Free Thursday, folks. Also: horse acupuncture, prime time freakiness, and some Willy Wonka-ass vaccine policy in Ohio that is so crazy it just might work.
The Astros being the first team to provide furnished apartments to minor leaguers really surprises me. Not that it's the Astros, but that no team has apparently done this prior. I would have thought more teams would do this, or more likely provide something similar (even if it was more like a dormitory) along with a team provided food service to their players. Seems to me that one of the biggest ways they could set their minor-leaguers up for success is to make it so that the only thing they have to worry about is, you know, playing baseball. And yes, I know the reason they haven't done this -- money.
The guidance and messaging for the J&J vaccine vs. Pfizer and Moderna has been somewhat in conflict. When the J&J vaccine was approved they went out their way to say it wasn't an inferior vaccine, don't hold out for one of the other two, the best vaccine is the one you can get first.
Meanwhile, they've been consistently telling people you need to get both shots of the Pfizer and Moderna, don't just get one. But the J&J one shot efficacy is 60-70% while the other two, 14 days after the first shot, are at 80%. And it's possible it gets even higher for Pfizer and Moderna after 14 days since they stopped monitoring it after that.
The "get both doses" advice isn't wrong. You're more protected with both doses. But then why is the J&J OK at 70%. It's a (nearly) perfect being the enemy of the good situation. If J&J was all we had, we'd be lucky to have it. And when there aren't enough doses to go around, the good is still a big plus. But now we have enough, so why are we still using one dose J&J? If the answer is "Because some people want only 1 dose", then why not give them one dose of Pfizer/Moderna which is more effective than one dose of J&J?
I think eventually it will be shown than two doses of J&J are in the neighborhood of being as effective as two doses of Pfizer/Moderna. It's only problem is "there ain't no free lunch", and a one dose vaccine isn't going to be as effective as a two dose vaccine.
Just to reiterate because it's important, 6/7 of the COVID positives in the Yankees camp are not what we would normally consider vaccine breakthroughs because they are asymptomatic. In a normal setting, breakthrough infections are detected when someone is symptomatic for the disease and tests positive. It's highly likely IMO that vaccinated persons exposed to a normally infectious dose of *any* infectious agent would test positive via a sensitive enough test (like qPCR). That does not mean that will be infectious themselves, because they likely have much less circulating pathogen (hence their being asymptomatic), and infectious dose matters.
One problem with the Ohio Vax Lottery will be when 4 or 5 of the winners invariably turn out to be “Liberals”, and the nut jobs accuse DeWine of fixing the drawing.
I've only read above the first subscribe button part where you do the "tell em Wash" bit...Based on how that went in the movie isn't the person supposed to disagree with you? Are you saying it hasn't been a hell of a good week?
Assuming I did the math right, the Oakland relocation odds, when converted to percentage chance (44.4% chance of moving to Las Vegas for instance), adds up to just over 150% chance. Which means the house edge (is that the "rake"?) is 50%. That strikes me as very high. Is that normal?
(I'm assuming the bettor gets their money back in the event the A's don't move. If that's incorrect, the house edge is even larger.)
A thousand points for the subtle Slaughterhouse-Five reference since I was thinking the same think (even though I have mixed feelings about that book).
The Yankees used the Johnson and Johnson vaccine to honor such past members of the team as Randy Johnson and Cliff Johnson. To the best of my knowledge, there has never been any player by the name of Moderna.or Pfizer.
Has anyone ever turned down admission into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because of its very nature? I don't think it's happened.
Seven in a row for the Mets, and for once they scored some runs.
We got a bit of the 'but he can hit' during the Jays game last night because apparently he hit a HR one for the Dodgers and looks good in batting practice. 0-2 with two strikeouts last night, .177 lifetime batting average. Make it stop.
There are so many questions about the Vega$ show. Are they swingers, do they live in an underground bomb shelter home, do they suffer from car exhaust inhalation, what are they spending so much money on for breakfast? What the hell did I just watch?
My daughter is a professional horse person. She tells me horse accupuncture is more for the horse's owner than the horse. But I guess it's doing the most for the accupuncturist.
The Astros being the first team to provide furnished apartments to minor leaguers really surprises me. Not that it's the Astros, but that no team has apparently done this prior. I would have thought more teams would do this, or more likely provide something similar (even if it was more like a dormitory) along with a team provided food service to their players. Seems to me that one of the biggest ways they could set their minor-leaguers up for success is to make it so that the only thing they have to worry about is, you know, playing baseball. And yes, I know the reason they haven't done this -- money.
