What are we supposed to take from this except that it has never been about the public’s health. It has always been about compliance with diktats from on high. If you refuse to do what St Fauci tells you, despite whatever misgivings you may have that they never properly address, then you must be punished.
The hubris--and ignorance--of the public health establishment has been on full display now for going on 3 years. It is inconceivable that this community could have garnered so much power over our lives. And more and more data is amply demonstrating just how wrong they were.
I am so glad I didn’t cave to the pressure to get that useless vaccine. My brother just finished his residency, and this has obviously been a point of contention between us. Though I love him, he was never able to make more of a case for it than “safe and effective”. Dismissing any concerns people have about a newly developed medical treatment as conspiracy theories does not buy you much credibility. Especially when it’s clear that the people screaming “safe and effective” stand to make literally billions from the sale of it.
I have been particularly concerned about the insistence by those in authority that little children be vaccinated. I am neither a doctor nor an anti-vaxxer, but have enough sense to know there simply has not been enough time elapsed to perform the longitudinal studies that would demonstrate both efficacy and safety for small children.
And it’s been clear from the outset that healthy children are not at risk from Covid. It is a disease which targets the obese, the old and those with co-morbidities.
Yet children in DC must be vaccinated to attend school…and no more virtual school as another option. I don’t even know how this is legal considering where we are in the discussion of children/virus/vaccine. This is nothing but child abuse.
Yes, I was waiting for Vinay to point out that glaring and relevant contradiction in Biden’s policy. My guess is that it’s too hot a political potato for him to touch.
This is proof of absolute cognitive dissonance on the part of the administration and most of the medical community. I heard a Democrat giving the pitiful excuse for the DC not admitting the untaxed to attend. He said most of them were “foreign nationals”. It’s the first time I have heard illegal immigrants be referred to with a negative connotation. Handy, but it doesn’t pass the smell test.
Marie, apparently, you and Leah Rose have difficulty comprehending someone flying in an airplane and someone walking on terra firma; I can’t help but wonder if it’s willful ignorance.
Yes, pushing to have children vaccinated now is beyond absurd, we don't know the long-term effects, but we do know it isn't effective, doesn't stop the spread, and children are at essentially zero risk from covid
And no need. European studies and longitudinal data show healthy children are neither at significant risk, not vectors for the spread of COVID 19. The vaccine is riskier. And I am a doctor, and did research on mRNA viruses.
Sandy, I have a World Health Organization interim statement on Covid 19 vaccination for children Dated August 11, 2022, that says: “The relative transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 at different ages remains uncertain….”
Would you please give me a link to the European study?
“The relationship between age, viral load, and transmission across the full symptom spectrum of SARS-CoV-2 infection has not been comprehensively investigated because people with no, or mild symptoms are seldom tested systematically. The relative transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 at different ages remains uncertain, largely due to the challenges involved in disentangling the influences of biological, host, virus, variants of concern, and environmental factors(20).”
There are studies from Ireland and Spain, but this is one actually published in Eurosurveillance, a European journal of epidemiology, way back in May 2020.
Heavey L, Casey G, Kelly C, Kelly D, McDarby G. No evidence of secondary transmission of COVID-19 from children attending school in Ireland, 2020. Euro Surveill. 2020 May;25(21):2000903. doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.21.2000903. PMID: 32489179; PMCID: PMC7268273.
This has been my contention from day one. Claims of safety simply can have no SCIENTIFIC basis. None. It takes years to prove safety. Years. The authorities treat people like disposable Guinea pigs
They'll claim there's a first time for everything. But it's easy for them to claim it's safe and effective when any reports of vaccine injuries or myocarditis or any other side effects are ignored, swept under the rug, or dismissed as made-up by MAGA extremists (which never made any sense, because Trump is a big proponent of the vaccine, simply because it was developed under his watch).
That is one of the red flags for me. Either previous testing protocols were unduly burdensome or the covid vaccines are not properly tested . It cannot be both ways. And there was too much "trust the science" or "trust the medical community". The medical community are owned by the insurance companies now so almost all doctors do as they are told.
Interesting point regarding the garnering of power. I don’t know if Michael Crichton was the first person to say it,* but he observed that power is rarely taken by force; much more often it’s given. By voluntarily complying with federal mandates—that, I might add, did not survive the courts—most people freely ceded power. Some states didn’t, like Florida and South Dakota. Notice that they seem to have fared much better than those that lovingly embraced every mandate they could find.
* In his novel, Dealing, Or The Berkeley To Boston 40 Brick Lost Bag Blues.
Huge Chrichton fan, so appreciate the quote. I hope that every employer that mandated medical procedures for their employees ends up getting sued. Including the federal government.
Nothing prepared me more for the past three years than Crichton's "State of Fear" :
"... In reality, for the last fifteen years we have been under the control of an entirely new complex, [...] the politico-legal-media complex. The PLM. And it is dedicated to promoting fear in the population - under the guise of promoting safety."
Anyone who believes the global warming hoax should read "State of Fear". Of course, they won't. They would rather cling to their superstition (Global Warming) than facts.
By the time he wrote "State of Fear", Crichton had learned his lesson. He footnoted his facts and had a bibliography.
The left clings to the hoax with religious zeal. You can't logic with a fanatic, especially a religious fanatic.
Crichton was not a very good writer (predictable plots, one-dimensional characters) but he chose some fascinating topics and was excellent at conveying scientific knowledge to a lay reader. The best part of State of Fear is the footnotes where he documents everything in the book with "science." Probably why that is one of his books that will never be made into a movie.
One of his better novels, SoF. Best was probably Rising Sun. Interestingly, it was inarguably the worst movie in that it had exactly the opposite message as the novel. It was said that Crichton walked off the set, disgusted at the mis-messaging of the screenplay.
After publishing The Rising Sun, Crichton was castigated by the Hollywood left morons for being, you guessed it, a racist.
These were the same ignoramus idiots who claim Islam is the religion of peace.
Crichton documented everything he said in "the Rising Sun" with a large bibliography at the end of the book. Crichton was a genius, I mean a real genius, and those idiots in Hollywood are, well, idiots.
Not only Crichton but Caleb Carr's prescient novel on the early internet and controlling information raised a very early warning about how an entire society can be deceived.
Crichton certainly nailed human behavior in this modern era. I really believe the underlying message of the Jurassic parks series doesn't resonate with many people. No matter how fancy the tech, the money backing it up or the level of planning. Humans are not gods and there is always an X factor that leads to catastrophe.
They arrogated that power and too many Americans were too scared to resist. And so they sacrificed liberty for non-existent security. Sadly most were Democrats.
You are only partially right and you are missing the most important part. You ignore the fact that those mandating and those taking these vaccines are true believers. They think they work and they are oblivious to the harm. The problem will not be solved until higher numbers are convinced Fauci, Trump, Biden and the entire Democrat Party establishment got the science wrong. Drs McCullough and Kory got the science right.
I don't think the higher educated vaxxers will ever be convinced that they were wrong. After spending so long claiming that anyone who dissented was a hillbilly anti-vaxxer, they will be loathe to admit that the hillbillies got it more right than the highly-credentialed.
Trump embraced Scott Atlas and The Great Barrington Declaration, both of which proved to be correct. He was an advocate of the Vax, but not mandatory compliance. His policies were far better than Biden's.
Absolutely, but how was he to know? It should have been a General who could deal objectively with all of the various levels of complexity, not a career MD bureaucrat that laser focus on the virus with no consideration to the collateral damage to the economy and mental health implications of his policies. I saw the magnitude of the mistake in April of 20.
I was saying it real time, but I had a 30 year career as a hospital CEO and dealt with several community disasters. I love doctors, but they tend to be very narrow in their focus. I was calling for a Mental Health provider to be as prominent as Fauci at those briefings, as well as more focus on 'at risk' populations versus our entire population. Around April it became apparent that Fauci was also a classic narcissist who was influenced by politics, as well as his relationship with China and the WHO. He was a very bad person and caused more damage to this nation, and the world, than any individual in my lifetime. He also gave us Joe Biden.
And I’m sure President Trump would have allowed Djokovic to play in the US Open and YES Jon his policies were far better than Biden’s we have two years left of this it’s going to be tough
Exactly. I know so many smart, young people still getting boosters. They’ll get one to travel. Get another when local case numbers spike. I would say something, but what do you say to a person so committed to a lie that they would believe? They still think it helps despite the fact they are low-risk, that they’ve had it, and all the evidence that these vaccines likely do nothing to help and therefore can only harm you.
