Hat tip to kottke.org.
A long time ago I tried to convince an old friend that nuclear power was safe. This was long before the Chernobyl and Fukushima controversies. His answer was that all the people who advocated for nuclear power were the same as people who advocated for U.S. intervention in Vietnam, and that was all he needed to know.
That’s not a terrible way to make up your mind about things. You can’t research everything, especially if you have a job, family responsibilities and other things you’re concerned with. So you decide who you trust and follow them.
I personally don’t trust Antony Fauci and his ever-changing advice. I always waited before getting vaccinated to see the effects on the first wave of people to get vaccinated. But I think the.facts show that getting vaccinated will drastically reduce the odds of dying or winding up in an intensive care unit as a result of the coronavirus.
Vaccination doesn’t offer perfect protection. Some vaccinated people die of the virus. Vaccinated people are infectious. Vaccinated people can suffer long-term organ damage from the virus—the “long Covid.” But. the results show that I’m better off being vaccinated than not being vaccinated.
Vaccination isn’t enough. I still wear a mask when I’m indoors among strangers or a large group; I don’t care if some elected official says masks aren’t needed. Improved ventilation helps. We need research on an actual cure rather than just protection against the symptoms of the disease.
Donald Trump advocates vaccination, and his administration’s Warp Speed crash research program is responsible for the vaccines that we have. But his scoffing at the seriousness of the disease contributed to opposition to vaccination.
But Democrats’ attacks on the unvaccinated don’t help. If you tell me I’m ignorant, anti-science and to blame for whatever happens to me, I am not going to listen to you.
If you are a vaccine skeptic yourself, I urge you to talk to your physician, if you have one. Share your doubts with someone who has the expert knowledge to respond to you. You may have a good personal reason for not being vaccinated.
But maybe you don’t have a personal physician, or you can’t afford to pay for a visit to the doctor. In that case, I don’t know what to tell you. We have a rotten medical care system in the USA, no doubt about it.
Covid death rates in U.S. counties with high and low vaccination rates
Tags: Conservatives, Coronavirus Pandemic, COVID-19, Red vs. Blue, Vaccination
Phil Ebersole's Blog 
March 8, 2022 at 11:05 am |
It shouldn’t be a political issue, even if you’re skeptical about vaccines. I haven’t gotten a flu vaccine in over ten years & I doubt I will ever get one again. I doubt I’ll ever get a pneumonia vaccine; I’ve never had pneumonia. I knew from the beginning that I was never going to COVID; don’t ask me how I knew, I just knew. However, I did get vaccinated & boosted. I do people who have gotten the vaccination & have gotten COVID more than once.
I just got the shingles vaccine. I have gotten shingles three times in my life, the first time at age 8 & the last time at age 38. I do not ever want to get shingles again. I tell everyone to get this vaccination. I do find it curious that this vaccination is not political in the least. There’s nobody talking about how the shot makes you sick (I had a headache & the chills for a day afterward & my arm ached for days) or that it could potentially cause other problems. There’s even a really groovy advertisement for it with the inspired tag line “Shingles doesn’t care!”. I guess the politics doesn’t care about shingles, either.
There’s no reason that ANY vaccination should be politicized. The fact that they are being politicized shows the moral emptiness of the current political discourse.
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March 8, 2022 at 7:22 pm |
It is political because it can be.
Basically, the world is getting more complicated but people are not getting any smarter. Schools have abandoned the notion of teaching STEM subjects, critical thinking, and logic for “softer” subjects. Any at given time half the population is of below-average intelligence in relative terms, while schools are doing nothing to increase the average in absolute terms. Farming out critical thinking and analysis to other people eliminates insecurity and uncertainty – it almost makes sense for many to do so – and will almost certainly increase.
They pick their influencers based on compatibility with existing biases, not on credentials. Right or left doesn’t matter. There are probably just as many pro-vaccination people merely mouthing what their guru said as there are antivaxxers. Analysis of the data merely indicates that the pro side happens to be more correct, not that the supporters are more rational.
People enter internet social bubbles based on who their influencers are. The power of social conformity soon overrules independent thought. I saw a survey – can’t remember who but it was reputable – indicating a majority of Americans had changed their positions on important issues to better fit in socially. There are many traits of a cult that can be seen in internet bubbles.
Influencers understand that their power derives from keeping people riled up and isolated from different ideas. Dispassionate and logical analysis is the last thing they want. Hence politics.
