February 9, 2022

"The strongest reason to keep up pandemic restrictions is that some people remain vulnerable. Those who are unvaccinated, for example...."

"What do we owe to them?... Even as we heap scorn on the unvaccinated, we make sacrifices on their behalf. The unvaccinated are subject to immense pressure and moral indignation. Governments and private institutions are doing what they can to make their everyday lives difficult. A number of people, including anonymous commentators on Reddit and columnists at the Los Angeles Times, even engage in open schadenfreude when anti-vaxxers die from COVID. This is wrong. We owe every victim of this pandemic compassion... [but it's also wrong that] the unvaccinated are, implicitly, the main justification for ongoing restrictions.... Immunocompromised people and the elderly remain in significant danger through no fault of their own.... That’s tragic. But it is not a sufficient reason to permanently change our society in ways that make it less free, sociable, and joyous. Just as we are willing to take on calculated risks in other areas of life, so we should be willing to tolerate some risk of infectious disease. When you set out to drive across the country, you know that you could get into an accident. You might get hurt, and so might another driver, or even a child crossing the road. But that does not create a moral obligation to stay put for the rest of your life. Because COVID will likely remain endemic for the foreseeable future, delaying a return to normal life until the risk it poses has been completely eliminated simply is not a realistic plan."

From "Open Everything/The time to end pandemic restrictions is now" by Yascha Mounk (The Atlantic).

65 comments:

Mr Wibble said...

The time to end the pandemic restrictions was April 2020. They didn't because the restrictions were politically useful. Now the restrictions aren't, because the Dems are looking at a slaughter in November.

Mounk and the rest can go to hell. Everything being said was said two years ago by the right, and we were viscously attacked for it, even as Dem governors sent the infected into nursing homes, deprived children of an education, destroyed businesses, and openly encouraged the very attitudes that Mounk now laments.

Iman said...

The Great Pivot by Democrats and their asshole operatives with bylines in the media. As if Americans all suffer from a loss of memory.

Just think of them as Team 180.

BarrySanders20 said...

"But it is not a sufficient reason to permanently change our society in ways that make it less free, sociable, and joyous. Just as we are willing to take on calculated risks in other areas of life, so we should be willing to tolerate some risk of infectious disease."

No shit, Sherlock. Some people have been saying this since the beginning. Glad the concept has finally worked its way to the east coast intelligentsia.

Sebastian said...

"The unvaccinated are subject to immense pressure and moral indignation."

I look forward to immense pressure and moral indignation directed at the obese.

Anyway, as always with Covid panic and posturing, the issue who is unvaccinated. The old and sick derive some benefit, the previously infected less so, and Novak D and Kyrie I none at all.

Clyde said...

The latecomers to the party are welcome to the freedom that we've been enjoying in Florida for a long time now. Better late than never.

Achilles said...

If they had an effective vaccine that they were open and transparent about they would not have to mandate it.

But Pfizer is hiding the trial data.

And making record profits.

And the media that they pay for advertisements is censoring information that is negative to the giant drug companies.

And the politicians that take drug company money are forcing us to pay for drug company drugs.

The problem for the fascists and other leftist shitheads is we see right through them. This article starts from a completely dishonest point of view that the Branch Covidians had good intentions.

They did not. Even in this comment section you had sanctimonious and ignorant douchebags pushing stupid crap like alternative definitions of "exponential" and castigating anyone who did not support masks and lock downs.

They didn't look to any results or any scientific studies. They didn't educate themselves about the mathematical terms they butchered. They just called us deniers and murderers.

It is not enough that the Branch Covidians are slinking away from the bullshit positions they have held for 2 years and use to push all manner of fascism.

They must be humiliated and reminded of how pathetic they are and how many people they have killed and how many lives they have destroyed because they were panicky sheep.

wendybar said...

I know many people who are unvaccinated. They have their reasons, and they don't want to force YOU to except THEIR decision. They know the risk, and they know the risks of the vaccines, and chose what they decided to do. Leave them alone, and they will leave YOU alone.

mikee said...

Is that an election I see coming towards us, or is there another reason to stop COVID panic?

