Althouse: "No, this was not a conspiracy in the strictest, most intentional sense (it didn’t need to be!), but it did kill thousands of people and manipulate our politics. . . . C’mon, people, let’s not be afraid to admit this one."

December 29, 2021

"No, this was not a conspiracy in the strictest, most intentional sense (it didn’t need to be!), but it did kill thousands of people and manipulate our politics. . . . C’mon, people, let’s not be afraid to admit this one."

Said Tyler Cowen, quoted at Instapundit.

92 comments:

FleetUSA said...: We've been played by the Dems, MSM, and Dr. Fauci all along. All because of their fear of Trump's reelection.; 12/29/21, 6:39 AM
Jaq said...: They froze the samples until the day after the election to prevent any result from leaking.; 12/29/21, 6:49 AM
Jeff Brokaw said...: Technically it is almost certainly a conspiracy, since all that requires is two or more people making plans and then creating a cover story to provide plausible deniability — a pretty low bar to clear, after all.

Are we going to tell ourselves nobody discussed pushing this date past the election, in any way? Ever? Zero people mentioned it to someone else? Zero people were motivated to get Trump out by any means possible and saw they had means, motive, and opportunity to do do?

That POV is laughable. Of course they talked about it.; 12/29/21, 7:02 AM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: Second highest rated comment at Marginal Revolution: “Everyone knows that the vaccines were delayed to swing the election for Biden and also that the vaccines don’t work and nobody should take them.”; 12/29/21, 7:06 AM
Clyde said...: Monstrous.; 12/29/21, 7:08 AM
Christopher B said...: Even if the FDA emergency approval had been announced before the election, every Democrat Governor, along with Harris and Biden, would have called an immediate press conference to announce they shouldn't be distributed without a secondary review because TRUMP. They were already talking that way, and had established the precedent by criminalizing the dispensing of off-label treatments.

We haven't begun to plumb the depths of the Democrat pollicization of COVID.; 12/29/21, 7:11 AM
Temujin said...: When you count up all of the things the media, the FBI, CIA, DoJ, Democrats, and others were constantly working on to deny Donald Trump any semblance of help in his Presidency it's literally amazing that he accomplished as much as he did. When you think of how much they all invested in screwing him, trying to handcuff him, working feverishly to remove him from office, it's not out of the blue that they would use any means necessary to deny him a win in the 2020 election.

To think otherwise is to believe in fairies and that our government would never allow that to happen. These same people who would allow you and yours to die in order to affect an election.; 12/29/21, 7:12 AM
Christopher B said...: Second highest rated comment at Marginal Revolution: “Everyone knows that the vaccines were delayed to swing the election for Biden and also that the vaccines don’t work and nobody should take them.”

Typical bumper-sticker argument from the Left when they got nuthin'.

Without expressing an opinion on the correctness of the beliefs, it is perfectly consistent to think that other people would have been swayed by a vaccine announcement while still thinking the vaccines are ineffective or harmful.; 12/29/21, 7:22 AM
jim5301 said...: Right. It's not a conspiracy in the strictest sense because the (unnamed) "conspirators" didn't "conspire" to do anything illegal. Details, details . . .; 12/29/21, 7:42 AM
MartyH said...: Run this through the "blue lies" filter.

Evidence grows for the conservative belief (blue lie) that the vaccines were delayed to hurt Trump.

Meanwhile, progressives, like Left Bank, immediately politicize this revelation, creating yet another blue lie of their own to ignore the fact that this delay cost thousands, if not tens of thousands, of lives.; 12/29/21, 7:44 AM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: The West Coast governors created their own review panel for the vaccines. Their review panels were a joke because they had no more expertise than the FDA, if not less. It is all political theater. It was all TRUMP must be defeated because he'll upset our rice bowls of graft and power.; 12/29/21, 7:50 AM
wild chicken said...: Yeah that happened. Eric Topol at Scripps La Jolla was the instigator, is what I heard. It was all for very good reasons that I can't recall at the moment.

Maybe he knew it was the blue half of the country that would refuse the vax, whereas now it is the red half choking on vents in the ICU, after posting their dying words on Facebook.

"This covid is no joke!"; 12/29/21, 8:17 AM
wendybar said...: They played us so they could cheat and use the mail in voting...stop the count for 3 hours whilst taking any Republicans out of the room, and then SUDDENLY the counts all changed in favor of Biden. Talk about fraud. We have a fraudulent president who doesn't know where he is, and all the left can talk about is TRUMP! We suck.; 12/29/21, 8:29 AM
TJ said...: To all those that are surprised: "Welcome to the party pal"; 12/29/21, 8:31 AM
Howard said...: So what is it? Covid is just a mild flu, the vaccine kills, Warp Speed was Trump's greatest accomplishment, the plandemic is a Nazi plot to take our guns...; 12/29/21, 8:33 AM
Kevin said...: C’mon, people, let’s not be afraid to admit this one.

It's particularly revealing how many commenters won't admit it, to the point of arguing that Cowen himself doesn't believe it.

This "give no quarter to the enemy" thinking is at the center of our politics.

You start by admitting this and Trump could wind up back into office.; 12/29/21, 8:37 AM
TJ said...: So what is it? Covid is deadly to all, the vaccine is so effective it must be mandated, Biden's planned federal response to COVID is his greatest accomplishment...; 12/29/21, 8:38 AM
Freder Frederson said...: Without expressing an opinion on the correctness of the beliefs, it is perfectly consistent to think that other people would have been swayed by a vaccine announcement while still thinking the vaccines are ineffective or harmful.

