Open (more or less) Post on Covid

[ecosophia]

Last week's post here titled A Hypothesis has now gotten more comments than any other entry on this journal -- more, in fact, than all but a handful of posts on any of my blogs, ever. No, I don't think it's because my entry was the most brilliant thing ever written. I think it's because a very, very large number of people want to be able to talk over their worries about the Covid-19 situation, and especially the vaccines being pushed so heavily by governments and the medical industry just now, without having to face a constant barrage of splaining. 

Splaining? I think most people now have heard of "mansplaining," the habit some men have of telling women what to think, using patronizing tones and language. A fair number of men have started to talk about "womansplaining," in turn, because a significant number of women have picked up the same habit, and use it on men who disagree with certain ideological stances today's privileged feminists embrace. It's hardly limited to gender issues, though; watch the way that self-proclaimed experts online take on exactly the same tone of self-satisfied smugness as they set out their opinions as absolute truth, and you'll recognize the need for a more general label. To my mind, "splaining" provides that label. 

The Covid-19 situation is rife with splaining. In fact, it's hard to find anything else just now. On the one hand, we've got the people who insist at the top of their lungs that whatever the medical industry and its paid politicians happen to be saying this week is the undeniable truth. On the other hand we've got the people who insist at the top of their lungs that the latest paranoiac claims of conspiracy culture this week are the undeniable truth. The two of them work so enthusiastically in concert to drown out any more nuanced discussion of this issue -- and of course many others -- that I've suspected more than once that the establishment goes out of its way to encourage conspiracy culture, for the same reason that the totalitarian government in George Orwell's 1984 encouraged a fake resistance movement:  to distract potential dissidents and keep them from doing anything that would actually harm the regime. 

Be that as it may, while there's a demand for it, I'm going to host a weekly open post for discussion of the Covid-19 vaccine situation. Comments will be strictly moderated. In particular, I will be deleting all comments that attempt to argue for the medical industry's party line, or link to sites that do so -- there are hundreds of thousands of places online where people can read about that if they want to.  I will also be deleting all comments that attempt to argue that Covid-19 and the vaccines are the product of a deliberate, malign conspiracy on the part of some villainous group or other, or link to sites that do this -- there are tens of thousands of places online where that's the subject of discussion. The hundreds of people who posted here last week wanted to talk about the possibility that what's behind the current mess is the ordinary incompetence, arrogance, and corruption that is so rife in modern industrial society, especially (though of course not only) in its political systems and its medical and pharmaceutical industries. They wanted to talk about the possibility that these factors are bringing about an avoidable disaster, while politicians and industry flacks scramble around frantically trying to pretend that nothing is wrong -- and they wanted to do it without facing an endless, dreary torrent of splaining from those who can't stand the thought that someone might disagree with their preferred party line. 

I won't be responding to comments here, by and large. This is for you, my readers, to talk among yourselves and share data points that you've picked up in your own lives -- the sort of thing the corporate media won't talk about. Have at it. 

A follow-up comment:  in the three hours since I posted this I've already had to delete two comments that attempted to splain. One of them was pushing the conventional wisdom, one of them was pushing a conspiracy theory. Both have been deleted. All further attempts to do the same thing will suffer the same fate. There are thousands of online venues where people can push those viewpoints to their hearts' content. This open post is not one of them. Please abide by this or I will start banning people permanently.

In the meantime, certain words seem appropriate for those who want to use the dead hand of rigid ideology to stifle living conversation: 

"Get out, you old Wight! Vanish in the sunlight!
Shrivel like the cold mist, like the winds go wailing,
Out into the barren lands far beyond the mountains!
Come never here again! Leave your barrow empty!
Lost and forgotten be, darker than the darkness,
Where gates stand forever shut, till the world is mended." 

Comments

[booklover1973]

One of the confusing facts of the whole Covid situation is that things differ from country to country: the way the infections behave, the experiences with the vaccines (the people in Germany, where I live, whom I know, and who have been vaccinated, didn't have much of adverse reactions against the vaccine. The vaccine used is mostly that from Biontech), and other things. Despite this, I can not see how this can end well, taking into account the question how to get out of the self-imposed state of emergency.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Booklover; I don't live in Germany, but my sister and her family do. Luckily, they have access to medical systems. But the Biontec stuff is not without worries. In grief, thanks JMG.

[(Anonymous)]

Is anyone else seeing a lot more ambulances of late?