Michael K said...

The Democrats are reading the polls and, just like that, the science changed. Omicron, which I had last month in spite of being vaccinated, was mild and has now immunized me from the virus. My conservative unvaccinated son had Omicron before Christmas and said it was like a bad cold. His kids never got it in spite of also being unvaccinated. My leftist son, vaccinated and boosted, got it and was sick two weeks. Fortunately he has not had any of the complication of the vaccine, He is a bit pudgy which may have worsened his case.

As I pointed out here a year ago, masks have no effect on viruses. The consequences of the shutdown of the economy are far worse then the effects of the virus.

JPS said...

An odd way to see it, I think. I don't get the sense that remaining restrictions are a sacrifice on behalf of the unvaccinated. Sure, some of the scolds will say they make it necessary – but if being vaccinated means I can still catch it and pass it on, I don't see the logic in that.

The people I know who want us to keep as many restrictions in place as possible couldn't care less about the unvaccinated. (Some of them think we should be able to deny them medical care, which is repugnant to me but there you go.) They're worried for themselves, because there's no such thing as safe enough; they invoke the severely immunocompromised, who may be either medically unable to take the vaccine, or unlikely to be helped by it; or they say they're looking out for medical workers, because our hospitals are one good resurgence away from being overwhelmed.

I think they're significantly wrong, but I try to take them on their own terms.

Earnest Prole said...

When Randi Weingarten and a bunch Democratic governors pull a sudden U-turn and start pleading for a return to normal, you know the polling is bad enough to make them shit their pants. As Malone said in The Untouchables, don't let them clean themselves until after they've confessed.

Gospace said...

Wow. Wondering what the upstanding moral vaccinated owe the evil unvaccinated. How condescending or Yascha Mounk. What they owe us- and everyone else- is an apology for the completely unneeded shutdowns of normal life. Those of us ardent anti-this-vax said that at the beginning- it's a virus and going to do what a virus is going to do. We were willing from the beginning- and still are- to take our risks with it. And now, an increasing number of university and health authority studies are saying the same thing with 20-20 hindsight that we said with 20-20 foresight at the beginning. Shutting down the economy is going to do nothing to stop the spread.

Now as to the issue of the vax itself, there were questions at the beginning- does it work? Is it safe. Us skeptics were aware of the history of coronavirus vaccine attempts in animals- a 100% failure rate. Not only that, but in more than one case made the problem worse. Well, it seems that the mRNA vaccine developers lied about their safety studies. And at first the vaccines appeared effective! Yay! But 6 months later, not so much. So the definition of vaccine was changed to encompass them. Otherwise, they could no longer be called vaccines. And now, numbers are starting to appear in the most vaccinated countries, the ones that went all in before America, that just like in coronavirus vaccines in animals, in the long term, the vaccines make people worse off. And now us evil unvaccinated are the control group. Oh, yes, in the vaccine study groups, a very short time after they started- they eliminated the control group and vaccinated them all.

The time to end pandemic restrictions isn't now- it was before they began. And it's funny how now the brave Democrat governors who are finally giving up playing dictator are being praised for their actions, while DeSantis is still being vilified for doing the same thing.

It was always about control, never about health.

Pianoman said...

The cracks in the dam have started, with four blue states dialing back the restrictions.

The spring will be a time of massive damage control and memory holing by the MSM/WH.

Biden should declare victory over COVID by the summer, just in time for the midterms.

James K said...

We've known for nearly two years that the restrictions accomplish next to nothing, and the costs (including deaths) are immense. But this writer and everyone involved in imposing the lockdowns and stoking the panic would never admit that.

daskol said...

I sense a sudden change in the force. The upcoming SOTU address? Legal challenges winding their way through the courts? The fear of a U.S. freedom convoy? Nothing has changed with "the science," but suddenly mandate and mask cheerleaders and covid alarmists are all calling for a return to normal.
Anyway, far as I’m concerned, too late. Normal is dead. Next comes vengeance, and the isolation from power of every politician, bureaucrat and public intellectual who threw their weight behind this tyranny. And if elections won’t get it done, by other means.

Anthony said...

