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RE: Jack Failure Disaster
Nice camper by the way! Can't wait to see pics of the final painted shell.
Without doing an on-site forensic, did the legs lower onto a thick mat of long-leaf pine needles (I've slid badly on pine needles in the past)? If the jack's landing pads were lowered onto the teflon-like slippy needles on hard packed ground, they (one landing pad) could have just slipped out (like walking on ice), and caused a cascade of instability with the other pads/legs, and the weak point, the jack attachments, just let go one at a time (even well connected)....Just a thought....
For it not to have sustained major structural shell distortion/damage falling from (near full?) jack extension, that camper must be built like a brick. Looks like a keeper to me.
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silversand
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04/13/22 06:31am |
Truck Campers
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
I agree with you, this thread has got way off track, let's as Moisheh suggests keep it about Canadians returning home and the silly mandates that Trudeau and Company want to push on all us Snowbirds.
...yes. Sorry. Back on track....
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silversand
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03/26/22 04:48am |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
If the employer decides not the government mandated
The document does not say the employer must require vaccination.
The South African government created the framework and legal space in which private employers can engage mandatory vaccinations within their enterprise. The horse before the cart.
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silversand
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03/25/22 02:27pm |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
More believable study than simply comparing rates in states with and without mask mandates
....we will have to agree to disagree on this. To me, the proof is in the infection rate of an entire population with strict mask laws (ie. Rhode island RIDOH Executive order mandatory masking indoors; recently lifted), in the case of Rhode Island, a population of ~1.1 million. How effective was that Executive Order in the face of Omicron BA.1 ??
IF masking had worked, in say, Rhode Island (or, Quebec; or Ontario; or...or...or...or...) during the Omicron onslaught, regardless of other Executive Order restriction in this (and other States and Canadian Provinces), it would have, well, worked! In spite of everyone in the State wearing masks indoors, the Omicron infection numbers tell the story. The fact that NOTHING mitigative worked shows in the massive infection rate during Omicron.....everywhere in the World. Even in countries that are approaching staggering (in a good way) fully vaccinated status: Canada: 81.4% | 80%+ in UK (with 38 million boosters given!) back just as Omicron was hitting, those countries then had indoor masking. What did indoor masking do? If it was effective at all, we would not have seen the MASSIVE and unprecedented Omicron infections we just saw (and AGAIN are seeing as I type, 1 in 19 Britons are presently infected with SYMPTOMATIC Omicron LOL!). I'll bet this infection level gets to 1 in 3 by next week, at the present climb in infections. But intensive care admissions are very, very low (for the last BA.1 round) in the UK and Canada (because of highly vaccinated populations).
Here....lets look at it another way: why is masking failing to make a any dent in Omicron's onslaught? If masking is a panacea, why haven't the "pandemic" numbers reversed? Masking with fully vaccinated (say, 80% fully vaccinated) populations make little and no difference in the global Omicron waves. What *third* mitigation do we need to implement to reverse the pandemic? Anyone?
Can anyone think of anything? Short of locking down the entire planet's human population for 1 or 2 years from today forward (and destroying life as we know it....but why, in the face of vastly declining Covid deaths, even in the US?).
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silversand
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03/25/22 02:00pm |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
Go read it.
Link
No mandated vaccination
You have an outdated document. My document supersedes yours, and is signed and dated: 28/05/2021: here-->
See N044700 Page 51, Section 2.
"If the employer decides that vaccination is mandatory in respect of the employees....etc...etc...
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silversand
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03/25/22 01:31pm |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
....In the Johnson County, Iowa mask study:
"Among the limitations to this study is that many persons could not be contacted or declined to cooperate with public health investigations. There are almost certainly substantial differences between case-patients and contacts that we were able to interview and those who declined to provide information or were unable to be reached. In addition, all of the data, with the exception of test results, were self-reported by either contacts or case-patients. Self-reported data can be unreliable. During investigations, case-patients may have had an incentive to provide false information to prevent friends, co-workers, or classmates from quarantining; or they may have demonstrated response bias by telling interviewers what they thought we wanted to hear. Although bias cannot be ruled out, we believe that persons who cooperate with public health investigations are more likely to provide accurate and honest information and to follow other public health guidance, such as social distancing and mask use"
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silversand
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03/25/22 01:13pm |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
South Africa (beta and omicron) does not have a government vaccination mandate, some employers do.
