Category: Coronaplague

COVID-19 vaccination coverage among the nation’s smartest people

by philg

I’m still on the mailing list for City of Cambridge (Maskachusetts) updates. Every day they send out their dead pool data. From yesterday:

Nobody died yesterday in Cambridge because everyone got the Sacrament of Fauci, right? The Harvard-educated Democrat-voting folks in Cambridge wouldn’t contribute to coronaplague by running around unvaccinated like the Deplorables in the Unspeakable Republican South, certainly. Well…

Only 73 percent fully vaccinated?!!? Now that vaccines are emergency-used authorized for 6-month-old babies, how can this be? And how does this compare to a state in which public health authorities do not promote the idea of injecting children with experimental medicines that are designed to prevent deaths among the elderly? The percentage of Floridians (DeSantis voters!) who are fully vaccinated is currently 68 percent. Maybe the answer for how the intelligent people who live next to MIT and Harvard can have such similar vaccination coverage to the morons of Florida is that the newly approved COVID shots for babies require at least 8 weeks for the baby to be considered “fully vaccinated” and the emergency use authorization for sticking babies was issued only a month ago.

Full post, including comments

Vaccine papers checks enable under-age drinking in D.C.

by philg

A young relative was pleased to find that bars in the U Street area of Washington, D.C. are vigilantly checking vaccine papers despite the fact that the government’s order for bars to check has expired. “I had to show photo ID and my vaccine card, which they checked carefully,” he explained, “but they run out of energy before they get to the birthdate field so I was able to get in and order whatever I wanted.”

(He’s fully vaccinated not because of #FaithInFauci, but because he was forced to get stuck with an experimental medicine, designed to prevent death among people who are 60 years older than he is, as a condition of continued enrollment at a university.)

Related:

Full post, including comments

CDC advice regarding simple cloth and surgical masks still helping SARS-CoV-2 spread

by philg

When coronapanic began, the CDC told Americans that, contrary to all previously established medical knowledge, a simple cloth or surgical mask would substantially prevent infection by SARS-CoV-2. This advice has been walked back, to some extent, in favor of suggesting N95 masks, but the general public does not seem to have gotten the more recent memo.

On a June trip to San Diego, I noticed a fair number of people who apparently sought to protect themselves and others from COVID-19. Instead of staying home, which would have been the obvious choice given pre-2020 Science, they were on 100-percent-crammed airline flights, in museums, etc.

Here is an example from the Chick-fil-A line in Atlanta:

An example on the deck of the USS Midway in San Diego (awesome museum, but staying home is safer):

Despite half of the U.S. taking the position that avoiding COVID-19 is a critical human activity and that the other half of the nation is morally deficient for not sharing their concern, the Denver airport was crammed to capacity on a Wednesday at noon (imagine Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend!). A 26-minute wait for the non-elite:

Colorado supported Joe Biden, but it seems that the typical local won’t wear a mask while engaging in a religious ritual at the Denver airport’s 2SLGBTQQIA+ monolith (imagine the joy if Kubrick’s 2001 were updated with this monolith!):

On a related note, the Delta flight attendant offered me an alcohol wipe during boarding. I replied, “thank you, but my personal hygiene problems are far too severe to be addressed by one wipe.”

Related:

Full post, including comments

Adults versus Kids; a Science-based response to COVID-19 in Maskachusetts

by philg

Recent emails from the Handel+Haydn Society in Boston… Adults:

Kids:

From the linked-to page:

All participants in H+H Youth Choruses activities must be fully vaccinated for Covid-19, and we provide further that H+H agrees to comply with the then-applicable U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidance regarding mandatory employer vaccination programs. Masks are required for all indoor activities at all times.

Recall that, like California, Massachusetts is a state that decided marijuana shops for adults were “essential” and had to remain open while public schools were closed for 1.5 years and forcibly masked for at least 1 additional school year (unclear what will happen in the Boston Public Schools for 2022-2023).

Related:

Full post, including comments

A Royal Caribbean cruise ship plagued by COVID-19

by philg

Some neighbors refused our invitation to a hot dog and watermelon (but not on Juneteenth!) party. They’d gone on a Royal Caribbean cruise, which requires that all over-11 guests be vaccinated and tested:

It seems that more or less the entire ship came down with COVID-19, but people hid their symptoms and did not get tested until after disembarking so as to avoiding imprisonment in the closet-sized rooms. The policy:

A guest that tests positive for COVID-19 will need to isolate onboard for a period of time — either until they can be safely disembarked at a port of call with private transport home, or when the sailing concludes back at the homeport where it started. Those guests who meet the threshold to be deemed a close contact will need to meet necessary quarantine and/or testing requirements based on their vaccination status.

