Explosive Growth, Vaccines And Covid Variants

And on your point about kids getting sick too, if the British ONS data is accurate, 10 – 15% of kids between 2 and 18 years old still have covid symptoms at 5 weeks. ONS also did a survey for symptoms at 12 weeks and, although they didn’t break it down by age, you could roughly estimate it to be half, so 5 – 7% of kids have symptoms at 12 weeks.

Why isn’t the Sputnik vaccine being pushed more heavily, if it’s a traditional vaccine and cheaper to transport? Argh.

Break the vaccine patents and force sharing.

What may be interesting is that if a major player, like Russia or China, starts distributing free vaccine while we “protect shareholder value” at all costs (literally!).

You want to see more erosion of the US’s standing in the world? That would do it.

The ruling elites have been willing to open the economy all along, then again maybe they have been vaccinated all along, it seems it was known the vaccines would work last spring, but they had not been through clinical trials yet.

The traditional vaccines appear to confer actual anti-infectivity among the vaccinated, meaning they actually do not get infected, so far as I understand.

Whereas, the mRNA neo-vaccinoids leave the recipient just as infectable as before, and just as conTAGious as before. What the neo-vaccinoids do is to prevent the recipient from actually developing their own personal symptoms from the infection. But it leaves them just as infected as if they had gotten no vaccine at all, and I believe I have read hints that it may leave them just as contagious and corona-spreading.

If so, that would exactly fit the agenda of the neo-vaccinoid-industrial complex. They and their governments could keep the disease going and going and going for decades to come, breeding up tens and then hundreds of new mutants, each mutant needing a multi-billion-dollar re-vaccination campaign against each new mutant. That would explain the refusal to accept American-made classical vaccines.

And not recognizing or accepting workable classic vaccines from Russia would fit the antiRussianitic racist antiRussianite campaign against Russia ( ill-disguised as a campaign against “Putin”). In the teeth of that, how might a Putin OR a post-Putin RussiaGov really humiliate the DC FedRegime while really HELPing American citizens? By making the Sputnik vaccine available at every Russian consulate, tourist office, culture center, etc. within America, free to any American who wants to walk in and get one.

( Perhaps a genuine American political party will arise with a very narrow small-laundry-list platform. A few things like . . . exTERminate the coronavid virus, abolish Free Trade, CanadaCare for all Americans, and maybe one or two others).

A “Zero Covid” lockdown is not going to happen in the USA and we may never fully return to normal in our lifetimes. I read Fauci say we can stop wearing masks when 70% of population is vaccinated by the fall. Really? I don’t think that will happen by the fall nor do I believe that 70% of Americans will be vaccinated by the start of the school year in September.

First of all, we can’t even get a significant portion of Americans to comply with mask wearing and social distancing. I don’t have faith in my fellow Americans that we can get 70% or more who will comply with more strict lockdowns and getting the vaccine. Second, the vaccine rollout has been a disaster. Almost everyone I know who wants the vaccine, including people over 65, have had problems with getting the vaccine in the city where they live. There are massive waitlists and in some instances website crashes and no telephone responses from their local health agency.

I feel incredibly fortunate to have managed to get the Pfizer vaccine even though I’m a Millennial. I am still prepared to wear a mask for the rest of 2021 and 2022. I am very reluctant to get on a plane anytime soon. The variant mutations are a huge concern of mine. Everyone seems ready to go back to normal by the end of 2021 with some people I know already planning international vacations for Christmas. My advice is to not let your guard entirely down even if you have gotten the vaccine. I feel more assured that I won’t die from COVID now that I’ve been immunized, but we know very little about how these vaccines respond to different variants nor do we know how long immunity lasts after vaccination.

Larry Flynt, magnat du porno américain, est mort.

https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2021/02/11/larry-flynt-magnat-du-porno-americain-est-mort_6069520_3382.html

Vaccines just present the body with surface viral proteins the immune system can develop antibodies against. An older adenovirus type vaccine might provide more or better configured/folded proteins for this. The mRNA vaccines which serve as templates for the production of such proteins may be a little too targeted. It’s a numbers game. A virus uses a cell’s machinery to reproduce copies but it has much less ability to proof the product. So there will be mutations. If there is a negative mutation in a critical protein or RNA/DNA segment, that viral line will cease. If, on the other hand, there is a mutation, say in the coding for a surface protein, which confers an advantage, greater infectivity, slightly different make-up or configuration, so less susceptible to vaccine created antibodies, then that line will proliferate.