This is some seriously twisted logic. If you think the vaccines are ineffective or harmful, then it seems you would want to delay approval.; 12/29/21, 8:38 AM
Jersey Fled said...: And BTW, it's all but certain that the Left will conspire (yes, I used that word) to keep the COVID "crisis" going long enough to assure massive mail-in voting going until at least the coming mid-term elections.; 12/29/21, 8:42 AM
Conrad said...: “Everyone knows that the vaccines were delayed to swing the election for Biden and also that the vaccines don’t work and nobody should take them.”

I doubt very many people think that the vaccines don't work at all, or that "nobody" should take them. However, it's clear in hindsight that the covid vaccines don't work nearly as well as promised or advertised. Biden was saying up until fairly recently that, "if you get vaccinated, you won't get sick."

But this is somewhat beside the point because, at the time of the election, the public had no reason to anticipate that the covid vaccines wouldn't be as effective as, say, the polio vaccine. So there's absolutely no contradiction in asserting that (a) the vaccines were delayed to swing the election and (b) the vaccines are far less effective than advertised.; 12/29/21, 8:44 AM
Birches said...: And now the Biden administration won't even consult the experts in their effort to get out of the jam they created. So sad.; 12/29/21, 8:46 AM
Mr Wibble said...: This is some seriously twisted logic. If you think the vaccines are ineffective or harmful, then it seems you would want to delay approval.

Too much money at stake.; 12/29/21, 8:47 AM
Birches said...: You guys gotcha-ing on this realize that even prominent anti Covid vaxxers like Alex Berenson say that old people and those with comorbidities should probably get vaxxed, right? It's the young and healthy they've worried about.; 12/29/21, 8:53 AM
Michael said...: In order to maintain a panic the CDC revises down the percentage of Omicron cases now claiming 70% plus of new cases are Delta and not Omicron. Because science.; 12/29/21, 9:00 AM
TJ said...: No shit Birches. That's most people, and those with that opinion are not "anti-vaxxers". Let's just start by admitting it isn't a vaccine. Make your choice based on your risk, just like we've been doing with the flu shot for years.; 12/29/21, 9:03 AM
narciso said...: the wef conference in geneva, like the blofeld meet in thunderball, is the crux of the matter, the lockdown was formulated then,; 12/29/21, 9:04 AM
John henry said...: Left Bank of the Charles said...

Second highest rated comment at Marginal Revolution: “Everyone knows that the vaccines were delayed to swing the election for Biden and also that the vaccines don’t work and nobody should take them.

Hardly incompatible statements.

For at least the first 3 months of this year pretty much everybody thought they would work.

It was only after they had been in use for a few months that the penny dropped and people began realizing that it is not a "vaccine" in any meaningful or legal sense of the word.

It is legally a "vaccine" now only because the legal definition was changed.

John LGBTQBNY Henry; 12/29/21, 9:06 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: For me, the closer was all the Soros AGs shutting down election audits. Transparent as mud. Also, you could go to Wall Mart but not to vote. It has got this country circling the drain. Sun Tzu smiles.; 12/29/21, 9:10 AM
Sebastian said...: Looking back, did the establishment do anything during the Trump years that was NOT aimed deliberately or in effect at thwarting him?

And as the bullshitter in chief said in a moment of enlightenment, it wasn't about him, it was about us.; 12/29/21, 9:11 AM
John henry said...: jim5301 said...

Right. It's not a conspiracy in the strictest sense because the (unnamed) "conspirators" didn't "conspire" to do anything illegal. Details, details

Perhaps a lawyer could weigh in but my understanding is that a conspiracy to do something can be illegal even when the "something" is not illegal.

For example, there is no law against "sedition" in the US CFR.

But there is a law against conspiracy to commit sedition.

This makes no sense at all to me.

John LGBTQBNY Henry; 12/29/21, 9:12 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: I see many commenters on Twitter saying that it was perfectly reasonable to wait until two months after the second dose. This ignores the fact that it would have been perfectly reasonable to go ahead and approve the first dose under the same standard.; 12/29/21, 9:13 AM
jim5301 said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/29/21, 9:15 AM
JPS said...: Michael, 9:00,

"In order to maintain a panic the CDC revises down the percentage of Omicron cases now claiming 70% plus of new cases are Delta and not Omicron. Because science."

I don't know. I think it's likelier their original numbers for Omicron were high because they modeled them, and the models baked in some "holy crap, if this is true, then..." assumptions. So first they come out with "Omicron may account for 70+% of new COVID infections already!" and later revise those numbers way downward as the data come in. The default error in modeling assumptions tends toward alarm rather than complacency, as you've no doubt noticed.

CDC as an agency has forfeited a lot of the respect I used to have for them, but I think at the level of the people actually doing this work, they're still capable and largely honest. (See Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy.); 12/29/21, 9:17 AM
John henry said...: Michael said...

In order to maintain a panic the CDC revises down the percentage of Omicron cases now claiming 70% plus of new cases are Delta and not Omicron. Because science

But they are not, in the great majority of cases, testing specifically for either. Most case are diagnosed by guessing and statistics.

The pcr test can't tell the difference between kung flu, flu and cold much less delta and omicron.

That's why the cdc asked fda to pull the emergency use authorization for pcr effective at midnight Friday.

Some rubes thought pcr was actually "approved" for this and that it was "the gold standard"

John LGBTQBNY Henry; 12/29/21, 9:20 AM
Skeptical Voter said...: I for one and sick and tired of the Covid porn that flows through the pages of my local paper--the Los Angeles Times. The boys and girls at the paper and have their journalistic hair on fire searching for the latest group where "inequities" have occurred re Covid.; 12/29/21, 9:29 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: 8:29 - what Wndy said.