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March 17, 2022 at 4:01 pm |
Phil Ebersole, why is anything that is a health matter being politicized? Politicians are not overseeing the needs of patients, so why are they even involved?
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June 24, 2022 at 5:52 am |
The U.S. government’s failure to adequately address the COVID-19 crisis is most certainly a legitimate political issue. The problem is that so many people’s views about the issue are based on whether they consider themselves members of Team Blue or Team Red.
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June 24, 2022 at 7:32 am
Phil Ebersole, if Anthony Fauci had not been involved with Gain-Of-Function Research in Wuhan, China, if we had closed of travel to and from China for 3 months, this could have been resolved a long time ago.
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April 24, 2022 at 1:11 pm |
Dear Phil
I will repeat what I have indicated to you before.; vaccines are and always have been pointless.I used to think otherwise until I reached my 60th year and researched properly at last.
Vaccines are a complete deception of Satan to make large amounts of money at our expense, both health and wealth wise. It is quite silly not to see this by now after all the lies, confusing advice and deception by big pharma and governments around the world. I am surprised you have yet to see this is true.
People were persuaded that vaccines did work by advertising it, not from actual science, but because of fear, ignoring the fact that it is healthy living and nutrition etc that counts, not big pharma drugs.
Each person is an individual, and not a herd, and it is the immune system of each person that matters. Vaccines merely poison it if they do anything at all as we can’t tell what really is in each vile.
Masks will reduce the affects of air pollution and dust, but not Covid 19 which is the internal toxicosis of the body, part of the metabolic process exacerbated by the numerous toxins in the environment. This is not rocket science, merely common sense.
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April 25, 2022 at 7:27 am |
Vaccines and medications are most certainly no substitute for healthy living and good nutrition. But to say that vaccination is useless goes against the historical record.
https://www.science.org/content/article/here-s-visual-proof-why-vaccines-do-more-good-harm
https://www.behance.net/gallery/2878481/Vaccine-Infographic
Click to access p2073.pdf
This is not to say that individuals may well have valid reasons for not taking particular vaccines.
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April 25, 2022 at 11:33 am
Dear Phil
Many thanks for your reply.
The first two links have pretty pictures or graphics but not raw data. They are mere advertising, not science.
The p2073 pdf has lots of text. I will go through it in more detail at some point, but I note it says this.
“Vaccines do not contain toxins.” This is an outright lie and undermines the whole document which on the face of it is merely yet more advertising with no actual science or data. Vaccines do contain toxins, maybe they are small amounts, but they are still toxins, period.
The current vaccines are neuro-toxic if they are anything I have done my own analysis of three used in the UK. My link here.
Please note I do use some humour to lighten the mood as I see fit, but in reality I am very angry about how we have been deceived. Again, I only realised this when I was 60 years old and checked properly at last.
1. Vaccines including the current ones have always caused some harm and even deaths. This is well documented.
2. We are told that this is nevertheless for the greater good of protecting the ‘herd’ as a whole. I do not like to consider anybody as a herd, I seek to treat people as individuals.
Nevertheless this so-called herd immunity assumes that all are the same, and the same set of circumstances governing how they live, what they eat and drink etc. Complete nonsense of course. Humans are not a herd of cattle in a field, but each has an immune system of varying condition depending on how they look after themselves.
3. Vaccines are supposed to offer some protection rather than 100% protection. They argue this on the supposition that diseases are supposedly ‘eliminated’ by the so-called fact that the disease is no longer evident, allegedly.
4. In reality this takes place over decades when all sorts of other factors come into play such as public health improvements, better diet etc.
There is no science and no data to support this supposition whatsoever.
5. Therefore the supposed benefits of vaccines are unproven, yet the side effects, harm and even death are obvious.
6. In reality as regards Covid 19, it is the ‘flu, made out to be a monster by advertising, and re-branding. This helps big pharma make large amounts of money as is being seen today.
7. The ‘flu is the internal toxicosis of the body as much due to vitamin D deficiency, as serious problem to those in the western world where indoor working and living away from the sun occurs. The sunshine is free but does not of course make money for big pharma so they are not keen on it.
Also the environment, air, food and water have been horribly polluted by all sorts of chemicals and plastics etc., adding yet more toxins into the human body.
I consider this all self-evident to anyone prepared to look at the matter critically. Big pharma have made huge sums of money off the suffering of many, and numbers, quite how many who knows exactly, have died.
