Time Traveler

Let's go back in time with a time traveler.

It is September 1, 2020.

Americans are weary of the Covid pandemic that has gripped the United States for the last six months.

They have had to deal with lockdowns, job losses, lost incomes, school closures and mask mandates.

The 7-day rolling average of new cases is 42,892.

That is somewhat encouraging because six weeks earlier it had been nearly 70,000.

Deaths are averaging 960 over the last seven days but they were running above 2,000 per day during most of April when the virus was running rampant in New York and New Jersey.

There is hope that things are improving.

After all, the CDC Director Robert Redfield told us in mid-July that if everyone wore masks we would have Covid under control in 4-8 weeks.

We have to be very close to getting this under control based on what he told us.

We are also are being told by President Trump that Covid vaccines are on the way and will be ready to distribute before the end of the year. Trump says that they might actually be ready by November 3--election day.

However, Trump's Democrat opponents in the November elections are sowing doubts on whether the vaccines will be ready and whether they will be safe.

2020 Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris this weekend overtly undermined any COVID-19 vaccine rolled out by the Trump administration in the fall. She told CNN Sunday she didn't "trust" the White House incumbent.

"I will not take his word for it," the California senator said. "He's looking at an election coming up in less than 60 days, and he's grasping to get whatever he can to pretend he has been a leader on this issue when he is not."

Joe Biden would go on to say this about what he was going to do to solve the Covid pandemic in the last Presidential debate on October 23, 2020.

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-says-he-would-shut-down-the-virus-not-the-country-during-the-final-presidential-debate/ar-BB1ajnhw

Biden said it was in large part Trump's fault that we had high cases from Covid that made the lockdowns necessary. Trump had been inept in his handling of Covid. Biden had a "plan."

"It's his ineptitude that caused the country to have to shut down in large part," 

Biden says he has the answers on Covid.

Fast forward to September 1, 2021.

Biden has been elected.

The Covid vaccines (three in total authorized in the United States) began to be distributed in December.

174 million people have been fully vaccinated. 205 million have received at least one dose.

61% of those eligible (age 12+) have received both doses. 74% have received at least one dose.

92% of those age 65+ have received at least one dose.

Source: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc-total-admin-rate-total

Trump appointees at the CDC, HHS and the FDA have all been replaced with Biden appointees.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is still the leading "expert" on our Covid response.

Think for a second if you were told a year ago that all of these things would occur by September 1, 2021 and you were asked to predict where we would be in the pandemic.

Would anyone believe that we would be where we are today?

Assume as well that on September 1, 2020 that the time traveler went on to tell you exactly what was going to be the situation on September 1, 2021 with Covid cases and deaths.

The 7-day rolling average of cases is 158,270---that is over 3.5x higher than it was last year. That is also higher than cases were on January 30, 2021, 10 days after Biden took office, at the height of the winter surge. Just as troubling is the fact that daily cases rose from 13,381 on June 15, 2021 to 158,709 on August 30---almost 12x higher in 10 weeks.

The 7-day average of deaths is 1,075. It has now been higher than it was last year for seven consecutive days. Even worse, last year deaths were declining at this time of year. This year deaths are climbing.

Wouldn't that cause anyone to ask a few questions back on September 1, 2020?

Perhaps Joe Biden is promising things he can't deliver?

Perhaps Donald Trump is not quite as bad as we are being told?

Perhaps a mass vaccination program is not a great idea? How could we vaccinate over 200 million people and cases are up 3.5x a year from now?

Perhaps Dr. Fauci doesn't really deserve to be in the position he is in?

Based on the facts and data, these are all fair and legitimate questions.

I can understand why someone who was told these things a year ago by the Time Traveler might not believe that they would come true. Something must have gotten messed up in the translation when they came through the time barrier. It is counter to everything we have been led to believe by the experts.

However, we don't have to rely on a time traveler to predict these things.

We know right now that the facts above are all TRUE. We have seen them occur right in front of our eyes.

Why then are so many just blindly ignoring the facts right in front of them and doubling down on the same policies?

Why are so many demanding mandates?

Why are so many pushing for vaccine passports for people to be allowed to do almost anything?

Why are we beginning 3rd booster shots (never subjected to clinical testing and identical to the original vaccines) and declaring that you will not be considered fully vaccinated if you don't do so?

Where are those who look at the actual data and suggest that we might want to take a step back and assess our assumptions?

Where are those who might have some doubts that the path we are on is wrong?

We already have a glimpse of how the 3rd booster shots are working so far in Israel. No need for a time traveler to report.

Cases on Monday, August 30 (10,947) were the highest on any day since the pandemic began. Its daily cases per capita are now over double that of the United States.

Source: https://ourworldindata.org/covid-cases

Israel is one of the most vaccinated countries in the world. It is also the first country to start booster shots. Israel has already administered boosters to 60% of the population over age 60 since July 31. 2 million out of 9 million in the country have already received the booster 

How is it going so far?

Here is another graph of cases in Israel that also shows the various mask mandates that have been instituted during the pandemic.

I had to chuckle when I saw what someone did with this graph on Twitter when they flipped it over.

Isn't this more like what you would have expected with mask mandates, vaccine mandates and booster shots after 19 months of the pandemic?

Source: https://twitter.com/justSome1_222/status/1432406760644661255

It seems we have gotten the reverse outcome that would have been predicted a year ago.

I cited the Covid statistics involving Duke University in a blog post last week.

At that time, Duke already had more cases this year than in the entire Fall Semester last year.

It has gotten worse in the last week despite the fact that all students were required to be fully vaccinated in order to attend Duke this Fall.

92% of Duke faculty and staff are also fully vaccinated,

These are the cases at Duke so far this year since August 2, 2021.

Source: https://coronavirus.duke.edu/covid-testing/
as of 8/29/21

These were the cases at Duke for the entire Fall semester last year (almost four months).

Positive cases are already 3x higher in less than a month this year compared to what they were in four months last year.

Source: https://coronavirus.duke.edu/covid-testing-old/fall-2020-duke-covid-testing-tracker/

One report stated that only 8 of the cases were in someone that was unvaccinated.

The university, which instituted a Covid vaccine requirement for students earlier this year, said 98% of all students are fully immunized. Just eight people involved in the outbreak are unvaccinated and a majority are asymptomatic, the statement said.

What is Duke doing about the rise in cases?

Everyone on campus has to wear a mask indoors and outdoors.

There will be no indoor dining.

Duke employees must be vaccinated by October 1 or they will be fired and be ineligible to be hired by Duke in the future.

Source: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article253835668.html

Consider the facts and the solution.

Assuming the report above is accurate, 98.7% of the cases at Duke are in those who are vaccinated. They clearly are the ones spreading the virus.

However, Duke is going to fire those who are not vaccinated?

I had to chuckle as well at this quote from the Duke University statement announcing the new restrictions and the policy that will result in firing any employees who do not get vaccinated.

“We want to be clear: the problem is not our people, the problem is COVID-19,” the statement said. “Our Duke community has been extraordinarily united and resilient in fighting, and adapting to, this pandemic over the last 19 months.”

They have no problem with "our people" but they are going to fire any of their people who don't do exactly as they mandate?

In what universe does any of this make any sense at all?

Are we in a time warp in which all facts, reason and logic is totally missing?

The Time Traveler is very confused.

How about you?