Why doesn’t the raging plague in Maskachusetts cause doubt among the true believers in Faucism?

by philg

This post generally falls into the category of “Are humans in charge of SARS-CoV-2 infections or is the virus in charge?” One of the principal heresies of this blog, since March 2020, is the assertion that SARS-CoV-2 would be in charge of how many humans it infects. I’m wondering if Maskachusetts, which has proceeded under the assumption that humans are in charge, definitively answers the question.

Massachusetts has everything going for it in terms of COVID-19-protection. The population is untainted by Trump supporters, holds a lot of degrees (highly credentialed if not always educated), and is meekly compliant with whatever #Science tells them to do. 95 percent of the subjects, age 12+, have experienced the sacrament of vaccination. Almost any kind of indoor gathering, including attending what’s left of the public schools, requires that everyone wear a multi-layer mask (some private schools are now requiring N95 masks for all-day wear by those aged 2 and over, contrary to “expert” advice in August: “Kids do not need N95, KN95 masks at school amid COVID-19 surge, experts say” (Good Morning America)). Marijuana, which we are informed cures most diseases and is therefore “essential”, has by governor’s order been available at all times since March 2020. Colleges sent students home weeks ago and aren’t inviting them back until February. Unless Karen decides to go on vacation, therefore, Massachusetts is an island guided by Science (capitalized, like “God”).

What does “the curve” look like among this science-following stoned-as-necessary population? NYT:

An uneducated person who was not familiar with nor following The Science might think that the recent trend in cases actually has a steeper slope than prior to universal vaccination. In other words, vaccinating 95 percent of the eligible population has no effect on infection and transmission and, if anything, to the extent that it is causal, actually accelerates the spread. But the faith in forced vaccination remains as powerful as ever. Question for today: Why? Isn’t the example of Massachusetts sufficient to convince even those who put blind faith in Science that vaccines don’t prevent infection/transmission?

(Maybe we can blame the 5 percent? So far Maskachusetts has nearly 1.2 million “cases”. Those are lab-confirmed, so the total cases is probably closer to 2.5 million. Most of the cases seem to have occurred after the vaccines were authorized for emergency use. 5 percent of the population is 350,000. Unless the unvaccinated are getting COVID-19 over and over and over, there simply aren’t enough of these Yankee Deplorables to generate the case numbers reported in the NYT.)

From a reader comment recently, “Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid-19 despite strict measures”:

Two-thirds of the staff currently based in the Princess Elisabeth Polar Station in Antarctica have been infected with Covid-19, even though very strict health measures were put in place.

“All those present have received two doses of vaccine, and one person has even received a booster shot,” said Alain Hubert, the station’s executive operator and head of security measures.

All staff members preparing to depart to the station had to undergo a PCR test in Belgium two hours before leaving for South Africa, take a PCR test five days after their arrival in Cape Town, where they also had to quarantine for ten days. Another test was required when leaving Cape Town for Antarctica and another PCR test had to be undergone five days after arrival.

These are folks who follow the Science so closely that they actually have jobs in Science! And yet, despite not letting any Untouchables into their pristine vaccinated and PCR-tested environment, they are all plagued now.

This is not to say that the vaccines aren’t potentially useful for the old/vulnerable in terms of preventing hospitalization and/or death. But given the above examples, shouldn’t a person of ordinary intelligence doubt the idea that forced universal vaccination will reduce infection/transmission and therefore the breeding of mutations? My quick survey of righteous friends says that the answer is “no”. Their faith is stronger than ever. But none has a coherent explanation of the Maskachusetts “curve”.

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21 thoughts on “Why doesn’t the raging plague in Maskachusetts cause doubt among the true believers in Faucism?”

  1. Number of cases is inherently endogenous metric, so using it for anything, and even more, for the long-term trends, is insane. So your educated friends correctly do not use it for estimating usefulness of vaccination. 😂😂😂

    • Lol SK, is it meant as joke? Word #endogenous does not even make sense when applied to all infection cases at a location with highly vaccinated population. Or do I need Cambridge MA – based degree to be one of enlightened who is in the know what it supposed to mean in this context?
      I see two forces here – attempt to breed virus to be deadlier to not vaccinated and make regular pricking endemic with sights on pricking something more substantial then mRNA “vaccine” and another larger force of coronavirus involving to be milder and more infectious, similaR TO common flu virus, on larger. growing part of world population not constraint by “planned” “parenthood” and not hoarding money to give to faucists in Cambridge MA – based institutions of “learning”

    • The joke goes as such:

      Number of cases is useless metric because you don’t know if spike is because suddenly more test became available, more people had time to take tests or there was an incentive to take tests, etc.