This type of delusion goes well back into human history. Far more evil has been visited upon humanity by good men convinced they were doing right, than by bad men doing wrong. You can fight a Hitler, a Bad King John, a Nero. It is very hard to rouse people to fight someone who truly believes they are acting "for the greater good" (if I may quote Grindelwald).
Aaron, I won't argue with you this may not have been all about the nation's health. But be careful before you upload to Fauci all of your venom. If you were to take two similar countries, Australia and Canada - similar rules have been in place (and in Canada's case still are). Britain's were as onerous until recently removed. In Australia's case entry requirements were relaxed just a month or so ago.
So perhaps this is not only an American problem, but an Anglo-Saxon one.
Aaron, how do you figure having a foreign national receiving a vaccination, before entering the United States is not about public health? The way this conversation is framed, you would think this is only about Djokovic (foreign national) arriving on our shores. Hundreds of foreign nationals are potentially arriving on our shores each day. Without these requirements, a foreign national could arrive on our shores with a mutated Covid 19 that is more dangerous; there’s an old saying, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
A foreign national could arrive on our shores with a mutated COVID 19 that is more dangerous? Be careful - that sounds like xenophobia to me! Maybe we should keep out foreign nationals indefinitely, they might bring in some exotic disease. Concern for public health demands it! By the way, have you seen what’s happening on our southern border? Oh wait, that is a great humanitarian effort.
That is the problem with irrational thought- you get caught up in the web of contradictions.
How about we manage our southern border with something like the Berlin wall? Or how about Israel’s West Bank barrier, which is 30 feet high? Maybe we could use 13 feet tall concrete posts with high voltage electricity and barbed wire with guards trained to shoot anyone who got near the fence, just like the German SS guards at Auschwitz Concentration Camp did? We nicknamed the USSR the Iron Curtain; the world could nickname our barrier The Freedom Curtain; it would be almost like matching ends, the Statue of Liberty and the freedom curtain, liberty, and freedom for the chosen. We could have Cyclone class naval ships patrolling the Atlantic and Pacific oceans 24 hours a day to keep out the great unwashed. We don’t need to do anything with our northern border because we’re only trying to keep out people who aren’t white and rich!
Apparently any country having a secure border is now equivalent to a war crime. Do you think you included enough hyperbole? I’m sure if you think harder you could come up with more ridiculous analogies.
Your logic escapes me. Are you saying that if that foreign national is vaccinated he/she could not contract this hypothetical mutated Covid-19 or transmit it? Are you saying that vaccination protects oneself and others from a mutated Covid but not, as we know to be a fact, the current variants in circulation?
What has become clear over time is that the benefit of vaccination is limited to the person who is vaccinated - it reduces the severity of the illness. It does not protect one from getting the virus or prevent one from spreading the virus to others. Take 2 cases. 1. A foreign national who has been vaccinated, but who is currently infected with Covid, enters the US. 2. A foreign national who has not been vaccinated and who is infected with Covid enters the US. Do these two scenarios present different risk profiles to others? No - vaccinated individuals shed the virus at rates similar to non-vaccinated individuals. Moreover, whether a foreign national has the current strain of Covid or a new, mutated one is immaterial - vaccinated or not, he can still shed the virus (and, of course, our current vaccines may have no effect whatsoever on a mutated Covid). So what risk are we trying to address by preventing unvaccinated foreign nationals from entering the country?
TW52, you say: “…it reduces the severity of the illness.” wouldn’t that mean that, on average, an individual would shed less virus? Again you say: “It does not protect one from getting the virus or prevent one from spreading the virus to others.” Can you back this statement up?
From what the author of the article said, and from what I've read, no, individuals who are vaccinated do not "shed" less virus than unvaccinated individuals. This is an important fact. If vaccination does not lessen the transmissibility of the virus, then the ONLY benefit of vaccination is to the infected individual. If we want to adhere to the ideal of "science", then science is telling us today that vaccinations have no impact, whatsoever, on transmissibility. If that's the case, the there is absolutely no justification for the US policy to prevent unvaccinated individuals from entering the US.
The analogy fails. The vaccine is not even a Band-Aid. Unlike a Band-Aid which can stop a small bleed, the vaccine does not stop transmission. What part of that can you not understand Just me?
memento, COVID-19 vaccination helps protect people by creating an antibody response within them without having to experience potentially severe illness or post-COVID conditions. Additionally, the vaccine did prevent some from contracting Covid 19, thereby slowing the spread of the disease. The link below will explain why some vaccines last for a lifetime and others don’t; please educate yourself.
Golfer, shall we manage our southern border with something like the Berlin wall, or how about Israel’s West Bank barrier, the one that’s 30 feet high? Maybe we could use 13 feet tall concrete posts with high voltage electricity and barbed wire with guards trained to shoot anyone who got near the fence, just like the German SS guards at Auschwitz Concentration Camp did. We nicknamed the USSR the Iron Curtain; the world could nickname our barrier The Freedom Curtain; it would be almost like matching ends, the Statue of Liberty and the freedom curtain, liberty, and freedom for the chosen. We could have Cyclone class naval ships patrolling both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans 24 hours a day to keep out the great unwashed. We don’t need to do anything with our northern border because we’re only trying to keep out people who aren’t white and rich!
"If Djokovic gets a vaccine at this moment it would be against the ancestral, Wuhan strain of the coronavirus." <-- This is what makes current vaccination demands so insane.
"Consider the facts. Djokovic is 35 years old, and he is in terrific health. He has had and recovered from Covid-19 twice." <-- THE SCIENCE's denial of natural immunity is the most profoundly dishonest aspect of the entire response to Covid. Throwing out thousands of years of medical understanding so that Big Pharma can make money is profoundly unethical, perhaps even criminal.
I agree with you but wish everyone would describe what Djokovic has as Acquired Immunity rather than Natural Immunity. Children have natural immunity but adults don’t.
You are delusional. The vaccine creates some "immunity". But getting the disease - Covid - allows your immune system to develop antibodies w/o any vaccine. That is a natural process.
I don't think it's so "Big Pharma" can get rich. I think it's so the Left can exert control over people they don't like. And certainly a successful, healthy, traditionally good-looking male athlete isn't what the Left supports. They like fat freaks with purple hair and genderless blobby physiques.
I completely agree with Dr Prasad. Although I am not a fan of Djokovic, it is completely hypocritical of this administration to allow millions of likely unvaccinated illegal immigrants to stream over the border, but bar him and others from entry.
this is such a brilliant point! And another reason this whole scenario is infuriating. But the Follow The Science crowd just doubles down on this unjust, baseless, ignorant and hypocritical policy. Hey maybe Djokovic should just come across the southern border - problem solved!
Well didn’t make it into the article. Are we all supposed to pretend that isn’t happening? Why isn’t that a bigger part of the national dialogue at this point?
I was hoping Vinay would mention it, being that it’s one of the most obvious and relevant points of argument re: the stupidity of Biden contradictory policies. Alas, he refused to touch it.
“If I were him, I would have gotten the vaccine in early 2021 (as I did), prior to having had Covid-19.”
It’s really upsetting that Vinay continues to support healthy people getting the vaccine back in 2021. He loses me when he does this. Is he also ignoring the side effects this vaccine has had on athletes, specifically young men?
It's a matter of hindsight. I was vaccinated in late summer 2021 because my husband got vaccinated in order to be able to stop wearing a mask at work (even though, since he has contact with truckers from all over all, he was more likely than most to be exposed). I have Type 1 diabetes and am overweight, and I was not prepared to wear a mask in the presence of my own husband in my own home!
Knowing what I know now, I would probably have declined to be vaccinated. We ended up getting Omicron in January regardless.
What you didn't know is that you were being knowingly misinformed about most aspects of COVID.
There were many, like Scott Atlas and the authors of the Great Barrington Letter who were saying what you know now, but they were being suppressed and/or banned. They had it right, Fauci had it wrong. I'm guessing that had they been allowed to influence the decision, our Vax policy would have been different.
Trump was one of the few politicians who tried to follow a rational response to the virus, but that only created an equal and opposite reaction by the Dems, who encouraged Fauci to be Fauci and double down on hysteria.
