Very true, Dan! But with respect, there are a few things in your earlier post I’d have to take issue with. I don’t mean it as a personal attack, and there are plenty of other people with similar opinions to yours.
Maybe. But there are a bunch of 80+ year-olds who would still be alive now, but for Covid-19. Having a number of relatives and friends in that age bracket (and having coincidentally just read Al Rabe’s obituary), I’m unwilling to downplay the threat Covid poses to the elderly.
Which are these 4 or 5 vaccines which have just appeared since the election? Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sputnik, and whatever the Chinese thing is have hardly just appeared.
They’re like any one of us, apart from the years of study and training, maybe decades of experience, and the fact that they tend to be fairly bright sparks to start with. Their lab coat and title mightn’t mean much to you, but it means more to me than someone’s random blog, YouTube video, or unqualified opinion. Sure they’re human and can make mistakes, which is where second opinions from other suitably qualified people come in. However impressed I might be with my own common sense, I don’t tell my brother how to anaesthetise people, I don’t tell my other brother how to negotiate corporate contracts, and they don’t tell me how to fly jets. Things like smallpox, polio and diphtheria were defeated by people with qualifications and lab coats, not folks like you and me using what we consider to be our common sense.
Unfortunately it’s usually a bad thing when science gets enmeshed with politics and ideology, and that seems to be particularly the case with Covid. I get that there are some major trust issues with elements of the media and various government agencies, particularly in the US right now. But there’s also a wealth of freely-available information out there from a lot of credible sources worldwide. I don’t think we can just disregard the vast majority of it simply because it mightn’t suit our view of the world.
Steve
In regards to the 80+ year old death rate. I still question most of those. In reading about local deaths in nursing homes, most of these people were seriously ill or at great risk health wise in the first place with obesity, diabetes and other serious issues,. Right from the start, families were not allowed to visit their loved ones, and no information on their conditions was forth coming, no way to track or question their health and the care that they were being given, if they were in fact getting any. They more or less died from their original conditions, it was just worsened and hastened by the virus and they take advantage of it and it's called a Covid death to fit an agenda. I've lost too many friends in this age group recently, not to Covid, but through natural causes. It happens. It's part of life. None of us are getting out of this place alive. To politicize these deaths is wrong, and has been made worse by the leadership in some states screwing the pooch with the actions or inactions in handling the situations.
As to the vaccines again, it was said by Faucci and the "experts" in the beginning that it would be two years before an effective vaccine would be ready. This started at the beginning and went on all summer, and whenever President Trump would make a comment about a vaccine being available by the Fall, he was mocked and scolded in the press as speaking out of turn for not "following the science." I think it was on November 5th or 6th when, low and behold!, Phizer made the announcement that their vaccine was ready and was 90% effective! And Moderna followed along a few days later and claimed 95% effective. Phizer wasn't finished and then adjusted their claim to 95% also! Wasn't that amazing. A few weeks earlier, Faucci was still sticking to his guns on the two year time span. I read an article from the New York Times on line that quoted Moderna as saying they had a recipe for their vaccine last January!! That was before anything had even come out about the virus in the MSM. They were too busy trying to fabricate a story to impeach Trump! I've gone back and tried to find that article again and sun of a gun! It's not up anywhere any more!! What does that make you think about whether or not some one knew about this way in advance?
I'm well aware of the need for science and scientists. But like I mentioned before, they are not infallible and not immune to pushing agendas for their own gain. I'm old enough to have witnessed a lot of failed science that was highly touted by the MSM. I lived through previous "pandemics" like the Swine Flu episode in the late 70's. I remember in the early 70's when "science" was adamant about the earth running out of oil by the tear 2000. Just 30 years and there would not be a drop left. This was driven home during the Arab oil embargos, with lines at gas stations, shortages and rationing. Lots of news stories on "60 Minutes" pushing wind and solar energy, and electric vehicles because we would be absolutely out of oil by the next millennium. That was the first round with windmills, solar panels and electric cars that wouldn't sell because of bad performance, cost, and lack of proper infrastructure to support them. We know how that has all turned out ! Lots more where that came from through history when, like you said, science got enmeshed with politics. In the long run, it's all about the money, isn't it. If you follow the money involved in this thing and could do it unimpeded, I think there are many things that are behind all of this that would appall everyone.
And numbers again. The numbers we get to work with in examining this and arguing about, all come from the same sources, and I even question the accuracy of those, because you don't know what the accuracy is of the numbers they get to make the compilations. Just who is telling the truth? By the numbers you can find on line, out of a US population of 332,182,680, there have been 27,249,586 cases of Covid, and out of that 470,200 deaths. Even at those inflated numbers, (and we know they are) that is only .141% . World wide out of a population nearing 8 billion, it's 107,179,340 cases and 2,348,877 deaths, or 1.33% . To look at it another way, 99.8% of the US population are not sick after a year of dealing with the virus, and 98.7% of the worlds population are not sick. And that is going by numbers that you have to question the validity of, because some one is pushing an agenda by stressing the dark sides of the issue and fear mongering. I had to retire a few weeks ago. Notice I said "Had" to retire, because the company I worked for is shutting down due to the effects of Covid. I really wasn't ready financially and mentally but it was my best option. At my age I didn't want to have to look for a job again. One of the best economies in history was killed over this fear mongering and the way this was all presented in the media. The numbers for the increase in alcohol and drug related deaths has shot up, suicides and depression have shot up, and how many people have died from illnesses and diseases that they couldn't get treated for because hospitals have closed down? Lots of talk about over worked medical staffs in the hot spots, but due to the restrictions lots of hospitals in rural areas have closed down, staffs laid off. No effort made to get the available personnel to where they are needed or maybe no interest in doing that?
We'll just have to wait and see what happens over the next 6 months. The numbers are declining but you get conflicting reasons why. I used to be a news junky, reading the daily news paper and watching the evening news, but I gave up my paper subscription when the cost got outlandish and the content was all left leaning BS. The same with TV news. The days of Walter Cronkite and Huntly and Brinkley are long gone. I know BS when I see it and will just do with out it from now on I think.
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee