Alright Already

Some of you have asked me why I haven’t posted in a while.

A few reasons, I guess –

One, It takes time to write a good post. Two, the pay is lousy. Three and most importantly, I wasn’t sure I was helping much. But since Covid has come back to the Garden State and the texts from known and unknown have increased, I, still unsure it will help, am, like Covid, back, at least for now. Please send me questions via the blog. Getting texts on this situation or that situation or about someone’s sister’s husband’s uncle’s wife, well, they are a bit draining. In other words, if you have my cellphone (and many or most do), please send your questions here, instead of texting me. Thanks.

On to All Things Covid –

So. the frat of variants grows delta-beta-gamma or whatever. None of the variants is more virulent or aggressive than the original strain, which is referred to as ancestral. Delta may be more infectious than the ancestral, but I doubt it. The vaccines do work against delta. Some of the vaccines may not work as well against delta as they do against the ancestral strain, but they do provide very good protection against severe disease.

What about P-town? (I heard they call Providence, Massachusetts, P-town) Never been to the Cape, unfortunately. Anyhow, they had a very big party and spread delta around. About 469 people got Covid. 74% of the infections were in FVP (fully-vaccinated people). However, only 5 of the 469 cases needed to be hospitalized. 4 of the 5 hospitalized were FVPs. None died, again fortunately

CDC – The CDC has to get a new publicist. A week or so ago, the CDC changed their recommendation on masks, based on unpublished data. Seriously? What are you afraid to show us the data? Are we supposed to trust the all-knowing CDC? That kind action by the CDC creates deep skepticism. Never make policy changes and not tell us the data behind those changes. That’s insane.

Many, including I, don’t trust the CDC. Since Ebola at least, the CDC’s policies have been influenced by politics. And before Ebola, I trusted the CDC implicitly. Now, regarding Covid, I don’t trust them much at all. And the unpublished data were leaked to WAPO. The data weren’t as exciting as people and WAPO made them out to be.

The USA has been reluctant to have a central system to identify who has been vaccinated and who hasn’t. In other words, you can’t get a US government-sponsored vaccine passport. Instead, the CDC has encouraged and enticed vaccination. In May, the CDC changed its longstanding opinion and said FVPs didn’t have to wear masks anymore. This was a huge carrot to get the vaccine. Of course, the CDC didn’t put in place a system for people to show they have been vaccinated. So, unvaccinated people, UPs, could and can simply say they were vaccinated. After the mask lift, vaccination rates didn’t go up.

Now, the CDC has used the delta surge to punish us all; “The agency advised that people who live in high-transmission communities wear masks in indoor public spaces, even if they’ve been vaccinated.” WAPO July 28th. Essentially, the CDC is punishing us all, because not enough people have been vaccinated. The CDC knows very well that the vaccines protect against delta. So, their recommendation change is senseless.

However, something happened around this time that, believe it or not, is much bigger than Covid. As alluded to a CDC PowerPoint presentation was leaked to WAPO. The last few slides deal with delta virus in breakthrough infections and infections of UPs. On July 27th, NBC News reported talking to unnamed officials, who said the virus levels in breakthrough infections were higher than in infections in UPs. Several news agencies cited NBC News. For instance, USA Today wrote “NBC News, citing unnamed officials aware of the decision, said it comes after new data suggests vaccinated individuals could have higher levels of virus and infect others amid the surge of cases driven by the delta variant of the coronavirus.”

Concern reportedly developed that these data could be used by anti-vaxers, who might say “See?! The vaccine leads to higher virus levels.” Within 24 hours, USA Today, Yahoo! and NBC News itself removed any reference to the unnamed officials statements or virus levels in FVP vs. UP. They didn’t publish a correction or erratum. They just deleted it. That’s coordinated censorship of the press. That coordinated quashing of news scares me much than Covid every did. Funny thing is I interpret those data much differently and am still very pro-vaccine. I pointed this out to several Covid experts and to the media. No one else seems to care. “If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” — George Washington

To summarize, please don’t text me questions about Covid.

SMS