They did it right in front of us.

The Chi Com lab provided the Biden.; 12/29/21, 9:36 AM
Drago said...: Can Of Cheese for Hunter: "8:29 - what Wndy said.

They did it right in front of us.

The Chi Com lab provided."

And funded with US tax dollars by Fauci, Daszak and some Gen Milley types at the Pentagon.

More reasons why Trump had to be gotten rid of via "fortified" elections/last minute voting rules changes.; 12/29/21, 9:43 AM
Jake said...: "This is some seriously twisted logic. If you think the vaccines are ineffective or harmful, then it seems you would want to delay approval."

Not if you don't favor mandates.; 12/29/21, 9:44 AM
Jake said...: "And BTW, it's all but certain that the Left will conspire (yes, I used that word) to keep the COVID "crisis" going long enough to assure massive mail-in voting going until at least the coming mid-term elections."

I don't see why. If people can wait in line for covid tests they can wait in line to vote.; 12/29/21, 9:45 AM
Bob Boyd said...: This was not a conspiracy, it was Progressivism.; 12/29/21, 9:45 AM
LA_Bob said...: Freder, we're talking about intent here. If you knew before release the vaccine would lose efficacy in well under a year, yes, you might want to wait for a better vaccine. The general public had no such foreknowledge.

The only reason EUA was delayed was to deny Trump credit and push Biden over the finish line. To the extent the vaccines work, there are people who were "sacrificed" for the highest and most noble good.; 12/29/21, 9:53 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Drago - we all know it - but we are crazy conspiracy theorists for thinking it, let alone saying it out loud.

Hillary's Maddow- Muller manufactured Russia Russia Russia lie - the corrupt left will never back of that concocted conspiracy.; 12/29/21, 10:06 AM
John henry said...: LA_Bob said...

To the extent the vaccines work, there are people who were "sacrificed" for the highest and most noble good

Or as we were discussing yesterday, the "blue lie"

Perhaps in the sense that social scientists use the term.

Certainly in the sense of being another lie from the blue party and their adherants.

John LGBTQBNY Henry; 12/29/21, 10:07 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I find it interesting that the one time when "thousands of lives" were put at risk, no "whistleblower" came forward. Not a one.

Did Biden promise any money for whistleblowers? Obviously, we need to build back better whistleblowers.; 12/29/21, 10:09 AM
Freder Frederson said...: The only reason EUA was delayed was to deny Trump credit and push Biden over the finish line.

Unless you have the least shred of evidence to back this assertion up, it is nothing but bullshit. (And the letter cited ain't it, it did not come from any Federal Agency.)

Seriously, how many people would have changed their vote from Biden to Trump if the vaccine had been approved at the end of October?; 12/29/21, 10:11 AM
Maynard said...: “Everyone knows that the vaccines were delayed to swing the election for Biden and also that the vaccines don’t work and nobody should take them.”

They are not really vaccines, but immunity boosters. I have no doubt that they provide some value, especially if you are older or have difficult medical conditions. However, they do not prevent you from getting the WuFlu. They make it easier for you to recover.

Also note that there will always be people who become seriously ill and/or die from these and other medications. That is especially true if you inject 250 million people.

I was double vaxxed, but will not do the booster. Instead I will take other measures to boost my immunity. Luckily, I live in Southern AZ where it is usually pleasant and sunny in the Winter. Vitamin D is not a problem here.; 12/29/21, 10:15 AM
Big Mike said...: Seriously, how many people would have changed their vote from Biden to Trump if the vaccine had been approved at the end of October?

Millions.; 12/29/21, 10:18 AM
Achilles said...: “What I don’t understand is vaccinated people blaming non-vaccinated people because the vaccine that they took to avoid getting the virus didn’t stop them from getting the virus.”

Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers QB

What the leftists like Freder and Howard don't seem to understand is that their stupidity and tortured logic don't actually work on people outside the progressive tribe. They are trying to label millions of vaccinated people "anti-vaxxers" when they know full well that is not what this is about.

There is a reason democrats are polling so poorly and Joe Biden only got about 60 million votes before they started counting "mail-in" ballots in the week after election day.

We see right through you. You are a minority of people nobody likes and you turn everything to shit when you are in charge. The only "contributions" you make are telling other productive people what to do.

You will be out of power soon one way or another.; 12/29/21, 10:45 AM
Kevin said...: September 17, 2020

Biden rejects Trump claim that COVID-19 vaccine is imminent

(Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Thursday bluntly contradicted President Donald Trump’s suggestion that a coronavirus vaccine may be only weeks away, warning Americans they cannot trust the president’s word.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-biden/biden-rejects-trump-claim-that-covid-19-vaccine-is-imminent-idUSKBN26902H; 12/29/21, 10:52 AM
Yancey Ward said...: The actual actions Cowen is describing definitely delayed the rollout of the vaccines by at least 2-3 weeks, and those actions were definitely designed to prevent any announcement of the vaccines' efficacy prior to Election Day. We don't need to do anything more than look at what Pfizer did with the testing of the samples in mid October of 2020- they literally ordered a halt to testing until the day after the election. There was no reason to order such a halt other than to avoid having to unblind the trial under the rules of their own protocol before the election, in which case it is likely the results would have been leaked by someone. Ordering the freeze on testing the samples prevented anyone from knowing the efficacy prior to the second week of November. If you want to claim there was no conspiracy, you need to come up with another reason to explain Pfizer's managment halting the testing of samples from mid October to November 4th.

