Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 24

[ecosophia]

The semi-open posts  I've hosted here on the Covid-19 narrative, the inadequately tested experimental drugs for it, and the whole cascading mess surrounding them have continued to field a very high number of comments, so I'm opening yet another space for discussion. The rules are the same as before: 

1. If you plan on parroting the party line of the medical industry and its paid shills, please go away. This is a place for people to talk openly, honestly, and freely about their concerns that the party line in question is dangerously flawed and that actions being pushed by the medical industry et al. are causing injury and death. It is not a place for you to dismiss those concerns. Anyone who wants to hear the official story and the arguments in favor of it can find those on hundreds of thousands of websites.

2. If you plan on insisting that the current situation is the result of a deliberate plot by some villainous group of people or other, please go away. There are tens of thousands of websites currently rehashing various conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 outbreak and the vaccines. This is not one of them. What we're exploring is the likelihood that what's going on is the product of the same arrogance, incompetence, and corruption that the medical industry and its tame politicians have displayed so abundantly in recent decades. That possibility deserves a space of its own for discussion, and that's what we're doing here. 
 
3. If you plan on using rent-a-troll derailing or disruption tactics, please go away. I'm quite familiar with the standard tactics used by troll farms to disrupt online forums, and am ready, willing, and able -- and in fact quite eager -- to ban people permanently for engaging in them here. Oh, and I also lurk on other Covid-19 vaccine skeptic blogs, so I'm likely to notice when the same posts are showing up on more than one venue. 

4. If you don't believe in treating people with common courtesy, please go away. I have, and enforce, a strict courtesy policy on my blogs and online forums, and this is no exception. The sort of schoolyard bullying that takes place on so many other internet forums will get you deleted and banned here. No, I don't care if you disagree with that: my journal, my rules. 

With that said, as more and more vaccinated people call in sick with the disease the vaccine was supposed to keep them from getting, and the euphemism "died suddenly" sounds like a repeated drumbeat in the media, the floor is open for discussion.

Comments

Re: Ireland turn around

[(Anonymous)]

I think in our assessments we sometimes forget that public health bureaucrats are also watching infection trends and acting accordingly. The UK and Ireland were the first places after South Africa to get hit with Omicron, and their case counts are in full retreat, down more than 50% in less than two weeks. France is still near the peak, just starting down, and Germany is still rising.

And Israel is off the charts...

http://91-divoc.com/pages/covid-visualization/?chart=countries-normalized&highlight=United%20Kingdom&show=25-lg&y=both&scale=linear&data=cases-daily-7&data-source=jhu&xaxis=right#countries-normalized

Mark L

Re: Ireland turn around

[(Anonymous)]

Mark,

No offense, and it really speaks for your kindness to write something like that. But the times when I trusted the German health authorities with anything are gone (and probably for good).

I‘ve spent a great deal of time following the date in Germany for months, starting in the early summer 2020. During all that time, what they have done had nothing to do with the actual data. The only conclusions I can draw is either that this is done on purpose (e.g. somebody lives in big pharma‘s pockets and is bent on pushing through as many vaccinations as possible), or complete and utter ignorance and incompetence.

There could well a case be made for either-or, or for both at the same time. What the health authorities have never done (not once, as far as I have seen), is take the sensible path based on data. (Although, to be fair, the health authorities are only producing the „results“ the goverment tells them to produce, so this isn‘t entirely their fault.)

Anyway, a monkey throwing a coin at each turn would have had a better track record of doing the sensible thing.

So… call me cynical, but the idea that health authorities are suddenly acting according to data… uhm, nope. Governments acting according to a changing wind (i.e. their survey rates), now that‘s something I might believe.

Milkyway

Re: Ireland turn around

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Milkyway,

No offense taken :-)

I think there are two Narratives in play now, and the trajectory of the next few months will depend on which one is dominant in your location. So we may see countries that had been moving in lockstep stop doing that, and I'm not especially convinced that there is some higher-level force behind the change.

Narrative 1 is all about the virus. The virus is scary. It is deadly. The vaccines prevent infection and transmission. OK maybe not really, but they still prevent hospitalization and death, and keep the hospitals from being overwhelmed. When cases are rising we must Take Action. When cases are falling we can let the actions expire.

Narrative 2 is about groups of people. The Unvaccinated are selfish, racist, misogynist, Trump-supporting Nazi Bad People. There are too many of them, and even if they are not solely responsible for the continuing pandemic they are dangerously misinformed and a threat to civil society. It is perfectly OK to enact new policies just to "piss them off", in the words of one Mr. Macron.

Where I live, Oregon USA, we have a reputation as a "blue state" that has had rather draconian policies in place compared to other parts of the country. While that's true, our leadership has primarily stuck to Narrative 1. There are plenty of Narrative 2 believers, but they are a vocal minority. Once we reached the goal of 70% vaccination in June, the state government and media more or less stopped focusing on vaccination numbers. We do not have any statewide or even city-wide vaccine requirements for indoor dining, and I haven't been asked if I am vaccinated for months now. There's still plenty of propaganda in favor of vaccination, but it's nearly all focused on preventing severe illness and protecting hospital capacity. During the first year of the pandemic, the state government would add more rules when cases were rising and do nothing when cases were falling. More recently the trend has been to do nothing when cases are rising and then remove rules when cases are falling. Like the UK, the state has been relatively forthcoming in terms of presenting (presumably accurate) data on cases and hospitalizations, and these data are referenced frequently - including a willingness to publish positive press releases when numbers are improving.

So...I think as the Omicron wave recedes we are going to see a policy divergence based on whether Narrative 1 or Narrative 2 is dominant, with some places relaxing nearly all restrictions in short order and others doubling down.

Mark L

Re: Ireland turn around

[(Anonymous)]

Mark,

That‘s an interesting distinction. I‘ll ponder that, thanks!

I realised I have assumed more or less all the Western EU countries to be in the narrative 2 group, but maybe that wasn‘t true, and the narrative in Ireland and England was different?

As I mentioned, I‘m in Germany. Our government has gone full-on narrative 2. The things I’ve had to listen to from my own representatives (who are paid from our taxes to serve us) are simply incredible. Now if only they had been competent in their agenda - but they haven’t even been able to do that professionally. (Not that I‘m complaining, as that incompetent bumbling is likely what has saved us so far.)

That might have made me a bit more cynic than necessary, admittedly.

So I guess I gotta work on that, huh? ;-)

Milkyway