DON’T GET ME
WRONG I’m not an anti-VAXXer. I’ve had two Covid-19 shots and my annual
flu shot so far. Jab, jab, and jab! (Ouch!) I don’t qualify
for booster shots yet, but I’m in no hurry to get one. It’s just…Well, here’s
the rub. Like all of us, I’ve been reading up on vaccine roll-outs, disease statistics,
treatments, global response, passports, lock-downs etc., etc., and a couple of questions
come to mind.
Weren’t we
told, after the first wave began to swamp our respective societies, that
vaccines were the thing to use to stop the spread of the disease? I was led
to believe, unless I'm mis-remembering, that the vaccines being rushed onto the market were a) safe, b)
effective in preventing and transmitting Covid-19 infections, c) the way to
eradicate the bug by immunizing as much of the population as possible, as
quickly as possible, and d) after that we could return to what remained of our
lives and routines. Did I miss something? Nearly two years into this thing and
authorities are telling us now that the vaccines are only partially effective
in preventing infections and in spreading the virus to others. And their
effectiveness declines over time. And they may have worrying side effects in some instances.
I know it’s
mostly on me to have been more skeptical at the beginning, and I should have
investigated, in my own unscientific way, how vaccines are meant to work, their
strengths and weaknesses, how long it typically takes to manufacture them, and
so on. But I didn’t. Like a good sheep I took my jabs, wore my mask, and waited
for the lockdowns to end. Now we’re being told that booster shots
might be needed! Just how many and for how long is unclear. For example, Israel
has mandated a third (booster) shot and is considering a fourth.
Some
commentators question the safety of vaccines, while most public health
authorities in Canada, including Health Canada, conclude they’re safe—they’re just
not the panacea we all were hoping for. To be honest, I have a hard time
deciding which study to rely on, though I tend to fall on the side of health professionals, etc.
But I STILL HAVE QUESTIONS: Is mass vaccinations during a pandemic the best way to
eradicate the disease (if that’s even possible)? Does a mass vaccination regime
allow “herd immunity” to be readily established? Or does it increase the risk
of vaccine-resistant strains of the virus from replicating? I don’t know.
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Adorable. And tasty.
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In
2003, during the SARS coronavirus outbreak, air traffic to and from outbreak
cities (eg. Toronto) was curtailed and travel to the epicentre of the outbreak in
China (at that time, the disease was thought to be spread by “civets”)* was also curtailed. Hospitals and
other care facilities that were impacted by the disease were also quarantined. Fortunately,
SARS spreads much slower that Covid-19, and the resulting number of infected was minuscule by comparison. But no vaccine was developed for the (then) novel
coronavirus, and none exists today.
If the vaccines
offer only temporary prophylactic protection and, as some commentators suggest,
neither significantly prevent the vaccinated from being infected nor stop them
from spreading the disease to others, then as a contagion-hindering mechanism
why are we using them in mass inoculation regimes? (And that’s not to say the
vaccines don’t help limit the severity of the disease and the chances of dying
from it.) But as a societal-wide prophylactic, is their use warranted? After
the 2003 SARS coronavirus epidemic scientists attempted and failed to develop a
vaccine for the virus. In 2020-21 new vaccines for Covid-19 have been rapidly created,
and there are concerns about their safety, longevity, and long-term effects. Again, I don’t
know. +
MOST STUDIES THAT HAVE BEEN DONE on pandemics and on Covid-19 conclude that vaccines, if
distributed widely enough, do act to lessen the spread of disease, and instill
“herd immunity” within the population. I tend to agree. However, there are conflicting
narratives about vaccines and vaccine statistics. For example, the WHO’s
official global death toll from Covid-19 is around 5.2M. The Economist
estimates total deaths at a staggering 17M! To me, the higher figure suggests
vaccines are not working as advertised to curb deaths from Covid-19
and its variants. Other news sources say the death toll from the disease is overstated
and well below the WHO’s count, citing statistical analyses that count people
with co-morbidities as deaths from Covid if the virus is at all
detected in the deceased. In other words, deaths may be attributed to the coronavirus
that don’t apply, thus skewing the statistics and inappropriately raising the
pandemic death toll.
While I don’t
subscribe to “Covid-skeptic theories” overall—I think the disease is more
deadly than the common flu for some population demographics—but like many
people these days, I have become more skeptical of our institutions and
their pronouncements.
