[lhvetinari]

Well if people had started eating better years back it might have helped some - at least with hospitalizations and deaths. But beginning to eat healthier now seems unlikely to make any significant short term improvement to your odds of avoiding or surviving COVID.

However I think there's some preliminary research suggesting that one reason COVID deaths aren't higher in Africa, even in areas with pretty poor use of masks, is that there's so much less obesity there than in Western Europe or the US.

I've also heard the lower rate in Africa may be partially due to much lower smoking rates (in 2015, only 14% of Africans smoked, compared to 23% in the Americas and 31% in the Eastern Med, one of the hardest-hit regions).

 

[cheesesteak]

Well if people had started eating better years back it might have helped some - at least with hospitalizations and deaths. But beginning to eat healthier now seems unlikely to make any significant short term improvement to your odds of avoiding or surviving COVID.

However I think there's some preliminary research suggesting that one reason COVID deaths aren't higher in Africa, even in areas with pretty poor use of masks, is that there's so much less obesity there than in Western Europe or the US.

I read or saw somewhere that the average age and obesity rates of Africans was much lower than in the US. In all honesty, at the beginning of covid I thought Africa would get decimated by it. Surprise! We're #1!

 

[cheesesteak]

I have gotten the feeling that he wants to emphasize that he's African. Back in the 1960s during the Civil Rights era, larger Afros were look upon as a positive message for the black community. Indeed probably 75% of his guests over the past year have been black. So I think he looks at his hair as a thing of pride, and not cut short to look more presentable (less threatening?) to a white audience (and add to the fact that he doesn't wear a suit and just his hoodie). I don't know if there's any type of public acknowledgement of it, but that's just my feeling.

Nah. I think it's just a covid fro. It's his "white void". Or he just wanted to grow his hair longer.

 

[robojerk]

For the lazy

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1367882850972831746

 

[eddyj]

I have been amazed at just how many hoodies he has used over the last year.

 

[DevdogAZ]

Agreed that the white void joke is tired. He can stay there, that's fine, but let's give up the discussion of it at the start of every show.

For me, both Trevor and Seth Myers are actually thriving in the new format (Seth moreso since he's back in his studio, his "from home" work was just OK). In a way I'll be sorry to seem them go back to a live audience because I think they're both funnier in this format.

The rest of the late night crew, including JO, IMO are better with a live audience.

Totally agree. I think Seth Meyers show is much better with him not in a suit and not pandering to the audience. I truly hope he keeps some of this new format when audiences return. This feeling was borne out even moreso when Jimmy Fallon returned to the old format last night with a suit and an audience and Higgins and everything. All I could think was how much better the show was in the more intimate format where he joked with The Roots rather than this new/old one where Higgins repeats every other word Fallon says.

 

[madscientist]

I just don't know how you keep it going with a studio audience. Seth bashing on his writers, doing asides, staring through the silence, going into one of his extra-long bits that you think should end but just get funnier the more he commits to them, etc. is awesome.

For Trevor, the quick cuts and asides which are the funniest thing about his bits are all added in editing. Not to mention he seems to get in about 50% more jokes when he doesn't have to wait for laughter.

I just don't see how they can keep these elements when there's a live audience. Well, I guess we'll see.

 

[logic88]

Well if people had started eating better years back it might have helped some - at least with hospitalizations and deaths. But beginning to eat healthier now seems unlikely to make any significant short term improvement to your odds of avoiding or surviving COVID.

However I think there's some preliminary research suggesting that one reason COVID deaths aren't higher in Africa, even in areas with pretty poor use of masks, is that there's so much less obesity there than in Western Europe or the US.

Hmmm... I'll have to see if I can dig it up but I recently heard on an Economist podcast segment (maybe it was The Jab?) that the #1 predictor of bad outcomes with COVID is age. Obesity increases the risk slightly but it pales in comparison to age. They basically said that they'd rather be young and obese than old and fit, IIRC.