Guests who must isolate due to a positive COVID-19 test result will remain in their stateroom or be moved to a stateroom near the medical center where medical staff and Guest Services will check on them regularly, depending on availability. Complimentary amenities including room service and WiFi will be provided.

All of the above can be avoided via don’t ask, don’t tell and that’s what the cruise passengers have figured out.

Our friends are physicians in their 40s with unvaccinated kids. They’ve all tested positive for COVID-19, but have symptoms milder than a typical cold. “Generally just tired.”

Full post, including comments

Science Personified runs but cannot hide from COVID-19

by philg

From the UK Deplorables, “Anthony Fauci says that he’s experienced rebound Covid symptoms after taking a Pfizer’s antiviral Paxlovid – which studies now show is NOT effective for people who are vaccinated” (Daily Mail):

Dr. Anthony Fauci said that he’s on his second course of Paxlovid after testing positive again for Covid-19

The [CDC] warning noted that none of the reported rebound cases saw patients suffer a severe case of Covid-19, though Fauci described his symptoms as ‘much worse’

Earlier this month, Fauci tested positive for the virus with mild symptoms including fatigue. As his symptoms got slightly worse, Fauci began a five day course of Paxlovid.

Following that course, Fauci said that he tested negative for the virus three days in a row. He decided to test again on the fourth day. The result came back positive.

Biden has propped it up during his 2022 State of the Union address as one of the keys to America’s Covid response, even offering it for free to anyone who tests positive for the virus. At the 2022 State of the Union, Biden said: ‘If you get COVID-19, the Pfizer pill reduces your chances of ending up in the hospital by 90 percent.’

He announced the ‘Test to Treat’ program, where Americans who tested positive for the virus at pharmacies around the country could quickly get a course of the drugs at no cost.

I like that last part the best. A taxpayer getting a medicine that is paid for by taxpayers (i.e., him/her/zir/theirself) is getting it at “no cost”.

Full post, including comments

Masking is optional at the University of California

by philg

A friend teaches at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He described the continued impact of coronapanic at the school. Half of all class meetings can be via Zoom. Vaccine papers are checked to make sure that everyone has had at least three shots of the Sacrament of Fauci. Masks must be worn in the classroom by the triple-vaccinated teachers and students.

I checked the school’s Masking and Operations page:

Masking is currently optional except that it remains required in all indoor classroom/instructional settings, clinical areas, and on Triton/university transportation until further notice.

In addition, all students (regardless of vaccination status) must wear face masks within their residential unit except for their personal bedrooms or in the shower. Masks are also required when inside residential buildings and outside of students’ personal residential units in halls, elevators, lobbies, etc.

No need to wear a mask except when in a classroom or a dorm or some other places!

Professor Doctor My Friend, Ph.D. subscribes to receive text messages when there is a serious on-campus emergency, e.g., a fire or a chemical spill. Here’s one that woke him up a few days ago:

On 06/16/2022 at 11:28pm, the UC San Diego Police Department received a report of an Intimidation – Sexuality Orientation Bias, that occurred at UCSD Hillcrest Hospital on 06/13/2022 at 3:10pm. The reporting party stated that a person left multiple notes in their work space threatening their person and made derogatory comments toward their sexual orientation. The reporting party stated their co-worker received similar intimidation in a previous incident.

The middle-of-the-night message regarded an incident that occurred at a UCSD-owned hospital more than 10 miles from the main campus.

Full post, including comments

Maskachusetts hosts multiple Covid super-spreader events while forcing kids to wear masks in schools

by philg

President Biden still has the U.S. under a state of emergency due to COVID-19. Maskachusetts takes our Scientist leader and “the virus” seriously, as evidenced by the fact that students in the Boston Public Schools are forced to wear masks:

(Just be sure not to wear an N95 mask that might have some effect, says the above web page.)

On the other hand, COVID-19 is not so severe that it should prevent packing tens of thousands of people into an indoor basketball arena for the NBA final games. Nor should COVID-19 discourage Boston from hosting the U.S. Open golf tournament (this weekend, with 100,000+ people coming in at various times (mostly outdoors while spectating, but then indoors and unmasked for hotels, restaurants, parties, etc.)).

So…. COVID-19 in Maskachusetts is an “emergency” for K-12 students, which is why they must continue to wear masks. It’s also an “emergency” for 6-month-old babies, which is why they must be injected with an emergency use authorized “vaccine”. But it is not an emergency for adults, who may gather in enormous crowds without masks, gather unmasked in bars, gather unmasked in “essential” marijuana stores, meet via Tinder after consuming alcohol and marijuana, etc.

