Vaccine Nonsense
COVID19 has revealed deep corruption in places we never expected to see it. First it was social media platforms, deciding what viewpoints of science were allowed and which were to be banned. Science doesn’t work that way. Ever. Then it became state Governors using panic-inducing lockdowns to reward their supporters and punish those who opposed them. More recently we’ve learned that the lab leak hypothesis, dismissed as a kooky right-wing conspiracy in early 2020, isn’t quite as far out there as medical bureaucrats proclaimed. After being told that the virus could not transmit from human to human and there was no need to wear masks, then having those statements reversed without ever acknowledging we had been told untruths, we learned that those who wanted the lockdowns lifted were redneck racist idiots.
The lockdown was supposed to last “until we bend the curve,” or about two weeks. The lockdown lasted 15 months in most places, and there was little difference in outcomes between states that destroyed millions of small businesses and the millions of jobs they created and states that let citizens decide for themselves what level of risk they would accept. Public schools were closed by teachers’ refusal to go to work, ostensibly because it was too dangerous, but who then relented when given hundreds of billions in bribes, while private schools stayed open and experienced no significant problems.
The virus was portrayed as equally deadly to everyone, when we knew by the end of January 2020 that its complications were almost entirely limited to the elderly. The number of cases was bandied about to “prove” how dangerous it was, but in most people it was no more dangerous than the typical common cold. Models were built showing how millions of Americans were going to die, and proving that everyone had to be locked indoors. That is contrary to best practice, which is to place patients outdoors where even slight breezes dissipate droplet and aerosol clouds, thus limiting transmission, and sunlight damages the virus. Anyone who didn’t agree that the virus was an existential threat and that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had nothing to do with the creation of the virus was labeled a liar.
Now we’re learning just how deep the corruption among medical bureaucrats runs. The research that likely created the virus was funded by Dr. Anthony Fauci, presented as the great authority on all facts about COVID19. He encouraged persecution of those who differed with his opinions, and was part of a group that tried to limit discussion of scientific evidence and processes. Now Dr. Fauci is calling for an investigation. The arsonist wants to investigate his own fire. And he arrogantly claims that an attack on him is an attack on science.
The latest issue is that people are refusing to be vaccinated. They are labeled anti-vaxxers and kooky conspiracy nuts. Some may be, but not all. A vaccine doesn't work on the virus, it works on the immune system, causing the immune system to recognize a threat and create active agents to battle the virus AND create and store memory of the virus. Immune-suppressed people can have so little immune system remaining that the vaccine doesn't work on them, regardless of how effective the vaccine is judged to be during tests. Strangely, the same applies to people with overactive immune systems. People with systemic lupus may have immune systems that are already stretched thin by doing everything in their power to destroy connective tissue in the body, and can't spare the effort to respond to the vaccine.
The important number isn't cases or even deaths. It's hospitalizations. Being hospitalized is the gateway to all other serious negative consequences. This allows you to compare data by multiple factors. The risk is nearly exclusive to the elderly. If we had spent February 2020 arranging for strict isolation of our population over 80 and then vaccinating people 70 and older, letting primary care providers decide which individuals younger than 50 would benefit from a vaccine, prohibiting those 18 and younger from being vaccinated except at the direction of PCP and letting those 50-70 do as they wished, we'd be leagues ahead today. The other required step would be testing for cross-immunity ("natural" immunity), which probably covers close to 40% of the population based on a review of about a dozen cross-immunity studies.
Cross-immunity is easy to understand. Coronaviruses have been around for millennia, and COVID19 is a Coronavirus. All share certain basic characteristics, and after exposure to three or four colds you’ve developed immunity to the three or four viruses that caused those colds, and cross-immunity to most of the rest of the Coronavirus family. It’s like people who speak Spanish can often understand much of what is being said by Italians and Portuguese, because the languages are so closely related. Someone with cross-immunity to the family of Coronaviruses does not need a vaccine.
Young people are at very little risk from the virus. Most cases have zero to mild symptoms. They can transmit the virus to others, but it is not much of a threat to themselves or others their age. Heretofore, vaccines have consisted of weakened or killed virus samples that the immune system uses to create specific antibodies for the illness, and to create a memory of what the illness looks like and how to defeat it. These vaccines carry risks because they’re dealing with actual virus units, and many rely on adenoviruses to help them penetrate cells, a necessary step to creating antibodies. Adenoviruses are cold viruses, just like coronaviruses, and early symptoms are the same. That was the deciding factor in my choice to use a new type of vaccine, messenger RNA (mRNA), that contained instructions for building the templates for the immune system to use to create antibodies and memories. I’m 73 and have stage three COPD; I’m not going to survive a bad adenovirus infection. I’ve also got normal pressure hydrocephalus, which has robbed me of my mobility and is slowly destroying my cognitive functions.
My cognition is still sufficient to recognize a scam, and a very cruel one has been pulled off on the world. There is no vast conspiracy, no hidden tribe of Knights Templar plotting to rule the world, no evil plan to subjugate Mankind to a secret society of elites who will run the world for their own benefit. No, this scam was pulled off for petty and childish reasons. The first was a hunger for power, in which the worse things got for Americans the better the chances of Joe Biden replacing Donald Trump. The second was a hunger for admiration, in which the truth would destroy Dr. Fauci’s reputation and those of most medical bureaucrats. The third was confirmation of Solomon Asch’s groundbreaking study of conformity. The weakness that breeds a need to conform caused otherwise thinking adults to refuse to call out obvious lies being spread.
Albert Einstein is often cited as the most important scientist of the 20th century, but I disagree. Few of us understand an Einstein-Rosen Bridge, also called a wormhole, and fewer yet will ever have the experience of using one. Solomon Asch gave us the research to understand something we experience personally or vicariously at some point in our lives: the overbearing need to conform, even at the cost of our souls.
excellent article and it captures so much of what I see around me. I would rather be proven wrong than align myself to a tribal school of sheep. Your mind remains sharp and this is beautifully written. Thank you for sharing it