With all respect, there are a number of incorrect assumptions here from various posters and Ian. As follows —

[1.] Ian wrote: “Break the vaccine patents and force sharing. Recompense the companies involved, a few tens of billions is all that is needed and is trivial to major governments.”

No. With the mRNA vaccines, simply breaking the patents will probably NOT usefully (like, before Autumn/Fall 2021) accelerate mRNA vaccine _manufacture_, which is the bottleneck. The Derek Lowe article that Abbie links to is on the money. Read it, folks —

https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/02/02/myths-of-vaccine-manufacturing

Lowe: “There are not “dozens of other pharma companies” who “stand ready” to produce these mRNA vaccines. To me, this betrays a lack of knowledge about what these vaccines are and how they’re produced.”

Lowe lays out six steps in mRNA vaccine manufacture. While steps 1-3 involve techniques of bespoke DNA and RNA synthesis that by now have become somewhat familiar outside SynBio (i.e. to conventional vaccine manufacturers), step 4 involves highly-specialized microfluidics technology of complexity comparable to, say, having a fab to manufacture computer chips. In other words, you can break the patent on a computer chip, but that won’t help you one bit if you haven’t built the fabrication facility to manufacture those silicon wafers to the required specs. Similar deal here.

[2] Ian wrote: “One piece of good news is that the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V, a traditional vaccine, is 92% effective … it doesn’t have the unknowns of a new tech.”

Joan wrote: “Why isn’t the Sputnik vaccine being pushed more heavily, if it’s a traditional vaccine … Aargh!”

No. Sputnik V, like the Oxford AstroZeneca vaccine, is an adenovirus vector vaccine, which are NOT traditional, classic vaccines, except _relatively_ when compared to mRNA vaccines.

At least, not in the West. The only adenovirus vaccine previously used in the U.S. has been a rabies vaccine for dogs. Furthermore, such vaccines require recombinant (genetically-engineered) viruses — so, _not_ a classic vaccine. Here’s an article from early 2020, at the pandemic’s start, explaining why although adenovirus vector vaccines had been under development for thirty years, they hadn’t previously been pushed for human use —

https://cen.acs.org/pharmaceuticals/vaccines/Adenoviral-vectors-new-COVID-19/98/i19

Yes. The Russian Gameleya Institute has worked with this vaccine technology for years. But …

(a) The Russians have consistently put state aid into developing this technology because for decades they’ve considered biodefense spending essential to Russian defense;
(b) Part of the reason for that, just as they put up the first satellite and the first astronaut, the USSR ran a Manhattan Project-sized bioweapons program employing 100,000-some people for twenty years, and that program achieved certain things biotech-wise ten or twenty years before those things were done anywhere else (e.g. in the U.S.). That Russian expertise did not disappear.

And as of Feb 2 (last week) THE LANCET had this —

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00234-8/fulltext

So Sputnik V will be cleared for use in Europe and North America, though given the anti-Russian hysteria in the U.S. (thanks, Hillary and Dems, and U.S. military-industrial complex!) you might not see it distributed there. But you’ll probably be able to bop down to Mexico to get a jab.

[3] Ian wrote: “The risk here is that Covid becomes endemic, a new normal, like the flu ….”

No. That’s NOT the risk. I’m afraid that’s certain — it’s too late, it’s out there now, and it’s going to be endemic. Like the flu. Sorry.

[4] Ian wrote: ‘…never truly under control, but much more dangerous.’

No. Probably NOT any more dangerous than the flu eventually. The likelihood is that:
(a) less lethal strains of the virus will survive better in the human population and become dominant over time;
(b) new biotechnologies will be developed i.e. one of the VCs responsible for Moderna has a company in stealth mode now that’s designed a peptide for an aerosol spray prophylactic against COV19 and and which should be announcing its results in a couple of months. (Pretty fascinating stuff, because they designed the peptide using a quantum computer, which is a first!)

[5] ProNewerDeal wrote: “no Inactivated Virus type of vaccine (type used in polio, influenza, etc), approved in some other nations, is even among the 6 even agreed to be purchased in the USA.”