1) The unvaccinated are only somewhat more vulnerable to severe illness relative to the vaccinated. That is the science.

2) The vaccinated are just as amenable to getting and transmitting the virus as the unvaccinated. That is the science.

3) Masks do not and have never been shown to be either safe or effective at preventing the transmission of this or any other virus. That is the science.

4) Social distancing has never been shown to be effective at preventing the transmission of this or any other virus. That is the science.

5) Lockdowns have never been shown to be effective at lowering hospitalizations and deaths (see recent Johns Hopkins meta). That is the science.

6) Covid-19 was always going to be endemic, just like the flu and many other similar coronavirii. This was always known (or should have been).

None of the past two years has had anything to do with science. It's all politics. This is driven by the upcoming mid-terms, period.

Joe Smith said...

When you've lost the 'Atlantic.'

This has all been a political, Kabuki power-play.

It has divided families. It has destroyed the lives of children.

From day one I've screamed from the mountain tops; protect the vulnerable (the old, obese, etc.) and let everyone else live their lives as they see fit.

The vaccine is available and free. Take it or not.

I know young mothers who still want more children and are hesitant to take an experimental vaccine. One of whom has already had covid twice. Should she be punished, or should her life be made difficult to fulfill the dictatorial whims of a tyrannical government?

Not on your fucking life.

It's been a farce from the beginning. And with the mid-terms coming the Dems will hastily declare victory and memory hole all of it.

tim in vermont said...

Canadian truckers are being heard. I can't really speak for the unvaxxed, and I am "fully vaxxed," but ultimately they are frightened of the jab, and Democrats did their share of the frightening, (cough, cough, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Andrew Cuomo, Gavin Newsom) and they should be able to choose their own risks. A decent percentage of them probably already have natural immunity from previous infection. That truckers' general strike is going to start biting soon, and it's only going to get worse, a US version already has 50K signups, who knows how many will actually join and risk their six figure rigs to seizure, but the Canadian truckers and farmers are putting their livelihoods on the line over this issue, hospitals are short staffed due to the firing of refuseniks, police departments have lost officers, the supply chain has been hampered by these mandates. Not to mention that omicron has obviated a lot of the rationale, such as it was, for forcibly invading people's bodies with a vaccine that is experimental, at the end of the day.

Their bodies, their choice.

Tom T. said...

The polling on COVID restrictions must be absolutely terrible for the Democrats.

Bruce Hayden said...

“What do we owe to them?... Even as we heap scorn on the unvaccinated, we make sacrifices on their behalf. The unvaccinated are subject to immense pressure and moral indignation. Governments and private institutions are doing what they can to make their everyday lives difficult. A number of people, including anonymous commentators on Reddit and columnists at the Los Angeles Times, even engage in open schadenfreude when anti-vaxxers die from COVID. This is wrong…”

There is no rational reason to require vaccinations. They are dangerous (despite the government lying their asses off about its danger). But more important, maybe, is that societally, vaccinations don’t a bit of good. They don’t appreciably affect transmission of the virus. At best, they may reduce the severity of the virus in vulnerable populations. This is a respiratory virus, which means that it mutates too quickly to ever reach anything near herd immunity, if the vaccines were sterilizing (which they are far from). But even if they were sterilizing, the current variants are too contagious to ever reach herd immunity. The original variant had a Herd Immunity Threshold (HIT) of maybe 60%. Delta jumped to around 80%. OMG is somewhere around 90%. 90% of the population (assuming a sterilizing vaccine, which these aren’t) would have to be vaccinated for a chance at herd immunity.

So, why, again, do they think that we should all get vaccinated?

Mattman26 said...

The pivot proceeds apace.

Leland said...

The strongest reason to keep up pandemic restrictions is it gives additional power to the executive branch of government at various levels, which helps in building the progressive oligarchy. Covid is just an excuse.

Michael said...

We decided this a while ago in Georgia. It is no advertisement for vaccinations when the POTUS steps out of his plane wearing a mask. Did he wear it during the plane ride with triple vaxxed aides? Or is simply kabuki? Which is worse or more stupid.

Yancey Ward said...

I told everyone, eventually no one will admit to having supported lockdowns and masking. No one. Even Jennifer "Chucky" Psaki now blames Republicans and conservatives for all the ineffective NPIs.

jaydub said...

The vaccinated are also vulnerable to infection and can cause virus spread, so citing the unvaccinated as the reason to keep the pandemic restrictions in place is just ignorant. I really don't care whether those around me are vaccinated or masked because I don't think those are the most important factors in avoiding or minimizing the effects of Covid. Yes, older people and those with multiple comorbidities are vulnerable to serious infection; however, that will be the case for any type of significant virus or infection so the truly vulnerable must make extra effort to not only self isolate but also to stay as fit as possible. Rather than merely relying on vaccines, masks and social distancing which have all proven ineffective in stopping infection, a different approach to protecting the vulnerable needs to be emphasized, including elevating vitamins D3 (mine is 49.5) and C and zinc levels, plus using antiviral treatments, including, yes, Ivermectin if appropriate (my doctor prescribed it as a possible prophylactic and I have it on hand, but have not needed to use it as yet.) My three doctors are of the opinion that doing those things along with reducing body fat (mine is 22%), exercising and keeping HDL above 50 (mine is 68), LDL below 100 (mine is 74), controlling blood pressure (mine is 125/75) and keeping carbohydrate intake somewhat low (mine is about 60g/day) are at least as important as being vaccinated. I'm 77 and triple dosed, but I am more confident that my general good fitness, proper vitamin levels and daily exercise will be more important in keeping me out of the hospital than my being triple dosed. My doctors agree, and so far it's working. But, you do you, and I'll continue to do me.

gilbar said...

you can Tell, that the democrats have received the new polling data

Art in LA said...

This reminds me of the peanut allergy restrictions at my kids' elementary school back in the day. "Don't bring peanut-based foods to school because they might impact others." Maybe the allergy sufferer and their family needed to be more mindful? I don't recall anyone having peanut allergies when I was little. What changed?

Eleanor said...

I am unvaccinated and intend to remain so. Please let the kids trash the masks, go have a beer with your friends, and attend concerts, football games, and family events with my blessings. I neither expect you to restrict your life on my account nor will I shoulder the blame for the restrictions you have allowed yourself to live under. Be as afraid as you like, but don't push it onto me. I wasn't raised to believe fear is a virtue.

Ceciliahere said...

Yes, it’s time to end the Covid restrictions. If people do not want to get vaccinated, so be it. But, do not punish the rest of the country for a few. Children, especially, need to live without the mask mandate. It is sad to see my granddaughter perform in a play with all the children on stage wearing masks.

As far as I’m concerned the unvaccinated are now on their own. I want my life back without the Covid police restricting me. It’s been two years…enough is enough!

Kevin said...

That’s tragic. But it is not a sufficient reason to permanently change our society in ways that make it less free, sociable, and joyous.

We have the excuse of "promoting racial equity" when we want to do that.

Jupiter said...

Well, Yascha is right about that. The unvaccinated are, indeed, at risk of getting COVID. Not as much risk as the vaccinated, but still there is some risk.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

What do we owe to them?

An apology

tim in vermont said...

"t is not enough that the Branch Covidians are slinking away from the bullshit positions they have held for 2 years"

You have accused me of that, please name a position that you believe I owe you an apology for. You could start by explaining where you think I got "exponential growth" wrong. Or are you just leaving it vague to allow you to smear me without having to back it with specifics?

Caroline said...

Every time you see “unvaccinated” substitute the word “obese” .

wendybar said...

Chef Andrew Gruel
@ChefGruel
Strategy: slowly remove the insane restrictions, say the science changed, take credit for curing covid.

Brian Goldberg
@beejgee23
And credit Biden and all Democrat governors for their tremendous leadership

Both of these^^^^^

Owen said...

"...free, sociable, and joyous."

Hurl.

Maynard said...

So, why, again, do they think that we should all get vaccinated?

So when they declare that the Wuhan Flu pandemic is over, Uncle Joe can get credit for pushing the fake vaccine.

