HURRICANES LOUNGE XLVIII

[Blueline Bomber]

Viral diseases aren't curable, and the cold is a huge range of mild viruses, not just one thing, making a vaccine hard. But you know that fancy new mRNA stuff we used for the COVID vaccines is supposed to work really well for addressing a lot of those cold viruses in testing, the question is getting a mix that inoculates against enough different viruses to be effective.

There was an interesting idea during COVID that IIRC was being funded by the DOD where there was a 20 sided molecule for a vaccine where each face could be programmed to inoculate against a different virus. It wasn't progressing as fast as the mRNA stuff that wound up working best and fastest, but there was a lot of talk that that could be the base for a real cold vaccine- you didn't need that for COVID, where you only had 1 or 2 dominant strains at any given moment, but they were just throwing money at any novel vaccine technologies they could find in hopes that something worked. Which obviously paid off with some really effective COVID vaccines, but also advanced the science on a bunch of stuff that didn't crack through but very well might with further research. Once the COVID vaccines were identified for production, the Warp Speed funding for the other stuff disappeared, but funding to keep that research going with stuff like NIH grants could keep things chugging along in the background, if we still have an NIH.

Of course, politics and nutjob conspiracy theories have now turned half the population against the development of new and better vaccines, so don't expect those programs to be funded for a number of years.

I appreciate the detailed answer, but I was just ranting because I’m irritable. Because for the last few days, my nose hasn’t stopped running and I haven’t stopped sneezing…except those times when I can feel the sneeze building, and I prepare to eject said sneeze, but it just never reaches the point of actually sneezing, so I’m stuck in that sneeze limbo, making ridiculous faces and starting into lights until it decides to finally break.

A couple days ago, I was woken up at 3:30 in the morning and stuck in that sneeze limbo for half an hour.

 

[raynman]

Meh RTO is working fine for my government agency, then again, I can't work from home as I am a field site specific position.

I guess working from home is fine for some things but not what we do. We don't miss any of the people who refused to come back to the site that I can tell.

These people filter themselves out. We had one quit because he demanded to see documentation that everyone was getting vax and boosters in the site office building I am in. Imagine the audacity of demanding personal medical records of co-workers. He weeded him self out a couple years ago.

We had 1 wfh day a pay period which worked out nicely if you needed to lock in and get something done or knock out some of the required training. The internet at our installation sucks so getting training done is a chore whereas with a normal internet connection you can knock it out rather quickly. Now wfh is a situational thing, not a big deal for my division but it was nice to have in the back pocket.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

We would be crippled without our remote workers and it would be borderline the end of that whole unit.

I think this situation is much more common in tech. Most tech work is pretty ideal for remote work; I was basically 100% remote for the last 20 years of my career (with a significant increase in mandatory travel when I hit the exec ranks), but I worked constantly with others on irc/slack/etc. You don't need to be in the office for a 15 minute stand-up anyway. It's usually pretty clear who's producing and who isn't, and it has nothing to do with being in the office. And because most of the best talent has tons of options, you need remote work policies to stay competitive.

Hope your new position works out. Glad to see DevSecOps folks still finding good jobs, and glad I'm out of the game.

 

[TheGreenTBer]

I think this situation is much more common in tech. Most tech work is pretty ideal for remote work; I was basically 100% remote for the last 20 years of my career (with a significant increase in mandatory travel when I hit the exec ranks), but I worked constantly with others on irc/slack/etc. You don't need to be in the office for a 15 minute stand-up anyway. It's usually pretty clear who's producing and who isn't, and it has nothing to do with being in the office. And because most of the best talent has tons of options, you need remote work policies to stay competitive.

Hope your new position works out. Glad to see DevSecOps folks still finding good jobs, and glad I'm out of the game.

I'm trying to evolve as best I can. I try to keep increasing skills to become more valuable and that I can save enough money to retire before I can't get jobs anymore.

 

[hblueridgegal]

This makes me so sad..was such a majestic place. Mother Nature is displaying her fury and displeasure these days.

Last year, I took a panoramic Bernina red train through the Alps to Italy....needed to go from Zurich to Milan for work... chose the scenic route from Chur (Nino's hometown) to Milan...such stunning sights. Thank goodness that folks had been warned in advance about the glacier and a possible landslides and had already evacuated a few days before. Still so devastating.