Because they haven’t been ready. Such vaccines used to take 6-10 years to develop and test. But they’re on the way. This is from THE LANCET on February 3rd —

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(21)00020-7/fulltext
“Inactivated COVID-19 vaccines to make a global impact”

What exactly is the point of this graph? Apparently (correct me if I’m wrong), it’s comparing non-novel coranvirus cases, with R=.91, with a variant of covid19, with R = 1.36. For some strange reason, it adds the graphs, together.

Now, if we suppose, instead, that both variants are variants of covid-19, but with vastly different R values, then there might be a point to adding the graphs together, because then we can say something like “See! The 2nd wave of covid is because of a mutation which started taking off 1/21/25. So, imagine if there’s a new variant with even higher R value, that even survivors of previous variants aren’t immune to!” (Unsaid: so let us live in mortal terror of such a viral beast! And do whatever the authorities tell us to!)

Since the graph of old variants peaked in early December of 2020, I doubt it’s a covid-19 variant. I’ve heard recent reports that covid was actually being passed around since last year (based on examinations of sewage, I believe), so maybe the black dots are, indeed, covid-19. But, in this case, why not say so?

One possibility is that, due to lack of tests, the black dots are just model assumptions. The randomness of the dots argues against that, though maybe a probabilistic model was used.

Let’s also do some simple math. Daily new cases of the old variant peak around 1900/day, in Alberta. The population of Alberta is about 4 million. From the shape of the graph, we can eyeball the total new cases in a 2 month period as roughly 1,000/day x 62 days, or 62,000.

62,000/4 million is 1.55% of the population. That seems too low to be sick from just a regular cold (i.e., non-covid-19 coronavirus). A graph at statistica.com shows a December cold incidence for Americans to average about 9%. So, this suggests that it IS some variant of covid-19.

Well, what’s the story?

Finally, the notion that covid-19, which apparently was designed to be more infectious (“gain of function” – thanks, Dr. Fauci!) is somehow less infectious than common colds seems counter-intuitive. If the black dot variant somehow got a later start than common cold virii, that might make sense. But it’s peaking early December, in line with how I interpret the statistica bar charts. (“Percentage of U.S. Americans sick with a cold or a flu from December 2009 to January 2016”)

So, another logical possibility is that the black dots are from a garbage model.

Scarborough was excoriating Biden this morning for not getting tough with the teachers and teachers’ unions and mandating teachers get back in the classroom. Scarborough asserted that healthcare officials, who he also referred to as the scientists, have affirmed that it is safe for children and teachers to go back to the classroom so long as social distancing is followed.

I’m guessing “healthcare officials” equals the CDC? The CDC is a joke. A bad joke. Last February when we, meaning my immediate family, started wearing masks because of an interchange I had with someone in China who advised me/us to, the CDC, Fauci in particular, was telling us that masks are ineffective and there was no reason to wear one. The CDC already had credibility issues at that point, but that sealed the deal for me. The CDC is a political institution, what institution isn’t political these days if ever, and therefore cannot be counted on to adhere to principled ethics before all else.

Scarborough is a conservative scumbag. A rich bastard who has the ear of D.C. insiders, unfortunately. He has a soapbox and he has tremendous influence.

The fact of the matter is, schools cannot and will not manage this virus safely. There is no way you’re going to get thousands of kids crammed into inadequately ventilated buildings to follow proper and effective virus containment protocols. Scarborough knows this and he pushes and clamors for teachers and students to get back into the classrooms any way because he’s a big fan of the Chamber of Commerce and modern day slavery. What an evil bastard.

Childhood symptomatic infections are uncommon and there are different levels of children. High school students are very different than 3-6 year olds when it comes to the virus. Conflating K-12 and treating it as one group labeled children is misleading.

CNN and MSNBC have pretty much stopped revealing the pandemic statistics. It is no longer a permanent feature in the upper right hand corner. This was a strategic decision. I think we should be privy to the discussions related to making this strategic decision. It would further reveal just how fascist, versus democratic, America truly is.

It’s sad that so much of this could be easily avoided with Ivermectin, high doses of Vit D, inhaled Budesonide and various others.