South Africa has a vaccination mandate, as outlined in: DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT AND LABOUR document NO. R. 499 11 June 2021, entitled:
Consolidated Direction on Occupational Health and Safety Measures in Certain Workplaces. Section 27(2) under the Disaster Management Act law, enshrined by their parliament. Quote: "To prevent and combat the spread of Covid-19 in certain workplaces in South Africa.
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silversand
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03/25/22 12:55pm |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
The reason I provided the published study is that is was more controlled in evaluating the benefits of masking; comparing the likelihood in onward transmission with vs without masking as opposed to statewide data "polluted" with and without mask use.
...of course tightly controlled mask efficacy research in a lab will show under ideal lab conditions what a mask can "do". However, this is utterly useless / meaningless under REAL mask use in the wild!
Forget about ideal laboratory mask research (humans don't live in labs, supervised by PPE experts). An improperly fitted, sized, and recycled mask in the real world in the wild, is about as protective as a space suit with a pin hole in it. The only metric to look at is: ....in places with mandated by law mask wearing, what are the ongoing infection numbers? Why use masks AT ALL (outside of the hospital/health care environment) if these infection numbers are as high as unmandated/voluntary mask wearing jurisdictions?
Global vaccination mandates:
....global vaccination mandates in my context means what jurisdictions around the Globe have mandated vaccination (NOT a single supra-national enforcement agency). Mandates have to be investigated country by country. Other than some war-torn African and Middle Eastern nations, can you name a SINGLE country where there has been zero vaccination mandate? Jeez, even places like Slovenia, had some form of Covid vaccination mandate. Some countries were "soft" on enforcement, like Belgium (for cultural reasons)...others brutally strict, like Canada (locking their citizens down in house arrest: the severity driven by Provincial rules).
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silversand
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03/25/22 11:09am |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
....there has been no significant difference between US States with mask mandates, and those 35 States without mandates. Just look at the case rates. have a look at any of the reputable statistical data (Johns Hopkins, etc, etc). Even worse, one of the location in North America with the highest fully vaccinated levels in the World, and strictest mask mandates (Quebec, Canada) had an astounding Omicron BA.1 infection ratio of 1 in every 3 inhabitants.
The problem with "mask wearing" is the following: ....universal country-wide masking suffers from four big flaws. 1) the general population does not wear masks properly; 2) the general population may not/do not have proper fitting masks; and 3) among the general population, cloth masks still predominate; and 4) how many wearers change their masks EVERY TIME they make a sojourn out of the house (filthy and degraded mask filtration)?
IF masks are so significant in preventing transmission, why in the world did states with strong mask mandates like Rhode Island (1 State among many) experience in January an Omicron surge among the highest in America (at least as high as States with no mask mandate)?? Look at the UK, with one of the strictest masking mandates in the world; how did they fare during Omicron? Mask mandates and general population masking seem to be one of the least consequential Covid mitigation endeavors in the war against this pandemic.
There was a randomized masking trial in Bangladesh, that demonstrated that surgical mask wearing by the cohort studied only reduced the symptomatic infection rate by 11%.
There is something going on that is, as yet, not understood in the realm of rise and fall vis societal pandemic mitigation measures! Even with near perfect compliance (ie. Quebec) with near 100% lockdowns (ie. Quebec), 100% masking by law (ie. Quebec), and 100% travel bans (ie. Canada). None of that worked at all.
In ending, have a read of this systematic review and meta-analysis designed to determine whether there is empirical evidence to support the belief that “lockdowns” reduce COVID-19 mortality. SAE./No.200/January 2022.
The Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise.
"A LITERATURE REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS
OF THE EFFECTS OF LOCKDOWNS ON
COVID-19 MORTALITY"
Here-->
-18,590 studies are identified
-three levels of screening 34 studies ultimately qualified.
-Of those 34 eligible studies, 24 qualified for inclusion in the meta-analysis
....the conclusion: "While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument"
THIS is why I (and many others) say future Global vaccination mandates will fail miserably; they will be rejected outright by world populations. An do you know what? That is very, very sad.
On edit: I AM a proponent of voluntary masking; however, EVERYONE needs to take a course on proper mask fitment and post-wear disposal
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silversand
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03/25/22 08:40am |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
As everyone here knows, I am a HUGE proponent of vaccination. Let this be said right up front.
With that being said, and Omicron BA.2 being pretty well in the top 2 most contagious pathogens known to man, it is absurd and ludicrous to believe, or let anyone convince you that mask wearing (and I am talking about N-95 NIOSH masks, not Korean masks) will protect you against ingesting via breathing BA.2. Unless you have a professional fit your N-95 perfectly, you will be inhaling large quantities of atmosphere around the nose area. Even worse, IF you have not shaved, face stubble and any genre of beard will render the mask fitment useless.
This is the big one: ....does anyone actually believe that with Omicron BA.2's level of contagion at up to 12 persons per virus shedder, that they will have a chance in Hades in ever identifying their source of contagion? I highly doubt it! You could have contracted it from someone walking by you on the street, someone who vacated an elevator you entered 10 minutes ago, someone who walked by you in an underground parking garage, any one of a MILLION scenarios while you are even wearing your improperly fitted mask, or, while you were outdoors near 1 single infected person.
This is the big two: though the vaccination (IF you have had 3 shots!) is effective in preventing symptomatic Covid "most of the time" but over a VERY short period of 4.5 to 6 months, 3 shots will NOT prevent you from actually contracting BA.2. 4 boosters has almost no measurable efficacy past a handful of weeks (see the recent article on 4th booster in Nature). I don't know why our politicians can't seem to understand that, and, everything above? If anyone thinks that another Covid vaccination campaign will gain traction, those politicians are sorely wrong. Another global Covid vaccination campaign will fail miserably. That's too bad, because we WILL see another pandemic from maybe anothr specie of SARS, maybe something unrelated and worse; and the next pandemic may be many, many, many fold more deadly than Covid was; like not 15~18 million global mortalities, but maybe half a billion. And, because the sum total global governments failed to be sensible about the house arrest of their citizenry and failed miserable to fund their own health care systems over the past decades, no, half Century, the latency caused by rejection of some yet undeveloped vaccine for the next global pandemic campaign, may condemn the World.
Sars-cov-2 won folks. Get over it. Death rates from BA.2 are so low, they are now blended with the hundreds of other mortality statistics that tend to kill off humans. IF you are vulnerable, YOU make arrangements for home delivery of everything. Don't go out period. Let the rest of less vulnerable humanity go back to "normal". Set up virus surveillance not just in Denmark and the UK, but in every country on Earth, pulling samples from the hospitalized cohort. At least better surveillance will warn of some new pathogen coming at us in the future.
That is about all I have to say about Covid, as Covid pandemic enters its death throes, to likely be heaped upon the pile of endemic virus history over the next year or two.
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silversand
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03/25/22 05:43am |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
Philh wrote: "the hospitalization rate almost parallels the vaccination rate, indicating the jab is NOT stopping being from getting hospitalized."
.....OK guys, time out :D
....when you look at Covid hospitalization studies, you always have to differentiate between those hospitalized as a direct result of Covid (and any resulting mortalities), and those hospitalized because of some unrelated affliction (and any resulting mortalities from unrelated affliction, or the additive affect of underlying Covid), and Covid is discovered (NAAS or PCR) as incidental.
If Covid mortalities don't include the above, then they can't inform.
