171–180 of 222 posts
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> And yet obesity whilst being a problem for decades has not caused an epidemic of obese people. Really? Over 40% of US adults being obese[1] is not an epidemic? [1] https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html
I know this may come as a shock but the world is bigger than the US. COVID strikes people of all backgrounds not just those from wealthy countries who can afford to eat well.
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How is locking down only the anti-vax retards any worse then locking down everyone?
Because first we were told "two weeks to flatten the curve and slow the spread". We were also told we didn't really need masks. Then we were told, as late as last October by CNN, and even later by the new guy himself, we should be scared of the new vaccine, because it was released super fast, and endorsed by the last guy. Then the new guy came in and even though he had nothing to do with it, suddenly, in the blink of…
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According to the following graph deaths per 100,000 people are: 18 for unvaccinated 3 for vaccinated. at the peak of the graph between July and October 2021. Doesn't that tell us that vaccinations help to significantly reduce Covid-deaths? https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/united-states-rates-of-co...
Reduce deaths? yes. But it tells us nothing about reducing spread.
Theoretically it could be possible that non-vaccinated infect fewer others than those who are vaccinated -- because unvaccinated more readily die after which they can not keep on infecting others. Nevertheless the goal is not to reduce infections but to reduce deaths and serious illness.
Here's an article which says that vaccination does reduce the risk of you infecting others. But this effect diminishes over time quite fast. That would seem like a good reason to get the booster.
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Security theatre, like washing streets with chlorine solution
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/opinion/coronavirus-airbo... In hindsight, the washing was overreaction, but you do have to realize there wasn't enough knowledge in the beginning, and people were assuming the virus was like the influenza virus, and we usually (at least the common wisdom was) catch influenza through touching snot-laden surfaces. It didn't help when China was saying things like they found some virus…
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Take a look at QR image in the post. I haven't seen a QR code in the first world that carries more data, especially not a printed one. It's doubtful they're optimizing for poor cameras or printers any more than is done in the first world, and to be clear, in the first world we still have to optimize for poor cameras and printers. Decreasing the message size while improving security would obviously be ideal and most l…
Have you ever looked at the size of the standardize EU QR code[0] ? At just a glance it looks at least 2-3x denser than the one presented in the article. Also, on the specification published by the EU[1], they seem to advise for a 25-60cm size, and also warn about using When I was vaccinated, I was given an A4 sheet with those QR codes on it, and I really wouldn't want to scan those with a crappy camera. [0]: https:/…
Primary Algorithm: The primary algorithm is Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) as defined in (ISO/IEC 14888–3:2006) section 2.3, using the P–256 parameters as defined in appendix D (D.1.2.3) of (FIPS PUB 186–4) in combination the SHA–256 hash algorithm as defined in (ISO/IEC 10118–3:2004) function 4. This corresponds to the COSE algorithm parameter ES256.
Secondary Algorithm: The secondary algorithm is RSASSA-PSS as defined in (RFC 8230) with a modulus of 2048 bits in combination with the SHA–256 hash algorithm as defined in (ISO/IEC 10118–3:2004) function 4.
So not exactly 512 bit RSA.
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The problem is that the people that are a) evil enough and b) technical enough to understand this will sell COVID passes for hundreds of dollars each. Here in the NL there have been tons of people that sold COVID passes, some working at vaccination places, others working at testing places. Instead of hacking anything, they've just been committing regular fraud. The street value of these passes seems to be round €300…
How did the government recognize the fake passes? Just asking so I can alert my government if I see them somewhere.
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Unfortunately, you’d be surprised. I know of at least one
I know dozens of people working in the healthcare sector skeptical of covid vaccines, among them virologists specialized in RNA viruses. Their skepticism is far more nuanced, and evidence based, than the "All vaccines are poison/bill gates gonna 5G us!" covid vaccine skepticism is usually framed as. They do not oppose any other common sense measures, like mask wearing, they simply want to be careful about vaccines th…
I wonder what kind of "smart" person ignores this evidence and puts their life at risk at will? Hey my chance of dying from Covid is 10 times bigger because I don't get vaccinated, but I won't because I believe an even worse fate awaits me if I do. What do they think that worse fate is?
About the vaccine not giving us herd-immunity, of course it doesn't if the herd refuses to get vaccinated.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/united-states-rates-of-co...
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Not sure if you're aware, but the Aussie covid vaccination "certificate" from the government App uses a "digital hologram" to prevent forgery. It's essentially an animated gif.
Unfortunately the governments implementing these measures seem absolutely determined to treat Orwell's 1984 as a training or howto manual. As we descend further into authoritarianism, tracking and other privacy busting measures will become even more normalised and entrenched. You'll soon need to show identity and other papers to get into a shop to buy a hammer.
These vaccination cards are totally unprecedented[1] and authoritarian. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.
[1] https://www.kxan.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2021/04/yel...
Random question, but related: Like this example, I see lots of other applications that require a QR code storing binary data and chose to encoded this data as Base64 (or others) and then add it to a ASCII-only QR code format. Why don't they use a binary-mode QR code? Compatibility?
> The reason for representing Health Cards using Numeric Mode QRs instead of Binary Mode (Latin-1) QRs is information density: with Numeric Mode, 20% more data can fit in a given QR, vs Binary Mode. This is because the JWS character set conveys only log_2(65) bits per character (~6 bits); binary encoding requires log_2(256) bits per character (8 bits), which means ~2 wasted bits per character https://spec.smarthealth…
If you were using binary storage, you wouldn't use "the JWS character set" (aka base64). You'd store it directly and have 0 wasted bits.
Also, they're not acknowledging the bits wasted by their current system. Numeric mode in QR codes spends 3.33 bits per digit. At two digits per character, they're spending 6.67 bits to store only 6 bits of information.
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I think most people who are smart enough to fake the certificate are smart enough to get vaccinated. What do you win by using a fake certificate vs. getting protected by the vaccine?
I don't think parent was promoting the use of fake certificates to bypass the need to get vaccinated. They were pointing out that even for vaccinated persons the certificate system was broken, and those folks were resorting to "fake" certificates just to get around.
1. Gives you the real certificate
2. FOR FREE,
3. With no chance of getting charged with forgery.
4. Gets you vaccinated which will protect you against death and serious illness.
I think the choice is a "no-brainer"