[(Anonymous)]

Yes. Here in Bellingham we had a small house fire yesterday. The fire dept came, but just barely, they had to choose between us and other calls. And that’s with getting additional help from neighboring communities. The firemen did say that they are stretched thin. Curious, I asked them what kind of calls, fire? Everything they said.

[(Anonymous)]

In reply to #3: my stepdaughter's dad and her partner are firmly in the PMC group and they express to us the dismay they feel that all restrictions have been lifted where they live (Alberta). They say they will continue to wear masks (as though to make my wife and I feel better?) regardless AND they intend to vaccinate their newborn child when it reaches six months of age. Every time I think of that situation I shake my head.

Thankfully, they've been gracious enough to respect our opinion on the covid vax (no thank you!) and we haven't heard any vitriol directed at us. They may be laughing behind their sleeves when among their fellow PMC members, but that doesn't bother me one bit.

[stcathalexandria]

Thank you for hosting this space. My daughter's college forced vaccinations on the students, but it appears they won't be doing any covid testing or quarantining for the fall term. I've emailed once a week with that question as well as what is the illness policy for missing classes etc, and received either the auto responder or nothing.

If they have students forced together in dorms with no testing, they'll be spreading Covid around vaccinated or not. Most should handle it fine, but I'm worried that the vaccinated having higher viral loads than non vaccinated will be more ill and more infectious.

I'm curious what other colleges are doing or not doing coming fall term if anyone with students or family can comment here.

I'm expecting covid to run so rampant and there to be so much illness that she will either be trapped on campus in some dramatic quarantine of the whole dorm or sent home without her belongings like in March 2020.

[temporaryreality]

My daughter decided to accept the vaccine (yesterday) so she can attend a Cal State campus this fall. She lives at home, so dorms are not a factor for us. All Cal State and UC campuses are requiring students to be vaccinated, however I've not heard a word about their plans for when outbreaks occur. I wouldn't even know where that information would be found. I know of no one who has opted to defer entry or take a break from school to avoid taking the vaccine.

The magic background is worrisome too

[(Anonymous)]

I think the whole thing has its source in magic, I think this whole thing has its root in the 2016 election, let me expand:

The whole magic of this group behind election and when Trump won there was a lot of celebration on the side of "deplorables" who then were happy with the result, which made the other literally lose their mind with hate and post it on Internet, and all these years the happy side they done is just trying to be even merrier to make the other side insane.

Now that the other side won, they couldn't be happy with their winning and all that hate didn't go away. Problem is that the other side not only was affected but were resilient and not accepting loss. So this tension never went away, instead it went into the COVID story/ It seems that this factions are going now as vaxxers and anti-vaxxers, probably they were before in lockdown versus not-lockdown. So the Haters now discovered that there are ways to make the others loose their minds a bit about something and now they are pushing on lockdown or vaccines.

I think since this is about cancelation, censorship and hate. Is the worst background to have a medical emergency over it. I think since other problems seem to creep in, this are already enough forces that will make a big split in the fabric of the US Nation.

Now the bets are easy on this one if you are a foreigner, one side wants to change things to do with themselves are focused on their own business the other side want with passionate hate for the other side to go extinct. But it looks that there will be a lot of suffering in the middle.

Ran Prieur in his latest post says:

«Threat number one is internet-aided mass insanity. This subreddit post mentions how the printing press led to witch hunts, and here's a full article, Print and the Persecution of Witchcraft. In the 1930's, An Affordable Radio Brought Nazi Propaganda Home. Every time there's a new information technology, people use it to enhance what the human brain does best: distorting perception to feed the hunger to be part of a story. And all through history, the most popular story has been "kill the people not like us."»


And it seems that the mass media is actually in the haters faction's hands, I see pretty often in Romanian but also international, European and US. Gleeful news that so and so died painfully and he wasn't a COVID believer or he wasn't vaccinated. And the load of text behind nasty photos is execrable in its gleeful contempt.


I explore more in these two comments on the previous thread.
https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/140421.html?thread=17185413#cmt17185413
https://ecosophia.dreamwidth.org/140421.html?thread=17183621#cmt17183621

[(Anonymous)]

If anyone is into the 4th Turning - look up the video "Long Covid" Casts a Long Shadow by Neil Howe. Its has the same "feel" as the ADE Hypothesis

Neil Howe video

[(Anonymous)]

Is there a print transcript available? I do not do well with videos.