Now, changing trajectory:
Again, " in a world where we know that we can never possibly vaccinate more than ~68 ~ 79% of the entire 8 -ish billion world inhabitants, we will simply have to "make due" with a world where 1 or 2 billion inhabitants will never ever be vaccinated against Covid. So, why not just confer "vaccination-equivalent" status on those 1~2 billion people?"
Vaccination although wonderful, is a global distribution failure. The "virus" outperformed global vaccination endeavors. We have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that 1 billion + of the World's population will NEVER receive a Covid vaccination, or never achieve full vaccination status. So, likely all of this population will contract Covid forthwith; do we confer immune status on this naturally immune cohort? No burrying heads in the sand here. What are your thoughts?
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silversand
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03/23/22 04:58am |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
.....so this begs the question:
"...is hybrid immunity THAT much stronger than purely natural infection..." ? Is natural immunity "good enough" ?
Look, in a world where we know that we can never possibly vaccinate more than ~68 ~ 79% of the entire 8 -ish billion world inhabitants, we will simply have to "make due" with a world where 1 or 2 billion inhabitants will never ever be vaccinated against Covid. So, why not just confer "vaccination-equivalent" status on those 1~2 billion people? We are fairly certain that this sars-cov-2 virus is in its "death throws" presently (at least moving into some form of predictable status: endemicity). So, we need to decide how we handle the several billion people who will, in the short run, have naturally contracted BA.2 sans any vaccination. And with the horrendous track record distributing vaccines globally (on time? yeah right), the "virus" is simply mutating many times faster than we could ever deploy vaccines to everyone on Earth. May be one day, some form of vaccine will be developed to recognize much more of the virus, not just the spike protein to confer 2, 3, 7 years protection....but who knows; this may be a year....two, 3 years off.
On edit: ....yeah. This article would have been better served being peer reviewed; however, I can see where the author could have been reined-in, tempered, and edited.
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silversand
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03/22/22 02:44pm |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
....and, natural immunity now appears to be durable (at least as good as purely vaccination) in the Lancet article:
A multicentre, prospective cohort of NHS workers published in the Lancet showed an 84% lower risk after natural infection lasting at least 7 months. A report from Dublin published in January this year reviewed 11 large cohort studies and found natural immunity lasted at least 10 months.
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silversand
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03/22/22 02:31pm |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
....one of the points she makes is does it make sense to give previously infected populations a vaccine dose, when billions of population have not yet been infected (we are talking passed tense here, of course) had a single dose (ie. more efficient dose distribution)? How many in the world still have not as yet received a single vaccine dose to this day, and have not yet been infected (likely a small uninfected cohort; but the point still....) in 2022?
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silversand
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03/22/22 02:23pm |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
...now read the linked NEJM study in the paragraph after the India piece:
A national database study including almost 22,000 people in Qatar published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that previous infection was "robust" - approximately 90% - in preventing reinfection with the Alpha, Beta, and Delta variants of SARS-CoV-2, and approximately 60% "but still considerable" against Omicron. None of the re-infections progressed to critical or fatal outcomes and the effectiveness against severe, critical, or fatal COVID-19 was estimated to be 69.4% against Alpha, 88.0% against Beta, 100% against Delta, and 87.8% against Omicron variants.
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silversand
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03/22/22 02:18pm |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
....at least as good.
Read the linked Swiss study and the India studies in her paragraphs:
For example, a study in Geneva, Switzerland, of people infected in the first wave showed a 15.5% infection rate in seronegative individuals compared with just 1% in seropositives, giving overall protection attributable to infection of 94% - comparable with that in the original Pfizer vaccine trial.
Another study from India showed that seropositivity protected against both infection and severe disease, and suggested "strong plausibility that development of antibody following natural infection not only protects against re-infection by the virus to a great extent, but also safeguards against progression to severe COVID-19 disease".
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silversand
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03/22/22 02:15pm |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
I find no data in the linked study on antibodies from only infection.
....hello BC. Yep. I thoroughly read through every linked study.