      As such Philip’s masker-vaxer “friends” are correct in rejecting his arguments, since they are based on this metric.

      Thus it’s funny.

      Regardless, I personally think that both masking and vaxing policies are ridiculous.

    • SK, I am not sure that people test for fun, tests reflect number of people who felt sick.
      Over the counter or mail-in personal tests are not part of any official statistics. I observed that covid testing dynamic for those who do not work form home is following: 1 a) felt sick and tested with mail-in test or b) testing at regular intervals with mail-in test because of some work policy or c) was notified of exposure to someone who officially tested positive of coronavirus 2) a) positive mail-in test result or 1 c) prompted registering for drive-through official PCR test and 3) a) official PCR test result is positive – this triggers infectious statistic to be incremented or b) official PCR test result is negative then 4) breath screening in person test if doctor office is schedule which too may result in covid19 statistic is incremented (or not if negative).

      I do not think that this process allows to describe # of coronavirus infections as function of expanded testing. I believe that official statistics in Massachusetts understates total number of coronavirus infections because many in Massachusetts can work remotely and have no reasons to go for official PCR testing after being exposed or testing with mail-in kit.

    • > As such Philip’s masker-vaxer “friends” are correct in rejecting his arguments, since they are based on this metric.

      But they are happy to accept the metric when “cases” rise in Florida in the summer!

    • I had to do a lot of C19 tests last year just for travel. Annoying and adds more unpredictability to travel plans.

  2. Philip – Although you have been great at formulating those rhetorical questions related to underexamined pandemic hypocrisy, it might be a good time to firmly and clearly articulate your opinion on the “correct” pandemic policy, and how it might have shifted since the beginning of the pandemic.

    I’m pretty sure you firmly believe schools shouldn’t be closed, but what else? Masks/No Masks, forced vaccination, national level policy or leave it to the states, Sweden or Germany as a model, middle seats empty or no?

    I remember at the beginning of the pandemic you were very skeptical about advertised mortality rates of the virus. I wonder if what this insurance company CEO says is credible and what it might portend for “correct” policy: https://www.thecentersquare.com/indiana/indiana-life-insurance-ceo-says-deaths-are-up-40-among-people-ages-18-64/article_71473b12-6b1e-11ec-8641-5b2c06725e2c.html

    • Craig, mortality increase is not necessary result on coronavirus infections, it is also result of coronavirus response: firing of not vaccinated medical personnel, medical personnel quitting, health consequences of lockdowns and unavailability of critical medical procedures, among other causes that also include depression, obesity, increased substance abuse of those locked-down. There was federal statistic for increased mortality, I do not have it right now, but just under 40% of mortality increase even did not test positive for coronavirus, which is quite a statistical accomplishment given coronavirus is highly transmittable and tests stay positive for months even after asymptomatic infection.

    • Thanks for the life insurance interview. The statements are at odds with rates, which remain more or less constant. 2020 was a year of higher payouts, but the Canadians at least say that only a tiny percentage of the extra payouts was attributable to COVID-19. See https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2021/12/09/life-insurance-and-covid/ and https://www.marketwatch.com/story/has-covid-19-made-life-insurance-more-expensive-these-researchers-say-they-have-the-answer-2020-12-07

      But maybe he is talking about just the past month or two when he says “right now”? In that case, he certainly isn’t a good source for the media on the benefits of vaccination! Almost everyone is vaccinated and if “right now” death rates are up by 40%, that’s bad news for everyone except those hunting for houses (all of those deaths will leave plenty of vacant real estate).

      (I do expect significant long-term deaths in the U.S. as a result of the lockdowns, e.g., from obesity, unemployment, drug addiction, lack of education, etc., but it will take a while for those to ramp up.)

      If I don’t have any political power, why do I have to offer an opinion on optimum public health dictatorship? It would be, by definition, an academic exercise. But I will indulge you since you’re a loyal reader and also because it is fun to play armchair dictator!