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks very much, JMG, for doing and moderating these open posts on Covid, it is greatly appreciated!

It looks like there are a few small cracks forming in the mainstream media about the vaccines. Someone else posted in the last thread a conversation in New York magazine with Dr. Eric Topol, here is the same author in the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/09/america-is-flying-blind-when-it-comes-to-the-delta-variant

[booklover1973]

The articles describing that this or that Covid-nonbeliever has died from Covid are conspicuously frequent and stereotypical. I cannot imagine that such a story happens often enough for it to be true in all casss.

[(Anonymous)]

A lot of those articles are reprinted word for word in several different place simultaneously. It shows up on search engines when you check the headline

[(Anonymous)]

> it seems like this is a soft way for the government to flush out potential dissidents from the armed forces.

It certainly looked like that to me, but that could be also because army might need to be prepared to be used against its own people. But from a national security point of view given that this might incapacitate the army for defense, can be viewed as treason.

[(Anonymous)]

My feeling about this is mixed. I do not wish harm on an entire generation (and potentially their children), but these are also the soldiers who will be tasked with rounding up "High Risk" individuals into "Camps" which is the inevitable conclusion of communist policies.

https://www.truenewshub.com/summit/cdc-covid-document-discussed-relocating-high-risk-individuals-to-camps/

Part of me wants to warn them, but if they are the type who follow orders without question and have not figured out that they are being lied to then maybe it is time to take Napoleon's advice and not interfere.

[brenainn]

In my town, I keep hearing about a surge in new cases, yet no one that I know seems to be getting COVID now. In fact, I only know a few people who tested positive. They described symptoms that were as mild as a simple cold to a bad case of the flu. I don't know anyone who has died. The closest that I can come to that is I know a guy who knows a guy who died from COVID. I don't deny COVID is real and can be dangerous for some folks. But the response seems massively blown out of proportion from the threat. I also think many governments are reluctant to end lock downs and other restrictions because they'd lose some of the new powers they've acquired to address the COVID crisis. In general, I don't think people like to give up power. If something like ADE turns out to be true, I think enraged citizens meeting overzealous, inept government officials will go very badly. Things are looking really scary right now.

[stcathalexandria]

This is the exact same situation we are in. In fact people who I expected to at least be hospitalized due to their current health have somehow remained on this side of the ground. I don't understand it. For all the devastation at nursing homes early on, things never got as dire as that first couple months. Even before vaccination, they seems to have a normal death rate.

At the same time the amount of threats I see from both officials and everyday people come regularly. If this disease was as crazy deadly as they say, the threats wouldn't be needed.

[(Anonymous)]

The higher the level of education the more people are hesitant to the vaccine
https://twitter.com/jacleena/status/1424155022627991556

[(Anonymous)]

I found it interesting that the authors explicitly encourage that everyone get the vaccine. They must think that their PhD peers are not submitting to the vaccine because they are ignorant rather than assuming that they are critically examining the pros and cons...

[open_space]

Any scientists or enthusiasts in here willing to discuss with a plain man this Nature paper about ADE? I'm smart enough to follow the general thrust of the paper, which is basically a big "we don't know", but I don't know much about the mechanism for which this happens. The scientists I've talked with nervously walk away from me when I bring that two leading scientists a Nobel laureate that discovered VIH and another that helped develop the mRNA technology are pushing against vaccines. Conveniently about that topic they say "that's not my area of research".


Critical thinking has parted from most scientific circles so I thought I'd ask the place were the smartest conversations happen these days.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-020-00789-5

[(Anonymous)]

Some random thoughts about "scientists":

I have a PhD in epidemiology of infectious diseases. I personally know many of the people that appear on TV - especially in the UK where I did my PhD before coming to the US.

I would never sign with my real name on the Internet when discussing this topic. I am too afraid. I am not vaccinated.
That being said I did make some noise at the place I work - but that as far as I can go.

There was a recent study about vaccine hesitancy -- https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.20.21260795v1.full -- The group that is more hesitant? People with PhDs

Much can be said about the climate in academia - almost all horrible. Epidemiology has some of the most immoral people that I worked with, BTW.

If you want to think freely and creatively avoid academia

./Ahriman

[realmscryer]

Yesterday, 4 PM, I was on a gurney waiting for a follow up colonoscopy. In comes the doctor and soon begins “the talk”. I told him after ten years as a health care data analyst I will wait until long term studies are done before getting the injection. He said there were 7 people in the local hospital intubated. We sometimes have to do things before we have all the data he said.