What the Oregon Health & Science study shows, is the antibodies in the three sampled cohorts that have been both~vaccinated and naturally~infected are ~10 (ie. many) times "more potent" than having been vaccinated alone. As an aside, hybrid immunity has been investigated in numerous studies, and appears to be superior to either stand-alone vaccination, or stand-alone natural infection.
And the above is why I say in the subsequent post, "and if you have 3 mRNA shots, count yourself lucky. Prepare to be naturally infected, no matter what protective measures you use (ie. PPE)"
It (the Oregon study) doesn't inform the antibody potency in individuals NOT included in the study (not included in the study: people who have not been vaccinated at all (ie. solely natural immunity)). So, yes, those reading the Medscape article need to understand this.
The "10 times" should be interpreted as above. The author, a MB BS, MPhil as I understand the British medical qualification, MB is a UK medical doctor, something similar to an American MD.
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silversand
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03/22/22 01:26pm |
Snowbirds
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
.....with every individual BA.2 shedder infecting up to 12 others (Esterman, Australian epidemiologist), Omicron BA.2 is right up there with measles (and maybe even more so) as the most contagious pathogens yet known to science. There is no known mRNA vaccine than can protect anyone from acquiring "it", no matter how many doses you get (even 4). It will infect every living breathing person on Earth in the coming weeks (not months). There are presently more than 3 million in the UK with symptomatic BA.2 today (2.93 million 2 days ago). This happened in a few weeks. In about 2 weeks, BA.2 will be the "only game in town" across the US and Canada.
Stay healthy, get exercise, eat exceptionally nutritious foods, get plenty of sleep, keep alcohol consumption low, and if you have 3 mRNA shots, count yourself lucky. Prepare to be naturally infected, no matter what protective measures you use (the only exception is BSL-4 equivalent permanent personal lockdown).
A must watch; Dr John Campbell on BA.2 Here-->
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silversand
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03/21/22 01:29pm |
Snowbirds
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RE: In 2 years time I can no longer afford to buy a camper
I need a new Miller mig welding machine. I've been looking at them for the last 3 years. In that time the machine I wanted has gone from about $2400 to $4000. Whoever is saying inflation is 7.9% is full of it.
that's correct....inflation (consumer) in the US is running 16% ++ presently. But it's not as high as it was in 1917, when inflation was 19.6%. But at this rate, real inflation (your purchasing power) may take a 20% or 30% hit in near future. When consumer interest rates hit 12% to 16%. Imagine how much a mortgage payment will cost then? Better renew fast. I should have started a chartered bank 3 years ago, and got $billions in free money from the Fed at 0%.....to lend out at 8% !
...the way "we" measure inflation today (CPI) is all wrong. We need to measure inflation based on the stuff we really buy. Look at gasoline. In our neck of the woods, gasoline prices went up by 50% (!). What about home heating cost? A travel trailer? We were looking at a particular brand of trailers. 3 years ago, $22,700. Today? $38,000.
But I'm preaching to the choir :D
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silversand
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03/19/22 10:29am |
Truck Campers
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RE: Canadian Snowbirds heading home-Antigen Rapid Tests required
....this thread has probably now run its course. Just one last item of important interest, that may inform the course of this pandemic. Whether you are vaccinated or not, this recent comprehensive article in Medscape may save your sanity. It is a comprehensive review of all known scientific research on why we now are certain, that natural immunity will be the policy of close to every nation on Earth, whether you choose the vaccination route, or not. It is a long article, with a link to each piece of research backing the article thesis:
Covid-19: Why are we Ignoring Infection-Acquired Immunity?
....the section on long-lasting protection, Comparisons With Vaccine-induced Immunity, Caution Over Boosters and now, you having read all the supporting research linked in the article, the most poignant section, the future of Public Health Policy will drive home how we should proceed in the future with natural immunity policy IF inconvenient science does not continue to be sidelined.
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silversand
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03/19/22 05:53am |
Snowbirds
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