I have had a couple of conversations this year that had me scratching my head and biting back my usual retort when confronted by abject stupidity and ignorance: “You can’t possibly be that f*cking stupid!”
The first was a long (too long…it was on a long flight) conversation with an ER physician with a second job as a medical editor. She was absolutely convinced of the efficacy of the Covid 19 vaccines, and was even more adamant that masking was very effective in preventing transmission of the Covid 19 virus. No amount of data in the form of peer-reviewed studies debunking the masking myth dissuaded her.
As for the vaccination? She carefully ignored the public…official…government and Big Pharma statements claiming the vaccine as essentially the savior of civilization, and accepted only the most narrow claims about its efficacy that were made well after the coercive push for its universal acceptance.
The second was with the vaccine tech at CVS who gave me a flu vaccine. She denied that there were ever any grandiose claims about the effectiveness of the Covid 19 vaccine, and claimed that the only statements were that the vaccine would decrease hospitalizations! No memory of the bald-faced lies of federal, state, and local government functionaries. No recollection of the huge push by Big Pharma, no understanding of why Americans are now looking twice at ALL vaccines, other than the smug, formulaic; “they don’t understand.”
This is, in microcosm, the typical mushy-headed liberal voter. They cheerfully accept carefully cherry-picked facts, conveniently provided by their handlers in the media and the higher reaches of the Democrat/Progressive political hierarchy. They are curiously unwilling to entertain even the remote possibility that the orthodoxy is incorrect, or even incomplete.
They are sheep…nothing more. They behave that way in all respects, and it is a quality that is used to great effect by the real thinkers in the Democrat/Progressive system. They dispatch their sheep onto the streets to riot, into the vote counting rooms to cheat, into the union meetings to lie, onto the school boards to push a deeply destructive view of America and its founding, and most of all to vote early and often for the candidates who will bring down the society that has provided the wealth and freedom that allows their behavior.
There are many flaws in the conservative movement, but the discomfort with a herd mentality is not one of them. Think back to the last significant political conversation you had with a conservative. Yes, there were many points of agreement, but more often than not those conversations expose differences. And that is how it should be. The concept of American Federalism allows for 50 incubators of political philosophy. It is a testament to the tremendous respect that our founders had for the individual, and the Democrat/Progressive hatred of it is testament to their fundamental disagreement with the notion of the individual being the building block of a free society.
Yet that herd mentality has provided the power that the left wields today, and the great question is whether a conservative movement can organize to take back that power while still respecting the innate superiority of the individual.
It’s going to be an interesting ride!
Well, yes and no.
First the the FDA announced in 12/2020 that the efficacy, how a drug performs in a controlled environment, of the mRNA vaccines was around 92%. That’s in a controlled environment so the expected real-world effectiveness was around 85-90%. That meant around 10% of the patients would not be protected.
The bureaucrats and media didn’t explain that so when some vaccinated people caught the disease, credibility was lost. IOW The vaccines are not a magic bullet. Why didn’t they? The best theory I have read is that they didn’t want to confuse us with facts and that would reduce the chances that they could get 100% acceptance and “save civilization.” Lefties are big on saving things.
The boosters came along for two reasons. First, the vaccine weakened quicker than expected. Nothing new here. See the flu vaccine as well as tetanus and pneumonia. Plus, viruses mutate. What works with VI doesn’t work well, if at all, with virus V1a. BTW – As they mutate the new version is usually weaker than the original. But that isn’t cast in concrete.
What was also ignored was that those who had taken the vaccine, when it weakened, and they caught Covid the symptoms plunged, and people got sick but they recovered. That was true. But again, it distracted from the party line.
The kicker was that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, made by traditional weakened virus method, started out around 72% and got worse. Plus, the early negative stuff was linked to J&J and it has since been withdrawn. Yet that wasn’t pointed out and the mRNA vaccines have been painted with the same brush.
Then Fauci assured us that masks didn’t work and then changed his mind while admitting that he had lied because he feared there wouldn’t be enough masks for health care workers and first responders. Just trust him. He lies for our benefit. And the check’s in the mail.