And vaccines are merely the tip of the iceberg of big pharma drugs and their largely neuro-toxic effects which merely suppress some symptoms whilst creating other problems for which then doctors prescribe more of the same toxic drugs.
And all for money, which as I am sure you are aware is the root of all kinds of evil.
Kind regards
Baldmichael
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June 22, 2022 at 9:07 pm |
New paper shows 4x as many hospitalizations following vaccination with mRNA covid vaccines as from covid itself.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4125239
Maybe this is why people are skeptical about covid vaccinations.
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June 23, 2022 at 10:54 am |
The important basis of comparison would be the number of hospitalizations and deaths prevented by the vaccine versus the number of hospitalizations resulting from the effects of the vaccine.
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June 23, 2022 at 12:00 pm
Hospitalizations v. hospitalizations is apples to apples. You are suggesting apples to oranges.
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June 24, 2022 at 5:57 am
If the vaccines are successful, the number of hospitalizations and deaths from Covid will be low. If vaccines fail, the number of hospitalizations and deaths from Covid will be high.
Therefore a low number of hospitalizations and deaths from Covid cannot be an argument against the Covid vaccines.
The issue is harm averted versus harm done.
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June 24, 2022 at 5:13 pm
If you are going to compare apples to apples, you must consider total mortality. Total mortality is up at least 17.5% in the US working age population, which is 137,500 more deaths in 2021 v. 2020.
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June 24, 2022 at 6:28 am
I’m not denying the possibility of problems with particular Covid vaccines, or the possibility that certain individuals or certain segments of the population (toddlers, for example), should not take the Covid vaccines.
Go ahead and make that case if you have the evidence. This is different from saying the general public should not be vaccinated for Covid.
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June 24, 2022 at 5:11 pm |
“Jim Jordan: when the government told us the vaccinated could not transmit it (covid), was that a lie or a guess?
Debbie Birx: “i think it was hope””
The CDC was feeding us manure about vaccine efficacy.
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June 24, 2022 at 5:14 pm |
Er, both FDA and CDC.
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June 25, 2022 at 4:29 am |
The CDC deserves a lot of criticism. Antony Fauci and Deborah Brix claim that vaccination stops the spread of Covid when it only inhibits it somewhat. They have been sticking to the claim that Covid is spread through droplets on surfaces when it is in fact spread through aerosol transmission. They minimize the danger of long Covid, which results in organ damage, including brain damage.
I give President Trump’s administration credit for launching Operation Warp Speed, but Trump, President Biden and the whole political and business establishment has been holding super spreader events. There is no plan that I can see for dealing with the new variants.
I am 85 years old. I received two Moderna shots, and two Pfizer booster shots and don’t regret it. But if I were a pregnant woman, or the parent of small children, it would be a different story.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/06/growing-revolt-among-medical-practitioners-against-vaccinating-toddlers-for-covid.html
https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/covid-19-pandemic-related-excess-mortality-and-potential-years-of-life-lost-in-the-u-s-and-peer-countries/
https://mappingignorance.org/2022/04/25/cognitive-and-brain-changes-due-to-sars-cov-2-how-will-aging-evolve/
https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/01/29/up-the-line-to-death-covid-19-has-revealed-a-mortal-betrayal-of-the-worlds-healthcare-workers/
In general, I find the Naked Capitalism web site a good source of continuing coverage of the Covid pandemic.
I am not a physician, epidemiologist or any other kind of medical scientist or health care professional, so please do not take me as a source of medical advice.
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June 25, 2022 at 5:52 am |
As I’ve written, I have gotten all the recommended vaccine shots and boosters. I wear a mask in indoor public spaces.
But I understand why some people are skeptical of vaccines and don’t like masks. I don’t regard them as my enemies.
The CDC and the Biden administration ought to be looking for additional ways to fight Covid. These include promoting better ventilation and better testing, and doing or subsidizing research into a sterilizing vaccine that will cure the disease rather than suppress its effects.
I think those who regard vaccination as merely a Democratic hoax are sadly mistaken, as indicated in the video above. Even Ron Unz, whose web site is Conspiracy Theory Central, agrees that vaccines have value.
https://www.unz.com/runz/covid-deaths-and-vaxxing-deaths/
But I condemn those in the Biden Administration and public health establishment who’ve decided to give up on stopping the spread and blame everything on Republican so-called deplorable.
That is what I mean by politicizing Covid.
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