To say that this country, and the rest of the world, overreacted to the pandemic and did undo harm to ourselves, and more so, our children, is a gross understatement.
He was probably right about Hydroxy and Ivemectin but for Big Pharma both drugs were too cheap. Remember they never in the game to cure us only to make us more ill!
I think, Jon, that by the end of 2020 and into early 2021, the 'hysteria' you mock might have been justified. Close to a half million Americans were flat out dead by that point - with a half million to go before the vaccinations kicked in. Trump and his policies made the vaccines happen. He was not wrong. This was no ordinary flu. Remember?
Did we and the world 'overreact' ?- well its fun to armchair quarterback this a year and a half later and point out everything we did wrong (of which on many points I agree with) - but the rationality you speak of? That is based on the flowing and sometimes contradictory data at that point in time. We were living in a petri dish. Fauci and the CDC made a lot of errors, but I do not think being a part of a pharmaceutical and Democrat conspiracy is one of them.
And your undue harm? Ask the families of our dead fellow citizens the harm they experienced, or the dead caused by all the ICU's and emergency rooms being overwhelmed by prone people with virus in their lungs that scheduled operations for people with other serious health issues had to be cancelled because of all the chaos.
But that was then..
A tennis player is denied entry into this country now because of outdated rules and that is wrong.
While I appreciate the tone of your comment, I was posting in various social media (until I got sick of being deleted) that we were dramatically over reacting to the virus as early as April of 2020. While it may seem like hindsight to many, iy's only because of the way Fauchi, and the media, suppressed alternative positions.
We had data in April of 2020 that showed if you were 0-21 years of age, COVID was no more dangerous than three of the prior flu seasons. The Virus was no more toxic than a normal flu virus, but extraordinarily contagious. Those with compromised immunity were extremely vulnerable. Again, we knew this in April of 2020, yet Fauchi treated this like the bubonic plague.
Perhaps Faucji's biggest crimes were shutting out dissenting opinions like Scott Atlas and the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration. They were trying to get accurate information to the public back in the second quarter of 2020, yet Fauchi not only didn't listen, but treated them as dangerous. We could (and should) have avoided the lockdowns and school closures had their positions been considered, but Fauchi and all of our social and conventional media shut them out.
Regarding the armchair quarterback, trust me, I was tracking the statistics on this from day 1 and watched every press conference for the first several months. I'm a retired hospital exec (and as a CEO, had to guide hospitals through two epidemics as well as navigate the evacuation of the worst hit hospital during hurricane Katrina) and the owner of a small restaurant. I was not only fascinated by the public health aspects of this, but very concerned that my restaurant would go out of business.
I truly believe it will be decades before we fully understand the impact of the learning loss for our kids and the damage to our economy.
Finally, eventually, someone is going to go back and revise the number of deaths caused by COVID and the numbers, while still high, will be cut dramatically. In the early days, even before testing was developed, hospitals were coding any pulmonary related deaths as being due to COVID, which resulted in additional reimbursement from Medicare of around $12K. I confirmed this with friends who were still employed as hospital execs. Even after testing was available, Any individual who died, but was detected to have COVID showed up in the CDC reporting as a COVID death, even those dying in automobile accidents. And data bases that compared US deaths to other countries are very flawed as there was no consistency in coding and reporting. Many countries intentionally underreported (CCP) while the US over reported.
I apologize for such a verbose response, but COVID was horribly managed, and once it became politicized, it turned an election.
Good response. The variables are immense, some still unproven even over a year later, and as I thought at the time, contradictory and often self defeating.
All I will say that informed opinions like yours, and others, hopefully will be processed, discussed and absorbed. For the next pandemic awaits.
It will come soon, and it may be worse than monkey pox.
Getting vaccinated in 2020 when the pandemic was in full forces and health officials were generally confused made some sense. But by late 2020, they had more than enough information to stop terrorizing Americans. And yet they continued to lie nonstop. Why?
There is the biblical answer they all had to get rid of President Trump, and what better way then to close the country down and then hold an illegal election it’s a perfect storm!
Yes, thanks for the correction. In spring 2020 there was mass confusion and fear.
But by the fall of 2020 we knew pretty much that the aged were vulnerable, the young and healthy were not and that the lockdowns and mandatory masking were useless. By late winter 2020-21. we knew that those at higher risk should probably take the vaccine (at 72 I did - and heck long term effects didn't really concern me lol) and that those at lower risk should probably make their own choices. The only thing that our government seemed interested in doing was lying and pushing people around. So they should be surprised at our distrust of anything they say.
In August 2021 (only a year ago), each strain was getting more contagious but not less dangerous. We knew the vaccines reduced the chance of infection and greatly reduced the chances of hospitalization and death.
We also knew there were side effects. However, the virus could also cause similar problems. If you said a year ago, how does this balance out? The answer would depend on age and other health issues. Also, as a doctor you face numerous exposures. Dr. Prasad’s decision at the time was quite reasonable.
The author says “if I were him”. Supposedly everybody agrees that its’s a personal choice when they start talking (what do you know about each person’s risk factors, which might be high?) and then when it comes down to the actual choice, they reject it for everybody because “that’s what my tribe thinks about it, so everybody should do the same”. Sheer hypocrisy, doubled by inventions about “scores of athletes” who have “collapsed and died”, of course because of the vaccine. Same total lack of scientific evidence as those pushing vaccines at any cost. A desperate need to belong to a tribe.
Seems to me that this is all about the White House refusing to admit that it’s fallible. It backed the wrong horse in Fauci. And it uses twisted magic in lieu of logic to make it look the horse actually won the race, when in fact it’s running the wrong way around the track.
Five administrations backed the wrong horse in Fauci. And the little malignant elf isn’t hanging up his syringe yet. He’s going on to his next phase. Pfizer or Moderna?
Barring Djokovic is completely unjustified. He would be the healthiest person in New York. Vaccinating children and mandating vaccines for anyone are worse given the fact that the rushed, experimental vaccines don’t work, they weaken immunity and they occasionally kill.
So what have Democrats got right? The answer is nothing. If you aren’t voting Republican across the board in November you are complicit and partly responsible for this chaos.
Yes. Although Republicans are imperfect - and somewhat idiotic on abortion finality - at least they don't jeopardize most liberty. But we need to understand that abortion is a liberty issue as well. Or we will lose the damned midterms. And no, I'm talking about the first trimester, not late term.
Not all republicans are unreasonable. Florida restricted abortion to 15 weeks. If we listen to MSNBC, they accuse DeSantis of “inhumane ban on abortions after 15 weeks”. But that’s hateful rhetorics. Many European countries restrict abortions to 11-12 weeks. Their laws, of course, allow later abortions under special circumstances. Why can’t we follow? Because we are becoming a dysfunctional society that cannot enact reasonable common sense laws.
Every abortion terminates the life of a human being. Democrats are opposed to any restraints on abortion. You are a fanatic who doesn’t know enough to plan.
Sorry you feel that I'm a fanatic, Terrence. I actually think I'm quite reasonable and in line with the thinking of most Americans who are trying to balance a woman's right to make decisions for her own body and the life of a fetus that's reaching viability.
I understand some might not think so. Problem with that is this is one-a the main reasons the Ds even have a shot in the mid-terms. Unreasonableness. IMO.
One thing that has perplexed me through all of this: how did the collection of smart, technically astute social media and technology companies become so enlisted in the government narrative about COVID and vaccines? These are the very people who should have been demanding data and resisting authoritarianism, yet were in the forefront of canceling and censoring anyone who actually followed the “prove your hypothesis” tradition of the scientific method. They appear to have been in the vanguard of the mass hysteria regarding COVID, and aligned in lockstep with oppressive government actions at every level, reversing a long-held tradition of anti-establishment philosophy and entrepreneurial bent.
A fragmented society where people can't shop or leave their homes was a boon to the tech companies. And the biggest reason, the tech people are so arrogant that they truly believe they can organize society and predict human behavior so their power complemented the corrective power of the state and the prestige of the public health facilities.
Spot on. The more people stayed home and scrolled the more money they made. The more people stay home and don’t look at the world with their own eyes, the more they can be told things they’ll believe without question, whether BS or not. It’s win-win for them.
They orchestrated it Jon hand in hand with the Democrats, Dr Fauci etc. They didn’t give a sh.. about the population of America. I am sure you remember that for 4 years President Trump was a Russian agent how mad is that!
