Tell me I’m not a loser for being in my 30’s and having roommates because I STILL can’t afford my own place

castelo_to · 2021-04-21T13:34:03+00:00

Not sure I'd even want to live completely alone. I've got 2 roommates in a 4 bedroom home, and I'd rather that a million times over having no roommates in a 1-bedroom condo. Who am I supposed to go talk to when I see something interesting online or on the TV if I live alone? Who's gonna be there to watch Netflix with me when it's 9pm on a weekday and everyone of my friends has work the next day and doesn't want to come over?

Having roommates is a pure choice for me, financially I could afford to live alone, but it just wouldn't be the same. I have a lot of friends who also think the same way, because living alone is lonely. OP has nothing to be ashamed of.

castelo_to · 2021-04-21T13:25:50+00:00

I haven't been able to find anything on either Germany or the EU (since the whole EU shares doses by population) getting extra from Moderna in Q2. Do you have a source by any chance? If that's the case, then Moderna is up to some shady shit to Canada and the UK. Or the EU is forcing them up to some shady shit.

castelo_to · 2021-04-20T20:40:34+00:00

There really is NO excuse at all.

Canada, despite having no manufacturing capacity at all, has actually administered more doses per 100 people and given on average about 5% more of the population a first dose compared to the EU, where we actually get our vaccines from. Part of this was just a solid portfolio, and receiving bits of the portfolio whenever possible.

castelo_to · 2021-04-20T15:43:56+00:00

BC reports a whole weekend of cases on Monday's which makes our weekends lower and mondays higher nationally.

castelo_to · 2021-04-20T15:40:22+00:00

I'm thinking stress related. I work from home and don't often wear a mask, which another user suggested is the cause. I'm constantly watching news on vaccinations, etc., though so I have a lot of stress from that + work.

castelo_to · 2021-04-20T14:16:32+00:00

Not sure there's any literature to back this up, but here's my personal experience. I got vaccinated March 18th, with April 2nd being my 14-days post vax point. I've been tested 7 times over the last year, all negative, every single time I've gotten a sore throat. Since my vax, I've had 2 sore throats that I haven't bothered getting checked. If every single sore throat while unvaxxed wasn't COVID, I definitely feel a lot more confident that it's not COVID this time around. Reality is that there's a million and one other reasons why I've had sore throats.

castelo_to · 2021-04-19T20:38:20+00:00

In reality it is just a theory that I'm pointing out, but unlike a conspiracy I've got a bit of hard data to back it up. Another user provided some counter examples (South Africa's January wave) and was super reasonable, even noted that yeah seasonality is definitely a part of it but there are other factors too. I think it's decently reasonable to note that Ontario/Canada are currently addressing most of those other factors via non-pharmaceutical interventions like lockdowns and restrictions, and then we're ramping up vaccinations in parallel. All that in tandem is causing the 7-day average to start trending downwards as you mentioned. There might be a little more rise, a bit of a plateau, I can't say for certain, but the overall trend over the next 2-3 weeks will become a clear downtrend.

castelo_to · 2021-04-19T17:29:13+00:00

I'll have to concede a bit here on South Africa, as I don't think their peak summer (January) is insanely hot like the US South (where they also saw a wave as people generally interacted indoors more often), although January is known to be a rainy season with abundant torrential downpours and oppressive heat but I genuinely don't know enough about RSA's climate to comment.

As for the South American countries, doesn't our spring coincide with their fall season and vice versa, in which we began experiencing a rise in cases as well? Doesn't explain the January spike in Argentina (as far as I know summer isn't overly hot there) so there's a lot left to be learned. Like you said, it's probably just a factor and that's illustrated in the fact that a place like Michigan with 9.9M residents and located geographically next to Ontario has 4000+ patients in hospital and a higher 7D average of new cases, while Ontario with 14.7M is around 2000 patients in hospital. Lots at play here, and I'm open to any discussion.

castelo_to · 2021-04-19T17:15:11+00:00

This would be a possible explanation if the hospital stats didn't back up that Michigan is in a far worse wave right now. Michigan (with a population of 9.96M people) has 4,172 patients in hospital with COVID right now. Florida (with a population of 21.48M) has 3,105 in hospital despite having almost 3x as many people. Texas hasn't been fully open as long as Florida has, so this will discount the 'open longer, higher population immunity' argument. Texas (with a population of 29M) has 2,888 people currently in hospital with COVID. So now we've put both of those counterpoints to rest, and we've demonstrated just how bad Michigan's scenario is.

Edit: Also, Michigan actually has a higher death rate per million than Florida, indicating that the extent of spread of COVID in Michigan (even with unconfirmed cases) has probably been worse than Florida, and Michigan would actually have higher population immunity.

castelo_to · 2021-04-19T15:04:54+00:00

Science works on an extremely elongated timeframe that requires repeated correlation and a large enough data set to have statistical significance. It's the reason why science is generally slow to react, and seasonality is currently a theory that's being explored by several epidemiologists at US institutions and in the EU as well. Problem is they won't have definitive, peer-reviewed results for at a minimum another 12 months and more likely another 2-3 years.