Ivermectin:
https://swprs.org/why-ivermectin-works-and-where-to-buy-it/
https://c19ivermectin.com/

Vit D:
https://vitamindforall.org/letter.html
https://c19vitamind.com/

Budesonide:
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-02-09-common-asthma-treatment-reduces-need-hospitalisation-covid-19-patients-study

The transmission of the virus, the developing of severe symptoms, overloading healthcare systems and most importantly exposing millions of unsuspecting subjects to Antibody Dependent Enhancement could all have been avoided. Just wait until the next ‘flu’ season – you shall be amazed at the death toll. Pathogenic Priming is real and is why previously, despite many years of trials SARS-type vaccines have all been abandoned.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3209347/pdf/zjv12201.pdf

It’s truly shocking to see the extent to which these still experimental vaccines have been rushed through and granted Emergency Use Authorisation and are so widely accepted without question. All while those sane voices advocating for simple, safe and effective treatments have been silenced.

And please don’t let yourselves be bullshitted by the variants:
https://williambowles.info/2021/02/10/is-it-true-that-the-new-variants-are-very-dangerous/

“Love your Servitude” – Aldous Huxley:
https://youtu.be/caCkMX6YdYU

God bless you metamars for attempting to sift through lies, filtered through multiple layers of additional lying, to find any nuggets of truth.

It’s very sad to see what what remained of our society being destroyed by people’s hysterical reaction to a mild respiratory virus, hyped up by the thoroughly corrupt managerial state and its media.

One thing is fascinating though. Didn’t left wingers use to complain about religion, specifically that a corrupt priestly class used fear of a purportedly non-existent threat of hell to control and dominate the population? Substitute virus for hell, and managerial state for the priests, and they seem to have described their own future behavior.

You could make another similar analogy regarding the state arrogating dictatorial powers to itself using a non-existent fear of foreign enemies. Somehow that becomes okay if the fake threat is of a virus rather than of attack by an adversary government.

Maybe this is uncharitable of me, but somehow I think that part of it is, guys like Ian agree with managerial dictatorship in principal (as long as it’s the Team Blue in charge and not Team Red). So they don’t much care whether the pretext is real or fake.

What is being done especially in targeting children (why?) is child abuse on a mass scale. Children need to see faces and interact with adults and each other to develop. People aged 75 and up are still going to die, even if you somehow manage to prevent them from catching one particular virus (you won’t). The millions children you are abusing will suffer the effects for the rest of their lives.

Standard fascist reaction: If they don’t like something, it’s a hoax. Covid has killed 474,000 Americans, but since that challenges BOO’s world view, it’s a hoax, just a mild respiratory infection.

StewartM is correct. Air travel, failure to wear masks, prolonged exposure help transmit covid. But the creation of new strains of virus is a pure numbers game. The more copies of virus, the greater chance that some of those copies will have mutations that lead to new strains. The reason why New Zealand and Taiwan are far less likely to produce new strains is because they have done a good job of vastly reducing the number of covid cases they have, and small number of viral copies means smaller chances of mutations and new strains.

Hey! It just occurred to me . . . . members of the MAGA In Opposition Party ( MIOP) could show their sincerity in their tens of millions by holding vast indoor Herd Immunity rallies, where they all meet and mingle and all give eachother coronavid. That way, they will get the mild respiratory infection, get over it, and come out the other side with Full Immunity. They could show their bravery and their reality-based knowledge of the real facts, in contrast to our cowardice and our delusional dwelling in the illusion that coronavid is a dangerous disease.

I think that is a good idea for the MIOP community to pursue, and I sincerely hope they pursue it.

I also think the MAGA community could found a Party and a Movement with that very name. They could call themselves the MIOP . . . for MAGA In Opposition Party. They could redesign the MAGA logo by putting some ” grey prison bars” in front of the word MAGA , to symbolise the oppression and persecution under which they labor.

And if they would All all ALL wear their MIOP hats, we cowards could recognize them and keep our distance from them. Avoid the stores they shop in, slam our business windows shut if we see them coming, avoid the restaurants they frequent, etc. And that way , we could avoid the plague which they proudly carry and spread.

Jeremy, thanks for the info.

Are you skeptical on the mRNA vaccines approved by at least 1 G20/BRICS/”Major” nation?

Adenovirus viral vector like Janssen/J&J or Sputnik V?
Protein Subunit like Novavax?
Inactivated Virus like Sinovac Coronavac?

Is your skeptism more that ALL of these vaccines passed the EUA bar but not the higher “standard process” bar for approval, or skepticism of the experimental mRNA vaccines used in the USA to date?

