We start today’s post with a list of my favorite athletes right now. Aaron Rodgers. Novak Djokovic. Tyler Bertuzzi. Bryson DeChambeau. Kyrie Irving. What do they have in common? Conviction in their beliefs in the face of immense public pressure.
These athletes made a choice. They chose not to get vaccinated because the data said they didn’t need to. Despite their leagues and associations making it very, very, very difficult to resist, they stood strong. Public shaming. Extra enforcement. Fines. Suspensions. Excluded from participation in events. With the benefit of the shifting narrative FINALLY allowing real data to be discussed, can we be honest about this? 100% of people on the planet should now see that a) vaccines don’t stop the spread b) comorbidities drive hospitalizations and death and c) for the love of Pete, the people we are talking about are professional athletes and amongst the fittest, healthiest people on the planet. They absolutely, positively didn’t need the vaccine and to insist on them getting it is not science, it’s religion. A religion dead set on punishing those who voice dissent. Bryson missed the Olympics for a positive test, though health care workers in Rhode Island can work as long as they don’t show symptoms if they are vaccinated (the unvaccinated have long since been fired). Djokovic was detained in Australia for an exemption because he recovered from COVID. Kyrie isn’t allowed to play home games or practice with his team. And Aaron Rodgers? He became America’s number 1 liar, even though he disclosed his exact status to the NFL. In response, he recorded this podcast and amazingly, it was one of the two posts that I did just prior to being permanently banned on LinkedIn. I got banned for sharing a podcast link to an interview. Watch it and you decide for yourself. Misinformation or information?
To reiterate, I am not anti vax, I am anti mandate but conveniently Miriam Webster changed that definition recently to include people against mandates to be anti vax, so maybe I am anti-vax. I can’t keep up. What I do know is that I am 100% for science and data, and I am 100% against propaganda and being told what to do, especially when it makes absolutely no sense.
Finally, slowly, but surely, like a star imploding on itself, the narrative has become a black hole, swallowing the credibility of all who try to tow the line. I started a “14 days until the narrative dies” countdown 7 days ago, and today, we are T-7 days. Here are some all time classics:
Yesterday, in this video, Dr. Walensky says: “75% of the deaths occurred in people with at least 4 co morbidities. So they were unwell to begin with.”
Also yesterday, the CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla “The two doses, they’re not enough for omicron. The third dose of the current vaccine is providing quite good protection against deaths, and decent protection against hospitalizations.” Decent and quite good? Sounds compelling. According to U.K. (You can’t believe the US data) and as reported by CNBC, two doses of Pfizer or Moderna’s vaccines are only about 10% effective at preventing infection from omicron 20 weeks after the second dose. The U.K. Health Security Agency also found that boosters are only 40% to 50% effective against infection 10 weeks after receiving the shot. Translation? 2.5 months to 50% effectiveness. So 6 boosters a year should be about right …
This study out of Germany says vaccinated people are 8x more likely to catch omicron. My son Ben has to test every week, now alongside all his classmates, and Kent has a 96% vaccination rate. The kid he sits beside? Vaccinated. Got pulled out of school yesterday after testing positive. Ben? Nope. Still negative.
Today, catching COVID is so common, Dr. Joseph Kanter, Louisiana state health officer and medical director, discussed the issue in a briefing on Thursday: "When you're in a surge like we are right now and COVID-19 is everywhere — and it is everywhere right now — if you have trouble getting a test, a take-home test particularly, and you do have symptoms, the prudent thing to do is just assume you have COVID-19 and isolate away from other people. That's the safest thing to do right now.” Our way out is to test … but you can’t get tests. And even if you test positive, there is nothing you can do unless you get really sick.
Jake Tapper, one of COVID’s leading cheerleaders had an epiphany yesterday. “If up to 40 percent of patients in hospital "don't necessarily have problematic COVID" and are there if "they bumped their head, and they're being included as [being] in the hospital with COVID. That number seems kind of misleading." You don’t say?
And finally, Dr. Leana Wen, a CNN medical analyst said. “Don’t wear a cloth mask. Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations. There’s no place for them in light of Omicron.” Have they adjusted the mask mandate on planes to reflect this? No.
Now, “we” have known this since April 2020. I was going back through my articles and I found this, written April 3, 2020. Unedited. It was when I was getting hate DMs and death threats on Twitter for being outspoken that the policy response to COVID was wrong. When I was told I was “too extreme” “not a doctor” and “not following the data.” It’s a fun read. And, kind of shows that yes, in fact we knew everything that is coming to light today for those that pushed the fear narrative. Which makes you wonder, what were “they” looking at.
T-7 days.
Also worth noting is that there's some good data coming out of NYC showing total cases of COVID, broken down by vaccinated vs. unvaccinated. Short version: as of 12/19/2021, looks like it's basically the opposite of what you were saying above. About 400 vaccinated COVID positives vs. about 4000 unvaccinated COVID positives. See here: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data.page#daily
The German study didn't say vaccinated people were 8x more likely catch Omicron. It did initially report the wrong number of unvaccinated people who had caught it, and the study was soon corrected. The analysis you linked, written by an anonymous author, drawing conclusions the authors of the study did not draw, is incorrect.