I saw the Soroka news yesterday: “exploratory Achilles surgery”? Yeesh. Good luck, kid.
In other news, I eagerly await the return of a professional baseball team to our Nation’s Capital. Double yeesh.
The guidance and messaging for the J&J vaccine vs. Pfizer and Moderna has been somewhat in conflict. When the J&J vaccine was approved they went out their way to say it wasn't an inferior vaccine, don't hold out for one of the other two, the best vaccine is the one you can get first.
Meanwhile, they've been consistently telling people you need to get both shots of the Pfizer and Moderna, don't just get one. But the J&J one shot efficacy is 60-70% while the other two, 14 days after the first shot, are at 80%. And it's possible it gets even higher for Pfizer and Moderna after 14 days since they stopped monitoring it after that.
The "get both doses" advice isn't wrong. You're more protected with both doses. But then why is the J&J OK at 70%. It's a (nearly) perfect being the enemy of the good situation. If J&J was all we had, we'd be lucky to have it. And when there aren't enough doses to go around, the good is still a big plus. But now we have enough, so why are we still using one dose J&J? If the answer is "Because some people want only 1 dose", then why not give them one dose of Pfizer/Moderna which is more effective than one dose of J&J?
I think eventually it will be shown than two doses of J&J are in the neighborhood of being as effective as two doses of Pfizer/Moderna. It's only problem is "there ain't no free lunch", and a one dose vaccine isn't going to be as effective as a two dose vaccine.
Just to reiterate because it's important, 6/7 of the COVID positives in the Yankees camp are not what we would normally consider vaccine breakthroughs because they are asymptomatic. In a normal setting, breakthrough infections are detected when someone is symptomatic for the disease and tests positive. It's highly likely IMO that vaccinated persons exposed to a normally infectious dose of *any* infectious agent would test positive via a sensitive enough test (like qPCR). That does not mean that will be infectious themselves, because they likely have much less circulating pathogen (hence their being asymptomatic), and infectious dose matters.
One problem with the Ohio Vax Lottery will be when 4 or 5 of the winners invariably turn out to be “Liberals”, and the nut jobs accuse DeWine of fixing the drawing.
I've only read above the first subscribe button part where you do the "tell em Wash" bit...Based on how that went in the movie isn't the person supposed to disagree with you? Are you saying it hasn't been a hell of a good week?
From Columbus Ohio the mighty Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments “RnR Hall of Fame”: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_luXPc_ZIU8w4p55wy-gnU2L9ucQYCtAaQ
Assuming I did the math right, the Oakland relocation odds, when converted to percentage chance (44.4% chance of moving to Las Vegas for instance), adds up to just over 150% chance. Which means the house edge (is that the "rake"?) is 50%. That strikes me as very high. Is that normal?
(I'm assuming the bettor gets their money back in the event the A's don't move. If that's incorrect, the house edge is even larger.)
A thousand points for the subtle Slaughterhouse-Five reference since I was thinking the same think (even though I have mixed feelings about that book).
The Yankees used the Johnson and Johnson vaccine to honor such past members of the team as Randy Johnson and Cliff Johnson. To the best of my knowledge, there has never been any player by the name of Moderna.or Pfizer.
Has anyone ever turned down admission into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because of its very nature? I don't think it's happened.
Seven in a row for the Mets, and for once they scored some runs.
We got a bit of the 'but he can hit' during the Jays game last night because apparently he hit a HR one for the Dodgers and looks good in batting practice. 0-2 with two strikeouts last night, .177 lifetime batting average. Make it stop.
There are so many questions about the Vega$ show. Are they swingers, do they live in an underground bomb shelter home, do they suffer from car exhaust inhalation, what are they spending so much money on for breakfast? What the hell did I just watch?
Craig has taken the wrong message from Teoscar Hernandez returning from COVID to be the best player on the Blue Jays. The true lesson:
More people should be named Teoscar.
This is the rock upon which I shall build my church.
My daughter is a professional horse person. She tells me horse accupuncture is more for the horse's owner than the horse. But I guess it's doing the most for the accupuncturist.
My grandparents, born and raised in County Kerry, would have appreciated the Michael Finnegan reference!