable can get it from you.

There are anti-vaxers and I completely understand their point of view. Who’s to say I’m right or wrong or anything else, I just have my opinion, they have theirs. They are entitled to their point of view, as I am.

What I don’t agree with is the false information (fake news) and unfounded claims etc.

They still don’t really know how long the inoculations will last - according to our own medical advice website. It’s all largely unknown.

Yes, I think it will be a very good idea to continue wearing masks until the various health departments say the threat is reduced to the point of it being a non-issue. There’s always the off chance that even after being fully vaccinated, one could still catch a mild version of the infection and pass it along to an unvaccinated person.

There’s also just the issue of being respectful to others. Even if one has been fully vaccinated, those around that person in public places won’t know that. If only for the sake of those people’s peace of mind, the small inconvenience of wearing a mask seems worth it.

Everyone is entitled to their points of view, even when they’re mistaken.

Vaccines have reduced the incidents of deadly viral and bacterial infections in, especially, developed countries to the level that we hardly think about them.

There’s a cemetery in my home that dates back to the 1850s. It’s really common to see a large headstone surrounded by seven or eight smaller ones. The dates of death on the smaller child headstones are typically within a month of each other — the children of entire families killed by smallpox, diphtheria, and other deadly diseases. Prior to the development of vaccines and antibiotics, the majority of people born into the world would die of an infection rather than diseases associated with old age.

So yeah, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. Vaccines are probably the most significant medical development in human history. They’ve literally saved billions of lives. The anti-vaxers are just plain mistaken. Their inability to understand statistical evidence or differentiate reality from rumors, conspiracies, third-hand social media conjectures, misinterpretations of evidence, and other nonsense places everyone else at risk through their ignorance.

Yes I get that, and a lot of the anti vaxers are mistaken and have fake facts, or rather twisted truths around non-scientific notions.

In Ireland about 40 years ago they gave women an inoculation- sorry on my phone and cannot look up exactly what -but it caused pregnant women in pregnancy to bear children without a limb or missing digits; and another one maybe before or after that that caused some problems in bones and hips etc

That’s the kind of anti vaxers I tend to side with, not that I am an anti vaxers myself. But I understand there are genuine concerns based on past historical events.

But a lot of anti vaxers are purely driven on misinformation. And that’s annoying.

I’m guessing you’re referring to thalidomide, which was first marketed as a little-studied, over-the-counter sedative, but became popular for treating a number of illness — including morning sickness in pregnant women. Months later, babies started being born with severe deformations caused by the drug.

Thalidomide was an absolute disaster and is always pointed to as a primary reason why all new drugs need to go through such an extensive series of tests. There are always dangers associated with any new (or old) drugs, but vaccines are well-understood.

There’s also the matter of a risk-benefit analysis. The very small chance of a Covid vaccine causing unknown problems down the road needs to be weighed against the certainty of tens of millions of people around the world dying from the disease over the coming years without the vaccines.

Of course, I was only pointing out that some anti vaxers may have some serious concerns.

And I say ‘some’.

I go to work. I go out onsite at work to do work. I go grocery shopping. I go clothes shopping (not often.) I go to Home Depot when I need to. I pick up take out maybe once a week. Was even going out to eat when it was warm enough to eat outside at a restaurant (but restaurants got clipped to 20% capacity after the Thanksgiving surge and just got back open to 40% capacity, and it’s COLD out.)

Of course I wear a mask.
Though I’m not convinced of the efficacy of it.

This state, with all its big brains and top notch medical facilities totally botched the vaccine rollout and the state developed website was too confusing for seniors. Then the state pulled all the vaccine from health care sites and put it into mass-vaccination sites and the whole state-run website crashed. Yeah, I want to depend on that kind of disaster running my free health care.

They put first responders and FELONS in jails at the top of the list before seniors over 85 and educators. They just opened up to over 65 with 2 comorbidities (and the website crashed again) but only have a few hundred thousand doses to cover over 1 million people eligible.

They’ve had a year to set up vax distribution and stress test websites. What were they doing? They’ve had 3 months to ramp up emergency order (wartime) production, but where is that? And why do legislators think that $600 or even $2000 is going to help after people have been out of work for nearly a year? That first isn’t even one month of rent, the second? Maybe two months and a little food or heat but not both. Even with a job I’ve had to dip into savings because we just don’t have the overtime and didn’t get raises this year and in case no one’s noticed, groceries that used to cost $75 per week now cost over $120, and gas just jumped 60¢ per gallon in under a month.

Woo.

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