But then again, there's so much that's unknown with COVID that it's a mystery why some countries have done so well. The New Yorker had a long article on this recently.

Why Does the Pandemic Seem to Be Hitting Some Countries Harder Than Others?

Another possibility is neanderthal ancestry.

The major genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19 is inherited from Neanderthals | Nature

A genomic region associated with protection against severe COVID-19 is inherited from Neandertals

 

[Tony_T]

National Debt Episode ("Debt, for lack of a better word, is good.")
Best line: "I'm not saying there is something inherently wrong with not having sex, that is a personal choice. I have frequently not had sex due to lots of people's personal choices"

 

[Steveknj]

Because the risk of this discussion becoming too political, I'm not going to respond to the topic of this week's episode, but I do have to say, that I'm starting to not enjoy this show as much as I used to. I think his topics have become too wonky, and there's much less humor. I kind of feel like I'm watching a PBS documentary on the topic than a comedy show.

 

[Tony_T]

Maybe my Google Fu is not working this morning, but I find that the current National Debt is ~28T, yet LWT, kept showing the (not a) “clock’ at ~12T.

 

[morac]

Because the risk of this discussion becoming too political, I'm not going to respond to the topic of this week's episode, but I do have to say, that I'm starting to not enjoy this show as much as I used to. I think his topics have become too wonky, and there's much less humor. I kind of feel like I'm watching a PBS documentary on the topic than a comedy show.

I feel Oliver was always a deep dive information show with humor interspersed as opposed to a "comedy show".

 

[cheesesteak]

He's still whining about being stuck in the void even though there's nothing preventing him from having a non-void set other than his desire to keep complaining about being in a void.

 

[astrohip]

He's still whining about being stuck in the void even though there's nothing preventing him from having a non-void set other than his desire to keep complaining about being in a void.

That's starting to bug me. Either STFU, or change voids.

 

[Steveknj]

I feel Oliver was always a deep dive information show with humor interspersed as opposed to a "comedy show".

He was in a lot of respects but he always did it with lots of comedy. Now it feels more like I'm watching Frontline on PBS. It's just not as funny as it used to be. Not sure if that's a part of not being in the "writers room" and not being at the studio.

 

[cheesesteak]

He was in a lot of respects but he always did it with lots of comedy. Now it feels more like I'm watching Frontline on PBS. It's just not as funny as it used to be. Not sure if that's a part of not being in the "writers room" and not being at the studio.

I kinda like the de-emphasis of comedy if that's what it is. I've always felt that he too often extends and embellishes his jokes too much until they're past clever and are now silly.

 

[Rob Helmerichs]

I kinda like the de-emphasis of comedy if that's what it is. I've always felt that he too often extends and embellishes his jokes too much until they're past clever and are now silly.

E.g., The Void.

 

[Steveknj]

I kinda like the de-emphasis of comedy if that's what it is. I've always felt that he too often extends and embellishes his jokes too much until they're past clever and are now silly.

And that's fine, if that's what you expect. I guess that's why Keith Obbermann bugged me when he was doing straight news on MSNBC. He was this irreverent Sports Center guy and now he's doing news. I just didn't feel the same kind of trust I guess in what he was saying as a news guy. John Oliver is a comedian. That's his strength. And while I like that he takes one topic for a week (which is different than how most of his peers work), I also liked when he made "fun" of said topic. Like what he did with the coal guy. He made him the butt of his jokes. Now, he's just going off, mostly seriously, on things that bug him. It's just as enjoyable and I can get the same information (and usually done by reporters who've done interviews and such) on something like Frontline or a CNN special.

 

[zalusky]

I think came a moment when John Oliver realized he was making a difference. A number of his stories have hit home and effected change.

 

[Rob Helmerichs]

I think came a moment when John Oliver realized he was making a difference. A number of his stories have hit home and effected change.

And he still has the humor and snark in him. He just knows when to use it, and when not to. He doesn't lean on it like he used to. More confidence.