Again, the super smart people didn’t bother to point out that conventional cloth masks are not effective on an individual basis, but on a national/large population they reduced the amount of virus emitted by the sick and thus reduced the number of people infected. This is a tricky point because becoming infected depends on the health of the exposed person, amount of viruses exposed to, distance between, air temp, etc. IOW Some people will become infected, some people won’t. Sorry if you want a black and white answer, but like many things in life, the answer is muddled.
But what is not muddled is that in countries that have historically worn masks the deaths per million is dramatically less when compared to those that do not. I.e. Japan’s death per million is around 600. The US’s is 3600. And yes, there may be other factors involved but I can’t find enough to change the 1:6 ratio.
And along with all the BS from the federals, we had a mix of nonsense on the Internet. I mean, should we listen to what John’s bartender’s girl friend heard from her hair dresser’s cousin who wanted to be a nurse, or should be we ask our doctor?
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?fbclid=IwAR1z20ywS0CQ5eRkDcK_cf9EznWhWXLzlvEDU8AuOkYym0r8oGe4g3uwtcU#countries
“Efficacy” was continually redefined! First they said it would prevent infection. Then they said that it would moderate the illness while preventing transmission. Then they said…
Instead of presenting the data and allowing America to choose, they lied. That has created an understandable reluctance to take any vaccine, and that is criminal!
Your assumptions about mask wear are flawed. Just look at the studies that show no decrease in infection rate.
As for comparisons with Japan? Come on…Japan is homogeneous, America isn’t. That, in and of itself makes the comparison suspect. Add in obesity, diabetes, etc. and you get a flawed comparison. Why not compare to Sweden, a country that did not lose its mind and still had a low death rate?
“Your assumptions about mask wear are flawed. Just look at the studies that show no decrease in infection rate.”
Sorry, there is no way any study in an uncontrolled environment proves anything.
“As for comparisons with Japan? Come on…Japan is homogeneous”
I’m not seeing your point unless you are saying that not being homogeneous means that it would be difficult to get people in the US to wear a mask. Probably. But that doesn’t answer the fact that in a homogeneous Japan where people wear the mask the death rate per million is 1:6 vs the US.
To the often made point that viruses are too small to be trapped I agree. The masks were never meant to provide protection for the wearer. They are meant to reduce the amount of viruses that is expelled by a sick wearer, thus reducing the amount in the air. It does this the same way a screen let’s some dust through while catching some.
““Efficacy” was continually redefined! First they said it would prevent infection. Then they said that it would moderate the illness while preventing transmission.”
I do not recall ever reading where some one said that efficacy was changed. There was much written when the definition of vaccine was changed. I found this silly and unproductive. Vaccines prevent infection and, in some cases, reduce symptoms and may require boosters due to fading a virus mutation. Arguing about this reminds me of Middle Age discussions over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
“In the clinical development of a vaccine, an efficacy study asks the question, “Does the vaccine work?” In contrast, an effectiveness study asks the question “Does vaccination help people?”
The FDA numbers were around 92% for the mRNA vaccines, 72% for the traditional J&J approach. The effectiveness, what happens in the real world, was always expected to be less.
I agree that leftie federals tried to make the vaccines what they weren’t. That is, a “silver bullet.” My belief is that they wanted to make Biden a hero because he was the president (lower case p) as the disease was rapidly beat down. Problem was the vaccines had some problems that were exaggerated via the Internet. VAERS has no guidelines. Anybody can report anything at any time. Thus, its usefulness is limited.
To get anecdotal with you, I’m 86 and have taken the vaccines and boosters and have had Covid three times. Not willing to hunker down in fear of dying I chose to live my life free from fear and to trust in the medical profession. That is, I asked my doctor who said, “Go for it.” All three cases have had symptoms less than a sever cold, lasting three days.
To me, the key thing is that the disease is a killer of the aged and those immune compromised. In TN the population over 65 that were unvaccinated and caught the disease had a death rate of around 30%. The confusion and reluctance created by the Left, and some on the Right, have killed people.
Thanks for listening. I enjoy your part of AoS. Have a nice night.
– Jim
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9855432/#:~:text=In%20the%20clinical%20development%20of,Does%20vaccination%20help%20people%3F%22.
I did a lengthy reply yesterday but it has vanished. Did I make a mistake in posting or did you delete it?
Nope. Never saw it.
Thanks, I won’t bother reposting.
We are in agreement on 99.99999%.
My main concern is that we have mixed medicine and politics. And that is bad.