The reason is money. The unparalleled level of profits racked by all corporations involved in the vaccine scam were shared with government officials. Thus the mutual support 'aligned in lockstep'
And with media. Don’t forget the payments to media. “brought to you by Pfizer” was everywhere. But the quiet payments to networks was slimy. Hence the lack of faith in most media, health care “experts” and politicians.
All of msm got together and agreed to control narratives. And big pharma pays about 75% of msm advertising budget in USA , etc. Big pharma has infiltrated journalism, our 3 letter agencies, our gov.
No doubt. I stopped believing anything the msm said in regard to covid in late March 2020. That was when CBS news got caught showing footage of chaos in an Italian hospital and claiming it was in New York City in order to create panic here. When they got called on it, they said it was an inadvertent mistake. For me that's when it became obvious that they had an agenda other than providing information for the public good.
Some might call it real fascism - corporate interests being enlisted in service to the state. With an increasingly involved FBI to enforce the compliance of the citizenry. This is the modern Democrat party and it's scary as hell.
"Fail" or collusion? Remember that Zuckerberg was visited by the FBI to ensure that the Hunter Biden laptop was called Russian disinformation, despite it being a treasure trove of evidence of the lawbreaking and treason of the Biden crime family.
I would guess that they were being threatened with, or simply feared, increased regulation and legislation if they didn't censor and cancel voices that opposed the government narrative. So the the authoritarianism they feared would be that applied to their business. Or, they simply thought any opposition would support Trump.
That’s actually terrifying. People such as your friend are frightened of the natural world and have no defenses against the kind of mass hysteria we’ve been going through. I also have a niece like that, and there isn’t even a possibility to engage in thoughtful debate on the current topics where she and her circle have declared absolute truth—based on the “group’s” opinion, completely absent any data to support it.
Point well made. I am very confident that the over 2 million illegal entrants at our southern border have all presented their vaccination cards to CBP before being welcomed to the U.S. This is only one of dozens of contradictory actions of this administration. My only question for the doctor is, “Faced with this blatant politicization, why are you still a Democrat?”
Why they are still Dems is they'd rather boiled in oil and have their fingernails pulled than admit that Trump may (gasp) have gotten something right. I'm no Trump fan, I don't think he's God as many on the right do and I don't think he's Satan as many on the left do. Dems better hope the Donald doesn't come out in favor of oxygen and breathing.
Recently, these restrictions and edicts have always been about power and control and politicians proving they can make everyone do what they want—it's a prelude to an authoritarian, totalitarian state.
I read this article on the heels of a WhatsApp message from a parent physician in my school community urging parents to give their elementary aged children the booster before the start of school. This outraged me on so many levels (including the denial of acquired immunity from prior infection, the fact that the booster is formulated on the Wuhan strain, the 99.99% recovery rate for healthy people under aged 70, even before vaccines were rolled out, the admission by the CDC that there’s no discernible difference between vaxxed ad unvaxxed, etc.) and has further eroded my trust in the (medical) establishment. Banning Djokovic has no scientific or public health merit.
Were my children still in school, I’d have to home school them. Based on the last few years, the education establishment is not there for their learning.
I wonder if this physician parent also supports medical and surgical treatment for "transgender" children, all the American Association of Pediatricians.
Vinay wrote this as a Democrat and It’s great to see democrats stepping up and speaking truth. But one question… how can anyone still be a democrat? Every major and insane issue we have as a country right now is supported, exacerbated, or perpetrated by this party.
Well said. I got the vax in early 2021, but refused any 'boosters' and deferred a European vacation that required it. At this point, the vaccine is not a good match for the virus, as demonstrated by your good examples of all the people who've been jabbed many times and yet still got the virus. Djokovic is not an at risk individual and regardless, it's his decision. What is going on in this country??? How can anyone feel confidence in our health leaders? I guess that answer is clear, confidence has been replaced by suspicion and disrespect.
V O T E them out. I made a firm commitment earlier this summer to jump on Trump Train if Novak is not playing the US open. It’s been one and a half years of living in terror for losing my job and for being scorned and literally told BY MY FRIENDS that I should DIE for my personal medical choices. I will never forget. I am blessed to live in GA and to be a state employee. My governor opened the state early and protected my job with his EO, and a Trump appointed judge in my state blocked the federal contractor mandate that almost made me lose my job (because I apparently work in the same “working space” with federal contractors). I received lots of insulting mass emails from colleagues that suffered no consequences. For what? I had the alpha strain on March 3 2020 and I got over it in one day. This mass madness twisted my entire perspective on what I thought this country was about. Fuck Joe Biden and Fauci and Bourla and all the other criminals that destroyed our lives. I will vote red top to bottom this November, for the first time, with Tarantino levels of delightful revenge in my heart. And it will all be dedicated to Novak, the man who stood up for the sanctity of his gorgeous and healthy body.
I agree 100 percent with everything you wrote. All the issues you list brought me to change my political party and I look forward to voting red all the way down the ticket. This insane Covid response full of one dangerous manipulative lie after another makes my blood boil. I will never ever forgive what these Covid and sick warped “gender affirming care” policies have done to our nation’s children. I’m so done with everything these leftists progressive nut jobs have to offer.
On the rare occasion they are honest, public health officials will admit segregating restaurants and facilities was not about stoping the spread but degrading people into accepting the vaccine. A vaccine which has now been proven to be mildly effective and wears off in a short period.
What are we supposed to take from this except that it has never been about the public’s health. It has always been about compliance with diktats from on high. If you refuse to do what St Fauci tells you, despite whatever misgivings you may have that they never properly address, then you must be punished.
The hubris--and ignorance--of the public health establishment has been on full display now for going on 3 years. It is inconceivable that this community could have garnered so much power over our lives. And more and more data is amply demonstrating just how wrong they were.
I am so glad I didn’t cave to the pressure to get that useless vaccine. My brother just finished his residency, and this has obviously been a point of contention between us. Though I love him, he was never able to make more of a case for it than “safe and effective”. Dismissing any concerns people have about a newly developed medical treatment as conspiracy theories does not buy you much credibility. Especially when it’s clear that the people screaming “safe and effective” stand to make literally billions from the sale of it.
I have been particularly concerned about the insistence by those in authority that little children be vaccinated. I am neither a doctor nor an anti-vaxxer, but have enough sense to know there simply has not been enough time elapsed to perform the longitudinal studies that would demonstrate both efficacy and safety for small children.
And it’s been clear from the outset that healthy children are not at risk from Covid. It is a disease which targets the obese, the old and those with co-morbidities.
Yet children in DC must be vaccinated to attend school…and no more virtual school as another option. I don’t even know how this is legal considering where we are in the discussion of children/virus/vaccine. This is nothing but child abuse.
unless they're illegal border crossers.... illegals are not required to be vaxxed.
Yes, I was waiting for Vinay to point out that glaring and relevant contradiction in Biden’s policy. My guess is that it’s too hot a political potato for him to touch.
It’s sickening.
This is proof of absolute cognitive dissonance on the part of the administration and most of the medical community. I heard a Democrat giving the pitiful excuse for the DC not admitting the untaxed to attend. He said most of them were “foreign nationals”. It’s the first time I have heard illegal immigrants be referred to with a negative connotation. Handy, but it doesn’t pass the smell test.
Marie, apparently, you and Leah Rose have difficulty comprehending someone flying in an airplane and someone walking on terra firma; I can’t help but wonder if it’s willful ignorance.
Fortunately, a judge has put the brakes on that particular insanity, at least until January. Hopefully that policy will be quashed by then.
Must have just happened as I heard this sometime yesterday. Thank goodness! And thanks for the update!!
That is simply bizarre. I can’t understand how it is even happening in a modern democracy.
indeed, i've been saying that for a few years now.
Yes, pushing to have children vaccinated now is beyond absurd, we don't know the long-term effects, but we do know it isn't effective, doesn't stop the spread, and children are at essentially zero risk from covid
And no need. European studies and longitudinal data show healthy children are neither at significant risk, not vectors for the spread of COVID 19. The vaccine is riskier. And I am a doctor, and did research on mRNA viruses.
Yes, my spouse is a research M.D. and says the same thing, but good luck getting our progressive friends to listen.
Bravo!
