As to why people have little or no faith in the faux-ocular pronouncements of public-health officials and experts, I submit for your consideration the news that the CDC has flip-flopped yet again on masking, and now recommends that VACCINATED people wear masks indoors in certain situations, e.g. when children under 12 are present. The idiocy on display here, both scientific and political, is simply mind-boggling.
Ideologues of both the Left and the Right have been playing politics with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. Government officials and public health authorities have demonstrated a startling degree of incompetence and mendacity since the beginning of the pandemic. The anti-vaccination movement predates this pandemic. So does the public's appetite for conspiracy theories. Thus no one should be particularly surprised by what's happening now.
I look at it this way. What we now have is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. While anti-vaccine resistance may indeed lead to preventable deaths from COVID-19, almost all of them will be anti-vaxxers. Which is to say, they voluntarily assumed the risk of illness and death. Very likely some of them have already contracted the virus and are protected by natural immunity. Most others will get sick but suffer no long-lasting effects. But yes, there will be excess deaths.
I myself came down with COVID. I'm 71 years old and it made me pretty sick but fortunately my overall health is good and my life was never in danger. Subsequently, on the advice of my doctor, I got myself vaccinated. I have absolutely no use for anti-vaxxers due to the fact that when I was six I contracted polio. At that time the Salk vaccine was just being rolled out and I shudder to think what might have happened if the anti-vaccination movement existed then. The vaccine was too late to help me but eventually it eradicated the disease that crippled me for two years, though thanks to the grace of God I eventually made a full recovery.
All that being said, if liberty means anything it means that people get to make decisions even if they're wrong or stupid, and on the assumption that they're prepared to live—or die—with the consequences. The alternative—some dictatorship of Dr. Fauci—appeals to me not at all.
“The mRNA vaccines seem to be more effective against this variant than our other vaccines.” (Claire Berlinski)
Not according to the latest data. While mRNA vaccines are highly protective against the variant, the J&J vaccine appears to be as protective or almost as protective against it.
As to why people have little or no faith in the faux-ocular pronouncements of public-health officials and experts, I submit for your consideration the news that the CDC has flip-flopped yet again on masking, and now recommends that VACCINATED people wear masks indoors in certain situations, e.g. when children under 12 are present. The idiocy on display here, both scientific and political, is simply mind-boggling.
Ideologues of both the Left and the Right have been playing politics with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. Government officials and public health authorities have demonstrated a startling degree of incompetence and mendacity since the beginning of the pandemic. The anti-vaccination movement predates this pandemic. So does the public's appetite for conspiracy theories. Thus no one should be particularly surprised by what's happening now.
I look at it this way. What we now have is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. While anti-vaccine resistance may indeed lead to preventable deaths from COVID-19, almost all of them will be anti-vaxxers. Which is to say, they voluntarily assumed the risk of illness and death. Very likely some of them have already contracted the virus and are protected by natural immunity. Most others will get sick but suffer no long-lasting effects. But yes, there will be excess deaths.
I myself came down with COVID. I'm 71 years old and it made me pretty sick but fortunately my overall health is good and my life was never in danger. Subsequently, on the advice of my doctor, I got myself vaccinated. I have absolutely no use for anti-vaxxers due to the fact that when I was six I contracted polio. At that time the Salk vaccine was just being rolled out and I shudder to think what might have happened if the anti-vaccination movement existed then. The vaccine was too late to help me but eventually it eradicated the disease that crippled me for two years, though thanks to the grace of God I eventually made a full recovery.
All that being said, if liberty means anything it means that people get to make decisions even if they're wrong or stupid, and on the assumption that they're prepared to live—or die—with the consequences. The alternative—some dictatorship of Dr. Fauci—appeals to me not at all.
“The mRNA vaccines seem to be more effective against this variant than our other vaccines.” (Claire Berlinski)
Not according to the latest data. While mRNA vaccines are highly protective against the variant, the J&J vaccine appears to be as protective or almost as protective against it.
See,
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2108829?query=featured_home
It’s good news and just another reason vaccine-hesitancy is so absurd.