Thursday, July 29, 2021

Nothing Is Under Control Except You

Exactly one year ago Joe Biden criticized Donald Trump as being "late in the game" in his response to Covid.  He said that Covid was not under control and that a federal plan was necessary with better guidelines to get the virus under control. He stated he was in favor of mask mandates as part of his plan.

Since that time 343 million doses of Covid vaccines have been delivered in the United States.

67% of the age 12+ population (those eligible for the vaccine) have received at least one dose of the vaccines.

58% are fully vaccinated.

90% of the age 65+ population have received at least one dose.


Source: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations

The vaccines are free to the public.

The federal government is paying Pfizer $19.50 per dose and Moderna $15 for each shot.

Health providers who administer the shot also receive $17-$28 per jab.

Therefore, the total cost to the federal government is about $40 per dose.

That would mean that almost $14 billion has been spent on the Covid vaccine program by the federal government thus far. In addition, several billion dollars more have been spent promoting the vaccines through advertising and incentive payments to get people vaccinated.

How many new cases of Covid did we have last year (3-day moving average) when Joe Biden was criticizing Donald Trump?

The number of new daily confirmed cases was 60,623 on July 28, 2020.


Credit: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/


What is the number on July 28, 2021 after the United States has spent that enormous sum of money  "vaccinating" the majority of the population?

71,469!


Source: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/


Don't you think this fact is reason enough to question whether the vaccines are effective at their intended purpose?

You may have noticed that the political class is now shifting the narrative to something like this.

"We never said the vaccines were going to stop infections, but they will keep you out of the hospital." 

However, the fact is that the emergency use authorizations were given to the Covid vaccines based entirely on preventing infection, not hospitalization.

Below is an excerpt from the review memorandum from the FDA when the EUA was granted for the Pfizer vaccine. Note the intended use for the "unapproved product".


Source: https://www.fda.gov/media/144416/download

It says nothing about preventing severe disease or hospitalizations. It was authorized because the PHARMA companies stated in their EUA applications that it would PREVENT disease.

Here is the same document for the Moderna vaccine.


Source: https://www.fda.gov/media/144673/download

Let's restate the facts.

2/3 of the entire population of the United States age 12+ has received at least one dose of the vaccines.

Cases are higher today than one year ago when there were no vaccines.

How can it be said that the vaccines are preventing Covid-19?

It defies all reason and logic. Every vaccinated person and every prior infection should reduce the odds of transmission of the virus. The virus is spreading faster today than it did one year ago. Something is amiss.

It also makes no sense to argue that 1/3 of the population of the United States is driving the increase in cases and the answer is to vaccinate more people.

Similarly, it is difficult to understand what reimposing mask mandates is going to do.

Most of the mask mandates across the country were put in place in July of last year. A few states put mandates in place earlier but by the end of July most states had mask mandates.

You can see that once in place mask adherence was almost 100% very quickly.


Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7561164/


What I find interesting in looking back at the data is that the mask mandates were instituted at almost the same time that cases were heading down last year.

Of course, despite the mask mandates and high rates of mask adherence, cases started rising in the Fall and peaked in January four times higher than they were when the mask mandates were instituted.

Did the masks do anything? It certainly is not apparent looking at the data.

How can anyone look at this data and state that the answer is more vaccines in people's arms and more mask mandates?

It is counter factual looking at well over a year of data on Covid.

You might even say at this point that it is not consistent with the SCIENCE.

The good news in all of this is that deaths have not increased in conjunction with the increased number of daily cases thus far.



This may be due to the vaccines.

Then again, it may be due to the fact that the current Covid variants are less virulent that what we were seeing last year. It may also be due to the fact that we have gotten better at treating Covid with therapeutics such as Regeneron and other treatments. Unfortunately, it may be that more deaths are yet to come from the increasing cases and hospitalizations. 

Hospitalizations from Covid are also moving higher recently. The narrative is that these are almost all unvaccinated but this does not pass the smell test. The CDC is not making this data available to compare vaccinated vs. unvaccinated hospitalizations.

Let't look at the numbers we do have from the CDC.

New hospitalizations are also higher today than they were a year ago.



The rate of hospitalizations for Covid on August 1 last year was 1.55/100,000 when no one was vaccinated.

It was 1.56/100,000 on July 26, 2021 with 70% of adults vaccinated with at least one dose of the vaccine.

How is anyone making the case that the vaccines are the answer? The reality of the data is they actually might be a part of the problem.

For example, look at the rate of hospitalizations for Covid for those in the 30-39 and 40-49 age groups.

On August 1, 2020 the hospitalization rate for those 30-39 was .68/100,000 with no vaccinations.

On July 26, 2021 it was 1.35/100,000 with about 50% of all those in this age group fully vaccinated.

In other words, hospitalizations have doubled even though half of this age group has been vaccinated since last year.


New Hospital Admissions for Covid-19
Ages 30-39
Source: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#new-hospital-admissions



For those ages 40-49 the hospital admission rate was 1.09 at this time last year and it was 1.92 on July 26, 2021. 58% of this age group is fully vaccinated today compared to 0% last year.


New Hospital Admissions for Covid-19
Ages 40-49
Source: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#new-hospital-admissions


Even those between the ages 60-69, of which almost 90% have received the vaccine, are seeing an increase in hospitalizations from Covid.

The most current rate of hospitalization is 2.57/100,000. Last year it was 2.12 when no one was vaccinated.


New Hospitalizations for Covid-19
Ages 60-69
Source: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#new-hospital-admissions


Can someone explain this?

Are we sure that somehow the vaccines are not creating Antibody Dependent Enhancement where those who are vaccinated are actually getting sicker when exposed to the virus after getting the jab than they would otherwise? Those who warned about this potential problem when the mass vaccine roll-out began stated that it would most likely affect those younger than those older due to more robust immune systems. Is that occurring?

I don't know but I do know that something does not add up right now when looking at the data.

If the vaccines are working why are there so many more cases and why are so many more young people being admitted to the hospital now with vaccines available compared to last year when they were not?

There are just too many moving parts with Covid for anyone to be making declarative statements as to what is true and what is not.

I look at the data and asks questions based on what I see in the numbers.

Why then does the political class persist in making those definitive statements even when the data is practically shouting at them to not do so?

It seems to me that they should be honestly seeking answers to these questions rather than declaring they have absolute answers to everything while suppressing all debate. 

In the meantime, it is becoming increasingly clear that Joe Biden, Anthony Fauci and the CDC do not have anything under control with Covid right now. The data shows that Covid is under less control today than it was a year ago when Trump was their target.

Unfortunately, their only answer to everything involving Covid is to try to enforce more control over your life and everyone else.

Nothing is under control right now except you.

Don't let them control you with false narratives unsupported by hard facts and data.

Be smart. Be aware of the data. Understand that the political class and public health officials are deeply invested in the narrative. At this point, would they ever be willing to admit they were wrong about anything?

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