IMO, the so-called vaccine is really an immune system booster. I have been double vaxxed, but work on other ways to boost my immune system, such as exercise, sunshine, vitamins, eating well, etc.

Let's stop the gaslighting. It was bad enough when the MSM tried to tell us that 81 million Americans voted for Joe Hidin' Biden. The pandemic will be over when the Democrat/MSM establishment decides it is over. Vaccination rates will play absolutely no part in that decision.

Science will tell us when it is over - Polling Science, that is.

Big Mike said...

So who in the Democrat Party was getting bribed by Pfizer to insist on vaccinating people that didn’t need vaccination? Or were they just enjoying playing tinpot dictator with their endless, onerous, (and ever less sensible) rules (that the tinpot dictators and their cronies generally ignored themselves, one notes)?

Remember in November!

Howard said...

If you don't have the vaccine by now, the libs are saying you can fuck off and die for all we care.

Jupiter said...

"I don't recall anyone having peanut allergies when I was little. What changed?"

I have wondered a lot about that myself. I got the answer the other day, in a video of Mikhaila Peterson (Jordan's daughter) interviewing RFK Jr. (Bobby Kennedy's son). Vaccines are much more effective if the genetic material is combined with a substance known as an "adjuvant", which stimulates a strong immune response. Some time in the 80's or 90's, they began using various aluminum-based substances as adjuvants. They were highly effective, so effective that they caused an immune response to the peanut-oil based solvents used in the vaccine. If there happened to be a pollen bloom the day after a kid got his adjuvant injection, he would become sensitized to the pollen. All sorts of allergies suddenly sky-rocketed, as PHARMA jacked up the immunization schedule to include dozens of adjuvant-containing shots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkKOt4SYYiY&t=2088s

Greg The Class Traitor said...

"We owe every victim of this pandemic compassion... [but it's also wrong that] the unvaccinated are, implicitly, the main justification for ongoing restrictions"

Bullshit.

The main justification for the ongoing restrictions is that a significant chunk of the Left has embraced the restrictions as the latest form of virtue signaling.

The so called "Karen Kontingent"

Essentially none of the "unvaxxed" are going to whine if society returns to normal, essentially the entirety of the whines will be coming from triple "vaxxed" people who routinely go double masked, for whom it's a significant part of their identity.

Which is to say: Democrat voters

gahrie said...

What needs to occur for us to be able to get rid of the masks and mandates and get back to normal?

3john2 said...

The only science they are really paying attention to is political science.

Christopher B said...

COVID has really brought into sharp relief the degree to which we have medicalized behavioral problems from serious ones like substance addiction to the neuroses of the 'worried well' while at the same time attributing random medical issues like contracting an upper respiratory infection to behavior. You can also see this in how reactions to people contracting cancer or heart disease are often driven by a judgement of whether the sufferer's lifestyle is deserving of pity or scorn (Those of us with seniority may remember that Jim Fixx dropped dead of a heart attack during his daily run at a fairly young age), with a hearty portion of classism thrown into the mix.

3john2 said...

The only science they are really paying attention to is political science.

MadTownGuy said...

Ignorance is Bliss said...

"What do we owe to them?"

Reparations, and secure voting.

Night Owl said...

"Even as we heap scorn on the unvaccinated, we make sacrifices on their behalf."

Who asked him to "sacrifice" on my behalf?

They're still wearing a mask for my sake? They're forcing children to wear masks all day in school for my sake? They threatened to get me fired from my job for my sake? Bullshit.

People are doing these things because they were told by deceitful media assholes to be afraid. And others are doing it because they get off on the power trip of telling people what to do.

They're only changing course because they know they've been wrong about everything; but more importantly, they realize that more and more people are catching on to how wrong they've been. When people who are double and triple "vaxxed" are still getting covid, sometimes multiple times, while unvaccinated like myself have never had it, it makes them start to think twice.

Fear of a convoy surrounding Washington DC can have a sobering effect on our leaders.

Temujin said...

Well, on cue, every Democratic operative in this country has declared that the 'science has changed'. When the reality is that nothing has changed except that it's an election year. In other words, the political science has changed.