Sandy, I have a World Health Organization interim statement on Covid 19 vaccination for children Dated August 11, 2022, that says: “The relative transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 at different ages remains uncertain….”
Would you please give me a link to the European study?
“The relationship between age, viral load, and transmission across the full symptom spectrum of SARS-CoV-2 infection has not been comprehensively investigated because people with no, or mild symptoms are seldom tested systematically. The relative transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 at different ages remains uncertain, largely due to the challenges involved in disentangling the influences of biological, host, virus, variants of concern, and environmental factors(20).”
https://www.who.int/news/item/11-08-2022-interim-statement-on-covid-19-vaccination-for-children
There are studies from Ireland and Spain, but this is one actually published in Eurosurveillance, a European journal of epidemiology, way back in May 2020.
Heavey L, Casey G, Kelly C, Kelly D, McDarby G. No evidence of secondary transmission of COVID-19 from children attending school in Ireland, 2020. Euro Surveill. 2020 May;25(21):2000903. doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.21.2000903. PMID: 32489179; PMCID: PMC7268273.
This has been my contention from day one. Claims of safety simply can have no SCIENTIFIC basis. None. It takes years to prove safety. Years. The authorities treat people like disposable Guinea pigs
Aaron
Your brother hasn’t made a case for safe and effective. Ask him when a safe and effective vaccine has ever been developed in less than a year.
They'll claim there's a first time for everything. But it's easy for them to claim it's safe and effective when any reports of vaccine injuries or myocarditis or any other side effects are ignored, swept under the rug, or dismissed as made-up by MAGA extremists (which never made any sense, because Trump is a big proponent of the vaccine, simply because it was developed under his watch).
If he says anything so ridiculous you can point out that science is what’s been proven , not what’s assumed. So why didn’t he follow the science?
He did. The political science like so many others whose names you know well.
That is one of the red flags for me. Either previous testing protocols were unduly burdensome or the covid vaccines are not properly tested . It cannot be both ways. And there was too much "trust the science" or "trust the medical community". The medical community are owned by the insurance companies now so almost all doctors do as they are told.
Interesting point regarding the garnering of power. I don’t know if Michael Crichton was the first person to say it,* but he observed that power is rarely taken by force; much more often it’s given. By voluntarily complying with federal mandates—that, I might add, did not survive the courts—most people freely ceded power. Some states didn’t, like Florida and South Dakota. Notice that they seem to have fared much better than those that lovingly embraced every mandate they could find.
* In his novel, Dealing, Or The Berkeley To Boston 40 Brick Lost Bag Blues.
Huge Chrichton fan, so appreciate the quote. I hope that every employer that mandated medical procedures for their employees ends up getting sued. Including the federal government.
Nothing prepared me more for the past three years than Crichton's "State of Fear" :
"... In reality, for the last fifteen years we have been under the control of an entirely new complex, [...] the politico-legal-media complex. The PLM. And it is dedicated to promoting fear in the population - under the guise of promoting safety."
Anyone who believes the global warming hoax should read "State of Fear". Of course, they won't. They would rather cling to their superstition (Global Warming) than facts.
By the time he wrote "State of Fear", Crichton had learned his lesson. He footnoted his facts and had a bibliography.
The left clings to the hoax with religious zeal. You can't logic with a fanatic, especially a religious fanatic.
Crichton was not a very good writer (predictable plots, one-dimensional characters) but he chose some fascinating topics and was excellent at conveying scientific knowledge to a lay reader. The best part of State of Fear is the footnotes where he documents everything in the book with "science." Probably why that is one of his books that will never be made into a movie.
One of his better novels, SoF. Best was probably Rising Sun. Interestingly, it was inarguably the worst movie in that it had exactly the opposite message as the novel. It was said that Crichton walked off the set, disgusted at the mis-messaging of the screenplay.
After publishing The Rising Sun, Crichton was castigated by the Hollywood left morons for being, you guessed it, a racist.
These were the same ignoramus idiots who claim Islam is the religion of peace.
Crichton documented everything he said in "the Rising Sun" with a large bibliography at the end of the book. Crichton was a genius, I mean a real genius, and those idiots in Hollywood are, well, idiots.
Crichton knew science, and he was no fan of the Climate Change religion.
Not only Crichton but Caleb Carr's prescient novel on the early internet and controlling information raised a very early warning about how an entire society can be deceived.
Crichton certainly nailed human behavior in this modern era. I really believe the underlying message of the Jurassic parks series doesn't resonate with many people. No matter how fancy the tech, the money backing it up or the level of planning. Humans are not gods and there is always an X factor that leads to catastrophe.
They garnered that power because we the sheeple, gave it to them. We're complicit.
Speak for yourself. I’ve been refusing to comply for a long time.
They arrogated that power and too many Americans were too scared to resist. And so they sacrificed liberty for non-existent security. Sadly most were Democrats.
Aaron S
You are only partially right and you are missing the most important part. You ignore the fact that those mandating and those taking these vaccines are true believers. They think they work and they are oblivious to the harm. The problem will not be solved until higher numbers are convinced Fauci, Trump, Biden and the entire Democrat Party establishment got the science wrong. Drs McCullough and Kory got the science right.
I don't think the higher educated vaxxers will ever be convinced that they were wrong. After spending so long claiming that anyone who dissented was a hillbilly anti-vaxxer, they will be loathe to admit that the hillbillies got it more right than the highly-credentialed.
Trump embraced Scott Atlas and The Great Barrington Declaration, both of which proved to be correct. He was an advocate of the Vax, but not mandatory compliance. His policies were far better than Biden's.
But Trump gave Fauci/Gollum the stage. Ut was Trump's worst mistake IMO.
Absolutely, but how was he to know? It should have been a General who could deal objectively with all of the various levels of complexity, not a career MD bureaucrat that laser focus on the virus with no consideration to the collateral damage to the economy and mental health implications of his policies. I saw the magnitude of the mistake in April of 20.
I agree. And I of course have the benefit of hindsight.
I was saying it real time, but I had a 30 year career as a hospital CEO and dealt with several community disasters. I love doctors, but they tend to be very narrow in their focus. I was calling for a Mental Health provider to be as prominent as Fauci at those briefings, as well as more focus on 'at risk' populations versus our entire population. Around April it became apparent that Fauci was also a classic narcissist who was influenced by politics, as well as his relationship with China and the WHO. He was a very bad person and caused more damage to this nation, and the world, than any individual in my lifetime. He also gave us Joe Biden.
And I’m sure President Trump would have allowed Djokovic to play in the US Open and YES Jon his policies were far better than Biden’s we have two years left of this it’s going to be tough
Jon
Trump was better than Biden. Better than worse than useless isn’t good enough.
Exactly. I know so many smart, young people still getting boosters. They’ll get one to travel. Get another when local case numbers spike. I would say something, but what do you say to a person so committed to a lie that they would believe? They still think it helps despite the fact they are low-risk, that they’ve had it, and all the evidence that these vaccines likely do nothing to help and therefore can only harm you.
In ten years they’ll be clamoring for a change to the law so they can file a class action lawsuit against Pfizer et al.
This type of delusion goes well back into human history. Far more evil has been visited upon humanity by good men convinced they were doing right, than by bad men doing wrong. You can fight a Hitler, a Bad King John, a Nero. It is very hard to rouse people to fight someone who truly believes they are acting "for the greater good" (if I may quote Grindelwald).
I agree.
That and the government's penchant for the staged crisis, which one side famously claimed “should be taken advantage of.”
Prophetic, American Thinker; Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured (Contrived) Crisis: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2008/09/barack_obama_and_the_strategy.html
No matter how absurd and illogical, they stick to the script!
Djokovic should have entered illegally through the southern border, where vaccine and other rules don’t apply.
Did I say FJB today? I can’t remember.
Aaron, I won't argue with you this may not have been all about the nation's health. But be careful before you upload to Fauci all of your venom. If you were to take two similar countries, Australia and Canada - similar rules have been in place (and in Canada's case still are). Britain's were as onerous until recently removed. In Australia's case entry requirements were relaxed just a month or so ago.
So perhaps this is not only an American problem, but an Anglo-Saxon one.
But you learn as you go. This is unnecessary.