I asked why the seven weren’t given Ivermectin. When he explained his research into the studies for IVM I knew he wasn’t accessing the full body of work for himself. Just CDC talking points or professional briefs. I started going into the international data sets with him but stopped. Neither the time nor place for such a conversation. My BP was high enough waiting to have my rear end scoped. He will see for himself.

After my time in health care I have many stories of just how bad data, data systems, and reporting are at all levels of the industry. Sometimes this is due to the nature of health care data, which can be very messy. Other times ignorance or business interests play a part. Last gig I made a medium sized clinic an extra million and a half profit during my short tenure when I bypassed their third party reporting tool with my own tools. The slop in the systems can be breathtaking. There is an ever flowing river of money. You just need the right bucket to dip into the river.

My wife, btw, can tell stories of flu seasons past in the same hospital referenced above doing discharge planning. Patients lined up in beds in the hallways. The hospital so far has not been even close to the equivalent of a bad flu season during all of covid.

She also appears to be having some vax reactions developing from the shot she was coerced into taking recently. Hopefully we can minimize the damage.

A reader commented in the previous post about being in the role of witness to what is unfolding. I am feeling the same way more and more. Take care of my family as best I can and bear witness in silence until the spell is broken.

As far as the procedure goes the sedation was awesome. I woke up to dreams of the ocean.

[(Anonymous)]

Was that at St. Joseph’s? I have an acquaintance (also in Bellingham) who also works as a health care data analyst and she uses that as an expert credential to tell everyone how horribly bad the situation is. I’m not sure what data she’s looking at, but you’re probably familiar with the Whatcom County death toll that remained around 80 much of last year and has only added a few more after the vaccines became available. It was by following the Dept. of Health statistics for the first few months (before they started changing how it was reported and obfuscating things) that I determined that the reaction was overblown in a way that does suggest some other agenda, but I suppose mass insanity and cascading incompetence is also possible. Neptune is in Pisces, after all.

There’s a weird dichotomy in people’s responses. I have friends and family that have remained absolutely terrified the whole time, yet virtually all of the subcultures I follow have rejected the mainstream narrative from fairly early on. Admittedly, most of those groups are fringe minorities, but they’re different enough from each other that a consensus on anything is unusual. Perhaps the only commonality is that all of them have been, or have become, distrustful of the mainstream media over the last several years and skilled at sourcing alternative news.

What’s so strange is that nearly everyone seems totally sure their position is correct; doubt has all but disappeared. JMG is one of the few I’ve seen willing to allow the possibility of being wrong. The other odd thing is that each side is convinced that their opponents are going to die due to their own stupidity – either by the disease or the vaccines.

Sarkos in Bellingham

The numbers are going pear-shaped

[https://openid-provider.appspot.com/bryanlallen]

The news on the Covid “vaccine” front goes from bad to worse. So many fragments of information it’s hard to make coherent sense of it all. Consider:
“As of May 1, the CDC said it had “transitioned from monitoring all reported vaccine breakthrough cases to focus on identifying and investigating only hospitalized or fatal cases.” It said the shift would help maximize the quality of the data collected on cases of greatest clinical and public health importance.”

That’s a quote from a CNBC article.

Now here’s a recent quote from the JMG “Hypothesis” blog post by a hospital worker:
“I work in a hospital and have been informed we are no longer allowed to ask about vaccination status for Covid patients. Officially, this is to ensure they get the same quality of care even if unvaccinated. This story breaks down fairly quickly, when you factor in that they had to back down from a vaccine mandate not too long ago after most of the staff was prepared to quit over it. Unofficially, I think the purpose is that this means every single one of our Covid patients will now be classed as "unknown" vaccination status, which always gets lumped in with the unvaccinated category in official press releases.”

Put those two quotes together, and what do you get? Can’t trust the numbers AT ALL. 😔

Re: The numbers are going pear-shaped

[(Anonymous)]

One of the lessons of 80s in Soviet Unions or Easter Europe was that no one would eventually ever trust the official numbers.
I wonders some time if that sort of stuff happens in the Energy area.

Shortages?

[(Anonymous)]

Tangentially related to That Disease, but has anyone else noticed the shelves are once again starting to get (more) bare than usual? It seems like every time I go out for supplies, there's always a growing list of items left on my list that I couldn't find to buy. It started with 1 or 2, but now it's been 2 or 3. I wonder if this time around, the big box stores are going to go away and maybe for good. How much more time do we have, I wonder?