“StewartM is correct. Air travel, failure to wear masks, prolonged exposure help transmit covid” – Hugh

All well and good Hugh,

Except…Stewart didn’t mention air travel, failure to wear masks or prolonged exposure in his post.

Now Hugh we’ve been round and round about your continual and excessive use of lies, deceit, false testimony, sock puppets, projection, your straw man argumentation…falsely putting words into people’s mouths et al…why don’t stop being a child and put this phase of your adolescence behind you?

Back to my original point on air-travel and countries respective infection rates, I have been pointing to air travel since the beginning [private and commercial] that’s because back in the early 90’s I worked on an air sterilization device for aircraft [never adopted] and have known since then [as have epidemiologists] that any air borne contagion with a long enough incubation period would be spread through out the world in this manner.

It’s what I learned way back when, 4-7 days is the optimal latency period for the transmission of an air borne contagion through air travel. Which is what we have, right out of the box, a respiratory disease with an almost perfectly adapted life cycle for the world in which we live today…which begs the question on mutations…almost all mutations are fatally imperfect and almost any mutation of this disease that is sustainable will yield an inferior contagion.

BTW Hugh, I live in a very red region, not anywhere as pure as the urban enclaves that featured turnouts above 90% and voted 95% in favor of Biden but still, pretty red and outside of the tiniest minority<.1%, nobody is not wearing a mask when entering a public building. As the map below makes clear, SARS II aka Covid-19 continues to be an urban, near urban and exuban disease suffered mainly by those who live in the bluest sections of the country.

That makes sense as major air travel centers are located in Urban/Blue areas. Mask usage/compliance does not explain the statistical disparity, unless you are claiming that Biden voters have been lackadaisical on following SARS II guidelines. And I wouldn't know…because disparagement of 49.7% the country is an urban/blue thing…there are no glossy magazines or high powered TeeVee stations telling us how lazy, worthless, people in urban areas are goose stepping to Putin's puppeteering. Yep, the only evidence we have is what we see with our own eyes when urbanites come to buy properties to be turned into low tax absentee bolt-hole/"investments".

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/–qPyqakXB4Y/XntvuTjfQJI/AAAAAAAAF-o/nqhnqv_RL8YIkViSW2kxYP_n2r7kHfVKACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-03-25%2Bat%2B10.33.07%2BAM.jpg

@S Brennan,

There is something very strange about that map. It has a lot of counties colored gray. And the color chart says that gray = metro counties. Yet a lot of those counties are extremely lo-metro or zero-metro. Did something go wrong with the mapping?

Also, the map says nothing about which “metro” counties have “what” covid.

S Brennan:

That said, what does seem to elude Stewart and many of his [TDS] suffering cohorts is a rudimentary knowledge of the spread of infectious disease. In particular, the role of modern air transport..

Uh, who’s been traveling by air anywhere SB? Most countries I know of is locked down, particularly against us.

https://www.cntraveler.com/story/coronavirus-air-travel-these-numbers-show-the-massive-impact-of-the-pandemic

Passenger travel is down 95 %.

And please explain how say, both the 1919 flu virus and the bubonic plague (the latter hit Europe not once, but twice) despite having a fraction of the people moving back then as now and no air travel at all.

As I said, we now have our own variant which ***we’re*** now giving to the rest of the world. Maybe the Trumpists and the Trump-apologists can now call CoVID the AMERICAN virus??

https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2021-02-11/coronavirus-variant-first-seen-in-los-angeles-has-spread-around-the-world

Okay Stewart,

Since you seem to be a very slow learner, pay attention.

1] “The 1919 flu virus” as you refer to it started two years earlier, WW I was the primary mechanism for it’s spread…you obviously haven’t heard of troop movements during world wars or you wouldn’t have asked the question…that’s all well and good but, trust me on this..I was part of two large troop deployments…it happens during war, more so in world wars.

2] “Bubonic plague” which was, many different pathogens, over numerous centuries was never a virus, it was bacterial, much more deadly than SARS II but, it had entirely different co-humanoid vector…please learn some basic biology and history before correcting others who actually learned something in school [while starting in varsity sports as a freshman]. Yes, small school but, readers beside yourself will get the point…being a loser on both the academic and scholastic field means…you’re a certifiable loser.