Related:

Full post, including comments

New York Times discovers that a person cannot be killed twice by COVID-19

by philg

From this morning’s email, “The Covid death rate for white Americans has recently exceeded the rates for Black, Latino and Asian Americans.” by David Leonhardt, one of the New York Times journalists who enjoys covering numbers and economics.

One of the defining characteristics of the pandemic’s early stages was its disproportionate toll on Black and Latino Americans.

During Covid’s early months in the U.S., the per capita death rate for Black Americans was almost twice as high as the white rate and more than twice as high as the Asian rate. The Latino death rate was in between, substantially lower than the Black rate but still above average.

Covid’s racial gaps have narrowed and, more recently, even flipped. Over the past year, the Covid death rate for white Americans has been 14 percent higher than the rate for Black Americans and 72 percent higher than the Latino rate, according to the latest C.D.C. data.

In other words, the best minds of New York City have figured out that a person cannot be killed twice by COVID-19.

[A friend’s comment on the above: “Democrats previously advocated giving preferential access to COVID medical treatment to People of Color. Now that whites are dying at a higher rate, should whites get preferential access to medicine?”]

Let’s check in on Sweden. Given their horrific heresy, maybe COVID-19 is killing them twice?

The country that gave the finger to SARS-CoV-2 and kept its schools open has a much lower case rate than still-masked Portugal (“In Portugal, There Is Virtually No One Left to Vaccinate” (NYT), 2021) or the U.S. (cases trending up, despite Science-following leadership (TM) since January 20, 2021). Those are just “cases”, though, right? How about deaths? Same pattern…

Reminder: When COVID-19 hit, friends who are medical school professors said that humans would have to co-evolve with SARS-CoV-2 and all of the measures being taken and proposed were going to be counterproductive because they would slow down this co-evolution. (Also, that if they pointed this out publicly they would never get another research grant!)

Full post, including comments

British Medical Journal weighs in on forced vaccination

by philg

Me: Should the COVID-19 injections be renamed to something other than “vaccine”?

#Science: “The unintended consequences of COVID-19 vaccine policy: why mandates, passports and restrictions may cause more harm than good” (BMJ Global Health)…

… we argue that current mandatory vaccine policies are scientifically questionable and are likely to cause more societal harm than good. Restricting people’s access to work, education, public transport and social life based on COVID-19 vaccination status impinges on human rights, promotes stigma and social polarisation, and adversely affects health and well-being. Current policies may lead to a widening of health and economic inequalities, detrimental long-term impacts on trust in government and scientific institutions, and reduce the uptake of future public health measures, including COVID-19 vaccines as well as routine immunisations.

The publicly communicated rationale for implementing such policies has shifted over time. Early messaging around COVID-19 vaccination as a public health response measure focused on protecting the most vulnerable. This quickly shifted to vaccination thresholds to reach herd immunity and ‘end the pandemic’ and ‘get back to normal’ once sufficient vaccine supply was available. In late summer of 2021, this pivoted again to a universal vaccination recommendation to reduce hospital/intensive care unit (ICU) burden in Europe and North America, to address the ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated’.

There are also worrying signs that current vaccine policies, rather than being science-based, are being driven by sociopolitical attitudes that reinforce segregation, stigmatisation and polarisation, further eroding the social contract in many countries.

Two experiments in Germany and the USA found that a new COVID-19 vaccine mandate would likely energise anti-vaccination activism, reduce compliance with other public health measures, and decrease acceptance to future voluntary influenza or varicella (chickenpox) vaccines.

COVID-19 vaccines have also generated at least $100 billion profit for pharmaceutical companies, especially Pfizer.

The authors are from the School of Public Health, University of Washington, University of Edinburgh, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University, Oxford, Harvard Medical School (!), and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Related:

  • “The Concept of Classical Herd Immunity May Not Apply to COVID-19” (J Infect Dis, March 2022, by David M Morens, Gregory K Folkers, and Anthony S Fauci (!)): SARS-CoV-2 appears not to substantially engage the systemic immune system, as do viruses such as smallpox, measles, and rubella that consistently have a pronounced viremic phase. Moreover, neither infection nor vaccination appears to induce prolonged protection against SARS-CoV-2 in many or most people. Finally, the public health community has encountered substantial resistance to efforts to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2 by vaccination, mask wearing, and other interventions.
Full post, including comments