      I would start by printing up 300 million posters reading “The virus is in charge”, thus reminding people that they shouldn’t expect to escape infection and, if it comes to it, disease and death, via dramatic human action. As a Deplorable immigrant friend said when a native-born expressed his Covid concerns that some people might have trouble breathing as a result of Omicron infection, “welcome to the biosphere.”

      This was the basis of Sweden’s policy, i.e., that a Western government’s half-hearted “lockdown” wouldn’t have a significant effect on viral spread or even spread velocity. If you type “Sweden Covid deaths” into the Google you’ll see that they’re averaging about 6 per day in a population of 10 million. The Maskachusetts average is 33 per day, by contrast, in a population of 7 million. That’s about 8X higher, despite MA having a higher vaccination rate than Sweden (about average for Europe), which to me indicates that the Swedes were smart to let the virus spread among the young in 2020 (no mask orders, no school shutdowns). (Of course, the cumulative death rate in Sweden is much lower than in Maskachusetts as well.) The Swedes generally followed the WHO advice on managing a pandemic, circa 2019 (see https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2021/02/23/who-guidance-on-pandemics-then-and-now/ ). So that means no masks for the general population and no border closures.

      I think I have, in this blog, consistently noted stuff that I would do. Change the school calendar in cold-weather states to exclude the respiratory virus season (so MA would have school from March through November). Try to hold school outdoors. De-crowd shopping malls, airliners, and concert halls. None of this would change the ultimate outcome because everyone eventually encounters the virus, but it might round off the peaks so that we didn’t have to hear constantly about how our health care industry, consuming 20% of GDP, wasn’t able to treat people.

      Certainly, if I could take over as a Covid tyrant, given current vaccine technology I would not order the unvaccinated to submit. First, I would humbly recognize that the reason people were skeptical about the vaccines is that much of what they were told throughout 2020 turned out to be false. And the information that proved false was not presented with “this is our best guess right now,” but rather “these are scientifically proven facts.” Second, I would accept that the vaccines do not prevent infection or transmission and therefore they won’t discourage mutation. Instead of lying to Americans by implying that COVID is equally risky to all age groups, and therefore slender healthy 5-year-olds need to be rushed to the clinic to get the emergency-use-authorized vaccine, I would concentrate on getting people over 40 vaccinated and leave healthy young people alone (that way the virus doesn’t have to mutate to survive! It can just circulate in its original version among the mostly-invulnerable young).

      If a vaccine were developed that could extinguish the virus, I still wouldn’t force young not-at-risk people to take it. I would try to get 100 percent coverage by paying people a sliding amount based on age. People over 50 (i.e., mostly dead) would get $50 for accepting the Sacrament of Fauci. People under 10 would get $1000 each in an inflation-protected bond that they can tap at age 18 (don’t want their parents stealing the money and spending it on essential marijuana (MA) or boat gear (FL)).

      I think that Florida has a reasonable state-level policy. It is illegal for school districts to shut down or to order students to wear masks (the twin pillars of teachers union demands in the Northeast!). Some enterprises, e.g., the state-run university where I was teaching last fall, that want young not-at-risk people to get vaccinated will pay them to get a shot. Older people are cautious about public indoor environments during times of raging plague. Testing was free and widely available until a couple of weeks ago (and, actually, right now there is so much plague everywhere in the U.S. that I’m not sure what the point of testing would be; can’t we just assume that every other human is a likely source of Omicron infection?).

      But, of course, the best that an ordinary subject can do is to try to move to a place where the policy aligns with his/her/zir/their values. We did that by moving from MA to FL.

    • That’s one libertarian dictator, LOL:)

      A propos: Hans Hermann Hoppe argued that monarchy is more friendly to liberty than democracy. (Democracy: The God That Failed)

  3. >My quick survey of righteous friends says that the answer is “no”. Their faith is stronger than ever. But none has a coherent explanation of the Maskachusetts “curve”.

    I spent a good portion of my younger adult life working for, with and around professors in an academic setting. One thing I noticed as a near-certainty is that most people with high levels of post-secondary education avoid any circumstances where their ignorance and/or inability to explain things will show up like a sore thumb. It’s a tremendous insult to their self-esteem. I’ve seen people with Ph.Ds and multiple other advanced degrees who couldn’t push the “Start” button on a copy machine and therefore always asked other people to do it for them, and a lot worse from there. Oftentimes, you are immediately cast as an ENEMY if you present these folks with evidence that directly contradicts what they think they “know.”