One of the things I picked out of all those accounts from people who got into trouble over Those Vaccines, is that the medical establishment didn't want to help them in any way at all. "Go away, go away, go away, you're fine, YOU'RE FINE" was the typical repsonse. At least if you actually get The Disease, they will reluctantly admit you have a real problem and help with it.

Re: Shortages?

[(Anonymous)]

"Giraldus Cambrensis, speaking of the Monks of Saint Swithin, says, that they threw themselves prostrate at the feet of King Henry II and with many tears complained, that the Bishop, who was their abbot, had withdrawn from them three of their usual number of dishes. Henry, having made them acknowledge that there still remained ten dishes, said that he himself was contented with three, and recommended to the Bishop to reduce them to that number."

Source: Henry Home, Lord Kames, Sketches of the History of Man

Can't trust predictions when no one knows why surges turn around.

[walt_f]

JMG, thank you for this timely open post. I had already written the comment that follows but wasn't certain of its appropriateness in the earlier thread. I think it will fit in better here.

Regarding the more severe predictions of JMG's Hypothesis, allow me to cite an essay by an outside-the-mainstream systems-thinking individual with a good track record, that strikes a general note of caution regarding its more extreme predictions.

"Imperfect Storms" by John Michael Greer

"The difference between what actually happens and the whole range of current fantasies about instant doom can be summed up in a single phrase: negative feedback. ... Nearly all those theories make sweeping claims about some set of hypothetical positive feedback loops, while systematically ignoring the existence of well-documented negative feedback loops, and dismissing the evidence of history."

In the present case the negative feedbacks are far from well-documented, but their influence is apparent throughout the past trajectory of the pandemic. Over and over again, surges of Covid-19 cases have reversed themselves for no apparent reason, far short of infecting a majority or even a very large fraction of the population. After the peak of the earliest local surge in April of 2020, it seemed that among the general sigh of relief I was the only one asking, "but why are new cases going down now, when there are more active cases (i.e. recent potential spreaders) than ever, and no one here is doing anything differently than three weeks ago when new cases were skyrocketing?" Sixteen months and countless similar occurrences (all over the world) later there's still no good answer. Others did ask eventually, and a few hypotheses were suggested. Were there actually tenfold or twentyfold more undetected cases than detected ones, rapidly immunizing the population? Was the virus somehow weakening itself with each transmission? Were only certain people, ethnicities, blood types, diets etc. vulnerable in the first place? Did everyone decide to start obeying restrictions once the numbers went high enough? Subsequent events and (in some cases) direct research have appeared to rule out all of those proposed explanations, without offering plausible new ones.

I'd welcome any thoughts from anyone about the question.

Whatever the actual dynamics are, for the time being they still appear to be influential, with e.g. overall cases in mostly vaccinated populations dropping lower in the UK and apparently peaking in Iceland. Time will tell regarding the ongoing surges in Israel and eventually the U.S. Newer variants and/or ADE could become stronger positive feedbacks in the future, but with so little acknowledgement or understanding of the negative ones, my confidence in any predictions by anyone, optimistic or pessimistic, is rather low.

Because it might actually be Different This Time, preparing for the worst-case scenarios—which would include in this case my own likely demise—still seems wise.

Re: Can't trust predictions when no one knows why surges turn around.

[(Anonymous)]

The numbers are so fudged that it is almost impossible to know what is happening at any given moment. My strategy at the moment is to try and collect verifiable information of what is going on around me and then use that to take a guess at the bigger picture.

skin in the game

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks JMG for hosting this space. We all have skin in the game here, even if unvaxxed, as we all know people who are and if this leads to many sickening and dying then there will be huge repercussions for society as a whole.

The official narrative has just shifted massively recently. Before it was "these vaccines* are safe and effective and you will be protected if you get it". Now they finally admit the vaccine is not effective (but pretend it's safe) in the UK.

The inventor of the mRNA gene therapy Dr Robert Malone is well worth following on twitter. He retweeted this ""Herd immunity is not a possibility" because the Delta variant "still infects vaccinated individuals". Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, says there is nothing "the UK can do to stop the emergence of new variants".

Before we were told that the Holy Grail of herd immunity would be reached via the vax. Not the immune system we were all born with of course, because where's the profit in that??