However, this conspiracy did much more, in my opinion. These trials were delayed needlessly by months because they chose to slow walk the both the enrollments and by not using challenge protocols (literally exposing the trial participants to COVID). The vaccines themselves were ready for the trial by early Summer, and the same sized trials could have been completed by early September at the latest- had the FDA and the companies acted like COVID was a real present danger. We could have ended up with exactly the same vaccines getting distributed in October rather than January.; 12/29/21, 10:53 AM
Drago said...: Field Marshall Freder: "Unless you have the least shred of evidence to back this assertion up, it is nothing but bullshit."

Now seems an appropriate moment to remind Althouse readers that Field Marshall Freder and Left Bank and Howard, to this very day, STILL believe the Hillary Hoax Dossier was "true", that Trump colluded with Putin to win in 2016, that Putin controlled Trump for 4 years, that Trump has laundered billions for Putin pals, etc etc etc etc.

This list contains hundreds of line items which precludes listing them all.

So, when Freder discusses "evidence", you know where he is actually coming from.; 12/29/21, 11:04 AM
Jeff said...: If the data on the Pfizer vaccine efficacy had been released before the election when it was supposed to, Trump would have won. And given the behavior over the previous four years of the Democrats and their allies among the bureaucrats, it's not a stretch at all to believe this was a conspiracy.

However, Trump fucked up. He trusted the bureaucrats even after he'd been burned multiple times. The vaccines were ready in March. Trump had the authority to order the funding of challenge trials that could have been completed by August and the vaccines approved immediately thereafter. But he was too lazy to acquire the expertise and do the work it would have required, just as he was too lazy to fight the unconstitutional wholesale changing of voting rules by people who were not state legislators. You can say that was the job of the Republican state legislators to do, but that wasn't going to happen without some leadership from Trump. Trump enjoys campaign rallies where everyone tells him how wonderful he is, but when getting down in the trenches and fighting is called for, he's nowhere to be found. Almost any conservative commenter here on Althouse would have done better.; 12/29/21, 11:09 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Remember when, after a FOIA request, the FDA wanted 55 years to release the information it relied upon to approve the Pfizer vaccine after they only took 10 weeks to review the same data and approve the vaccine?; 12/29/21, 11:12 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: God help us if an actual public health emergency comes round because the very people we relied on to act adult over the last two years have poisoned the huge well of credibility we entrusted them with. Add to that self-immolation the facts that (1) we funded the stupid research in China that produced the damned virus and (2) those same bureaucrats are STILL calling the shots without even a whiff of accountability from the (alleged) Executive Branch and most of the loss of trust Americans are signaling is well deserved.; 12/29/21, 11:19 AM
Kevin said...: However, Trump fucked up. He trusted the bureaucrats even after he'd been burned multiple times.

Oh let's not forget Trump was constantly being accused of "rushing" the vaccine and pushing for an unsafe vaccine to be released to help his election chances.

So much so that Biden and Harris said they'd refuse to take it.

Harris and Biden were well aware of the vaccine's progress and aren't being taken to task for their known false and damaging statements.; 12/29/21, 11:32 AM
Mark O said...: It is never wrong to think the worst of government. That should be your default position. Start there.; 12/29/21, 11:35 AM
MikeR said...: "thousands of people" Actually more like a couple of hundred thousand people in the US, who died in that two months or more that the roll-out was delayed. it was one of the worst time periods in the progress of the illness.
Understand, there was a coherent argument for delaying, politics aside. The approval process had anyhow been very hurried, and the suggestion here was to release to vaccine for mass vaccination before the efficacy had been really demonstrated. That means that people would be using the vaccine - with some adverse reactions, of course - not really knowing if it would help. That would have cost a fair number of lives, for nothing.
So it was a judgment call, and a very risky thing to do. But in wartime you need to make judgment calls and take risks, even very severe risks. As it turns out, that would have been an incredible brilliant success that saved around two hundred thousand Americans.
And one that Trump pushed hard for, and some FDA guys and others (Eric Topol) prevented. Both sides had politics in mind, of course. But remember this when someone tells you how Trump is responsible for all the COVID deaths.; 12/29/21, 11:51 AM
Greg The Class Traitor said...: Left Bank of the Charles said...
Second highest rated comment at Marginal Revolution: “Everyone knows that the vaccines were delayed to swing the election for Biden and also that the vaccines don’t work and nobody should take them.”

The "vaccines" are not vaccines, and do not work as vaccines: which is to say, they grant no immunity to the virus, and they don't keep you from spreading it to other people.

To the best of our ability to tell, the "Covid vaccines" have no positive effect so far as decreasing the Covid infection rate.

What they do do, especially against the variants that were common a year ago, is cut the severity of the disease. if your'e over 65, and or have significant Covid co-morbidities, then you should get the shot.

If not? Do it if you want to.

But yes, it's quite reasonable to say that releasing the Covid vaccines a month early would have probably saved in excess of 3k lives a day, which means a one month delay killed roughly 100k people.

So, thank you for playing, lefty whiners, but once again you're full of shit; 12/29/21, 11:58 AM
Yancey Ward said...: MikeR,

We knew by April of 2020 who needed to take the vaccine. We also knew we don't have to mandate anyone take the vaccines. The right decision was to dose a safety cohort large enough to know we wouldn't be killing 500,000+ people with the vaccines in the first 2 months after dosing. This could have been done by June of 2020, and everyone at risk of death from COVID could have had the vaccine available to them starting in July of 2020. So, yes, the decisions made and/or politically motivated did cause probably a couple of hundred thousand deaths minimum, and I would argue more than that.