Aaron, how do you figure having a foreign national receiving a vaccination, before entering the United States is not about public health? The way this conversation is framed, you would think this is only about Djokovic (foreign national) arriving on our shores. Hundreds of foreign nationals are potentially arriving on our shores each day. Without these requirements, a foreign national could arrive on our shores with a mutated Covid 19 that is more dangerous; there’s an old saying, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
A foreign national could arrive on our shores with a mutated COVID 19 that is more dangerous? Be careful - that sounds like xenophobia to me! Maybe we should keep out foreign nationals indefinitely, they might bring in some exotic disease. Concern for public health demands it! By the way, have you seen what’s happening on our southern border? Oh wait, that is a great humanitarian effort.
That is the problem with irrational thought- you get caught up in the web of contradictions.
How about we manage our southern border with something like the Berlin wall? Or how about Israel’s West Bank barrier, which is 30 feet high? Maybe we could use 13 feet tall concrete posts with high voltage electricity and barbed wire with guards trained to shoot anyone who got near the fence, just like the German SS guards at Auschwitz Concentration Camp did? We nicknamed the USSR the Iron Curtain; the world could nickname our barrier The Freedom Curtain; it would be almost like matching ends, the Statue of Liberty and the freedom curtain, liberty, and freedom for the chosen. We could have Cyclone class naval ships patrolling the Atlantic and Pacific oceans 24 hours a day to keep out the great unwashed. We don’t need to do anything with our northern border because we’re only trying to keep out people who aren’t white and rich!
Apparently any country having a secure border is now equivalent to a war crime. Do you think you included enough hyperbole? I’m sure if you think harder you could come up with more ridiculous analogies.
Heyjude, the contradiction only exists within your mind!
Yes, I'm sure you are right - about everything. You obviously have it all figured out.
Your logic escapes me. Are you saying that if that foreign national is vaccinated he/she could not contract this hypothetical mutated Covid-19 or transmit it? Are you saying that vaccination protects oneself and others from a mutated Covid but not, as we know to be a fact, the current variants in circulation?
memento, do you understand the concept of a stopgap measure, a Band-Aid? Eventually, if we don’t develop new science, Covid 19 will become the flu.
What has become clear over time is that the benefit of vaccination is limited to the person who is vaccinated - it reduces the severity of the illness. It does not protect one from getting the virus or prevent one from spreading the virus to others. Take 2 cases. 1. A foreign national who has been vaccinated, but who is currently infected with Covid, enters the US. 2. A foreign national who has not been vaccinated and who is infected with Covid enters the US. Do these two scenarios present different risk profiles to others? No - vaccinated individuals shed the virus at rates similar to non-vaccinated individuals. Moreover, whether a foreign national has the current strain of Covid or a new, mutated one is immaterial - vaccinated or not, he can still shed the virus (and, of course, our current vaccines may have no effect whatsoever on a mutated Covid). So what risk are we trying to address by preventing unvaccinated foreign nationals from entering the country?
TW52, you say: “…it reduces the severity of the illness.” wouldn’t that mean that, on average, an individual would shed less virus? Again you say: “It does not protect one from getting the virus or prevent one from spreading the virus to others.” Can you back this statement up?
The original article states this and includes a citation (link) for it: https://substack.com/redirect/ad6662ed-05e2-4c97-9b13-81dd67561d13?r=1h2ez5
From what the author of the article said, and from what I've read, no, individuals who are vaccinated do not "shed" less virus than unvaccinated individuals. This is an important fact. If vaccination does not lessen the transmissibility of the virus, then the ONLY benefit of vaccination is to the infected individual. If we want to adhere to the ideal of "science", then science is telling us today that vaccinations have no impact, whatsoever, on transmissibility. If that's the case, the there is absolutely no justification for the US policy to prevent unvaccinated individuals from entering the US.
The analogy fails. The vaccine is not even a Band-Aid. Unlike a Band-Aid which can stop a small bleed, the vaccine does not stop transmission. What part of that can you not understand Just me?
memento, COVID-19 vaccination helps protect people by creating an antibody response within them without having to experience potentially severe illness or post-COVID conditions. Additionally, the vaccine did prevent some from contracting Covid 19, thereby slowing the spread of the disease. The link below will explain why some vaccines last for a lifetime and others don’t; please educate yourself.
https://www.cedars-sinai.org/blog/why-vaccine-boosters.html#:~:text=%22If%20a%20virus%20replicates%20quickly,keeps%20moving%2C%22%20she%20explains.
There are people streaming across our southern border aided by our government, who are not tested nor vaccinated for Covid. What’s your point?
Golfer, shall we manage our southern border with something like the Berlin wall, or how about Israel’s West Bank barrier, the one that’s 30 feet high? Maybe we could use 13 feet tall concrete posts with high voltage electricity and barbed wire with guards trained to shoot anyone who got near the fence, just like the German SS guards at Auschwitz Concentration Camp did. We nicknamed the USSR the Iron Curtain; the world could nickname our barrier The Freedom Curtain; it would be almost like matching ends, the Statue of Liberty and the freedom curtain, liberty, and freedom for the chosen. We could have Cyclone class naval ships patrolling both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans 24 hours a day to keep out the great unwashed. We don’t need to do anything with our northern border because we’re only trying to keep out people who aren’t white and rich!
"If Djokovic gets a vaccine at this moment it would be against the ancestral, Wuhan strain of the coronavirus." <-- This is what makes current vaccination demands so insane.
"Consider the facts. Djokovic is 35 years old, and he is in terrific health. He has had and recovered from Covid-19 twice." <-- THE SCIENCE's denial of natural immunity is the most profoundly dishonest aspect of the entire response to Covid. Throwing out thousands of years of medical understanding so that Big Pharma can make money is profoundly unethical, perhaps even criminal.
I agree with you but wish everyone would describe what Djokovic has as Acquired Immunity rather than Natural Immunity. Children have natural immunity but adults don’t.
Naturally Acquired Immunity.
As opposed to vaccine acquired immunity (if there is such a thing).
No. It is not naturally acquired. It is vaccine acquired. Stop talking nonsense.
You are delusional. The vaccine creates some "immunity". But getting the disease - Covid - allows your immune system to develop antibodies w/o any vaccine. That is a natural process.
Are you a Fauci dupe? Don't be a fucking idiot.
I don't think it's so "Big Pharma" can get rich. I think it's so the Left can exert control over people they don't like. And certainly a successful, healthy, traditionally good-looking male athlete isn't what the Left supports. They like fat freaks with purple hair and genderless blobby physiques.
I think it can be both, really.
And “Big Pharma” gives a cut to the Public health bureaucrats and the left. Win-win-win-LOSE(the public)
All true Celia
You nailed it! One small addition - EU recognizes after COVID immunity for 6 months, so we are total outliers here.
I completely agree with Dr Prasad. Although I am not a fan of Djokovic, it is completely hypocritical of this administration to allow millions of likely unvaccinated illegal immigrants to stream over the border, but bar him and others from entry.
this is such a brilliant point! And another reason this whole scenario is infuriating. But the Follow The Science crowd just doubles down on this unjust, baseless, ignorant and hypocritical policy. Hey maybe Djokovic should just come across the southern border - problem solved!
No. It’s an obvious point.
Well didn’t make it into the article. Are we all supposed to pretend that isn’t happening? Why isn’t that a bigger part of the national dialogue at this point?
I was hoping Vinay would mention it, being that it’s one of the most obvious and relevant points of argument re: the stupidity of Biden contradictory policies. Alas, he refused to touch it.
Pity. Because it really is the lynchpin of the argument.
“If I were him, I would have gotten the vaccine in early 2021 (as I did), prior to having had Covid-19.”
It’s really upsetting that Vinay continues to support healthy people getting the vaccine back in 2021. He loses me when he does this. Is he also ignoring the side effects this vaccine has had on athletes, specifically young men?
It's a matter of hindsight. I was vaccinated in late summer 2021 because my husband got vaccinated in order to be able to stop wearing a mask at work (even though, since he has contact with truckers from all over all, he was more likely than most to be exposed). I have Type 1 diabetes and am overweight, and I was not prepared to wear a mask in the presence of my own husband in my own home!
Knowing what I know now, I would probably have declined to be vaccinated. We ended up getting Omicron in January regardless.
But I didn't know then what I know now.
What you didn't know is that you were being knowingly misinformed about most aspects of COVID.