ONE EXAMPLE THAT SHAKES MY CONFIDENCE is the problematic role
billionaire Bill Gates and his well-funded charitable foundation plays in
crafting WHO policies with respect to global immunization roll-outs. The Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation contributed over 400 million dollars
for the WHO’s 2018-19 budget, the third largest donor after the United States and Great Britain! The foundation has its
preferred regime, COVAX, for distributing vaccines, particularly in the
global south, which the WHO is co-sponsoring. There have been criticisms
of the COVAX system, suggesting it hinders rather than facilitates immunization
efforts. And efforts to inoculate millions of people living in low-income nations has thus far been
pitiful, to say the least.
In taking such
a massive donation of private money, in whose interests will the WHO act? How
do we regain our confidence in public institutions?
IN ADDITION,
THERE HAS BEEN A GREAT DEAL OF DISCUSSION about alternative treatments which I won’t go
into—I think we’re all familiar with most of them by now—which suggest the best way
forward is to regard the presence of the Covid-19 virus and its variants as endemic
to the human population, like measles and influenza, something that will be
always with us to some extent, and something to be treated with medicines to
combat their worst effects. THIS IS CONTROVERSIAL, but I think we’ve been
lulled into an acceptance of a single narrative, a one-size-fits-all solution
(mass vaccinations, lockdowns, passports) while ignoring alternative
“therapeutics” and treatment protocols (like quarantining vulnerable
populations at the get-go and using anti-virals and steroids like Dexamethasone.)
In putting so
many of our eggs in one basket (vaccines, etc.), we may have bought ourselves the
proverbial pig in a poke. It’s too soon
to tell.
A Further
Controversy IS THE USE of nation-wide lockdowns, with all the harm they cause to
workers, their health, and livelihoods, and the general disruption of trade and
commerce and damage to social cohesion. In addition, the use of vaccine passports
in many countries has been met with growing protests by those who cannot,
on medical or religious grounds, be vaccinated or who refuse vaccines for other
reasons. Recently, Austria became the first country in the world to institute a
lock-down exclusively for unvaccinated people to curb rising infection
numbers in that country. And recent news reports from Australia with its stringent lock-down policies seem outright dystopian, and don't augur well for The Land Down Under, going forward. Some say such actions are the beginning of two-tiered
societies, with the unvaccinated being denied many of their rights as citizens and
excluded from social activities, including employment.
It is feared such internal
passport schemes may lead to ‘hyper-surveillance’ on the part of
governments and corporate elites, with a corresponding loss of personal
autonomy and privacy for the rest of us. I will do a separate post on these
worrying possibilities, soon. Meanwhile, I'll keep watching to see when (if
at all) I become eligible for a third jab/booster shot here in Ontario. Then I’ll
have a decision to make.
Cheers, Jake.
_____________________________________________
*In our current pandemic of 2020-22,
the original culprit, vis à vis another animal vector, was thought to be
the ever-tasty Pangolin. Both animals were being sold in “wet markets” in China. Both
were eaten for their meat and both were deemed carriers of coronaviruses that
replicated in humans, mutating into SARS and Covid-19, respectively. Of course,
there is growing speculation that today's Covid-19 virus may have been made in a laboratory
in the Chinese city of Wuhan and, in a lab leak, escaped into the human population.
We are far down the rabbit hole
now, I’m afraid, but it would be good to know the source
of Covid-19 to improve our research protocols, animal husbandry practices, etc., and to make life a little safer
for future generations.
+Knowledge is ofttimes easier to acquire
than it is to share. That said, I should say that I am skeptical of
people who suggest there is a grand conspiracy to ‘cull the human herd', so-to-speak, by
manufacturing vaccine serums that will, over time, cause major health concerns,
even deaths. It’s difficult to see how such a plan could be kept secret with
so much scientific scrutiny of the virus and vaccines occurring. Then again, one should never underestimate the power of prestidigitation!
Naturally, there are problems and short-comings with most of the new vaccines, and with so many people still un-vaccinated, world-wide, vaccines can't be the sole solution. Yet, I assume, or maybe hope
and pray, and even mostly believe, I guess, that they must be doing some
good.
Now, I haven't mentioned the
political or economic fallout from Covid-19, nor elite machinations involved in any of this, but there's a
large pot on the stove, boiling and bubbling over with real-life conspiracies, and
graft, greed, corruption, lies and damn lies! It's a toxic witch's brew being cooked up. Or, as they say, it's just another day in Paradise!
Future historians and
sociologists will (presumably) be better able to judge how we acted during this
time of crisis, where we fell face-first in it, and whether we came out of
this mess still standing or on our knees. Whichever conclusion is reached, there will be a new
normal in all our lives from now on. The jury is still out. Hopefully,
the courtroom will still be there when they return. Ed.
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Gratuitous Humour For a Stressful Time #17
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EVE AND ADAM:
THE FIRST ARGUMENT:
“If you don’t
want the fucking apple,
that’s up to
you!”
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