Also on the Covid popup on Facefrack it says this: "More than three-quarters of UK adults are now fully vaccinated, government announces. (Not sure about that number). UK on Tuesday reports highest number of COVID-19 related deaths since March.

So if 75% are vaxxed, why on earth are covid deaths so high, especially in Summer??

I think it is only a matter of time before they are forced to admit it's not safe either. I wonder what the vaxxed will feel/do then? JMG said that there might be heads on pikes but if you are sick or dead you can't riot. I suppose the unvaxxed relatives could...

*gene therapy

Re: skin in the game

[(Anonymous)]

The high death rate in summer is actually one thing I've been tracking. Covid-19 mostly spreads in winter; as do most coronaviruses. However, most people naturally have some coronaviruses in their system at all times, and so loads of people getting sick in summer is important evidence: if a lot of people are getting sick while Covid is not spreading, that's a sign that serious ADE is kicking in, and not just against Covid.

[(Anonymous)]

The un-vaccinated, usual suspects, ehemmm

https://english.elpais.com/society/2021-08-06/coronavirus-surge-in-spanish-nursing-homes-fuels-debate-on-mandatory-vaccination-for-carers.html

However:
People in spannish nursing homes are vaccinated 99%...That vaccines are CRAP. VAccinated people is getting sick with COVID...

How will it play out? Thoughts and opinions welcome

[(Anonymous)]

My company, on this coming Monday, will require a vaccine card for entry to any of their buildings. That includes employees, visitors, maintenance workers, cafeteria staff, security -- everybody. No proof of vaccination, no entry. They are keeping people's status in a database of "approved" people. I am working my exit plan and have sort of let go of the outcome (with occasional flashes of rage when one of the corporate idiots makes disparaging remarks about the unvaccinated). I have been able to work mostly from home since the shutdown started last year and so the inability to go into the office is annoying and a pain, but not yet an impossible situation. I fully expect that the day that the FDA approves a vaccine, my company will go from "you can't come in our buildings" to "get a vaccine or you are fired by x date."

No one knows the future, but I would really appreciate any thoughts on how things might play out, as follows: I work for a consulting company; their "product" is the billable time of people like me. I am fully billable every hour I am allowed to bill. I have customers that like me and they say so in writing to my corporate management. Don't get me wrong, I am replaceable for sure, but there will be some short term pain and loss of revenue for the company if they fire me for not having a vaccine. But I am sure that they will go there. The CEO is a fully woke madman at this point who, when he isn't spouting critical race theory, is telling us we are going to die if we don't get the vaccine (I think he is positioning himself for a political career next -- you know, where the real money is...).

But if what JMG thinks might come true does come true, i.e., 1/3 to 1/2 of the fully vaccinated staff who are allowed in the buildings are sick, in say, October, and therefore revenues are in the toilet? Will they double down and still fire people in say, November, for not being vaccinated? Or will they back off, make up a story about everything being "safe" and let everyone back in the buildings? Or just one day pretend the whole thing never happened, because they can't afford to lose the money? And what about that database that they are keeping of people's vaccination status -- including visitors? I can't see that data being abandoned. Once corporate has a database, they won't let go of that power easily.

Any encouraging words, theories, or opinions are welcome. My company is not doing any of this alone -- lots of other companies are doing this -- and I am happy to commiserate, share tips for handling the end of a career, share the religious exemption template form I found, any legal opinions I collect, etc.
Best to everyone as we work through this step down on the long slope of decline.
Jean

Re: How will it play out? Thoughts and opinions welcome

[mitchell2]

yeah - this is an important question, what happens this winter. JMG thinks the narrative falls apart within a few months, when the numbers come out on vaccine sickened. I think USA and EU will largely escape scrutiny because the current wave will largely have passed before vaccine efficacy wears off, so we dont get any meaningful data till mid winter. Separately the data is untrustworthy in most countries, apart from maybe Iceland and Israel. I think there will be a massive and sustained pressure for vaccination, next of kids to destroy all control groups, and it will largely succeed because it might be 6 months before the numbers begin to tell stories - and even then the narrative of the Lamba variant will be pushed. Will the 50% of parents who dont want to vax their kids begin homeschooling? This is what everyone needs to get psychologically ready for I think. No point in protesting and fighting the police or army on the streets, you're only going to come off looking badly - although you do get to meet with like minded people and keep morale up. We have two school aged children and of course we'll take them out, but I'm not expecting that they'll lose control of the narrative in a few months.