There were many, like Scott Atlas and the authors of the Great Barrington Letter who were saying what you know now, but they were being suppressed and/or banned. They had it right, Fauci had it wrong. I'm guessing that had they been allowed to influence the decision, our Vax policy would have been different.
Trump was one of the few politicians who tried to follow a rational response to the virus, but that only created an equal and opposite reaction by the Dems, who encouraged Fauci to be Fauci and double down on hysteria.
To say that this country, and the rest of the world, overreacted to the pandemic and did undo harm to ourselves, and more so, our children, is a gross understatement.
Remember how the health “experts” and media howled when Trump mentioned Hydroxy? And made up lies about him saying to inject yourself with bleach?
He was probably right about Hydroxy and Ivemectin but for Big Pharma both drugs were too cheap. Remember they never in the game to cure us only to make us more ill!
I think, Jon, that by the end of 2020 and into early 2021, the 'hysteria' you mock might have been justified. Close to a half million Americans were flat out dead by that point - with a half million to go before the vaccinations kicked in. Trump and his policies made the vaccines happen. He was not wrong. This was no ordinary flu. Remember?
Did we and the world 'overreact' ?- well its fun to armchair quarterback this a year and a half later and point out everything we did wrong (of which on many points I agree with) - but the rationality you speak of? That is based on the flowing and sometimes contradictory data at that point in time. We were living in a petri dish. Fauci and the CDC made a lot of errors, but I do not think being a part of a pharmaceutical and Democrat conspiracy is one of them.
And your undue harm? Ask the families of our dead fellow citizens the harm they experienced, or the dead caused by all the ICU's and emergency rooms being overwhelmed by prone people with virus in their lungs that scheduled operations for people with other serious health issues had to be cancelled because of all the chaos.
But that was then..
A tennis player is denied entry into this country now because of outdated rules and that is wrong.
Let's agree on that.
While I appreciate the tone of your comment, I was posting in various social media (until I got sick of being deleted) that we were dramatically over reacting to the virus as early as April of 2020. While it may seem like hindsight to many, iy's only because of the way Fauchi, and the media, suppressed alternative positions.
We had data in April of 2020 that showed if you were 0-21 years of age, COVID was no more dangerous than three of the prior flu seasons. The Virus was no more toxic than a normal flu virus, but extraordinarily contagious. Those with compromised immunity were extremely vulnerable. Again, we knew this in April of 2020, yet Fauchi treated this like the bubonic plague.
Perhaps Faucji's biggest crimes were shutting out dissenting opinions like Scott Atlas and the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration. They were trying to get accurate information to the public back in the second quarter of 2020, yet Fauchi not only didn't listen, but treated them as dangerous. We could (and should) have avoided the lockdowns and school closures had their positions been considered, but Fauchi and all of our social and conventional media shut them out.
Regarding the armchair quarterback, trust me, I was tracking the statistics on this from day 1 and watched every press conference for the first several months. I'm a retired hospital exec (and as a CEO, had to guide hospitals through two epidemics as well as navigate the evacuation of the worst hit hospital during hurricane Katrina) and the owner of a small restaurant. I was not only fascinated by the public health aspects of this, but very concerned that my restaurant would go out of business.
I truly believe it will be decades before we fully understand the impact of the learning loss for our kids and the damage to our economy.
Finally, eventually, someone is going to go back and revise the number of deaths caused by COVID and the numbers, while still high, will be cut dramatically. In the early days, even before testing was developed, hospitals were coding any pulmonary related deaths as being due to COVID, which resulted in additional reimbursement from Medicare of around $12K. I confirmed this with friends who were still employed as hospital execs. Even after testing was available, Any individual who died, but was detected to have COVID showed up in the CDC reporting as a COVID death, even those dying in automobile accidents. And data bases that compared US deaths to other countries are very flawed as there was no consistency in coding and reporting. Many countries intentionally underreported (CCP) while the US over reported.
I apologize for such a verbose response, but COVID was horribly managed, and once it became politicized, it turned an election.
Good response. The variables are immense, some still unproven even over a year later, and as I thought at the time, contradictory and often self defeating.
All I will say that informed opinions like yours, and others, hopefully will be processed, discussed and absorbed. For the next pandemic awaits.
It will come soon, and it may be worse than monkey pox.
Getting vaccinated in 2020 when the pandemic was in full forces and health officials were generally confused made some sense. But by late 2020, they had more than enough information to stop terrorizing Americans. And yet they continued to lie nonstop. Why?
Orange man bad.
Causing massive harm to the country was preferred to having Trump remain in office.
There is the biblical answer they all had to get rid of President Trump, and what better way then to close the country down and then hold an illegal election it’s a perfect storm!
To keep the power the Democrats know the vote was illegal now going forward they have to keep selling the same crap again to keep the power
It never makes sense to ingest something about which you know nothing.
I think you probably mean 2021. Just a little nitpick, but the vaccine was not available to the general public until early 2021.
Yes, thanks for the correction. In spring 2020 there was mass confusion and fear.
But by the fall of 2020 we knew pretty much that the aged were vulnerable, the young and healthy were not and that the lockdowns and mandatory masking were useless. By late winter 2020-21. we knew that those at higher risk should probably take the vaccine (at 72 I did - and heck long term effects didn't really concern me lol) and that those at lower risk should probably make their own choices. The only thing that our government seemed interested in doing was lying and pushing people around. So they should be surprised at our distrust of anything they say.
Celia M
Look on the bright side. The vaccine weakened your immunity and as a result you got Omicron which has given you Acquired Immunity.
I don't know whether it did anything, good or bad. There's no way to know at this point.
In August 2021 (only a year ago), each strain was getting more contagious but not less dangerous. We knew the vaccines reduced the chance of infection and greatly reduced the chances of hospitalization and death.
We also knew there were side effects. However, the virus could also cause similar problems. If you said a year ago, how does this balance out? The answer would depend on age and other health issues. Also, as a doctor you face numerous exposures. Dr. Prasad’s decision at the time was quite reasonable.
The author says “if I were him”. Supposedly everybody agrees that its’s a personal choice when they start talking (what do you know about each person’s risk factors, which might be high?) and then when it comes down to the actual choice, they reject it for everybody because “that’s what my tribe thinks about it, so everybody should do the same”. Sheer hypocrisy, doubled by inventions about “scores of athletes” who have “collapsed and died”, of course because of the vaccine. Same total lack of scientific evidence as those pushing vaccines at any cost. A desperate need to belong to a tribe.
💯
Seems to me that this is all about the White House refusing to admit that it’s fallible. It backed the wrong horse in Fauci. And it uses twisted magic in lieu of logic to make it look the horse actually won the race, when in fact it’s running the wrong way around the track.
Five administrations backed the wrong horse in Fauci. And the little malignant elf isn’t hanging up his syringe yet. He’s going on to his next phase. Pfizer or Moderna?
He will probably jump on the TDS bandwagon and write some book about Trump
very funny...correct
Those poor beagles....
My money in on Moderna since they are suing Pfizer..
The NYT is as much to blame as Biden and Fauci.
Perfect analogy!
Thank you.
Barring Djokovic is completely unjustified. He would be the healthiest person in New York. Vaccinating children and mandating vaccines for anyone are worse given the fact that the rushed, experimental vaccines don’t work, they weaken immunity and they occasionally kill.
So what have Democrats got right? The answer is nothing. If you aren’t voting Republican across the board in November you are complicit and partly responsible for this chaos.
Yes. Although Republicans are imperfect - and somewhat idiotic on abortion finality - at least they don't jeopardize most liberty. But we need to understand that abortion is a liberty issue as well. Or we will lose the damned midterms. And no, I'm talking about the first trimester, not late term.
Not all republicans are unreasonable. Florida restricted abortion to 15 weeks. If we listen to MSNBC, they accuse DeSantis of “inhumane ban on abortions after 15 weeks”. But that’s hateful rhetorics. Many European countries restrict abortions to 11-12 weeks. Their laws, of course, allow later abortions under special circumstances. Why can’t we follow? Because we are becoming a dysfunctional society that cannot enact reasonable common sense laws.
Bruce Miller
Every abortion terminates the life of a human being. Democrats are opposed to any restraints on abortion. You are a fanatic who doesn’t know enough to plan.
Sorry you feel that I'm a fanatic, Terrence. I actually think I'm quite reasonable and in line with the thinking of most Americans who are trying to balance a woman's right to make decisions for her own body and the life of a fetus that's reaching viability.