    • In other words… even an idiot can get a PhD, and often they do. Since people who can actually think for themselves find coddling of idiots intolerable (and thus leave academia for honest work where you create something other people actually want to pay for) the academia ended up being dominated by idiots.

      Here’s an easy way to spot an idiot: he says he _believes_ in Science.

    • @averros: I don’t think they’re idiots. Many of them are very intelligent, but because of groupthink and the Investment Principle (and a few others) a lot of them believe too deeply in their own certitude, which is a form of self-deceit.

      I wish we had a Richard Feynman who would do a news conference with Fauci and about a dozen other people. Before the conference he would release a few grams of invisible airborne 0.1 micron particles that were treated to fluoresce or glow under UV light. Donning his properly-fitted N95 mask, he’d sit through the news conference with everyone else in their various kinds of face rags as well, taking no questions. Then, at the proper moment, he’d remove it and pass around a UV flashlight and show how everyone has been peppered with faux virions.

    • It’s not only deceit, it’s conceit, and I’ve met a lot of very conceited people with larger vocabularies than mine who were nevertheless dead wrong, or at least only half right, at one time or another. Then you bring Big Government into it and pretty soon the snowball is six hundred miles across.

    • Alex, there is no way a Richard Feynman could have an impact today.


      @RichardFeynman has been permanently suspended.
      ! This tweet has been removed for violating the space program misinformation policy.
      Click HERE to learn how O-Rings are completely safe.

    • @Alex — I meant “idiot” not in a clinical sense but rather in the same way as Taleb does in his famous “Intellectual Yet Idiot” sense.

      Somebody totally incapable of independent thought, a humanifom parrot.

  4. Loosely related: Last Tuesday I visited a friend, D. I stayed for about two hours but didn’t stay for dinner as I had to meet other friends at a restaurant in town. I didn’t touch nor played with his children, the closest I got to a “contact” with them was removing some of their toys from the sofa. Then I met a friend and a couple at the restaurant.

    Next morning D calls to tell me that his ~6 year old son had a fever overnight, that the result of a self-test was positive and that they were waiting for the PCR results. That afternoon he confirms the infection of his son and says that his 11 year old daughter come out positive too but she has no symptoms whatsoever. That day, Wednesday, the fever of his son disappears, and his last symptoms are some abdominal pain and a one-off diarrhea.

    Friday night, on New Year’s Eve, the friend who sat next to me in the restaurant calls to tell me that she’s positive, has a fever and coughs. On New Year’s day her cough gets “bad”. Separately D tells me that his wife is positive too. Her only symptom is a runny nose. The parents of the coughing friend start coughing too and as she gets better her 11 year old son gets a high fever. Her husband, sitting in front of her at the restaurant, is still negative. D gets positive too, but has almost no symptoms.

    All infected adults are vaccinated, the coughing friend has had her booster shot as well.

    I wanted to make three points. First, under “normal” circumstances, nobody would have payed much attention to a runny nose or some fever and diarrhea in a 6 year old, especially if the symptoms disappear after 24h. Second, I feel that the media reports are totally devoid of such trivial, unspectacular descriptions of the developments of the disease. All we hear is about the serious courses the disease takes in some individuals. Third, while the antivaxx may be fanatical, the vaccine advocates may get fanatical too. The coughing friend ambigously refused to believe she has covid. She came up with a highly improbable explanation: she must have gotten the virus sometimes in the past, probably before the booster shot, now she has no covid but only some winter cold, and the PCR test, as we know it is tremendously amplifying the genetic material of the sample, must have discovered the residual pre-booster virus remnants.

    • Having a strong opinion is not being fanatical. Desiring (and acting on this desire) to force others to bend to your opinion is the definition of being a fanatic.

  5. 80% vaccinated & mandatory mask wearing Calif* now has double the highest number of cases since 2019. The lion kingdom had all the symptoms over xmas, but wasn’t around anyone, preferring to stay at home reading the greenspun blog. Wearing our masks is just silly now & the media is obviously playing up the danger to get another economic stimulus package. Another economic stimulus package for government contractors, of course.

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