I hate to have to point it out over and over, but the arguments that doing this would have run roughshod over safety issues is irrelevant- we did that anyway- the extra 5 months didn't change the fact that the safety studies were always a joke with these vaccines.; 12/29/21, 12:01 PM
Yancey Ward said...: We won't know the safety profile of these vaccines and their boosters for at least another 2 years.; 12/29/21, 12:03 PM
Greg The Class Traitor said...: Freder Frederson said...
This is some seriously twisted logic. If you think the vaccines are ineffective or harmful, then it seems you would want to delay approval.

Um, no.
The vaccine was going to get approved. The question is does it get approved before the election, or after?

Before the election could sway votes to Trump. Therefore you lefties are opposed to that.
Before the election gets the shot to people sooner. It doesn't really increase teh number of people who get the shot to any meaningful extent, because we've long been at the place of "everyone who wants it, has it".

So, if the shot does absolutely nothing, pushing it back had the sole political effect of cutting Trump's vote total.

If the shot actually decreases the severity of a Covid infection, then delaying it killed people.

If the shot does harm, then support for a "vaccine mandate" is twisted and evil.

Which is it, Freder, Howard, and Left Bank?; 12/29/21, 12:05 PM
Greg The Class Traitor said...: JPS said...
Michael, 9:00,

"In order to maintain a panic the CDC revises down the percentage of Omicron cases now claiming 70% plus of new cases are Delta and not Omicron. Because science."

I don't know. I think it's likelier their original numbers for Omicron were high because they modeled them

The initial numbers were high because they wanted to create panic: Oh crap, Omicron is here and it's taking over teh country! Lockdown!!!

The numbers have now been lowered because the response was "Omicron is the chicken pox of Covid. So yay that it's out-competing the deadly versions!"

If you have a model that says "everything that comes from the CDC is strictly for political purposes", it precisely explains teh events in question.

CDC as an agency has forfeited a lot of the respect I used to have for them, but I think at the level of the people actually doing this work, they're still capable and largely honest. (See Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy.)

See the CDC KY study, the one where the researchers had to twist themselves into pretzels to come to the conclusion the CDC wanted, and who therefore twisted themselves.

There are probably some honest and competent people at the CDC. But if there are, they are all keeping their heads down, and just trying not to get fired. They're not trying to do good science, because they rightly refer that it will get them fired; 12/29/21, 12:17 PM
Christopher B said...: Freder Frederson said...

This is some seriously twisted logic. If you think the vaccines are ineffective or harmful, then it seems you would want to delay approval.

If that was my position, that's exactly what I'd want to happen.

However, that would have absolutely no impact on the completely unconnected observation that people who wanted the vaccine might be disposed to vote for the guy who pushed for its development.; 12/29/21, 12:31 PM
Sydney said...: Things are starting to make sense now for me.
When they announced that Pfizer’s antiviral COVID drug was the first to be approved, I was puzzled because I had already received info from two different medical sources that Merck’s had narrowly been recommended by the advisory committee and that they would be reviewing Pfizer’s next. Why did Pfizer get approval first if it was reviewed later than Merck’s?
Also, if you look at the recommendations for use, Merck’s drug comes with a caveat that it should only be used if other FDA approved COVID treatments aren’t available. There is no such caveat to the Pfizer drug. And what other approved outpatient treatment is there? Aside from monoclonal antibodies, only the Pfizer pill. I can not find anything to explain this preference.
Then, yesterday I get this press release from Pfizer saying their new Prevnar 20 pneumonia vaccine has been recommended instead of their competitor’s pneumonia vaccine, which is currently recommended over Pfizer’s Prevnar 15. Let me just point out that their competitor’s vaccine covers 23 serotypes of the pneumonia bacteria, whereas Pfizer’s only covers 20. Their competitor has all the same types that Pfizer has except two. In addition, their competitor has 5 types that Pfizer doesn’t cover. So how is Pfizer’s better? I don’t know because the CDC hasn’t published their decision yet. Only Pfizer has.
This last one makes me suspicious because we went through the same thing with Prevnar 15. It was recommended for the elderly in addition to the competitor Pneumovax with its 23 serotypes on the off chance that its ONE unique type would confer better immunity. It didn’t so that recommendation was dropped but not until after the drug company benefited from a great infusion of Medicare cash. I eagerly await the justification for this latest recommendation.
Looks like Pfizer is getting its reward for the delay.; 12/29/21, 12:41 PM
Freder Frederson said...: Now seems an appropriate moment to remind Althouse readers that Field Marshall Freder and Left Bank and Howard, to this very day, STILL believe the Hillary Hoax Dossier was "true", that Trump colluded with Putin to win in 2016, that Putin controlled Trump for 4 years, that Trump has laundered billions for Putin pals, etc etc etc etc.

As usual, Drago is just making shit up. He cannot point to one post by me that supports this nonsense.

And for the record Drago, as much as I would love the pee tape to be true, I was always dubious of the Steele Dossier. But to claim that there was absolutely no evidence of collusion is ridiculous. The Mueller report found that there was no criminal conspiracy, but there was evidence of obstruction. And we know that Donald Jr and Manafort were willing to meet with a Russian agent who claimed she had dirt on Hillary and that Manafort gave confidential campaign (not in the sense of government confidential if you are planning to pull that bullshit on me) polling data to the Russians.; 12/29/21, 12:42 PM
Critter said...: We are beyond the point of credibly denying that, in fact, the FDA did delay release of their reviews. It was acceptable to Democrats because it worked against Trump. But the real reason they manipulated the entire scientific apparatus at CDC and NIH is good old corruption. Never let a pandemic go to waste when it could make a $trillion dollars for Big Pharma with the trickle down of big payoffs to scientists in the form of research grants and other payoffs. Big Media also has gained a lot from increased Big Pharma advertising. And those are just the “ethical” effects. We still need to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Fauci and others financial info for inside dealing and payoffs.; 12/29/21, 12:47 PM
Freder Frederson said...: that Trump has laundered billions for Putin pals, etc etc etc etc.