I think You have a reasonable position.
I understand some might not think so. Problem with that is this is one-a the main reasons the Ds even have a shot in the mid-terms. Unreasonableness. IMO.
then we have those trying to Balance the Life of the Mutt...kid.
One thing that has perplexed me through all of this: how did the collection of smart, technically astute social media and technology companies become so enlisted in the government narrative about COVID and vaccines? These are the very people who should have been demanding data and resisting authoritarianism, yet were in the forefront of canceling and censoring anyone who actually followed the “prove your hypothesis” tradition of the scientific method. They appear to have been in the vanguard of the mass hysteria regarding COVID, and aligned in lockstep with oppressive government actions at every level, reversing a long-held tradition of anti-establishment philosophy and entrepreneurial bent.
A fragmented society where people can't shop or leave their homes was a boon to the tech companies. And the biggest reason, the tech people are so arrogant that they truly believe they can organize society and predict human behavior so their power complemented the corrective power of the state and the prestige of the public health facilities.
Spot on. The more people stayed home and scrolled the more money they made. The more people stay home and don’t look at the world with their own eyes, the more they can be told things they’ll believe without question, whether BS or not. It’s win-win for them.
Yep. The tech adjacent company I work for had record profits during the pandemic.
They orchestrated it Jon hand in hand with the Democrats, Dr Fauci etc. They didn’t give a sh.. about the population of America. I am sure you remember that for 4 years President Trump was a Russian agent how mad is that!
The reason is money. The unparalleled level of profits racked by all corporations involved in the vaccine scam were shared with government officials. Thus the mutual support 'aligned in lockstep'
And with media. Don’t forget the payments to media. “brought to you by Pfizer” was everywhere. But the quiet payments to networks was slimy. Hence the lack of faith in most media, health care “experts” and politicians.
It’s called the “ Trusted News Initiative” - https://michellerabinphd.substack.com/p/the-irony-of-the-trusted-news-initiative
All of msm got together and agreed to control narratives. And big pharma pays about 75% of msm advertising budget in USA , etc. Big pharma has infiltrated journalism, our 3 letter agencies, our gov.
No doubt. I stopped believing anything the msm said in regard to covid in late March 2020. That was when CBS news got caught showing footage of chaos in an Italian hospital and claiming it was in New York City in order to create panic here. When they got called on it, they said it was an inadvertent mistake. For me that's when it became obvious that they had an agenda other than providing information for the public good.
Some might call it real fascism - corporate interests being enlisted in service to the state. With an increasingly involved FBI to enforce the compliance of the citizenry. This is the modern Democrat party and it's scary as hell.
It is an oligarchy.
I read once, "You can't oppose free speech and be anti fascism at the same time." Sorry I can't attribute the quote.
Yes! Epic fail on the part of tech/ social media - and MSM.
Not so sure it was a fail , tech companies made out like bandits and made vast inroads into whole swaths of our society
"Fail" or collusion? Remember that Zuckerberg was visited by the FBI to ensure that the Hunter Biden laptop was called Russian disinformation, despite it being a treasure trove of evidence of the lawbreaking and treason of the Biden crime family.
Also see Alex Berenson’s Twitter lawsuit.
They don’t want to get broken up so they kiss the government behind.
I would guess that they were being threatened with, or simply feared, increased regulation and legislation if they didn't censor and cancel voices that opposed the government narrative. So the the authoritarianism they feared would be that applied to their business. Or, they simply thought any opposition would support Trump.
THE POWER!!
That’s actually terrifying. People such as your friend are frightened of the natural world and have no defenses against the kind of mass hysteria we’ve been going through. I also have a niece like that, and there isn’t even a possibility to engage in thoughtful debate on the current topics where she and her circle have declared absolute truth—based on the “group’s” opinion, completely absent any data to support it.
You can't convince people under delusion.
Point well made. I am very confident that the over 2 million illegal entrants at our southern border have all presented their vaccination cards to CBP before being welcomed to the U.S. This is only one of dozens of contradictory actions of this administration. My only question for the doctor is, “Faced with this blatant politicization, why are you still a Democrat?”
Why they are still Dems is they'd rather boiled in oil and have their fingernails pulled than admit that Trump may (gasp) have gotten something right. I'm no Trump fan, I don't think he's God as many on the right do and I don't think he's Satan as many on the left do. Dems better hope the Donald doesn't come out in favor of oxygen and breathing.
Recently, these restrictions and edicts have always been about power and control and politicians proving they can make everyone do what they want—it's a prelude to an authoritarian, totalitarian state.
Prelude?
Another step on the Road to Serfdom.
From the beginning, these decisions were about politics and power, not recently.
That would be Canada.
We nearly there Michael!
If Djokovic swims across the Rio Grande, will they let him play?
^this right here
Democrats: COVID is so dangerous that a single international tennis player can’t get into the U.S. because he’s unvaccinated.
Also Democrats: COVID is not that big of a deal, so let’s end Title 42.
I read this article on the heels of a WhatsApp message from a parent physician in my school community urging parents to give their elementary aged children the booster before the start of school. This outraged me on so many levels (including the denial of acquired immunity from prior infection, the fact that the booster is formulated on the Wuhan strain, the 99.99% recovery rate for healthy people under aged 70, even before vaccines were rolled out, the admission by the CDC that there’s no discernible difference between vaxxed ad unvaxxed, etc.) and has further eroded my trust in the (medical) establishment. Banning Djokovic has no scientific or public health merit.
I’m so glad my kids are grown. Had I received such a message I wouldn’t have been able to keep my mouth shut.
Were my children still in school, I’d have to home school them. Based on the last few years, the education establishment is not there for their learning.
Yeah <sigh> that’s why I have to travel 29 hours to see my grandkids.
You left out no knowledge of long-term side effects, if any.
You’re right. In the interest of brevity, I cut my list short. Too many to enumerate. But I completely agree!
I wonder if this physician parent also supports medical and surgical treatment for "transgender" children, all the American Association of Pediatricians.
Vinay wrote this as a Democrat and It’s great to see democrats stepping up and speaking truth. But one question… how can anyone still be a democrat? Every major and insane issue we have as a country right now is supported, exacerbated, or perpetrated by this party.
Well said. I got the vax in early 2021, but refused any 'boosters' and deferred a European vacation that required it. At this point, the vaccine is not a good match for the virus, as demonstrated by your good examples of all the people who've been jabbed many times and yet still got the virus. Djokovic is not an at risk individual and regardless, it's his decision. What is going on in this country??? How can anyone feel confidence in our health leaders? I guess that answer is clear, confidence has been replaced by suspicion and disrespect.
V O T E them out. I made a firm commitment earlier this summer to jump on Trump Train if Novak is not playing the US open. It’s been one and a half years of living in terror for losing my job and for being scorned and literally told BY MY FRIENDS that I should DIE for my personal medical choices. I will never forget. I am blessed to live in GA and to be a state employee. My governor opened the state early and protected my job with his EO, and a Trump appointed judge in my state blocked the federal contractor mandate that almost made me lose my job (because I apparently work in the same “working space” with federal contractors). I received lots of insulting mass emails from colleagues that suffered no consequences. For what? I had the alpha strain on March 3 2020 and I got over it in one day. This mass madness twisted my entire perspective on what I thought this country was about. Fuck Joe Biden and Fauci and Bourla and all the other criminals that destroyed our lives. I will vote red top to bottom this November, for the first time, with Tarantino levels of delightful revenge in my heart. And it will all be dedicated to Novak, the man who stood up for the sanctity of his gorgeous and healthy body.
I agree 100 percent with everything you wrote. All the issues you list brought me to change my political party and I look forward to voting red all the way down the ticket. This insane Covid response full of one dangerous manipulative lie after another makes my blood boil. I will never ever forgive what these Covid and sick warped “gender affirming care” policies have done to our nation’s children. I’m so done with everything these leftists progressive nut jobs have to offer.
Preach. Please.
And you are very welcome into the logical party, party elders like McConnell and McCarthy aside.
On the rare occasion they are honest, public health officials will admit segregating restaurants and facilities was not about stoping the spread but degrading people into accepting the vaccine. A vaccine which has now been proven to be mildly effective and wears off in a short period.
100% of
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the people doing
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this evil and stupid shit
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are Democrats
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