3] “Passenger travel is down 95 %” Yeah sure, after the horse has left the barn [except China, as I pointed out..they knew what was coming and shut down internal traffic in Dec 2019…as I pointed out [and you hope people are too clueless to read up-thread]. Don’t give me your bullshit because of lock down, people, after the fact, know air travel is foolish.

And for those that think that Israel is the exemplar with its mas vaccination program ….

https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/covid-vaccine-the-nightmare-scenario/

It seems that this rush to vaccinate with an experimental gene therapy may have some unforeseen consequences.

@ProNewerDeal, thanks for your reply, and sorry I missed it earlier.

@BlizzardOfOzzz

Thanks for you kind words. However, as per a comment I just posted that went into moderation, the graph is indeed an “apples to apples” comparison, in that they are comparing historically observed covid data, together with projections of a covid variant with much higher R value. Not that I trust their R value for the variant. Seems likely to suffer from ‘Ferguson inflation’, if you catch my drift. 🙂

In my comment in moderation, you can see via a reference that the R value in Alberta changes with time. Well, it’s been known for many months that early treatment with hydroxychloroquine decreases hospital stays and, at least by inference, the amount of viral shedding. So, while I haven’t seen this claimed anywhere, I have to believe that interventions with prophylactics/early treatments, with hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin, will crater R values.

==============

I just went to see if Kim Iverson’s youtube channel was still alive. She had posted a video about India’s embrace of hydroxychloroquine not just for covid contractors (or positive testers), but their entire families, that lived with them. In some states, they moved on to ivermectin, determining it to work better.

Her channel is still up. Listened to the first 2 minutes of a recent video, “Democrats Admit Trump Didn’t Say Anything To Incite Insurrection”, and here is what she said:

00:05
hello everybody welcome to the show
00:06
thank you so much for being here
00:07
appreciate it uh let’s go ahead and
00:10
start off today with some soft news
00:12
because um if we go into the
00:15
well for one because those of you
00:17
joining in on youtube welcome
00:18
you know i am risking it live streaming
00:20
again on youtube when
00:22
i think that that was part of the the
00:23
censorship slaughterhouse that happened
00:25
but um i think now i know why a lot of
00:28
those channels were demonetized from the
00:30
censorship
00:31
why they were censored or demonetized
00:33
was because of certain topics they were
00:34
talking about
00:35
so what i’m going to do is at the end of
00:38
the show
00:38
i am going to tell you all on youtube
00:41
that are watching to move over
00:43
to either rockfin or vimeo which the
00:45
links are down below
00:47
in order for you to get the rest of the
00:49
show the good stuff
00:50
happens when we go underground so that

so, MAYBE she has restated, or just reposted, her now youtube-censored video on the Indian experience, on rockfin or vimeo.

One thing I believe US citizens can do is appeal to members of the Indian-American community to take a lead role in educating the American public as to the Indian experience. It’s been my impression that, at least at the “tail end of the distribution”, their highly professional members are eager for the American experiment to succeed, and for us to not degrade to the level of corruption which has been observed in the Indian democracy. One of the most impressive testimonies about the election fraud of 2020, that I heard, was from an Indian American lady. Also, Dinesh D’Souza seems eager for us to not “go gentle into that good night”, which, in fact, will be an Orwellian nightmare.

I have so far distributed my flyer from governmentincompetence.org to a number of churches. In the future, I will try some Hindu temples.

ey! It just occurred to me . . . . members of the MAGA In Opposition Party ( MIOP) could show their sincerity in their tens of millions by holding vast indoor Herd Immunity rallies, where they all meet and mingle and all give eachother coronavid. That way, they will get the mild respiratory infection, get over it, and come out the other side with Full Immunity. They could show their bravery and their reality-based knowledge of the real facts, in contrast to our cowardice and our delusional dwelling in the illusion that coronavid is a dangerous disease.

dc, well, the difference between you and us is that we don’t see the need to structure our entire lives around a flu-like respiratory virus, which is so mild that most people who contract it never even notice. But despite your senseless sarcasm, yes, as hard as it is for you to believe as you bunker down in your house in fear wearing two muzzles and refusing to greet your neighbors, with your children locked up in isolation for years until they contemplate suicide — we do not care. You’re welcome to join us at any time, if you decide that breathing fresh air and normal human interaction are in fact better for your health than your neurotic, performative anti-social rituals.