On the other hand, and I don't mention this as an in your face thing, but just a reality: We've been living a free life here in Florida since late March/early April of 2020. We have been 'allowed' by our state government to make the key decisions for ourselves. The businesses making key decisions for themselves as well as the residents. Schools have remained open. We're doing fine, thanks. Life continues and we live and work among each other- vaccinated and non-vaccinated.

Living in the shadows of Washington DC as Mounk does, I'm sure he has been right there in the Fauci Zone where all things that can be mandated are tried out. But the reality is that people who have chosen to not get vaccinated are not dumb, not evil, not trying to sicken the rest of humanity. They have very real concerns about the vaccine- as we all should. Given that each of us is in year two of a new trial and we are the actual guinea pigs, one would think we would all show more concern for our ownselves taking it than those who didn't take it. Especially since those of us who have been vaxxed are getting Omicron in far higher numbers and there is nothing to show a difference in the spread from vaxxed or unvaxxed. The numbers are too close.

What nauseates me is the pompousness of those vaccinated who look down on those not vaxxed as 'unclean', unworthy, non-human. Some day these vaxxed folks are going to need help. I hope they are less selective on those coming to save them.

robother said...

Good luck getting the Left to give up this level of control over everyone's lives and livelihood. (Kind of like saying 2 years after 9/11, let's get back to normal air travel.) What interest do the Big Tech donors to the Democrat Party have in going back to their pre-2020 share of entertainment/retail/food delivery dollars? Or Pfizer/Moderna in giving up the revenue stream from boosters for life?

As I heard George Carlin on the radio today, "I love America and all the freedoms we used to have."

Jim at said...

Mounk and the rest can go to hell.

Cannot be repeated often enough.

Michael K said...

The lefties are trying to mix those refusing valid childhood vaccines with this rushed, experimental mRNA product. It is not a "vaccine." Vaccine refers to the Vaccinia virus which protects against smallpox. The other, childhood, traditional vaccines do protect against the diseases, some of which are not viral. Tetanus vaccine blocks the tetanus toxin. Diphtheria vaccine does the same to the toxin.

This "Vaccine" has been shown to be marginally protective and to have a long list of dangerous side effects. Old people like me are pretty safe although I was glad to get Omicron last month for real protection. It should NEVER be given to children.

Jim at said...

As far as I’m concerned the unvaccinated are now on their own.

Gee. Thank you for granting me the freedom to make my own decisions. Appreciated.

Lurker21 said...

Governors will ditch the mask mandates and the other measures before Biden's State of Union Address. Biden will use the speech to celebrate his "Victory Over COVID." He has to in order to help the Democrats in the midterms. What happens next is anybody's guess.

West TX Intermediate Crude said...

It's just what they said, back in March 2020:
"Two years to flatten the curve."
Complete, total success. Now remove all the restrictions and everything will be peachy keen for the Nov elections.
Remember, they said, "Two years to flatten the curve!"
You remember, don't you, Winston?

Art in LA said...

Thanks for the peanut allergy explanation and video link, @Jupiter - 2/9/22, 2:38 PM

Mason G said...

Covid- science changes/Global Warming- science is settled
Health care is a right/Deny treatment for the unvaccinated

Good thing Democrats love them some doublespeak.

Michael K said...

"I don't recall anyone having peanut allergies when I was little. What changed?"

I have wondered a lot about that myself. I got the answer the other day, in a video of Mikhaila Peterson (Jordan's daughter) interviewing RFK Jr. (Bobby Kennedy's son).


I'm reading his book about Covid but he has been a nut about many things related to allergies.

There is a theory, with significant evidence, that peanut allergies appeared as kids were less exposed to peanuts in ordinary life. Asthma has been described as a "disease of cleanliness." The lowest incidence of asthma in the world has been among the children of dairy farmers in the Lithuania area of Europe. They are exposed to all sorts of allergens as small children and become tolerant of them. Kids all ate PB&Js when I was a kid and nobody had ever heard of peanut allergies.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/situation.html:
Total positive cases, including reinfections (cumulative) 1,379,102
Total positive people (cumulative) 1,324,342

So, assuming I can do math, 1,324,342 people have produced ~55k Covid reinfections over the last 2 years (and that includes all the people who got a false positive in one of the two tests)

https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/stats/vbt.html
Total number of fully vaccinated Minnesotans age 12 and older (as of the week beginning 1/2/2022)* 3,399,582
Number of vaccine breakthrough cases 329,653

So, less than 3x as many people, a 1 year time frame instead of a 2 year time frame, but 6x as many breakthrough cases.