Actually, I do believe this. Probably not billions but certainly many millions. The number of all cash deals to LLCs for overpriced condos in Trump properties is certainly problematic at the very least.; 12/29/21, 12:52 PM
doctrev said...: The troll dolls are out in force on this one- it would be reasonable to delay the vaccines to make sure proper safety numbers get out to the public. It would be reasonable to release them early to have the best effect against the strains most similar to Wuhan. To enforce mandates in New York City, the country's largest urban center, in the face of increasing scientific evidence against the current vaccine strains? That's both evil and asinine.

Nonetheless, I support your efforts. It's clapping your hands to keep Evil Old Lady Ginsburg alive, and it's going to drag the entire Rat Party into hell alongside Biden. Drumming on Russian collusion and insurrection? Sure, keep that up. Donald Trump got the most votes of any legitimate President, and at this rate it's entirely into the midterms. It's possible Trump will be declared Caesar before having Biden's rotten family (the adults, of course) beheaded. But that's the soft option. I would much prefer to see Biden's voters- the few real ones who will admit it- suffer right alongside him.; 12/29/21, 1:01 PM
Achilles said...: You should have deleted this comment freder.

Freder Frederson said...

"First show there was indeed Russian hacking."

This is already been shown, you just refuse to believe it.

There are all sorts of good comments you left in the past pushing Russian Collusion bullshit.

Your defenses of Brennan and the CIA/FBI/NSA for pushing Russian collusion right next to posts about Bush and the CIA lying us into Iraq are truly classic prog cognitive dissonance.

You are willing to suck up whatever the media splooges out for you.; 12/29/21, 1:12 PM
gilbar said...: Freder Frederson said...

that Trump has laundered billions for Putin pals, etc etc etc etc.
Actually, I do believe this

Freddy? there's an Old Saying, that maybe you should think about:
'It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid, than open it and remove all doubt'; 12/29/21, 1:12 PM
Freder Frederson said...: Freddy? there's an Old Saying, that maybe you should think about:

If you don't think that real estate in London, New York and Florida, among other locations, is used to launder money for Russian Oligarchs, Drug Kingpins, and assorted other nefarious actors, and that Donald Trump doesn't ask too many questions when an all cash deal is offered to him by an untraceable LLC for one of his condos, then you are just incredibly naive. You need to get away from that lake and visit the big city.; 12/29/21, 1:22 PM
Drago said...: Field Marshall Freder: "Actually, I do believe this. Probably not billions but certainly many millions"

Yes, I know. You proudly believe all lunatic lefty lies. This is well established.

But this is my favorite part of Freder's latest stupidity: "Probably not billions but certainly many millions"

LOL

"probably not billions"
"certainly many millions"

How many "many millions"? Is it a lot less than the "probably not billions"?

Why wasnt an entire viciously anti-Trump populated and weaponized DOJ/FBI, intel agencies, State DOJ's and investgative agencies along with every allied western govt and every western bank able to find such laundering when whoever found it would have been an instant global hero and rich beyond their wildest dreams! Movies being made about their lives and investgation! Book deals galore! Feted forever on a global stage!

Acvording to Freder, who calls Trump a stupid criminal, apparently Trump fooled them all!

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!

Thanks Freder! Its helpful when the lefty morons double and triple down on their lunacy.

Now, back to your lecture on "evidence"-based accusations.

While you are at it, tell us more about those Alfa Bank "pings" with Trump's "secret servers"....; 12/29/21, 1:27 PM
Freder Frederson said...: You should have deleted this comment freder.

Why? The statement is true. Besides, it has nothing to do with whether Trump colluded with the Russians.

If that is the best you got, it kind of supports my contention that Drago is full of shit.; 12/29/21, 1:28 PM
Edmund said...: @John Henry said:

"The pcr test can't tell the difference between kung flu, flu and cold much less delta and omicron."

The PCR test CAN tell the difference between SARS-COV-2, other coronaviruses, the cold, and flu. Distinguishing between variants is a separate test.

"That's why the cdc asked fda to pull the emergency use authorization for pcr effective at midnight Friday."

Which is not what the CDC did. What they did was to ask the FDA to pull the EUA for the CDC-developed and CDC-manufactured PCR test. They did this because commercial firms had stepped up to make PCR tests and were selling them. The CDC stopped making their test kits, and the request was to "sunset" the use of any tests that were still out there. (This is one of the pieces of misinformation floating around out there, being spread by the anti-vaxx community. Is it a willful misinterpretation? Perhaps.); 12/29/21, 1:30 PM
Freder Frederson said...: Acvording to Freder, who calls Trump a stupid criminal, apparently Trump fooled them all!

Again, you are making shit up. When did I ever call Trump a "stupid criminal"? I believe he is a criminal, but certainly not stupid.; 12/29/21, 1:31 PM
Drago said...: Field Marshall Freder: "If you don't think that real estate in London, New York and Florida, among other locations, is used to launder money for Russian Oligarchs, Drug Kingpins, and assorted other nefarious actors, and that Donald Trump doesn't ask too many questions when an all cash deal is offered to him by an untraceable LLC for one of his condos, then you are just incredibly naive."