[jenniferkobernik]

In light of the economic and other effects of the COVID debacle, would anyone be interested in participating in a sort of online resilience club? I was thinking of writing up a post each week on a sort of 12-step program for personal resilience, with a selection of advice (some radical, some less so) for each step, for those who are experiencing or preparing for downward mobility. And we could kind of support each other, exchange information, check in about our progress, etc. It might be a little late to avoid the rush, but there’s still some useful steps to be taken to cushion the fall, methinks.

For what it’s worth, my “qualifications” are that I have spent the last few years living on $50-$500 per month (there was actually one month that I spent absolute zero), have managed to save up several years worth of living expenses while never making more than part time minimum wage in my 33 years of life (or the yearly equivalent—I think my all-time high was about $15,000 one year), and am still socially successful and very happy...

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, definitely interested.

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for both this and your previous post.

I suspect I speak for a lot of us when I say that we're desperate for some sort of sanity on this whole issue.

I spend so much of my time these days feel like I'm living in Crazy Town. I don't even deliberately watch TV or pay attention to mainstream media, but the madness is always there, right around the corner, lurking. Turn on the radio for some music, and there's sure to be a covid-panic commercial. Go someplace with a waiting room, and the hysteria-box on the wall will be turned on and screeching fear at you. Visit certain shops or try to access certain services, and a bunch of loony masked people stare at you in fear over their muzzles, or make you wait in the car and then ask if you've been vaccinated before they'll let you come in to use the restroom (this really happened to me; I just lied so I could have a pee while I was stuck waiting endlessly in my car, since the waiting room was "closed").

In almost five decades, I have never, ever seen anything like this before. I no longer wonder how all those parts of history that used to seem so bizarre managed to happen - I get it now.

I look around Crazy Town and all I can think is, how will his end? And how bad will it get before it's over and some semblance of sanity returns? I am often angry and frightened, and all I can do is take a deep breath and remind myself that there is no escaping history, and that I will just have to ride it out. Sometimes I pray, but that's really all I can do.

I'm just glad there's evidence that I'm not alone.

[(Anonymous)]

You describe exactly what I am experiencing and how I feel. It doesn't help that I live alone, am currently unemployed and looking for a "remote" job so I don't have to get vaccinated/tested/etc., and only have one close relative who didn't get vaccinated. There are days I wonder if I'm the one who has gone 'round the bend and everyone else is sane. Like you, I'm glad to see evidence I am not alone.

Power

[queenofcups3811]

Mary Wollstonecraft

"Power is ever true to its vital principle, for in every shape it would reign without control or inquiry – its throne being built across a dark abyss, which no eye must dare to explore, lest the baseless fabric should totter under investigation. Thus obedience, blind obedience, is the catch-word of tyrants of every description."

[ari_ormstunga]

A good friend texted me the other day. He said, in effect, "I disagree strongly with your opinions about covid and the vaccines, but the second dose of the vaccine really messed me up and I think it gave me chronic fatigue syndrome." He went on to tell me that even though the vaccine caused him to have a lot of negative side effects, he was glad he got it and it was a real relief for him. I suggested he keep an eye on the news for reports of ADE and left it at that. My mind is blown, I don't understand how he can have the effects he's reporting from the vaccine and still not regret getting it. Based on the data I've seen, his danger from the virus was quite small; who knows if he will recover from the vaccine side effects he's reporting.

[(Anonymous)]

I find it really freaky how many people are like that: "Yeah, I was flat on my back for a day, but it's still worth it. Knowing I'm safe from Covid is worth it!"

[realmscryer]

Looks like the USMC is not getting vaxed for a while. Some refreshingly blunt feedback for the administration.

https://realrawnews.com/2021/08/marines-rebuke-def-sec-no-mandatory-vaccinations-for-my-marines/

[cutekitten]

General Berger must be retiring next week.

Tracking ADE

[(Anonymous)]

Does anybody know of any sources of data about the occurrence of ADE cases in the vaccinated? (ADE would in theory also happen to people who recovered from natural infections as well.) Are there any researchers tracking this?

Re: Tracking ADE

[open_space]

Yes, a Nobel price winner who discovered VIH and a scientist that helped develop the mRNA technology of all people. The links are in JMG's original post about the the hypotheses.

I haven't seen data for human beings yet. A paper from Nature did document such effects in hamsters and macaques.