Our Two Covid Problems
With these vaccines as our only real defense, we may survive the virus living among us, but the virus among us may survive as well.
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An uncomfortable fact. We have two problems with Covid in the U.S., not just one. They do overlap, but each on its own is responsible for the persistence of the virus among us.
Let me explain.
‘Let’s You and Him Fight’
"I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half."
—Jay Gould (cited here)
First, people who are virulently anti-vaxx are being media-stirred to be even more anti-vaxx, because "freedom," with new rebels added by the day. These people would exist anyway, but not in these numbers, except for the culture war that:
• Republicans Party supporters like Richard Viguerie started in the late 1970s and cynically continue to profit from electorally, and
• Democratic Party supporters exacerbate by demonizing anyone on the “idiot side of the political fence.”
The still-approved term for the other side's supporters, though not said in public by people with standing, is "deplorables." Lower down on the “people with standing" scale, the term is used freely. For example:
This was written after the January 6 riot, but note that it targets "Trump supporters," meaning all Trump voters, including those who voted Republican just because they couldn't stomach mainstream Democrats.
To put a number to it, that comment tars close to 75,000,000 voters out of the total voting pool of 160 million Americans. That's a lot of people to disdain.
And this remark is certainly not alone. From just this month:
And another:
You get the idea. Half of the voting public is being driven up to hate the other half, and each side happily participates. As a result, we have a war that will never end unless those promoting it stand down. Which they won't.
All this has made being "deplorable" a badge of honor on the one side…
…and made treating right-wing voters as if they were "deplorable" a badge of membership on the other.
For example, consider this snarky comment...
...and this, from the queen of mainstream anti-Trump orthodoxy...
Rachel Maddow Rips Fox News For Pushing 'Horse Dewormer' For COVID Treatment
...which freely conflated using the horse version of ivermectin with using the FDA-approved, known-safe people version available in pharmacies.
All of which leads to events like this:
It's impossible not to conclude that the pharmacy above is responding to Democratic ecosystem orthodoxy and violating its duty as pharmacists to do it. Reminds one of those (deplorable) days when right-wing pharmacies wouldn't fill birth control prescriptions.
Because of all this, we may be closing in on the maximum percentage of Americans who will be vaccinated, until a greater enough number of deaths — tragedies that touch a great many more families and friends — lays all of us low and humbles the violently angry on every side.
Clearly, one hopes and prays not to see that outcome. Which sadly means one hopes this war won’t end.
The Falsely-Named 'Pandemic of the Unvaccinated' Hides the True Nature of Our Vaccines
Moderna, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca do not require that their vaccine prevent serious disease, only symptoms.
—Dr. William Haseltine
But all this public panic, anger and shaming of the unvaccinated by the vaccinated — what the Sun-Times calls “the pandemic of the unvaccinated”, for example — hides another fact. The Covid vaccines, as good as they are, were not designed to prevent infection in the first place, only symptoms.
Let that sink in. The current Covid vaccines were not designed to prevent infection. That's a major reason why "breakthrough infections" occur. In addition, because the vaccines do prevent severe symptoms and a vast majority of cases, the number of breakthrough infections must, by definition, be under-counted.
This, from September 2020, was written by Dr. William Haseltine, formerly of the Harvard Medical School and a hero in the fight to genetically characterize AIDS (bio here and here):
Prevention of infection must be a critical endpoint. Any vaccine trial should include regular antigen testing every three days to test contagiousness to pick up early signs of infection and PCR testing once a week to confirm infection by SARS-CoV-2 test the ability of the vaccines to stave off infection. Prevention of infection is not a criterion for success for any of these vaccines. In fact, their endpoints all require confirmed infections and all those they will include in the analysis for success, the only difference being the severity of symptoms between the vaccinated and unvaccinated. Measuring differences amongst only those infected by SARS-CoV-2 underscores the implicit conclusion that the vaccines are not expected to prevent infection, only modify symptoms of those infected.
We all expect an effective vaccine to prevent serious illness if infected. Three of the vaccine protocols—Moderna, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca—do not require that their vaccine prevent serious disease[,] only that they prevent moderate symptoms which may be as mild as cough, or headache. [emphasis added]
It may well be true that these vaccines, to some degree, do protect against infection, but (to use a club brandished against those who recommend studying ivermectin) no clinical studies, to my knowledge, have established that, or have established the degree of that protection.
It's certainly true that the world wanted these vaccines on the market on the fastest schedule possible. And it's also true that they have saved a great many lives. Just look at the ratio of infections-to-deaths prior to the vaccine rollout, and the same ratio afterward (chart above).
But it is also true that it's not just the unvaccinated who are infecting the vaccinated, since both vaccinated and unvaccinated can be Covid carriers and spreaders.
Which means that, even if the world were 100% vaccinated with these vaccines, the vaccinated who host the virus would provide ample breeding ground for variants.
In other words, with these vaccines as our only real defense, we may survive the virus living among us, but the virus among us may survive as well.
If so, the unvaccinated are not responsible for that. Our global Covid strategy is.
I’m not sorry to say this:
You CANNOT support the January 6th terrorists in any way, or support politicians defending the JANUARY 6th terrorists in any way, without you yourself becoming a supporter of terrorism/terrorists.
There is no other way to describe it: The people storming the Capitol on January 6th were there to “HANG MIKE PENCE!” and “HANG NANCY!” (Pelosi) and remember “We’re making history it’s a revolution man!”
People like Kevin Sorbo were all too happy that “history is being made” right up to the point it became obvious the Beer Gut Putsch failed. Then suddenly Qanon Shaman was suddenly not a Republican or Trump supporter, no all those people magically became tourists or ANTIFA1!11!!!
Let’s also stop ignoring the rest of the year where right-wing terrorists burned down a police precinct in Minneapolis, killed officers in California, were making Molotov cocktails in Vegas, threatened numerous Democratic politicians, threatened Mike DeWine because of his response to C19, and to keep this list short: planned on kidnapping “that woman” from Michigan for extra-judicial trial and execution. The last group, barring that, planned on taking over the Michigan Capitol and executing “enemies of the people” aka those durty Demonrats.
Anyone who supports any politician who minimizes these actions, in any manner at all, should be considered a seditionist and unfit for office. The people who did this are the dictionary definition of TERRORISTS:
“A person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.”
They wanted to HANG MIKE PENCE! to STOP THE STEAL! and INSTALL TRUMP AS PRESIDENT!
Tell me again: How is calling Republicans what they are wrong? I wouldn’t say it, but they do everything to coddle terrorists. They’re just “tourists” and “did nothing wrong” and “it’s Antifa!”
Bull. The GQP, and every GQP voter are directly and indirectly supporting Cop Killers, Terrorists, and Traitors. That means they are, by extension, Cop Killers, Terrorists, and Traitors. There is no sugar-coating this basic fact.
but note that it targets "Trump supporters," meaning all Trump voters, including those who voted Republican just because they couldn't stomach mainstream Democrats --- So they instead chose someone who was worse than any democrat.Yeah, they are deplorable. Every single damn one of them. And their actions have repeatedly showed it. Fuck off with this both sides are bad bullshit.