LOL!

It just keeps getting better and better.

Remember, it was this level of self-delusion that led Freder and the rest of the lefty idiots to chomp down hard on the laughably and transparently false Russia Russia Russia collusion lies.

Freder also bit down hard on the Covington Catholic High Schooler smears, the lies told about Rittenhouse while buying Juicy Smollier's luducrous anti-MAGA fables.; 12/29/21, 1:32 PM
Greg The Class Traitor said...: Freder Frederson said...
And for the record Drago, as much as I would love the pee tape to be true, I was always dubious of the Steele Dossier. But to claim that there was absolutely no evidence of collusion is ridiculous. The Mueller report found that there was no criminal conspiracy, but there was evidence of obstruction.

Wow, Freder, just wow.

The "Mueller report" found that the Putin Admin was scrambling to find any way to communicate with Trump after he won the election.

This doesn't happen if they were colluding.

If Putin had wanted Trump to win, Putin would have released embarrassing contents from Hillary emails that Russia obtained because of Hillary's illegal private server.

No such excerpts were released.

So, Freder, we have pretty much absolute proof that Putin didn't collude with Trump, and wanted Hillary to win. For you to pretend otherwise is to show your complete lack of seriousness; 12/29/21, 1:38 PM
Freder Frederson said...: Freder also bit down hard on the Covington Catholic High Schooler smears, the lies told about Rittenhouse while buying Juicy Smollier's luducrous anti-MAGA fables.

God, Drago, you just keep making shit up.; 12/29/21, 1:38 PM
Drago said...: Lets apply some Freder logic to this thread topic: If you don't think that an entire federal establishment that was weaponized to attack Trump, illicitly fund gain of function research in ChiCom labs and the spend 2 years lying about that would also delay deployment of a record-setting vaccine development program to harm Trump's electoral prospects then you are just incredibly naive.; 12/29/21, 1:40 PM
Drago said...: Field Marshall Freder: "I was always dubious of the Steele Dossier."

Yes, that is the new lefty talking point isnt it? Its also a lie.

Freder: "But to claim that there was absolutely no evidence of collusion is ridiculous."

LOL

At this point I am going to have to chalk this up to Tourette's or some similar malady.; 12/29/21, 1:42 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: If January 6th was an insurrection (it was, but unorganized and in general half-assed), it was events like this that caused it. The presumptive leaders and protectors of society are willing to do any unethical thing they can to preserve the status quo that enriches them. What are the powerless to do when the powerful refuse to serve anyone but themselves? The powerful may yet find out what the "powerless" can do. If they jam through the federal takeover of elections you'll find out, too.; 12/29/21, 1:52 PM
Michael K said...: Field Marshall Freder is now pushing his conspiracy theory again about Putin and Trump.

If Trump was colluding with Putin, what would he do?

1. Cancel the XL Pipeline.
2. Ban fracking.
3. Open the border and let illegals flood the country with no ID or education.
4. Pick a fight with Israel and ignore the Abraham Accords.
5. Snuggle up to the mad mullahs in Iran again.
6. Shut down the economy again and feud with Florida that is doing things right.
7. Defund the police but blame your opponents when it goes haywire.

Anybody know a president who's done that ?; 12/29/21, 1:57 PM
chickelit said...: Drago wrote: Freder also bit down hard on the Covington Catholic High Schooler smears, the lies told about Rittenhouse while buying Juicy Smollier's luducrous anti-MAGA fables.

Freder retorted: God, Drago, you just keep making shit up
______________________
I just took a quick spin through Althouse's Smollett archives and didn't find comments by Freder supporting the hoax. I did find Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris--people with real power--supporting the hoax and using it politically. These are politicians who Freder supports so I suspect he's guilty by association.; 12/29/21, 1:58 PM
Achilles said...: Freder Frederson said...

You should have deleted this comment freder.

Why? The statement is true. Besides, it has nothing to do with whether Trump colluded with the Russians.

If that is the best you got, it kind of supports my contention that Drago is full of shit.

This is how stupid and completely lacking in self awareness you have to have to be a democrat.

I can go back and look at my posts and see what you see. I don't have to lie about what I believe and what I said in the past.

But you guys never take responsibility for your past lies. The reason you have to destroy the past and rewrite history is because people catch on to your bullshit.

But the internet has all sorts of good stuff back there:

Freder Frederson said...

They are not here in good faith. You cannot have a country run on the rule of law when half the people in it only want to use the law to gain power over the other half.

So what are you getting at, campaign finance violations shouldn't be prosecuted at all? If you are really concerned about the unequal application of laws, then you would care that poor people, when confronted by the criminal (or even misdemeanor) justice system the deck is stacked against them.

And what is Hillary's alleged collusion with the Russians? Putin has already stated publicly that he wanted Trump to win.

Freder Frederson said...

that a democrat, DID break a law, and that it wasn't a big deal. So, (at least) one of you are Full of it? Is it you? FF? Or is it you? FF?

As I explained above (and apparently you can't get it through your thick skull), Obama's violations were civil in nature and his campaign paid a hefty fine.

The payment by Trump may violate the criminal portion of campaign finance law.

Too bad Simon isn't around any more. Even he could explain the difference between civil and criminal law to you.

Freder Frederson said...

Problem is, if he opts out, the media will be all about, 'He has something to hide'. This is tricky.

And if this happens he has no one to blame but himself.

Freder Frederson said...