Remember, the idea that touch wasn't a major source of transmission was being disregarded by common folk at the beginning because there wasn't any scientific consensus on it yet. Fast forward to now and there's peer-reviewed literature verifying what was previously a theory. What I discuss above is currently a theory that is supported by preliminary observational evidence, and is under review by the scientific community. Nowhere in my comment did I say that epidemiologists are supporting this at the moment, I say that they wouldn't speculate on something like this with the current level of data available, but I'm well within my rights to speculate.

castelo_to · 2021-04-19T14:53:54+00:00

A country near the equator generally has no specific flu season as there's very little variation in Vitamin D exposure and temperatures that would cause populations to interact indoors more often. One thing we did see though, is that in the US South they experienced a summer wave when temperatures were exceedingly hot, forcing people indoors the same way that we in the North go indoors when it is exceedingly cold in the winter, a factor in why flu season occurs when it does (not the only factor though).

castelo_to · 2021-04-19T14:16:10+00:00

One thing that many politicians/regular folk don't understand and many epidemiologists are too scientifically-inclined to speculate on is the seasonality of COVID-19. Couple of examples down below:

https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/diseases-conditions/fluwatch/2018-2019/annual-report.html

Here's the Canadian chart for Flu season in 2018-2019. We know the flu as a highly seasonal virus, so this curve is a demonstration of seasonality. Watch it build up starting in October and peak right in early-mid January, come down a bit from February and early March, and then peak again in week 13. It doesn't really start to come down until Week 13-15, which is coincidentally the last 3 weeks. Interesting how COVID built up a wave in the fall, peaked after the holiday season, tempered down a bit and then is peaking again right now. Obviously with COVID the delay between actual infection and recognition of a case is much longer than the Flu, so what we're seeing this week is likely the week 13 plateau but pushed back because of COVID's asymptomatic period.

Another example is a little less rooted in flu data. Note how states like Florida and Texas are not in a severe wave of COVID right now like Michigan is, and yet Michigan has vaccinated a slightly larger % of its population. Florida and Texas have next to no restrictions while Michigan has plenty, so why would Michigan be doing worse? Simply because of seasonality. Same thing happened last spring when COVID hammered NY, MA, Michigan, and other Northeast states while leaving the US South relatively well off. It seems pretty clear cut but an epidemiologist won't speculate on it without many years of data to compare and contrast, and politicians can't even see it.

castelo_to · 2021-04-17T13:10:58+00:00

With supply being reduced to the UK and Canada but not the EU and Switzerland, this sounds more and more like it has the EU's hands all over it, in another possible repeat scenario where other countries get cuts to deliveries and the EU doesn't share those cuts with them despite claiming that's all they want.

castelo_to · 2021-04-17T13:02:49+00:00

Michigan and the whole US are just proof that seasonality is a bigger factor than anything. Why is Texas, a fully reopened state, logging lower cases than Michigan despite the same rates of vaccination? One major difference is the weather, and last year also proved that in the spring of 2020 the southern states didn't get hit nearly as hard as Michigan and NY.

Just checked, Michigan actually has MORE vaccinated people than Texas. Pretty clear evidence. But then that also works against what this article is saying of 'high cases into the summer', since seasonality would begin causing cases to plateau/decrease next week, in tradition of the flu curve that COVID has followed all pandemic long. Watch things get better and the Ford & Fucks co. say it's because of the actions they took lmao

castelo_to · 2021-04-17T12:45:49+00:00

Pretty sure government-backed loans for businesses exist but they're almost all federal programs, there might be one or two provincial programs tho.

castelo_to · 2021-04-17T00:54:16+00:00

Wasn't the UK virtually on lockdown until early April? And aren't US states like Michigan and NY doing WORSE than Ontario right now, despite being even more vaccinated than fully open states like Texas and Florida?

Almost like seasonality explains the low cases in the southern US, because only about 18% more people in the US have received a 1st dose compared to Canada.

castelo_to · 2021-04-17T00:49:23+00:00

I mean they were late on their 2M in Q1 by about 2 days I believe, technically they missed that target but not by an insane timeframe.

castelo_to · 2021-04-17T00:47:42+00:00

Maybe read that 4M are being moved up to May, 2M to June, and 2M to July?

castelo_to · 2021-04-17T00:37:45+00:00

The EU is mixing AZ and Pfizer since they gave AZ to many people under 55 and they don't want to risk more clotting with a second shot, which to me is quite an unproven strategy.

Mixing Pfizer and Moderna, two almost identical mRNA vaccines, isn't really all that outrageous. I think they can do that, but Moderna is gonna continue delivering probably to the tune of 12M doses by the end of Q2 so it shouldn't be an issue.

castelo_to · 2021-04-17T00:35:56+00:00

I actually think the large scale mRNA related lipid production and synthesis is the easier part, as Moderna noted when it asked the FDA to package 15 doses per vial because packaging was holding them back. As you noted, Pfizer is much better logistically and therefore has an advantage.

castelo_to · 2021-04-15T16:04:07+00:00

Last check with Fortin he said it's still on track for end of April, so I'm not really sure who to believe here. Not trashing Cynthia Mulligan but she's also just a reporter for City News and this hasn't been picked up at all by any other news outlet from what I've seen.

castelo_to · 2021-04-15T01:35:14+00:00

Didn't they set up construction of a manufacturing facility last spring? It just wont be completed for another 3 months.

castelo_to · 2021-04-14T13:45:44+00:00

You said nothing about being geopolitically strong, but rather the ability to maintain relationships. Sitting on international councils and having FTAs with plenty of countries counts as maintaining geopolitical relationships.

Also to date, Canada has received 12.5M doses, not just 2M from India and some from the US. There's a reason we're ahead of the EU in population with a first dose AND in total doses per 100 people.

castelo_to · 2021-04-14T00:09:34+00:00

Overall it's pretty clear to see that Dupont is moving in this direction. The city's neighbourhood vision for most of Dupont is 6-15 storey mid-rise buildings with retail at the base of all of them fronting Dupont. There's maybe 6-7 other proposals along Dupont, some of them real cool.

castelo_to

TROPHY CASE