IOW, natural immunity provides far greater protection than do the shots, and requiring people who've had Covid to also get the shots is the action of a deranged and power-mad lunatic

What % of the "unvaxxed" have already had Covid? 30%? More?

Screw Covid "Health theater"

Greg The Class Traitor said...

wendybar said...
Chef Andrew Gruel
@ChefGruel
Strategy: slowly remove the insane restrictions, say the science changed, take credit for curing covid.

Brian Goldberg
@beejgee23
And credit Biden and all Democrat governors for their tremendous leadership


That was the plan behind the Biden Covid mandates that SCOTUS shot down: They wouldn't accomplish anything, but when the natural course caused Covid rates to go down, Biden would take credit for it.

With their plan shot down, no one who's not a hard-core Democrat voter is going to buy the "Biden saved us" line

guitar joe said...

If the statistics are right (yes, I know, many here will say they're manufactured), then only the unvaccinated are really at risk at this point for death from covid. 98 percent apparently. I think if they feel confident they made the right choice, then let life go on. This mask wearing is like wearing a scapular. It signals you're part of the tribe, not that you're really caring or protecting anyone else.

LA_Bob said...

Upvoting Michael K at 2/9/22, 4:53 PM.

Essentially my opinions on all the issues.

Bunkypotatohead said...

It ain't all local politics.

"As efforts to prevent the transmission of the virus have faltered and nations lower the threat presented by SARS-CoV-2, Europe is speeding plans to end the COVID regulations.

Sweden and Switzerland have announced that they will lift COVID limitations and eventually open their nations, joining Denmark, Norway, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Italy, Lithuania, France, and the United Kingdom.

Leading Israeli officials also stated this week that the country’s COVID vaccine passport, known as the “Green Pass,” will be phased out of restaurants, hotels, gyms, and cinemas"


https://eraoflight.com/2022/02/07/12-countries-end-covid-restrictio

Achilles said...

tim in vermont said...

"Every state with less than 800 deaths (after 3 months) ain't experiencing exponential, logarithmic or geometric growth in the death rate. That's just mostly flu-related noise.”

That’s just the quickest way to throw away everything we have gained against the virus at the cost of trillions of dollars and follow Italy and NYC through this the hard way. But you and Mayor DeBlasio agree on a lot, or he did agree with you a couple months ago.


An embarrassingly wrong prediction used to support lock downs and a fatuous straw man conflation in one post.

Want me to keep going? There are some good ones on that post. The only person I remember being more dishonest and prolific than you was Ken B.

You still going to claim all the people who died with COVID died of COVID to support your previous stupidity? Even the CDC gave that up.

You can apologize for your stupidity now or keep digging.

We can go to how you conflated compounding growth and exponential growth next if you want.

Achilles said...

Howard said...

If you don't have the vaccine by now, the libs are saying you can fuck off and die for all we care.

That's a wishful and stupid thing to say.

Your hero Trudeau put's paid to that.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

guitar joe said...
If the statistics are right (yes, I know, many here will say they're manufactured), then only the unvaccinated are really at risk at this point for death from covid.

https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/stats/vbt.html
Total number of fully vaccinated Minnesotans age 12 and older (as of the week beginning 1/2/2022)* 3,399,582
Number of vaccine breakthrough cases
Total cases 329,653
Total cases hospitalized** 8,496
Total deaths*** 1,521

https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/situation.html#ageg1
Total deaths for MN under the age of 60: 1,323

And that's over 2 years, instead of 1. I expect that over the last year, there's been more deaths from Covid among the "vaccinated" than there were among all MN under the age of 70.

Do the shots provide some help? Yes, I guess they do.

Do they provide much help?

It sure doesn't seem that way