Oh it is here to stay no matter what we do now. Evolution doesn’t generally work in terribly mysterious ways. We allowed far to much time and space for the virus to mutate, and in the US <3% of positive cases are sequenced so we really have no clue when it comes to presence or spread of mutations/variants. The US is no longer capable of doing anything but supporting billionaires and dropping bombs. Our only real hope with Covid is that it quickly follows the preferred path of viruses to greater contagiousness and lesser damage. These vaccines would have been far more effective if we had even tried to limit the spread and contain the virus through other methods. Instead we pinned our hopes on silver bullet vaccines and let evolution do its thing in the meantime.

Is everyone catching on yet? That our governments, plural, have made a conscious decision to let the virus run loose, mutate, do whatever it does, and let people catch the disease, and let some fair portion of them die.

That’s the policy we see being implemented in the US and much of the West, as well as in parts of the rest of the world (particularly Latin America and Africa), and it doesn’t much matter which political party is running things. The policy doesn’t much change. The US government is at least saying that more vaccine will become available eventually, and that’s nice, but in actuality getting the vaccine is a crapshoot. And will likely stay that way, just as getting the disease will continue to be.

It’s no wonder there’s revolt in the air and on the ground. The virus isn’t the sole cause, but it’s a considerable factor, and it’s not going away. We’re stuck with it.

Life expectancy will plummet. Oh well. The cull of the old, sick, poor, black and brown will continue apace. Nothing can stop it now, right?

Ché Pasa, globalization that central tenet of neoliberal theology meant that the doors were left open and public health responses were delayed and ignored. It was also a moment for the US to exercise some of the global leadership it so often claims, except we had saddled ourselves with the non-leadership of Trump.

OT the Trump impeachment defense team is running spiels that would have made 1930s’ Germans proud. They ran 10 minutes of clips of Democrats using the word “fight”. They even defended Trump’s infamous defense of white nationalists in Charlottesville. They are trying to equate any criticism of Trump with Trump’s violent insurrection.

Also I got a good laugh out of the point where the author says “Many have raised the warning that the current epidemic of COVID-19 is actually the result of an (sic) bioweapons attack released in part by individuals in the United States government” and then cites himself to back that statement up. I guess you have to admire the chutzpah, if nothing else.

I think the standard for accurate data is Mortality Analyses by Johns Hopkins:

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality

Now granted Willey it does not confirm your bias but what the hell, reality and you parted ways long ago; sadly, you are always here to remind us.

If you wanted an accurate picture Willey and I’m sure you don’t, you’d look at a county by county map not a state state state map which, conveniently, for your bias, ignores cities.

For example; Kansas City is in Missouri but the metro area encompasses Kansas hence one third the cases in Kansas are in Johnson County a suburban area of Kansas city and account for roughly 60% of the deaths, the other 28% are in Wichita itself, another urban area with tight links to Dallas. And yes, I understand your flyover state ignorance is driven by your hatred of 49.7 of the population and your fanatical need to confirm your biases.

And no, just because you went to a “red” website and started in by insulting everybody and then…got your ass handed to you doesn’t mean you are now justified in your hatred, it just means you are an rude asshole.

S Brennan,

You posted “Observed case-fatality ratio”, which I’d assume quantifies the quality of care. My argument said nothing whatsoever about quality of care.

Your link only demonstrates that the USA still has higher quality of health care (costs ignored) for covid than does places like Peru, Columbia and the Ukraine. I’d think that such an argument would go without even saying.

The “Deaths per 100,000 population” from your link is closer to my argument. In those stats the USA ranks #4, which I consider abysmal for “the worlds greatest nation” with the “worlds best health care”. And that chart only shows “the twenty countries currently most affected by COVID-19 worldwide” as they’ve clearly stated. BTW, that particular Hopkins stats category jibes with the source I presented.

“just because you went to a “red” website and got your ass handed to you and started in by insulting everybody”

This has nothing to do with my reality and I’d need you to offer a link for proof. Otherwise you’re just lying (no surprises there). But that comment does explain your odd preference for coal power, hydroxychloroquine, Trump and metamars. I’ve known for some time that dissembling is all that American conservatives have left.

@BlizzardOfOzzz

Thank you for your reply to my comment. I’ll do it my way, and you’ll do it your way, and let Darwin take the hindmost.