Cohen can't give any support to Democrats because he has no supporting evidence other than his recollection,

Well this just isn't true. He has cancelled checks.

To the contrary, he put the final nail in The Dossier!

Wrong again, he claimed he didn't know either way.

and he admitted prepping his testimony with the execrable Adam Schiff, which is a lot like witness tampering.

Well that's just silly. Just like the Republicans making a fuss out of the boxes of evidence (which he clearly stated were seized by the FBI and returned to him), this meme does hold water. Schiff of course will want to talk to him to ensure that he didn't reveal anything that was part of the Intelligence Committee hearing. Hardly witness tampering.

And now Trump is lying again, saying that the only true thing Cohen said was that there was no collusion. Cohen didn't say that at all.; 12/29/21, 2:03 PM
gilbar said...: people? (and this includes ME)

There is some sort of Christmas Truce going on here, where Professor Althouse is not doing something that she's done for quite awhile... Something that is NICE that it has stopped

BUT!
things are breaking down, back into the nasty and pointless roundy roundy stuff that caused the Professor to start doing that thing in the first place.
Please STOP IT! If you have to blame someone, somewhere Blame gilbar!
(as a scapegoat, not a sacrificial lamb)

i have talked around the something that the Professor used to do, because i don't want to even mention its name. But you All know what i mean. So STOP bickering!; 12/29/21, 2:24 PM
Jeff said...: Yeah, it's all gilbar's fault. Everything is. Without exception.; 12/29/21, 2:44 PM
Darkisland said...: Blogger Edmund said...
The PCR test CAN tell the difference between SARS-COV-2, other coronaviruses, the cold, and flu.

This is from a notice that CDC released last July:

https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dls/locs/2021/07-21-2021-lab-alert-Changes_CDC_RT-PCR_SARS-CoV-2_Testing_1.html

After December 31, 2021, CDC will withdraw the request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel

[Snip]

CDC encourages laboratories to consider adoption of a multiplexed method that can facilitate detection and differentiation of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses.

Edmund again:
Distinguishing between variants is a separate test.

Yes, it is. And it is a complex test that few labs can do. Consequently very few tests to determine whether anyone has any particular variant are performed. That is why the CDC can, with a straight face, go from claiming 70% to 23% (or whatever the numbers are) have omicron. They have no fricking idea how many people have it. They are guessing, They don't call it guessing, they call it statistical modeling analyis and other 50 cent terms. But the reality is they are pulling the number out of their collective asses using political, not scientific reasoning.

(Edmund)The CDC stopped making their test kits,

Did the CDC ever make their own PCR test kits? Could you tell me where they have a facility that can crank out millions of these a week? (1bn test kits divided by 100 weeks is 10 million test kits a week. I worked a lot last year with a company that makes nasal swab test kits. I'll be back in there next week. It is a pretty substantial plant and I doubt they make more than 1mm a week. Total, for a dozen manufacturing lines.

So where is the CDC's plant to make these kits? If the CDC is "making" them, they are doing by farming out the production to existing, private, facilities.

Is it a willful misinterpretation? Perhaps.)

I dunno. I can read the document, that is what it seems to say. Perhaps you can point me to some supplementary info from CDC, NIH, FDA etc that expands on the reason for withdrawal.

John LGBTQBNY Henry; 12/29/21, 2:51 PM
Darkisland said...: Blogger gilbar said...

There is some sort of Christmas Truce going on here, where Professor Althouse is not doing

Thank you, Gilbar. and may I say Ditto.

I missed the freedom of unmoderated notes when we did not have them. But now this is becoming a cesspit again and perhaps we do not deserve them.

Please let's all try to do better.

And Happy New Year/Feliz Dia de Reyes to all, of all political persuasions.

John LGBTQBNY Henry; 12/29/21, 2:58 PM
Darkisland said...: I said "Farming out" above and, colloquially, that is correct.

But, there is a risk some may not understand. What they are doing, unless they have their own plant somewhere, is contracting out. They may contract out to companies like Perrigo or DPT who are in the business of making products for other companies. (Yes, Virginia. There are some people who think that Walgreens actually makes the Walgreen branded drugs they sell. Sad.)

Or to companies like Hospira, J&J or others that normally make their own products but "contract manufacture" products for other companies when they have excess capacity.

If the CDC is "making" PCR tests, this is who is doing it under contract.; 12/29/21, 3:04 PM
wendybar said...: Hear, Hear gilbar!!!; 12/29/21, 3:26 PM
Lurker21 said...: Consider HG Wells's idea of an "Open Conspiracy," or a bit further afield, the 1980s idea of the New Age-y "Aquarian Conspiracy." Most of what I see online about the latter book treats it as if it were a literal conspiracy, but I think you can understand what happens with reference to "memes" that circulate in the country and influence people to act in ways that appear to converge. Joseph Sobran had the idea of the "Hive" of common chatter that gets people to act in ways that seem almost planned and coordinated. I believe he also may have slipped into literal conspiracy theory thinking.

If you can convince people that a common goal is of paramount importance, they will behave in ways that seem to be coordinated and dictated by some centralized conspiracy.; 12/29/21, 5:38 PM
Sir Loin said...: Gilbar is right... the Althouse comment section is invaluable. It has the perfect amount of regular contributors providing depth and informed discussion of current events, familiar and friendly enough with each other to disagree constructively most of the time.

Due to regrettable life choices and unfortunate circumstances I live in Plato's cave, right here in the Bay Area. This blog is one of the rare places to observe and participate in rational discourse. Thank you all and let's keep the comments free.; 12/31/21, 5:29 AM