I just read a piece in Reason talking about Leana Wen’s (now working for CNN natch) contention that the unvaccinated should be confined to their homes. That due to their refusal to get the vaccine they are causing problems for those people who chose to get vaccinated. With that statement, in addition to loudly demonstrating her love of all things authoritarian, Wen absolutely undermined any arguments from the CDC, FDA, or FICUS that the vaccine is effective.
For all institutions and individuals except the CDC, a vaccine is something that prevents the recipient from becoming infected with a disease. A vaccine is not something that simply mitigates the symptoms of said disease. So, with her argument that the unvaccinated are a threat to the vaccinated, Wen is saying that the vaccine doesn’t work.
A flu vaccine has been available for years. And for years doctors and other medical types have warned that currently available flu vaccines are not effective against possibly current strains of the flu. In other words, the vaccine is a vaccine against the strains for which it was designed, but if there is a new strain of flu, the vaccine is no longer a vaccine against that particular strain, but rather a prophylactic against a bad case of the flu.
I’m perfectly fine if the powers that be (TPTB) want to argue that the three “vaccines” for the WuFlu are simply prophylactics. No problem. But please don’t claim that these are true vaccines and then try to tell us that the unvaccinated pose some sort of threat to the vaccinated. It doesn’t follow.
A few other pieces of information bolster arguments that all the vaccine and mask posturing is just political theory. The first of these is that the UK has discarded the idea of vaccine passports. This is very good news. There have been ongoing protests in France and Germany against vaccine passports as well. Here in the US we don’t hear about those protests as much since that would undermine the other favorite line from the left – “they’re doing it in Europe”.
Additionally, think about the continued economic damage caused by vaccine passports. Large numbers of vaccinated people have announced that they will not be patronizing businesses that require passports. It’s not just the unvaccinated who won’t be going out to eat, going to shows, movies, etc. If you’re okay with passports (and announcing your healthcare info for all to see), are you prepared to be the sole support for the restaurant industry as well? Are you prepared to not eat out because all the restaurants have closed?
Secondly, nurses and other healthcare workers are resigning rather than get the vaccine. Are all these healthcare professionals “anti-science”? I seriously doubt that. So, when you start seeing screaming headlines about hospital bed shortages remember that “number of beds available” is a function of staffing, NOT the number of physical beds available. Then remember that the hospitals either fired, or encouraged all those nurses, docs, PAs, cleaning staff, nutrition staff, and everybody else to resign. Then ask people why medical personnel would refuse a vaccine. Let me know if you get a coherent answer to that question.
Thirdly, labor unions are pushing back against vaccine mandates as well. Fascinating that the USPS got out of the Biden mandate for federal workers, isn’t it? Does that whole “through rain, sleet, snow, and the dark of night” thing mean that postal workers are naturally immune to disease? Other unions, like the NY teacher’s union got concessions so that those with medical/religious exemptions must be kept on the payroll in some capacity. Or allowed to retain their health insurance if they leave. So, the unions are not in favor of mandates either. And that’s interesting as union leadership have long been extremely generous supporters of the Democratic Party.
Finally, the dreaded delta variant is dying out. Even the CDC’s own data shows declines in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths since the beginning of September. It’s going down. Mitigation efforts are working along with good old Mother Nature which causes viruses to become less deadly with each iteration so that the virus can survive. Now for those who will inevitably scream that this means we need to keep masking and force everybody to vaccinate…NO. This means the risk is lower and severe cases much less likely. As has been said many, many times before…go check the flu deaths numbers for every year prior to 2020 and then tell me what you think.
People who’ve had the WuFlu don’t need to be vaccinated. In fact, they’re probably better protected than those who are vaccinated. There’s plenty of research that shows that if you had WuFlu you shouldn’t get vaccinated because that could compromise your ability to fight off any recurrence of it. So, why are those people a threat to the vaccinated?
If you are vaccinated, you should still be standing up against these mandates and the implied creation of second-class citizens. If you are vaccinated, the unvaccinated pose no risk to you.
If you are vaccinated and you think that getting everybody vaccinated will make the feds go away and leave you alone, bless your heart, you sweet summer child (to borrow a phrase). Once they get through this spasm, they will come at us with something else. We have allowed them ever higher levels of control and they will continue to go after more.
Viruses like the flu (a coronavirus), or WuFlu (a coronavirus), or the common cold (another coronavirus) never go away. Polio and smallpox went away because the vaccines actually prevented people from getting those diseases. Polio and smallpox vaccines don’t just lessen the impact of those diseases, they completely protect you against them. You are immune. You can’t get polio or smallpox. But, with the WuFlu vaccines, you can totally get another case of WuFlu. Go figure.
By punishing the unvaccinated TPTB are attempting to assert greater levels of control and to throw candy to the vaccinated who live in fear.
Scapegoating never works permanently. And it’s not the fault of the unvaccinated that the vaccinated are afraid.
TPTB will continue to pedal fear at you until you tell them you won’t take it anymore. But you have be the one to tell them and tell them most firmly. The end goal is control, not your health and well-being, nor the health and well-being of “us all.”
The greater your fears, the greater their control over you.
You do not get to tell me what I need to do in order to make you less fearful.
Your fears are not mine.
Image by JamesDeMers from Pixabay
Minor correction: I’m fairly sure the flu viruses are not coronoaviruses. And not all colds are coronaviruses, some are rhinoviruses.
But the overall point is correct.
And with smallpox it is worth noting that earlier vaccines were less than 100% effective it was only the 20th century ones that were so good
Yeah, about the flu…but my point stands. These are recurring illnesses that we live with.
And, you’re also right about smallpox. I know that when Washington’s army was at Valley Forge he asked for more innoculation doses against smallpox which at the time was cowpox that did simply mitigate the symptoms and progress of the illness. But it did make smallpox non-lethal.
Minor correction: I’m fairly sure the flu viruses are not coronoaviruses.
I considered making the same correction– and then realized that influenzas are not corona viruses, but “the flu” often is. (when it’s not food poisoning….)
That’s why healthcare uses terms like ILI, Influenza Like Illness, defined as a fever and cough or sore throat not from another obvious cause.
…would you like to guess what the hospitalization rate for ILIs in the 2019-2020 flu season looked like, until they started classifying things as COVID? I bet you know….
TPTB need to get collectively bent. With multiple cacti.
What we have are therapeutics, which, is given early enough, may prevent severe illness should one get the virus. It’s not a vaccine no matter which doctors try to tell me it is.
Also I’ve always questioned why medical personnel are taking a hard pass on the virus.